The public trial ended amid this final, sudden turn of events. The Three Judicial Offices all concurred and immediately reached a determination: the horse trainer was innocent, though he had been caught up in this affair and could not escape involvement entirely.

The Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review, receiving the Emperor’s implied wishes, permitted him to recuperate for a short while, and planned to find some pretext after the beginning of summer to send him into exile as a soldier in the northern frontier.

Lin Zhao was immediately dragged away by the people of the Ministry of Justice. Previously, before the Zhuque, Song Lan had been constrained by public opinion and could not use extreme torture on him. Now that both witness and physical evidence were in place, the Ministry of Justice proceeded according to law — a matter of course.

It was unknown what might be extracted from his mouth.

At any rate, the Marquis of Feng Ping’s household being dragged into the waters was unavoidable. Perhaps Song Lan also hoped to hear something else from him — for instance, whether such a meticulous plan had Yu Qiushi’s hand behind it.

As Lin Zhao was dragged away he wept loudly and screamed with a piercing cry of “injustice,” as though foreseeing his own fate.

The officials in the hall each held their own thoughts, but nearly all had been guided along Ye Tingyan’s line of reasoning and concluded that Lin Zhao was not innocent.

The only troublesome matter was Ye Tingyan, who had in the end been turned on by Chang Zhao.

The Ministry of Justice wanted to take someone into custody, and could not help but first look to Song Lan’s expression.

Song Lan only gazed at Ye Tingyan with a complicated look for a long while without speaking.

Then at last he asked: “Did Lord Ye truly not encounter anyone else that day who might testify on your behalf? The back hills of Luoyun are no dense forest — game is scarce there, and why did you loose that arrow?”

Ye Tingyan knelt with his back perfectly straight, his voice unchanged: “This official saw a single flower falling from a tree, was taken by a sudden whim, drew the bow and shot at the flower, and forgot to retrieve the arrow. There was truly no one accompanying me.”

Song Lan said “Mm,” then suddenly turned and asked: “What does the Empress think?”

“This official’s consort believes…”

Luowei gripped her sleeve tightly, then a moment later let it go as if nothing had happened, smoothing the crease she had just made with composed and unhurried hands. She said, as calm as still water: “His Majesty should not show partiality — it still needs to be investigated. If there is truly nothing amiss, it also serves to clear Lord Ye of some suspicion.”

Ye Tingyan smiled faintly, but did not raise his head to look at her, and only gave thanks: “This official is grateful for His Majesty’s and Her Highness’s trust.”

Song Lan sighed: “So be it.”

Hearing these words, the people of the Ministry of Justice finally dared approach. Their manner toward Ye Tingyan was entirely unlike their treatment of Lin Zhao — all perfectly respectful: “Lord Censor Ye, if you please.”

Ye Tingyan said graciously: “After you.”

*

After the public trial, Song Lan summoned Chang Zhao to the Qianfang Palace. Luowei, her mind ill at ease, bid him farewell and chose a small path to return to her own quarters.

She was accompanied by only Yan Luo at her side. The two walked aimlessly along the palace roads for quite some time.

Yan Luo saw her expression, and was about to step forward and ask her something — but before she could open her mouth, a figure in green official robes lunged out from the side and abruptly knelt before her: “This official Pei Xi pays respects to the Empress.”

Yan Luo was startled, and quickly stepped forward, snapping: “Impertinence!”

Luowei recognized the person and pressed down on Yan Luo’s hand, which had moved to block her way: “Little Lord Pei, what is this about?”

The two were taking a roundabout path through the garden behind the Qionghua Palace. The area was dotted with artificial rockeries and ponds, and had many rare flowers and exotic plants arranged about — these flowers and plants had originally been gathered from all corners of the realm by Song Lan in the first year of his reign, as a birthday gift for Luowei.

After that, she had never once come to look at them.

This area was not heavily guarded, and it was at the border between the rear imperial palace and Qiong Ting. Pei Xi appearing here meant he had certainly planned this in advance and come deliberately to seek her out.

Pei Xi was a few years younger than Ye Tingyan, and had quite the straightforward and principled spirit of one who despised wickedness. When he saw her, he was neither sycophantic and groveling nor haughty and arrogant — he simply followed protocol, bowed, and said: “Lord Ye has entrusted this official to convey a message to Your Highness.”

Luowei said: “Speak.”

Pei Xi raised his head to look at her, and whether it was her imagination or not, a flicker of something like disdain seemed to pass through his eyes: “Before conveying the message on his behalf, this official also has a question to ask Her Highness.”

Yan Luo stood to one side with a deeply furrowed brow. Hearing this, she said coldly: “Little Lord Pei oversteps his bounds. What manner of person is Her Highness, that she could answer your questions?”

But Pei Xi paid no heed, staring fixedly at Luowei: “Lord Ye has always been of frail health. This official does not believe Her Highness is unaware of what manner of torture the Ministry of Justice routinely administers with its own hands. Where Lord Ye was that day, others may not know — but Your Highness cannot possibly not know. Your Highness stands by and watches him suffer, and does nothing at all?”

Yan Luo, who had left the Warm Spring Arena when the opportunity arose and thus knew nothing of Luowei’s whereabouts, only now felt something was not quite right upon hearing these words.

Luowei’s eyelashes trembled faintly, and she studied the young civil official before her anew: “He really does trust you.”

Pei Xi said: “Only the surface layer.”

“Then let this consort guess what message Little Lord Pei is carrying,” Luowei said, watching him, and suddenly let out a soft laugh. “The feather-flower wooden arrow… a person like him, why would he routinely carry arrows that announce his identity? Even if that arrow was not shot by him himself, given the amount of planning he had done, could he really not have thought that an arrow falling in the woods might draw him into the matter?”

Pei Xi’s expression shifted slightly, and he murmured uneasily: “This…”

Before he could finish, Luowei quickly continued: “He clearly had it all calculated from the beginning. Who is to say that even the ‘witness’ and ‘physical evidence’ found by Scholar Chang were not sent to his eyes by him? Ruoshui appeared suddenly and determined the chief culprit in this assassination case — he broke the case so smoothly. If he did not contrive to implicate himself in the process, how could he convince others? How could he make His Majesty truly trust him?”

Walking the entire way from the Qianfang Palace at a leisurely pace, deep in thought, she had now thought everything through clearly. And looking again at the various flowers and plants Song Lan had placed here, her heart surged with irritation. The more she thought, the angrier she grew, and she could not help but say with a cold laugh: “The message he sent you to deliver to me was probably something along the lines of ‘unwilling to implicate Her Highness’s reputation — ten thousand entreaties, please keep silent,’ was it? Then let Little Lord Pei carry a message back to him on this consort’s behalf —”

“He said he was giving this consort a great gift, yet in the end he intended to factor this consort into the calculation as well — he is truly too foolish. Tell him: do not play such schemes in front of this consort. He is no young innocent boy — surely he cannot think this consort would feel guilty over a matter like this, or feel that she owes him something in the way of personal debt? Why he came to the back hills of Luoyun that day — he knows best in his own heart. This consort, for her part, does not consider that she wronged him.”

Pei Xi had been thoroughly stunned into silence, kneeling on the spot without knowing what to say.

Luowei said everything she had to say in one breath, and felt her heart had grown considerably lighter. She steadied herself and recovered her former air of composed serenity. Seeing his state, she even generously added one more sentence: “Stop pleading your lord’s case — he is not the sort who would end up on the losing side. Tell him to endure more punishment in the Ministry of Justice. The more punishment he takes, the more His Majesty trusts him. There is nothing to fear — they would never let someone die there.”

With that, she stepped around Pei Xi and walked away, no longer caring what reaction he had. She had gone two paces when she heard him make his apologies from behind: “This official overstepped his bounds today, Your Highness…”

She glanced back, and suddenly felt that the other person looked rather familiar. She could not help asking: “Has this consort met you before?”

Pei Xi glanced up for a moment, then quickly lowered his head again: “We have not.”

And so Luowei ceased listening to him and departed directly.

Only once she had entered the garden in front of the Qionghua Palace did Yan Luo come running after her, saying: “Though this small one does not know what happened that day, I understood a little from what was said. Is Your Highness saying that this Lord Ye turned the situation completely to his own advantage at the Warm Spring Arena, with every mechanism exhausted to the last — and that even today’s entry into the Ministry of Justice was planned by him in advance?”

Luowei said with feeling: “This person is truly abominable — sooner or later, this consort will be rid of him.”

It had been a long time since she had lost her composure enough to say such petulant words. Even Yan Luo was somewhat taken aback: “Your Highness…”

Luowei then came back to herself and smiled bitterly: “He has made me so vexed I’ve lost my head.”

The palace attendants stood in the garden in two composed lines on either side, kneeling in greeting to the returning Empress. Luowei walked all the way through the garden, where the last blossoms were withering and falling, and noticed that the crepe myrtle along the eaves had already begun to show faint traces of red.

She suddenly seized Yan Luo’s hand at her side and called: “A’Fei —”

Yan Luo raised her head, and saw in the other’s gaze something extraordinarily calm, yet burning like a flame: “I suddenly thought of something… With such a fine opportunity as this, why not take a risk ourselves and add more fuel to this Ye San’s scheme?”

*

Though the Minister of Justice, Hu Minhuai, was on close terms with Yu Qiushi, at such a critical juncture, he would hardly dare to handle a key case involving a close associate of the Emperor carelessly. Moreover, looking at the way Ye Tingyan appeared pale and sickly, never mind causing a death, even slightly severe punishment would surely invite the Censorate to flood the Ministry of Justice with written protests the very next day.

Therefore, when a Censorate official arrived to visit and deliver medicine, the Ministry of Justice dared not obstruct him and let him through at once.

Pei Xi relayed Luowei’s words to the letter. Where there were a few sentences he could not quite recall, he conveyed only the rough meaning.

Ye Tingyan leaned against the black iron prison door at his back and, after listening to everything, laughed with great delight.

He had endured the first round of punishment today — twenty strokes of the court rod. The one administering the punishment had a very measured hand, leaving only flesh wounds. Ye Tingyan refused to remove his robe, and now through the crimson official robe at his back, a considerable amount of blood had soaked through. Laughing so heartily was inevitably jarring to the injuries, and he immediately winced with a twisted expression from the pain.

Pei Xi clenched his teeth: “How can you still laugh at a time like this?”

Ye Tingyan murmured with feeling: “Not once has a scheme against her succeeded. I originally thought to have her feel guilty, at least taking pity on me — but I didn’t expect she would see through even this. She truly has grown up.”

Pei Xi let out a cold snort: “The Empress is coldhearted, which is why she is like this — and that’s saying nothing of a person who is merely useful…”

Ye Tingyan said: “You don’t understand — cleverness has its own advantages.”

Pei Xi saw how his entire body was covered in wounds, yet he was unable to contain his delight, and felt both furious and helpless: “You are brilliant beyond compare, yet you had to put yourself in this miserable state.”

“You simply don’t understand the logic the Empress put forward — the more punishment taken, the more His Majesty trusts me, so what is there to fear? They wouldn’t let me die here.” Ye Tingyan laboriously shifted his position, cast a glance outward, then said: “Go quickly. There’s no point in lingering here. At this stage when the case is drawing to a close, being here may actually be safer for me than being outside. Besides… I still have something else to do.”

Pei Xi also heard what sounded like someone approaching, so he tossed over a vial of wound medicine from his sleeve, rose, and took his leave. Ye Tingyan stretched out his hand and gripped the vial, saying quietly: “Thank you.”

The one passing Pei Xi in the other direction was Lin Zhao — the man housed in the cell next to Ye Tingyan — who had just finished being interrogated and was carried back.

It was only the first day, and Lin Zhao was already like a man gone mad and hysterical, fainting several times under punishment that had barely begun. Hu Minhuai still harbored some hope in his heart, and quickly ordered his men to douse Lin Zhao with cold water and carry him back.

The two cells were in the deepest part of the Ministry of Justice’s prison — only prisoners charged with treason against the sovereign were placed here. Ye Tingyan should not actually have been sent there, but after the Three Judicial Offices had deliberated carefully, they placed the two men there together.

The deepest part of the prison had not even a small window. The jailer who had brought Lin Zhao in set him down, then scurried away as if fleeing a plague god.

Lin Zhao lay among the straw, groaning and whimpering. For a while he cursed loudly, then wailed and sobbed, until at last he ran out of strength, and his crying dwindled to a low whimper.

Ye Tingyan was already tired of being disturbed by him, and when he had at last with great effort managed to settle his heart and quiet his mind, he gave the chains in his hand a shake and called out: “Second Young Master Lin?”

Lin Zhao only then realized there was someone next door. In the pitch darkness, he could not make out whose voice it was. He crawled forward a little toward the bars: “Who is it?”

He moved too abruptly, and “thud” — he slammed his head against the black iron bars and grimaced in pain.

Ye Tingyan was very accustomed to such darkness and sat cross-legged without haste, smiling as he answered: “I am an Attending Censor at the Censorate — surnamed Ye, given name Hao, courtesy name Tingyan. If Second Young Master Lin does not mind, you may call me Ye San.”

Hearing his name, Lin Zhao wished he could charge through the bars at once and strangle him, and the chains on his hands rang out against the black iron in a clanging clatter: “You — you smooth-talking, lying scoundrel! Speak! Who put you up to framing me?”

“Second Young Master, calm your anger — if I had deliberately framed you, how would I have ended up in here alongside you?” Ye Tingyan cried out in alarm, and to prevent Lin Zhao from not believing him, he even made a show of gasping in pain a few times in the darkness. “When I went to the Warm Spring Arena to investigate the case, how could it be that by such a coincidence I ran into that young eunuch? Now that I have been punished, I have thought it over and over and finally realized — we have certainly been schemed against by someone!”

Lin Zhao cursed: “Complete nonsense!”

Ye Tingyan said: “Second Young Master, think carefully — how is it that though Scholar Chang and I both investigated the Warm Spring Arena, the witnesses and evidence he found were entirely different from mine? I have pondered this at length, and find this version more convincing: the person who plotted to frame us first tracked down the Second Young Master’s movements, then dispatched a eunuch to follow, and afterward delivered that eunuch to me. Once I stepped forward to bring out the accusation and lock down the verdict, then a sudden reversal of fortune came — bringing me too into this place. Is this not a chain of connected schemes — the mantis catching the cicada while the sparrow lurks behind? Second Young Master, we have truly fallen into someone’s trap!”

He spoke with vivid color and great feeling, sighing repeatedly at the end with an expression of profound indignation.

Lin Zhao had been furious at first, but after being talked at for so long, he had involuntarily come to believe a portion of it: “…If someone truly plotted this deliberately, who could it be? Who has a grievance with me to lay such a vicious scheme? If we could guess the person, when I’m next tortured I could cry out my grievances again — my father is still out there, and he would find a way to save me!”

“Who could it be…” Ye Tingyan suppressed the smile at the corners of his lips and said slowly and unhurriedly: “Naturally, whoever benefits most from the fall of the Lin family bears the greatest suspicion.”

He lowered his voice, affecting the manner of one who speaks from the heart: “Second Young Master, we have both fallen into this place together. We ought to help each other. Since that person even schemed against me alongside you, let me offer you a plan to save your life.”

*