Luowei did not answer, and looked up at him instead: “Yet today the Emperor only grew angry. Once Yu Qiushi explained, he held back his fury.”

Ye Tingyan answered patiently: “And so I say, one by one, one matter at a time…”

With a mind to tease her, he let his fingers make a show of sliding downward along Luowei’s collar, reaching her collarbone — then stopping just short.

Because Luowei had only half-lidded her beautiful eyes, showing not the slightest intention of stopping him.

She looked at his female official’s dress and found it rather amusing. She did not know quite what to make of the peculiar state the two of them were now in.

Ye Tingyan, seeing she said nothing, suddenly withdrew his hand. He felt his ears growing somewhat warm, and was in fact quite unsettled and chagrined by her permissiveness. Luowei herself was somewhat surprised, and half-jokingly said: “Who would have thought — Lord Ye turns out to be a true gentleman after all.”

From that very first day they met at the Gaoyang Terrace, she had known such a day would come. After all, she had personally promised Ye Tingyan that as long as he was useful to her, she could give him anything.

Three months had passed in the blink of an eye. Luowei could no longer say he was useless — she herself had to consult him on these dark and devious stratagems. In the face of his boldness, she had already grown quite calm. After all, there was nothing she could not give up, and besides…

When the day came that she accomplished what she wished to accomplish, she would certainly have to remove the person before her.

Not because of his insolence — trading herself in exchange for his assistance was a transaction she had personally agreed to, perfectly fair. She did not even feel it was disrespectful.

She would kill him because he was too clever.

She did not doubt for a moment that if he wished it, there was nothing he could not accomplish.

Thinking of this, Luowei suddenly felt that she was no different from those rulers in the history books who slaughter the hunting hounds once the cunning hares are dead — though Ye Tingyan had time and again shown her his “true feelings,” his mind was too exquisitely intricate, and she dared not believe a single word of his. How could she be at ease leaving such a person in the court?

Right now they still had a common enemy, but after Yu Qiushi was dead and the balance of the court shifted dramatically, would she still dare trust his “true feelings”?

Luowei did not dare gamble on it.

And so even now, facing him, her heart held something she could not quite name — a kind of guilt. If Ye Tingyan were truly like a lecherous, dissolute rake, it might make it somewhat easier for her to deal with him cleanly when the time came.

But he withdrew his hand, and left her at something of a loss.

While Luowei’s thoughts wound through all these twists and turns, Ye Tingyan on his side, seeing her calm and composed expression, felt not a shred of satisfaction — he should have known, from the very beginning’s teasing and lightness, to the last where no matter whether she pushed back or accepted, the blade was always stabbing into his own heart.

When she pushed back, he raged at her coldness. When feeling ran high, he could not help but wonder whether she would treat others the same way she treated him.

Ye Tingyan reached out and touched the lip print he had just left on her neck, and thought of the flying swallow iron piece she had found on the Gaoyang Terrace.

Yan Lang had liked her since childhood. She had been innocent and unaware of it in those years, but he had seen it clearly from early on. So many years had passed, and he had returned to the capital from a thousand miles away at a single word from her — he must still have feelings for her, surely?

So much had changed over the years, yet Yan Lang was still that young general from before, riding tall on horseback and showing off through the streets with such vibrant energy, as if not half a thing had changed about him.

On that day he had stood in the shadow of the marketplace, watching the young general’s cape gleaming red in the sunlight. The young general held his reins, leisurely moving in the opposite direction from him. He had lowered his head and saw the shadow of eaves on the ground dividing the world into light and darkness.

One step apart, yet already an uncrossable gulf.

He had left in a sorry state and roughly rubbed his eyes, which could not bear the light.

Luowei and Yan Lang had perhaps been acquainted even longer than he had known her. Yan Lang held the military tally of the northern frontier, and was utterly devoted to her. Being honest with such a person about everything she desired would probably not be so very difficult for her.

Then had his lips also lingered over that rose-scented cheek?

Ye Tingyan reached out and clasped Luowei’s neck, drawing her into a tight embrace. Luowei heard his breathing by her ear — rapid, his emotions clearly unsettled.

She had received no answer, so she said nothing more either, and let him hold her quietly for a while.

After a long time, Ye Tingyan gradually calmed. Then his voice came out hoarse, shifting the subject, and answering the question she had asked before: “The Grand Preceptor has many eyes and ears in the palace. The moment I carried documents from the Silver Terrace into the palace, he received word. So when the Emperor summoned everyone, you were in the inner palace and arrived later than he did. He went to find the people from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance, and communicated with them in advance.”

“Ah… no wonder Lord Hu and Deputy Minister Zhao were crying and wailing in the hall just now — they had already arranged it all with Yu Qiushi beforehand.” Luowei said with sudden understanding. “That set of arguments he produced about ‘heavy taxes and forced labor oppressing the common people’ — quite convincingly delivered.”

Ye Tingyan said mildly: “Those arguments were not entirely fabricated.”

Luowei’s brow furrowed slightly, then relaxed after a moment: “Though the Grand Preceptor has committed many wrongs and wielded corruption and power for his own ends, he does have his own approach to governance.”

Seeing she had immediately understood his meaning, Ye Tingyan revealed a smile and said in an offhand tone: “Mining jade, mining jade, the water must be blue; the carved hairpin is made only for vanity’s sake… the water of Lanxi despises the living; dead a thousand years, still hating the river water. History is the witness — once a jade vein is discovered in a place, if left unchecked, sooner or later it drives people to risk their lives in frenzied dives. Yu Qiushi advised his relative to impose the ‘jade tax’ for two reasons: first, to prevent ordinary people from risking their lives for greed — once the authorities were collecting tax, they would keep strict watch over the jade vein, preventing people from doing as they pleased; second, since there was tax revenue, and this revenue was paid only to the prime minister without going through official channels, there would be local profit to be had, and the oppression of the common people would diminish. This measure could line his own pockets while also pacifying the situation — keep the officials fed, keep the people from disaster. This was… the Grand Preceptor’s philosophy of governance.”

Luowei reached out and touched the pearl ribbon hanging from his hair. Ye Tingyan paused in surprise, but did not stop her, and continued: “For a year or a year and a half, this approach could paper over the cracks and maintain a superficial peace. Regrettably, the Grand Preceptor forgot about the matter afterward. The ‘jade tax’ grew heavier and heavier in the southwest. The new regional magistrate was of mediocre ability and attempted to dig out a fine jade piece to offer as tribute, while local strongmen in the southwest seized the opportunity to open jade-mining operations, forcing the common people into servitude and deadly diving. Under the crushing weight of harsh taxes and forced labor, blood was shed in abundance. Finally the common people were driven to flee to the capital to file suit, and thus today’s events came to pass.”

“The Emperor is no fool. Though today he was deceived by the Grand Preceptor’s explanations, so long as he looks up the relevant documents at the Silver Terrace, or carefully examines the Ministry of Finance’s records on the southwest, he will work out the true state of affairs. But regrettably, today he held back. At most in the future it will amount to a few words of reprimand and a monetary fine.” Luowei said thoughtfully. “You unearthed this affair to build momentum for me?”

Ye Tingyan sat up, his gaze instantly growing sharper: “Since we intend to strike, we cannot give him any breathing room. Earlier, the three matters of the Twilight Banquet, the Fake Dragon Chant, and Huiling Lake have already planted seeds of doubt in the Emperor’s mind. I build momentum for Your Highness so the Emperor can see him as more of a threat. Does Your Highness believe that after this matter, if you strike again, the chances of success will be substantially higher?”

Luowei gazed at Ye Tingyan’s silhouette — a pure shadow in the darkness between the bed curtains — and let out a long, drawn-out “mm”: “Also have your people in the Zhuque Division keep careful watch. In the coming days, I will release that merchant who sold the counterfeit gold back to Biandu, to name Yu Qiushi’s eldest son. As for what kind of testimony can be extracted — that, I must trouble Lord Ye to handle.”

She leaned over and lay down against his legs, closed her eyes, and said: “The Grand Preceptor often says you and I are too young. I do not agree. In the matter of schemes and tactics, we are indeed no match for him. But Father told me from childhood that I am intelligent and can think by the simplest path. The so-called struggles, the so-called strategy and power — it is nothing more than using the smallest effort to gradually strip a person of his dignity, his credibility, his indispensability, and then expose more and more of his flaws in the eyes of the ruler and of all under heaven. Once the net is woven tight, you must also break his very will…”

Ye Tingyan stroked her silken hair where it spread across his legs and said in a low voice: “Your Highness has exceptional gifts.”

He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her smooth forehead. Luowei opened her eyes and found his face very close to hers.

Fingers traced along her cheek.

“This battle is going to be very hard to fight. When it is done, summer will surely have ended,” he said gently and softly, as if coaxing sympathy from her. “If we win, will Your Highness invite me to visit your inner chamber?”

Luowei paused: “You have already entered my bedchamber. Why must you be so insistent on going deeper?”

Ye Tingyan said: “It is only a matter of whether Your Highness trusts me.”

They had first met on the grand and conspicuous red-lit pavilion, then in the Qionghua Hall under the Emperor’s very nose. Afterward, they met at the Gaoyang Terrace at dusk, and in the bedchamber deep into the night. There were things that could be done under the bed curtains of that abandoned terrace, yet he had to insistently, step by step, penetrate into her more hidden places.

Flesh and love could be managed, but what he wanted was entry to her secret room — he wanted her to open her heart.

Luowei sat up straight and drew all her three thousand strands of hair away from his embrace. Her hair was extremely well-tended, longer than her waist, anointed with rose flower oil until it was soft and smooth without a single tangle. Even in this sudden movement, it did not catch on his gold sash, his hair ornaments, or his fingers.

She moved to draw aside the bed curtains, but first caught the rich and eerie scent of night-blooming cereus filling the hall, and paused involuntarily. Ye Tingyan reached from behind her and drew aside the obstacle for her, and so Luowei could see clearly — in the silver-white moonlight, the two cereus flowers had already bloomed and faded.

Ye Tingyan’s slender right hand swept past before her. She looked down vaguely and noticed that his wrist also bore a long scar, silver-white as the moon. She reached out and caught his wrist, running a thumb across it: “This wound of yours…”

Ye Tingyan swiftly withdrew his hand and said with some unease: “I thank Your Highness for your concern. It is nothing serious.”

Luowei glanced at his expression and suddenly felt she perhaps need not press the matter. They each had their own secrets that could not be told. It was difficult to say who had wronged whom.

She felt guilty at the thought that she might one day have to kill this person. Who knew whether, once his business was done, he would move to kill her as well?

If she died at his hands first, she imagined he would feel no guilt whatsoever.

So Luowei raised an eyebrow and smiled, answering him: “All right then. When summer ends, if we win a great victory, I will sweep the path, throw open the gates, and wait for your arrival.”

Her tone shifted to a tease: “By then, will the great official still wish to wear female official’s dress? I would very much like to see it by daylight.”

Ye Tingyan paid no heed to her teasing, only bent to pick up the plain white cloak: “It is settled then.”

* * *

In the hearts of the court officials and the public at large, the fourth year of Jinghe was an unsettled one.

From the spring when the young Emperor, deaf to all counsel, insisted on a northern inspection tour, events in the court came one after another without stop, from the inner palace to the outer court to the streets of the city, as if an invisible hand were turning everything — a hand that could summon wind and clouds, that overturned the world with its turning. It did not cease for a single morning.

On the second day of the sixth month, the Emperor, over the matter of the southwestern tax revenues, berated Yu Qiushi and the officials of the Ministries of Justice and Finance in Qianfang Hall. Yu Qiushi responded with serene composure, and after pacifying the Emperor’s fury, personally bound and brought his distant collateral relative who had established the “jade tax” to Qianfang Hall to beg forgiveness. The relative was made to donate one hundred thousand taels of silver into the national treasury, and thus barely kept his life, being exiled to Lingnan.

Minister of Justice Hu Minhuai, for suppressing the Capital Prefecture’s lawsuit, was demoted to prefect of Fengzhou and expelled from the capital.

Zhang Pingzhu had long been ill, and it had seemed that the Ministry of Finance’s Deputy Minister Zhao was about to take his position, but Song Lan used the ambiguous southwestern accounts to call him to account, cutting off his path to promotion.

The Silver Terrace and the Ministry of Works also had people implicated by the southwestern jade case. Earlier, no one had understood why the Emperor kept holding onto this matter, but now they gradually began to understand — the young Emperor of Zhaohe was coming of age, and was now clearing a path for his own direct rule.

Using a case involving the people’s livelihood to demote those close to the prime minister was something even the remonstrance officials could not object to.

The Emperor did not publicly credit Ye Tingyan as the one behind the matter, and Ye Tingyan himself did not take credit for it. His official position remained unchanged, but the Emperor’s favor toward him deepened somewhat.

The prime minister did not stir, and everything continued as usual. The Empress, too, was remarkably quiet during this time and did not say much more about the matter.

In the middle of the sixth month, the Zhuque Division caught the merchant who had sold counterfeit gold on the outskirts of Biandu.

The Emperor personally presided over the Zhuque interrogation through the night. No one knew what he had actually drawn out of the man, only that he emerged from the Zhuque Division and immediately gave a secret order summoning Yu Qiushi, commanding him to bring his eldest son into the palace.

Luowei was quite surprised upon hearing this — she had expected that after catching the merchant, Song Lan would directly arrest Yu Suishan and then search the Yu family’s residence.

It seemed Song Lan was still somewhat wavering.

On the night before the thirteenth day of the sixth month, Yu Suishan entered the Ministry of Justice to respond to questioning and was suddenly ambushed along the road, suffering serious injuries.

After this, Song Lan’s attitude toward Yu Qiushi suddenly softened considerably. Not only did he send the imperial physicians to attend to the wounded man, he also bestowed many rare and precious medicines.

The several cases they had arranged were apparently still not enough. This assassination could well have been planned by Yu Qiushi and his son themselves — a gambit to test the Emperor’s intentions.

The merchant had already “taken his own life” within the Zhuque Division. The Fake Dragon Chant and the gold-copper cup from Huiling Lake both remained unsolved cases. Yu Qiushi was no fool. The earlier southwestern jade case had cost him dearly precisely because of the speed with which it had moved. Now that he had regrouped, not only had he washed away the ruler’s suspicion with one staged assassination, he might even redirect the “fake dragon” affair back onto her.

That night, though Luowei and Ye Tingyan conversed with smiles, both of them knew — this summer battle was truly exceedingly difficult to fight. She had insisted on striking hastily, and she would have to bear the risk of the fire burning back on herself.

On the twenty-first day of the sixth month, Song Lan had now gone a full half month without visiting her palace chambers, nor had he sent word inviting her to Qianfang Hall.

Zhang Siyi, with some concern, cut fresh lotus flowers for Luowei and arranged them in a vase, and saw her staring at the ice basin before her, her expression detached — he could tell it was a very calm kind of tension.

The next moment, Chao Lan came rushing headlong into the hall. She did her best to lower her voice, but could not conceal the excitement in her words: “Your Highness, Your Highness! The Noble Consort… she is with child!”

Zhang Siyi had come to know Luowei early, but had only been transferred back to Qionghua Hall after the incident with Yan Luo. After serving for these three months, he had never once seen a look of such genuine astonishment cross Luowei’s face.

“What did you say?” Luowei rose to her feet, her shock impossible to conceal for a moment.

“Suiyun… how can she be with child?”