The imperial gardens, even in the grip of winter, offered a labyrinth of potential hiding spots. Intricate rockeries, designed by long-dead masters to mimic the misty mountains of the south, provided a perfect landscape for a child's game. It was here, later that afternoon, that the Emperor's new "friend" suggested they play hide-and-seek.
Ying Zheng agreed with feigned enthusiasm. He knew this was not a game; it was a test. Lotus, the serpent Cixi had sent into his garden, was using the pretext of play to probe his environment and assess his new target's protectors. Meng Tian, the silent, imposing bodyguard, followed them at a discreet distance, his face an impassive mask, but his senses on high alert. He was a tiger, patiently stalking the serpent, waiting for it to show its fangs.
Lotus was a picture of youthful energy. "You hide first, Your Majesty!" he chirped, his smile bright and charming. He turned and covered his eyes, beginning to count aloud in a clear voice.
Ying Zheng scurried away, hiding behind a large, gnarled juniper bush near the base of the tallest rockery. From his vantage point, he could watch both Lotus and Meng Tian.
The game began. Lotus moved with an agility that was breathtakingly unnatural for a ten-year-old. He didn't run or scramble; he flowed. He leaped from one icy rock to another with the silent, weightless grace of a cat, his movements economical and precise. He was showing off his incredible physical prowess, but he was also mapping the area, his eyes constantly flicking towards Meng Tian, gauging his position, his reaction time, his level of alertness. He was a predator sizing up the alpha of the pack.
After a few minutes of this "play," Lotus made his move. He had scaled to a high ledge on the rockery, about fifteen feet above where Ying Zheng was "hiding." On the ledge with him was a large, decorative rock, about the size of a grown man's head, that had been loosened by years of ice and thaw. It was a perfectly deniable weapon.
"I think I see you!" Lotus called down, his voice full of laughter. As he turned, he "accidentally" brushed against the loose rock with his leg. With a grinding scrape, the heavy stone was dislodged from its precarious perch. It tipped over the edge and began to tumble down, aimed directly at the spot where the Emperor was concealed.
It was a perfectly executed, plausibly deniable assassination attempt. If the rock struck and killed the Emperor, it was a tragic, unfortunate accident caused by a careless child's game. The boy, Lotus, would weep and be forgiven. If the attempt failed, he could claim it was a complete mistake, his foot had slipped. But his true goal was not necessarily to kill the Emperor on the first try. It was to force the hand of the legendary bodyguard, Meng Ao. He wanted to see how the man reacted. He wanted to measure his speed, his strength, his methods.
He got more than he bargained for.
Meng Tian moved. He did not shout a warning. He did not run. He exploded into motion. From his position twenty paces away, he became a blur of black and gold, covering the ground with a speed that defied the laws of physics.
He reached the juniper bush a full second before the rock did. In a single, fluid, impossibly powerful motion, he scooped Ying Zheng up with his left arm, pulling the small boy against his body and out of the path of danger. His right arm, however, did not brace or shield. It struck out.
His right fist, clenched into a knot of superhumanly dense muscle and bone, met the falling boulder in mid-air.
There was a sickening, explosive CRACK that echoed through the quiet garden, a sound not of rock hitting flesh, but of rock hitting something far harder. The boulder did not simply stop or deflect. It shattered. The massive stone, which would have crushed a man's skull, disintegrated into a shower of smaller fragments and dust from the sheer kinetic force of Meng Tian's blow.
Meng Tian stood over his Emperor, his arm still extended, his fist completely unscratched. He lowered Ying Zheng gently to the ground, and then his head snapped up, his eyes blazing with a cold, murderous fury as he stared directly at Lotus on the ledge above.
Up on the rockery, Lotus's charming, playful smile had vanished, replaced by a mask of utter, slack-jawed disbelief. His mind struggled to process what his eyes had just seen. He had expected the guard to be fast, to pull the Emperor out of the way. He had not expected him to punch a falling boulder into pieces. He had heard the stories from the training grounds of Meng Ao's incredible skill, but this was not skill. This was monstrous, inhuman power. This was the strength of a demon, of a god. He had not been sent to test a man. He had just provoked something else entirely.
Ying Zheng looked at the shattered fragments of rock littering the ground, then up at his general's impassive, furious face, and finally at the terrified visage of the young assassin on the ledge. The test was complete. The serpent had struck, and the tiger had revealed its true strength.
He calmly brushed the dust from his robes and patted Meng Tian's powerful arm, a gesture of both reassurance and command.
"Thank you, Meng Ao," he said, his childish voice clear and steady, carrying easily up to the ledge. "You are very strong. You keep the falling rocks away."
He then turned his gaze up to Lotus, a cold, sweet smile gracing his own lips. "You must be more careful when you play, Lotus," he called out, his tone light and friendly. "This garden can be a very dangerous place."
The message was delivered with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. It was a statement of fact, a threat, and a declaration of a new reality, all hidden within the innocent words of a child. We know what you are. And my protector is stronger than anything you could possibly imagine.
The episode ends with Lotus staring down from his perch, his face pale, his heart hammering in his chest. His carefully planned mission of infiltration and assassination had been compromised on the very first day. He was a serpent who had just discovered that the harmless child he had been sent to charm was, in fact, being guarded by a primordial tiger. The intimate cold war within the palace walls had begun, a direct, silent conflict between Cixi's hidden assassin and Qin Shi Huang's superhuman general.