"Third Young Miss we need to hurry, your father and Elder brother are waiting."
Xue Mi urged her young charge as the maids helped dress the Third Young Miss.
Fifteen year old Chi Meili Tian looked at the woman who had been his nanny and was now his chief maid, through the dressing mirror. Sparkling golden phoenix eyes with a hint of mischief in a face framed by silky ink black hair, met anxious ones before looking away. A smile briefly graced the slightly full bow shaped lips. With skin that can only be described a translucent, made Xue Mi think of a fairy as the maids smoothed the flowing lavender and white hanfu, embroidered with purple lotus and butterflies.
It would be the third time that Meili Tian was officially leaving the Chi family estate. The first time was when he was five years old and his mother took him and his eldest sister, Mei Xiu, to visit their aunt Lan Yan Lang in the neighbouring kingdom of Hou and the second time had been when elder brother Li Shan had graduated from the Royal Academy when he was eight. Although he had snuck out other times while hiding his face behind a veil.
Fang Hua, now Lady Bai (Viscountess Fengzhong), was expecting her first child with husband Viscount Bai Lan Xi, Count Jiang Fengzhong's (Bai Hou Xian, a first rank Count) second son. Meili Tian was going with his father and oldest brother, who was on a week's leave from the army, to buy gifts and also inspect the tea house and fabric store belonging to the Chi family.
All boys from wealthy and noble families, including the Imperial princes, who graduated from the Royal Academy were required to serve in the army for a minimum of two years, unless they came from a military family, then they could choose to stay after the mandatory service.
Meili Tian knew that even though the servants called him Third Young Miss, he had a girl's name, had a small build and looked more like his mother than his sisters did, he was in-fact a boy, Only the Chi family and the most trusted inner house servants knew this. His father had explained on his fifth birthday, after he had asked why he couldn't have a sword like his brothers, that although he was a boy like his elder brothers, he had to be treated like his elder sisters because there were bad men who wanted to harm him if it was known that the Chi family had another son.
The Chi family was one of the wealthiest and most envied families in Wen Kingdom, even the Emperor was keeping an eye on them. If not for their family's proven loyalty and allies in the government, he might have been persuaded by some of the corrupt and jealous ministers to curtail or even outright cut down the Chi family.
A Seer had warned Chi Chueng (then a Junior Minister for the Ministry of Rites and respected scholar), Chi Xue Qiao's great grandfather, that he would have a great grandson who's third son would be a great light to the world. He will be blessed by the gods among people BUT his life would be threatened from birth. Chi Chueng had at first been delighted but was then alarmed at the last part of the prophesy and asked the Seer why his future grandson would be in such danger.
'With light comes darkness, with greatness comes mediocrity. Glory and Jealousy go hand in hand. Your family shall see ten thousand years of prosperity and glory this is certain. However if your house is not guarded and future generations not upright, then the success and glory will be turned into hardship and failure.
There is a way to save your great great grandson and that is to raise him opposite to what he is from birth. This will have to be done for sixteen springs. Then one shall come to save him and put your family on the flower path. He will then have to make a choice and if this path is chosen he will also become one of the few of Heaven and Earth.'
Chi Chueng had heeded the Seer's words and engraved them in his heart. All three of his children, Chi Fu Lan (eldest son), Chi Hu Ying (second son) and Chi Hua Ling (youngest child and only daughter) had been raised with a firm but gentle hand and with the words of the Seer as their guideline and principle in life.
Chi Hu Ying had died in battle, after rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, leaving a widow but no children, who later joined a nunnery in grief. Chi Hua Ling, a great beauty of her time, was wedded to a wealthy business man's second son from Dong He Province and had had two sons, both of whom had led upright lives and brought glory to Dong He Province and the kingdom through their intelligence and wisdom but had never married.
After greatly expanding the family's tea farms and fabric (specifically cotton and silk) businesses, and adding spice trading, to to what it was currently, Chi Fu Lan had become the head of the Chi family when his father had turned 80 and had also kept the Seer's words in his heart, passing them on to his son. His only son, Chi Chong Ran became a military man, rising to the rank of Second in Command, to carry on the family tradition as well as re-enforce the Chi family's loyalty to the Emperor and throne to keep the Chi family safe.
As a reward for his many victories in battle and contributions to the kingdom, Chi Chong Ran was given the honorary rank of Baohu Zhe Jiangjun (Protector General), a Blue and Green Jade plate to symbolize the accepted loyalty to the throne and also conferred the hereditary title of Zhongcheng Bo of the 2nd Rank (Count of Loyalty and Sincerity).
It was then that many people started to really take notice of the Chi family and the jealousy rose, however non could find any ammunition with which to bring down the Chi family. Then an idea formed in a mid ranked official's head. He had gone to see a Seer and had been told that Chi Chong Ran's son would have a gods blessed child. He had fumed at the prophesy as his son had been passed over for the same military promotion Chi Chong Ran received. The official bribed the ambitious 2nd Tier Monk and Seer to tell his cousin, the then Crown Princess, Mei Ling, who was a spiteful, short tempered woman, that if the Chi family had a third son in her grandson's time then the Chi family will have the power to contend with the Imperial family. Mei Ling then started to secretly plot against the Chi family but no scheme succeeded.
Fortunately for the Chi family she never told her husband what was told to her and she died one year after her son, Emperor Han Long, was crowned but she did pass on the message that the Chi family were dangerous and their children should be carefully watched to her son. After a few years and with a constant need to quell uprisings and fend off the neighbouring Cai Kingdom in the South and Lu Kingdom in the west, Emperor Han Long forgot his mother's words.
The current emperor, Fu Long, having never received that calculated message, favoured Chong Ran's son, Xue Qiao, approving of his marriage to Court Minister Lan's daughter, bringing the Chi family back into the spotlight.