In recent idle days, Luowei had made many lanterns in the shape of rhinoceros horns with Chao Lan and Zhang Siyi, set candles inside, and hung them from the trees beside the small pond in Qionghua Hall’s rear chamber.

At the time, Chao Lan had asked with great curiosity: “Why does Your Highness make the lanterns in this strange shape?”

Luowei smiled without answering. Zhang Siyi pointed at the reflection in the small pond and explained patiently: “There was a famous minister of the Eastern Jin dynasty called Wen Jiao. One day he was passing a place called ‘Niuzhu Ji,’ and heard that the pool there was full of strange creatures. He bent down to look, but the water was too deep to see anything clearly. So Wen Jiao burned a rhinoceros horn to use as light, and sure enough, the light revealed many water ghosts.”

“The account of Wen Jiao burning the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the underworld was recorded in the official histories. Later, people commonly used ‘burning the rhinoceros horn’ as a metaphor to praise those who, without fear of ghosts and demons, could see through treachery and evil. As rhinoceros horns are now rare, Your Highness made these horn-shaped lanterns and hung them beside the small pond, to overawe the ghosts beneath the water.”

Chao Lan was frightened: “Are there really ghosts in the water?”

Zhang Siyi glanced at Luowei and said gently: “Living in the palace, where are there not ghosts? But Your Highness is the phoenix, and since she can see through all things, she will naturally protect you and me from harm.”

Chao Lan took this entirely at face value and went inside to find more strips of wood for the lanterns. Luowei slowly paced over to Zhang Siyi’s side and tilted her face up: “After Wen Jiao burned the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the waters, he died within ten days. Today I, too, have lit these rhinoceros horn lanterns. How much of my own life remains, I wonder?”

Zhang Siyi looked back at the lanterns swaying in the wind, moved to kneel, but was stopped by Luowei. He then revealed a sly smile and said: “Your Highness made imitation horns, so what they illuminate are naturally not the deepest ghosts of the underworld, only minor spirits at most. How could that harm Your Highness?”

Luowei laughed heartily: “You have spent these past years reading too many books in the archive tower, and received too much guidance from those scholars. You have become quite slick-tongued.”

The rhinoceros horn lantern still hung beneath the flower window. A breeze came and set it turning once around.

Luowei steadied herself against the lotus-patterned bronze tub filled with ice blocks and stood up, not knowing whether she should weep or laugh at this moment. She reached out her hand in a daze. Zhang Siyi quickly came and supported her arm.

“Go… go to Pifang Pavilion…” Luowei pressed her eyes firmly shut, then opened them again, as if having made up her mind about something. “Let us go see the Noble Consort.”

* * *

At the second watch of the night, the sound of a pebble falling in the garden had barely ceased when Pei Xi pushed open Ye Tingyan’s door.

There were already three people in the room. Bai Sensen had rolled up his sleeves and was taking Ye Tingyan’s pulse.

Ye Tingyan was toying with the white gauze that had been covering his eyes and did not look up: “What is it?”

“A secret report from the forbidden palace,” Pei Xi said in a grave voice. “The Noble Consort is with child.”

At these words, all three were stunned. Bai Sensen was the first to recover and glared at Ye Tingyan: “What are you getting worked up about? It is not the Empress who is with child!”

Ye Tingyan rubbed his arm and shot him a darkly threatening look.

Bai Sensen immediately slapped his own mouth: “It was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue.”

Zhou Chuyin murmured to one side: “How can the Noble Consort be with child?”

Bai Sensen was confused: “Why are you all so astonished? Is it that Song Lan… “

Looking at that young fellow, though deep-scheming, at this age, he probably wouldn’t… would he?

Zhou Chuyin rolled her eyes at him, then first clasped her hands in a bow toward Ye Tingyan: “In any case, I first offer my congratulations to you and the Empress.”

Ye Tingyan gave a bitter smile: “…Could this actually be why she would not listen to reason? Counting back, if the imperial physicians are diagnosing a happy pulse now, this pulse has been present for at least a month — which is precisely when she was insisting on striking.”

Seeing Bai Sensen still looked confused, Zhou Chuyin helplessly patted his shoulder and explained: “How could the Noble Consort being with child not astonish people? Think, Lingcheng — back then Song Lan conspired with the Empress and Yu Qiushi to seize power, a crime of a thousand ages, one slight misstep and it becomes eternal infamy. Song Lan married Yu Qiushi’s youngest daughter, Yu Qiushi entered the Council of State, the Empress participated in governance — these were their mutual constraints on one another.”

“Sensen” was only his nickname. “Lingcheng” was his courtesy name, but Bai Sensen did not care for it himself, and always told outsiders that his name came from a poem about Shu’s prime minister. Over time, almost everyone had forgotten his given name.

Zhou Chuyin paused here, and Pei Xi at the side continued: “Song Lan favors the Noble Consort as a gesture of goodwill to Yu Qiushi, and as long as she bears no child, she is both Yu Qiushi’s eyes and ears in the palace and a chess piece Song Lan uses to constrain Yu Qiushi — for the time being, nothing will happen to her. But regardless of whether she is young and ignorant, she is after all a daughter of the Yu family. If she successfully delivers an imperial son, who can guarantee Yu Qiushi will not entertain ambitions? When all is said and done, supporting anyone is not as reassuring as supporting your own blood. Imperial Physician Bai, tell me — under such circumstances, if you were Song Lan, would you dare let the Noble Consort become pregnant?”

“Then…” Bai Sensen thought for a moment, then turned to look at Ye Tingyan once more, and suddenly understood. “So we had it wrong before! We always assumed Song Lan was wary of Yu Qiushi and would never let his daughter become pregnant, but looking at it now, Song Lan has long since decided to eliminate Yu Qiushi and never took deliberate precautions. The Noble Consort’s pregnancy today is the death knell for Yu Qiushi!”

“Cuozhi,” Ye Tingyan called to him from behind in a grave voice. “Before morning court, during the Zhuque Division’s change of shift, make contact with Mosheng. Make absolutely sure to find out whether the Noble Consort’s pregnancy was permitted by Song Lan, or whether there are other circumstances.”

Pei Xi answered solemnly: “Understood.”

* * *

When Luowei arrived at Pifang Pavilion, she saw Liu Xi standing with his head bowed respectfully at the door and knew Song Lan was also inside the hall.

The palace servants at the gate exchanged a glance and only let her in after making an announcement.

The hall was fitted with many candle stands, making it brilliantly bright. Because it was summer, several tubs of ice had been placed near the entrance to dispel the heat. Luowei walked to the bedside and saw Song Lan dressed in a black-and-gold dragon robe, personally holding a medicine bowl, feeding the medicine to Yu Suiyun spoon by spoon.

His movements were leisurely. He even blew on each spoonful himself — extremely meticulous and patient. Hearing footsteps, Yu Suiyun lifted her eyes from the soft pillow, revealing a face drained of all color.

Seeing it was Luowei, she had wanted to curve her lips into a smile, but in the end the smile did not form. Instead she turned her face to one side.

The palace widely whispered that the Noble Consort was young and haughty and did not show proper deference to the Empress, and that the two had long been at odds. This guarded manner was thus unsurprising.

Luowei, her expression neutral, knelt before the bedside: “This consort greets the Emperor.”

The gold crown at the top of her head had barely begun to press her head down when the young Emperor put down the medicine bowl and stepped forward to help her up — in the past he had never let her perform the full prostration in his presence. Now, half a month without seeing each other, he was still as warm toward her as before, as if no estrangement had ever existed.

“Elder Sister has come quite quickly,” Song Lan smiled at her, revealing one small pointed canine tooth. “I came straight from Qianfang Hall upon receiving the news. You were farther away, yet your pace was nearly as fast as mine.”

Seeing Yu Suiyun turn her head away and refuse to bow to Luowei, he was mildly helpless: “Suiyun is young. Elder Sister, please do not take it to heart.”

Luowei swallowed down the trembling that had tried to creep into her voice and smiled with effort: “Naturally. This is the first child in the Jinghe years. I will certainly look after Noble Consort younger sister well.”

Song Lan said with delight: “Yes, my first child is coming. It feels like a dream. In all this heaven and earth, there will finally be flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood.”

The more he spoke the more excited he became, his expression fervent — a joy that came from the bottom of his heart. Luowei fixed her gaze on the dimples at the corners of his mouth and felt her own heartbeat thundering, one beat pounding after another.

As if sensing her loss of composure, Song Lan came back to himself and took her hand, saying warmly: “Suiyun needs to rest. Let us go outside and walk a little, and not disturb her.”

Luowei replied: “Very well.”

His fingers were still this cold — even colder than usual. Luowei walked hand in hand with him through the long street behind Pifang Pavilion, passing the garden in front of the red-lit pavilion filled with crabapple trees — now in the height of summer, the crabapple blooms had long since fallen, leaving only quiet leaves on the branches, merged into an expanse of green with all the other luxuriant trees.

Song Lan passed through this place and was suddenly seized with a fancy. He told Liu Xi to lead everyone to wait outside the grove, then walked in alone with Luowei.

Within the grove, the rustling of wind through leaves echoed back and forth, mingling with the long summer cicada song. Fortunately, the tree shade was cool and deep, and even after walking for some time, neither felt the heat.

“Elder Sister.”

At some point, Song Lan suddenly stopped walking and called Luowei — who had been wandering in her own thoughts — back to herself. She made a sound of acknowledgment and felt him release the hand he had been gripping so tightly.

Both palms were slick with cold, clammy sweat. Song Lan did not seem to notice, only continued smiling as he said: “Are you happy?”

Luowei deflected: “The Emperor has an heir. Of course I am happy.”

Song Lan shook his head: “I don’t mean that.”

He casually plucked a leaf and held it in his hand, tearing at it. His tone was light and casual, yet what she heard made her blood run cold: “Suiyun is with child, so you no longer need to fight with the Grand Preceptor yourself. If this child is born and the Grand Preceptor is still at court — such a powerful clan of external relatives — however shall I manage?”

She had been astonished when she arrived, and countless thoughts had raced through her mind.

She had not expected the conclusion to match her own guess exactly — Song Lan had never minded Yu Suiyun being with child, and had even eagerly wished for an heir early, because from the very day she entered the palace, he had already resolved to kill Yu Qiushi.

She should have been glad. This battle had reached its end without a fight, and in the future, she would not even need to exhaust much of her own effort.

But gazing at the smile on the face before her, she felt only a chill creeping down her spine.

Yu Qiushi had been Song Lan’s first teacher at the Academy of Worthy Cultivation, the one person who had supported him through the years when no one paid him any attention. Later, Yu Qiushi had risked his own death and eternal infamy to put him on the throne, and had conspired with him to perform before her face, suspecting that she knew of the old affair and repeatedly counseling Song Lan — even if one had guessed that Song Lan would not keep him in the end, even Luowei had not imagined that Song Lan’s resolve to kill him had been formed so early, or that he would choose so casual a moment to act.

She knew Song Lan was not as harmless as he appeared on the surface, and she understood his ruthlessness and ingratitude. But the situation as it stood still made her shudder — perhaps Song Lan was even more cold-hearted than she had imagined.

Luowei shut her eyes and made a strenuous effort to calm herself, then followed Song Lan’s words: “The Grand Preceptor was already wildly ambitious before Your Majesty ascended the throne, and moreover pushed you forward as a target. All these years, he has turned the court upside down and repeatedly abused his power. I have wished to spare the Emperor this worry, but have always been constrained by him. Now that the Noble Consort is with child, Your Majesty must not be soft-hearted any longer. If you and I join forces, this time we will surely eliminate once and for all this person who endangers imperial power.”

Song Lan heard these words and still showed no reaction, only smiled as he looked at her.

Being looked at in this way, Luowei almost suspected that Song Lan had long since guessed every thought in her heart. Yet the young Emperor still said nothing, and turned to continue walking deeper into the grove: “Elder Sister is right.”

He walked a few steps, stretched his arms and yawned lazily. Luowei followed, and heard him ask lightly: “Is this truly necessary?”

Song Lan was asking whether it was truly necessary to eliminate Yu Qiushi.

He had clearly already made his decision, yet he still made a show of asking. Luowei reached out and brushed fallen leaves from his shoulders and neck: “Disrespectful in the past, insubordinate in the present — Your Majesty is about to rule directly. Could you wish to be at his mercy forever?”

“You are right,” Song Lan said, then reached back and cupped the back of her head. He cradled it as one might cradle a rare treasure, drawing her close, and said very softly: “Actually, had you become with child sooner, I would have moved against him long ago. Why should you have needed to tax your mind and exhaust your heart in scheming?”

Song Lan was now taller than her, and looking down from this height carried a kind of pressure she had rarely felt from him before.

This posture of looking down made Luowei very uncomfortable. She instinctively turned her head, wanting to escape his dominance, but Song Lan would not let go. Both hands moved from her cheeks to her neck, applying a slight pressure: “He is nothing but a powerful minister. You are my family. In this rear palace, apart from my mother, the person closest to me is only you. These past days I did not come to find you — I was angry with you. I am no longer a child. If you wanted to deal with him, why did you need to do it yourself?”

These words were half-true, half-performed, and delivered with great feeling. Luowei’s lashes trembled slightly, and she quickly entered the scene. She returned his embrace and buried her head on his shoulder: “I too was simply treading on thin ice, sick with anxiety. You and I are still young, while the Grand Preceptor has managed the court for many years. If one day he should look unfavorably on us, would we not be repeating the disaster of Li Si?”

“Then go ahead and do it.” Song Lan raised a hand and stroked her back, then pressed a kiss to her ear. “Go ahead. Do what you wanted to do before. If it is not enough, I will lend you two more people, Elder Sister. Back then when you and I forced him to yield, we as much as acknowledged that he had the merit of helping a ruler ascend the throne. To eliminate him without leaving a handle for others to seize, we must add charges against him.”

The two walked hand in hand back the way they came. After five steps they both stopped simultaneously, and each said to the other: “Treason.”

Luowei forced a rigid smile. Song Lan clapped his hands as if discussing some entertaining game: “Elder Sister and I are truly of one mind.”