At dawn, Shu Jian received the reports. Of the three matters he had ordered, the first two—dispatching people to bring Liu Xiang back from the imperial mausoleum and secretly imprisoning the eldest princess—had been completed. However, the third matter concerning Lan Rong had met with an unexpected turn.

He must have received a warning and fled during the night. Using urgent official business as his excuse, he ordered the city gates to be opened. The gate guards believed his claim, and once he left the city, he vanished without a trace.

Wind silently surged through the window, and in the flickering light of the still-burning candle stub, Shu Jian rose and retrieved something from a hidden compartment. He slowly spread it open on the desk and stared down at it for a moment. Then he raised his head and beckoned to Duan’er, who stood attending at his side. The palace maid approached, and he pointed to the object on the desk, saying, “This is the imperial edict that the late emperor left for me. Do you know how I intend to dispose of it?”

Duan’er was startled and hesitated. Finally, emboldened by the preferential treatment she usually received, she gathered her courage and said, “This servant does not know. How does Your Majesty plan to dispose of it?”

“I’m going to burn it.”

“You may go report this to the Empress Dowager again.”

The palace maid suddenly understood, and her face turned deathly pale. Trembling, she knelt and kowtowed, begging for mercy. She said it was the Empress Dowager’s command—when she was sent back, she was ordered to find opportunities to eavesdrop on the happenings here. She dared not disobey.

Shu Jian looked at this palace maid who was shivering with fear on the ground, and his eyes revealed a touch of sorrow: “The palace is indeed full of heartless and emotionless people. Not even one person who can truly speak can be found.”

He surveyed the surroundings of this magnificent palace hall.

“However, am I not the same?”

“When it comes to being heartless and emotionless, I should be first.”

He seemed to be speaking to the palace maid, yet also seemed to be talking to himself.

The palace maid couldn’t understand and only continued to weep profusely, her face like pear blossoms wet with rain, merely pleading pitifully for forgiveness. Shu Jian’s expression turned cold and disgusted.

“We are all pitiful people, unable to control our fate. I won’t kill you.”

After speaking indifferently, he no longer spared the palace maid another glance and ordered her to be dragged away.

In Dunyi Palace, Consort Li was paralyzed on one side with impaired speech, and her temperament had become violent. Sometimes her mind was even unclear, staying awake all night, cursing and wailing. Though it sounded mumbled and unclear, one could still make out her disrespectful words. When heard in the deep of night, she sounded like a vengeful ghost, terrifying everyone around her. Empress Dowager Lan feared that if this reached Shu Shenhui’s ears, it would bring disaster, so she anxiously stood guard at first. Later, growing impatient, she ordered the imperial physicians to give her heavy medication, mixing it into her daily medicine. Last night was the same—Consort Li had slept deeply through the night. Now, Empress Dowager Lan rushed here urgently, ordering people to wake her. But the medication was too heavy, and no matter how they called, Consort Li’s mind remained unclear. Empress Dowager Lan then ordered the imperial physician to use needles to wake her.

The imperial physician arrived to find the Empress Dowager pacing anxiously before Consort Li’s bed, her face deathly pale, eyes bloodshot, her entire person seemingly trembling slightly. She looked quite terrifying. Not daring to disobey, he quickly took out golden needles and found the proper acupoints to insert them. Under the stimulation, Consort Li indeed awakened, making muffled sounds in her throat, her eyelids fluttering a few times, yet in the end, they closed again. After several attempts, it was always the same. The Empress Dowager kept urging, and the imperial physician, panicking, wiped his sweat and explained that the medication was still potent—please be patient, and once the drug effects wore off a bit more, she would awaken.

“Get away!” Empress Dowager Lan’s eyes turned red as she lunged forward, suddenly grabbing Consort Li’s shoulders and pulling half her body up from the pillow. Using all her strength, she shook her violently while gritting her teeth: “Wake up! You wake up for me!”

Consort Li was shaken until her hair became disheveled, her neck twisting violently, her head seeming ready to fall off. After a moment, accompanied by low, painful groaning, she slowly opened her drooping eyelids. Seeing that it was Empress Dowager Lan, anger appeared in her eyes. With difficulty, she raised one arm that could still move, pointing her finger at her while making muffled sounds: “You…”

“The war is over! His Majesty wants to execute Lan Rong! His Majesty must be afraid of Shu Shenhui harming him, so he had no choice but to do this! How could he possibly kill his maternal uncle? It must be Shu Shenhui forcing him to do this! He’s doing it for self-preservation!” Empress Dowager Lan shook Consort Li frantically while roaring hoarsely, “You speak quickly! Besides Gao He, before the late emperor departed, did he arrange other people or other methods? I’ll hurry and tell His Majesty!”

Consort Li made rasping sounds in her throat, her expression extremely pained.

“Speak! You speak to me quickly!” Yet Empress Dowager Lan seemed crazed, continuing to shake her without stopping, as if this way, she could obtain a life-saving solution.

“What is Mother doing?” A voice suddenly came from behind.

Empress Dowager Lan stopped shaking, turned around, and gasped. Shu Jian had somehow arrived here and was standing behind her. All the attending servants had already knelt, not daring to raise their heads.

She gasped several times, released Consort Li, and turned to rush toward Shu Jian.

“Jian’er, you’ve come at the perfect time—I was just thinking of looking for you! You cannot treat your uncle this way! He wholeheartedly protected you, which is why he was offended by that person! Now that the north has won a great victory, do you know that many court ministers have already secretly prepared congratulatory memorials, just waiting to compete for the honor of being first to show support! Gao He is already gone—if you kill Lan Rong too, you’ll truly be isolated and helpless in the future, with no one in the world able to assist you! Mother knows this is not your true intention. Please spare Lan Rong—mother begs you…”

Shu Jian acted as if he hadn’t heard, freed his sleeve from Empress Dowager Lan’s grasp, and walked directly to Consort Li’s bedside. He leaned down slightly, looking at her.

“That day, you falsely invoked the late emperor’s name and showed me a forged edict—what were your intentions?” His face was expressionless as he spoke slowly.

Consort Li stared wide-eyed at Shu Jian, only to see him finish speaking and then retrieve something from his sleeve.

It was precisely that imperial testament from Emperor Ming that she had guarded for many years. However, at this moment, Shu Jian brought it close to a cluster of candle flames by the bedside.

Very quickly, a corner of the silk was ignited by the flame. The fire tongue burned, whooshing rapidly upward, suddenly flaring high. Shu Jian released his grip and let go—that imperial edict, like worthless refuse, was engulfed by fire and fell to the ground.

“Jian’er, you’ve gone mad!”

Empress Dowager Lan came to her senses and let out a sharp cry, rushing forward. She raised her foot and stamped hard on the fire, and after extinguishing it, she snatched up the remains from the ground despite the burns to her hands. But she saw that only a corner remained, unburned. Her vision immediately darkened, and she collapsed to the ground.

Consort Li’s eyes were filled with rage. She raised her hand, trying to reach, but how could she reach it? She could only stare fixedly at the imperial edict that had been burned to just a remaining fragment, her lips opening and closing. Suddenly, she let out a muffled wail full of unwillingness and resentment: “Heaven—” After shouting these two words, she rolled straight down from the bed, falling face-first to the ground, motionless.

“Jian’er, Jian’er! What exactly do you want to do?”

Amid Empress Dowager Lan’s heart-rending, desperate wailing behind him, Shu Jian walked out of Dunyi Palace.

One after another, these pieces of news once again caused an uproar among the court ministers.

It turned out that when the Regent Prince was assassinated on his wedding night, Lan Rong was also one of the masterminds. Not only that, he colluded with Chi Shu both inside and outside the court, instigated Gao He, and obstructed military affairs. Even more unexpected was that he had secretly sheltered the remaining supporters of Prince Gao and Prince Cheng. Knowing his crimes were exposed, he fled last night out of fear of punishment. The young emperor had already ordered his capture and recall of Liu Xiang from the imperial mausoleum to take charge of the Department of Earthly Gates.

These matters were one thing, but what shocked the officials most was the so-called imperial edict that Consort Dunyi had once claimed to announce. It was said to be a forgery. The young emperor had burned the false edict last night, and Consort Dunyi, who had fabricated the forged edict, would probably not live much longer.

Previously, everyone knew in their hearts that once the Northern War ended, it would be impossible for the young emperor and the Regent Prince to continue maintaining the status quo. Now with the situation so confusing, truth and falsehood difficult to distinguish, and the young emperor acting thus, was this from his true heart, intending reconciliation, or was it all the Regent Prince’s coercion, forcing the young emperor to act against his will?

Where would the Great Wei court go from here?

The ministers, still immersed in yesterday’s joy from the great northern victory, now had infinite hidden worries in their hearts. Everyone remained silent, only casting their gazes secretly toward that princely mansion that had kept its doors tightly closed since yesterday.

The sky darkened once again.

When Prince Xian quietly entered the princely mansion through the side door, Shu Shenhui was still sleeping peacefully.

He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time. Yesterday, when news of the great northern victory arrived, he saw no one and went nowhere, simply closed his eyes and slept. This sleep was long and deep.

When the mansion steward arrived and knocked on the door, he was dreaming of a woman. She rode her warhorse across the Iron Mountains. The strong wind made her battle dress dance wildly as her figure gradually disappeared into the endless yellow sand. Just as he felt infinitely melancholy, she suddenly turned back while on horseback, her face bright with a smile. In the dream, he felt his heart pound wildly, his blood boiling in that instant. Just as he spurred his horse in pursuit, the dream was abruptly interrupted by the noise reaching his ears.

He suddenly opened his reddened eyes and found himself still lying in his sleeping chamber. Outside the window, the sky had turned dark again. In his confusion, he felt bewildered about what year, month, or place this was. The only reality was his heart still pounding rapidly from the dream.

He sat in the darkness for a moment. When his heartbeat gradually returned to normal, he sighed, lit a candle, and went to open the door.

The steward bowed to him, saying Prince Xian had come.

Since that day when he executed Gao He, he and Prince Xian had had no further private contact.

Shu Shenhui ordered the steward to invite Prince Xian to Zhaoge Hall. A moment later, when he had finished dressing and appeared before Prince Xian, his face bore a smile, and he looked spirited, appearing no different from usual.

Prince Xian, however, was different. His face also carried a smile, but that smile seemed somewhat forced. After taking his seat, he looked at Shu Shenhui several times, wanting to speak but stopping, appearing heavily burdened with concerns.

“If Your Highness has something to say, please speak directly.”

Prince Xian paused for a moment and finally spoke: “Your Highness, my visit tonight comes at His Majesty’s request.”

“His Majesty has words for me to convey.”