General traced voice source and soon found a man and a girl surrounded by close to two hundred men.
He had no fear to face them; he made way to reach the man and the girl.
"Do you now my daughter Henan, is that you who voiced father before!" he asked the girl.
She looked at the man who asked did she know Henan, she remembered her father, though his appearance was unkept so do her appearance was as well unkept, "Father!" she could only say, "It's been nine years that you left your daughter alone!" she started crying.
All memories struck him this moment.
The downpour was getting heavy.
There was silence for a long time; General was collecting pieces of memories in his mind.
A shadow guard came down from his horse and bowed to Prince, "King Shang has sent us to escort you back, your father is seriously injured in a traitor's attack, and he is on his death bed!" he said and backed down two steps.
Another man came down and bowed to Prince, from his looks he was War Messenger, "Reporting to the Prince, King Yong id deploying weapon laced troops on the border front recently, King ordered to inform your Highness about this news and wishes you to take charge of border front in his stead!" he took out Imperial Order from his sleeves and bent on his knees to present it to Prince Wan Hu Shang.
General had his previous memories now, and he was little unsure, "My daughter! Nine years ago, King told me that you were thrown in the dead well!" he wanted to ask because he wanted to know the truth.
"That was a lie!" Prince Wan Hu Shang replied this time instead of Henan.
General shifted his eyes to the young man; he had heard the War Messenger calling Wan Hu Shang that means he was his disciple, "Master!" Prince fell on his knees, General Zhong acknowledged him.
Now everything was clear everyone, "It was the persistence of Henan that we are able to find you!" General smiled his small daughter was now grown, he patted her head saying, "Small child!" his daughter meant the whole world for him.
Henan led her father hand in hand toward the direction where she left her loyal guards, they must have been searching for her.
King was not sure of his recovery so he sent Imperial Order in case he died, Crown Prince would be the new King of Shang Kingdom.
Though Wan Hu had been on border many times but retaliate a powerful enemy… he was just a newbie.
"Since General Zhong is back, may, I request General to resume your official rank!" Prince bent on his knees to present the Imperial Order to General Zhong.
"I am tired of prestige and I wanted to retire myself from these undertakings!" General waved his hand, he was angry at the King but he did not show it to Prince.
"Master, I need your help!" Prince be-sought, he felt he would never be able to compensate General for the suffering he faced.
The silhouette of father and daughter disappeared slowly from his vision.
It was still raining.
He had to go check on the border.
He did not wish to go to the Palace.
He headed toward border front broken whereas his guards, shadow guards and soldiers followed suit.
Slowly heavy rain got light.
The place was left as silent and threatening as before.
****
Six Month Later
There was War on the border front which did not end up till now, soldiers were fighting valiantly and it was possible that enemy would start retreat soon.
Wan Hu was exhausted with this six-month war scenario, initially, he was not confident but slowly he learned the tactics employed by the enemy and answered with equal might.
After a few days, their enemy sent peace treaty delegation to sign a peace treaty.
This delegation indeed presented normal terms to solve the matter and within a day it was signed by both parties.
His soldiers and guards got relaxed to see the peace treaty signed but this negligence proved horrendous because Prince got kidnaped and some cunning means were employed to do this but before anyone could understand the situation, the enemy retreated to their original territory.
King survived the ordeal of stab and after six months of intense medication and treatment, he was able to stand up on his own but he heard that huge internal rebellion had broken out because he released a decree for the girl name Henan Zhong daughter of General Zhong to neglect the purest conventions and commit the crime to wield a weapon and murder his shadow guard.
The people who witness that General was alive were gone to border with Prince and no one else had any notion of this news, in fact, it was kept a secret too.
Till to the present moment, he was clueless that General came back from his death trap.
They were living in a peaceful place when this decree was issued.
Henan was sent to the silent dead castle to wait for her execution.
General was not around when it happened, he gathered the news that there was huge rebellion in the whole Kingdom.
Lue Zhen traveled to inform the Prince about recent matters but he, his wife and sister-in-law disappeared during journeying.
A strong hand pulled her chin and a sinister smile appeared on the face of the man, "I got you back Wei Lan!" she almost screamed with horror to see him, "Crown Prince Yong!"