When Ye Tingyan walked into the archive tower, he came face to face with Zhang Suwu, who was carrying two scrolls.

The two exchanged a glance, then followed the wooden stairs upward one after the other.

Coming to a stop before the window, Zhang Suwu turned and bowed in greeting. Ye Tingyan gave a slight nod and asked, “Is the honored attendant delivering these scrolls to someone?”

Zhang Suwu replied, “These are Buddhist sutras hand-copied by Lord Xu Dan. Lord Xu’s teacher died in the Jingqiu Remonstrance, and since the Empress left the palace, Lord Xu has been dejected and despondent every day — the man has grown quite gaunt.”

Ye Tingyan was silent for a moment. “Please take the trouble of consoling him.”

Zhang Suwu said, “This falls within this servant’s duties.”

He paused, then continued, “Your Lordship has surely learned from young Lord Pei that during the days you were not summoned to court, His Majesty held a secret late-night meeting with another official.”

“Who?”

“Qiong Ting Scholar, Chang Ping-nian — Lord Chang Zhao.”

Ye Tingyan raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. “Chang Zhao?”

He pondered for a moment, then said slowly, “No wonder — when he first made a name for himself back then, he pledged loyalty one after another to His Majesty, the Empress, and the Chief Minister. It seemed as though he was serving multiple masters, but in truth there was deeper meaning behind it. At that time I was in favor and trusted, and had he tried to divide that favor by inserting himself, he risked drawing my wariness. Now that the Chief Minister and the Empress have left the picture one after another, how could His Majesty allow me to be the sole dominant figure at his side? Thus an opportunity arose for Chang Zhao to make his mark, since…”

He smiled with a sly gleam. “One who can serve everyone belongs to no one.”

Zhang Suwu nodded. “Lord Chang frequently came and went from the archive tower in the past. He is a man of few words with a solitary nature, and aside from Lord Xu, rarely converses with others, so his true intentions are difficult to discern. His Majesty’s elevation of him at this time is to serve as a check — Your Lordship must still be cautious.”

Ye Tingyan suddenly asked, “In recent days, has Chang Zhao met with Lord Lu Hang?”

Zhang Suwu lowered his gaze in thought for a moment, then said, “It seems… yes. A few days ago, Lord Lu Hang came to the archive tower looking for a student of his and happened to encounter Scholar Chang. The two took an immediate liking to each other and even made an appointment to go on an outing outside the palace together.”

Ye Tingyan offered no reply. Unable to discern his meaning, Zhang Suwu lowered his head slightly — and happened to catch sight of the pass token in his hand. He could not help but ask a further question: “Your Lordship, have you just returned from the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau?”

Ye Tingyan raised his hand and waved the token. “After the morning court, His Majesty called me to speak with him. Seeing me coughing repeatedly, he graciously sent me to the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau to be examined.”

Zhang Suwu then said, “Your Lordship, please take care of yourself.”

Ye Tingyan replied, “The same to you.”

He turned to leave, but after two steps, he heard Zhang Suwu call out to him again from behind.

Turning back, he saw the other man hesitating at length before finally asking, “This servant has a private matter to ask Your Lordship — forgive me for my impertinence… Young Lord Pei Xi — was his original surname Song?”

Hearing these words, Ye Tingyan snapped his head up to look at him, studying him for a long while before the realization finally dawned on him.

From the very first time he had seen Zhang Suwu in Luowei’s palace, he had felt the man looked somewhat familiar. Thinking back now, it all made sense — Zhang Suwu bore a two-part resemblance to Pei Xi!

Seeing his probing expression, Zhang Suwu’s lips trembled slightly — and knowing he had received a confirmation — he bent to kneel. Ye Tingyan quickly reached out to support his shoulders. “You…”

Zhang Suwu said quietly, “Thank you, Your Highness.”

Ye Tingyan looked him over again and again, as though wanting to say something, but in the end said nothing — only solemnly stating, “Take good care of yourself.”

After parting ways, Ye Tingyan walked slowly along the palace road in front of the archive tower. As fate would have it, before he could return to the Qianfang Hall, he happened to encounter Chang Zhao emerging from the front hall.

The two had not seen each other for some time and quickly exchanged greetings. Chang Zhao, having shed his former air of depression, smiled and asked, “Lord Ye, where are you coming from?”

Ye Tingyan answered, “I merely went to the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau to fetch a prescription.”

The two walked side by side for a stretch. Chang Zhao tilted his head back to look at the sky and sighed, “For some reason, that piece ‘The False Dragon’s Lament’ has once again begun spreading through the streets and alleys of the capital. Has Your Lordship been ordered to investigate this matter in recent days? The Chief Minister is dead, the Empress is under house arrest — Lord Ye, who in your view has such audacious nerve?”

Ye Tingyan only smiled without answering. Once he had finished speaking, Ye Tingyan feigned a sigh and raised a different matter entirely: “I hear that Scholar Chang and the former Censor-in-Chief Lord Lu Hang took an immediate liking to each other and frequently met. Now that Lord Lu Hang has passed, have you burned a stick of incense for him?”

The smile on Chang Zhao’s lips stiffened for a moment, then the two exchanged a knowing laugh together.

As the moment of parting approached, he suddenly spoke: “Soldiers die in battle, scholars die in remonstrance — this is what should be the creed of a general and a civil official alike. Is Your Lordship’s question meant to say that the Censor-in-Chief’s fate was undeserved?”

Ye Tingyan followed through with the question: “Ping-nian, what is your creed?”

Chang Zhao lowered his gaze and did not answer. When he raised his eyes again, they were filled with a smile. “I am a man of humble origins. My lifelong wish is nothing more than gold, silver, wealth, fame, and fortune — worldly things only. What creed could I possibly have? I simply… greatly admire men like Lord Lu Hang.”

* * *

Since morning, Luowei’s right eyelid had been twitching incessantly. That afternoon, when Ye Tingyan returned from the palace, he found she had used clear glue to paste a gauze butterfly over her right eye — and because her eyelid kept fluttering, the butterfly trembled along with it as though about to take wing at any moment.

Ye Tingyan found it amusing and drew closer, noticing she was still deliberating over the wording of a proclamation in her hand and had not even noticed him enter the room. He could not help but give a light cough.

Luowei looked up and saw him, and with some surprise teased him, “How is it that since I left the palace, the time you spend there has also grown shorter and shorter? You used to stay overnight — it couldn’t have been that you were begging him pathetically just to be allowed to stay, could it?”

Ye Tingyan replied half-jokingly, half-seriously, “He elevated me precisely to keep you in check. Now that you are gone, how could he not promote someone else? In this way, I have lost the kind of favor and trust I once had, and naturally need not linger long in the palace.”

Luowei understood immediately. “Who is it?”

Ye Tingyan replied, “Chang Zhao.”

“It’s actually him?” Luowei was somewhat surprised, but within moments she came to her senses, shaking her head and sighing, “If his scheming and maneuvering from before was in preparation for this very day, then his mind is unfathomable — we must be even more vigilant.”

“I had that same feeling after conversing with him today.” Ye Tingyan reflected and nodded in agreement. “He used gold, silver, and personal gain as a pretext to deflect, and I still couldn’t make out what he truly desires. Have you investigated this man?”

“I have,” Luowei said. “Young Yan was preoccupied with military affairs at the time and had no spare attention, so he entrusted the matter to Xuechu. But Xuechu has been wandering from place to place lately, and who knows where she’s gone or when she’ll return… By the way, how is Young Yan?”

“He evaded surveillance and withdrew from the hunting grounds unscathed, and has temporarily fallen back to the outskirts of Luoyang,” Ye Tingyan answered. “Why — do you want to see him?”

This oblique barb of jealousy left Luowei laughing helplessly. “Speak properly.”

“I was only trying to make you smile,” said Ye Tingyan. He reached out and brushed the butterfly at the corner of her eye, then suddenly took her hand and let out a long, long sigh. “Come — I have something I need to tell you.”

Luowei did not understand, but let him take her hand as he knocked on Bai Sensen’s door. Bai Sensen had a glass lens hanging over his left eye as though he had been studying a medical text. His expression was not particularly surprised — as if he had been expecting them. “Come in.”

His room carried a strong scent of medicinal herbs, though not unpleasant. Luowei found a cushioned seat and had only just sat down when she heard Bai Sensen say bluntly, “Are you aware that Song Lan has poisoned you?”

Luowei was startled and looked at Ye Tingyan at her side. Ye Tingyan stroked her wrist and said after a long pause, “A few days ago, Lingcheng noticed something was wrong when he took your pulse, but could not be certain at first. Yesterday he examined you again and then instructed me to separately retrieve some of the incense you regularly use — from the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau and from your own palace. Weiwei…”

He spoke with difficulty, the corners of his eyes flushing with a faint red. “Within the incense you regularly burn — beyond the musk that you had Imperial Physician Miao add for you — there is also a trace of a mild poison. Once inhaled into the lungs, it is imperceptible for a time, but over the accumulation of days and months, it will damage your body.”

He had just finished speaking when Bai Sensen followed up: “But you need not worry too much. Since Song Lan dared to put poison in the incense you use, there must be an antidote. After you… shared his bed, he would certainly take the antidote to neutralize the toxicity within himself. Young master has retrieved the incense for me to study, and I will certainly be able to develop a method of detoxification. Even the ‘Withered Orchid’ poison was purged — how much more so this thing?”

Bai Sensen was habitually flippant, with two and a half out of every three sentences being jests. The fact that he was now speaking urgently to offer comfort must mean his own confidence was insufficient.

Luowei tightened her grip on Ye Tingyan’s palm and let out a scoffing laugh. “So he knew all along.”

She exhaled and said calmly, “When Suiyun was pregnant, he repeatedly emphasized in front of me that if I became pregnant first, Yu Qiushi would be eliminated early — it seems he was not unaware that I had tampered with the incense. He turned my scheme against me, so that every time I burned this incense, I was burning away my own allotted time.”

She applauded lazily. “What a fine scheme. What cunning.”

After saying this, Luowei composed her expression and pulled Ye Tingyan out of the room, and they wandered aimlessly through the garden behind the study.

Ye Tingyan was pulled along by his sleeve, walking slowly along the edge of the bamboo grove. After a few steps, Luowei suddenly asked, “On that day when he first noticed something was wrong, why did you not tell me?”

Ye Tingyan said gently, “It was not a deliberate concealment. I only had doubts in my heart — it was better to retrieve the incense and be certain. Between you and me, there are no secrets.”

Luowei turned to look at him and nodded, smiling. “You trust me so much now?”

Ye Tingyan looked at her quietly. “In the past, I did not dare trust even Chuyin and Lingcheng — I nearly fell into the delusion of suspicion. But after the day I opened my heart to you, I began to think: if I had trusted you sooner, how much of what happened before might have been avoided… If you — if all of you — were not to be trusted, then what meaning would this world hold for me?”

Luowei then turned back to look at the bamboo grove, and said distantly, “Yes… do you know, it wasn’t that I understood this principle from the very beginning either. Just now as I walked here, I suddenly remembered — after I discovered that Lu Heng had betrayed you, I once deliberately took that Begonia jade pendant and played out a scene in front of Buyun… I wept before her, wanting to test whether she had been in league with Lu Heng. But she knew nothing. She left me a handwritten letter, used her own life to orchestrate the incident in the Western Garden, and perished together with Lu Heng.”

He had not known the meaning of what she was saying a moment before, but hearing this, he vaguely understood.

For a copper mirror painstakingly pieced back together from shards, it was not only he who often felt uneasy — masking his insecurity beneath jests — but Luowei as well.

Even though they could be certain the other would give their life without hesitation for the other’s sake, they were still entangled in ceaseless doubt and conjecture.

If even the most intimate of lovers who had never harbored suspicion of one another felt this way, how much more so for a reunion marked by so many deep wounds?

But today she was willing to speak openly to him of her regret over Zhang Buyun — and that was precisely because he had told her directly about the poisoning, allowing her to taste once more the feeling of being wholly trusted.

Luowei felt the hand holding hers suddenly tighten.

He repeated once more, “Between you and me, there are no secrets.”

“As agreed — no secrets, and never to deceive one another.”

She said silently to herself: hold on just a little tighter.

Suddenly the sound of footsteps broke the rare silence. Pei Xi vaulted over the corridor railing and came running over at a trot.

Seeing him, Ye Tingyan suddenly recalled the matter of Zhang Suwu. He had just turned his head and had not yet opened his mouth to speak to Luowei when he heard Pei Xi arrive before them, panting and catching his breath. “The Ministry of Rites has today redrafted the imperial edict. He has used the excuse of waiting for the Noble Consort Yu to give birth to the Emperor’s first son before holding a joint celebration — and has postponed the date of Princess Imperial Shu Kang’s return to her fiefdom.”

After the Jingqiu Remonstrance, ‘The False Dragon’s Lament’ once again spread through the capital. The killing of the cicada, the shattering of jade, the death by remonstrance — three major events had thrown the court into utter chaos and confusion. Song Lan had no doubt guessed by now that this was her handiwork. Though he could not move directly against Song Yaofeng, postponing the date was a covert warning — he intended to use Song Yaofeng to force Luowei to show herself.

Luowei said softly in mockery, “He pondered for ten days, and this is the only foolish move he could come up with.”