Mei Mountain Camp.

Pei Jinglun descended from the heights and entered a hidden chamber. Behind the great Shu army banner, a trapdoor concealed the entrance to a secret passage — lift it, and there was a ladder leading down.

Below was a storeroom, stocked with arrows and other weapons. Kept here, there was no fear of an enemy destroying them. But this was merely one such cache serving the uppermost tier. In truth, every tier had chambers like this — and more than one.

Oil lamps lined both sides of the passage, keeping it from feeling too dark, yet spending long hours down here was bound to create a kind of suffocating weight.

Yang Jing knew that well enough.

Pei Jinglun entered a room to find Yang Jing sitting in a daze. The moment Yang Jing saw Pei Jinglun, he scrambled to his feet.

“General Pei.”

Yang Jing composed a smile and called out a greeting.

“Your Majesty need not sit.” Pei Jinglun pulled up a chair and settled himself across from Yang Jing. “You are still an emperor. There is no need to perform such humility and deference in front of me. However sincere it looks, it only comes across as bitter irony.”

“Yes, yes, the general is quite right.”

Pei Jinglun looked at him. Yang Jing immediately closed his mouth.

Pei Jinglun said, “My father sent you to me. Have you thought about why?”

Yang Jing shook his head. “I do not dare to speculate.”

Pei Jinglun said, “You would do better to speak plainly. You are merely frightened — you are not stupid.”

Yang Jing went quiet.

“You are rather pitiable.”

Pei Jinglun said, “Born to the fate of an emperor, and yet now you are like a dog begging for scraps…”

He did not say the last word aloud.

After a pause he continued, “I have not come to humiliate you. I am here to tell you that my father’s intention is this: that you, as the Emperor of Great Chu, should die here. Die in a manner that reflects well on you.”

Yang Jing’s composure finally cracked.

Though he had already guessed, in all likelihood, why Pei Qi had left him at the Mei Mountain Camp rather than taking him to Mei City — hearing it said plainly still made his heart lurch.

“I beg the general to spare my life.”

Yang Jing did not hesitate for an instant. With a thud he dropped to his knees.

Pei Jinglun sighed. “You are an emperor.”

What could Yang Jing do? He stayed on his knees, knocking his head against the floor again and again, just as countless subjects had once done before him, begging for his mercy.

“You should never have offended Li Chi.”

Pei Jinglun said slowly. “Your most foolish decision was coming to Shu. Had you stayed in Jingzhou, in Da Xing City, Li Chi would never have had you killed. But by fleeing, you gave him a reason. And my father bringing you back here — he only ever needed you to die at the right moment.”

Pei Jinglun rose from his chair. “Over the next few days I will have people bring you more good things to eat. Do not make things hard on yourself.”

With that, he turned to leave. Yang Jing wrapped both arms around his leg.

Yang Jing said nothing. He just held on with all his strength, those blood-red eyes staring fixedly up at Pei Jinglun.

Pei Jinglun still spoke with perfect calm. “This way is better. This way you keep your body whole.”

Yang Jing went limp, slumping to the ground in a heap.

“Eat.”

Pei Jinglun stepped toward the door.

At the threshold, Pei Jinglun turned back and looked at Yang Jing. “When you were still Crown Prince, were you happy?”

Yang Jing instinctively shook his head.

Pei Jinglun made a sound of acknowledgment. “I thought not. Would you congratulate me? It seems I am about to become Crown Prince.”

Yang Jing sat there — a man not yet dead, yet with every flicker of life draining rapidly away.

“Perhaps…”

Pei Jinglun held Yang Jing’s eyes. “Perhaps I should envy you. Because even now, at the very end, there is someone giving you a final shred of dignity. When my time comes to die — who will be there to give me that?”

He turned and left.

In the passageway, the Shu soldiers bowed to him and addressed him as “Great General.”

“Call me Your Highness.”

Pei Jinglun walked on, his voice vaguely numb. “I want to hear what it sounds like — whether it feels like anything.”

The soldiers stared blankly. They could only stare blankly at him.

—