In the eyes of others, Li Gu was decisive in all things and reserved in manner — clearly a hard and inscrutable man.

But Li Gu, as he himself had said, was in the end a person. Becoming Emperor had not made him a god.

As for Yan Yan — he had never met her. When he had received Li Zhenzhen’s letter during his campaign, he had felt sorrow too, but it had not been so deeply felt.

Hu Tou was different. Hu Tou in his arms had been so soft, always carrying a faint scent of milk. During Qing Que’s stage, Li Gu had been out on campaign and missed it entirely. Hu Tou’s stage, Li Gu had not missed a moment — he had been a father from the very beginning.

The death of this child who had borne all his fatherly love was not only Deng Wanniang’s heartbreak. It was his as well.

Yet in the inner palace, Li Gu was the one on whom the women depended. The tiny fragment of vulnerability within him was something no one could ever be allowed to see.

On late nights alone in Zichen Palace, lying awake with open eyes, he was not entirely without the wish that someone might come to console him.

When he closed his eyes, the face that rose in his mind was Xie Yuzhang’s.

But she had never come.

Had she truly cared, she should have come to his side the very moment she heard the news. Yet she had not.

When she finally came, she understood his heart completely — she knew exactly what he needed. And then she turned and walked away.

It was from this that Li Gu understood just how hard Xie Yuzhang’s heart truly was. It genuinely made him hate her.

From the moment she returned to the Central Plains, she had always made him hate her.

Thinking of all this, Li Gu momentarily lost control, and his grip tightened.

Xie Yuzhang’s brows furrowed slightly from the pain.

Li Gu loosened his grip and said, “You understand everything. You simply would not.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Then what else could I do?”

“When you needed me to visit, I came on time every ten days.”

“When you needed me to accompany Noble Consort Li Zhenzhen, I did my best to make her happy.”

“When you needed me to soothe Pure Consort Deng, I helped her open her heart.”

“You wanted me to be on good terms with all your wives and consorts — and now I am, am I not? Yet you are always wanting more.”

“At least let me hold onto something for myself.”

Li Gu’s grip caused her pain again. His strength was that great.

Xie Yuzhang sighed softly, then opened her arms and embraced him.

Li Gu had broad shoulders, a solid chest, and a lean, narrow waist. Xie Yuzhang wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest, letting out a contented sigh she could not hold back.

But Li Gu did not raise his arms.

Xie Yuzhang looked up and asked, “Why won’t you hold me?”

Li Gu said, his voice thick, “You are skilled at deception. I do not know whether what you feel right now is genuine or merely a performance. If I were to hold you and find it nothing but an act, that would be truly pathetic and absurd.”

“Oh, you.” Xie Yuzhang pressed her face against his chest. “Hold me. This moment is real.”

But she added, “Only this moment. I cannot promise anything beyond this. You know how it is — in the end, I must court the Emperor’s favor to survive.”

“You need not,” said Li Gu, carefully wrapping his arms around her. “Live more freely.”

“It is very good right now,” said Xie Yuzhang. “Shiyi Lang, do not speak.”

The room was still, the air gentle.

Not Emperor and Princess — just Shiyi Lang and Xie Yuzhang. From that snowy night, this embrace had been eight years late in coming. But it had come at last.

All the things that stood between them were, for now, set aside.

The resentment born from her hard-heartedness — it all dissolved.

The longing stirred by her beauty — it all grew still.

Li Gu felt a peace within him that he could not put into words.

He hoped this peace could last a little longer — but of course that was impossible. The world could not stop turning for the sake of the brief moment in which two people had bared their hearts.

Xie Yuzhang released him and looked up. “Your Majesty should return.”

Li Gu still would not let her go. He said softly, “The two times before when I would not see you — it was not that I wanted to put distance between us. The truth is that you had made me angry, and for a time my mind was filled with dark thoughts. I was afraid that if I saw you, I would not be able to suppress them, and I might end up hurting you.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “I was not actually afraid — because I know what kind of man you are. And indeed, once you learned of the situation during those few days, you sent down the prayer beads, and those people quieted down. That told me everything.”

She made no move to pursue what those “dark thoughts” were. What else could Li Gu’s dark thoughts about her be — she could well imagine.

But Li Gu asked her about something else entirely.

“Yuzhang, you held four memorial services at the Grand Xiang Temple.” He asked, “Besides my son, who were the other three?”

Who were Chiguxie and Dielitele? And who was the unnamed one?

Xie Yuzhang’s lashes trembled almost imperceptibly.

“They were other people’s children,” she said. “All of them were separated from their mothers because of me.”

She said, “Your Majesty, I have never had a child of my own.”

Li Gu said, “I know. I was simply asking.”

When Xie Yuzhang had re-married on the steppe and made her pact with Wuwei not to have children, it had not been a secret — many people knew. When Li Yong had come to the capital to deliver a letter, Li Gu had asked many questions and had already learned of this.

He said softly, “You were very wise. Had there been a child, even I cannot imagine how one could bear to part with it.”

He was a man who had lost a dearly loved son. And Xie Yuzhang’s heart softened, after all.

She said, “Your Majesty should father more sons.”

It was, barely, a consolation that had come too late.

Li Gu released her and said, “I will make every effort.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Noble Consort Li Zhenzhen would like me to persuade Your Majesty to hold a broader selection of imperial consorts.”

Li Gu fixed his gaze on her and asked, “Are you going to persuade me as well?”

Xie Yuzhang said, “I do not act beyond my station. And Your Majesty is not forgoing the selection on my account — it is not my place to say anything.”

Li Gu simply looked at her and said nothing.

Xie Yuzhang said, “Since Your Majesty has come all this way, take Huan Lang and the others back with you. It will spare me another trip.”

Li Gu said, “Very well.”

Li Gu brought Huan Lang and the others back to the palace and had them sent to Li Zhenzhen, saying they were delivered by Xie Yuzhang.

A day passed, and on the third day, it was the tenth of the sixth month.

Xie Yuzhang woke in the morning as her maidservants called her to rise. She thought for a moment and said, “Let me sleep a little longer.”

The maidservant said, “Today is the day to go to the palace.”

Xie Yuzhang rolled over. “I am not going today. Let me sleep a little longer — I will go to Xie Family Village instead.”

The maidservant said, “Oh, but…”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Do as I say.”

The ten-day rest day was also a holiday. Li Weifeng looked forward to these days enormously. He changed into fresh clothes, combed his hair neatly, and rode a fine tall horse out to Xie Family Village.

When he arrived at Prince Shou’s gate and saw the row of horses tied to the great tree outside and the line of guards squatting in the shade of the wall, Li Weifeng felt a sudden sense of unease.

He asked around — and sure enough, they were from Princess Yongning’s household.

Good grief! Was this ancestor not supposed to be entering the palace today?

Mantou had clearly said that nothing had happened the day before yesterday.

Once inside the courtyard, he indeed could not find Xie Baozhu.

Prince Shou said, “Yongning came. The two sisters are talking in the back courtyard.”

Prince Shou asked, “Did you bring anything to eat? Let me see.”

Princess Yongning had truly come to steal his companion away! She must have been sold out by Shiyi!

Xie Yuzhang was in the back courtyard and, upon learning he had arrived, deliberately raised her voice in front of the maidservants: “From now on, let it be a fixed arrangement — I will come to visit Elder Sister on the rest days.”

Xie Baozhu was thoroughly exasperated by the two of them.

The two maidservants kept their expressions rigid, not daring to laugh.

On the way back, Li Weifeng urged his horse forward and caught up with her. “Ancestor! Ancestor!”

Xie Yuzhang smiled and reined in her horse. “Seventh Elder Brother, you are too kind.”

“Bah!” Li Weifeng was so furious his nose nearly twisted sideways, but he swallowed his pride and said, “Shall we stop playing games? Your elder brother here apologizes to you.”

He was quite able to bend when necessary. Xie Yuzhang gave a scoff and nudged her horse forward.

“Hey, listen,” Li Weifeng urged his horse to catch up. “Is today not the day you were supposed to enter the palace?”

Xie Yuzhang said, “And what of it if I do not go? You are so capable — go and have His Majesty execute me.”

She was definitely holding a grudge over the incident two days ago! Li Weifeng slapped his thigh in regret.

He said, “I said I would apologize, did I not? I just accidentally let the business about Huan Lang slip out in front of Shiyi, that is all.”

Xie Yuzhang would not believe that for a moment.

Li Weifeng had been to the North Theater District. He had seen Huan Lang with his own eyes. Everyone knew Huan Lang was a castrated eunuch performer. If he had truly let something slip, why would he have omitted that one crucial point?

It was a lie fit only to fool a ghost.

Xie Yuzhang ignored him. Li Weifeng had no choice but to spur his horse alongside hers.

“Well, the thing is,” he said, “Shiyi refuses to hold the consort selection on your account — he is impossibly stubborn about it, and none of us can move him. So I wanted to give him a little shock and see.”

Xie Yuzhang slowed her horse and turned her head, her lovely face carrying a stern expression. “Seventh Elder Brother — jokes between siblings are one thing, but do not lay this sort of thing at my doorstep. The imperial succession is of the utmost importance. Yongning cannot bear the weight of such an accusation.”

Li Weifeng thought to himself: when did we become siblings?

He said, “It is the truth. If I am lying, may thunder strike me.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “What Seventh Elder Brother says is no more than Seventh Elder Brother’s own guesses. The affairs of His Majesty’s inner palace — Seventh Elder Brother is an outsider man, after all, so naturally he would not understand. His Majesty and Pure Consort Deng and Virtuous Consort Cui are couples from their youth, and it is perfectly understandable that deep affection might lead him to forgo the selection on their behalf.”

Li Weifeng said, “Trust me — it is you.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Seventh Elder Brother really is too amusing. It simply could not be me. We missed so many years. He has married, taken concubines, and has children of both sons and daughters. Why would he forgo the consort selection for my sake now? What possible reason would there be?”

Li Weifeng said, “You do not understand.”

Xie Yuzhang said with a scoff, “You are right. I do not understand.”

Li Weifeng said, “Honestly, neither do I — but I just know.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “You know absolutely nothing! An accusation this grave — this Princess will not accept it!”

Deng Wanniang had the Emperor’s backing in the inner palace, yet her willfulness still drew criticism from all quarters.

An accusation of bewitching the sovereign and obstructing the imperial succession — this was something Xie Yuzhang, a woman of the former dynasty’s bloodline, beautiful yet a widow, would absolutely never allow to be pinned upon herself.

Li Weifeng said, “I have not said anything to anyone else either — I am only telling you privately. And you need not worry. Shiyi would never say a word. Other than me, no one else will understand.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Seventh Elder Brother is a perceptive man.”

Li Weifeng said, “I only want to tell you — when Shiyi married, he had no choice at the time. And besides, back then, who could have known you would come back? Everyone thought it was settled for a lifetime.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “Precisely. And so at that time, I once had someone carry a message to him, wishing him great power and authority, a household full of wives and concubines. I naturally wanted him to be well.”

Li Weifeng said, “Do you know that message of yours pierced him to the core? He got himself thoroughly drunk the very day it arrived. You have no idea what his drinking capacity is — he actually got drunk.”

Xie Yuzhang said, “That is all in the past now. Say no more.”

Li Weifeng said, “I insist on saying it.”

Xie Yuzhang pressed her heels against her horse’s flanks and urged it faster.

Li Weifeng kept pace, coming up beside her and saying into her ear, “Back then, after Shiyi had married, he went off on the very same day to fight Liu Congyi — fought for two months and only came back afterward. When he returned, he stubbornly held out for an entire month and refused to consummate the marriage. Even our elder sister and I pressing him together could not budge him. He simply refused. And then it was Old Chen — you know Old Chen, that is Chen Zipeng — he told Shiyi the news that you had been married off to Wuwei. That day Shiyi got drunk again. I was the one who carried him to the back courtyard…”

Xie Yuzhang’s riding whip came down, and her Mobei thoroughbred exploded into motion, shooting forward like an arrow.

Her guards immediately gave chase. The thunder of hooves fell like rolling drums, stirring even the horses of Li Weifeng’s own guards, who snorted and stamped restlessly.

Li Weifeng’s guards asked, “My Lord, shall we pursue?”

Li Weifeng said, “What is the point of pursuing.”

He muttered to himself, “I wonder if she heard it all clearly…”

What a pity that Shiyi refused to tell her himself.

This hard-hearted woman. Did she even know everything Shiyi had done for her?

She knew nothing of it.

Li Gu had been asking since early morning whether Xie Yuzhang had arrived, and Fuchun told him: “Not yet.”

He went to the front hall to work through the pile of memorials, received several ministers who had matters to report, and in a brief interval asked again.

Fuchun’s forehead was faintly damp with sweat. “Not yet.”

Li Gu found it strange.

By the time he had finished reviewing a whole stack of memorials and looked up to ask again, cold sweat was running down Fuchun’s back. “At this hour… I fear she is not likely to come today.”

He stole a glance — the Emperor’s expression was impossible to read.

Li Gu said, “Understood.”

Once Fuchun had retreated, Li Gu murmured to himself, “That woman…”

She actually dared not to come.

He dipped his brush in ink, and the corners of his mouth curved upward in a smile.