Having eaten very little at noon, Hua Zhi was feeling rather hungry, so she stopped lingering in bed and called out for someone to come attend to her.

The one who entered was Nian Qiu. Upon seeing a man inside, she nearly cried out in alarm. Only after she recognized who it was did she press a hand to her chest, breathing in rapid, startled gasps. Had it been anyone else, she would certainly have rushed forward to fight to the death — but it was Master Lu, so she felt somewhat reassured. The relationship between him and their young miss did not need to be spelled out; they could all see it for themselves.

Moreover, their young miss’s own attitude had made things plainly evident. They needed only to follow their young miss’s lead.

“Go bring some food. Yanxi, have you eaten dinner?”

“I have not.”

“Bring a generous amount then.”

Nian Qiu acknowledged the order and withdrew. As she reached the door, she stole a quiet glance back — and saw that tall man crouching down to help their young miss put on her shoes, while their young miss looked down at him with smiling eyes. That moment, Nian Qiu carried with her for many, many years.

Over the meal, Gu Yanxi brought up the matter of Haoyue. Hua Zhi raised an eyebrow. “She has come to the capital? Are you not worried she will throw the imperial household into even greater turmoil?”

“She will have no opportunity.” He set a pair of chopstick-fulls of food into A’zhi’s bowl, then said in an unhurried tone, “Should she make any unusual move, I will kill her. Compared to her so-called prophecies, the woman herself is the greater danger.”

Hua Zhi nodded in agreement. The identity Haoyue had chosen for herself was, in the eyes of those in power, far too dangerous. A person like that was better destroyed than allowed to fall into someone else’s hands. She could not imagine how confident Haoyue must be to dare approach Yanxi in such a brazen manner.

She stole a glance at Yanxi, then lowered her head to eat. If Haoyue truly was someone reborn, her approach toward Yanxi likely stemmed from the knowledge that, in this period of upheaval, Yanxi would be the one to survive — and to gain the greatest power. The throne, perhaps? Would the Emperor pass over his own sons and hand the throne to Yanxi? Would the imperial princes accept it? Would the ministers accept it? And if they truly did, what state would the Great Qing dynasty have been in at that time?

All of this, Haoyue would certainly know. But she would not speak of it — it was her bargaining chip, to be held until Yanxi agreed to marry her.

Had it been one of those imperial princes, they would likely have agreed on the spot. But not Yanxi. He despised coercion of this kind. He had no ambitions. And he held feelings for her. This man had been wounded too deeply by his father — he would never walk the same road his father had walked.

“When you have a free moment, come with me to meet her.”

She had been so lost in thought that at some point she had shoveled a large mouthful of rice into her mouth. Hua Zhi looked up with her cheeks puffed out, her face full of surprise.

Gu Yanxi laughed despite himself and reached up to wipe the corner of her mouth.

Covering her mouth and swallowing down that mouthful, Hua Zhi quickly asked, “You want to bring me along? Is that alright?”

“Just to listen. It is fine. This Haoyue always gives me a sense of something being off, yet I cannot pinpoint where the wrongness lies. Have a look for me.”

Hua Zhi understood what he meant by that feeling of something being off, yet she had no way to explain it. She could hardly say that Haoyue was someone who had lived a full life and was now living it again from the beginning — that kind of far-fetched talk would only lead Yanxi to immediately ask how she could possibly know such a thing.

“What about tomorrow afternoon?”

“That will work. I will have Chen Qing make the arrangements. Drink some of your soup.”

Obediently, Hua Zhi picked up her soup bowl and drank half of it before suddenly thinking of something and looking up. “Do you have any news of Bolin and the others? I have not yet had a chance to ask Yingchun, and I do not know whether that boy has sent any letters.”

“They are in Xiangyang.”

“Xiangyang? How did they end up—”

“It was probably Xiao Liu’s idea. When we were making those preparations, he must have seen through some of it. Wanting to go and have a look is not strange. Do not worry — they are all well, and have made considerable progress. Seeing the outside world with one’s own eyes is far more useful than any great scholar’s teachings. For this flood relief effort, I will quietly arrange for them to take part, but they must not reveal themselves. It is not yet time for him to make a name for himself.”

Hua Zhi nodded with understanding. Indeed — if he showed himself now, those brothers of his would surely set their sights on him.

Gu Yanxi set down his bowl. His voice was low but solemn. “The Emperor seems to have his heart set on constructing the Lingzhou Grand Canal.”

“Surely you know that now is not the time.” Hua Zhi said urgently. With both external threats and internal strife as they were, undertaking a project of such enormous scale would drag the Great Qing dynasty to its ruin — just as the Sui dynasty had been dragged down in its time.

“He did not say so outright. Yesterday, upon returning to the capital, he said he had accomplished nothing of worth, and that is what gave me this suspicion. If he were to complete a grand canal, it would be a merit lasting ten thousand generations and a blessing for the realm — only then would he have the face to meet his imperial ancestors.”

“And if he were to drag the Great Qing dynasty to its ruin in the process? Would he then simply vanish into ash and smoke and no longer need to face his imperial ancestors?”

She really did say whatever came to mind — who knew where she found the nerve. Gu Yanxi smiled helplessly. “That is why he is waiting for the right opportunity.”

Hua Zhi was not an impulsive person, and in that brief moment she had already calmed herself. “If the Chaoli tribe were first dealt with, constructing the grand canal would not be without merit. Given the Great Qing dynasty’s foundations, even the burden on the people and the treasury could be borne. But if it is done before that — Yanxi, the Chaoli tribe is no fool these days. This would be handing the realm over to them with both hands.”

“Something that you and I both understand, surely the Emperor understands as well. Yet still this thought has taken root in him. In the past, I could persuade him out of it. Now, it grows harder each time. In the end, he is the sovereign and I am his subject — I cannot step over him and make decisions in his place. The consequences of that, I could not bear.”

Before A’zhi, Gu Yanxi shed that hard outer shell of his — the one that seemed capable of enduring anything. He clasped A’zhi’s hand and smiled faintly. “I value my life now.”

Hua Zhi looked at this man who had shouldered so much on a single pair of shoulders, and all at once her heart ached beyond her ability to contain it. She rose, walked to Yanxi’s side, and wrapped her arms around his head, letting him rest against her for a moment. She understood. In the course of his growing up, the Emperor had played the role of a father to him. He gave everything in return, yet often found himself unable to keep up.

An old tiger whose teeth were nearly all gone — still, in its final breaths, it wished to overawe every living thing with its royal stripes and imposing frame, even though it could no longer bite through meat. Yet no matter the moment, it would never forget that it was a king, and because of this, it would put on an even fiercer show.

That was what the Emperor was now. Yet he was more terrifying than a toothless tiger, because he held in his hands the imperial power to decide life and death. Toothless or not, a single word from him could still cause rivers of blood to flow.

The Emperor now was at his most dangerous — yet they were powerless to do anything about it. They could neither break free nor put a stop to it.

Gu Yanxi leaned against the soft warmth at his back, his heart filled with nothing but warmth, not the slightest trace of desire. He pressed his lips to the hand held in his palm. “Do not worry. The Emperor still trusts me. I will find a way to delay him — however long I can manage.”

Hua Zhi looked down at the jade crown atop Yanxi’s head. “My first fifteen years were clearly so smooth and uneventful. I do not know why they all came apart so suddenly. The Great Qing dynasty was in the midst of a golden age — I thought I would be able to live out this life in quiet and peace.”

“Hearing you say that, I find myself quite grateful that things came apart as they did. Otherwise, we would never have had the chance to meet at all.”

And truly there would have been no such chance. Hua Zhi sighed. “It has been barely a year, yet it feels as though we have done things that were meant to take an entire lifetime.”

“No one else in a lifetime could have done what you have done.”

Gu Yanxi looked up. “Once all of this has been settled, we will do nothing at all — roam the mountains and lakes, or hole up in some courtyard reading and painting. I will be with you.”

That kind of life was exactly what she had always wanted. Yet — “Let us first get through these trials ahead of us.”