Good things kept coming one after another. In the third month, Qin Zhaorong gave birth to the Third Prince; in the fourth month, Zheng Zhaoyi and Su Zhaoyuan delivered the Fourth Prince and Fifth Prince in quick succession.

The imperial harem could be called a bumper harvest. The ministers finally stopped nagging the Emperor about selecting consorts and producing heirs.

Li Gu’s shoulders instantly felt lighter.

By now it was the beginning of the sixth month, and summer had arrived. The night markets of Yunjing had begun operating through the night, the aromas of all manner of foods drifting through the streets. Even though night had fallen, the streets remained bustling and lively.

Fortunately, the night markets were not located on the main roads, so they posed no obstacle to galloping horses.

When the thunderous sound of violent hoofbeats drew near, old Yunjing residents who had lived through the military disasters of recent years were so frightened that meat pies dropped from their hands onto the ground, while others knocked over their bowls, spilling cold noodles across the pavement.

Fortunately, the riders flew past along the main road without stopping. People near the street entrances could not help but point and whisper, curious which household dared to send so many riders charging through the capital like this.

There were also those with sharper insight who realized the number of these riders was unsettlingly large. Some went of their own accord to report the matter to the Capital Prefecture and the Left and Right Gold Martial Guards.

Both the Deputy Magistrate of the Capital Prefecture and Hu Jin, Commander of the Inner Guards, were roused by the commotion.

The two of them hurried out, and by the time they arrived, their subordinates had already investigated: “It is Princess Yongning who has brought people to seal off Xiaoyao Marquis Manor.”

The two men drew in a breath and asked, “How many people did she bring?”

The subordinate replied, “Approximately seventy to eighty.”

A first-rank princess was entitled to a full complement of two hundred guards. In practice, of Xie Yuzhang’s two hundred guards, sixty to seventy were disabled soldiers who had returned from Mobei, occupying those roster positions. Of the remaining hundred or so, not all were on duty every day — they rotated shifts in the normal course of things. Mustered in haste, she had gathered fewer than a hundred, but it was more than enough to seal off Xiaoyao Marquis Manor.

The matter concerned Xie Yuzhang and Xiaoyao Marquis Manor, so neither Hu Jin nor the Deputy Magistrate dared treat it lightly. They immediately made their way there.

Guarding the main gate of Xiaoyao Marquis Manor was none other than Yuan Jin, the leader of Princess Yongning’s foreign guards. Because he shared a name with Hu Jin, Hu Jin had a vivid impression of him.

“Yuan Jin!” Hu Jin dismounted and demanded, “What is going on?”

“My lord.” Yuan Jin had long received Xie Yuzhang’s instructions. He clasped his hands in salute and said, “The Princess is attending to a family matter. The Princess has instructed that if any of the lords are disturbed, she begs your indulgence. Once she has finished, she will enter the palace immediately to beg forgiveness.”

Hu Jin and the Deputy Magistrate looked at each other, both at a loss. The Deputy Magistrate said with difficulty, “Commander Hu, what do you make of this?”

If the princess’s family matter were an ordinary one, Hu Jin and the Deputy Magistrate could have turned a blind eye. The trouble was that Xie Yuzhang’s surname was Xie, her “family” was Xiaoyao Marquis Manor, and inside lived the former Zhao Emperor and Crown Prince. This “family matter” was therefore no ordinary matter.

If anything went wrong, no one could bear the consequences.

Hu Jin immediately said, “May I trouble the Deputy Magistrate to keep watch here while I ride to the palace to report to His Majesty?”

The Deputy Magistrate nodded. “That is the prudent course. Commander Hu, go quickly. I will remain here.”

Hu Jin mounted at once and rode straight for the palace.

Inside the main hall of the Marquis Manor, the Xiaoyao Marquis had just been doused with cold water and dragged in. He had barely recovered his wits when the reality of the situation struck him, leaving him dazed and bewildered. Madam Yu sat on the floor with a numb expression, clutching her husband’s hand. The Eighth Prince and Ninth Prince stood nearby looking helpless and at a loss.

Xie Yuzhang looked at the already-cooling body of the former Crown Prince. When her gaze turned to the Fifth Prince, it was ice-cold and devoid of feeling, as though she were looking at a dead man.

The Fifth Prince’s hands were bound; he knelt on the floor trembling uncontrollably, unable to fathom how things tonight had come to this.

To be caught on the spot like this.

What the Fifth Prince did not know, of course, was that after the Lu Clan in the south had propped up the Jing Wang line, Xie Yuzhang had immediately persuaded Madam Yu and planted her own people inside Xiaoyao Marquis Manor.

Not only that — in the narrow alley behind the manor, she had quietly purchased a house and stationed twenty guards there specifically to keep watch over the manor. All of it was in preparation for this day.

But guarding against something that might never come, whose timing was entirely unknown, was truly an immense burden.

Xie Yuzhang’s guard lowered his head and reported: “Today, Wu Lang invited the Heir Apparent to drink wine in the garden. The Heir Apparent, as usual, became heavily intoxicated. Wu Lang supported him and walked with him toward the pond. I was hiding behind a tree keeping watch, but I did not expect to see Wu Lang push the Heir Apparent into the pond.”

“I knew at once that something was wrong, so I immediately showed myself and cried out, alerting everyone. But the Heir Apparent was already deeply drunk, and by the time he was pulled out, it was already…” He stole a glance at Xie Yuzhang’s expression and continued, “It was already too late. I and several brothers immediately subdued Wu Lang, then called in the brothers from the house behind the manor and sealed both the front and rear gates. I also sent someone to inform the Princess.”

These had been handpicked people, and the man gave a clear and concise account of the whole matter.

Xie Yuzhang said, “Understood. Step out.”

The man withdrew. The hall was left with only the members of the Xie family and a few of Xie Yuzhang’s most trusted guards.

After a long moment of bewilderment, the Xiaoyao Marquis finally asked, “You — why did you…”

The Fifth Prince cried out loudly, “Father! Do not believe her! Third Brother slipped and fell into the pond himself — I was simply so frightened that I failed to call for help in time! Father, believe me, believe me!”

The Xiaoyao Marquis looked toward Xie Yuzhang with uncertainty.

This daughter’s expression was cold and remote, and those icy eyes were ones he no longer recognized. Was this person who had returned from Mobei truly his daughter?

Xie Yuzhang looked at the Fifth Prince the way one looks at a dead man.

In her previous life, the Crown Prince had drowned in a drunken stupor. She had never once connected that incident to the Fifth Prince’s later flight to the south.

In this life, the first seed of suspicion had been planted nine years ago at the northern frontier, when the old Khan had attempted to force his way into her tent and, the following morning, this Fifth Brother of hers had falsely claimed to have been drunk.

But that had been so far from today, and suspicion could only remain suspicion. Many people and many things had changed since then, and Xie Yuzhang had not known whether the event would come to pass again.

Yet the momentum of fate proved so powerful that it had come to pass all the same.

Now, having lived through two lifetimes and knowing how things unfolded, Xie Yuzhang understood everything.

A cold laugh escaped her — unsettling in its sound, unsettling in its gaze. She stepped forward, and the Fifth Prince instinctively shuffled backward on his knees.

She fixed her gaze on him and said slowly, “Did you imagine that with the Crown Prince gone, the Xin Prefecture Gao Clan would enthrone you as Emperor?”

The Xiaoyao Marquis, the Eighth Prince, and the Ninth Prince all startled, and when they looked at the Fifth Prince again, their expressions had changed entirely.

The Fifth Prince’s face went pale.

Xie Yuzhang continued, “The Lu Clan supported the Jing Wang line and used the banner of legitimate succession to suppress the Zheng and Gao Clans. The Gao Clan then sought someone with a stronger claim to legitimacy than Jing Wang, and so fixed their eyes on Xiaoyao Marquis Manor. Most likely because Father’s mind was clouded day and night, and Third Brother was perpetually lost in drink, they had no recourse, and so first made contact with you — is that not so?”

“But you were not what they wanted. The legitimate successor of Great Zhao is, first, Father, and then Third Brother. So you killed Third Brother.” She stared at the Fifth Prince and said, “And what comes next? Father would be the next to die, would he not?”

In her previous life, the Crown Prince had first drowned in a drunken stupor, and then the Last Emperor, overcome with grief, had taken an overdose of elixir pills and been poisoned by them, left lying in bed able only to drool, unable to speak. After that, the Fifth Prince had vanished from Xiaoyao Marquis Manor. Months later, the Gao Clan in the south had acclaimed him as the legitimate successor of Great Zhao, in order to oppose the Lu Clan.

Li Gu had been furious.

From Xiaoyao Marquis Manor to Xie Family Village, with the exception of the Last Emperor who lay paralyzed in bed, every male member had been arrested and interrogated.

That Emperor — he had cut his way through the world, and his heart had always been as cold and hard as iron. He had already been more than generous and lenient toward the Xie family, yet the Xie family had betrayed that generosity — generosity worthy of being recorded in history as benevolence.

Beneath the three instruments of torture, rivers of blood flowed.

So many men of the Xie family died in prison. The three male members of Prince Shou’s household survived only because the Emperor remembered the late Xie Cairen, who had died of illness.

Nearly all the Xie men perished. Those who survived dragged on their existence with bodies broken and maimed by brutal torture. The Eighth Prince had both legs shattered; the Ninth Prince suffered persistent incontinence and was perpetually foul-smelling.

Xiaoyao Marquis Manor had been like a tomb, day by day draining her vitality, until she finally collapsed.

The Xiaoyao Marquis’s expression shifted. He was a man who treasured his life above all else and was terrified of death — having survived this long through great difficulty, upon hearing that someone intended to kill him, how could he not be furious?

He lunged forward and rained blows on the Fifth Prince’s head: “Traitorous wretch! You traitorous wretch!”

But years of elixir-taking had left his body frail. After a few blows, he could manage no more, wheezing and gasping for breath.

The Fifth Prince was beaten until blood streamed from his nose, crumpling to the ground.

The Xiaoyao Marquis caught his breath, stood upright, and said, “Baohua, the Gao Clan…”

His eyes gleamed with a fervor Xie Yuzhang had not seen in a long time — one might even call it fanaticism.

Xie Yuzhang was taken aback.

At a time like this, he still harbored these absurd fantasies!

Xie Yuzhang ground her teeth and said, “Has Father not gone hungry enough in the Hall of Purple Radiance!”

The Xiaoyao Marquis’s illusions shattered, and the fanaticism faded from his eyes. He was no fool like the Fifth Prince — he had once been an Emperor himself, and he understood full well how those who held military power and dominated their own regions could ever truly enthrone another Emperor above themselves. He would be nothing but a puppet.

He had tasted what it meant to be a puppet.

His body seemed to cave in upon itself, his head bowing deeply, as though the will to live had been drawn out of him.

Xie Yuzhang walked quickly to the Fifth Prince’s side and crouched down. She drew the dagger at her waist and said tonelessly, “I need to know where the Gao Clan’s people are and how to contact them.”

The Gao Clan was the last glimmer of hope in the Fifth Prince’s life. He said, “I — I do not know…”

Xie Yuzhang raised the dagger and plunged it into his shoulder. The Fifth Prince let out a loud, agonized scream.

The Eighth Prince and Ninth Prince stared at Xie Yuzhang as though she were some kind of monster. Even Madam Yu, whose expression had been blank and lifeless, lifted her head.

Xie Yuzhang said nothing, withdrew the dagger, and plunged it into the Fifth Prince a second time. She knew her brother well enough — she did not believe he could withstand three cuts.

As expected, after only two, the Fifth Prince could bear no more. He cried out loudly, “I will talk, I will talk!”

When he had finished speaking, Xie Yuzhang immediately told one of her trusted guards, “Go now, take people with you!”

One of her trusted men received the order and strode out.

Xie Yuzhang then asked, “Are there any Gao Clan operatives hiding within the manor at this moment?”

The Fifth Prince groaned, “I — I do not know.”

Xie Yuzhang called in the person she had previously planted inside the manor and ordered him, “Take people and search the manor for anyone suspicious.”

That man also received the order and left.

With the situation beyond hope, both the Fifth Prince and the Xiaoyao Marquis sat ashen-faced. Only the Eighth and Ninth Princes wore the hollow look of those who felt none of it concerned them.

The hall fell silent for a moment. Xie Yuzhang said, “What happened tonight cannot be concealed. I must give the Emperor an account of this.”

Xie Yuzhang had never considered covering any of this up. The household guards of Xiaoyao Marquis Manor were less protectors of the manor than they were its wardens. They were Li Gu’s people.

Whatever happened within these walls, he would know by the next morning at the latest.

The moment the word “Emperor” left her lips, the expression of every person in the hall shifted — including that of Madam Yu, who had been moving through life like a hollow shell.

Madam Yu’s lips trembled as she asked, “Baohua, how will the Emperor deal with us?” She still had children. She had clung to life until now solely for the sake of her children.

Xie Yuzhang said, “I do not know.”

The Xiaoyao Marquis said in a hoarse voice, “We had no treasonous intent! It was all this beast’s doing — this beast has ruined us!”

The Eighth and Ninth Princes were terrified and both cried out, “Baohua, do something — think of a way!”

It was as if they had reminded the Xiaoyao Marquis. He grew agitated, seized Xie Yuzhang’s arm, and shook her: “Baohua, go beg the Emperor! I have heard you often enter the palace — does the Emperor not favor you greatly? Go beg him, beg him properly!”

A wave of revulsion surged through Xie Yuzhang. She wrenched her arm away sharply, and the force of it sent him staggering to the floor.

She had indeed been deliberately guarding her person all this time, refusing to surrender herself to Li Gu — precisely for this day.

But hearing it said aloud by the Xiaoyao Marquis now, she found it nothing but laughable and shameful.

Beneath his mask on the night of the Lantern Festival, those eyes had been full of stars — bright and dazzling.

Yet she had been scheming against him the entire time.

From beginning to end.

Xie Yuzhang’s tears fell.