While they waited for the arrival of the messenger, Jié Qiáng began thinking of the wedding and all that had come to pass between them.

 “Mîn,” he said, “do you have the butterfly and crane fairy tale written down?”

 She nodded and replied, “I wrote it down to give my mother years ago, and I have my own. I, also, have paintings of several of the scenes in the story.”

 “Excellent!” he said. “Can I send one of the written stories and one of the paintings to the queen with this letter?”

 Mîn Jíng wondered why he would want to send it when she was bringing them with her to his palace. “Why do you need to send them now?”

 “The queen is responsible for the wedding,” he told her. “She has a creative mind and is clever when it comes to implementing poetic and philosophical meaning into most things. If I send her a cryptic message about the design of the wedding along with your story and art, she will understand what to do.”

 Mîn Jíng became overjoyed at his suggestion and moved closer to him with Xiù Xiù still in her lap.

 “Sī,” she addressed her maidservant still seated beside her, “please bring me one of the copies of the story and all of the paintings.”

 As Sī hurried to do as ordered, Jié Qiáng shared his thoughts on their wedding.

 “I would like for our wedding robes to have a scene from the story,” he told them. “The decorations should include the story, as well.”

 “How will King Zhāng feel about this break in tradition?” worried Yǒng Wěi. “I’m certain he wasn’t happy about the condition to remove red from the ceremony.”

 Everyone looked to Jié Qiáng for the answer they had all worried about.

 Jié Qiáng understood their unease and answered to alleviate their fears. “My message will say enough to let them know Mîn’s situation. As soon as they discover who she is, I can guarantee you they will do anything to make this wedding reflect their gratitude.

 I’ve considered what this wedding has suddenly become, and my father and royal mother will, as well. It will mark the end of two hundred years of fighting. The bride is the savior of the crown prince. She’s, also, the person who inspired my metamorphosis and encouraged me to become the prince of our people. Even her fairy tale of the butterfly and the crane working together to build on each other’s strengths symbolizes the unity of our kingdoms.

 Our wedding represents our families, our kingdoms, and our endeavor to join in a battle against a deadly threat. The queen can find a clever way of adding a bit of red here and there, but the focus will be on our unified forces.”

 “A toast to unity,” called out Féng Wěi and they all obliged.

 “Another for the butterfly and his crane,” added Yáng Ning.

 The summoned officer hurried into the room and bowed in respect to the king. “Officer Chén reporting as ordered, your majesty.”

 King Yīng directed the officer’s attention toward Jié Qiáng and gave his instructions. “Prince Jié Qiáng will have a letter for you to deliver to King Zhāng. You’re to leave immediately once it has been handed to you. This delivery must be kept confidential. No one but King Zhāng is to receive it. Change from your uniform into commoner’s clothing, and tell no one where you’re going. Return here as soon as you’ve completed my orders.”

 “Yes, your majesty,” acknowledged Officer Chén with another bow.

 He stood at attention as he waited for the message.

 Jié Qiáng watched Mîn Jíng closely as she attempted to hold back tears. He moved closer to her and caressed her cheek.

 “What are you thinking?” he asked in a soft voice.

 She smiled faintly up at him and answered, “I wish my father and brothers could be with me at the wedding. I know they can’t, of course. It makes me sad they won’t be there to celebrate such an important event.”

 “I’ll be there,” Yǒng Wěi told her. “One of us has to escort you, and it can’t be Féng,” he said about their crown prince.

 Mîn Jíng smiled at this information but looked to her father with sad eyes.

 Jié Qiáng squeezed her hand as he asked King Yīng, “How quickly can your royal embroiders make our wedding robes?”

 “They must be able to create a brocade within a day if a sudden situation calls for it,” the king answered. “Why?”

 “I was thinking of having a small, private ceremony here before we leave,” Jié Qiáng answered to the absolute delight of Mîn Jíng.

 She thought it over a moment, though, and as Sī entered the room with the story pages and art, she said to him, “Would your father and the queen be angry? This isn’t customary.”

 Jié Qiáng laughed and replied, “Nothing about this wedding has been traditional. Those customary things have been avoided for the sake of security. The wedding at my kingdom will have to happen days after our arrival because any sign of such a celebration will alert the enemy. No parade as I escort my bride to my palace, either. With all of these sacrifices, I see nothing criminal about the bride having a ceremony with her family. We’ll simply have a grand one when we arrive at the palace.”

 Mîn Jíng looked quickly to her father in hopes he would approve and was happy to see him smiling. She threw her arms around Jié Qiáng’s shoulders and held him tightly.

 “Thank you,” she whispered tearfully in his ear, and he patted her back as he held her.

 “The robes will be complete within four days,” King Yīng told them. “They can begin first thing in the morning and take shifts to work throughout the entire day.”

 As he thought of Jié Qiáng’s plan, he realized having a ceremony before they left would be wise. Regardless of what they encountered on their journey to Zhāng Palace, the marriage alliance would already be locked in place. If news of the secret ceremony were leaked, he believed his daughter would be safe from those who would plot to hurt them to stop a wedding.

 Mîn Jíng took her story from Sī and handed the papers to Jié Qiáng. He set aside the written story to look over the paintings. Among the myriad of colorful scenes were two she had made from the separate perspectives of the butterfly and the crane.

 “Here,” he told her as he laid out the two paintings. “What do you think of this one for the back of my robe and this one for the back of yours?”

 Mîn Jíng looked at them and thought they were the perfect choice. The one he indicated for his robe bore the scene of the butterfly looking into the sky at the white crane flying downward. The one he chose for hers was the scene of the crane watching the butterfly soar into the air as a fish leaped up after it.

 “The bottom of our robes can be blue like the water,” she suggested. “Maybe add stones in different colors, like silver and gold and copper.”

 He smiled at her cleverness and asked her, “Can you work on the designs tonight so we can send them to the embroiders first thing in the morning?”

 She nodded enthusiastically and watched as he took the two paintings and began to write something on them.

 “ ‘Unity – For the Black Butterfly’,” he wrote on his robe pattern. “ ‘Unity – For the Little Crane’,” he wrote on hers.

 He handed them back to her with a smile, and then asked, “Can you send this one with the story and the letter?”

 He showed her another painting she made of the fishing scene. This one had a red and white koi in the center of the crane and butterfly, and he felt this would be a perfect example for the queen to follow for the decorations.

 “Yes,” she agreed and helped him fold the picture and the story to fit into an envelope.

 When they were done sorting out the robe situation, he pulled over a clean sheet of paper to compose the letter to his father.

 “Careful with your words,” Yáng Ning reminded Jié Qiáng.

 Jié Qiáng nodded as he thought of the message wisely.

“Found Little Crane. Same person I came to meet. Fate. Happiness. Red question answered. Battlefield trauma. Brother’s savior. Sending inspiration for father’s wife. Significant meaning for her consideration. Will return as planned.” 

 When he was done, he folded it and slipped it into the envelope with the story. On the outside, he wrote, “For My Lovely Wife.” It was a pre-arranged secret message he had worked out with his father before he left. Should the meeting with his betrothed and her father not go smoothly, the envelope would have simply read, “For My Father.”

 Officer Chén took the letter, bowed a final time to the king, and hurried to follow the command.

 “The hour is late,” King Yīng told them as he stood from his table. “We should rest well tonight so everyone can begin the day early.”

 His sons rose from their tables and stretched before heading toward the door.

 “I’ll show Jié Qiáng and his men to their rooms,” offered Féng Wěi.

 “I’ll walk with Mîn Mîn to hers,” Yǒng Wěi replied.

 Jié Qiáng held onto Mîn Jíng’s hand and guided her to walk slowly, giving everyone else the opportunity to leave the room first. As soon as they were alone, he pulled her into his arms for a deep kiss. When he ended the kiss, his lips remained close to hers.

 “Get some sleep,” he told her softly. “Remember the pattern but rest first, all right?”

 She nodded with her eyes still closed, nearly falling asleep beneath the slow caresses his hand was giving the back of her hair.  He smiled as her body began to relax against his.

 Ignoring the arrangements her brothers had made, he lifted her and carried her outside.

 “Where is her room?” he asked.

 Her brothers looked over to see she had already fallen asleep in his arms. Sī was following closely behind with Xiù Xiù.

 Féng Wěi laughed a little at his sleeping sister and remarked, “We’ll all go together. Yǒng and I will take everyone where they need to be.”