The biting wind made everyone disheveled, as they raised their sleeves to shield themselves. Li Kexing, however, remained as straight as an old pine, displaying the dignity of a great scholar.

He spoke calmly: “As officials, we should be loyal to propriety and law, loyal to the state, and have a clear conscience. You have all studied the classics and should know that ‘the people are precious, the ruler is light.’ In your positions, how can you abandon the state to discuss factions?”

Upon hearing this, the civil officials who had been arguing immediately composed themselves, cupping their hands in respect: “The Left Chancellor’s vision is far-reaching, making us feel ashamed.”

Someone quickly changed the subject, and after some pleasant conversation, they dispersed.

Past the Taiji Gate, Wenren Lin entered the hall for council first.

Zhao Yān first went to Kunning Palace to pay her routine respects to Empress Wei.

Empress Wei looked somewhat better these days, her phoenix eyes clear and bright. As she arranged freshly picked red plum blossoms in a porcelain vase, adjusting the branches, she said: “Rise, sit down and talk. After yesterday’s commotion, we must be more cautious in the coming days.”

“This child understands.”

Zhao Yān sat in the lower chair, watching her mother’s cinnabar-painted fingertips adjusting the red plum blossoms, her mind momentarily distracted.

“The matter you were concerned about has results now.”

…

…

Empress Wei softly interrupted her thoughts, dismissed the palace servants, and faced her: “Ten days ago, a female scribe from the Palace Steward’s Office requested leave to visit her gravely ill mother. She was three days overdue in returning. That bronze palace token likely belonged to her.”

“This suggests that not only court officials but also inner palace personnel are involved with the Shen Guang Cult.”

Zhao Yān frowned, her voice lowering, “This person’s background is likely suspicious. She claimed to be visiting family but went to Luozhou instead. Perhaps we could investigate her interpersonal relationships, secretly inquiring about any irregularities in her relatives’ ancestry.”

However, she vaguely surmised that such an investigation might now be too late.

Empress Wei’s next words confirmed her suspicion: “That female scribe’s ancestral home was completely burned down. Over ten family members perished in the fire, with no survivors. Her three generations of ancestors have been investigated as well, with no record of misconduct.”

Zhao Yān remained silent.

It would have been better not to set the fire; burning everything clean was suspicious.

No one knew why an inner palace female official would become an “envoy” for the Shen Guang Cult’s priest, and within the palace walls, not many could mobilize female officials from the Palace Steward’s Office.

“The most frightening danger is that which lurks nearby, waiting for an opportunity to strike.”

Zhao Yān raised her eyes and said, “Thank you, Mother Empress, for informing me of these matters. Mother Empress, being within the inner palace, please also take extra precautions.”

The “young man” sitting below was exceptionally respectful, more like a Crown Prince than the year before.

Yet, there was still a lack of uninhibited closeness.

Empress Wei knew why, and she had no right to complain, nor would she complain. After all, it was she who had caused the separation of more than six years, and she who had drawn her daughter into the dangerous currents of the inner palace.

Hearing that Prince Su had developed a heart for supporting the Eastern Palace, assisting the Crown Prince late into the night, and even leaving only at dawn the next day—while the court said the Eastern Palace’s position was secure—Empress Wei felt as if sitting on pins and needles, even trembling somewhat.

Perhaps this step was wrong from the beginning.

Today, she couldn’t even bring herself to reprimand harshly. As the mastermind behind the substitution, what right did she have?

“You have done much this past year.”

Empress Wei looked at her daughter, “Besides protecting your identity, you must also uphold your inner principles and never trust others lightly… especially men.”

Zhao Yān’s eyes flashed with surprise, and she unconsciously sat up straighter.

“Mother Empress, why suddenly speak of this?”

Empress Wei diverted her gaze, her cinnabar-painted fingers slightly curling.

After a moment, she took a deep breath to calm herself and said: “Next month is your Father Emperor’s birthday celebration, and Northern Barbarian envoys will enter the capital to offer congratulations.”

“Northern Barbarians?” Zhao Yān showed astonishment.

Last year saw the pacification of rebels in Sichuan, and this year brought Northern Barbarian envoys. The end of each year always brought more turmoil, no wonder Father Emperor and the Ministry of Rites placed such importance on this year’s birthday celebration.

“With internal troubles not yet resolved, the covetous Northern Barbarians enter the capital to offer birthday congratulations at this time—what are their intentions?”

“I have been worrying about this as well, feeling uneasy since last night.”

Empress Wei turned to sit, her hand tightly gripping the armrest, her long eyebrows furrowing. After a long while, she asked in a hoarse voice: “Changfeng, would you be willing to leave and return to Huayang?”

Zhao Yān was stunned.

Suddenly, like a clear, crisp ding sound in her mind, some vague memory flashed by briefly.

She pressed her aching temple.

Her mother’s rare nervous demeanor reminded her of an old incident, one she had deliberately forgotten for eight years.

With only a month and a half remaining, the original specifications for the birthday celebration needed extensive modifications, and the Ministry of Rites was in chaos. Although traditionally the Crown Prince would handle such duties for the Emperor and Empress’s celebrations, this “little Crown Prince” had just coughed up blood yesterday. The Ministry of Rites didn’t dare detain her and respectfully sent Zhao Yān back to rest and recuperate after initially setting the banquet procedures.

Zhao Yān had something on her mind and went along with it, giving a few instructions before returning to the Eastern Palace.

Nevertheless, documents and memorials from the Imperial Catering Department and the Ministry of Protocol still arrived like snowflakes, piling up within half a day.

The day of melting snow was the coldest. Zhao Yān warmed her hands on a hand warmer, picked up her brush, and moistened the ink. In the Crown Prince’s tone, she wrote a letter to Princess Changfeng.

She imitated Zhao Yǎn’s tone in word choice and sentence construction, sometimes frowning in thought, sometimes placing the brush handle against her chin while reciting softly, completely unaware that the person grinding ink beside her had changed.

The light suddenly dimmed. Without looking up, Zhao Yān said: “Liu Ying, please stand to the side; you’re blocking the light.”

The ink-grinding hand paused. The person adjusted their crimson sleeves and moved a step to the side as instructed.

The clear, cold light after the snow shone in again. Zhao Yān satisfactorily relaxed her brow, hearing the person beside her bend down to whisper: “Why has Your Highness suddenly thought of writing to Huayang?”

The deep, rich voice did not belong to Liu Ying.

Zhao Yān’s suspended brush trembled, adding a twisted tail to a neat, delicate character. She turned her head in surprise, looking at Wenren Lin’s face just inches away, then at Liu Ying, who had somehow moved to the corridor outside. “When did you arrive?”

“Probably from the line ‘I have never ceased studying diligently.'”

Wenren Lin continued grinding ink without pause, the black ink stick making his knuckles appear like frosty jade. He said leisurely, “This prince thinks Your Highness should clarify who has been serving Your Highness day and night in study.”

Zhao Yān gave him an annoyed look.

“You know, Huayang is just an empty shell. It’s embarrassing enough that I’m writing a letter to myself, and you’re teasing me.”

“Your Highness looks worried. Did the Empress say something?”

“How did you know?”

Zhao Yān blinked, then slowly fixed her gaze, adopting an interrogative posture. “Are you monitoring me?”

“Your Highness fears nothing in heaven or earth; only the Emperor, Empress, and this prince can restrain you. This prince hasn’t provoked Your Highness, and the Emperor doesn’t question anything, so who else but the Empress?”

Wenren Lin tapped his finger on her head and smiled, “Such a small matter requires just a bit of thought to understand. There’s no need for this prince to monitor you.”

Zhao Yān also curved her eyes slightly, muttering discontent: “Who’s like you, with so many schemes?”

Wenren Lin looked at her sideways.

Zhao Yān crumpled the spoiled paper into a ball, tossed it into the wastebasket, and spread a fresh sheet. “Today, when Father Emperor saw you, it was either about the Luozhou affair or next month’s Northern Barbarian envoys coming to the capital, right? Both Mother Empress and I feel there’s more to this than meets the eye. As a precaution, I wanted to write to Huayang to warn them to be vigilant.”

After a pause, she added: “I just remembered why I was sent to Huayang years ago.”

The edge of the paper was curling. Wenren Lin picked up a paperweight to smooth it for her, his gaze deepening: “Why?”

Zhao Yān lowered her eyelashes, twirling the brush handle: “I was young and impulsive; I beat up the prince sent by the Northern Barbarians for peace negotiations.”

Wenren Lin’s fingers holding the paperweight momentarily stiffened.

“Northern Barbarians” was a derogatory term used by the Central Plains for their enemies; their actual national name was “North Wu.”

After the Battle of Yanluoguan, because the Great Xuan soldiers died defending the isolated city, and North Wu couldn’t capture it despite prolonged attacks, they changed tactics, sending envoys to the Great Xuan for marriage alliance and peace talks.

In this battle, although the Great Xuan didn’t lose an inch of land, it was at the cost of one hundred thousand soldiers’ lives, leaving the entire nation exhausted. Because of this, the bloodthirsty North Wu envoys became even more arrogant.

During the peace negotiations between the two countries, activities like archery contests and cuju (kickball) were interspersed. These served both to exchange cultural practices and to display the grandeur of the great nation.

That day, after the snow cleared and the sun first shone, a polo match was held in the Western Garden. Zhao Yān and Zhao Yǎn, accompanied by palace servants, went to change clothes. Outside the polo field, they encountered the North Wu envoys who were on a mid-game break.

Leading them was some prince wearing a Hu-style fur-collared robe, with dirty brownish-brown plaits. Though only sixteen or seventeen, he was already huge, with small eyes and a fleshy face that could easily pass for someone in his twenties or thirties.

He sized up the identical twins before him, his narrowed eyes gleaming with malice. He constantly tapped his polo mallet against his thick palm, mumbling something to Zhao Yǎn and his sister.

Zhao Yān couldn’t understand the North Wu language, but Zhao Yǎn could. He immediately stopped, his typically gentle face growing serious as he stepped forward, using his slender frame to shield his sister behind him.

Zhao Yān sensed the tension and poked Zhao Yǎn’s waist from behind: “What did he say? Did he insult us?”

“Don’t be afraid, Yan’er. Brother is here.”

Zhao Yǎn held his sister’s anxious hand and said in a childish yet gentle voice, “He’s challenging us to a polo match. Just ignore him.”

As they spoke, the North Wu prince said something to his subordinates, and the group of foreigners burst into laughter, whistling crudely at Zhao Yān.

Zhao Yān could guess these weren’t kind words. She immediately tightened her grip on Zhao Yǎn’s hand and shouted: “What are you babbling about? On Great Xuan soil, speak the Great Xuan language!”

The group stopped laughing and gave Zhao Yān a strange look.

“Little Princess, is the one beside you who looks just like you your elder sister or elder brother? Do all men in your Central Plains look like women?”

The North Wu prince mocked in broken Chinese, “Why not take off your pants and open our eyes, to see—”

Filthy words!

Young Zhao Yān’s fists tightened, her little face flushing red.

Zhao Yǎn, his fingers painfully squeezed by her, endured it and smiled, indicating she shouldn’t mind. At this critical juncture of peace negotiations between the two countries, they could only endure.

Just as they were about to leave, another long whistle came from behind.

“I think there’s no need to choose a princess; I haven’t tasted twins before, though they’re a bit young.”

The North Wu prince grew increasingly unrestrained. “What use was it for those one hundred thousand men to defend the city at Yanluoguan? The women they died protecting will still be sent to North Wu, becoming playthings beneath our loins! Knowing this, Wenren Jinping might as well have taken off his pants and surrendered…”

Zhao Yān had been about to leave, but by the end, she was burning with rage. Even at her young age, she knew how disgusting these words were!

They could insult her, but insulting Zhao Yǎn and the fallen soldiers was intolerable!

Thinking of this, Zhao Yān took a deep breath and with a stiff little face, walked back purposefully.

“You want to play polo, right? Fine, let’s go.”

She nodded seriously, then picked up a heavy polo mallet nearby, hefting it, setting up a stance, and swinging forcefully.

The mallet flew from her hands, directly at the unsuspecting North Wu prince.

With a dull thud followed by a beastly howl, the North Wu prince staggered backward, blood gushing from his nose.

As the memory receded, Zhao Yān sat behind the desk with her chin in her hand, piecing together the fragments of memories that had emerged.

“That mallet blow was satisfying, but caused a lot of trouble. Later, to cover for me, Zhao Yǎn personally went to admit fault to Father Emperor, which triggered his old illness, making him cough until he lost consciousness.”

Zhao Yān spoke intermittently, “When I was confined to my chambers, Father Emperor came once and asked why I had hit the Northern Yan envoy. I said the North Wu prince insisted on playing polo with me, but I was young and weak, couldn’t hold the mallet properly, and accidentally hit the North Wu prince…”

Wenren Lin listened quietly, then suddenly smiled: “Your Highness answered well, attributing it to youthful rivalry and play, which minimized the incident.”

“Yes, Father Emperor was very satisfied with my response.”

Speaking further, Zhao Yān’s brows furrowed, “But Mother Empress seemed very angry. She said I was recklessly bold, lacking the gentleness and propriety a princess should have, likely to bring calamity to the Great Xuan, and even blamed Zhao Yǎn’s serious illness on my mischief. She ordered me to kneel on the icy steps from daylight until dark, allowing no one to plead for me. Though I was young then, I had a strong temper and felt I had done nothing wrong, so I stubbornly refused to yield…”

When Wenren Lin heard she had been made to kneel on icy steps, his eyes darkened.

He embraced Zhao Yān, gently rubbing her hair with his chin, as if this could comfort that cold and wronged little girl from back then.

“Your Highness was righteous and brave, having done nothing wrong.”

He spoke the long-overdue judgment that should have been given eight years ago, asking in a low voice, “What happened next?”

“Later, I fainted and fell gravely ill.”

Zhao Yān sniffled slightly, “When I woke up, I was already on the road to Huayang. Perhaps ashamed of Mother Empress’s aversion to me, after my recovery, I couldn’t remember many details.”

“So, Your Highness beat the Northern Barbarian to prevent the Crown Prince and the fallen soldiers from being insulted.”

Wenren Lin murmured, his voice unusually gentle.

Zhao Yān neither nodded nor shook her head. Her slender fingers twirled the brush, saying earnestly: “Actually, I was young then and didn’t understand grand principles. I just felt angry, so I acted. But if I had to do it again, I would still hit them.”

Not just for Zhao Yǎn, but also for the man behind her who had crawled out from the piles of corpses in hell.

Soldiers who fought bravely and used their bodies to protect the city should not suffer such great insults.

Wenren Lin smiled, a low and unrestrained sound.

He lowered his eyes and turned his head, taking her small, plump earlobe between his lips, sighing: “How regrettable that I didn’t return to the capital a few days earlier back then. The little princess swinging that mallet must have been dazzling.”

He remembered the day he returned to the capital, when water froze instantly in the bitter cold.

Paper money fluttered, covering the roadside. He wore thin mourning clothes, his heart full of wounds, supporting his father’s and brother’s coffins as he staggered into the city.

Outside the city gate, a procession of carriages waited by the roadside.

“How tragic!”

Among the palace retinue about to depart for Huayang, someone lamented with clasped hands, “Of the one hundred thousand elite troops under the Wenren family, only these few returned.”

An imperial guard dismounted and knelt before the most spacious and ceremonial carriage: “Grand Empress Dowager, this humble servant will go ask the young Wenren general to step aside to avoid offending Your Imperial carriage.”

“How can you speak like that?”

A kindly old lady’s voice came from within the carriage, holding prayer beads and saying each word distinctly, “Move this old one’s carriage to the roadside, clear the path, and everyone kneel… to welcome the one hundred thousand loyal souls of the Great Xuan returning home.”

The guard immediately straightened up, saying solemnly, “Yes,” then rose to direct with his arm.

The Grand Empress Dowager’s ceremonial procession voluntarily split into two lines along the road. Hundreds of palace servants and guards knelt solemnly, welcoming the hero’s remains home.

A gust of wind blew, lifting the carriage curtain.

White funeral banners fluttered, paper money fell like snow, and the youth with white cloth tied around his forehead walked past the carriage with uneven steps, his lacquer-black eyes like ice.

Inside the carriage, the little princess lay in the Grand Empress Dowager’s arms, breathing rapidly, murmuring, crystalline tears still hanging on her eyelashes.

The carriage curtain fell, the coffins entered the city, and the carriage departed.

In opposite directions.