Sheng Yunting’s remains were buried outside Tonghua Gate.

Tonghua Gate was close to Daming Palace; entering Tonghua Gate was equivalent to entering the imperial city. The gate had pavilions built above it and three arched entrances below, with troops heavily guarding both the upper and lower sections. The Changle Relay Station, where Sheng Yunting had lost his life, was seven miles from Tonghua Gate. Part of the official road connecting Changle Relay Station to Tonghua Gate had been repaired six years ago. Thus, Cui Xun was certain that Sheng Yunting’s body had been secretly buried under that section of the road by Commander Shen Que, never to see daylight again.

How vicious Shen Que’s intentions were! Sheng Yunting had been desperate to ride quickly along the official road, enter Tonghua Gate, reach Daming Palace, and seek an audience with His Majesty to save the fifty thousand Imperial Guard troops. Shen Que had ensured he would never enter Tonghua Gate. Not only that, he had buried his remains under the official road, forcing him to watch helplessly as one traveler after another walked over his bones, entering the Tonghua Gate he had so desperately wanted to reach.

Thinking of this, Cui Xun’s blood surged up involuntarily. He coughed violently, the coughing pulling at the wounds on his back, causing bone-deep pain. Li Ying was changing his bandages and, seeing his reaction, paused: “Did I hurt you again?”

Cui Xun shook his head and said hoarsely: “I just… thought of Yunting.”

At the mention of Sheng Yunting, Li Ying fell silent. She carefully used a white silk cloth to wipe away the thin layer of sweat on Cui Xun’s shoulders and back. After a moment, she softly asked: “Did Shen Que have a deep grudge against Sheng Yunting?”

“No… they had no grievances.”

“Then why would he do such a thing?” Li Ying paused. “Why would he humiliate him like this even after Sheng Yunting’s death?”

Cui Xun lay face down on the bed. His pain made his face deathly pale, and his voice was so quiet that Li Ying could barely hear him: “His grudge was not with Yunting, but with General Guo, or rather… with the Empress Dowager who promoted General Guo.”

Li Ying’s hand, which was applying medicinal powder, faltered: “Why would he have a grudge against my mother?”

“Shen Que… is the son of Lady Shen… which makes him… your cousin…”

Lady Shen was Li Ying’s maternal aunt—the Empress Dowager’s only sister. Lady Shen had always maintained a close relationship with the Empress Dowager. When the Empress Dowager was young, her family was poor. She wanted to change her fate by entering the palace as a court lady through the selection process for girls from respectable families. But at that time, she was so poor that she didn’t even have a pair of properly fitting shoes. How could someone so impoverished catch the eye of the selection officials? Lady Shen, who was already married then, took off her shoes for the Empress Dowager to wear and persuaded her husband to empty their savings to make a six-panel skirt of green silk damask for the Empress Dowager. Adorned in this finery, the Empress Dowager appeared even more beautiful, like a peach or plum blossom, with unparalleled grace. She successfully entered the palace through the selection and, step by step, climbed to the highest position in the Great Zhou.

It could be said that without Lady Shen, the Empress Dowager would not have her current glory and status.

But who could have imagined that Lady Shen and the Empress Dowager could share hardships but not good fortune? In the second year after Li Ying’s death, Lady Shen, who had just given birth to Shen Que, was poisoned to death along with her daughter Shen Rong by the Empress Dowager. The reason given was that Lady Shen intended to send Shen Rong into the palace to compete for favor, which the Empress Dowager could not tolerate. Thus, she ruthlessly poisoned both her sister and niece.

It was said that before her death, Lady Shen cursed: “Jiang Lingye, you ungrateful wretch! Have you forgotten the kindness of the gift of shoes?”

But the Empress Dowager ignored her. After Lady Shen and Shen Rong were poisoned, the Empress Dowager announced to the world that they had died suddenly and posthumously conferred the titles of Lady Shen and Lady of Pingshan Commandery upon them to express her mourning.

Later, as the Empress Dowager grew older, perhaps finally remembering the kindness of the gifted shoes, she began to feel guilty toward Lady Shen. She showered increasing favor on Lady Shen’s young son, Shen Que, not only giving him continuous rewards but also appointing him as a fourth-rank Right Gate Commander at a young age, in charge of overseeing all the gates of Chang’an. Shen Que was thus a man of immense influence and power in Chang’an.

But no matter how much favor the Empress Dowager bestowed upon Shen Que, the vengeance for his mother’s murder could not be appeased. That’s why Cui Xun said Shen Que’s treatment of Sheng Yunting wasn’t due to a grudge against Sheng Yunting or General Guo, the commander of the Imperial Guard, but against the Empress Dowager who had promoted General Guo.

Li Ying was silent. When she was alive, she had often seen her aunt and cousin Shen Rong. Her aunt was kind and gentle, and her cousin beautiful and gracious. Her mother had maintained an excellent relationship with them. Who could have imagined such a tragic end?

She lowered her eyes and applied the last bit of medicinal powder to Cui Xun’s wounds: “I don’t know the truth of the matter, so I won’t pass judgment.”

She still did not believe that her mother had poisoned her aunt and cousin.

After having his bandages changed, Cui Xun was dizzy with pain. Li Ying helped him put on a clean undergarment to cover the ghastly wounds on his back. The snow-white garment draped over his slender body, with his neck skin smooth as jade, made him look like an otherworldly crane. His voice grew fainter: “Yunting’s remains… cannot stay there… I must bring Yunting… back…”

“You’ve been stripped of your official position,” Li Ying said. “That’s an official road. You can’t bring him back.”

“After being an attack dog… for three years… there’s still some lingering authority…” Cui Xun said hazily. “Everyone fears being bitten by a dog… no one wants to be bitten…”

Li Ying pressed her lips together and carefully tucked the brocade quilt around Cui Xun. She no longer tried to dissuade him but said, “If you want to bring him back, then try.”

She washed the blood-stained white silk cloth and, after a while, suddenly said: “From now on, don’t call yourself an attack dog in front of me. I’ve never seen an attack dog that would collect the remains of its companions.”

Cui Xun lay silently on the bed. Li Ying thought he had fallen asleep again. He had been like this for the past two days—sleeping for a while, then waking up in pain, his mind not very clear. Sometimes when Li Ying spoke to him, he didn’t respond; when she looked more closely, she would find that he had passed out from pain. So Li Ying didn’t pay much attention this time, just finished washing the cloth and began to put away the white porcelain medicine bottle. Suddenly, Cui Xun weakly said: “Understood…”

Li Ying was startled. She looked toward Cui Xun, who lay face down on the bed, his eyes tightly closed, his eyelashes like black scissors against his paper-white face, still appearing dazed. Li Ying almost thought she had misheard. She tugged at her ear, and the slight pain told her she wasn’t dreaming. She hadn’t misheard after all.

Li Ying stared for a long moment, then pressed her lips together, turned around, packed up the white porcelain medicine bottle and other items, picked up the copper basin from the table, and walked out of the bedroom. Her footsteps were noticeably lighter as she left.

As Cui Xun had said, everyone fears being bitten by a dog, no one wants to be bitten.

Even though Cui Xun had angered the Empress Dowager, received a hundred lashes, and been stripped of his official position, to the lower-ranking officials, he was still the Lotus Gentleman Cui Xun who had served the Empress Dowager for three years. Besides, Cui Xun was only twenty-three years old, young and handsome. Who knew if the Empress Dowager might remember him one day and restore him to favor? When that time came, would those who had offended him still be alive?

So when Cui Xun led armed escorts from the Investigation Bureau to dig up the official road between Changle Relay Station and Tonghua Gate at night, the soldiers on duty at the Tonghua Gate pavilion saw them but exchanged glances and pretended not to notice. They were insignificant figures who would never have a chance to see the Empress Dowager or His Majesty in their lifetime. How could they dare to offend the Empress Dowager’s favorite?

That night, a violent storm raged with sudden downpours.

The armed escorts wore rain capes and wielded iron shovels, digging with all their might. Cui Xun, wearing a black crane-feather cloak, stood at a distance in a roadside pavilion, watching the earth being turned and dust flying. He didn’t even blink, keeping his eyes fixed on the scene, afraid of missing anything.

Li Ying accompanied him at his side. Though Cui Xun’s wounds had not yet healed, he had insisted on coming. He had said that with his presence, Sheng Yunting’s remains would surely appear.

He had been standing for just a short while when he grew dizzy and his body began to sway. Li Ying quickly supported his arm, helping him stand steady. Cui Xun pressed his lips together and looked at Li Ying. In the night, his face was pale, his eyelashes black as ink, his eyes misty as if covered with frost, revealing some confusion after his dizziness. He looked as fragile and ill as a solitary crane. Li Ying raised her head to look into his eyes. Suddenly, she felt there were many things she wanted to ask him, but in the end, she released her hands from his arm, stepped back, and said softly: “You can’t hold on. You should go back.”

Cui Xun only shook his head while breathing heavily: “Just tonight. Just this one chance…”

Li Ying understood his meaning. Having been dismissed from office, he was now using his lingering authority to seize this last opportunity for reckless action. By daybreak, there would likely be a pile of memorials impeaching him for digging up the official road without authorization. At that time, whether he would receive another hundred lashes was uncertain.

Tonight, he was determined to retrieve Sheng Yunting’s remains.

The rain fell harder, becoming a torrential downpour. The earth dug up from the official road was soaked by the rain, flowing around in winding muddy rivers. The armed escorts in their rain capes continued to dig with all their might, but after three hours, they had still found nothing.

Cui Xun’s lips were tightly pressed together, his face pale as he watched motionlessly. Li Ying also began to grow anxious. Daybreak was approaching, and Sheng Yunting’s body was still not found. Could it be that it wasn’t there after all?

But she quickly told herself it couldn’t be. Sheng Yunting had said his body was buried outside Tonghua Gate, so it should be here. But could it not be under the official road?

Li Ying thus said to Cui Xun: “They’ve almost dug up the entire official road and still haven’t found anything. Could it be on a private path?”

“No, it must be here,” Cui Xun murmured. Suddenly, he supported himself on a pavilion pillar and moved step by step, enduring the excruciating pain of his back wounds, laboriously making his way out of the pavilion.

Li Ying was alarmed: “Cui Xun, what are you doing?”

His wounds hadn’t healed yet. He couldn’t get wet in the rain.

But Cui Xun, with strength from some unknown source, staggered and stumbled through the pouring rain, his body covered in mud and water, heading toward the edge of the official road. Li Ying also left the pavilion, stamping her foot and calling out: “Cui Xun! Cui Xun!”

Cui Xun seemed not to hear. The roadside pavilion was about a hundred paces from the official road. He trudged through, stumbling along. Li Ying called out a few more times, then suddenly stopped. She stood in the torrential rain, biting her lip, her gaze complex and tangled as she watched Cui Xun’s stumbling figure.

The armed escorts digging with their shovels all knelt, fearfully asking for forgiveness: “Junior Minister, we are incompetent. We haven’t found anything…”

Cui Xun ignored them. His crane-feather cloak was spotted with mud, and the wounds on his back had likely reopened due to his excessive movement. Waves of excruciating pain assaulted him, making his vision darken. His face deathly pale, he stared fixedly at the pockmarked official road that had been dug up. One armed escort said quietly, “Junior Minister, we’ve dug everywhere. There’s nothing…”

Cui Xun suddenly looked toward a slightly shallower pit. His chest heaved violently, and he took a dazed step forward. However, he failed to notice the blue stone beneath his foot and, before he could react, he stumbled and fell to the ground. The white undergarment on his back seemed soaked with blood, but he appeared not to feel the pain at all. He crawled, rolling and stumbling toward that pit, then began digging the earth with his hands. The armed escort still said, “Junior Minister, we’ve already dug here. There’s nothing…”

But another armed escort signaled vigorously with his eyes, and the first escort fearfully shut his mouth. Cui Xun paid no attention. His nails broke, and his fingers were bleeding from digging, but despite the excruciating pain, he seemed completely numb, continuing to dig. After digging for who knows how long, a section of white bone appeared before his eyes.

Cui Xun froze.

Li Ying stood in the rain. She watched Cui Xun’s kneeling figure from behind. Large raindrops pattered against her face. Her vision blurred—whether from rain or tears, she couldn’t tell.

After a moment, Cui Xun regained his senses and continued digging with his bleeding fingers, though his movements became extremely careful, as if afraid of damaging something. Finally, a complete skeleton appeared before him.

The white bones still wore the armor of the Imperial Guard, stained with blackened blood. Sword marks of varying depths covered the armor, rendering it full of holes. Through these sword marks, one could see the shattered bones inside the armor.

Cui Xun knelt before the skeleton, his bloodied fingertips deeply embedded in the loose soil. Blood also began to seep from the corners of his mouth, drop by drop, mixing with the murky rainwater and seeping into the yellow earth. He gazed at the skeleton, his voice barely audible in the pouring rain: “Yunting… Seventeen, I’m taking you home.”