The orange of the sky stretched far and wide, the colour of every hearth and tangerine. It was the reflection of the dawn, the promise of the rising sun that comes after the velvety night has had its say. The sun merged with the sky, like juice mix dissolving in a glass of water. The clouds were cotton candy, as though they were blushing at the warm touch of the setting sun. Silhouettes of birds flew home across a sky that was turning magenta.

The mauve of the dusky sky would soon intensify and the biggest star would set, giving way to a thousand others.

The penultimate rays of the sun made its way through the open windows of a bed-chamber, giving it the last warm kisses for the day before the cold breeze of twilight could take its place.

The traditional green and golden robes of the Ruan Sect lay scattered on the floor. Even the belt with gold studs on it lay on the ground carelessly.

A person stood in front of the mirror, quickly tying her long dark chocolate tresses with a grey ribbon. She was clad in dark blue and grey robes. After raking her fingers one last time through the stray locks that never stayed in place, she smiled at her reflection. "Hah, Caihong, you look so handsome. Hee hee hee!!"

She covered herself with a black cloak with a hood, which would partly cover her face once she put it over her head.

The quiver of arrows and the bow weren't forgotten either.

Giving herself a once over, she was about to leave her room, when her eyes suddenly fell on a box on a table. She opened it and smiled at its glittering occupants. She ran a careful finger along the barrels and avoided the ends.

"Aiyaa, my beautiful piercing babies, did you miss me? Sorry for that, aish, I am so forgetful, my bad. Well, I have a feeling that we will have a lot of fun today. I may need you, work for me, won't you?" She muttered, picking eight of them up.

The eight silvery things in her hand shone a tad bit brighter as if to seal the deal to work well if needed.
Caihong stuffed them in a pouch which hung from the black belt on her waist.

"This is going to be fun," she chuckled, as she left the room.

After taking gingerly steps, she quickly hoisted herself onto the roof over the patio with an agile leap.

' Everyone must be having their afternoon nap,' she internally rejoiced, her eyes keenly scanning the whole area.

'Ah well, almost everyone.'

Zhang Taio was standing there, talking to a few recruits of the army and the bow makers.

Now that was a big problem.

If she moved even slightly, she would be discovered and either get an arrow in the arm, if Zhang Ge didn't care to look who it was or get dragged back by him to knit again. Though the idea of getting shot was a little too theatrical, for Taio's eyes were as sharp as a hawk soaring high in the sky.

She slid down to the other side of the roof, as silently as she could. From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Zhang swivel his head in her direction.

But we all know, once problems start popping up, they have this great fetish for piling up one on top of the other, right?

It executed its fetish here too.

Caihong's foot began to slip from under her, making her eyes widen with horror.

If she slipped, either she would fall and break a limb, or she would be dangling from the edge of the roof, like a monkey in the circus, in full view of Gege. She would not be able to clamber back in time.

She couldn't move to safety, either, or the rattle of the tiles would bring Gege running faster than light.

She looked at her foot. To her dismay, it wasn't her foot that was sliding down. The entire tile on which she had placed her foot was getting dislodged. It was almost on the brink of plummeting to the ground.

'Pfft, even if I slip, Ge will see me, even if I move, Ge will find me eventually. So why risk breaking my leg?'

An idea struck her. She simply rolled away from that precarious position to a relatively secured one. As promised, the tiles rattled a bit, the sound instantly grabbing Zhang Taio's full attention.

She heard the sound of metallic friction and realised that a sword had been drawn. No one could see her, as she was on the leeward tilt of the roof. She perked up her ears with bated breath, as she heard approaching footsteps.
She placed her ear on the roof tiles and listened carefully. When she heard their footsteps beneath the roof, she simply stepped over across to the windward side and clamped her hand on her mouth to muffle her giggles. From then on, she proceeded to take her steps with greater caution.

******

The recruits, the bow makers and Zhang stood there staring dumbly at the roof. A light chilly wind began to blow, indicating the incoming of twilight; the wind chimes began to tingle melodiously.

"I'm positive too, General, that I heard the tiles rattle. The sound came from here, I am sure of it," one of the boys said. The rest of them nodded and murmured their agreement.

Zhang sighed, "I really can't understand-"
His sentence was cut off by a squeaky creak and a dull dragging noise.

"What's that, General?"

"Dunno, but it seems to be coming from over-"

CREAK.

CRACK.

"AAHHH..." one of the recruits groaned, squinted his eyes and collapsed.

Well, he was really unfortunate to have been standing right under that very portion of the roof, which had the about to fall tile. The tile, now fully dislocated, had crashed down on his poor head.

"Brother!!"

"He's not bleeding. Let's take him to the Physician. Quick. Pick him up."

They lifted the unconscious youth and huddled off to the Royal Physician's house.

And Caihong?

She had disappeared from the scene, even before the tile had begun to creak, signifying its descent to the ground. She was presently perched lazily on a tree bough, concealed well by the foliage, and wondering how she could get out of the gates.

Two tall hefty guards were standing there, doing their duty with great diligence.

She leapt down, expertly landing on her feet, and walked towards them, casually munching on an apple.

Both the guards pointed their shining spears at her, ready to skewer her throat.

"Show yourself," one of them barked.

Caihong obeyed and pulled the hood off her head.

"S-Second Mistress Ruan?" both of them bowed, putting their spears away. "Our apologies. We didn't recognise you."

She returned the bow. "Now let me out."

"Huh?"

"I want to go out. Open the gates."

"My lady, it's almost dusk. We can't open the gates now unless it's an urgency."

"Please?"

The guards held their ground and refused to budge.

"Okay," Caihong pouted dejectedly and turned to leave.
Suddenly, she turned back towards them and gestured them to come closer, as if she was going to tell them an important secret.

The poor guards were lured right into the trap she had laid, for as soon as they leaned down to listen to what she had to say, she pressed something into their necks. Both of them felt a prick on their nape before the whole world got submerged into darkness.

"That was easy," Caihong muttered, as she pulled the two silvery pins out and put them back in her pouch. The pins, which were about 10 centimetres long, had already changed their hue from silver to red, an indication that they had been used once and were not to be used again.

"Good night for three consecutive nights in advance," she whispered, before walking out of the gates. "And I am sorry. I will explain to Dad and Grandma when I get back, okay? You won't lose your jobs. I'll make sure of that. Promise."

With that, she left the royal palace of the Ruan Sect and the heady smell of the evening market tickled her nostrils, enticing her to explore it more.