Xie Yuzhang held his gaze for a moment, about to step down from the stairs to meet him, but the Emperor had already descended from the steps on the far side and was striding over in long steps.

Xie Yuzhang quickly came down the stairs and curtseyed. “This subject pays respects to His Majesty.”

Li Gu stopped and swept his gaze across the people in the courtyard — all of them women. This was, after all, the inner courtyard, the main chamber.

Li Gu walked straight inside.

Unlike the formal reception hall in the outer courtyard, which was furnished with straight-backed chairs set in proper arrangement, the main chamber here was furnished with a wide, spacious daybed, piled all over with large bolster cushions embroidered with lovely patterns, giving the whole room an air of comfortable ease.

Most households, even in their inner quarters, would not arrange the main chamber this way. But this residence had no male head of the household now, nor would it ever have one in the future. The women here were many, and so many things were different from an ordinary home — everything was arranged however felt most comfortable and most pleasing.

Li Gu paused.

The moment Xie Yuzhang followed him inside, she understood at once why Li Gu was standing and not sitting down. She quickly called out, “Tidy up a little.”

The maidservants moved nimbly, clearing away the excess bolster cushions, and the daybed took on a more presentable appearance. But Li Gu still did not sit — he simply stood there.

The maidservants all withdrew. Xie Yuzhang walked over and asked, “What has brought Your Majesty here?”

Li Gu turned and asked, “Where is your Huan Lang?”

Xie Yuzhang froze.

Li Gu said, “Eating, drinking, and pleasures — you truly have a talent for them. The entire North Theater District follows your tastes. Huan Lang’s fame has grown so great that even I heard of it inside the palace. I have come especially to see for myself.”

The Emperor’s manner was pressing and confrontational. Xie Yuzhang was even more bewildered.

Seeing her like this, Li Gu felt a formless anger rise in his chest. He forced it down and said in a low voice, “Go — call him here so I may see for myself as well!”

He flicked aside the hem of his robe and sat down on the edge of the daybed, sitting straight-backed and upright, his gaze fixed on Xie Yuzhang.

Xie Yuzhang sighed and asked, “It was Seventh Elder Brother who told Your Majesty, was it not?”

Li Gu said, “Who said it does not matter.”

“Besides Seventh Elder Brother, there is no one else.” Xie Yuzhang walked over and poured tea for him.

Li Gu said coldly, “Stop evading the matter.”

“What evasion?” Xie Yuzhang said. “This is Your Majesty’s first visit here. I cannot possibly offer nothing — at the very least Your Majesty should have a cup of tea first to calm down.”

Li Gu felt that if he did not kill someone today, he would never be able to calm down.

But Xie Yuzhang personally brought the teacup forward and offered it to him, and he took it all the same.

Their fingertips barely grazed one another.

He had only just taken a sip when he heard Xie Yuzhang say, “Huan Lang, come in and pay your respects to His Majesty.”

Li Gu looked up in surprise.

Xie Yuzhang was standing right beside him and had not moved at all — she had only turned slightly toward the doorway. The way she called, it was as if Huan Lang were waiting just outside the door ready to be summoned. But outside the door was only a group of women…

Hu Jin stood at the entrance with his hand on his sword. When he heard Xie Yuzhang call out, he raised his eyes and looked among the women — and saw Huan Lang lift the hem of his garment and step into the main chamber.

Hu Jin looked up at the sky.

He had not deceived the Emperor. He had not spoken a single false word. Huan Lang was indeed good-looking.

But when Li Gu saw Huan Lang, he knew at once that Li Weifeng had been playing him for a fool.

Li Weifeng had said “Huan Lang” and “this man” over and over, creating a powerful misdirection. Hu Jin had also said Huan Lang was “handsome.” Li Gu had imagined Huan Lang as a beautiful young man like Lin Zhongxun.

Every time Xie Yuzhang encountered Lin Zhongxun, her face would light up with a radiant smile — a smile entirely without pressure or artifice, born from a genuine and effortless joy.

She had even said herself that she liked beautiful people, that seeing a beautiful person lifted her spirits. Lin Zhongxun was exactly that — a beautiful person.

But Li Gu was perfectly clear that the people around him, more or less, all understood the situation between him and Xie Yuzhang. Lin Zhongxun was someone he had genuinely recognized as a talented man. A person that perceptive would never make a mistake he should not make.

Though it gnawed at him, he had not been genuinely worried.

But once he imagined Xie Yuzhang bringing a man like Lin Zhongxun into her own residence, then thought about the customs between men and women on the steppe, and then thought about how she had gone there at the age of fourteen…

Li Gu had wanted to kill someone.

Only — before killing, he had wanted to see this man first. What he had not expected was to find a “young girl.”

This “young girl” had just been standing among the women. Looking more carefully, “she” was indeed wearing men’s clothing and had her hair done in a man’s style. Yet “her” face was delicate and beautiful, and the clothing was a bright, vivid color. When Li Gu had swept his gaze across the courtyard earlier, “she” had been standing among the group of women, impossible to distinguish as male or female, and yet looked entirely at home.

Huan Lang knelt and kowtowed to the Emperor. His voice was soft and melodious.

Li Gu stared at him.

Xie Yuzhang said, “This child is fourteen this year. His foster father was formerly the Director of the Inner Teaching Troupe, who ended up wandering outside the palace walls. He has raised several children and trained them well. These children were always intended to become performers, and to preserve their voices, they were castrated at an early age. I thought this worked out perfectly, and so I brought them back to the residence to teach them palace etiquette, with the intention — once they were properly trained — of presenting them to Noble Consort Li Zhenzhen.”

She continued, “I know the previous dynasty was marked by extravagance and excess, and that Your Majesty disapproves. But Your Majesty need not overcorrect either. Your Majesty is consumed by the affairs of the realm and naturally has no inclination for such diversions — but the ladies in the palace are truly lonely. Yongning had intended to first bring them before Your Majesty to look over, and beg an imperial favor to let them remain in the palace. If Your Majesty did not approve, then whenever the ladies grew bored, I could bring them in at that time instead — it would simply be a little more trouble.”

“Only I had not anticipated…” She raised her eyes and looked at Li Gu. “That Your Majesty’s information would be so swift, and that Your Majesty would come here first.”

Xie Yuzhang’s expression was serious, with the earnest air of a subject presenting a formal report. Yet Li Gu could somehow detect in her tone a note of mockery.

Li Gu looked up at the ceiling of the main chamber. The crossbeams were painted with intricate and elegant patterns. When he had ordered the renovation of the princess’s residence at the time, he had given special instructions about it. After the work was finished, he had come once to inspect it — the craftsmen had done it with great care, and he had been quite satisfied.

Li Gu lowered his head and said, with composure, “You were thoughtful.”

Xie Yuzhang replied respectfully, “I dare not accept Your Majesty’s undeserved praise. Does Your Majesty wish to hear Huan Lang sing a piece, so as to appraise it?”

Li Gu said, “I trust your judgment.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Your Majesty strives tirelessly for the good of the realm. Yet this subject has grown too accustomed to a life of indulgence and still carries a certain air of extravagance. I will surely reflect on this three times a day from now on and endeavor to be diligent and frugal.”

Li Gu said, “There is no need. Young ladies ought to live a little more easily — do as you please.”

Xie Yuzhang raised her head. “Does Your Majesty have any further instructions?”

Li Gu said, with some difficulty, “…I only came to see you.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “And Huan Lang.”

No one had yet called “rise,” so Huan Lang had been kneeling on the ground all this while. By now his forehead was drenched in sweat, and he wished only that he could cover his ears. He would have liked more than anything not to have heard a single word.

It was only this “and Huan Lang” from Xie Yuzhang that made Li Gu remember there was still someone kneeling on the floor.

Huan Lang had a delicate, beautiful face, impossible to tell as male or female, rather like a young girl. Hu Jin had said he was “good-looking,” and that was entirely true — only the kind of good looks he had were nothing like Lin Zhongxun’s.

Li Gu still very much wanted to kill someone right now — specifically to beat to death those two scoundrels Li Weifeng and Mantou.

Li Gu was finally at a loss for words. He had never been a man of many words to begin with, let alone in the presence of someone as silver-tongued as Xie Yuzhang.

He could only glance at Huan Lang.

Huan Lang had a measure of quick-wittedness. Catching that look, he immediately scrambled to his feet and backed out of the room.

The door was even pulled shut — Huan Lang and Hu Jin closed it together. They all knew how to read a situation. Huan Lang retreated to a considerable distance at once, and Hu Jin thought for a moment, then also moved further away.

The maidservants withdrew as well. In the past, when the Princess had served the Khan Wuwei, she had not allowed them to come forward either.

With no one else in the room, Li Gu stood up. “I was in the wrong.”

Xie Yuzhang replied with deference, “This subject dares not say so.”

Li Gu hesitated, then said, “Do not be angry.”

Xie Yuzhang gave a faint smile. She raised her eyes — her phoenix eyes shimmering and alluring — and with a slender hand caught hold of the corner of Li Gu’s sleeve, smiling at him with captivating grace.

Li Gu was stunned.

Xie Yuzhang raised her hand and pointed toward a door on the far side of the room, telling Li Gu, “Behind that door is the side room where I go about my daily life. Go through another door beyond that, and you reach my bedchamber. Since Your Majesty has come all this way, why not share a moment of spring intimacy with Yuzhang right here in broad daylight? It would spare you from having made the trip for nothing.”

Li Gu stiffened. “Yuzhang! I had no such intention!”

Xie Yuzhang smiled — a dazzling, flirtatious smile. “Then what did Your Majesty intend? Your Majesty is a gentleman who, without even waiting for my maidservant to announce him, barged into the inner courtyard and walked straight into the main chamber of a young woman. If Your Majesty had no such intention, then what was Your Majesty’s intention?”

Li Gu was somewhat flustered.

Xie Yuzhang had already guessed.

“Today I had called Huan Lang here to explain the palace rules to him. I imagine Your Majesty must have asked the maidservants in the outer courtyard and learned that he and I were together — at which point Your Majesty’s mind naturally painted a scandalous picture of midday indecency, and Your Majesty came storming over in fury. Am I right?”

Li Gu was even more flustered.

What Xie Yuzhang had guessed was not far from the truth.

When he entered the princess’s residence, he had naturally been shown first to the reception hall. There he asked the maidservant: where was Princess Yongning?

The maidservant said: in the main chamber.

He then asked: and where is Huan Lang?

The maidservant said: in the main chamber.

In that instant, a surge of fury had blazed straight up inside Li Gu.

He would not have been so crudely-minded as to imagine Xie Yuzhang engaged in brazen midday indecency — but knowing that she had allowed a man into her main chamber was already enough to set his fury alight.

That fury, mingled with the anger already stored from before, doubled in intensity.

And so came this day’s confrontation.

Xie Yuzhang’s smile was cold and brilliant — a look Li Gu had never seen on her before.

Her smiles in the past, even when they carried some artifice, were mostly radiant and pleasant, and put those around her at ease. But the shimmering light now at the corners of her brows and eyes told Li Gu that she was truly angry.

Seeing him silent, Xie Yuzhang gave a soft scoff and let go of his sleeve, turning away.

Li Gu caught her hand from behind, pulling her back.

“I did not think so poorly of you,” he said, gritting his teeth. “But I told you — I am no saint. I am a man. There are things I cannot endure.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “In your eyes, am I really so foolish?”

She sighed. “Having sought your protection, I naturally know what I can and cannot do.”

But Li Gu said, “If you truly knew, then why were you so hard-hearted at the moment when I needed you?”

Xie Yuzhang raised her eyes.

There was grievance in Li Gu’s gaze.

Xie Yuzhang lowered her head. “I dared not.”

The vulnerability that an emperor would never show before his consorts, would never reveal before his ministers — he had laid it bare before her.

What expectations did the Emperor hold for her, deep within his heart?

Xie Yuzhang was skilled at reading the hearts of others, yet she had never been willing to open her own heart to anyone. And yet, a heart can only be won by another heart. No one could truly be as cold as stone.

“I saw a door open before me, and I did not dare to walk through it — afraid of losing myself inside.”

“I was… simply very afraid.”

“Because in Mobei, Your Majesty was my last retreat. Here in Yunjing, I no longer have any other retreat.”

“And so… this subject was afraid.”