Reborn: The legend of the Phoenix

Unaware of the changes going on in the capital, Fusheng walked absentmindedly into the market, she did not even notice the looks of the market people. She was thinking about many things, wondering if she made the right decision to go against Meixin, after all there seems to be a powerful figure backing her up. She sighed in despair, she knew that the coming days will not be so easy, in fact the threat over her life is going to be too much now, because if she was her own enemies she would also quickly find a way to end her than waiting for the poison to slowly kill her. She also wanted to speak to Feilong but it seems he is off to heal his wounds or something else because he hadn't said a word since they left the Academy.

Just as she was still thinking about this, she bumped into a trader and had to look up, as she did she discovered different sets of eyes on her, every single one of them had gossip in them. That was when she realized that word of mouth had already gone around. Fusheng hastily apologized to the trader and walked away in to a clothes shop. Although the three major stunts she pulled today was all so that word would spread around that she was alive, so as to refresh the memories of people on the real truth of the Meng Family, she still could not stand the look of people on her, wanting to her slip up or do something silly, so they can gossip about it.

Thr clothes shop she entered was quite large, with different types of clothes for both male and female. Fusheng went to the innermost part of the shop and selected a blue male's clothes, she went to the changing room and changed into it, she also washed off the spots on her face restoring her face to it's original beauty. She carefully folded her previous clothes and put them in to a bag, she did her hair like that of a scholar, took a folding handfan and went to pay.

As she stepped out of the changing room, her demeanor changed entirely, from a girl with a heart full of revenge, to a male from an influential family that had only drinking and having fun in mind. She did not know if she could pull off the flirtatious look, but she had to try. Unknown to her, her face made her look alluring and flirtatious even if she does not try. 

While she paid, the sales girls could not take their eyes off her, they could not believe that they had actually not noticed this beautiful rich man, they almost gave the clothes for free. They asked her "What family's young man are you?"

Fusheng smiled and shook her head saying "No I am not from the capital, so you may not know my family. I am actually just passing by."

She took a deep breath, she remembered what the soldiers by her father's side normally said to the maids they liked "Would you ladies know the best restaurant in the capital, I am famished from the long journey."

The two ladies at the counter wanted to melt from excitement and they hurriedly said "There is a very good restaurant here in the capital, just a few meters from this shop. They are the best in the capital."

Fusheng smiled and tipped the girls heavily before she left. As she left the clothes and walked in to the market once again, she could feel that stares of the people were now different towards her. She sighed in relief and walked towards the direction the girls pointed. In truth she was really hungry, she did not eat anything the day before and did not also eat this morning, every single mind-blowing action she did that day was done on an empty stomach and by now she felt so hungry like she was going to drop dead anytime soon.

While she was still thinking about how hungry she was, she saw a huge sign over her head "红鹤居 Hóng Hè Jū (HOUSE OF THE RED CRANE)"

"Wow" she thought, "this is really eye-catching" 

She unfolded her handfan and said "Well this is it." She walked in to the restaurant and the first thing that greeted her was the sweet aroma of food. Her stomach growled, she walked faster and entered into the restaurant. The waiter that saw her was stunned and did not say anything for a while, Fusheng became worried about her cover being blown. She had to clear her throat to bring the man back from his thoughts.

The waiter hurriedly apologized "I am sorry young master. I did not mean to keep you waiting, it's just that you were so so good looking that I was shocked."

Fusheng smiled nervously and said "Oh please don't say that. I personally don't find it offensive. So what is your special?"

The waiter listed off a lot of dishes, Fusheng could not even understand which was which so she ordered everything and also ordered osmanthus wine to go with the food. She sat down and observed the restaurant, it seemed like this was not their rush hour, but the restaurants design was quite good, really befitting it's name as one of the best restaurant, hopefully the food would also go well with it's reputation, she thought.

The waiter soon brought out all of Fusheng's dishes full of smiles, Fusheng had to even top him for his warm reception. As she tasted the food she could not stop herself from nodding, because the food was really tasty, even more tasty than what was given to her at the Meng House. 

The waiter on seeing that she enjoyed the food came over to engage in a conversation with her, he said "What family's young master are you?" He seemed like the type to gossip.

Fusheng smiled and repeated what she told the two sales girls from earlier "Oh I am not from the capital, I am just passing by so I decided to stop. That reminds me, is anything going on in the capital? It feels more lively than normal."

The waiter seeing it as his cue began to spill a lot beans "Yes, the Young master sure is observant. I don't know if the Young master has ever heard about Meng Fusheng of the mighty Meng Family."

Fusheng froze a little, then recovered herself and said "This Young Master remembers the Meng Family, I often overhear my father talking about them, but this one has not heard of any Meng Fusheng."

The waiter was not surprised by this and said "This waiter understands, Young Master is not from the capital, so it is a given that you will not be familiar with Meng Fusheng. Now this is a long story, trouble the Young Master to bear with this waiter."

Fusheng nodded and said "No problem at all, as long as it doesn't affect you work, then it is okay. I am genuinely curious." Truly Fusheng was curious to hear the side of the story that the people in the capital knew, wanted to know how people saw her.

The waiter happily grabbed a stool and said "it is not yet rush hour so this waiter has time. So the story started from the mighty Meng Wanning, the greatest general in the dynasty, Young Master must've heard of him, he was really great and mighty, his daughter General Meng Xiwu was also mighty like her father, but things soon went South. Like they said 'Heaven is jealous of perfect people' Mighty Meng Xiwu made a mistake, this mistake was falling in love with that scholar. Rumour has it that the love was not normal, because Meng Xiwu originally listens to every word of her father, but suddenly she did not listen and insisted to get married to the scholar, which is the present head of the Meng Family. This marriage was the biggest shock of the capital, the mighty General Meng Wanning could not do anything about it and only distanced himself from his daughter. In fact he disowned her, things continued like this despite every attempt to mend the father and daughter's relationship. But suddenly it changed when they couple had their first child, for the first time Meng Wanning did not chase the couple out of his house, in fact he personally took in their daughter, Meng Fusheng and trained her, rumour had it that he named her as his heir. Now the thing is that Meng Fusheng was not just special to Meng Wanning because she was his only grandchild, but also because I heard from my own grandfather that Meng Fusheng was the only person in the Meng Family to be able to cultivate."

Fusheng widened her eyes and the waiter feeling encouraged said "Yes, she was the first person to be born with the cultivation. This made Meng Wanning to feel that maybe the daughter's husband was not so bad. After many years, Fusheng turned out to be a child prodigy who was destined for great things, but sadly Meng Wanning passed away, the so-called husband of Meng Xiwu brought in his mistress and her daughter. Meng Xiwu fell sick maybe because of the heartbreak shortly she died. Meng Fusheng was still standing strong, but disaster always finds it's way to strike, one time Fusheng suddenly fell ill and as it was rumored she lost her cultivation, others even said that she was hideous."

Fusheng had to applaud this waiter in her head , he really had good story telling skills "What a pitiful young girl"

The waiter disagreed with her and said "No young Master you misunderstood, Yes it is true that she had a pitiful ending but the way she went about it was wrong. I know sometimes it is hard for people on a high place to suddenly fall down, but she should have not been like that."

Fusheng was genuinely interested now "What later happened?"

The waiter continued "As she lost her cultivation, coincidentally the mistress daughter that was a year or two younger, suddenly had cultivation. Because Fusheng felt so bad about her loss of cultivation and became mean to everyone, especially her step sister. She openly bullied her sister, insulted her, many Meng household servants testified to the bullying. Even the Royal Dragon Academy had to still continue with her admission even though she lost her cultivation, they offered her to go to the Martial arts branch, but she always insulted them. The Emperor himself had summoned her to the palace, but she refused the Emperor. She did not even show her father respect, became so disgraceful and wayward, putting her grandfather's legacy to shame. There is also rumour about her liking the prime Minister's son."

Now Fusheng was more than surprised, if she was not Meng Fusheng she would have believed the story. She sensed her reputation was bad in the capital, but she did not expect these stories. No wonder nobody came to help her. Another thing got her understanding which was the story of her and the prime Minister's son, Meilan had said something like that earlier to the Crown prince, but she overlooked it. She said to the waiter "Wow, a lot really happened. But what exactly is this one with the Prime Minister's son?"

The waiter said "Rumour had it that Fusheng often snuck out of the house to go pester the prime Minister's son claiming to love him, but prime Minister's son always rejected her, isn't that shameful?"

Fusheng only had one word in her mind "Wow"...