Birth. Zhuazhou.

Li Manor

Li Sihan sat in the gazebo with a dark expression, her little sister on her lap. Li Zhenming was pacing to and fro, his brows furrowed, his hands balled into fists. This--! This was unacceptable!!

His wife had gone into premature labour. The Li Manor's servants kept running helter skelter, carrying basins of hot water into the madam's room. Every time the door opened Li Zhenming would start, and rush towards the servants for updates. All of them, with their faces covered with cloth masks, would just hurriedly shake their heads as they kept up with their work.

"Sihan--" Li Zhenming stopped pacing and crouched by his daughter, "look at me behaving like this. I'm the one supposed to be comforting you and your sister--but, I'm all worried..." He trailed off. Aside from his daughters, Ren Ziming was his only family. He... He couldn't afford to loose her--pssh! I mustn't think inauspicious things, he remained himself quickly.

"All will be well," Li Sihan muttered. That was the best renowned physician in Phoenix Empire in there. Nothing could, must, go wrong. Or else-- well, someone might be decapitated.

An hour.

Three hours.

Nine hours.

The door to the madam's room burst open again. One of the middle aged nannies serving Ren Ziming hurried up to the trio.

"My lord! My lord!"

"What is it?" Li Zhenming straightened up from his crouch immediately, trying to stop his hands from shaking, "is-- is Ziming alright?"

"Yes, my lord!" The nanny pulled off her mask and revealed a wide grin, "her ladyship has delivered safely! It's a boy! The Li Manor finally has an heir, my lord!"

Li Zhenming exhaled and almost collapsed onto the bench in the gazebo.

"Can I -- can I see her now?"

"No, my lord. You have to wait a bit," the nanny grinned at the Li sisters, "Young misses, you now have a little brother!"

"Bun-Bun no want brother," Li Silan huffed, "return. Send back,"

"Silly," Li Sihan lightly flicked the toddler's forehead. She turned to her father instead.

"Well, what are we naming our "heir"?" she deliberately drew out the last word. Li Zhenming chuckled.

"I and your mother were still discussing. We didn't know he would come so quickly. Do you have any suggestions, Sihan?"

"I'm not good at naming things. You can ask Jun Ru. I might end up calling the poor chap Little Tiger or something."

"Yes! Let's call him Xiao Laohu!" Li Sihan agreed.

Li Zhenming gave his daughters an exasperated sidelong glance but he said nothing. After a while (that seemed too long to the anxious man) a maid finally came out and said that they could now come in. Li Zhenming collected Li Silan from her sister while the latter got up and dusted herself down. Li Silan had let herself go and had ate a lot of snacks while no one paid attention. The three quickly approached the room and entered.

Lying in bed Ren Ziming looked rather worse for the wear, though her eyes were quite bright. She carried the wrapped very tiny baby in her arms. Li Zhenming put Li Silan down so she could climb up next to her mother. She put her face almost up to the baby's.

"Duh." Said the toddler upon pulling back, "want a sister. Send back,"

"Hush," Ren Ziming smiled, "you wait until he grows up a bit; brothers are the best. Sihan," she said to her older daughter, "do you want to carry him?"

"No thank you," Li Sihan promptly replied. She wanted him to be a little bigger and less squishy. There was also the fact that he was premature. What if she squeezed him too hard and he popped? Ahh-- that would not be too good, would it?

"These subordinates congratulate the Grand Chief!" A shout was suddenly heard from outside, making them all jump. Li Sihan's eyes narrowed at once. What were the idiots congratulating her for? Was she the one who had given birth?

"Zhenming," Ren Ziming did not look bothered in the slightest that a number of ace mercenaries were outside her door after recovering from her initial surprise, "have you chosen a name?"

"No. Do you have any ideas?" Li Zhenming asked. Ren Ziming had named both their daughters, and he was happy to go along with whatever she chose.

"I'm thinking-- Li Siyuan?"

"It's perfect," Li Zhenming reached out and gently caressed her forehead, "He'll be called just that,"

"Three cheers for the Young Master!" The obnoxious mercenaries suddenly shouted again. After the cheers the Lis could distinctly hear them quarreling over who would be his first master--pssh-- tutor. Would he learn alchemy? Medicine? Matrix casting? Mystic creature taming? Swordsmanship? Spear-wielding?

"Enough!" Li Sihan shouted. The noises quietened down at once. Li Sihan turned back to her family.

"Well, I like Li Siyuan as well. Congratulations, mother,"

Ren Ziming smiled so widely her eyes turned into crescents. Li Silan also grudgingly muttered that she would share her snacks with him and "never let him go hungry". Li Zhenming and Ren Ziming laughed. Li Sihan smirked. Ahh. Another cutie to feed in the future...

*

"Has it been a year already?" Li Sihan rubbed her eyes as she surveyed the exceedingly large amount of items scattered around the floor of the Li Manor main hall. Her eyes narrowed as she saw each Senior trying to make their own things more appealing.

"How is he even supposed to know what to pick?" She sneered. The four people paid no heed to her. Storm Sword straightened up after propping a bowl of candy next to the silver dagger that he had retrieved from his spatial space. He then grinned and went to stand at one corner.

"Here comes the young master!" A Li Manor maid crowed. Ren Ziming entered, carrying the celebrant, a beautiful boy with a head of black hair like his sisters. His eyes were big, round and curious. He waved from his perch at Storm Sword, who had, lately, against the Grand Chief's express directives, taken him for a wild ride on his shoulders through the grounds of the Li Manor at high speed, something Li Siyuan had enjoyed immensely. Storm Sword winked back at him.

"Jie!" Li Siyuan grinned widely at the sight of his big sister, who had lately not been around. Li Sihan smiled slightly, stunning the mercenaries present. She--! She actually smiled! Ahh, what couldn't cute beautiful children do to the darkest of souls? They knew that her cold heart was already thawing when she had first encountered Li Silan, but it now seemed that it was up to the bubbly young master to finish the job!

"Father's here. We can-- start," Li Sihan sighed. Nodding encouragingly, Li Silan took her brother from her mother, into her own arms. She gestured at the mess of objects.

"Xiao Laohu, go pick anything you like," and she set him down. Li Siyuan wobbled slightly, and then got down on all fours and crawled determinedly across the floor. Storm Sword's face fell; his silver dagger had been the closest.

The spectators watched as the baby continued across the room, not stopping next to all the shinier things. Eventually, he paused and reached out--

"Yes!" Red Monkey jumped up and clapped. He picked up a small toy crossbow! This was a disguised way of them laying claim to the young master! Red Monkey hurried quickly and snatched him up before he could pick something else.

"Yay! The Young Master has officially joined the Archery Squad!"

The others rolled their eyes, disgruntled.

"Put him down," Li Sihan snapped. Red Monkey set Li Siyuan down at once.

Just then, the butler of the Li Manor entered.

"My lord, there are some people outside requesting to see--" he gulped, "the young miss--" he really couldn't bring himself to call out her title.

Li Zhenming frowned.

"Who--"

"Xi Yun, deal with it," Li Sihan ordered, and instead clapped her hands, which made her brother start to crawl towards her. Seeing that the Grand Chief had requested their Senior to deal with the visitor, the other three followed her outside as well.

There were actually three people, dressed in flowing white robes with a black strip of cloth tied around their foreheads. Behind them, their subordinates carried a flag, yellow, with the characters Yang Sect on it.

"It's so rare to meet experts from the Si Lak Mercenaries," the man in front, looking to be in his forties, with long hair held up by a golden headpiece, who was obviously the spokesperson, made a perfunctory bow in Xi Yun's direction.

"Long time no see, Elder Qin," Xi Yun replied, responding with a fist and palm salute. The Yang Sect was not far behind the Si Lak Mercenaries in terms of power and renown. That was why she was quite respectful to this Elder Qin.

"May I ask what brings you to Phoenix Empire?" Xi Yun asked.

"Hah, isn't this place now where the excitement is at?" He chuckled drily, "I am here to send my regards to your Grand Chief on behalf of our venerable sect leader. Also, I have come to invite and grant the Si Lak Mercenaries a spot at the Cultivators Gathering,"

Xi Yun almost sneered. Since when had they ever had to participate in such mediocre competitions? There was no need to prove it: the Si Lak Mercenaries were simply the best.

"Elder Qin needn't have come all this way for such a trivial matter, seeing as we will decline the invitation anyway,"

"Will Senior Flaming Spear just decide on your own?" Elder Qin smirked, "I could understand that when your Grand Chief was indisposed, but now that she is back, shouldn't she be the one to decide that?"

Xi Yun pulled herself to her full height and glared at the man.

"Since when has it been the Yang Sect's right to meddle in our Si Lak Mercenaries' affairs?

"I'm not, I'm not," Elder Qin raised his hands, "I'm just wondering if Senior Flaming Spear isn't just being too hasty in your decision. After all, everyone in the martial world knows the benefits that comes from participating-- or even winning, the Cultivators Gathering. Benefits that your Si Lak Mercenaries has been turning their noses up at all this while," he chuckled, "did not deter our venerable sect leader from still reaching out, due to the history and old ties between him and your Grand Chief,"

"Old ties?" A serene voice suddenly chuckled. Xi Yun and the others immediately straightened their backs and parted to let her come forward. Li Sihan stared at the so called Elder Qin.

"What old ties and history do me and your sect leader have? Oh, do you mean the time he kept following me about the martial world like a shadow or a tail, begging me to teach him the Five Palm Strike Technique?"

Elder Qin's eyebrows twitched, then he and the others immediately made very respectful salutes.

"It's these junior ones great blessing to see your venerable person," quite a lot was going through the minds of these delegates... especially the nagging question: why was she so small?...

"Since your Yang Sect can't wait to have your eager faces slapped by my prodigies, we'll give you what you want. Goodbye!"

Bowing reverently, they took their leave. Xi Yun immediately went down on one knee.

"Please punish me, Grand Chief. I couldn't even handle such a simple matter--"

"No; I'm the one who wanted to remind them exactly what kind of 'old ties' their leader has with me. Go ahead and send some people to compete,"

"Yes, Grand Chief!"