In truth, the Seventh Prince, Li Qin, was a perfectly ordinary prince. The sort one could overlook entirely in a crowd of princes — no glaring strengths, no glaring weaknesses.

Yet being the most ordinary was, in itself, the most extraordinary thing about him. To sharpen one’s edges, conceal one’s talents, and pare oneself down to fit into a mold without drawing notice — this was something that ordinary people simply could not manage.

Which meant he was an intelligent and cautious man.

Li Shu sat in the main reception hall, exchanging light pleasantries with the several princes, and her gaze traveled to the Seventh Prince, Li Qin.

Li Qin was a few months younger than her, and their paths seldom crossed — both his low-profile disposition and their infrequent encounters meant that they usually only saw each other at palace banquets during the new year and major festivals, and each time Li Qin would greet her with great deference, calling her Elder Sister. He treated everyone this way: he made no enemies, formed no special attachments with anyone.

The Second Prince and the Crown Prince had all but come to blows, yet Li Qin could still exchange a few calm, civil words with both of them — which alone spoke volumes about his ability to navigate human relationships.

Strictly speaking, Li Qin was actually the prince among all the princes with whom Li Shu was most familiar. Because when Cui Jinzhi had entered the palace all those years ago, the role he had been assigned was Li Qin’s study companion.

In those days the Cui clan had been at the height of its power, so conspicuous that it invited trouble. The old Duke Cuiguo had begun withdrawing from positions of influence, hoping to leave a favorable impression on the Emperor and secure a peaceful end for the family.

As the various princes grew up and entered the royal study hall, it was customary to select sons of officials to serve as their study companions. The Cui family had only one eligible son of the right age — Cui Jinzhi, the third-born. But the old Duke, intent on keeping a low profile, made every excuse to avoid placing Cui Jinzhi in the palace. The Cui family was already a thorn in the Emperor’s side; to tie themselves to one of the princes on top of that would be walking straight toward their own destruction.

Unfortunately, the Crown Prince’s ambitions had already been stirring by then. He forced a study companion appointment on Cui Jinzhi, hoping to use it to draw the Cui clan to his side. With no alternative, Cui Jinzhi had no choice but to enter the palace. And in order to demonstrate their absolute loyalty to the Emperor, the Cui family insisted that Cui Jinzhi study alongside the most inconspicuous of the princes — the Seventh Prince. Only in this way did they manage to deflect the Crown Prince’s intentions.

A study companion was effectively the first court connection a prince would make, and so all the princes worked to cultivate good relations with their companions, however poor the personal chemistry — sharing jokes and friendly gestures, reaching their tendrils into the outer court.

Yet such a scene would never have played out between Li Qin and Cui Jinzhi.

Li Qin maintained absolutely no private dealings with Cui Jinzhi. The two of them could barely be said to have spoken directly at all. He had been only ten years old at the time, yet already so circumspect.

All the other princes who had studied together felt that the Seventh Prince must be something of a fool — sitting beside a great treasure like Cui Jinzhi and leaving it entirely untouched, with nothing to show for years of shared study.

And so years of studying passed, and while the other princes had all cultivated some degree of influence through their study companions, Li Qin remained entirely on his own.

The Seventh Prince’s caution, his resilience, his steadfast self-possession — these qualities had been plain to see from his youth.

Yet looking back now, of all the lesser princes who had been scrambling and reaching for influence in those shared study days, how many were still active at court? Li Qin, by contrast, had neither competed nor grasped at anything — and there was something admirable in that. The Emperor had eventually placed him in the Ministry of Rites.

Not contending was itself a form of contending. Shen Xiao had been right.

Li Shu lowered her eyes, and what was in them was pure appreciation. She thought: Shen Xiao’s eye for people was truly formidable.

Joining forces with Shen Xiao had without question been the wisest move she had ever made.

She exchanged a few casual words with the princes, and as noon approached, ordered the servants to lay out food. She had the ladies from the rear courtyard come join the gathering in the front, and before she knew it, her mansion had become the venue for a small-scale banquet. A fine thing to fall ill for, apparently — it had turned her household into a social occasion.

Li Shu sat at the head of the table for a short while, ate very little, then excused herself by saying she was feeling unwell and withdrew.

Not long after, Shen Xiao seized a moment of inattention from the other guests and slipped quietly away from the banquet as well.

Midway through the feast, while the guests were deep in laughter and conversation, a maidservant walked over and murmured something in Li Qin’s ear. He frowned but followed her out all the same.

*

In the garden — at the pavilion atop the rockery.

Li Shu stood in the elevated pavilion and watched the Seventh Prince pass through the moon-gate arch below. The maidservant did not follow him in; she stood at the gate, pointing out the way from a distance. The small garden’s every exit had an undercover guard concealed nearby, ensuring that whatever was said here could not be overheard. After a few hard lessons, Li Shu was now extraordinarily vigilant.

She watched Li Qin follow the stepping-stone path closer, then climb the shallow steps up into the pavilion.

He smiled at Li Shu with great cordiality. “Why has Elder Sister called me out here? The wind is strong up here. You should be careful not to catch a chill.”

Li Shu smiled faintly back. “Thank you for your concern, Seventh Brother. Please, sit.”

On the table there was a pot of tea and three cups. Li Qin glanced at it.

A third person was coming. Who?

He was still considering when Li Shu reached out to pour the tea — Li Qin quickly took the teapot from her and poured a cup for each of them.

Li Shu in her present state was practically helpless in daily matters. Best not let her go moving things about.

Setting down the teapot, Li Qin said, “Elder Sister has a wound on her hand. She ought to keep a maidservant close by to attend her.”

The words already held a note of probing.

You have sent the servants away. Whatever is it that you want to say to me?

Li Shu heard the testing tone in his voice and gave a mild smile. “If Seventh Brother knew what I wanted to say, he would not be advising me to keep a maidservant close.”

This was plain directness.

Li Qin was an extraordinarily cautious man. If she went around the houses with him, she might not manage to bring him around until the cows came home. Better to go straight to the heart of the matter and leave him no room to dodge.

Li Qin had indeed not expected Li Shu to be so blunt. His eyes narrowed slightly. He thought quickly. Why had Li Shu summoned him alone, with such secrecy and such caution? What did she want to say?

Li Qin and Li Shu were not especially well-acquainted. In recent years, she had been riding high at court, basking in both the Crown Prince’s reflected glory and the Emperor’s personal favor. Li Qin, by contrast, had kept himself quiet and unremarkable, faithfully hunched over his work in the Ministry of Rites without ever sticking his head above the parapet.

A sister this high in favor summoning him specifically — there must be something about him that had caught her attention.

Was it the Ministry of Rites she was after?

No, such lean pickings would be beneath her notice.

Li Qin ran quickly through the recent state of affairs at court: Elder Sister had just divorced Cui Jinzhi, which meant her connection to the Eastern Palace… was likely to have cooled as well.

The Ministry of Rites could offer her no advantage whatsoever, but…

He himself could.

In no more than a brief moment of deliberation, Li Qin had already arrived at an answer.

He smiled. “There is nothing that cannot be said openly. What kind of words require the servants to be sent away? One fears the content would be enough to shake heaven and earth — too much for my ears to receive.” The refusal was already embedded in his words.

I know what you want to say. But I do not wish to hear it.

Li Shu took a sip of tea and cut straight to the core. “Seventh Brother has been hiding your light for all these years. Have you not hidden it long enough?”

“From the moment of your birth you have had someone above you, pressing down. Any small way in which you stood out, you feared it would stir resentment and bring calamity upon yourself. And so each day you lived with that knot of dread in your chest, each night you moved with exquisite care. It was not only you — your entire family was the same.”

“Your mother earned favor for bearing you a prince, and from birth you should have merited raising her to the rank of consort. Yet the Empress held it back. Only after you had grown, married, and established your own household did she grudgingly permit her to be elevated to the title of Consort Zhen. In all these years, has Consort Zhen’s life within the palace been a good one? Deferring and submitting to the Empress at every turn — is that worth calling a good life?”

“Your wife is a legitimate daughter of a mid-ranking family of decent standing, yet ever since she married you she has not dared to wear garments too fine, not dared to put on too many hairpins. Banquets and gatherings she avoids whenever she can, and when she cannot avoid them, she sits in absolute silence the entire time, terrified of letting a single word fall on the wrong ears and be taken as evidence of your ambitions.”

“Your son is bright, and he must be going on four this year — he can already recite the Four Books and the Five Classics from memory. And yet what does it matter that he is a prodigy? You fear he will draw too much attention and invite envy, so you dare not let him go out. He is shut up in the mansion day after day. How is that any different from being a prisoner?”

Li Shu’s eyes were fixed steadily on Li Qin. “Seventh Brother, do you want to spend the rest of your life this way?”

Not only living under constant strain yourself, but dragging your entire family into the same anxious, tiptoeing existence.

Is this truly the life you wanted?

Li Qin was silent.

Li Shu knew she had pressed on his deepest wound. She pressed harder still.

“For as long as Imperial Father sits on the throne, he will not allow brothers to slaughter one another — you can go on being this careful and this cautious. But after Imperial Father is gone? When the one sitting in the east comes to occupy that seat, and he is no gentle or magnanimous soul — when that day arrives, even if you still wish to live out your days in cautious obscurity, will he permit it? What will become of you then? What will become of your brothers?”

Li Qin sat with his teacup in his hands, silent for a long while.

Princess Elder Sister was a gifted persuader. Every word had found its mark, pressing on the wounds that pained him most.

She had moved him — but he still did not trust her.

Li Qin raised his eyes abruptly. “Elder Sister, you are living very well at present.”

Imperial favor in hand, visitors thronging the gate. Why would she be looking to join forces with him?

Was she just looking for trouble?

Li Shu heard him out, then raised her hand and began peeling away the glove. She unwound the gauze bandages one layer at a time. Both hands, covered in scars, were laid bare before Li Qin.

Li Shu said quietly, “It was the Crown Prince who pushed me off the cliff.”

She was willing to reveal even this secret, to make her Seventh Brother believe her completely.

Li Qin’s expression shifted to pure shock. The Crown Prince… had actually done something so brutal! To a princess who had no chance of ascending the throne — and yet he had done this. What did it mean for a prince like Li Qin…

Li Qin felt a cold chill spread through his body.

If the Crown Prince truly took the throne and entered the Taihe Hall, his own fate would be far, far worse.

He wanted to live. He wanted to live with dignity. In the imperial family, these simple things were extravagances.

Then he would fight for them. Then he would contend and strive.

Li Shu shook her hand. “I fear that one sitting on the throne far more than you do. Seventh Brother — do you believe me now?”

Li Qin did not answer her at once. Instead, a memory from his childhood surfaced in his mind.

Once, the Emperor had called the princes together to test their learning, and posed a line from the Book of Documents: “Power encroaching on the ruler, authority surpassing the sovereign.”

No one else could answer, including the Crown Prince. But Li Qin knew it, and recited the response eagerly: “Guard against it always, lest there be no time for remedy.”

The Emperor praised him then and there for being studious and perceptive, and then sent the Crown Prince away with orders to memorize the Book of Documents thoroughly.

Li Qin had been young and oblivious, not yet understanding that praise was not necessarily a good thing.

From that day, his mother consort began receiving constant rebukes at the Empress’s quarters, fault found with her at every turn. A while later, the little pampered dog he kept was somehow poisoned in the garden — it convulsed and died, foaming at the mouth.

The price of a small dog’s death had been the lesson that taught Li Qin to speak with care and conceal his abilities — for if he did not, the next thing foaming at the mouth might be himself.

But if there were a choice, he did not want to spend his life as a cringing little dog.

Elder Sister had given him a second choice. Why should he not take it?

Li Qin came back to himself, nodded slowly, and said, “Elder Sister, what would you have me do next?”

He was moved. He wanted the alliance.

But… you wish to use me to win the glory of backing the right prince. Do you actually have what it takes to put me there? If you do not, and I rashly step forward, I am only asking for my own death.

This was his final test.

Li Shu did not answer him. Instead, her gaze fell toward the garden below the pavilion. Li Qin followed her line of sight and saw a fifth-rank official in a vermilion robe walking up the stone steps.

That figure was the third teacup. That figure was Elder Sister’s confederate.

As the man stepped into the pavilion, Li Qin realized it was Shen Xiao, the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Affairs — the man who had lately been making a name for himself before the Emperor.

Li Qin’s brow furrowed. He looked from Shen Xiao to Li Shu. These two — what possible connection could there be between them? What was more, Shen Xiao had once commandeered Princess Elder Sister’s grain shipment using his troops, so the two of them ought to be adversaries.

Were enemies-turned-allies really all the rage these days?

Shen Xiao stepped forward and saluted. Li Shu gave him a cool nod and moved to stand at a corner of the pavilion, keeping watch.

Shen Xiao sat down with the Seventh Prince. Without preamble, he answered the question the Seventh Prince had just posed — “What do you want me to do next?”

“Two words of counsel:”

Shen Xiao’s words were spare and plain. “Bide your time and build your strength in secret. Keep your capacities concealed, and move only when the moment is right.”

Li Qin pushed back. “Is that not what I have been doing all along?”

You are telling me to walk the same old path I have always walked. What is the point of joining forces with you?

Shen Xiao replied, “The purpose is different. Before, you were hiding in order to conceal your weaknesses. Now, you are hiding in order to build your strength.”

“The situation is different as well. Before, the Crown Prince and the Second Prince had divided the court between them, and the storm they stirred made it impossible for you to do anything but curl up and shelter where you were. Now, the Crown Prince has been repeatedly reprimanded by the Emperor, and his hold on his faction is loosening. The Second Prince too has fallen out of imperial favor and is slowly losing control of his forces.”

“The court’s power is in the process of being redistributed. There are many paths by which a man may rise.”

Li Qin pressed back. “If there are so many paths to rise, then why not advise me to make a single decisive move and announce myself to the world?”

Shen Xiao smiled. He recognized this as the Seventh Prince deliberately testing him.

“When two masters face each other, the one who strikes first is the first to expose a weakness. What you must do is accumulate your strength in secret, advance quietly and steadily, and wait until the opposing forces can no longer hold still — then you strike, decisive and swift, a single blow that ends the contest.”

Li Qin listened to the full speech, and the admiration in the gaze he turned on Shen Xiao was no longer entirely concealed.

To have risen so quickly from nothing in just a few short months — though it was true the Emperor’s deliberate policy of elevating men of humble birth had helped — the man sitting before him had more than enough talent to deserve that elevation.

Such outstanding ability, and yet he was willing to enter the service of a prince as unremarkable as himself.

In that moment the Seventh Prince felt the ache of a great patron who had at last discovered a worthy talent.

Li Qin drank a mouthful of tea, then set the cup down with quiet resolution. He said to Shen Xiao, “Sir Shen is a man of exceptional talent.”

Then he turned to Li Shu, who stood keeping watch to one side. “And I thank Elder Sister.”

He agreed to the alliance.

Li Shu turned back and walked over, exchanging a glance with Shen Xiao, then let a smile come to her face. “Thank you, Seventh Brother.”

Shen Xiao also rose from the stone bench and came to stand beside Li Shu.

Shen Xiao was somber and cold in bearing; Li Shu was composed and unhurried. Standing together like that, they gave one the feeling that they had been born to complement each other perfectly.

The kind of compatibility that came from meeting one’s equal, from mutual reliance — not the shallow kind of compatibility that most people spoke of, where a handsome man must have a beautiful woman to match him.

Just look at how well they had coordinated. Li Shu had played the hard face, bearing down on Li Qin with veiled threats: join us, or one day the Crown Prince will do you in. Shen Xiao had played the warm face, calm and measured, showing Li Qin a clear path toward power.

Li Qin’s gaze passed between Li Shu and Shen Xiao for a moment, and he had the abrupt sensation of having been shanghaied onto a pirate vessel.

A pirate vessel, moreover, that appeared to be a small-scale family operation run jointly by a husband and wife.

Well, that was Elder Sister’s personal affair, and it was not his place to involve himself.

But words should not be drawn out, and Li Qin had already been absent long enough to risk arousing suspicion.

And so the three of them slipped out of the garden from different directions and made their way back to the banquet, each arriving at intervals.