“Favored!”

That one word exploded like thunder, causing Xiao Jue to immediately stand up and knock Concubine Shu, who had been clinging to his knees, sprawling to the ground.

“Favored?” He was so shocked even his voice changed pitch. “Concubine Shu! Are you mad! If you want me to spare your life, you shouldn’t use such foolish methods! Speaking nonsense before the throne – I can immediately grant you death!”

Concubine Shu raised her tear-streaked face, her delicate makeup making her look truly pitiable, but this sorrowful beauty could hardly move the emperor’s heart now. Xiao Jue glared at her with eyes that could devour someone.

When people reached desperate straits, they had little to worry about. In her moment of crisis, Concubine Shu had long thrown those initial warnings to the wind. Weeping, she crawled forward on her knees and hugged Xiao Jue’s legs. “Your Majesty… Your Majesty… back then…”

“Concubine Shu!” Empress Dowager Jiang, who had kept her eyes closed in silence, suddenly spoke, her voice cold as colliding jade pearls, carrying hidden chill. “You’re panicked and confused! What nonsense are you babbling!”

Qin Chang Ge, who had been standing with hands behind her back, suddenly casually brushed her sleeves and said calmly, “They say desperate situations reveal true words. This minister would like to hear Concubine Shu’s heartfelt words.”

Xiao Jue immediately turned to stare at her, his gaze full of anxiety. If not for the presence of Empress Dowager Jiang and Concubine Shu, he would probably have rushed over to declare his feelings. Qin Chang Ge smiled at him – completely the respectful smile of a minister to an emperor.

Xiao Jue’s heart sank as his gaze dropped to Concubine Shu’s tear-streaked face. He wished he could kick her to death, but now the more he acted this way, the more Chang Ge would suspect. Helplessly, he sneered, “Back then what? Don’t I know whether I love you or whether I’ve favored you? If you want to die, I’ll naturally oblige you. Guards—”

“Your Majesty!” Concubine Shu suddenly stopped crying, raised her face, and stared directly at Xiao Jue, saying clearly, “Tonight Your Majesty wants this concubine to die, wants this concubine’s entire family executed – that’s all within Your Majesty’s word. No matter how foolish this concubine is, I wouldn’t be so stupid as to lie at this moment. How would this concubine dare add the crime of deceiving the sovereign on top of such grave charges? Your Majesty favored this concubine five years ago, in the third year of Tianbi, on the ninth day of the second month – the seventh day after the Empress’s death…”

“You’re spouting nonsense!!!” In his fury, Xiao Jue even let out profanity. With a crack, the armrest in his hand completely shattered to pieces, wood fragments falling all over Concubine Shu’s head. The splinters made her eyes stream with tears and caused constant coughing, but she had clearly thrown caution to the wind and continued without stopping: “That day Your Majesty suddenly burst into this concubine’s Mingyang Palace. Your Majesty kept calling this concubine ‘darling,’ and said this concubine was better than… better than her—”

Xiao Jue stood there with a completely red face, trembling all over with anger, almost unable to speak. His fingers convulsed as they opened and closed repeatedly. Every time they opened, something was crushed to powder by his overflowing true energy, constantly shooting toward Concubine Shu. She rolled around in embarrassment trying to dodge, but never stopped talking.

She had always been a shrewd woman and had already sensed from her first words that the situation between His Majesty and Grand Tutor Zhao was strange. Tonight was already a dead end anyway, so she might as well break the boat and fight desperately – perhaps she could still exchange for a thread of hope for survival. Therefore, although she was scared out of her wits by Xiao Jue’s towering rage, she still persisted in speaking sentence by sentence.

But Xiao Jue had reached his limit and was fuming with rage. If this crazy woman continued her wild rambling and Chang Ge misunderstood, what would he do? Two years of arduous pursuit, finally achieving some softening in her heart – if this woman’s words overturned everything, he would die of anger!

In his mad fury, Xiao Jue’s uncontrolled true energy shattered a huge celadon vase on the nearby antique shelf with a crash. Amid the harsh sound of breaking, he roared, “Guards! Drag her out—”

Wolf-like guards had long been waiting at the bottom of the steps. Hearing the command, they rushed in, not daring to look at the expressions of the people in the hall as they grabbed Concubine Shu and dragged her outside!

Concubine Shu desperately clawed at the gold bricks on the floor, not caring that all her carefully maintained fingernails broke off. She raised her head and shouted, “Your Majesty said this concubine was good in every way!!”

“Drag her out!!!!”

“This concubine remembers! On Your Majesty’s dragon body, on the lower left abdomen, there’s a red mole the size of a bean!”

…

Deathly silence.

In an instant, the entire hall became like clay sculptures and wooden carvings.

The inner palace that had been in chaos like boiling porridge suddenly became so quiet that even the sound of teardrops falling on carpet could be heard.

Empress Dowager Jiang sat rigidly on her throne, the guards holding Concubine Shu’s arms stood stunned in place, and Xiao Jue stood frozen with a piece of celadon fragment in his hand. After a long while, blood slowly seeped from between his tightly clenched fingers.

Drop by drop, falling onto the blue jade shards covering the ground.

Perhaps only Qin Chang Ge remained most composed. She suddenly smiled.

Only that smile, no matter how one looked at it, seemed somewhat pale.

She smiled and suddenly bowed to Xiao Jue, saying calmly, “Your Majesty, this is no longer a palace conspiracy case that subordinates can be involved in. This minister requests permission to withdraw and avoid involvement.”

Without waiting for Xiao Jue’s response, she straightened up, her gaze sweeping over Concubine Shu who was staring at her intently. She gave Xiao Jue a slight smile at the corner of her mouth and turned with light steps.

Her sleeve was suddenly grabbed.

Qin Chang Ge slightly lowered her eyelashes, glancing at the hand tightly gripping her sleeve. The hand bore a black obsidian carving of a golden flying dragon, noble and unrestrained in bearing, but its owner seemed somewhat nervous – the fingertips were pale from excessive force.

The blood in his palm had already stopped, but this agitated exertion caused it to burst forth again. Blood quickly soaked her sleeve, wet and cool, like her current mood.

Slowly raising her eyes, she met those deep black pupils directly.

What was that? Raging seas, giant waves, wild torrents… layer upon layer, rolling and surging, all were rising and falling waves, carrying incomprehension, confusion, grievance, sadness, anger, questions… even pleading. Layer upon layer surged forth, each covering the next, each higher than the last, each more intense and turbulent than the previous, threatening to drown her.

…

What was that? In her eyes – smoke clouds, flying mists, bewildering forests… vaguely coming and going, all were drifting fog. Following her thoughts, hiding joy and sorrow, hiding intentions, hiding expressions, like maze walls standing before him, one wall after another endlessly. He stumbled in such eyes as if accidentally entering a mystical path, walking into Penglai, faintly hearing distant Buddhist chanting in the distance. In the deep layers of misty trees, he could see neither the way forward nor the way back. He clearly knew that what he sought was ahead, but the clouds were too deep to know where.

Xiao Jue hazily remembered that two years ago when he first met Ming Shuang at Cuiwei Palace, her eyes had vaguely held this same expression, only now it seemed even more distant than then.

Had he lost her?

Just because of a mad woman’s irrefutable accusation, would she stop believing in him?

Blood flowed more urgently between Xiao Jue’s fingers.

Qin Chang Ge looked away, took a deep breath, and gently pried open his hand.

No, it’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just that at this moment my heart is also in chaos, and I only wish to escape this momentary entanglement.

Throughout this journey of rebirth, with sharp winds and harsh frosts pressing relentlessly, I thought I had walked through much blood and fire, and the next step would be brightness and splendor. Yet suddenly I smell fate’s cruel scent, and some iron-blue outlines are quietly emerging in the darkness.

That makes me… uneasy.

This brush from Qin Chang Ge carried true energy.

Caught off guard and emotionally agitated, Xiao Jue was actually pushed into a stumble by her brush.

He steadied himself against the sandalwood chair behind him, leaving a bloody handprint with his support, but seemed to have no awareness of it. He only looked up at Qin Chang Ge, his gaze full of incomprehension and pain.

But Qin Chang Ge had already looked away and hurried out.

Her rapidly descending figure moved farther and farther away. The guards kneeling all over the ground only saw a patch of yellow floating cloud sweep past their eyes, and in the blink of an eye, she had already walked out the palace gate.

Xiao Jue stood in place, watching her figure disappear without any reluctance at the Shengning Palace gate. He felt an emptiness and pain in his heart, as if something had crashed with a bang, making him feel like vomiting blood.

Behind him, someone asked timidly, “Your Majesty…”

Xiao Jue spun around abruptly, his gaze sharp as an eagle’s, lightning-fast as it struck toward Concubine Shu.

Concubine Shu covered her chest and collapsed limply to the ground, finally unable to say anything more.

Xiao Jue stared at her viciously. If looks could kill, Concubine Shu would have died ten thousand times already.

His fingers clenched into fists, the contraction of force causing his joints to crack audibly. Xiao Jue struggled to control his impulse to punch her away – never in his life had he hated someone this much, wanting to tear this mad woman who spouted nonsense into pieces, grind her into mincemeat, then ruthlessly trample her bit by bit under his feet.

But he couldn’t.

Chang Ge’s glance as she left clearly showed suspicion. If he killed her now, it would seem like he was guilty and silencing her.

All those heartfelt declarations and firm vows would become jokes that couldn’t withstand a single blow, extinguished by a single sentence.

“Drag her away! The Zhang and He families are suspected of treason – throw them all into Taiji Prison and thoroughly search for their accomplices. Don’t let a single one escape!”

“Yes!”

“Request the Empress Dowager to maintain her honored health here! Deploy three thousand Western Capital garrison troops to guard Shengning Palace. From today forward, anyone who approaches within three li of the palace without imperial decree – kill! Anyone who steps out of the palace without imperial decree – kill!”

“…Yes!!!”

On the throne, Empress Dowager Jiang, who had maintained her composed posture throughout, finally trembled slightly upon hearing those two murderous “kill”s.

Under her light purple deep brocade golden hibiscus sleeves, her hands were twisted tightly together. No one knew that on that delicate skin were patches of purple bruises.

…All her painstaking planning, struggling in desperate circumstances to make connections, finally convincing these two concubines who often came to worship Buddha with her because of the lonely deep palace. Concubine Yao was ignorant and only used as a smoke screen. Concubine Shu was wholeheartedly determined to become empress dowager. She had Concubine Yao constantly annoy Xiao Jue, making him irritated and even more unwilling to deal with harem affairs. She had the Zhang family spend heavily in Yizhou to buy assassins, secretly mobilizing some border troops controlled by loyal former subordinates of Grand Commandant Zhang. Everything was ready except the east wind, but she never expected a white-eyed wolf nearby to leak information to Wen Chang, and never expected those guarding Wen Chang to be so incompetent, ruining her great plan for female charms… It was truly fate, something that could no longer be forced…

It seemed that after that incident’s surprising success, all good fortune had been used up. Afterward, there were only stumbles and falls with no recovery.

From now on, as the sun rose and moon set at Shengning Palace, there would be no more changes…

Qin Chang Ge galloped through the darkness.

The precious horse beneath her came from Qingma, most vigorous and unparalleled. At full gallop, it increasingly displayed the wild nature from the vast grasslands, swift as chasing light.

No direction, no destination, aimlessly racing about.

Wind swept swiftly past her ears, howling like cold laughter, as if mocking her years of constant searching, exhausting her wits – perhaps in the end it would all be “what was the point?”

What was the point, what was the point of obsessing over the truth? What was the point of shattering the illusory beauty of flowers in mirrors and moon in water to face reality’s bloody fangs with fresh blood?

Xiao Jue… perhaps none of it was your fault, but I cannot stop this moment of bone-chilling cold in my heart.

I too am vulgar, I too am ordinary… I would race my horse wildly because of dissatisfaction with these worldly grudges and romantic entanglements, like all ordinary women in the world, recklessly indulging myself without care.

Then… let me indulge once!

Qin Chang Ge suddenly stood up, steadily upright on horseback.

Just like years ago when she stood on horseback with her Wind-Chasing Divine Crossbow, eliminating the last emperor of a dynasty, using a freeze-frame of blood spatters to announce the demise of a two-hundred-year-old nation.

With a trace of illusory smile, Qin Chang Ge stood steady as a rock on the galloping horse, slowly extending her hand in the gesture of drawing a bow to shoot the moon.

“Clang!”

It seemed like a sound from her imagination, yet perhaps not.

Qin Chang Ge looked up in confusion, only then realizing that in her wild racing, she had actually arrived at the foot of a cliff behind Anping Palace.

From the cliff above, faint sounds of a guqin could be heard.

The music was distant and unclear, but cold and mournful, matching several parts of Qin Chang Ge’s current mood.

Qin Chang Ge’s foot pushed off, and she shot straight up from horseback like a meteor arrow. Her toe tapped several points, and in mid-air her robes spread like a flower as she lightly and gracefully reached the middle section of the cliff.

There a pine tree grew slantwise, like a green umbrella spread beneath the cliff.

Qin Chang Ge spun once and settled stably cross-legged on the pine tree.

Very good – both hidden and quiet, and she could listen to music for free.

About a zhang above her head, someone unknown had brought a guqin to this high cliff, playing it with ethereal detachment. Accompanied by the solitary pine, cold moon, dew, and long wind, in the plucking of strings rose and fell a lifetime’s sorrows like flying snow. Sound by sound, all the heart’s matters were played, and those words that could not be spoken scattered and withered on this high cliff peak after the autumn night’s light rain?

That guqin music was like pattering rain, like misty clouds, wandering and turning in ethereal illusion, full of faint longing and brimming sorrow. It seemed like flowers that bloomed and fell outside some year’s study, like the graceful sword-dancing figure among pavilions and falling snow in some year, or like that layer of crystal frost on stone bridge – never again would anyone be able to leave traces upon it in this lifetime.

Qin Chang Ge listened quietly, slowly showing a smile tinged with bitterness, thinking of Xiao Chen’s mocking and contemptuous smile… Whose joke were you waiting to see? His? Mine? Or your own? Who exactly was the involuntary chess piece in fate’s game, creating inextinguishable smoke of war across the four seas and eight wastelands in their mutual collisions and battles?

In my lifetime, those things remembered, preserved, and refused to be forgotten – are they ultimately the bright light or the prophecy of doom?

The guqin music was deep and cold, as if soaked in the deep sea for a thousand years before being retrieved to play in an ice crystal world. Each note produced a frost flower, and the season instantly changed from autumn to winter.

In this cold autumn night rain, with slippery moss and cold stones, with such harsh wind on the cliff – did Xiao Chen’s weak body endure this nightly solitary guqin playing? Was he trying to relieve his inner depression, or simply attempting slow suicide?

Qin Chang Ge sat steadily, her gaze cold. If a person didn’t want to live, then death might not be anything but liberation.

Above the cliff, below the cliff – one person played guqin, one person listened.

Who was whose intimate friend?

Who heard into the other’s heart depths and saw each other’s endings?

Covering the ears, closing the eyes, being a deaf and blind fool – wouldn’t that be happier than being a sharp-eared, keen-eyed clever person?

That sorrowful person above suffered daily because he could not forget.

And herself? Because she refused to give up, what she would ultimately uncover – wouldn’t it be not only the six kingdoms’ upheavals and competition for the realm, but also the fates of all those people connected by thousands of threads?

The guqin music grew lighter and lighter, approaching the song’s end. But Qin Chang Ge’s gaze grew colder and brighter, as if two clusters of blue ghostly fire suddenly arose, illuminating every detail of her initially chaotic thoughts.

Her gaze slowly expanded, encompassing what lay below – there, after autumn night rain, were thousands of li of rivers and mountains under the moon.

Rivers and mountains unchanged, eternally ageless – why must human hearts always be like dust, swaying with the wind?

Suddenly there was a creaking sound that carried far in the quiet night.

A string broke with a startling sound.

Above the cliff came the sound of pushing away the guqin. Soon after, a famous guqin crafted by renowned masters from Zhongchuan, worth a thousand gold pieces, tumbled and rolled down from the cliff, smashing below with a resonant sound.

Someone at the cliff top sighed long and murmured:

“Human nature is most fickle, what of emotion? In the end it breaks!”

“Breaks! Breaks! Breaks!”

Three consecutive calls, and by the last phrase, the voice was already distant.

The cliff was empty and silent. Under the moon, autumn wind was cold, passing through the solitary pine and stirring the black hair of the woman below. The woman sat motionless, steady as a stone statue.

After a long while, her murmuring voice rose in the wind.

“Xiao Chen, I finally understand you.”

Swift in coming, slow in going.

Having descended the cliff, Qin Chang Ge reined in her horse and rode slowly. Suddenly she heard rapid hoofbeats ahead, rising like a violent storm, as if the other party had urgent business. She couldn’t help but laugh, saying to herself, “Sounds like that fellow’s style…”

Before finishing her words, she saw a magnificent black horse galloping toward her, its hoofbeats shattering a street’s silence. The rider’s golden crown was askew, his expression anxious, his handsome features full of frustration – who else could it be but the unlucky Emperor Xiao?

Qin Chang Ge stared at him in amazement. Had this person put a listening device on her? How had he found her?

Biting her lip, Qin Chang Ge felt her heart still somewhat disturbed, still temporarily unwilling to see this person who troubled her. She pretended not to see him and spurred her horse away.

Behind her suddenly rose the sound of robes fluttering in wind. With a whoosh, the same part of her outer robe sleeve was viciously grabbed for the second time tonight. Xiao Jue’s voice rang out, vexed and urgent: “Chang Ge, listen to my explanation! That woman must have peeked at me bathing!”

Though her heart was full of melancholy, Qin Chang Ge almost burst out laughing at the last sentence. She barely restrained herself, her expression light and cool as she looked down at her ruined sleeve, then turned to look at the noble yet roguish fellow who had abandoned his horse to fly over and desperately grip her sleeve. She said coolly, “Your Majesty, you really like my clothes?”

“Huh?”

Xiao Jue’s heart full of anxiety had searched the entire city, and finally miraculously encountering her turned his焦虑 instantly to joy. Within that joy arose uneasiness. He was just thinking of properly explaining everything to Chang Ge when her first inexplicable question left him momentarily stunned and unable to react.

Qin Chang Ge smiled very gently at him again and said, “I see Your Majesty truly likes this robe of mine.”

She suddenly quickly removed her outer robe, crumpled it into a ball, and swiftly stuffed it into Xiao Jue’s hands. Xiao Jue instinctively grasped it. Qin Chang Ge smiled at him again, showing her teeth, then suddenly raised her whip.

The horse immediately shot out like an arrow.

Xiao Jue reacted and immediately gathered his qi to pursue, but with that breath, a faint mist suddenly rose from the outer robe. Xiao Jue immediately inhaled much of it and instantly felt dizzy, falling to the ground with a thud.

Cries of alarm arose. Those horses inferior to His Majesty’s divine steed had just arrived, and guards rushed to lift Xiao Jue, seeing him unconscious and frightened out of their wits. Among them was a guard from martial arts background who carefully checked Xiao Jue’s pulse and said, “No problem. His Majesty only took the lowest level sleeping drug. He’ll be fine after sleeping or having cold water splashed on him.”

The guards looked at each other – who dared splash cold water on the emperor? With no choice, they had to carry the emperor back to Longzhang Palace to sleep.

After the crowd dispersed, Qin Chang Ge appeared from around the street corner, holding her whip and laughing silently. As she laughed, the smile at the corner of her mouth gradually faded.

She stood there holding her whip, suddenly forgetting why she had been laughing.

Behind her, someone sighed softly and said, “Chang Ge, if you don’t want to laugh, don’t force yourself.”

Qin Chang Ge didn’t turn around. She stood for a while, and behind her was also silent, as if no one had ever spoken.

Qin Chang Ge suddenly leaned backward. There was darkness behind her, and she had never looked back to see what was there, yet she leaned back without any concern.

She didn’t fall.

She leaned against that warm chest that was always waiting behind her.

Resting her head lightly on his shoulder, Qin Chang Ge adjusted to a comfortable position, closed her eyes, and murmured, “Feihuan, how wonderful. I knew you were always…”

Chu Feihuan moved, and Qin Chang Ge reached out to gently stop him, saying, “Don’t move… don’t move… let me lean on you for a moment, just for a moment…”

Chu Feihuan stopped moving, but reached out to gently embrace her from behind, saying softly, “I’m always behind you. I’m always willing to lend you my shoulder to lean on. As long as you’re willing, anytime.”

With a gentle sigh, Qin Chang Ge closed her eyes and said, “Feihuan, you really don’t need to care about me. I’m just a selfish woman. Really, selfish and shameless.”

Behind her came soft laughter, and she vaguely felt the slight trembling of the chest beneath her – there, that heart beat forever for only one person.

“Chang Ge, you’re selfish, yet your heart holds the world’s people and their livelihood. You’re shameless, yet you’ve only ever killed the wicked. If worldly ethics and morality truly judge you selfish and shameless, then I’m willing to follow you into demonhood.”

Slowly opening her eyes, Qin Chang Ge let out a long breath and said, “What virtue and ability do I have…”

“Chang Ge,” Chu Feihuan gently stroked the silky black hair on her head, “you’re tired, hesitant, aren’t you? I can feel your fatigue. Do you remember what I once said to you?”

Qin Chang Ge turned to look at his increasingly clear and bright eyes in the darkness.

“I once asked you if you were willing to retreat with me to mountain forests, to live that life of laughing proudly among misty clouds, far from the red dust of the mortal world. Now, do you have an answer for me?”

Qin Chang Ge remained silent, turning her face to look toward the distant direction of Eastern Yan.

“Chang Ge,” Chu Feihuan’s tone grew slower, each word seeming squeezed from the depths of his heart, “if the person you hope to retreat with isn’t me, then why don’t you tell him? With his nature, imperial dignity might not outweigh your smile.”

He sighed softly, lightly embracing the rarely bewildered woman in his arms, his gesture as precious as if she were a treasure he could never obtain again in this lifetime.

“Chang Ge, I only hope you can be far from these disputes and hatred, far from suffering and torment. I don’t presume that the person beside you should be me. As long as you can escape these struggles, no matter who you wander the world with, no matter what way you choose to leave me, I would be happy and bless you.”