Li Chi was on his way back from Ji Province to Chang’an. Before he had even entered the palace, he’d already heard the news of how Gao Xining had dealt with the Jinjiao envoys — and it delighted him enormously.

His wife, when she turned domineering, was genuinely magnificent.

Honestly, if he had been the one to handle the situation, it probably would not have turned out much differently. More accurately, it would have been almost exactly the same.

As Li Chi walked he said to Yu Jiuling: “Watch — the Censorate is going to impeach your sister-in-law.”

Yu Jiuling snorted with laughter: “They’re not stupid. They might put on a little performance, but if any of them are foolish enough to not let it go and keep pressing on the Empress over this — the Adjudicator’s Office will be the ones pressing on *them*.”

Li Chi said: “Don’t talk nonsense. Your sister-in-law isn’t that kind of person.”

Yu Jiuling said: “The Empress is certainly not. But Zhang Tang is. And every last person in the Adjudicator’s Office — after working under the Grand Adjudicator all these years — who among them could stand to see someone bully the Empress?”

Li Chi snorted again.

Walking behind Li Chi, Xu Ji had a deeply complicated expression. *This is a matter of enormous consequence,* he thought. *And His Majesty doesn’t seem to care at all.*

Then again, recalling how His Majesty had dismissed multiple Ministry of Rites officials before the Western Regions delegation had even arrived — because of the very same matter — Xu Ji understood well enough what Li Chi’s actual position was.

Still, from Xu Ji’s perspective, whatever could be said of the Empress, the two officials Gui Yuanshu and Jia Ruan still ought to face some form of reprimand. Surely.

But he didn’t dare raise it now. Not while His Majesty was so visibly delighted.

The moment Li Chi took his seat in the great hall — still barely settled in — sure enough, the Censorate stepped forward.

The Chief Censor of the Censorate, Gao Youlan, was famously iron-mouthed and steel-tongued — and famously immovable. Not just the civil and military officials currently present, but even Tang Pidi and Xiahou Zhuo — he had impeached them too, and without the slightest softening of his words.

There had been one occasion when he spotted Tang Pidi walking side by side with Li Chi — as equals — and he hadn’t held back for a moment. He went right up and told Tang Pidi that he had neither manners nor sense of hierarchy.

When Xiahou Zhuo had gone to visit his younger sister Xiahou Yuli in the inner palace — despite the Empress’s permission — Gao Youlan still subjected him to a thorough scolding.

So when every court official present watched Gao Youlan step out of line, each and every one of them widened their eyes.

More than a few had smiles forming on their faces — quietly imagining how Gao Youlan was about to turn his aim on the Empress.

“Your Majesty. This official has a memorial to present.”

Gao Youlan bowed.

Li Chi nodded. “Speak.”

Gao Youlan straightened and said: “This official wishes to impeach Her Majesty the Empress!”

The moment those words landed, the eyes of every court official present opened even wider. The excitement started to show on their faces — barely suppressed.

Some people were already wearing an expression that said: *here it is, here it is — we knew it was coming! Gao the Daring is Gao the Daring — it truly has arrived!*

Li Chi swept the hall with a look. *You lot of scoundrels — every single one of you loves to watch chaos and wish for more.*

Among this group, not a single one had been spared from one of Gao Youlan’s tongue-lashings at some point. Some had even said: *better to offend Zhang Tang than to offend Gao the Daring.* If Gao Youlan decided to nurse a grievance, he could impeach a single person six days in a row at court — and His Majesty couldn’t avoid it.

Once, when Li Chi had slipped away to Yan Laoshi’s home for a meal and helped turn the soil in the old man’s vegetable garden while he was there — Gao Youlan seized on it and would not let it go. In the end, he forced Li Chi to admit, before the assembled court, that he had made a mistake.

*A ruler may not act as he pleases at will.*

Li Chi gave a quiet sigh and said: “Go ahead.”

Gao Youlan said: “In this official’s view, the fact that Her Majesty the Empress had to personally leave the palace to manage an urgent situation — owing to the failures of Minister of Rites Gui Yuanshu and Deputy Minister of Rites Jia Ruan — means that the Empress has made three serious mistakes.”

Li Chi raised his hand and pressed it against his brow. “Then lay them out one by one.”

Everyone in the great hall — their expressions had gone from *slightly* excited to *extremely* excited.

The looks in their eyes as they watched Gao Youlan were practically reverent.

*The man is audacious. We half-believed it before. Now we’re full believers. Total, unconditional faith.* Listing out three serious offenses committed by the Empress — that kind of courage was beyond all reckoning. Truly a model for all officials.

Gao Youlan cleared his throat and announced in a loud voice: “Firstly — the Empress ought not to have gone to the scene in person. Those Western Regions people were utterly vicious, capable of anything. They even *used their faces* to savagely beat the fists of Jia Ruan. With such brutality — what would they not stoop to? For the Empress to place herself in harm’s way was irresponsible to herself, irresponsible to the Imperial Prince, and irresponsible to His Majesty!”

*Hah!*

The entire hall responded in that single, collective sound.

People were already cursing Gao Youlan in their hearts. *Gao the Daring, Gao the Daring — we never imagined a man of such… you’re exactly the same as all of them. How did you turn so sycophantic…*

Gao Youlan cleared his throat again and continued: “Secondly — the Empress deployed the Black Cavalry when she rode out, but did not deploy the Imperial Guards. This was inappropriate. Though the Empress also holds the position of Grand Adjudicator of the Adjudicator’s Office, that position ranks below her position as Empress. Therefore she should properly have mobilized the Imperial Guards first.”

Li Chi’s hand, still pressing against his brow, was already beginning to move in the direction of covering his face entirely.

“Thirdly!”

Gao Youlan declared: “The inner palace must not interfere in affairs of state — this is a rule His Majesty established from the very founding of this nation. The Empress, she…”

At this point, the whole court tensed up again.

*The first two counts are impeachment? That’s flattery. That’s no different from what Yu Jiuling does. A Chief Censor, reduced to imitating Yu Jiuling!*

But the inner palace must not interfere in state affairs — that was a serious matter. Using it as the basis for an attack was a genuine sign of intent to make things large.

Li Chi raised his hand and fully covered his face.

Gao Youlan continued in a loud voice: “Your Majesty, the Empress handled this matter in her capacity as Grand Adjudicator of the Adjudicator’s Office. In this official’s view, this was deeply considered and entirely correct. The second point I raised just now — this official recognizes it as an error in judgment. The Empress’s decision to deploy the Black Cavalry rather than the Imperial Guards was, in fact, the product of careful deliberation.”

Li Chi lowered his hands and looked at Gao Youlan. “You are correct. I will relay your words to the Empress.”

Gao Youlan bowed: “This official’s impeachment of the Empress ends here.”

The officials exchanged glances with one another. *Gao the Daring, you are truly… devious. We half-trusted you before. Now you’ve lost it all.*

Li Chi said: “Since you have finished, return to your place.”

“Your Majesty.”

Gao Youlan said: “This official has one more thing to say — please, Your Majesty, relay it to the Empress as well.”

Li Chi said: “Speak.”

Gao Youlan drew a deep breath — and then dropped to his knees and prostrated himself on the floor.

“In those days, this official was still serving as a censor in the court of the Chu Kingdom in Daxing City.”

“When the Western Regions delegation was to enter the Central Plains to pay tribute, Yang Jing issued an edict: at every place the delegation passed through, all food, drink, and goods were to be provided without charge. This official advised Yang Jing that this would cause the Western Regions people to hold us in contempt, and would bring suffering upon the people.”

“Yang Jing dismissed this official’s counsel, and told this official that I knew nothing of what it meant to be a great nation — that I had no sense of what a heavenly dynasty’s bearing should be.”

“This official was furious and argued the point. Yang Jing demoted this official to a commoner and had me expelled from the court.”

“Afterward, this official heard that on the road to Daxing City, a Western Regions envoy had violated a Central Plains woman. Chu — from top to bottom, official large and small — turned a blind eye. The local authorities not only did nothing; they sent the Western Regions man on his way with every courtesy. This official further heard that the woman, unable to endure her humiliation, drowned herself in a well — and that her father, who set out for Daxing City to submit a petition, was beaten to death by local officials.”

Gao Youlan drew a deep breath and touched his forehead to the floor.

“By then this official had already been stripped of his post. Even so, this official sought out Yang Jing and, at the gates of the Daxing City imperial palace, threw myself against the doors in a death remonstration…”

At these words, Gao Youlan’s voice had changed — it carried a tremor, and had gone somewhat unsteady.

And those officials who had, only a moment ago, been looking for a chance to mock him — every one of them now stood still and upright, watching him. Every expression in the hall had shifted.

They looked at this old man, and there was nothing left in their eyes of the earlier humor. Only solemn respect.

Gao Youlan had not been one of the founding old-guard who followed Li Chi from the beginning. He was a former Chu official.

Back then, because of the Western Regions delegation, the Chu Emperor Yang Jing had stripped him of his post. When Gao Youlan learned of the crimes committed by the Western Regions people along the road — a woman violated, and when she took her own life, her father beaten to death trying to seek justice — he had beat his head against the palace gates of Daxing City, a death remonstration demanding that Yang Jing punish the Western Regions perpetrators and punish the local officials who had covered it up…

He had beaten himself bloody, and Yang Jing had still refused to see him.

Yang Jing had merely sent men to carry the unconscious Gao Youlan out and throw him from Daxing City — telling him: if you want to beat yourself to death, do it outside the city gates. Don’t do it in front of the palace.

After Li Chi took Daxing City, having already heard of Gao Youlan’s name, he immediately sent people to find him.

After exhaustive searching, they learned that Gao Youlan’s injuries from that remonstration had been severe. After being expelled from Daxing City, the common people who recognized him rushed to his aid, and his family — hearing the news — came and carried him away from Daxing City to live in seclusion in the countryside.

One might expect such a man to have utterly given up on the Chu court — and yet, when Li Chi learned where he lived and sent Master Yan to call on him, Master Yan went three times and was refused each time.

It was only when the Academy Grandmaster himself went in person that Gao Youlan — once a student of the Grandmaster, having studied under him in the past — finally opened the door.

When the Grandmaster invited him to take office, he declined.

It was only after Li Chi established his capital in Chang’an that the Grandmaster sent messengers again — six handwritten letters, one after another — that Gao Youlan at last agreed to come out.

When Gao Youlan arrived in Chang’an, Li Chi came out in person to receive him, saying that the position of Chief Censor was his and no one else’s.

Now, in this court, at this moment —

Gao Youlan pressed his forehead against the floor.

“Your Majesty, please relay this to the Empress. This official wishes to thank her… This official heard that the Empress ordered a thorough investigation at the city gate — to determine whether anyone in the Western Regions delegation was involved in the crimes of that earlier visit. If there are such persons — regardless of the distance, even a thousand li, even ten thousand li — they are to be escorted to the scene of the crime and beheaded in public with a dull blade.”

Gao Youlan, kneeling there, straightened his upper body — then lowered his head again, and brought it down hard against the floor.

“This official thanks Her Majesty the Empress for seeking justice for that woman who was wronged so many years ago, for righting the wrong done to her. This is justice not only for one woman — this is justice for the shame and humiliation borne by the entire Central Plains people throughout those years.”

He finished speaking — and was about to bring his head to the floor again.

But Li Chi had already crossed the distance from the throne in a single swift stride, and caught Gao Youlan’s forehead in his hand before it could strike.

“Senior Gao — come with me to the Eastern Warm Chamber after court. I will ask the Empress to join us as well. Say what you have to say directly to her.”

—