Taking his leave of Grandmother, Gu Yanxi suddenly wanted to sit down and rest for a while. He could not be bothered to think about where he was or who might see him. He simply sat down on the stone steps not far from the entrance to the Hall of Longevity and Prosperity. If he could, he would even have liked a jug of wine to drain a few cups in earnest.

Twenty-six years of life — he had seen enough of the warmth and coldness of the world, enough of the heartlessness that ran through the imperial family. He had never harbored expectations that were too high, so he had never had cause to speak of disappointment. It had only ever been: born into the Gu line, bearing a debt of grace, grinding through each day, until either death or complete exhaustion brought it to an end. And then he had found Hua Zhi.

He had wanted to give Hua Zhi happiness. He had believed he could give her happiness — he was Shizi, he was the chief of the Bureau of Seven Lodges. But the truth of it was that he had dragged her into the mud. The late Emperor had coerced her. The Empress Dowager had pressed her down. And before her they had dangled something called Gu Yanxi like a great carrot, while driving a vicious hound to chase at her heels — and they had all taken it for granted, as though it were entirely their right to want to wring her dry.

They had forgotten Hua Zhi’s contributions. They had forgotten who it was because of which Great Qing had a Crown Prince worthy of presenting to the world. They had simply chosen not to see what her body had been ground down to in not even two years. With no regard at all, they had piled this enormous burden onto her shoulders, and cut off every road of retreat.

There were times he even felt that the most unfortunate thing to happen to Hua Zhi in this lifetime was meeting him. If she had never become entangled with him, the Hua Family’s eldest daughter could still have relied on her own abilities to secure the Hua Family’s footing in the capital. Whoever the new ruler turned out to be, with Hua Zhi’s means, her family’s return from exile would only have been a matter of time. She harbored no ambitions — and without ambitions, she would have had no need to display so much of her talent, no reason to be coveted by others, no reason to be eventually fettered in chains she could not slip free of.

Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince. The first female official in Great Qing. It sounded so magnificent. But under layer upon layer of constraint, it amounted to nothing more than a slightly grander title for a teacher — no different in the end from what had always been. Such a miserly reward, yet in exchange it had cost Hua Zhi the freedom she truly cherished. And Hua Zhi — she had never, in all her nature, been one to bear such bonds willingly.

He covered his face with his hand. Gu Yanxi suddenly thought of what Hao Yue had said earlier. If — if only Hua Zhi truly were a creature of the supernatural, then at least she would be long-lived, and would know some form of mystical arts that could restore Hua Zhi’s body.

“Yanxi?”

Gu Yanxi raised his head. At the sight of the Crown Prince, who stood hesitating a little distance away, unsure whether to approach, he pulled the corners of his mouth into something resembling a smile. “His Highness the Crown Prince ought to address this official differently now.”

“There are no outsiders here. It does not matter.” Looking at Yanxi — whose expression had not had time to be tucked away — the Crown Prince walked over and sat beside him. There was no need to guess — he knew at once what lay behind this low and dejected mood. Yes — Grand Tutor was already eighteen years old this year. Girls from other households who had reached that age were likely already mothers. And yet Grand Tutor would have to wait several more years still. By the time it came…

“I could marry earlier.”

Gu Yanxi turned to look at him.

The Crown Prince propped his chin on his hand and smiled. “Our ancestor the Emperor Yaozong was wed at fourteen — why should I not do the same? And besides, having someone in the central palace would also help stabilize the inner court. Quite fitting, all around.”

“Your Highness…”

“Grand Tutor is already eighteen — in two more years she will be twenty. If she still has not wed, do you want Grand Tutor to be laughed at? This Crown Prince will not stand for it!”

Gu Yanxi looked at him for a long moment. Then he stretched out his legs, lay back on the steps, and pillowed his arms beneath his head, gazing up at the sky. The oppression that had been weighing on him lifted in that single instant, as though clouds had parted to reveal light. The child Hua Zhi had raised was, in the end, still one who was grateful to her.

“Yanxi?”

“Your Grand Tutor will not agree. If you truly wish to do right by her, then study hard under her guidance and become a great ruler in time. Let her name be written in the annals of history. What she does not care about, I will care about on her behalf. Your Highness — her contributions should not be erased.”

The Crown Prince was silent. After a moment he gave a nod. “This Crown Prince understands. The more outstanding this Crown Prince is, the more no one will dare look down on Grand Tutor. If this Crown Prince becomes a wise and enlightened ruler in the future, then as his one and only Grand Tutor, she will certainly be remembered in history.”

Gu Yanxi looked at the small patch of sky above, a cloud’s shape visible only in part — who could say what it looked like in its entirety. “Little Six.”

It had been several days since he had heard that name used. The Crown Prince felt a warmth rise in his heart and answered with a sound of acknowledgment.

“When you reach sixteen, you must give Hua Zhi her freedom completely. At eighteen — when you turn eighteen, I will hang up my seal and resign. You have only six years to grow up.”

“Will you both leave the capital?”

“If by then your Grand Tutor wishes to travel and see the world, I will naturally accompany her wherever she goes. If she is content to remain in the capital and live quietly, I will follow her lead.” Gu Yanxi sat up. The dejection in his eyes had entirely dispersed. “Even if she travels far, she will return. She cannot bear to leave Bailin behind — and she cannot bear to leave you, her student. You know well how protective your Grand Tutor is of those she is close to.”

Yes, he knew — he had experienced it personally on more than one occasion. The Crown Prince brightened at once, and that small fear of being abandoned which had just begun to rise was cast far away. His Grand Tutor would certainly not abandon him.

There on those cold stone steps, the two of them together mapped out three people’s lives. The Crown Prince was not unaware of what Yanxi meant by saying such things to him — and precisely because he understood, he held this moment all the more firmly in his memory. He remembered Yanxi’s stance: that he would choose the person he loved over any ambitions for the throne. Even if, in the future, countless people came to sow discord between them, he would always remember this afternoon — the wind gentle, the sky blue, the sunlight warm, and hearts drawn close together.

The warmth lingered on this side of the palace wall. And at that same time, the Hua household was lively in its own right.

Hua Zhi was rarely one to wear her emotions on her face, yet she stepped forward now and pulled up with one arm each the two figures who had dropped to their knees before her in formal salute. “What are you kneeling to me for? Look at how thin you both are — and how dark — I almost could not recognize you.”

Hua Bailin’s eyes reddened and he clutched the sleeve of his elder sister’s robe, nearly crying aloud. “Elder Sister is talking nonsense! Cousin and I have simply filled out and grown sturdy. It is you who are truly thin — your face has hollowed in! What happened to you?”

“No matter how much I eat I cannot put weight on. Do you think I want to be like this?” She tapped him on the forehead, then laughed until her eyes curved into crescents. He was called her little brother, but in truth she felt toward him much as she would toward her own child. She had experienced for herself the particular worry of a parent whose child is away from home — likely she had been more anxious than even their mother.

Drawing Bailin close, Hua Zhi looked at her cousin, who had grown considerably taller than her. “Was this journey fruitful?”

Yang Sui’an’s eyes also reddened, and his voice came out thick. “Very fruitful. Worth three years of reading the classics.”

“So long as there were gains. Now that you are back, rest well and let it settle within you.”

“Yes.”

Hua Zhi smiled. “All right — go quickly and see your mother. She has been craning her neck watching for you.”

Yang Sui’an straightened in a long, respectful bow. He and Bailin had not even reached the capital before they heard that the late Emperor had passed. The two of them had been so worried they had rushed back the whole way, and on entering the city they had not gone straight home but had first slipped into a teahouse to learn what news they could. Truthfully, he had been shaken.

He had not imagined that so many things had happened so shortly before — and things that were so utterly beyond what one could have expected. But at least the one who had risen to power was the Sixth Prince. All of Elder Sister’s long deliberation and effort had not been in vain. As for Elder Sister herself becoming Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince — that had not surprised him as much. With Elder Sister’s knowledge and learning, she could hold an even greater office and hold it well.