“Since that’s the case, why did you save me repeatedly yesterday?”

Under the lamplight, Qing Xia’s entire body radiated a trace of sacred radiance. Her pale face was surrounded by a halo of dim yellow light. She pondered silently for a moment, then opened her mouth to speak: “In the end, didn’t you also not abandon me?”

Her voice was light and soft, as if gentle butterfly wings had landed on flower petals, releasing a faint fragrance. Chu Li’s heart stirred, and he picked up a cup of wine and drank it down. The tallow lamp in the corner burned quietly, occasionally bursting with crackling sparks.

“Qing Xia, I’m about to ascend the throne. Many things will be different. As for the past matters, just forget them.”

Qing Xia slightly narrowed her eyes, looking at Chu Li’s meaningful expression. A strand of hair from her forehead slowly fell down, covering her dark eyes.

“Whatever Qi’an can give you, I can give you too. Whatever he can do, I can do as well.”

Chu Li’s voice was clear and light, yet carried a trace of sincerity. He slowly extended his hand and gently brushed the loose hair from Qing Xia’s forehead behind her ear, saying in a deep voice: “The world is vast. If you have nowhere to go, why not stay here instead.”

Something seemed to be silently broken. Qing Xia’s heart suddenly surged with a trace of tenderness. She lifted her eyelids and looked straight at Chu Li. Tonight’s version of him was different from usual—no longer sharp, no longer sinister, no longer scheming and calculating with ulterior motives, no longer arrogantly domineering in issuing commands. He sat before her in loose robes and relaxed sash, speaking gently: if you have nowhere to go, why not stay here instead.

In Tang Xiaoshi’s brief life, the word “home” seemed never to have existed in her dictionary. Yet coming to this place and becoming entangled with this man, she heard such words.

“Chu Li, haven’t you always suspected that Zhuang Qingxia was a spy? If you keep me by your side, aren’t you afraid I’ll betray you?”

“Are you talking about the former Zhuang Qingxia?” Chu Li’s voice suddenly rang out in the air. Qing Xia’s eyes instantly widened as she looked at Chu Li’s lightly smiling face in disbelief.

“Qing Xia, is my acting too good, or am I really that foolish in your heart?” Chu Li smiled bitterly. “I don’t know where the problem lies. I sent countless people to investigate your background, but couldn’t find a single flaw. But how else should I explain your drastic personality change, explain how you suddenly became agile and skilled in martial arts? What exactly happened here that I don’t understand, or were you always acting in front of me before?”

Qing Xia was struck speechless, not knowing how to explain. Chu Li looked at her expression and laughed self-mockingly, saying: “Just as I said, forget about past matters. I don’t want to pursue any of your secrets. I only hope that the current you can stay in Nan Chu, stay by my side. Qing Xia, it’s been a long time since I trusted anyone. This time, I want to try.”

Qing Xia slowly lowered her head and finally asked softly: “Aren’t you afraid?”

“I am afraid,” Chu Li paused slightly, “so don’t betray me.”

Chu Li stood up and walked slowly toward the door. Qing Xia quietly rose and suddenly called out: “Chu Li!”

Chu Li’s body stiffened and he stopped.

“If one day I truly betray you, will you kill me?”

Time seemed to freeze in an instant, everything became blurred. After a very long time, Chu Li finally said lightly but definitively: “Yes. So I will kill all those who might cause you to betray me, leaving you no chance to leave me.”

The carved nanmu wood door was slowly pushed open. Outside, attendants draped Chu Li in a heavy fur coat, and the group’s silhouettes gradually disappeared into the cold night.

Qing Xia stood in place. The wind in the darkness blew gently against her body. She suddenly remembered Princess Jiayun’s words from that morning and smiled silently to herself: would he kill all those who might cause her to betray him?

Among the attendants who came with Chu Li, Yang Feng’s figure was indeed absent.

Under the moon, everything was desolate. The entire earth was covered with thick winter frost.

“Xu Quan,” Chu Li suddenly called out with a smile while riding his horse, asking: “What do you think would happen if your master charged into the Qi Kingdom’s embassy right now and killed Qi’an?”

“Your Highness!” Xu Quan was greatly alarmed. He suddenly pulled tight his war horse’s reins, jumped down from the horse in one movement, knelt prostrate on the ground, and said in a deep voice: “When two countries are at war, they do not execute envoys, let alone that Prince Qi came to offer congratulations.”

“Haha!” Chu Li laughed heartily, as if in his twenty-odd years he had never laughed so freely. His voice carried tremendous undisguised joy: “Look how frightened you are.”

In the dark night, the magnificent war horse suddenly reared up and galloped forward. Chu Li laughed loudly: “Sooner or later, I will take his head openly and honorably!”

Just as the third watch drum finished beating, Qing Xia’s figure flashed out of the lakeside pavilion like a phantom. The empty streets of Nan Chu were deathly silent. White mist drifted back and forth on the cold, deserted roads. Qing Xia hid in the shadows, running and leaping as lightly and nimbly as a wildcat.

Chu Li had witnessed her skills and knew that ordinary guards couldn’t contain her, so he simply didn’t post any guards. Everyone in the lakeside pavilion had gone to sleep, and Qing Xia easily left the southern part of the city, rushing swiftly toward the prison in the eastern district.

She had barely been gone an hour when a large procession of court ceremonial officials marched grandly through the gates of the lakeside pavilion. Soon after, news that the soon-to-be Empress Zhuang Qingxia had disappeared again reached the towering Eastern Palace hall.

Chu Li stood straight in the great hall wearing bright yellow ceremonial robes, a golden dragon crown on his head, and an eight-treasure jade belt around his waist. Beside him, ceremonial officials from the Imperial Observatory held the imperial jade seal and the empress’s phoenix seal. Everything was prepared. Nan Chu, which had long suffered under the rule of the previous generation’s incompetent emperor, would soon welcome the reign of a new monarch. Chu Li had been smiling constantly—he hadn’t smiled like this in many years. Xu Quan, the guard standing beside him, knew that the imperial throne had long been firmly grasped in Chu Li’s hands. The reason Chu Li was so happy was simply because he had let go of something that had been troubling his heart.

At this very moment, when the ceremonial official from the Imperial Observatory who had gone to the lakeside pavilion to deliver the decree returned in panic, all the ministers prostrated themselves on the ground in fear, their bodies trembling slightly. Chu Li’s expression remained calm, though the muscles on his face twitched slightly. Soon after, a scout from the Black Guard’s Secret Intelligence Division carefully approached, whispered in Chu Li’s ear, then retreated.

Chu Li’s expression remained unchanged, his spine straight, showing not the slightest waver or reaction. He slowly walked to a trembling ceremonial official. The white-haired Imperial Observatory official’s entire body shook like a sieve, holding a tray bearing bright yellow phoenix brocade. On the brocade, the empress’s phoenix seal—symbol of the nation’s mother—glittered with enchanting brilliant light.

Chu Li paid no attention to the ministers kneeling around him. He simply slowly extended his hand and tightly grasped that warm phoenix seal, then clenched it, raised it high, and opened his palm. Amid the loud cries of all the ceremonial officials, the warm, rich phoenix seal crashed to the ground with a bang. The fragile jade shattered with a resonant crack in the great tent, fragments flying in all directions.

“Your Highness!” Uniform kowtowing sounds rang out in unison. Elder Huang, the director of the Imperial Observatory, even began to cry, sorrowfully gathering up the broken jade fragments piece by piece.

“It’s been many years since I trusted anyone. This time, I wanted to try.”

Fate often hangs by a thread. Missing that one moment means missing an entire lifetime.

Those not caught in the situation perhaps will never understand.

※※※

With her previous experience, Qing Xia skillfully infiltrated the heavenly prison this time, encountering almost no guards along the way. The lax security made Qing Xia feel even more that danger lurked everywhere. She advanced cautiously and carefully. When she finally penetrated into the underground prison cells, Qing Xia saw Noble Consort Xiao dressed in gorgeous robes, and she quickly realized that perhaps things weren’t as simple as she had thought.

She decisively turned to leave, but chaotic footsteps suddenly thundered like death knells from the corridor behind her. Noble Consort Xiao suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, saying coldly: “You wretch! If you hadn’t left the palace to inform on me that day, how would I have fallen to this state today? Even as a ghost, I won’t spare you!”

A cold dagger suddenly aimed straight at her heart and stabbed down fiercely. Qing Xia quickly dodged forward and grabbed Noble Consort Xiao’s arm, but she was still a step too late. A stream of fresh blood immediately spurted out. Noble Consort Xiao’s face was deathly pale, her bright red lips covered in blood. Her hands suddenly gripped Qing Xia’s clothing tightly, her eyes shooting out intense hatred as she said in a low voice: “Come to hell with me!”

“Who goes there! Release the Noble Consort!” Bright lights instantly blazed up. Several stern shouts suddenly rang out, and cold blade edges aimed at Qing Xia’s snow-white neck. Countless torches burned fiercely, crackling and snapping. Qing Xia raised her head. Her black night clothes were covered in the thick smell of fresh blood. In her arms lay Noble Consort Xiao, who had died with eyes wide open. Qing Xia gripped that cold dagger and silently looked up, watching a golden deerskin boot slowly step onto the dusty ground of the prison cell.

In the brightly lit corridor, Chu Li wore bright yellow brocade, his eyebrows extending to his temples, his eyes like stars. He slowly emerged from the corridor, his brow tightly furrowed, his eyes seemingly containing a tremendous storm gathering within—appearing calm yet also pained, yet only silently watching the blood-stained Qing Xia, then slowly turning toward that woman lying on the ground in gorgeous robes, who had given birth to him and raised him, then repeatedly pushed him into the fire pit.

“Your Highness, Noble Consort has expired,” Xu Quan’s voice suddenly rang out.

At this moment, two Black Guards also ran into the corridor, reporting in deep voices: “Your Highness, someone broke into the western prison. We lost over eighty men. The Prince of Nanhuai was rescued.”

“Your Highness!” A loud cry suddenly rang out. Hurried footsteps and the clanging of armor echoed throughout the prison. A Black Guard in black battle armor knelt heavily on the ground, his right arm dripping with blood, reporting in a deep voice: “The Qi Kingdom envoys broke through the southern city gate. There are people providing assistance thirty li outside the city. General Wang led troops out of the city in pursuit and has already engaged the Qi forces.”