◎The City Wall◎

The jailer who had followed Song Shiyan in produced a key and unlocked the iron ring from around her neck.

Song Shiyan seized the shackles on her wrist and, without a word of explanation, dragged her out.

His grip was strong, and the force of it made her stumble a step.

Qu You had not seen Song Shiyan in a long while. He had come in such haste today that he had not even changed out of his dragon robe, its dark gold embroidery striking amid the gloom of the prison.

He pulled her along through the dim corridor. Many of the civil officials imprisoned there, seeing him, hurled curses through their bars. Song Shiyan paid them no mind at all, and a smile even curled at the corner of his shadowed, malicious face.

He turned his head and said, soft and quiet, “Do any of you gentlemen recall the man who cursed me most viciously the last time I came? He has since lost his tongue and now serves as a eunuch in the palace. I brought him to see his former colleagues — he could not speak a word, and now spends his days longing for death.”

The moment he finished speaking, the prison fell utterly silent.

Song Shiyan pulled her along further, and as they reached the end of the corridor, he could not resist turning back to add, “I would never let him die. Isn’t living far more tormenting? Ha ha ha ha…”

His dark, gleeful laughter echoed through the entire prison, leaving everyone within trembling with unease.

Qu You had not seen such fierce sunlight in a long time; as he dragged her out through the gates, she could not help but squint against it.

Song Shiyan hauled her onto his horse with one arm, the clatter of soldiers’ armor sounding behind him.

The capital was no longer the city she remembered from before her imprisonment. Beneath the clear blue sky, every household’s doors stood shut tight, and not a single passerby walked the streets — only patrols of soldiers bearing iron spears.

She knew then that Yan Fu’s army must already be encamped just outside the city.

Even in such dire straits, Song Shiyan noticed her gaze, lowered his eyes, and gave her a soft smile. “It’s been many days apart. Did Youyou miss me?”

If her memory served, Song Shiyan should now be leading her toward the city wall.

Qu You’s face went pale at once, and she did not answer. Song Shiyan sighed. “Once you were so eager to see my downfall — and now you won’t even speak to me?”

She closed her eyes and steadied herself for a moment. “You are already at the end of your rope, and yet you can still laugh.”

The moment she finished, Song Shiyan only laughed harder.

“So you truly know everything already… just out of prison, and one glance was enough to understand my situation. To think, back then, Zhou Tan feigned his departure and had you trick me into stealing the imperial seal — what a fine move that was. When I had you thrown into the Ministry of Justice’s prison, I never imagined he would truly manage to find the Song family’s rightful heir.”

The horse stopped. He lifted her down, half pulling, half dragging her up onto the city wall.

“Father trusted Zhou Tan so completely — if he knew that Zhou Tan and his beloved teacher had been secretly hiding a descendant of Prince Jing behind his back all along, he would surely be furious enough to rise from the dead.” Song Shiyan spoke as he walked, seeming to find the thought more amusing the more he considered it. “Grandfather wanted Prince Jing’s line to seize the throne from Father and from me — truly a deep and calculating scheme. Every last one of us in this bloodline is nothing but a stark raving lunatic.”

He brought her up onto the wall, gripped her by the throat, and forced her to look outward.

The land before the city gates lay desolate, though traces of that day’s fierce battle could still faintly be seen. On the wind came the distant neighing of horses and the murmur of men — clearly, somewhere in the dense forest not far off, a great army lay encamped.

Half-suspended over the edge, Qu You immediately recalled the moment she had fallen from this very wall — Zhou Tan reaching out, futilely trying to catch her, blood mixing with tears on his cheeks, his face wrenched with unbearable grief.

She dared not think of it any further, and struggled a little.

Song Shiyan, thinking she feared he meant to throw her from the wall, gave a soft laugh and pulled her back — a touch too roughly, so that Qu You fell hard, sitting before him, unable to rise again for a long moment.

He simply lifted the hem of his imperial robe and sat down beside her.

Soldiers passing by, busy cleaning their arrowheads, bowed respectfully upon seeing him there, though they could not fully mask the confusion and fear on their faces. Song Shiyan waved a careless hand, and they scurried off at once.

The sun gradually sank westward.

Qu You took a few labored breaths, then suddenly asked, “Are you afraid?”

Song Shiyan blinked in surprise, then broke into the lazy, mocking smile most often seen on his face. “What would I have to fear?”

“So you are afraid after all,” Qu You said, the corner of her mouth curling. “If you weren’t, why bring me along with you? Keeping me close is simply your last talisman to save your own life.”

Song Shiyan said darkly, “It seems the punishments in the Ministry of Justice weren’t severe enough after all. You look quite lively — nothing like that pitiful, blood-soaked wretch from before.”

“But what life of yours could I possibly save?” Qu You continued, unbothered. “Surely you don’t think that holding me hostage will force them to withdraw their troops? It isn’t as though Zhou Tan is the only one out there…”

“Silence! Silence!” He suddenly grew violent, as though she had struck some raw nerve, all his prior languid ease vanishing at once. “Who gave you leave to guess at my thoughts? Who gave you leave to speak to me this way? Who do you think you are?”

Qu You, her throat gripped tight in his hand, had no strength left to resist; her cheeks flushed red at once.

“Let… let go of me…”

Her nails, long uncut, tore a deep red mark across the pale jade skin of Song Shiyan’s hand. As though waking from a dream, he suddenly released her, and seeing her face flushed crimson, coughing violently, he seemed almost at a loss, like a child caught in wrongdoing. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean to.”

Qu You, gasping for breath, looked up at him and caught a faint, faint scent of herbal medicine on him.

Song Shiyan, his eyes reddened, called out to her. “Youyou…”

She turned her face away from his outstretched hand. “You had me thrown into the Ministry of Justice’s prison, tortured me at will, and now you play the part of the aggrieved… You are so utterly inconsistent, I truly do not understand you. What is it that you actually want?”

“What do I want?” Song Shiyan repeated the question distantly, and a look of unhinged, intoxicated obsession crept over his face. “The year I turned seventeen, at a great banquet in the palace, I watched with my own eyes as my second elder brother tortured and killed one of his servants right in front of me, then cast the body into the lake — the blood even splashed onto my boots… But afterward, when the matter came to light, my second brother had bribed everyone in the garden and pinned the blame entirely on me. Father would not hear a single word of my defense, and had me struck fifty times with the court rod.”

He leaned back against the wall, at ease, letting the setting sun tint his lashes a pale gold, looking, of all things, almost fragile. “…Do you think I was a villain from the very start? No one ever believed a word I said. Father was cold and indifferent, my mother died young, I was named crown prince at the age of five, and my brothers watched me like vultures circling carrion, each day hoping only to find some fault in me. In this vast imperial city, not a single soul was willing to protect me. If I hadn’t resorted to certain methods, do you think I would have lived to see this day?”

Qu You suddenly recalled that Song Xixuan had once mentioned this very incident to her, describing the crown prince’s conduct that day.

He had said he’d witnessed the crown prince tortured and killed a servant with his own eyes, his methods cruel — he had no reason to lie. But now, with only Song Shiyan and herself present, would Song Shiyan also lie to her? What purpose would that serve?

Song Shiyan took a deep breath and continued, eyes closed. “After that incident, I stopped expecting anyone to protect me ever again… For a time, I even grew so despondent I thought it might be better if Father simply deposed me — perhaps then, no longer crown prince, I might receive a little more of his affection. And so I acted out recklessly, again and again, but he remained fixated on the legitimacy of his heir. Whenever I erred, he would shield me from the outside world, only to punish me savagely in private.”

“Given all that, what is left for me to fear?” Song Shiyan laughed softly. “Even if I killed Su Huaixu at Fanlou, he would only find some way to silence the witnesses and placate the Su family, all to preserve the dignity and honor of the imperial household…”

Qu You forced the words out through gritted teeth. “He wasn’t only protecting the crown prince — you are his son as well…”

“I am his son, but I am the crown prince of the Eastern Palace first and foremost!” Song Shiyan cut in. “To guard against me, he forbade me from marrying into my own teacher’s family, promoted Fu Qingnian instead, and set the two of us against each other for years on end. That man styles himself a paragon of integrity, yet his belly is full of scheming filth, his methods viler even than mine! All these years, I have not slept a single peaceful night, always dreading he would find some fault and have me beaten with the court rod before all the assembled court — beaten until the pain was unbearable, all dignity stripped away, carried back to the Eastern Palace like a dog, and then made to thank the emperor’s grace on top of it!”

“You ask what I want. I want power — supreme, absolute power, with all the world bowing before me. I too want to sit in the great hall, holding the power of life and death over all men! Only power can grant me freedom, let me draw breath beneath the crushing weight of the throne, let me live with dignity and honor… let me be loved and trusted unconditionally by all. I am the crown prince! Is that truly so greedy a wish?”

“Freedom is not license to do as one pleases,” Qu You said coldly. “Power is not slaughter — it is standing above the clouds while still walking among men; it is remembering, even while striding forward, to bow one’s head in pity for the ants beneath one’s feet; it is being willing, no matter one’s station, to bend down and listen to the distant weeping amid the world’s clamor… it is standing within vermilion gates and still catching the stench of rotting flesh, still seeing the bleached bones scattered along the roadside!”

“Do you know… why I was able to foresee, so long ago, that you would come to a day like this?”

Song Shiyan looked at her, his eyes red.

Qu You raised a hand and pointed at the soldiers pacing back and forth atop the wall, her voice low and firm. “They — the palace maids and eunuchs of the imperial court, the common people of the capital beneath this wall, and all the people of this land — are not lifeless pieces on your chessboard. They are people. However clever your schemes, the hearts of men are unfathomable; the smallest sliver of self-interest in every one of them is enough to gather into mountains and oceans, enough to capsize your every careful calculation. If you do not hold them in your heart, you will surely find yourself trampled beneath their feet in the end…”

“Well said!” Song Shiyan interrupted her, seizing the chain at her wrist and yanking her toward him. “What a pity no one ever taught me such fine words. You speak so grandly and righteously — but are you truly so certain that the man beyond the city gates, that army, your own husband, understands this principle as well?”

“Today… if it were your husband standing atop this wall instead, could you still speak with such lofty conviction?”

“Of course!” Qu You answered swiftly, without a moment’s hesitation. “Do you know the greatest difference between you and Zhou Tan? The greatest difference is this — even if he were driven to a place of suffering far worse than yours, I know, without a shadow of doubt, that he would never drink the blood of the innocent to consecrate his own blade.”

“Life and death are fated. But I trust him.”

Song Shiyan fell silent for a moment, then let out a scornful laugh. “Fine. Fine. What a fine couple, what fine devotion. If only…”

He did not finish the thought. He lifted his gaze and turned to look out beyond the wall, where the red sun had already sunk to the horizon.

“Do you hear the hoofbeats on the wind?” he asked with a smile. “At dusk, they will move to attack the city.”

Qu You followed his gaze and looked as well.

“I have the armies of Xishao at my command — I imagine you already know this. If I rely on them to fight this battle, then when it is over, either they will all lie dead, or I will have handed the capital over with my own hands. I truly did not wish to be driven to such an extreme. I had thought, instead, to hang you and all the civil officials remaining within the city from the gates, and tell Zhou Tan — for every step his army takes, I will kill one of you; for every ten steps, I will slaughter an entire household.”

“There will always come an end to killing,” Qu You said, showing no fear, only watching him quietly, a faint trace of pity even in her gaze. “You have clearly already seen your own ending. All this talk to me is nothing but the bitterness of a man who cannot accept his fate. You may carry the blood of Xishao in your veins, but how could they ever truly count you as one of their own? And how could you possibly be at peace, knowing your name will be reviled in the history books for ten thousand generations to come?”

Song Shiyan reached out and stroked her blood-stained face; the cold jade ring on his finger made her flinch. In the depths of his eyes, so dark they seemed almost blue-black, Qu You saw her own reflection — and before she could react, his hands had already begun to slide downward, closing once more around her throat.

“What of it. There is no turning back now, regardless.”

This time, there was none of that dazed, intoxicated madness on Song Shiyan’s face — instead, he was utterly calm. He truly intended to kill her.

“I know that, win or lose, today marks my death… Before he died, Father told me that Zhou Tan is Uncle Xiao’s son.”

His grip did not tighten. Qu You pulled against it weakly, coughing out, “He…”

“Uncle Xiao once saved my life. Father made me promise, back then, to treat Uncle Xiao’s son as my own true brother. My own brother? Ha… All my true brothers died by my own hand. Since I cannot kill him, at least let him suffer a little instead — after all, he had such good fortune, managing to marry you even when he had nothing at all. I truly, truly envy him…”

“Killing me changes nothing. You know this — you are only deceiving yourself…”

The suffocating feeling grew worse than before. Qu You heard a strange ringing in her ears; she swung the shackles still bound to her wrists and slammed them hard against Song Shiyan’s wristbone. He flinched with pain but did not release his grip, only tilting his head slightly, his dark eyes filled with a violent, brooding gloom, utterly devoid of any light.

The moment he tightened his grip again, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air.

A white-feathered arrow shot out from the shadows along the wall and struck the back of his hand directly. Whoever had loosed it had judged the shot with perfect precision — the arrowhead pierced barely through his palm, leaving Qu You entirely unharmed.

Song Shiyan’s expression changed drastically. Clutching his hand, he staggered back several steps. Just as he opened his mouth to call for guards, he saw a woman step slowly out from the shadows of the wall, a bow in one hand, the other reaching up to remove her hood.

Qu You was just as stunned as he was, and for a moment could not even find her voice.

Song Shiyan ground out through clenched teeth, “You…”

Li Yuanjun tilted her head and smiled faintly at him. “Your Highness, there’s no need for anger.”