The meeting between Qin Chang Ge and the upper echelons of Blazing Flame could only result in an unspoken promise. The specific implementation would naturally be handled by their respective subordinates concerning the details. The Blazing Flame Gang kept their word. Over the following days, Qi Fan was delighted to discover that the merchant surnamed Ling gradually slowed his efforts to curry favor and establish connections with powerful figures. The original desperate measures of lowering prices regardless of consequences to crush Heng Records, willing to mutually destroy both sides, also became more moderate. The two sides even began communicating about each other’s supply channels and price standards, essentially transforming hostility into harmony and shaking hands in peace.
In his joy, Qi Fan honestly gave orders below, formally introducing Qin Chang Ge as the new master of the Phoenix Alliance. After all, in her previous life, Qin Chang Ge had said that seeing the token was like seeing the person—whoever possessed the Phoenix Token was the master of the Phoenix Alliance.
Even so, he still harbored doubts about Qin Chang Ge’s request.
“You want to take away the young master?” Qi Fan frowned. “I assume you know Rong Rong’s true identity?”
Rong Xiaotian stood to one side holding his sword. Though he said nothing, his expression made it clear he didn’t trust that Qin Chang Ge could properly protect Xiao Rong.
“I know his identity,” Qin Chang Ge insisted, “but I don’t think he needs protection.”
“How is that possible,” Rong Xiaotian scoffed. “He is Xiliang’s Crown Prince, destined to become ruler of the realm sooner or later. How can we treat this lightly?”
Qin Chang Ge unhurriedly produced the “previous Empress’s handwritten letter” she had forged by lamplight the night before, saying, “When the previous Empress was alive, she once told me that she had lived half her life with iron and blood, making countless enemies. If she wanted to live peacefully to old age, it would likely be difficult. If something happened to her while the Crown Prince was still young, alone in the deep palace without support, he would sooner or later be harmed by others. She entrusted me that if such unspeakable events truly occurred, I should take custody of the Crown Prince and personally raise him according to her words, creating the next generation’s wise ruler for Xiliang. This is the Empress’s dying command and cannot be disobeyed.”
Both Qi Fan and Rong Xiaotian took it to examine. It was indeed the Empress’s own handwriting, roughly conveying what Qin Chang Ge had described. They immediately looked at each other uncertainly.
Qin Chang Ge secretly smiled, thinking how fortunate it was that through three lifetimes, her handwriting had remained consistent—otherwise she would have needed considerable persuasion.
Rong Xiaotian still hesitated, saying, “You’re just a weak woman. Taking him with you is too risky…”
“Everyone in Xiliang knows that Empress Ruiyi and Crown Prince Mingxuan perished in the flames, while the legend within Xiliang’s palace is that Empress Ruiyi escaped death and took the Crown Prince away. Regardless of which version, no one would think the Crown Prince is still in the capital.”
“The most dangerous place is the safest.” Qin Chang Ge smiled slowly. “If Xiliang’s Crown Prince is truly to become ruler of the realm in the future, how can he not witness the dark schemes and machinations? How can he not be exposed to the great trends of political winds and clouds? How can he not cultivate from childhood the ability to handle killing and warfare? If you continue to carefully confine and raise him in a coffin shop like this, only desperately teaching him rigid book learning, even if you manage to help him ascend to the throne in the future, I fear within three days this rootless, foundationless emperor would lose his life.”
After spouting a great deal of seemingly reasonable but actually specious logic, Qin Chang Ge simply wanted to keep her son by her side. But since he was currently considered “someone else’s” son, taking him away required some maneuvering.
While they argued, Qi Fan had been lost in thought. He was always more flexible than Rong Xiaotian. Now he smiled and said, “What you say makes sense. But the young master is our former master’s only flesh and blood. If anything happened to him, we couldn’t face our master even in the underworld. How about this—protecting… people is the same anywhere. You can take him for instruction, but we’ll still assign guards for protection. You cannot refuse this.”
This was exactly what she wanted. Qin Chang Ge smiled and readily agreed.
She had been away for two days now and needed to return to the convent to report. Originally having Wen Chang move out of the palace to this Shanglin Convent, which both stayed outside the palace yet maintained close connections within, was calculated precisely because the lonely Xiao Jue cherished his elder sister and would definitely come to visit frequently. Here, there were also no restrictions related to her identity as a Yunzhou woman, and compared to the harsh Cuiwei Palace of her master, it was easier to make contact with Xiao Jue.
Regarding past events, Xiao Jue was the greatest suspect. How could she let him off?
Outside the Shanglin Convent gates, Qin Chang Ge saw carriages and guards from afar and couldn’t help frowning—Xiao Jue had come so quickly? She thought she’d have to wait several more days.
After thinking, Qin Chang Ge coaxed her son, “Come, Rong Rong, let’s dirty your face.”
“Why?” Young Master Xiao was unwilling.
“Son, didn’t you promise you’d protect me?”
“What does that have to do with dirtying my face?” Young Master Xiao wasn’t fooled.
“Because I want to take you to deceive people,” Qin Chang Ge had no awareness that as a mother she should be careful with her words and actions. “Where your mother is staying now has bad people, but I don’t know who the bad people are. So both you and I cannot be our original selves. They know how to deceive people, but we must be even better at it. Whoever successfully deceives the other wins.”
“Oh,” Xiao Baozi indeed greatly resembled his mother, having no resistance to the concept of deceiving people. “Then let’s hurry up and deceive them…”
Qin Chang Ge brought out the shabby old clothes she had prepared and changed him into them, then smeared his tender white bun face with mud and dirt until it was filthy. After teaching him a few things in this manner, she led Xiao the beggar toward the mountain gate.
At the mountain gate, they were indeed stopped. The inner court guards’ blade-like gazes seemed ready to scrape into Qin Chang Ge’s bone marrow, questioning her repeatedly. Finally, the Princess’s nanny came out to escort Qin Chang Ge inside. At the second gate, they were stopped again. A guard said harshly, “This little beggar of unknown origin cannot enter.”
Xiao Baozi said nothing, putting his finger in his mouth, his large eyes rolling around as he looked at the guard. Though the guard was still young, seeing this seemingly ragged and pitiful child’s pathetic gaze, he couldn’t help softening a bit. Just as he was about to moderate his tone, unexpectedly Xiao Baozi frowned, grimaced, and opened his mouth to cry.
“Wuu wuu wuu… I haven’t eaten for three days… wuu wuu wuu… no food for three days… wuu wuu wuu… three days without eating…”
In Xiao Baozi’s mind, accustomed to fine clothes and food since birth, not eating for three days was tantamount to life’s greatest suffering. As for other miserable circumstances, he really couldn’t think of any, so he kept repeating about not eating for three days.
From an angle where no one could see, Qin Chang Ge rolled her eyes helplessly. Afraid her son might give himself away, she had no choice but to squat down, embrace him, and with a face full of misery, say to the guard, “This child wanders the streets with no one to care for him. I saw how pitiful he was and picked him up. The Princess is compassionate, and we are half-monastics—monastics should be merciful and compassionate. How could we stand by and watch someone die? Even if the Princess knew, she would blame us. Little brother, please let us in. He’s just a five-year-old child. I’ll take him to the kitchen for a full meal and definitely won’t startle His Majesty.”
The guard hesitated, looking at the woman before him with her clear, graceful features and misty, ethereal, mysterious temperament that somehow made his heart skip a little. Even the hardest hearts inevitably soften toward beautiful women, especially when there were also bright, clear large eyes looking at him like a watery little puppy.
He hesitated, torn between duty and compassion.
But someone spoke coldly.
“Who is making a commotion over there?”
Qin Chang Ge lowered her eyelashes, then raised them, quietly looking toward the courtyard interior.
The entire courtyard was full of maple trees. In October, the maple leaves were red as fire, brought down rustling by the gentle yet desolate autumn wind, quickly accumulating in a layer on the ground. The servants couldn’t sweep fast enough, making it look like a frost-red carpet. At the end of the carpet, blue tiles and white walls, and natural wood-colored steps brushed with tung oil extended upward, connecting to winding, deep corridors that turned back on themselves.
On the long corridor, swirling and fluttering red leaves formed a continuous curtain, brightly reflecting the current Son of Heaven in his black robe embroidered with twelve golden dragons. With golden crown and jade belt, tall and graceful like jade, his spine straight, his bearing and temperament like a famous unsheathed sword—brilliant and fierce. His noble, handsome face was dazzling, with eyebrows slanting upward at sharp angles. Beneath his brows, his deeply shadowed eyes were darker than his clothing and more brilliantly flashing.
He turned his head slightly, looking over from afar. Though he merely stood there coldly, his imposing, stern presence seemed to have already pressed close before them.
Princess Wen Chang, in plain robes with dignified bearing, stood quietly at his side.
Everyone in the entire courtyard immediately fell to their knees with a rustle, crying “Long live!” with foreheads touching the ground, prostrating in the dust.
Qin Chang Ge was already squatting, so she knelt smoothly. Xiao Rong foolishly turned to look at him once, then burrowed into his mother’s embrace, whispering quietly, “I won’t kneel!”
Qin Chang Ge turned his body behind hers, immediately concealing most of his small, short form, and whispered, “Then crouch.”
Over there, Xiao Jue had already seen Qin Chang Ge. His gaze casually swept over the little beggar without pause, sliding past and settling on Qin Chang Ge’s face.
He remembered this woman—not because her appearance was so striking that he could recognize her at a glance among the countless beauties he had seen, but because of her ethereal, drifting quality like floating mist, which was very unusual. Looking at her was like viewing distant mountains and blue waters through a crystal curtain—one could only sense the misty mountain forms and faint water patterns, seeming near but actually far, unable to grasp the complete picture.
“You,” his gaze touched and immediately withdrew, like withered leaves drifting across water’s surface, “do you know that startling the imperial presence warrants death by beating?”