Lin Fei said, “You just bully people who are good to you.”

Lin Fei then asked, “Was he angry?”

Xie Yuzhang looked away, and hedged, “Probably… a little?”

When Xie Yuzhang left the palace, she was not taken to the post-relay lodge. Li Gu had quietly arranged a Princess Yongning’s Residence for her. By the time she entered the palace, Lin Fei and Yuan Yu had already been escorted to the new princess’s residence.

None of this had passed through the hands of the court officials, just as the enfeoffment of her as princess today had come as a surprise to everyone.

He was, after all, a founding Emperor. His way of doing things could not help but carry a certain streak of unilateralism. The ministers had held their noses and accepted it.

Lin Fei looked at her with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. “Before, you clearly said that as long as you didn’t have to enter the palace — as long as you were kept outside — it wouldn’t be entirely out of the question to go along with him. How is it that when you actually came face to face with him, you found even more nerve?”

Xie Yuzhang said, “It was precisely because I saw him that I knew what could and couldn’t be done. Before seeing him, I was the anxious one.”

Lin Fei said, “You’re taking advantage of the fact that he treats you well.”

Xie Yuzhang rested her chin in her hand and made a noncommittal sound.

Lin Fei said, “Your jade register and gold seal haven’t even arrived yet, the edict of enfeoffment hasn’t come down — and you’re not afraid he’ll strip that princess title right back off you?”

Xie Yuzhang said, “He won’t quibble over something like this. That’s not the kind of person he is.”

Lin Fei laughed lightly. “Listen to you.”

But when it came to the feelings between a man and a woman, Lin Fei — an unmarried girl who had never had any dealings with men — genuinely didn’t know much. Xie Yuzhang was someone who had managed to keep both Ashina father and son thoroughly charmed. In this matter, Lin Fei trusted her judgment.

If she said the Emperor would be fine…then he probably would be fine.

“Vice Director Yang has sent word that he will come by tomorrow and personally accompany you to the Marquis of Xiaoyao’s Residence.” Lin Fei did not dwell on something that had already been done, and changed the subject.

Xie Yuzhang’s eyes dimmed. “Understood. Always making my uncle worry on my behalf.”

Lin Fei said, “The palace will likely send an edict tomorrow — assuming the Emperor doesn’t change his mind at the last moment.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “He really wasn’t that angry… all right, just a tiny little bit angry.”

Li Gu was the kind of person who would not let others see his anger even when he felt it. In both her past life and this one, he had always been an emperor whose emotions did not show on his face.

Today, when he had been angry, all he had done was turn his face away and refuse to look at her. He had never once raised his voice at her.

Lin Fei shook her head and said, “My Third Brother says he will personally come tomorrow to read the edict aloud.”

“You saw your brother?” Xie Yuzhang brightened at once, sweeping Li Gu from her thoughts entirely.

Lin Fei said, “Third Brother is doing quite well now — he holds a position as a drafter in the Central Secretariat. He and your eldest cousin are colleagues, and they see each other every day.”

But the current Director of the Central Secretariat was… Xie Yuzhang’s eyes narrowed.

Lin Fei said, “Which means he also sees that old villain Zhang every single day.”

Xie Yuzhang sighed. “Lin Third Brother will just have to bear with it for now. There will come a day to settle the score.”

Lin Fei said, “Right now nothing can be certain, and I don’t dare tell Third Brother anything. I’m afraid that if something turns out to be wrong, he might suffer harm from acting on it.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “There’s nothing to be done. I don’t know the full details of what happened either.”

Back then, her mind had been growing hazy and dim, and Lin Fei had told her close to her ear that Zhang Fen had hanged herself in the Zhonggong, and the entire Zhang clan had been executed. But Lin Fei had said nothing more beyond that. Xie Yuzhang had no idea how the Zhang family had ultimately fallen. Even if she could know, the events that had led to the Zhang family’s downfall might not have occurred yet, which would make the knowledge meaningless in the present.

Lin Third Brother would have to continue working across a not-so-long corridor from his enemy, in the same compound.

Xie Yuzhang thought of something else. “Do you know what Zhang Fen’s situation is?”

She told Lin Fei the truth of how Zhang Fen had lost her chance at the position of Empress.

Lin Fei sighed. “No wonder you were so bold today.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “That man — how to put it — well, he is a true man of character. With all that has happened, and given that I had provoked him once more in the secret letter I had Li Yong deliver for me earlier — when I saw him today, I thought to myself: what would happen if I told him I had no wish to submit to him?”

“It wasn’t that I set a deliberate trap for him. I had originally been planning to go along with whatever he said. It was just that one thing led to another, and there happened to be exactly the right opening — miss it, and I didn’t know if another opportunity like that would come along. I only made my final decision about which way to go in that very moment. But thinking back on it now… wait?” She suddenly caught herself. “It actually does look rather like I deliberately set a trap for him… I really hope he doesn’t think of it that way.”

She thought about it for a moment, then settled back against the armrest: “Never mind. He said it himself — he said every word he speaks is good. Never mind, never mind.”

“Everything now is completely different from how it was ‘before,'” Lin Fei said. “I’ve thought about it. If what happened to the Zhang family stemmed from something within the palace — a struggle over the position of Crown Prince, for example — then it might never happen again. Zhuzhu, you were still too reckless with the Emperor today; fortunately he has feelings for you. I’m not telling you to submit to him. It’s just that back in Mobei, we treated him as our last resort and our final fallback, and that was why we dared to be so bold. But many things are now different from what you knew before. From now on, you must think carefully before you act.”

Xie Yuzhang set aside the carefree, spoiled manner she only let show in front of Lin Fei, and said seriously, “I know.”

Dealing with Li Gu in the future would be far more difficult than dealing with Ashina Wuwei, because she no longer had the experience of a previous life to fall back on.

The “past” she knew had already transformed into an unknown future.

She heeded the advice, and the tension eased from Lin Fei’s shoulders. Lin Fei smiled and said, “Whatever the case, today is worth celebrating. Shall we have a little wine?”

So they raised their voices and called a maidservant in. “Go to the kitchen and see if there’s any wine. If not, have someone go buy some from the street.”

The maidservant went, and before long returned carrying a warmed wine vessel, smiling as she spoke: “The kitchen has everything — there’s Sang Luo wine and Goose-Yellow wine, both suitable for ladies to drink. They say the storerooms are also well-stocked with ready provisions. This residence of ours is brand-new, yet lacks for nothing. Whoever saw to all this — how very thoughtful they were.”

Lin Fei glanced at Xie Yuzhang with a faint smile. “He’s quite handsome, they say. And I hear he’s grown fairer too.”

“Don’t.” Xie Yuzhang tilted her head and propped her temple with a finger. “Too complicated. Far too complicated.”

The two drank a cup together. Xie Yuzhang said, “The palace has no Empress. Li Zhenzhen has changed too much.”

Lin Fei said, “The human heart is the easiest thing to change. Before, she had lost, so she accepted it. But now the position of Empress is vacant, and her ambitions have grown.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “So that’s why I don’t want to get entangled with him — it’s too much trouble. Just wait and see — if he doesn’t establish an Empress, there will be no peace ahead.”

Li Gu had three wives, and yet had not established an Empress. Why?

Lin Fei could not help but glance at Xie Yuzhang. She was leaning against the armrest, head propped, pouring her own wine with an entirely at-ease manner.

Lin Fei weighed everything swiftly in her heart, and in the end silently shook her head and said nothing.

At today’s banquet, Li Weifeng had eaten and drunk to his heart’s content.

The person Eleventh Brother had longed for all this time had finally returned. She seemed full of life, and looked even better than before. How wonderful. Eleventh Brother must be very happy.

After Li Gu and Xie Yuzhang departed the banquet one after the other, Li Weifeng began to let his imagination run. He glanced left and right, then tossed a chicken bone at Chen Liangzhi sitting beside him.

Chen Liangzhi shot him a glare.

“Come on, come on — let’s step out to freshen up.” Li Weifeng waggled his eyebrows meaningfully.

“Go yourself,” Chen Liangzhi said. “I don’t need to.”

Li Weifeng said, “Once you go, you’ll find you do.”

Chen Liangzhi: “…” When he put it that way, it somehow did seem like he needed to go.

In the end, they both got up and went out together.

Once outside, Li Weifeng immediately leaned in close and whispered, “The two of them left one after the other — they’re definitely having a secret meeting.”

Chen Liangzhi said, with unhurried calm, “Stop making things up.”

Li Weifeng sniggered, winking and nudging. “Do you think Eleventh Brother becomes a bridegroom today? He’s waited eight years — surely the moment calls for some blazing passion, yes?”

Chen Liangzhi snapped, “Disgusting!”

“These are the great affairs of human nature — what’s disgusting about it?” Li Weifeng protested. “When a man cares for a young woman, naturally he wants to be with her in every way.”

As he said this, something seemed to cross his mind, and he suddenly fell still. His voice dropped, becoming almost a murmur to himself: “Mm, though not necessarily. If she isn’t in good health, the right thing to hope for first is that she recovers. The rest… needn’t happen at all costs.”

And then, unexpectedly, he let out a sigh.

The matter of Li Weifeng’s private life was known only to those who could keep their mouths shut. He himself never spoke of it to others, and Chen Liangzhi had no knowledge of it. Seeing him suddenly go strange, Chen Liangzhi was completely baffled.

When the banquet finally dispersed, Li Weifeng was just about to leave the palace for home when two palace attendants blocked his way.

“Who sent you? His Majesty?” he asked.

When he learned it was Fuchun who had sent them to intercept him, Li Weifeng dug his heels in. “I’m not going, I’m not going! It’s never anything good!”

The two attendants gripped him by either arm. “Please, we beg you!”

And so they hauled him back.

When Li Weifeng arrived at the warm pavilion, Fuchun hurried to meet him, bowing with folded hands. “We are entirely counting on you.”

Li Weifeng asked, “What is it this time?”

Fuchun wore a pained expression. “If only this servant knew. Ah — when Princess Yongning left, she looked perfectly fine; but His Majesty for some reason…”

Li Weifeng thought to himself: And you called me indecent — look, I was right, they did have a secret meeting. Tsk!

He carried his gossiping heart along and said, “Fine, I’ll go take a look.” He lifted a foot and made to walk into the warm pavilion.

Fuchun stopped him. “Not in there — over that way.”

In this freezing weather, Fuchun led Li Weifeng to the water’s edge, where a thin crust of ice still covered the surface.

Li Weifeng looked back at the warm pavilion, the glazed windows misted with warmth — he could almost feel the heat radiating from within. Then he turned back to look at his foolish Eleventh Brother, sitting on a stone bench by the water, letting the cold wind blow.

He sighed.

Li Weifeng resigned himself to his fate, tucked his hands into his sleeves, walked over, and asked, “Your Majesty, what are you sitting here for? Aren’t you cold?”

Li Gu was facing the water, his back to him, and said nothing.

Li Weifeng went to squeeze in beside him. But though the bench was not short, Li Gu sat squarely in the very center, leaving Li Weifeng to perch half a seat’s width at the edge.

“Eight whole years, and you finally got to see her again. How did you end up in a sulk again?” Li Weifeng coaxed. “I don’t know what happened, but try to see things from her side. She’s a young woman — fourteen years old when she was sent away, surrounded on all sides by danger. Mobei men aren’t decent creatures. Was it easy for her?”

He had expected Li Gu to ignore him. Unexpectedly, Li Gu opened his mouth.

He said, “You are right. All alone in Mobei — it was not easy for her.”

Li Weifeng blinked.

Li Gu looked out at the still-frozen water and said again, “She went through every day dealing with those people with a polished facade, calculating from the moment she opened her eyes.”

He said, “She had to protect herself, and all the while kept her heart set on shielding the people she had brought with her. Nearly all of them have come home — you can imagine the effort that cost her.”

He said, “She has suffered a great deal.”

Li Weifeng nodded, echoing him. “Yes, she has suffered.”

Li Gu went on: “A true man must be broad of chest; he should not quarrel with a woman over such things.”

Li Weifeng said, “That’s absolutely right.”

“And so — she calculated against me,” Li Gu said, still gazing at the ice. “And I forgive her.”

Li Weifeng blinked again.

“But Seventh Brother,” Li Gu said, “there is a breath of something stuck in my chest, and it will not go down.”