Starting from the prosperous Chang’an, passing through the Eastern Capital Luoyang, and then wandering through this border city of Youzhou, there truly wasn’t anything that could spark new interest.

Seeing the fruit vendors, Bao Zhu instinctively wanted to buy some snacks for Shisan Lang. Passing the blacksmith shop, she pondered getting Wei Xun a new dining knife. But her beloved was gone, and buying anything was meaningless. Listlessly wandering for half the day, she only bought Yang Xingjian two hard cloth caps.

Later, when hunger struck, Bao Zhu followed Huo Qi Lang as he navigated expertly into a familiar cooked food shop, ordering two bowls of mutton offal soup and a portion of fried deer blood sausage.

As soon as the food touched her lips, Bao Zhu wrinkled her nose. Huo Qi Lang pointed at her and laughed: “That exact same disgusted expression—just like when your brother was being picky with food. You two are truly siblings born from the same mother.”

Bao Zhu pursed her lips but didn’t stop, continuing to eat in large mouthfuls. She had endured too much hardship along this journey to care about the refined taste of food anymore. The deer blood sausage reeked with a fishy smell, so she asked the shopkeeper for a bowl of clear water to wash it down.

Huo Qi Lang said with feeling: “You really do have a sturdy constitution. When he tastes something he dislikes, he absolutely won’t take a second bite. I come to this shop often and find the taste quite good. Does the imperial family not eat animal organs?”

Bao Zhu replied: “My brother never eats them, but both my younger brother Yuan Yi and I like them. It’s just that this shop’s cooking skills are lacking—even the water is salty and bitter. I can simply endure hardship; I haven’t lost my sense of taste.”

Huo Qi Lang pondered for a moment, then suddenly understood: “The water used for drinking and cooking in the royal palace is hauled from Jade Spring. In densely populated ancient cities like this major Youzhou stronghold, well water inevitably has a salty, briny, bitter taste. Your tongues are truly sensitive—you can detect even the most insignificant differences.”

Bao Zhu asked: “Just because the taste is different, you go through the trouble of fetching water from elsewhere?”

Huo Qi Lang said quietly: “Originally we drank well water too. But after the poisoning case broke, we learned that the princess consort had soaked clothes with arsenic for the king to wear, then poured the remaining poisoned water directly into the seepage well. Those who knew the inside story couldn’t help but worry, so we simply stopped drinking the city’s well water. Clothing was also washed repeatedly, fearing poison.”

Hearing these trivial details, Bao Zhu thought of her brother, originally as vigorous as a jade-like steed, now reduced to his current weakened state, and her heart grew even more sorrowful.

No wonder her brother, despite being both prince and governor, wore much simpler clothing than before—she had thought it was border customs. The new clothes Madam Yu had prepared for her were also far less luxurious and gorgeous than those in the palace, all made of durable, washable fabric. It seemed once bitten by a snake, one fears rope for ten years.

Thus, under Li Yuanying’s supervision, Bao Zhu would spend the evening hours at dusk mourning and weeping, while all other time was occupied with learning various military and administrative affairs. To assist her, Li Yuanying formally assigned their wet nurse Madam Yu to his sister’s side.

Training troops and feeding horses was within Bao Zhu’s capabilities, but raising military funds left her overwhelmed and frantic.

From the treasury commissioner Li Chengyin, she learned that maintaining one soldier cost over twenty strings of cash per year on average. Commanding a hundred thousand troops sounded imposing and invincible, but required self-financing of over two million strings in military expenses annually. This bottomless pit of enormous expenditure had to be painstakingly accumulated bit by bit from military farm revenues and salt-iron taxes.

She had originally thought that after a journey of poverty and hardship, reaching her brother’s side would restore her former ease. Who would have imagined that now, opening her eyes each day meant owing ten thousand strings in debt—lacking even the slightest bit could trigger military mutiny and cost her head, while having too much would make the people unable to bear the burden. Scraping together funds from here and there, calculating precisely—the various difficulties involved were incomparable to mere travel expenses being tight.

In the blink of an eye, a hurried month passed, and New Year’s Day arrived. Inside and outside the royal palace, lanterns were hung and decorations displayed in a festive atmosphere, with everyone busy preparing to celebrate the new year.

Huo Qi Lang took his customary ten-day rest period. Citizens and merchants were busy returning home for the new year, and the taverns and gambling houses on Tanzhou Street were all closed for business. She wandered aimlessly for half the day but couldn’t find any interesting places to visit, so had to return to the palace. She thought nowhere could compare to Chang’an’s liveliness, and with money in hand again, the thought of shaking off her sleeves and departing arose once more.

Just stepping through the second gate, she keenly noticed that among the palace guard soldiers on duty today, there were seven or eight new faces. And these weren’t ordinary unfamiliar faces—they were uniformly handsome young men. Some had sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes with radiant bearing, others had features like paintings, gentle and refreshing. Judging by their manner and deportment, they were all sons of noble families—truly a dazzling array with every type represented.

Huo Qi Lang felt puzzled and stood there admiring them for quite a while, thinking this was much more interesting than strolling through the streets.

Carrying her full curiosity, she made her way to the sleeping quarters. Entering the door, she saw Li Yuanying reviewing reports from various prefectures and blurted out: “What an eye-opener! Does this royal palace not only hang lanterns and put up decorations for the holidays, but also gather handsome young men as ornaments?”

Li Yuanying looked up and glanced at her, saying coldly: “Those two eyes of yours pay no attention to anything else but specifically stare at handsome people, don’t they.”

Huo Qi Lang detected a sour smell in the air and immediately realized she had misspoken. She quickly put on a smile, moved closer to massage his shoulders, and coaxed him with sweet words:

“Where in this world could there be anyone more handsome than Your Highness? Those are all common peaches and ordinary plums that can’t compare even with flattery. I’m not looking because I saw unfamiliar faces and needed to ask clearly—what if assassins had infiltrated the royal palace? That would be terrible. Heh heh, I’m being dutiful, dutiful.”

The palace attendants, seeing her enter and cling to His Highness, set down their tasks and quietly withdrew.

Li Yuanying kept his head down reading the reports and coldly threw out a sentence: “Those people aren’t for you to look at. You’d better abandon that idea early.”

Huo Qi Lang was startled, then after thinking it over, immediately understood: “They’re candidates for the princess?”

Li Yuanying remained silent.

Huo Qi Lang drew out a long “Oh,” then said: “Good idea. To treat emotional wounds, the best medicine is replacing them with the next one. It’s New Year—out with the old, in with the new. This is indeed an appropriately seasonal ritual.”

Li Yuanying felt a surge of smoldering anger rise in his chest. His lips moved slightly, but after restraining himself, he still swallowed it down.

Huo Qi Lang sat cross-legged beside him as usual. Seeing the food box filled with candy coated in glutinous rice powder and various dried fruits and candied treats—all New Year’s seasonal snacks—she thought Wei Da was truly unfortunate, unable to eat sweets or win the princess, wondering what he had been busying himself with all this time.

She picked up a piece of candied fruit and joked: “Those few outside are all unripe fruits in their twenties, clumsy and heavy-handed, not necessarily knowing how to make the princess happy. This matter would be better entrusted to me…”

Before she could finish speaking, Li Yuanying’s expression suddenly changed. He threw down the report, twisted around to grab her chest garment, and roared: “You dare! You dare treat her the same way you treated me, then pat your behind and walk away—I won’t let you leave Youzhou alive. Brave and skilled in battle? Scaling walls and rooftops? You really think I’m helpless against people like you?!”

Huo Qi Lang saw that in his fury, his hands were trembling and the veins in his neck were bulging. This devastatingly beautiful face actually showed traces of a fierce expression—clearly his anger had reached its peak. No matter how many conflicts had erupted before, she understood in her heart that only now had she truly touched his forbidden territory.

Huo Qi Lang said quietly: “I know—those three hundred heavy crossbow soldiers, right? After witnessing my martial arts firsthand, to deal with Wei Da, you secretly trained troops specifically to handle martial arts masters from the jianghu.”

Having his private military preparations discovered, Li Yuanying coldly admitted: “That’s right. As long as I detect that he has bullied Bao Zhu, even if he manages to survive Wang Chengwu’s crossbow beds by luck, he’ll still die under my crossbow soldiers’ hands.”

Huo Qi raised both hands in surrender and said sincerely: “Your Highness, rest assured—Old Seven doesn’t dare seduce the princess. Whether I die at Your Highness’s hands or manage to escape by luck, someday I will perish. When that time comes, Wei Da will be waiting in the underworld to settle accounts with me—that would be quite terrifying.”

Li Yuanying gave a cold laugh and released his grip on her garment.

Not even a joke could be made without immediately bringing out secret weapons and making threats. The suffering he could endure himself, the losses he was willing to swallow, he couldn’t bear to let his sister experience even the slightest bit. Any sign unfavorable to her, he would regard as an enemy and ruthlessly eliminate.

Huo Qi Lang couldn’t help but sigh: “The princess is truly your only lifeline.”

Li Yuanying’s tone was ice-cold: “Without question.”

He deliberately used piles of military and administrative affairs to keep Bao Zhu spinning like a top, unable to stop, with no moment to spare for wild thoughts. Even during New Year’s, he wouldn’t let her idle, using illness as an excuse to push all social obligations onto her.

Bao Zhu spent all day matching wits with Military Supervisor Ruan Ziming, the palace staff of civil and military advisors, and governors of various prefectures. When she wanted to grieve alone at night, often before shedding a few tears, she would fall asleep from exhaustion.

On the fifth day when they offered sacrifices, the siblings went to Minzhong Temple to burn incense and pray for their mother, Noble Consort. On the return journey, speaking of their carefree childhood under their mother’s protective wings, both were filled with emotion.

Li Yuanying felt the timing was ripe and solemnly proposed to discuss the sealed-away past events with her.

Returning to the royal palace, he dismissed everyone and took out the pouch containing medicinal dregs and flower mud, relating in detail the strange incident that occurred at Penglai Hall on their mother’s seventh day after death, as well as the origin of the “Blood-smeared Ghost” rumors.

Bao Zhu was already sharp-minded, and now holding this evidence, how could she not guess the cause and effect? Her face turned deathly pale and her throat choked up.

She told Li Yuanying all the details of when she was buried alive, as well as her conjectures about falling ill from eating ice and Minister Hu Jiao manipulating the imperial physician selection.

The siblings pieced together their respective intelligence, unraveling the mystery through careful analysis.

Li Yuanying summarized: “The emperor heard rumors spreading throughout the palace questioning my bloodline. Taking advantage of mother’s weakness from childbirth when she couldn’t resist, he cruelly poured the life-saving hemostatic medicine into the peony pot, causing her death from blood loss. Afterward, to cover up his crime, he eliminated all witnesses who were in the birthing chamber one by one.

But there are no impermeable walls in the palace. After mother’s death, gradually among the palace servants spread secret tales of a blood-smeared ghost: a red vengeful spirit covered in blood and filled with hatred, wandering through the Daming Palace.”

Li Yuanying carefully retrieved from a brocade bundle the pomegranate skirt he had treasured for years. Through the passage of time, this light silk skirt woven from red damask had faded to a dull luster.

Seeing this familiar skirt, Bao Zhu immediately burst into tears. She recognized this as her mother’s pomegranate skirt.

Imperial daily clothing was discarded and replaced daily, never washed. Only this skirt was what Noble Consort Xue wore during their escape. When the white fox led the emperor to welcome them at the mountain cave, she was wearing this pomegranate skirt. This was the most precious memorial, which she had always treasured and carefully preserved.

Li Yuanying said solemnly: “On mother’s seventh day, I snuck into Penglai Hall and stole this skirt as a keepsake. The emperor, harboring guilt, discovered that her pomegranate skirt mysteriously disappeared on the night her soul returned, and hearing the blood-smeared ghost rumors, was surely panic-stricken.”

Teardrops wet the crimson silk skirt.

Bao Zhu choked out: “Fearing mother’s vengeful spirit would return to seek revenge, from that time on, he could no longer bear to see anyone wear pomegranate skirts in his presence. The prohibition became palace regulation. This paranoid mentality developed to extremes—even seeing you wear the groom’s red robe at your wedding filled him with terror he couldn’t endure. No longer willing to look upon your face so similar to mother’s, he exiled you to Youzhou.”

It was common knowledge in court and palace: since the noble consort’s death, the emperor’s temperament had changed dramatically. He began favoring unorthodox Taoist masters and often shut himself away in palace temples. Court officials thought he was refining elixirs seeking immortality, but perhaps this supreme ruler of the realm was only seeking magical arts to drive away ghosts, to calm the unspeakable fear in his heart.

Li Yuanying continued: “On the day of your incident, he received news that someone had poisoned the princess. In his fury, he immediately ordered the Golden Guard to arrest and torture all palace servants qualified to enter Qifeng Hall, wanting to find the true culprit who harmed the princess. You know that under brutal torture, no one can endure.

My informant in the palace reported that several people confessed under torture, but couldn’t produce poison as evidence—clearly all were false confessions under duress. Your trusted female official Xianyu Jing, to escape the beating, claimed she saw a red ghost drift into Qifeng Hall at dusk, after which the princess suddenly fell gravely ill.”

Bao Zhu’s voice was hoarse as she said dryly: “She was overwhelmed by torture and had no choice but to shift blame to ghosts and spirits.”

Li Yuanying nodded: “Who would have thought Xianyu Jing’s forced testimony would exactly strike the emperor’s most dreaded secret. He panicked, thinking mother’s vengeful spirit had appeared again to claim his beloved daughter. What followed was logical—he had no time to care about your actual life or death, focused entirely on suppressing the vengeful spirit.

Those Taoist masters are all flattering, smooth-talking types. As long as they could ease the emperor’s mind, they could fabricate any absurd nonsense. He followed the masters’ advice to hold the funeral before mother’s death anniversary—no time for proper lying-in-state. Various coincidences combined, and no one discovered you were actually just unconscious in a death-like state.”

Bao Zhu’s lips trembled as she murmured: “When I was buried, I wore mother’s twelve-hairpin flower tree headdress. The burial goods, tomb, and funeral rites all far exceeded a princess’s rank, equal to an empress’s. My face was covered with a heavy death mask—even with weak breathing, others would hardly notice.

Living burial sacrifices and sorcerous practices were used in the tomb, buried on the same day, same hour, same moment as mother. These bizarre methods were all to suppress the blood-smeared ghost—that surnamed ‘Xue’ consort who loved wearing pomegranate skirts and died bleeding. He… he treated me as mother’s substitute.”

Li Yuanying sighed: “According to news from Chang’an, even now, soul-calming rituals continue constantly at your mausoleum. Mother died eight years ago, yet he still fears her extremely.

‘The white fox leads the way’ was the emperor’s auspicious omen, the sign of his receiving Heaven’s mandate. Twenty years later, he betrayed the oath made during their escape: ‘Should we ever rise again, we shall never fail each other.’ Fearing mother’s spirit in pomegranate skirts would come for his life, he’s even more terrified of being abandoned by the heavenly mandate that once favored him.”

The secret of Noble Consort’s death and the princess’s live burial was finally revealed.

Though she had long suspected the mastermind, seeing the naked truth laid bare before her, Bao Zhu still couldn’t bear it. She sat speechless, face covered in tears.

Witnessing his sister’s heartbroken appearance, Li Yuanying sighed deeply, reached out to stroke her short hair, and said:

“I know you’re grieving because he truly loved you. You resemble him, clever and lively, adorable. Doting on you required no consideration of court faction constraints, no worry about succession struggles. He invested all personnel, finances, and resources in carefully nurturing you, showing off to everyone your exquisite calligraphy and literary-martial accomplishments, genuinely proud of his precious jewel.

A child’s love for their parents is the purest and most sincere. But you must understand—what the emperor loves most is ultimately himself, the supreme throne in Daming Palace.”

Bao Zhu leaned against her brother’s embrace, weeping silently.

Li Yuanying’s expression was solemn as he said quietly: “Regardless of who my birth father is, we were both carried by mother. After she departed, in this world, only you and I share true blood connection.”

Author’s Note:

Divine mandate refers to heavenly signs foretelling an emperor’s destined rule.