Chang Zhao looked out the window with a composed expression. The Fengle Tower stood amid the bustle of a market — if someone had fired that arrow, they must have been either on a rooftop or at a distant elevated point at the same height. He had checked before entering the room, yet had not detected her ambush.

Su Shiyu gripped the teacup in his hand with white knuckles, then abruptly let it go.

“I am not, in the end, Her Highness’s kin, and I cannot be trusted by her — speaking plainly, I have let His Majesty and Lord Chang down.” Su Shiyu gave a self-mocking laugh. “But this place is in the middle of a bustling crowd. Does Your Highness have the nerve to make a move against Lord Chang?”

Luowei turned to look at Chang Zhao. “Naturally I would not dare — and Lord Chang would not want Biandu’s common people to know that the Empress is at this moment right here in the city, would he? Making a scene here would cause Song Lan far more trouble than capturing me would.”

Chang Zhao’s expression shifted through several changes. He first glanced at Su Shiyu, who grasped his meaning and pushed the door open himself and sent the guards outside to a distance out of earshot.

Luowei also stood by the window and gave a soft whistle.

She set the candle stand on the table and relit it, then sat down with perfect ease. “Lord Chang, let me make you a wager.”

Chang Zhao raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. “What kind of wager does Your Highness wish to make?”

“You have erased your origins so completely that, to be frank, even now I have not guessed what you truly desire. But I know you are not genuinely serving him.”

Chang Zhao smiled. “What makes you say that?”

“Since he elevated you, he has completely changed his manner of handling affairs. At the time of the Mochun Field jade-shattering, he still knew to keep things concealed — but from midsummer he held back until late autumn before killing the cicada. I was ‘confined’ to Guyou Mountain, compounded by the Jingqiu Remonstrance — he made no effort to mollify anyone, and within a month or two he destroyed the good reputation I had spent such ‘painstaking effort’ building for him. Lord Chang, you are genuinely a clever man. I knew him for ten years and shared a bed with him for three before I discovered his vulnerabilities. Yet you needed only a few months of observing from the sidelines at court to see through him — and not only see through him, but dare to act. If you were only seeking official position, why go to such lengths?”

She paused for breath, and without waiting for him to speak, continued: “And so I surmise that Lord Chang may hold some old grievance against Song Lan — but you have only just arrived in Biandu and have been here a matter of months. How many cards do you truly hold?”

Chang Zhao laughed softly. “At the Grand Court Audience and before the Fengle Tower, I counseled Lord Ye more than once, and he refused every time to ‘walk the same crooked path’ as me. Your Highness and he are surely kindred spirits — so why do you come today to rope me in?”

He had guessed it after all.

Luowei’s expression remained unchanged. “It is not roping you in. I said — I want to make a wager with Lord Chang.”

Chang Zhao said, “Then Your Highness, enough of the suspense.”

“I set half a year as the limit — to change the dynasty’s ruler, capture Song Lan alive, and help Lord Chang settle an old score.” Luowei said steadily. “As for money, grain, troops, and power — these most important things: even if you have them, how confident are you really? And even if you are confident, how many years would it take to set the pieces in place? Do you not want to see him get what he deserves sooner rather than later?”

Chang Zhao had not anticipated her directness. He deliberated for a long while, then raised his head and fixed his gaze on her face, letting out a scoffing laugh.

“Half a year… Your Highness speaks boldly. If you want to make a wager with me, what do you need me to do?”

Luowei broke into a smile alongside him, though the smile never reached her eyes. “Very simple — I only need you to do nothing. In the Jingqiu Remonstrance, Lu Hang died, and Song Lan heeded your counsel and gradually opened himself to the idea of indiscriminate killing. Now that the Thorn-the-Begonia Case is being retried, he will certainly use you as chief examiner. Back in those years, the ‘Elegy for the Jintian’ took the lives of half the court’s backbone officials. I truly do not wish to see that tragedy repeat itself.”

“Hahaha…” Chang Zhao burst out laughing and clapped his hands. “You risked coming here, and it was for this? Your Highness, Your Highness — I thought you were a clever person. Since you have already noticed that our purposes align… you could simply let me goad His Majesty toward total decay, let the court turn upside down with no sun or moon in their proper places, and then you would appear — and with half the effort achieve twice the result. Your reputation is so sterling — by then, all the officials and common people of Biandu would welcome you with crowds lining both sides of the road. And I would be nothing but meat on your chopping block. Why take the risk of this unnecessary move?”

He laughed for a while and then suddenly stiffened, and immediately became agitated in a manner rarely seen in him. “Ye Huo came from the northern frontier — Yan Shizi is your closest friend. When you came down from Guyou Mountain, you should have gone straight north and led your troops back to the capital. Foolish — foolish! If I had your cards in hand, Biandu would already be mine for the taking.”

“Lord Chang, come to your senses,” Luowei said coldly, cutting him off. “Song Lan is not a fool — why did he fall into our trap? This power-play has blinded his eyes completely. Be careful not to do the same and become as blind as he is.”

Chang Zhao countered with a sneer: “Is Your Highness not playing the same game yourself? Why did Yu Qiushi give up all hope? What really happened in the Western Garden incident? How did the Lin family come to its ruin, and who arranged the shattering of jade and the killing of the cicada? I may not understand everything thoroughly, but I can guess at a few things. You too walk a path of crimson clouds shattered underfoot — what is the point of concealing it? From ancient times, there has never been a path that required no sacrifice!”

Luowei picked up the tea Su Shiyu had left behind and took a sip.

“To blend kingly and hegemonic rule, to practice Confucian virtue in public and legalist method in private — these are words of ancient wisdom. But in all things there must be lighter and heavier, and choices must be made. Allow me to offer Lord Chang a word of counsel today: those who play with fire burn themselves; those who play with power will inevitably be consumed by it.”

“But is what you described not your own doing as well?” Chang Zhao pressed back. “You give it fine names and call each other kindred spirits — in the end you still fall into the snare. I am simply more candid than you.”

“It is our doing — but I understood long ago: I use these means to preserve what must be preserved, and to keep to what is right.”

Luowei set down the teacup, rose to her feet, and met his gaze without flinching. “To us, power and strategy are tools of self-protection and protection of others. The precondition of keeping to the right path is this: never use these tools to harm a single innocent person. In this world, the only sacrifice one can make generously is one’s own — Heaven bestowed flesh and blood upon all people, not to pave roads for those who consume others’ lives!”

Chang Zhao said: “Go and read the history books of all ages — look at those rulers, the treacherous ones, the cunning ones, the ruthless ones. They are the victors! You want to win, and win with your dignity and decorum intact? Such a thing doesn’t exist.”

Luowei closed her eyes and recalled a certain late night not long before — recalled the dream Ye Tingyan had described while lying in her arms, saying that ‘the victors stand at the tip of history’s blade and beckon,’ asking ‘is this the shattered, wasted path you and I have walked?’

She suddenly understood why, from long, long ago, the person who walked that long mountain road in Xuzhou at her side had to be Song Ling.

Countless people pass through the fragrant spring; they pause to see the blood beneath the petals; they look up — and only one other person has stopped.

“Because they are the victors — does that make them right?”

She took a breath and sat back down calmly. “I am greedy — I insist on winning with my dignity and decorum intact. Lord Chang does not believe such a thing is possible — then make the wager with me.”

Chang Zhao stood where he was for a long time without speaking.

At last he spoke: “Very well, Your Highness — this subject will accept your wager. Within half a year, I will certainly not allow the grief of the Jintian to repeat itself in Biandu. But what is within my power is, after all, limited — what I cannot protect, I will not risk myself for.”

That one sentence was enough. Luowei finally let out a long breath. “That is sufficient.”

Chang Zhao said: “Your Highness intends to do what you must do, and sell this subject a favor in passing, expecting this subject to give his all in return — what a fine deal. But you still haven’t said: if you lose, what then?”

Luowei replied with a teasing air: “Lord Chang has the means to make Song Lan believe you — all the executioners’ blades in Biandu become your bargaining chips. Why do you need to ask for anything more?”

Chang Zhao laughed aloud. “Your Highness gains everything for nothing.”

He laughed his fill, then spoke with deliberate calm, his tone remarkably gentle: “But you have still underestimated me. Just half a year — if after half a year Song Lan still sits on the throne, I will kill him first, then kill you, kill Ye Huo, and then massacre the entire city of Biandu. Your Highness — do you think I am capable of that or not?”

He said it in an offhand manner, but with absolute conviction. Luowei could not read his cards, yet from the tone of his voice she was suddenly gripped by a bone-deep shudder.

This did not sound like the voice of a civil official. It sounded more like something ground out by long immersion in the reek of blood — a careless nonchalance honed to a fine edge.

Having been drawn in and held here all night by her scheming, and now finally seeing her stunned in place, Chang Zhao at last felt some measure of satisfaction. He brushed his sleeve and of his own accord opened the door for her. “The Fengle Tower is lively, and mutual destruction would not be ideal. But Your Highness, do take care going out — don’t let anyone find out where Ye Huo is hiding in Biandu. If he were exposed, it would not be easy for you to act going forward.”

Luowei gathered her thoughts, put her hat back on, and departed swiftly.

Chang Zhao stood at the door and murmured to himself: “I forgot to ask you one thing — everything you do, is it for him…”

He cast his eyes downward, and for the first time his expression relaxed slightly. “He is already dead. What meaning is there in upholding his way?”

After Luowei had walked far away, Su Shiyu returned to the room with a look of unease. “What did she say to you?”

“Dear friend, don’t worry about it,” said Chang Zhao, studying him for several moments and finding nothing amiss. “The men outside are all my personal retainers — they won’t talk.”

Su Shiyu said: “It was my failure to think things through that let you fall into her trap.”

Chang Zhao clapped him on the shoulder. “Let it go — even His Majesty is helpless against her, to say nothing of you and I.”

“Should we inform His Majesty? Now that we know she is in the city, His Majesty can be set at ease.”

“If His Majesty learned that you and I spent two months scheming, actually came face to face with her, but still failed to catch her — what would he think?” Chang Zhao gave a rueful smile. “Let it go. His Majesty has a thousand tangled matters on his mind these days. Once we have set another trap, we will then go to His Majesty and claim the credit.”

He paused for a moment. “Shiyu, you need not worry — the Noble Consort still has two months to go before she is due. Before then, His Majesty will certainly not move against her. After all this, I have my own means of protecting her life.”

Su Shiyu’s throat moved; after a long while he said with difficulty: “Thank you.”

Chang Zhao said: “The Noble Consort also sent a message through me for you the last time — she said she is doing well now and asked you not to worry over her.”

Uncovering this entanglement between the two of them had been an accident. At the time, Song Lan had been pressing Su Shiyu relentlessly about the Empress’s whereabouts, and Su Shiyu had remained silent throughout — distant and politely evasive. Then Chang Zhao had gone to his home with a bottle of wine, and while he was quite drunk, had noticed a pouch of embroidered clouds tucked inside his robe.

The following day, when Song Lan happened to mention Yu Suiyun, Chang Zhao suddenly recalled that at the one grand ceremony where he had paid his respects to Yu Suiyun, he had knelt and as he rose had glimpsed on her hemline an embroidery of a very peculiar reversed cloud pattern.

Exactly like the one on the pouch.

He traced the thread and discovered some not-particularly-hidden history: before Yu Suiyun had entered the palace, she had persistently pursued Su Shiyu on multiple occasions — this was something many people knew about. That she had eventually resigned herself to entering the palace as a consort was most likely because the feeling was one-sided, with her willing and him indifferent.

Song Lan forbade visitors to the Pifang Pavilion. Chang Zhao found a way to bribe the physician who attended to Yu Suiyun’s pulse readings, won her trust, and barely managed to establish some channel of communication between the two. Su Shiyu had been cold in those earlier days — who would have imagined that today he would fall so deep in feeling for her, that for a few words about her, he was willing to betray the Empress?

In the end, he had come to regret it.