There was much excitement going on within the capital city of Huangcheng this spring because following the return of the Shadow Lord, the envoys from the kingdoms of Hua and Shon entered the city bearing gifts of goodwill for the king. It was a yearly affair—the exchange of gifts—and it took place at the different kingdoms at different times of the year. The envoys would visit Duan in spring, Hua in summer and Shon in autumn; a tradition that had been started after the last great war between the three kingdoms which had ended in an agreement to a tentative peace.

During this period of time the capital would open its doors to visitors from the other kingdoms and there would be individuals dressed in the furs and kilts of Shon or the brightly-coloured chiffons of Hua walking the streets, creating a feast for the eyes.

He's Jewellery was bustling with business during this season because the shop's doorway was filled by customers from all across the land. The fame of the jewellery shop had spread far and wide and the pieces on its shelves were desired by women across all the kingdoms. Although the shop had outlets in every kingdom, this particular one in the Duan capital was the flagship and was known to carry rare, exclusive pieces that were not seen elsewhere. Having expected this surge in business, Mr. He had long prepared an entire storeroom's worth of stock to dish out to eager buyers.

Today, He's Jewellery also had two unusual visitors to one of its private upper rooms.

Two men, one dressed in black with a silver mask across his face and the other dressed in dark blue with a tiny scar at his right temple.

A knock came at the door, and when the command was given for him to enter, in came the shopkeeper, He Jun, whose fleshy cheeks were flushed red from handling the day's constant stream of customers. He bowed respectfully to the two men.

"Take a seat," the man in blue said, pushing a cup of water over. "How's business?"

The shopkeeper took the cup gratefully and gulped down the water. "It's always busy at this time of year. We have quite a number of customers from Hua and Shon, but nothing out of the ordinary. There's also been an order from the embassy—the envoy from Hua has requested for a custom-made piece, a necklace that is to be fashioned out of black pearls from the northern sea. He's offered an extremely generous price for it."

"A black pearl necklace?"

He Jun nodded. "They will be sending the pearls over to the shop tomorrow."

"You can use the template I sent over last month—that should work for a necklace made from pearls. Black pearls from the northern sea are extremely rare, I'd be interested to see how that turns out."

"Mingshen, when we get old and can't stay in the army anymore, I'll have to live off you and this lucrative jewellery business of yours," Zhenghuan chuckled. "Imagine what everyone would say if they found out that the fearsome General Zhang is the brains behind all these intricate pieces of jewellery. You'll be every woman's dream man."

"I'm already every woman's dream man," Mingshen replied, giving his friend a cheeky wink.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the owner of the famed jewellery shop was actually this young man—General Zhang Mingshen—who was more commonly known to people as the Shadow Lord's most trusted deputy. When he had first opened the shop it had been with the intention to gather intelligence from the different kingdoms. After all, one could elicit a lot of information from the casual conversations of women. However, in the process he discovered a hidden talent that he never knew he had—jewellery design—and business began to soar, eventually making He's Jewellery the most established jewellery chain across the land.

"Young Master, there is something else I've been meaning to speak to you about," He Jun started. "A while back a young lady came into the shop with a white jade pendant. She asked me if I had seen it before and if I knew its history."

Zhenghuan turned to look at the man, suddenly interested in what he had to say. He Jun quickly averted his gaze, staring down at the table instead. There were few people in the three kingdoms who wouldn't be intimidated by this young man.

"It was my pendant, wasn't it?" Zhenghuan asked.

"Yes, yes it was, General Du. I recognised the dragon motif immediately but I didn't tell her about its origin, of course. I also offered to buy it from her at a high price, but the young lady refused." The white dragon pendant was something that Du Zhenghuan kept on him all the time, typically secured at his waist with a silver knot.

"What's this about?" Mingshen asked, looking mildly confused. "You mean the white dragon pendant that you always wear on you? Come to think of it, I haven't seen it on you for a while. Did you lose it?"

Zhenghuan shook his head. He looked at the old shopkeeper and gestured towards the door. "Thank you, He Jun, but I'd like to have a word with your young master in private now. Also, if the lady ever returns, I'd appreciate if you continued to pretend that you don't know anything about the pendant and send someone to inform me about it."

He Jun nodded in agreement, then promptly stepped back out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

"So?"

"Remember when I infiltrated across the Hua border to investigate the lead we had about the southern tribes?"

"You mean the time you disappeared and was uncontactable for a whole month and then returned looking like someone stole half your life away?" Yixing arched an eyebrow. "How could I possibly forget?"

"I was injured by the Hua border guards and I sought refuge at the Taishan temple. A young lady rescued me and treated my injuries there."

"Ah." Mingshen quickly pieced two and two together. "And this young lady is the same young lady that He Jun was talking about, the one who's holding on to your jade pendant. You gave it to her?"

"I had nothing of value with me, so I decided to leave the pendant behind as a form of thanks. Also, I thought it might be useful to her."

"What use would a pendant be, except as an accessory?" Mingshen snorted. "Anyway, isn't that pendant really important to you? In all the years I've known you, I've never seen it leave your side. Not once." He had asked Zhenghuan about the significance of the dragon pendant before, but his friend had never once given him a straight answer. Eventually, he gave up asking. Everyone was entitled to their secrets.

"It is. I was hoping to exchange it back for something of equal value when I next saw her again."

"Which is now! But from the looks of it she might not want to trade it for anything. I know He Jun well enough—he never tries to undercut a customer so he must have offered her a fair price for the pendant. Still didn't manage to get it. You should have thought about it more carefully before parting with something so valuable." Mingshen picked up a brush and started absentmindedly doodling a new necklace design on an empty sheet of paper. "So who is she anyway? And if you saw her at Taishan, what's she doing all the way here in the capital?"

"She was only staying at the temple temporarily. I suppose she's returned home now," Zhenghuan replied. "Her name is Han Zi-ning and she's the second daughter of the Minister for Agriculture."

The girl from the temple had crossed his mind several times since he left, though he could not explain why she seemed to have stuck in his memory. Other than explaining his condition to him and checking in on his recovery from time to time, she had not exchanged many words with the him, yet each time he saw her he was struck by the deep sense of melancholy in her eyes. She could not be more than sixteen or seventeen, yet those eyes looked like they carried an entire lifetime of sorrow in them. He considered himself a fairly good judge of a person's mind and character, and this girl intrigued him. Perhaps that was why he chose to leave his pendant behind, because a part of him wanted an excuse to see her again, to find out more about the enigma that was hiding behind that quietly beautiful face.

"A minister's daughter?" Mingshen looked fascinated. He put his brush down and looked up from his drawing. "Her family must not like her very much."

"What makes you say that?"

"If she's a minister's daughter then why would she have been sent all the way to Taishan? The ladies of the capital have far better options if they wanted to pray to the gods, such as the temple at Ryoko. And for a minister's daughter to be skilled in the physician's art?" he scoffed. "Her life must be in constant danger."

Mingshen had a point, Zhenghuan thought. From the looks of things Zi-ning hadn't just been at Taishan for a week or two. She seemed very much comfortable with the place and the furnishings in her quarters made it appear as if she lived there permanently. Also, the noble families had access to the best physicians in the city, so there was no reason why a daughter of one of these families would ever need to learn how to be a physician herself. It was another mystery about Han Zi-ning that he would have to add to the list.

"You should arrange to meet her," Mingshen said. "You want to, don't you? Else you wouldn't have left your pendant behind."

Zhenghuan hated how Mingshen seemed to be able to read his mind all the time. It was one of those things about his best friend that irked him.

"I can't. She doesn't know who I really am."

"And you're not intending to tell her?"

"I don't see any reason to. I don't need anyone else knowing that I was at Taishan, or that I was anywhere near the Hua border. She's safer not knowing."

"Speaking of that, I received news from one of our men in Hua earlier today. I was meaning to talk to you about it. The crown prince of Hua has been secretly communicating with the southern tribes."

"That's not news."

The reason why Zhenghuan had made the trip to the Duan-Hua border late last year was because they had received evidence suggesting that the kingdom of Hua could be supporting the southern tribes' unification, possibly even to the extent of supplying the southern tribes with weaponry. While they still had no idea who the mastermind called the Eagle Warrior from the southern tribes was, the chief suspect from the kingdom of Hua was their crown prince—Prince Zhiren. Unlike his peace-loving father, the incumbent king of Hua, Prince Zhiren was known to be aggressive by nature and often trained together with the Hua military. His motive for helping the southern tribes was clear: if the southern tribes managed to consolidate their forces and mount a decent attack on the southern border of Duan, then it would be much easier for Hua to launch another attack from the northern border that they shared, leaving Duan torn between the two sides.

During his undercover mission, Zhenghuan had managed to retrieve the evidence of the correspondence between Hua and the southern tribes, although it wasn't enough to point the arrow at the crown prince yet. Without a clear indication of Situ Zhiren's involvement, it would be difficult for them to mount a response, since the kingdom of Hua could easily deflect it to any one of their officials and use the latter as a sacrificial lamb.

"Ah but that's not all," Mingshen said, shushing Zhenghuan. "Our man also said something that you might find more interesting. The messages haven't been sent via Shon like we suspected. Apparently they've been communicating right through Duan."

Zhenghuan frowned. "You mean someone here is also involved? Someone from Duan is facilitating this communication?"

Mingshen nodded. "That is the assumption yes."

"Any ideas who it might be?"

"Not yet, although I've asked my networks to start investigating within our own borders. The fact that this has been happening right under our noses and we didn't even suspect a thing would suggest that whoever is involved is fairly influential and has men in high places. We should be careful."

"We'll keep this between us for now. Let me know if your men dig up any more information that might be useful. In the meantime, since we're in the capital I'll keep a close watch on the members of the imperial court. It's probably one of them, although the question is which one."

Mingshen nodded, turning his attention back to his design. "By the way, the banquet in the palace next week?"

"What about it?"

"Will she be there?"

"Who?"

"The minister's daughter."

"I suppose. It's a big occasion so the immediate family members of the ministers will all be invited to attend. Why?" Zhenghuan rolled his eyes, amazed at how Mingshen managed to do a U-turn on the conversation just like that.

Mingshen shrugged. "Just curious that's all. It's not every day I get to talk to you about a woman. If she's good looking enough maybe I'll consider marrying her as my wife."

Zhenghuan stared at his friend in disbelief, almost choking on the water he had been drinking. "Excuse me?"

"What? Nothing wrong with me being interested in finding a beautiful young woman to take home to my mother, especially one that can double up as my personal physician if I ever get injured on the battlefield. Of course, if you're interested in her then I'll willingly throw in the towel," Mingshen said with a cheeky wink.

Zhenghuan stood up from his chair and smacked Mingshen on the forehead, walking towards the door. "Just design your jewellery and stop talking," he muttered, then he walked straight out of the room.