Just as these words were spoken, Li Yu’s voice suddenly came from outside the door.

“Deng Ying, are you still inside?”

Deng Ying looked up. “I am.”

Li Yu made a sound of acknowledgment and stood on tiptoes, leaning against the door as he urged, “Classes ended quite a while ago, and you’re still keeping watch here. Zheng Bi is looking for you at the Office of Ceremonies. I came to let you know – change your clothes and hurry over. I’m going to take my post at the gate.”

Yang Wan watched the retreating shadow on the window, crossed her arms, and stood straight, raising an eyebrow as she said softly, “Those nearest the water catch the moon first.”

She looked down at Deng Ying and said, “They’ve come looking for you.”

Deng Ying nodded but didn’t immediately rise.

He sat silently behind his desk for a while. The sun was setting in the west, and the warmth that had built up over the entire day retreated instantly into the dusk wind. Deng Ying waited until the sun had half-set before standing. The old wound in his ankle suddenly sent a bone-piercing chill through him, forcing him to close his eyes and endure it.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Yang Wan said from beside him.

“It doesn’t hurt…”

“Never mind, stand still for a moment.”

Ignoring his excuses entirely, she knelt down and directly rolled up Deng Ying’s trouser leg, taking out a silk handkerchief embroidered with lotus flowers from her bosom.

“Let me tell you first – I won’t mess around, and don’t you move either.”

After speaking, she freed one hand to gather her floor-length sleeves at her knee, then carefully folded the silk and gently wrapped it around Deng Ying’s injured ankle.

“You see? At the lake, you wouldn’t listen to me, and now look what’s happened.”

As soon as she finished saying this, she immediately changed her tone to comfort him, “But don’t worry too much, this injury isn’t really serious. It’s just that when the weather turns cold and damp, you need to keep it warm properly. Just protect it with something thick like this, and it’ll feel better after a while.”

Deng Ying remained silent throughout.

Yang Wan tucked in the corners of the silk, and seeing him neither move nor make a sound, she couldn’t help but hug her knees and look up at him.

A large patch of leaf shadows fell across Deng Ying’s face, making it difficult for her to see his expression.

Although he was now willing to speak with Yang Wan, he remained essentially a silent person, like faintly written text, carrying an inherent quietness of character from the moment the brush touched paper.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to spoil your things.”

“Not using it would be the real waste.”

As she spoke, she pushed against her knee to stand up, patting the dust off her legs. “Hurry and go now, I need to return to the Southern Bureau too.”

Then she smiled and pointed at the nuts on the table, “Finish those, don’t waste them.”

Deng Ying looked at the nuts on the desk – there were still a few left.

He gripped his sleeve and picked them all up.

When Yang Wan wrote, she would constantly snack on them. At first, he hadn’t found them particularly tasty, but after eating them for so long, it seemed to have become almost a habit.

Thinking this, he couldn’t help but mock himself.

Just as he was about to put them in his mouth, she unexpectedly returned from outside the door, hanging onto the doorframe and leaning half her body in to call to him.

“Deng Ying.”

Deng Ying hurriedly clutched his hand awkwardly, trying to hide it in his sleeve.

For a moment, he was caught between eating them and putting them back.

Yang Wan saw his awkward state and laughed, “I forgot to tell you earlier – don’t overthink things. Someone like you won’t go far wrong in making choices.”

With that, she swayed away into the thick dusk shadows, the pair of lotus jade pendants at her waist swinging as she went.

Deng Ying watched her retreating figure, then looked at the nuts hidden in his hand, inexplicably wanting to believe her final words.

The nuts were finished, and the tea had gone completely cold.

Deng Ying washed his hands and walked out of the Inner School.

The smell of blood had been completely blown away by the evening wind, which even carried a trace of some unnamed flower’s fragrance.

His leg injury was acting up today, making him walk somewhat slowly.

The Office of Ceremonies was behind the Longevity Emperor Hall, requiring one to go around Wansui Mountain, exit north through the Central North Gate, and then pass by the Imperial Wardrobe Office and the Second Needlework Bureau – quite a distant journey.

When Deng Ying arrived at the conference room of the Office of Ceremonies, the sky had completely darkened. Zheng Yuejia was personally waiting at the bottom of the stone steps with a lantern.

Deng Ying looked up at the entrance to the conference room. The door was closed, and the light filtering through the window lattice was very dim. The voices inside also seemed deliberately hushed.

Zheng Yuejia approached him with the lantern, its light suddenly illuminating both their faces.

“The Office of Ceremonies has its own rules. You’re late today.”

Deng Ying turned his face away from the firelight.

“Yes, I will request forgiveness from the Seal-Bearer.”

Zheng Yuejia patted his shoulder and glanced behind him, “In the half-hour you were late, enough happened to change the Old Ancestor’s opinion of you. I don’t know if you did this deliberately, but I still must advise you – your life was given to you by the Office of Ceremonies. Since we gave you this life, you are the same as us. In the inner court, no servant can survive alone. His Majesty is our master, and the Old Ancestor is the heaven that protects us. If you misjudge either one, you die.”

Deng Ying nodded, “I understand.”

People speak of bone structure.

Zheng Yuejia had been in the Office of Ceremonies for many years and had seen countless eunuchs pass under his eyes. Some had struggled out of the lake, relying on tenacity and the courage to sacrifice their dignity, and eventually managed to make something of themselves – though none were truly human anymore, either becoming fierce-faced demons or maintaining two-faced personas of official dignity and servile nature.

But the bone structure wrapped in the blue robe before him seemed inherently at odds with this damp and chilly place.

Even though he was compliant, it was merely out of cultivation.

“Good that you understand.”

Zheng Yuejia turned around, “Follow me in.”

Although the Office of Ceremonies was the most important in the inner court, its location wasn’t large. Three rooms wide, with the central room opening directly into the main hall and conference room.

Zheng Yuejia pushed open the door, and several of the already dim candles in the room were instantly extinguished by the draft.

In the lamplight, all those seated raised their heads to look at Deng Ying.

He Yixian, sitting in the center, was still drinking medicine and didn’t look at Deng Ying, only saying while holding his bowl: “You’ve come?” He slowly finished drinking the medicine, then used the hand holding the bowl to point beside himself, “Yuejia, come sit here. How can you stand with those below?”

“Yes.”

Zheng Yuejia bowed deeply, then lifted his robe to sit beside He Yixian, smoothly taking his medicine bowl and carefully wiping it with his own sleeve.

“That’s enough.”

He Yixian reached out to take it back, “Drinking this daily, do you not want your skin anymore?”

But Zheng Yuejia turned away saying: “Eh, a son serving you, the skin doesn’t matter.”

As he spoke, his eyes swept briefly across Deng Ying’s face.

He Yixian shook his head and laughed, “Ah, you… you’ve dealt too much with the Ministry of Works people in the past, look,” he pointed at Zheng Yuejia’s shoulder and said to the others present: “He’s still protecting old acquaintances.”

Following He Yixian’s words, Deng Ying quickly scanned the conference room.

Besides Zheng Yuejia, Chief Secretary Eunuchs Liu Dingcheng, Hu Xiang, and Zhou Xinling were also seated. Additionally, kneeling before him was someone wearing prisoner’s clothes and heavy chains. Though the lamplight was dim, Deng Ying still recognized this person as Wang Changshun from the Liuli Factory. With this, the first layer of tonight’s situation was revealed.

He glanced at Zheng Yuejia, then knelt behind that person, bowing deeply to He Yixian.

Liu Dingcheng, sitting next to Deng Ying, suddenly said coldly: “So you won’t change your form of address?”

He Yixian smiled and picked up this thread, “We can’t say that. Supervisor Deng is Master Zhang’s student, and our place of refuge relies on Master Zhang and Supervisor Deng. This form of address need not change – it’s enough to follow proper etiquette before the masters.”

He then made a gesture of raising Deng Ying, “You may rise.”

Deng Ying stood straight, hands at his sides.

He Yixian looked him up and down, then suddenly smiled and asked: “Do you hate me very much?”

“Deng Ying wouldn’t dare.”

“You say that, but you don’t know that Minister Bai and the others are cursing me behind my back, saying I came up with such a poisonous idea.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Hu Xiang continued: “When they say it’s poisonous, I think that’s wrong. Master Zhang’s only disciple – they don’t protect him because they fear being implicated, making themselves like Zhou Congshan of the Tongjia Academy. In the end, it’s because they don’t have the ability. If we protect someone, naturally they become our person. I think Secretary Liu’s words are correct – he should change his form of address. We all rely on the Old Ancestor’s protection to have what we have today. How is it that after saving an entire person, we still have to give half to Yang Lun and his people? That’s not reasonable.”

“Enough.”

He Yixian interrupted him, “I haven’t spoken about this yet, don’t be impatient. Yuejia, go get a stool, let him sit too. One person kneeling in here is enough, having another standing makes it messy.”

Zheng Yuejia responded and left.

Deng Ying sat down behind Wang Changshun, and after Hu Xiang’s outburst just now, he more or less understood the Office’s intentions. The only surprise was Wang Changshun’s appearance.

This person had been arrested by the Imperial Guard, yet now he was openly kneeling in the Office of Ceremonies’ conference room – this meant the Office had connected with the Northern Command.

“Wang Changshun.”

“Old Ancestor, your son is here.”

Wang Changshun’s voice carried a heavy crying tone, clearly having cried his heart out before Deng Ying arrived.

“Turn around and look – do you recognize him?”

Wang Changshun dragged his chains as he turned on his knees, looked at Deng Ying once, then quickly turned back, weeping: “I recognize him, he’s Master Deng. Everyone at our factory knows him.”

“Heh.”

He Yixian laughed, “Still trying to claim connections when you’re about to die.”

Wang Changshun crawled on his knees toward He Yixian, “Old Ancestor, you must save your son… your son doesn’t want to die…”

“If you don’t want to die, begging me is useless – you have to beg Supervisor Deng. Only if you can get him to be willing to save your life can I give you a path to heaven.”

Wang Changshun understood He Yixian’s meaning and hurriedly threw himself before Deng Ying, grabbing his leg: “Master Deng, please save me. If you’re willing to save this worthless life, I’ll give you my boy outside as your son. I have some beautiful women outside too, I’ll give them all to you as a tribute… just please give me a way to live…”

Deng Ying felt him about to touch the silk that Yang Wan had wrapped around his ankle, so he pulled his leg back half a foot: “Let go of me first.”

“Master Deng…”

“Let go first.”

He raised his voice slightly and looked up at He Yixian, “I have something to say to the Seal-Bearer.”

Only then did Wang Changshun release him.

Deng Ying bent down, disregarding the gazes of those present, removed Yang Wan’s silk handkerchief, gently shook off the dust, folded it, and placed it in his bosom. Only then did he say to He Yixian: “Deng Ying has spent over ten years on the imperial city construction project. If there were things Deng Ying wished to say, they would have been said long ago. Now, I am already a ruined life, unwelcome among teachers and friends, naturally, I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to speak rashly about important matters.”

He Yixian tilted his head, looking at the half-visible silk handkerchief in his bosom, and suddenly said: “That silk is of good quality. I noticed it when you walked in.”

Deng Ying didn’t respond.

He Yixian waved his hand at him, “Don’t worry, she is Yang Lun and Consort Ning’s younger sister. Whatever she does, she has people protecting her. As for us…” He smiled, “We’re not even worthy to mention her.”

To others, these words might have seemed unremarkable, but Deng Ying suddenly felt a sharp pain where the handkerchief rested against his chest.

“Does it hurt?” He Yixian straightened up, “It’s good if it hurts – then you’ll talk to me seriously.”