Chapter 10: Palace Upheaval

One moment — an abundance of tender warmth and sweetness; the next — as if fallen into an ice pit.

Just two days before, the imperial physicians had said the Emperor could last at least through the coming winter.

Even ill to the point of no cure, a puppet subject to others’ control — he was still the Son of Heaven, the nine-five supreme ruler, as mandated by Heaven. As long as the Emperor lived a single day, the various factions of power would maintain that delicate balance, and no one would dare act rashly.

No one had expected it — on the very night of my birthday, just as the banquet had ended and the joyful peace had not yet fully faded, the Emperor would die so suddenly.

Xiao Qi immediately issued orders to his personal guards in the palace to secure the Eastern Palace, seal the palace gates, and prohibit anyone from entering or leaving the inner palace. He also ordered the arrest and strict confinement of all the servants who had been near the Emperor and all the personnel of the Imperial Medical Academy. The one hundred thousand troops at his military camp on the outskirts of the capital were put on strict guard at all four gates of the city, ready to enter the city at any moment.

I hurriedly dressed and combed my hair. All at once my whole body went cold and stiff. As I turned, the world before my eyes went dark, and I nearly fell.

Xiao Qi quickly caught me. “A’Wu!”

“I am all right…” I forced myself to stand steady. I felt as though my chest were heaving, and darkness flickered at the edges of my vision.

“You stay in the residence.” He forced me to lie back down on the bed and said firmly, “I am going directly to the palace. The moment there is news, I will let you know.”

He had already strapped on his battle armor, with his sword at his belt. The air around him crackled with a killing intensity. Touching that ice-cold armor made me tremble all the more with fear. I said in a shaking voice, “If father has made a move — you and he…”

Xiao Qi’s gaze met mine, and for a brief instant a look of gentle compassion flashed through his eyes before vanishing, replaced by nothing but sharp, deadly resolve. “The situation is unclear right now. I do not want anyone making a rash move!”

I looked at him with anguish, biting hard on my lower lip, unable to utter a single plea. His gaze lingered on my face for a long moment, deep and unfathomable. In this instant where our four eyes met, each of us suffering privately within — it felt as endless as the ages.

In the end, he turned his face away, strode through the door with great steps, and never once looked back.

Watching his resolute, retreating figure, I leaned weakly against the doorway, a silent and bitter smile on my face — bitter to the very marrow.

But there was no time for sorrow.

I summoned Pang Gui and ordered him to take men immediately to the Zhen Guo Duke’s residence and also scout conditions throughout the city.

If the Emperor’s sudden death truly was father’s doing, at this moment father would be in position and ready, and a deadly confrontation with Xiao Qi would be unavoidable.

Was it father? Was it truly he who could not wait to take everything for himself? I would not believe it, yet I dared not easily dismiss this terrifying thought. My chest heaved again and again with nausea, cold sweat seeped through my skin, and it felt as though my heart were being torn in two.

On one side was blood thicker than water; on the other was life-and-death devotion. Which side hurt more — I was already too numb to feel.

Only a short while passed before Pang Gui returned on horseback with a report. The Left Chancellor had personally led the palace guards into the palace, and the vital points throughout the city were all under heavy armed watch. General Hu Guanglie had led three thousand cavalry toward the Zhen Guo Duke’s residence.

I swayed on my feet and slumped into my chair. My ears rang and buzzed, as though a sharp blade had driven through my heart.

I had always known this day would come — I had not thought it would come so quickly.

But what did sooner or later even matter? What had to come would come, in the end.

I rose slowly, and said to Pang Gui: “Prepare the carriage. Take me to the palace.”

From far away, I could see the troops massed in stern formation outside the palace gate, surrounding the entire imperial city like an iron barrel.

The firelight not yet extinguished and the brightening dawn at the horizon together cast a sheet of brilliant silver-white over all the blades and armor. The main eastern gate of the palace had been taken by Xiao Qi. The southern and western gates were still in my father’s hands. Troops were encamped beneath both — facing each other in grim, frozen silence. An atmosphere of bristling tension everywhere. No one dared to take a single step forward. One careless move, and the whole palace would become a sea of blood in an instant.

My carriage drove in all the way, until it was stopped outside the palace gate.

Song Huai’an was there in full black iron armor, hand on his sword, standing in front of the luan carriage, his face like a cold frost. “I ask the Princess Consort to stop here.”

“What is the situation inside the palace?” I asked without any change of expression.

He hesitated for a moment, then said gravely, “The Left Chancellor moved one step ahead and reached the Eastern Palace first. He has the Crown Prince under his control and is in a standoff with the Prince.”

“Is it truly the Left Chancellor who made a move?” My voice was faint, my palms damp with cold sweat.

Song Huai’an raised his eyes to look at me. “This subordinate does not know for certain. Only — the Left Chancellor did arrive one step before the Prince.”

I bit my lip and suppressed the shock and pain within me. “Where is the Empress now?”

“In the Qianyuan Palace.” Song Huai’an said gravely. “The Qianyuan Palace has also been surrounded by the Left Chancellor. The situation inside the palace is unclear.”

“The Qianyuan Palace…” I lowered my eyes in thought. Thousands of scattered, tumbling thoughts gradually came together, like a thread so fine it was barely visible, stringing all the people and events in sequence — the direction at the far end, ahead in the distance, slowly began to illuminate.

I raised my eyes, looked ahead, and smiled at Song Huai’an. Slowly, I said: “Please step aside.”

Song Huai’an moved one step forward. “I cannot!”

“Why not?” I looked at him coldly. “Right now, I am the only person who can step foot in the Qianyuan Palace.”

“You must not put yourself in danger!” He grabbed the horse’s reins and stood in front of my carriage. “Even if the Princess Consort drives over my corpse, today you will not enter these palace gates by one step!”

I smiled quietly. “Huai’en, I will not drive over your corpse to get through. But if today either the Left Chancellor or the Prince meets with misfortune, then carry my body back.”

He raised his head sharply. The shock of it held him fixed, staring at me intently.

I pressed against his gaze with my own until he stepped back one step at a time, though his hand still held the horse’s reins, unwilling to let go.

I turned my gaze toward the palace gate and looked no more at him. “Drive,” I said coldly.

The luan carriage moved slowly forward. Song Huai’an gripped the reins tightly and walked alongside it, his stare cutting through the hanging curtain, never leaving me for a single moment. Deeply moved and unwilling to bear it, I said quietly through the curtain, “I am, after all, still surnamed Wang. There will be no threat to my life. You understand my intent — now let go!”

Song Huai’an finally released the reins and stood rigid at the roadside, watching the carriage drive through the palace gate.

The palace was already in great turmoil. Not even the arrangements for mourning the Emperor had been completed before the palace maids and eunuchs scattered — hiding where they could, fleeing where they could. Here and there were palace servants rushing in frantic disarray. The once brilliant and solemn palace halls had already descended into chaos, looking like the first signs of a great storm about to break.

The armed forces of my father and Xiao Qi held various halls in opposition against each other on all sides, locked in a stalemate. Everywhere were soldiers in strictly ordered battle readiness.

The sky had grown fully light. But the towering Qianyuan Palace was still draped in dark cloud and mist, oppressive and forbidding.

I did not know what truth lay hidden within that stern and vast palace hall — but something must have gone wrong somewhere, something must not be right.

Why had my father been so foolish — why had he risked the enormous infamy of regicide, making his move at this moment? In terms of power, deployment, and prestige, he held all the advantages over Xiao Qi in every way. Only in the open clash of blades and steel, the all-out fight, was he absolutely no match for Xiao Qi. This move was a dead end that would destroy both sides.

Before the Qianyuan Palace, spears and halberds stood in dense array, fully armored soldiers surrounding the great hall layer upon layer. The imperial guards’ swords and blades were all drawn and bared — anyone who dared step one step closer would have blood sprayed on the spot. Two commanders of the palace guards led their troops in holding the hall entrance, though my father’s figure was nowhere to be seen.

I looked up at the great door of the Qianyuan Palace and walked in with my sleeve swept aside. Those two commanders recognized me and moved to intercept. I swept them with a cold glance and kept walking without pause. Subdued by my gaze, they did not dare force the issue, though they blocked the attendants behind me from following.

I climbed the steps, one by one, up to the jade terrace of the Qianyuan Palace.

With a sharp ring, two bright-bladed long swords crossed and barred the way before me.

“Wang Xuan, Princess Consort of Prince Yuzhang, requests an audience with the Empress.” I knelt, lowered my eyes and composed my expression, and waited quietly for the announcement to be made.

The cold of the jade steps seeped into my skin. After a long while, the sharp, thin voice of a palace attendant came from within the hall: “By order of the Empress, summon —”

The vast hall had already been draped in plain white curtains of mourning. From somewhere, a cold wind blew into the hall, lifting the white draperies to flutter in the dimness. I passed through the great hall and past those palace servants, each prostrated and lying motionless as though they had no life in them. The aura that had lingered in this Emperor’s sleeping quarters for years — an aura I had feared since childhood — was as though the spirits of emperors through the ages refused to depart, still coiled in every corner of that hall. Every rafter, every pillar, every desk, every side table breathed out solemnity and cold dread.

Behind the golden yellow curtains and the nine-dragon jade-white screen was that dragon bed, carved and painted with dragons and phoenixes, shining in brilliant gold. The Emperor lay behind those heavy curtains — now a cold body, a solemn temple title, who would never again smile at me, never again speak to me.

My aunt, dressed in white mourning garments, stood before the screen. Her long hair, dark as ink, fell loose down her back. She turned her head slowly, and her face was white as death. Her eye sockets bore the faint red of weeping, and at a glance she looked not like a living person but like a wisp of a wandering ghost.

“A’Wu is a good child.” She looked at me and smiled faintly. “Only you were willing to come and keep your aunt company.”

I stared at her blankly, and my gaze moved slowly toward the dragon bed.

“When a person dies — does love and hatred all disappear, and is there nothing left of anything?” My aunt also turned to look sideways in the same direction, holding a faint, icy smile at the corners of her lips.

“The Emperor has passed from this world. I ask that my aunt take comfort in her grief.” I studied her face, and could find not a single trace of sorrow upon it.

My aunt laughed, her voice gentle, her smile all the more cold and uncanny. “He has finally gone. He will hate me no more.”

A chill rose from the soles of my feet and crept inch by inch through my entire body. I stiffened and turned, walking toward the dragon bed.

“Stop.” My aunt spoke. “A’Wu, where are you going?”

I did not turn around. “I am going to see the Emperor — to see… my uncle by marriage.”

My aunt’s voice went cold. “The Emperor has already gone. There is no need for you to disturb him further.”

I drew in a slow, deep breath, and my clenched palm tightened further. “How did the Emperor go?”

“Do you wish to know?” My aunt walked quietly to stand before me, and fixed me with an intent, fathomless gaze, her expression hovering between a smile and not a smile. “Or perhaps — you already know?”

I recoiled sharply by one step, and could suppress the shock and anguish in my heart no longer. The words burst from me: “Was it truly you?”

She moved one step closer and looked into my eyes directly. “What about me?”

I could no longer speak. Looking at her smile, I felt a sudden revulsion — as though an ice-cold hand had seized my lungs and wrenched them tight. It was my aunt who had killed the Emperor. It was she who had set this death trap, luring my father and Xiao Qi to destroy each other. The world before my eyes grew dark. The whole of Heaven and earth seemed to rock and shift and warp. I bent over and covered my mouth with my hand, forcing down the surging waves of sickness in my chest.

My aunt reached out and gripped my chin, forcing me to meet her frenzied gaze. “Did I do wrong? Was I supposed to stand by and watch you all seize my son’s throne? To wait while you forced me step by step into a dead end?”

Cold sweat poured out without cease. I clenched my teeth and endured it. I could not say a word.

My aunt said with furious bitterness, “I sacrificed my entire life for the family, and now I have lost everything. I have only this one son. And you — all of you — want to take his throne from him! Even if Long’er is no good, he is still my son! No one is going to take his throne away from him!”

At last I steadied myself enough to gather breath. I pushed her hand away with force and said, my voice trembling, “That was your own blood elder brother! Father has always trusted you, protected you, supported the Crown Prince for so many years. And to deal with Xiao Qi, you even deceived him!” I was trembling all over, fury and grief pushed to their very limit. The aunt I had revered since childhood now looked to me like something from another world — like a demon. “You killed the Emperor, framed it as Xiao Qi’s doing, tricked father into sending troops to protect the Crown Prince — tricked him into striking at Xiao Qi — and you sit back and wait for them both to bleed each other dry so you can take them all in one sweep. Is that what you did?”

I bore down on her, my voice gone hoarse, forcing her back step by step.

My aunt’s face was deathly pale. She stared at me in a daze, as though unable to believe I would confront her with such fury.

“It is you who betrayed father. You who betrayed the Wang family.” I held her gaze and said each word with deliberation.

“I did no such thing!” My aunt screamed. She suddenly shoved me violently, and I stumbled backward, my back crashing against the cold jade-white nine-dragon screen.

My aunt broke into wild laughter, her voice sharp and rapid. “It was elder brother who forced me! He said Long’er was no good — that with the title of Crown Prince he was still being manipulated hand and foot by Xiao Qi, that Long’er was useless, that sitting on the throne he wouldn’t be able to hold the realm. He said as long as elder brother was around, Long’er would be a puppet for life — a hundred times more pathetic than his father the Emperor! Long’er is too foolish. He thought Xiao Qi would help him — the foolish child. He doesn’t know that every single one of you is scheming against him! Only I — only his mother can protect you. My foolish child — why won’t you trust your mother?”

Her expression had been shifting and unfocused. A moment ago she was grinding her teeth in hatred, then fierce and domineering, then in a flash looking every bit the tender and protective mother.

I leaned against the jade screen, barely holding myself upright, feeling my body go cold inch by inch.

She had gone mad. My aunt had truly been driven mad — driven to madness by this imperial family.

Suddenly a thunderous crash rang out from the direction of the Eastern Palace — it was as though something had collapsed, and then came the roar of thousands of troops and soldiers, wave after wave rolling over the nine-tiered palace.

The Eastern Palace — father and Xiao Qi — in the end they had truly come to blows.

I closed my eyes and let that sound of slaughter ring and echo in my ears for a long while. My whole body seemed to have turned to stone.

“Your servant reports to the Empress!” A commander rushed into the hall in a panic. “Prince Yuzhang has broken through the Eastern Palace!”

“Is that so?” My aunt turned to look toward the outside of the hall. A cold smile curved her lips. “He has held out longer than I expected. The Left Chancellor’s forces were stronger than I had anticipated. Had it not been for that fine husband of yours, I fear there would have been no one else capable of keeping your father in check.”

With only the palace guards of the Imperial Guard at his disposal, my father could never have held against Prince Yuzhang’s iron cavalry. Sending them to guard the Eastern Palace was no different from asking an egg to stop a stone. The Eastern Palace at this moment was surely drenched in blood with bodies strewn everywhere.

I looked up with a smile. “Indeed — when it comes to an open clash, father is naturally no match for Xiao Qi. I’m afraid the Empress is no match either.”

My aunt let out a sharp laugh. “Foolish child — do you truly think your husband is a peerless hero without equal in the world?”

She raised her hand and pointed toward the Eastern Palace. “Good child — look over there!”

Outside the hall, a great cloud of black smoke and fire rose from the direction of the Eastern Palace, flames blazing and leaping, illuminating the sky above the nine-tiered palace in a deep, burning red.

“Would I just sit back and let my Long’er wait docilely in the Eastern Palace for him to come and take him?” My aunt looked upward with a smile, her manner still elegant and composed. “The Eastern Palace has long had an ambush laid within it. The moment the Left Chancellor’s forces are defeated and Prince Yuzhang drives through the Eastern Palace, the three thousand armored soldiers concealed in the hidden passages within the walls are there waiting for your great hero. Even if he has the power to fight a thousand single-handed, he cannot withstand ten thousand arrows fired at once. And then the Eastern Palace will burn, and he will be consumed along with everything else in it — jade and stone alike!”

This vicious and deranged woman standing before me — who had killed the Emperor and murdered her husband, who had incited her own blood elder brother and nephew-in-law to slaughter each other — this was the aunt I had looked up to since childhood, the Empress who embodied maternal virtue for all under Heaven.

I stared directly at her, feeling only that I had never truly seen this face clearly until now.

The firelight grew more ferocious. Standing within the Qianyuan Palace, it seemed one could almost hear the crashing and collapsing of beams and pillars, and the muffled sounds of palace servants screaming and running. Outside was a sea of fire and a mountain of blades, blood running across the ground, while this elevated and supreme Qianyuan Palace was silent as death.

Guarding this great hall was not only the palace guard troops outside, but also the corpse of the Emperor, stiff and cold, lying in the dragon bed behind them. With the Emperor newly passed from the world, who would dare force their way into the sleeping quarters at a moment like this, and incur the overwhelming charge of having defied imperial authority? Xiao Qi’s forces had pressed in step by step until they surrounded the Qianyuan Palace like an iron barrel, but without Xiao Qi’s order, none of them dared step a single foot inside. The palace guards fell back to positions outside the hall — bows drawn, swords bared — waiting only for a single command to sweep the celestial palace in blood.

I smiled slightly. “You have set a trap to take in my father and my husband in a single sweep. I wonder — have you thought through what to do with me?”

She looked at me with cold eyes. Her gaze shifted and changed — ruthlessness and compassion entwined, and looking at her in that hazy moment, she was still the warm and beloved aunt of years past.

“Wang Xuan has walked straight into the trap. Is the Empress satisfied?” I smiled as I looked at her. Her face gradually shifted, the darkness in it giving way to a trace of desolation.

She turned around slowly, putting her back to me. After a long silence she said in a low voice, with a tone that was strangely gentle: “If only you had never grown up — the little A’Wu of old was like a snowball of a child, one could never love or cherish her enough.”

I bit my lip and said not a word.

“But you have grown up, and you no longer listen. On the day I asked whether you hated your aunt, you would not even tell me the truth.” She let out a long sigh and said quietly: “I know you hate me. How could you not? For decades now, I too have hated — not a single day without it.”

I opened my mouth, yet could not speak. My cheeks were ice cold, and I did not know when tears had already begun to stream down my face.

That word “hate,” spoken aloud from my aunt’s lips, seemed to tear open every wound within me, tearing away flesh and blood, and throwing it all at me.

I could bear to hear no more. My voice trembling, I said: “Aunt — there is only one thing I want to say to you. A’Wu truly does not hate you.”

She turned, moved by it. The corners of her lips twitched faintly. She rushed forward and pulled me into her embrace, her body shaking violently.

I pressed my cheek against her thin shoulder and let the tears pour.

Within the cold and shadowed inner hall, beneath the white mourning draperies drifting in the wind, my aunt and I held each other and wept. So many years before, she had held me just this way — gently and warmly — and no matter how willfully I had cried and made a fuss, she had always coaxed me with a quiet, soft voice.

This warm and familiar embrace — perhaps it would be the last time it had room for my helplessness.

A long, long time after, my aunt finally let go of me, turned her back, and never looked at me again.

Her figure went rigid and cold. Her shoulders curved very slightly inward. “Someone — take the Princess Consort into custody.”

The palace servants standing quietly behind the curtains, still as carved wood and chiseled stone, did not respond.

“Someone!” My aunt started. She raised her voice to command. “Where are the inner palace guards?”

The guards outside the door answered and swords rang as they were drawn. The sound of boots came stepping inside.

I raised my hand. Both palms came together in three clear, sharp claps, ringing through the cold and empty sleeping hall.

From behind the screen, behind the curtains, at the bases of the pillars — from among those palace servants who had stood still as clay figures without making a single sound, several shadows suddenly appeared. Swift and silent, like phantoms, they formed a circle around us.

Before the guards could close in, two of the maids darted forward. With blades in their hands, they placed themselves one on the left and one on the right, clasping my aunt’s shoulders. The blades pressed to her neck.

The rest took up positions on all sides, a close wall of protection before me. The short swords in their hands were cold and gleaming as snow.

The guards entered with their weapons drawn, and were startled to a halt in the doorway by the sudden reversal.

“You —” My aunt’s whole body trembled. Her face had lost all color. She stared at me but could not form words.

The commander of the palace guard outside the hall heard the commotion and charged into the hall. In an instant a forest of blades and spears glittered and swayed in motion.

I stepped forward coldly, and said with stern authority: “How dare you! His Majesty has passed from this world, and yet you dare enter the sleeping quarters bearing arms — do you truly mean to rebel?”

My aunt was still crying out in fury and struggling. Completely unafraid of the blades at her neck, she screamed: “Seize the Princess Consort of Yuzhang at once!”

The two commanders were greatly alarmed. Seeing the Empress held at my mercy, they were unable to advance or retreat, and looked at each other in consternation.

“A bunch of useless fools, what are you waiting for! Move!” my aunt raged. “Won’t you act?”

The palace guards outside stood frozen and hesitant. One commander clenched his teeth and stepped forward, just about to draw his sword. I looked over at him — a single glance — and stopped him cold.

He jolted. His face turned greenish-white. The sword was halfway drawn, and yet he could not move a single muscle.

I said with grave authority: “To enter the sleeping quarters bearing weapons unbidden is a capital crime against imperial authority — by law, nine generations of your families are to be exterminated! Prince Yuzhang’s great army has now surrounded the entire palace. If you can still turn back from the wrong path and make up for your crimes with merit, Wang Xuan gives her word here and now that no punishment will be brought down upon any of you!”

At precisely this moment of standoff, the sound of orderly and earth-shaking boots came from outside the hall. A great force of men was closing in on this position, and someone called out loudly: “Prince Yuzhang, acting on imperial decree to suppress the rebellion — any who resist will be executed on the spot!”

The palace guards saw that bright blades were already pressed to the Empress’s neck, and that armed troops outside were watching with predatory intent. The situation had already shifted completely and irrevocably.

The person on the left finally released his sword and let it fall to the ground with a clatter, and sank to his knees. The rest, seeing no point in holding out, bowed their heads and knelt one after another.

“Useless! All of you, useless!” My aunt screamed in despair. She broke into a sudden fierce struggle and, as though driven mad, hurled herself headlong toward the blade. The maids yanked the blade away in alarm and held her down with all their strength. I gave the two commanders their orders — to withdraw the troops stationed before the hall at once — and then instructed my maids to hurry to the Eastern Palace and inform Xiao Qi that the Empress had admitted guilt and been taken into custody, and that he must absolutely not harm the Left Chancellor.

My aunt was still raging and cursing without stop, her long hair in wild disarray about her, all her dignity completely gone.

I walked slowly forward until I stood in front of her and looked at her for a long moment. “You have lost, Aunt.”

“In victory you become a king; in defeat you are a bandit — and there is no shame in it. Even in losing — one should lose with dignity.” I said these words quietly.

Her body gave a start. She looked directly at me. Her gaze fell momentarily into a haze, as though passing through time to see again some scene from long ago — in my ninth year, I had lost at chess to elder brother and was in the midst of throwing a tantrum and refusing to accept it, and my aunt had said to me: “Whether you win or lose, you must have grace about it. Even in losing — lose with dignity.”

My aunt looked at me, as though looking at a complete stranger she had never known. Her gaze slowly dimmed.

After a long silence, she laughed bitterly. “Quite right — success and failure, victory and defeat. I never imagined that I, who prided myself my whole life on my own brilliance, would be undone — at your hands!”

Her hair was in a tangle. I wanted to straighten it for her. I reached out my hand — and froze in midair. The last remaining trace of warmth in the deepest part of my heart was strangled and cut off by force.

I closed my fist, turned my face to the side, and said with impassivity: “At least — you were not undone by an outsider.”

She suddenly burst into loud laughter. Even as she was escorted out through the great hall, that laughter kept ringing on and on through the cold and desolate Qianyuan Palace.

On the day my aunt had been attacked by the assassin, her close personal maids had been killed. She herself had been frightened into unconsciousness. At that moment I had left several of the maids who attended me to stay at her side, in case any remnant threats in the palace tried again to harm her. These women had been personally selected by Xiao Qi from among his finest agents and had followed by my side in the guise of palace maids to protect my safety. Initially, I had left them there only to protect my aunt — but after the palace had been cleared of its elements, I had not called them back to the Prince’s residence. As many of the old palace servants were swept out in the purge and replaced by new people, these women had blended into the Zhaoyang Palace without catching my aunt’s notice. I had made an agreement with them: unless the situation was critical, they must not reveal their identities. Except for me, they need obey the orders of no one else.

Even I could not say clearly — from what moment had I begun to guard against my aunt? Perhaps it was because of her repeated tests, because of the wariness she showed toward me, or perhaps because of the suspicion and unease that ran deep in my own nature.

“Your servant was too slow to arrive — the Princess Consort must have been frightened!” Pang Gui came rushing in with his men. “Prince Yuzhang’s troops have taken over the guard of the Qianyuan Palace. The Prince and the Crown Prince are on their way from the Eastern Palace.”

I looked toward him, my voice unsteady. “And the Left Chancellor?”

“The Left Chancellor is unharmed. Master Wang Su has taken temporary command of the Imperial Guard. General Hu has been ordered to guard the Zhen Guo Duke’s residence and has not stepped one foot inside the gates.” Pang Gui lowered his voice, his tone carrying a note of happiness. “Princess Consort, please do not worry. The fire in the Eastern Palace was the Prince’s deliberate turning of a trap. The forces on both sides suffered no significant losses. All points throughout the city are calm and without incident. All is well!”

All is well — those four short words, falling on my ears in that moment, surpassed the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

Before my eyes everything slowly began to float and spin. Only then did I realize that my entire undergarment had long since been soaked through with cold sweat, and it clung to me coldly, chilling me to the bone.

Someone came forward to support me, intending to help me to a chair. I had barely taken one step when it felt as though the ground had swallowed my foot — the whole world spun and tilted.

The maid cried out in alarm, calling my name again and again, screaming for help.

It must have been a momentary dizziness. I gradually gathered my senses. I only felt they were making a fuss over nothing.

It was fortunate that father had merely led troops into the palace — that he had not rashly made his move. Had the palace guards and Hu Guanglie’s Tiger Brave Army truly fought each other in the open streets, that would have been a catastrophe of mutual destruction, beyond all recovery. My aunt had thought herself clever, having set a perfect trap — ready to catch them all in one sweep. Yet she had not known that the one to be caught in her net was not Xiao Qi, but herself. I had a fair sense by now of who had betrayed my aunt. If she could see with her own eyes the son she had so carefully protected standing at Xiao Qi’s side, wearing the expression of a victor as he looked at her — I wondered what she would feel.

The burning of the Eastern Palace was nothing but a performance to confuse everyone’s eyes and ears. It had neatly concealed this dangerous palace upheaval, burned away those crystal palace halls, and yet forged for Prince Yuzhang the meritorious achievement of protecting the Eastern Palace and suppressing the rebellion with an iron fist.

“Princess Consort — are you in the hall?” Xiao Qi’s voice came from far outside the hall, so urgent and anxious — without a trace of his usual composure.

A flutter of alarm went through me. Afraid of him seeing me in this state, I quickly took hold of a maid’s arm and forced myself to rise from the chair.

The moment my body moved, a sudden and violent pain tore through me as if to split me apart. Something hot rushed from between my legs. I slid softly downward. The maid beside me could not hold me. The pain grew sharper. I gritted my teeth and endured it. I felt a hot flow running down the inside of both legs.

What was happening? I had fallen forward onto the ground. Trembling, I reached out and lifted the hem of my skirts. Before my eyes — a sheet of crimson red!

The hall door opened. Xiao Qi stepped inside with great strides, his full armor gleaming.

“A’Wu —” He stopped abruptly. His gaze fixed and froze upon me.

I raised my eyes to look at him in confusion and bewilderment, not knowing how to explain what he was seeing. Not knowing how this had happened. I had not been hurt — yet blood was flowing from me for no reason I could understand.

His face had changed. His gaze moved from that crimson stain to my face. His eyes were full of nothing but shock and anguish.

“Call the imperial physician — call the imperial physician at once!” He scooped me up in his arms, and his very voice was trembling.

I managed a weak smile, wanting to tell him not to be afraid, that I was all right. But I opened my mouth and could not produce even the slightest sound. Leaning in his arms, my body grew colder and colder all over, and the world before my eyes grew dimmer and dimmer.One moment — an abundance of tender warmth and sweetness; the next — as if fallen into an ice pit.

Just two days before, the imperial physicians had said the Emperor could last at least through the coming winter.

Even ill to the point of no cure, a puppet subject to others’ control — he was still the Son of Heaven, the nine-five supreme ruler, as mandated by Heaven. As long as the Emperor lived a single day, the various factions of power would maintain that delicate balance, and no one would dare act rashly.

No one had expected it — on the very night of my birthday, just as the banquet had ended and the joyful peace had not yet fully faded, the Emperor would die so suddenly.

Xiao Qi immediately issued orders to his personal guards in the palace to secure the Eastern Palace, seal the palace gates, and prohibit anyone from entering or leaving the inner palace. He also ordered the arrest and strict confinement of all the servants who had been near the Emperor and all the personnel of the Imperial Medical Academy. The one hundred thousand troops at his military camp on the outskirts of the capital were put on strict guard at all four gates of the city, ready to enter the city at any moment.

I hurriedly dressed and combed my hair. All at once my whole body went cold and stiff. As I turned, the world before my eyes went dark, and I nearly fell.

Xiao Qi quickly caught me. “A’Wu!”

“I am all right…” I forced myself to stand steady. I felt as though my chest were heaving, and darkness flickered at the edges of my vision.

“You stay in the residence.” He forced me to lie back down on the bed and said firmly, “I am going directly to the palace. The moment there is news, I will let you know.”

He had already strapped on his battle armor, with his sword at his belt. The air around him crackled with a killing intensity. Touching that ice-cold armor made me tremble all the more with fear. I said in a shaking voice, “If father has made a move — you and he…”

Xiao Qi’s gaze met mine, and for a brief instant a look of gentle compassion flashed through his eyes before vanishing, replaced by nothing but sharp, deadly resolve. “The situation is unclear right now. I do not want anyone making a rash move!”

I looked at him with anguish, biting hard on my lower lip, unable to utter a single plea. His gaze lingered on my face for a long moment, deep and unfathomable. In this instant where our four eyes met, each of us suffering privately within — it felt as endless as the ages.

In the end, he turned his face away, strode through the door with great steps, and never once looked back.

Watching his resolute, retreating figure, I leaned weakly against the doorway, a silent and bitter smile on my face — bitter to the very marrow.

But there was no time for sorrow.

I summoned Pang Gui and ordered him to take men immediately to the Zhen Guo Duke’s residence and also scout conditions throughout the city.

If the Emperor’s sudden death truly was father’s doing, at this moment father would be in position and ready, and a deadly confrontation with Xiao Qi would be unavoidable.

Was it father? Was it truly he who could not wait to take everything for himself? I would not believe it, yet I dared not easily dismiss this terrifying thought. My chest heaved again and again with nausea, cold sweat seeped through my skin, and it felt as though my heart were being torn in two.

On one side was blood thicker than water; on the other was life-and-death devotion. Which side hurt more — I was already too numb to feel.

Only a short while passed before Pang Gui returned on horseback with a report. The Left Chancellor had personally led the palace guards into the palace, and the vital points throughout the city were all under heavy armed watch. General Hu Guanglie had led three thousand cavalry toward the Zhen Guo Duke’s residence.

I swayed on my feet and slumped into my chair. My ears rang and buzzed, as though a sharp blade had driven through my heart.

I had always known this day would come — I had not thought it would come so quickly.

But what did sooner or later even matter? What had to come would come, in the end.

I rose slowly, and said to Pang Gui: “Prepare the carriage. Take me to the palace.”

From far away, I could see the troops massed in stern formation outside the palace gate, surrounding the entire imperial city like an iron barrel.

The firelight not yet extinguished and the brightening dawn at the horizon together cast a sheet of brilliant silver-white over all the blades and armor. The main eastern gate of the palace had been taken by Xiao Qi. The southern and western gates were still in my father’s hands. Troops were encamped beneath both — facing each other in grim, frozen silence. An atmosphere of bristling tension everywhere. No one dared to take a single step forward. One careless move, and the whole palace would become a sea of blood in an instant.

My carriage drove in all the way, until it was stopped outside the palace gate.

Song Huai’an was there in full black iron armor, hand on his sword, standing in front of the luan carriage, his face like a cold frost. “I ask the Princess Consort to stop here.”

“What is the situation inside the palace?” I asked without any change of expression.

He hesitated for a moment, then said gravely, “The Left Chancellor moved one step ahead and reached the Eastern Palace first. He has the Crown Prince under his control and is in a standoff with the Prince.”

“Is it truly the Left Chancellor who made a move?” My voice was faint, my palms damp with cold sweat.

Song Huai’an raised his eyes to look at me. “This subordinate does not know for certain. Only — the Left Chancellor did arrive one step before the Prince.”

I bit my lip and suppressed the shock and pain within me. “Where is the Empress now?”

“In the Qianyuan Palace.” Song Huai’an said gravely. “The Qianyuan Palace has also been surrounded by the Left Chancellor. The situation inside the palace is unclear.”

“The Qianyuan Palace…” I lowered my eyes in thought. Thousands of scattered, tumbling thoughts gradually came together, like a thread so fine it was barely visible, stringing all the people and events in sequence — the direction at the far end, ahead in the distance, slowly began to illuminate.

I raised my eyes, looked ahead, and smiled at Song Huai’an. Slowly, I said: “Please step aside.”

Song Huai’an moved one step forward. “I cannot!”

“Why not?” I looked at him coldly. “Right now, I am the only person who can step foot in the Qianyuan Palace.”

“You must not put yourself in danger!” He grabbed the horse’s reins and stood in front of my carriage. “Even if the Princess Consort drives over my corpse, today you will not enter these palace gates by one step!”

I smiled quietly. “Huai’en, I will not drive over your corpse to get through. But if today either the Left Chancellor or the Prince meets with misfortune, then carry my body back.”

He raised his head sharply. The shock of it held him fixed, staring at me intently.

I pressed against his gaze with my own until he stepped back one step at a time, though his hand still held the horse’s reins, unwilling to let go.

I turned my gaze toward the palace gate and looked no more at him. “Drive,” I said coldly.

The luan carriage moved slowly forward. Song Huai’an gripped the reins tightly and walked alongside it, his stare cutting through the hanging curtain, never leaving me for a single moment. Deeply moved and unwilling to bear it, I said quietly through the curtain, “I am, after all, still surnamed Wang. There will be no threat to my life. You understand my intent — now let go!”

Song Huai’an finally released the reins and stood rigid at the roadside, watching the carriage drive through the palace gate.

The palace was already in great turmoil. Not even the arrangements for mourning the Emperor had been completed before the palace maids and eunuchs scattered — hiding where they could, fleeing where they could. Here and there were palace servants rushing in frantic disarray. The once brilliant and solemn palace halls had already descended into chaos, looking like the first signs of a great storm about to break.

The armed forces of my father and Xiao Qi held various halls in opposition against each other on all sides, locked in a stalemate. Everywhere were soldiers in strictly ordered battle readiness.

The sky had grown fully light. But the towering Qianyuan Palace was still draped in dark cloud and mist, oppressive and forbidding.

I did not know what truth lay hidden within that stern and vast palace hall — but something must have gone wrong somewhere, something must not be right.

Why had my father been so foolish — why had he risked the enormous infamy of regicide, making his move at this moment? In terms of power, deployment, and prestige, he held all the advantages over Xiao Qi in every way. Only in the open clash of blades and steel, the all-out fight, was he absolutely no match for Xiao Qi. This move was a dead end that would destroy both sides.

Before the Qianyuan Palace, spears and halberds stood in dense array, fully armored soldiers surrounding the great hall layer upon layer. The imperial guards’ swords and blades were all drawn and bared — anyone who dared step one step closer would have blood sprayed on the spot. Two commanders of the palace guards led their troops in holding the hall entrance, though my father’s figure was nowhere to be seen.

I looked up at the great door of the Qianyuan Palace and walked in with my sleeve swept aside. Those two commanders recognized me and moved to intercept. I swept them with a cold glance and kept walking without pause. Subdued by my gaze, they did not dare force the issue, though they blocked the attendants behind me from following.

I climbed the steps, one by one, up to the jade terrace of the Qianyuan Palace.

With a sharp ring, two bright-bladed long swords crossed and barred the way before me.

“Wang Xuan, Princess Consort of Prince Yuzhang, requests an audience with the Empress.” I knelt, lowered my eyes and composed my expression, and waited quietly for the announcement to be made.

The cold of the jade steps seeped into my skin. After a long while, the sharp, thin voice of a palace attendant came from within the hall: “By order of the Empress, summon —”

The vast hall had already been draped in plain white curtains of mourning. From somewhere, a cold wind blew into the hall, lifting the white draperies to flutter in the dimness. I passed through the great hall and past those palace servants, each prostrated and lying motionless as though they had no life in them. The aura that had lingered in this Emperor’s sleeping quarters for years — an aura I had feared since childhood — was as though the spirits of emperors through the ages refused to depart, still coiled in every corner of that hall. Every rafter, every pillar, every desk, every side table breathed out solemnity and cold dread.

Behind the golden yellow curtains and the nine-dragon jade-white screen was that dragon bed, carved and painted with dragons and phoenixes, shining in brilliant gold. The Emperor lay behind those heavy curtains — now a cold body, a solemn temple title, who would never again smile at me, never again speak to me.

My aunt, dressed in white mourning garments, stood before the screen. Her long hair, dark as ink, fell loose down her back. She turned her head slowly, and her face was white as death. Her eye sockets bore the faint red of weeping, and at a glance she looked not like a living person but like a wisp of a wandering ghost.

“A’Wu is a good child.” She looked at me and smiled faintly. “Only you were willing to come and keep your aunt company.”

I stared at her blankly, and my gaze moved slowly toward the dragon bed.

“When a person dies — does love and hatred all disappear, and is there nothing left of anything?” My aunt also turned to look sideways in the same direction, holding a faint, icy smile at the corners of her lips.

“The Emperor has passed from this world. I ask that my aunt take comfort in her grief.” I studied her face, and could find not a single trace of sorrow upon it.

My aunt laughed, her voice gentle, her smile all the more cold and uncanny. “He has finally gone. He will hate me no more.”

A chill rose from the soles of my feet and crept inch by inch through my entire body. I stiffened and turned, walking toward the dragon bed.

“Stop.” My aunt spoke. “A’Wu, where are you going?”

I did not turn around. “I am going to see the Emperor — to see… my uncle by marriage.”

My aunt’s voice went cold. “The Emperor has already gone. There is no need for you to disturb him further.”

I drew in a slow, deep breath, and my clenched palm tightened further. “How did the Emperor go?”

“Do you wish to know?” My aunt walked quietly to stand before me, and fixed me with an intent, fathomless gaze, her expression hovering between a smile and not a smile. “Or perhaps — you already know?”

I recoiled sharply by one step, and could suppress the shock and anguish in my heart no longer. The words burst from me: “Was it truly you?”

She moved one step closer and looked into my eyes directly. “What about me?”

I could no longer speak. Looking at her smile, I felt a sudden revulsion — as though an ice-cold hand had seized my lungs and wrenched them tight. It was my aunt who had killed the Emperor. It was she who had set this death trap, luring my father and Xiao Qi to destroy each other. The world before my eyes grew dark. The whole of Heaven and earth seemed to rock and shift and warp. I bent over and covered my mouth with my hand, forcing down the surging waves of sickness in my chest.

My aunt reached out and gripped my chin, forcing me to meet her frenzied gaze. “Did I do wrong? Was I supposed to stand by and watch you all seize my son’s throne? To wait while you forced me step by step into a dead end?”

Cold sweat poured out without cease. I clenched my teeth and endured it. I could not say a word.

My aunt said with furious bitterness, “I sacrificed my entire life for the family, and now I have lost everything. I have only this one son. And you — all of you — want to take his throne from him! Even if Long’er is no good, he is still my son! No one is going to take his throne away from him!”

At last I steadied myself enough to gather breath. I pushed her hand away with force and said, my voice trembling, “That was your own blood elder brother! Father has always trusted you, protected you, supported the Crown Prince for so many years. And to deal with Xiao Qi, you even deceived him!” I was trembling all over, fury and grief pushed to their very limit. The aunt I had revered since childhood now looked to me like something from another world — like a demon. “You killed the Emperor, framed it as Xiao Qi’s doing, tricked father into sending troops to protect the Crown Prince — tricked him into striking at Xiao Qi — and you sit back and wait for them both to bleed each other dry so you can take them all in one sweep. Is that what you did?”

I bore down on her, my voice gone hoarse, forcing her back step by step.

My aunt’s face was deathly pale. She stared at me in a daze, as though unable to believe I would confront her with such fury.

“It is you who betrayed father. You who betrayed the Wang family.” I held her gaze and said each word with deliberation.

“I did no such thing!” My aunt screamed. She suddenly shoved me violently, and I stumbled backward, my back crashing against the cold jade-white nine-dragon screen.

My aunt broke into wild laughter, her voice sharp and rapid. “It was elder brother who forced me! He said Long’er was no good — that with the title of Crown Prince he was still being manipulated hand and foot by Xiao Qi, that Long’er was useless, that sitting on the throne he wouldn’t be able to hold the realm. He said as long as elder brother was around, Long’er would be a puppet for life — a hundred times more pathetic than his father the Emperor! Long’er is too foolish. He thought Xiao Qi would help him — the foolish child. He doesn’t know that every single one of you is scheming against him! Only I — only his mother can protect you. My foolish child — why won’t you trust your mother?”

Her expression had been shifting and unfocused. A moment ago she was grinding her teeth in hatred, then fierce and domineering, then in a flash looking every bit the tender and protective mother.

I leaned against the jade screen, barely holding myself upright, feeling my body go cold inch by inch.

She had gone mad. My aunt had truly been driven mad — driven to madness by this imperial family.

Suddenly a thunderous crash rang out from the direction of the Eastern Palace — it was as though something had collapsed, and then came the roar of thousands of troops and soldiers, wave after wave rolling over the nine-tiered palace.

The Eastern Palace — father and Xiao Qi — in the end they had truly come to blows.

I closed my eyes and let that sound of slaughter ring and echo in my ears for a long while. My whole body seemed to have turned to stone.

“Your servant reports to the Empress!” A commander rushed into the hall in a panic. “Prince Yuzhang has broken through the Eastern Palace!”

“Is that so?” My aunt turned to look toward the outside of the hall. A cold smile curved her lips. “He has held out longer than I expected. The Left Chancellor’s forces were stronger than I had anticipated. Had it not been for that fine husband of yours, I fear there would have been no one else capable of keeping your father in check.”

With only the palace guards of the Imperial Guard at his disposal, my father could never have held against Prince Yuzhang’s iron cavalry. Sending them to guard the Eastern Palace was no different from asking an egg to stop a stone. The Eastern Palace at this moment was surely drenched in blood with bodies strewn everywhere.

I looked up with a smile. “Indeed — when it comes to an open clash, father is naturally no match for Xiao Qi. I’m afraid the Empress is no match either.”

My aunt let out a sharp laugh. “Foolish child — do you truly think your husband is a peerless hero without equal in the world?”

She raised her hand and pointed toward the Eastern Palace. “Good child — look over there!”

Outside the hall, a great cloud of black smoke and fire rose from the direction of the Eastern Palace, flames blazing and leaping, illuminating the sky above the nine-tiered palace in a deep, burning red.

“Would I just sit back and let my Long’er wait docilely in the Eastern Palace for him to come and take him?” My aunt looked upward with a smile, her manner still elegant and composed. “The Eastern Palace has long had an ambush laid within it. The moment the Left Chancellor’s forces are defeated and Prince Yuzhang drives through the Eastern Palace, the three thousand armored soldiers concealed in the hidden passages within the walls are there waiting for your great hero. Even if he has the power to fight a thousand single-handed, he cannot withstand ten thousand arrows fired at once. And then the Eastern Palace will burn, and he will be consumed along with everything else in it — jade and stone alike!”

This vicious and deranged woman standing before me — who had killed the Emperor and murdered her husband, who had incited her own blood elder brother and nephew-in-law to slaughter each other — this was the aunt I had looked up to since childhood, the Empress who embodied maternal virtue for all under Heaven.

I stared directly at her, feeling only that I had never truly seen this face clearly until now.

The firelight grew more ferocious. Standing within the Qianyuan Palace, it seemed one could almost hear the crashing and collapsing of beams and pillars, and the muffled sounds of palace servants screaming and running. Outside was a sea of fire and a mountain of blades, blood running across the ground, while this elevated and supreme Qianyuan Palace was silent as death.

Guarding this great hall was not only the palace guard troops outside, but also the corpse of the Emperor, stiff and cold, lying in the dragon bed behind them. With the Emperor newly passed from the world, who would dare force their way into the sleeping quarters at a moment like this, and incur the overwhelming charge of having defied imperial authority? Xiao Qi’s forces had pressed in step by step until they surrounded the Qianyuan Palace like an iron barrel, but without Xiao Qi’s order, none of them dared step a single foot inside. The palace guards fell back to positions outside the hall — bows drawn, swords bared — waiting only for a single command to sweep the celestial palace in blood.

I smiled slightly. “You have set a trap to take in my father and my husband in a single sweep. I wonder — have you thought through what to do with me?”

She looked at me with cold eyes. Her gaze shifted and changed — ruthlessness and compassion entwined, and looking at her in that hazy moment, she was still the warm and beloved aunt of years past.

“Wang Xuan has walked straight into the trap. Is the Empress satisfied?” I smiled as I looked at her. Her face gradually shifted, the darkness in it giving way to a trace of desolation.

She turned around slowly, putting her back to me. After a long silence she said in a low voice, with a tone that was strangely gentle: “If only you had never grown up — the little A’Wu of old was like a snowball of a child, one could never love or cherish her enough.”

I bit my lip and said not a word.

“But you have grown up, and you no longer listen. On the day I asked whether you hated your aunt, you would not even tell me the truth.” She let out a long sigh and said quietly: “I know you hate me. How could you not? For decades now, I too have hated — not a single day without it.”

I opened my mouth, yet could not speak. My cheeks were ice cold, and I did not know when tears had already begun to stream down my face.

That word “hate,” spoken aloud from my aunt’s lips, seemed to tear open every wound within me, tearing away flesh and blood, and throwing it all at me.

I could bear to hear no more. My voice trembling, I said: “Aunt — there is only one thing I want to say to you. A’Wu truly does not hate you.”

She turned, moved by it. The corners of her lips twitched faintly. She rushed forward and pulled me into her embrace, her body shaking violently.

I pressed my cheek against her thin shoulder and let the tears pour.

Within the cold and shadowed inner hall, beneath the white mourning draperies drifting in the wind, my aunt and I held each other and wept. So many years before, she had held me just this way — gently and warmly — and no matter how willfully I had cried and made a fuss, she had always coaxed me with a quiet, soft voice.

This warm and familiar embrace — perhaps it would be the last time it had room for my helplessness.

A long, long time after, my aunt finally let go of me, turned her back, and never looked at me again.

Her figure went rigid and cold. Her shoulders curved very slightly inward. “Someone — take the Princess Consort into custody.”

The palace servants standing quietly behind the curtains, still as carved wood and chiseled stone, did not respond.

“Someone!” My aunt started. She raised her voice to command. “Where are the inner palace guards?”

The guards outside the door answered and swords rang as they were drawn. The sound of boots came stepping inside.

I raised my hand. Both palms came together in three clear, sharp claps, ringing through the cold and empty sleeping hall.

From behind the screen, behind the curtains, at the bases of the pillars — from among those palace servants who had stood still as clay figures without making a single sound, several shadows suddenly appeared. Swift and silent, like phantoms, they formed a circle around us.

Before the guards could close in, two of the maids darted forward. With blades in their hands, they placed themselves one on the left and one on the right, clasping my aunt’s shoulders. The blades pressed to her neck.

The rest took up positions on all sides, a close wall of protection before me. The short swords in their hands were cold and gleaming as snow.

The guards entered with their weapons drawn, and were startled to a halt in the doorway by the sudden reversal.

“You —” My aunt’s whole body trembled. Her face had lost all color. She stared at me but could not form words.

The commander of the palace guard outside the hall heard the commotion and charged into the hall. In an instant a forest of blades and spears glittered and swayed in motion.

I stepped forward coldly, and said with stern authority: “How dare you! His Majesty has passed from this world, and yet you dare enter the sleeping quarters bearing arms — do you truly mean to rebel?”

My aunt was still crying out in fury and struggling. Completely unafraid of the blades at her neck, she screamed: “Seize the Princess Consort of Yuzhang at once!”

The two commanders were greatly alarmed. Seeing the Empress held at my mercy, they were unable to advance or retreat, and looked at each other in consternation.

“A bunch of useless fools, what are you waiting for! Move!” my aunt raged. “Won’t you act?”

The palace guards outside stood frozen and hesitant. One commander clenched his teeth and stepped forward, just about to draw his sword. I looked over at him — a single glance — and stopped him cold.

He jolted. His face turned greenish-white. The sword was halfway drawn, and yet he could not move a single muscle.

I said with grave authority: “To enter the sleeping quarters bearing weapons unbidden is a capital crime against imperial authority — by law, nine generations of your families are to be exterminated! Prince Yuzhang’s great army has now surrounded the entire palace. If you can still turn back from the wrong path and make up for your crimes with merit, Wang Xuan gives her word here and now that no punishment will be brought down upon any of you!”

At precisely this moment of standoff, the sound of orderly and earth-shaking boots came from outside the hall. A great force of men was closing in on this position, and someone called out loudly: “Prince Yuzhang, acting on imperial decree to suppress the rebellion — any who resist will be executed on the spot!”

The palace guards saw that bright blades were already pressed to the Empress’s neck, and that armed troops outside were watching with predatory intent. The situation had already shifted completely and irrevocably.

The person on the left finally released his sword and let it fall to the ground with a clatter, and sank to his knees. The rest, seeing no point in holding out, bowed their heads and knelt one after another.

“Useless! All of you, useless!” My aunt screamed in despair. She broke into a sudden fierce struggle and, as though driven mad, hurled herself headlong toward the blade. The maids yanked the blade away in alarm and held her down with all their strength. I gave the two commanders their orders — to withdraw the troops stationed before the hall at once — and then instructed my maids to hurry to the Eastern Palace and inform Xiao Qi that the Empress had admitted guilt and been taken into custody, and that he must absolutely not harm the Left Chancellor.

My aunt was still raging and cursing without stop, her long hair in wild disarray about her, all her dignity completely gone.

I walked slowly forward until I stood in front of her and looked at her for a long moment. “You have lost, Aunt.”

“In victory you become a king; in defeat you are a bandit — and there is no shame in it. Even in losing — one should lose with dignity.” I said these words quietly.

Her body gave a start. She looked directly at me. Her gaze fell momentarily into a haze, as though passing through time to see again some scene from long ago — in my ninth year, I had lost at chess to elder brother and was in the midst of throwing a tantrum and refusing to accept it, and my aunt had said to me: “Whether you win or lose, you must have grace about it. Even in losing — lose with dignity.”

My aunt looked at me, as though looking at a complete stranger she had never known. Her gaze slowly dimmed.

After a long silence, she laughed bitterly. “Quite right — success and failure, victory and defeat. I never imagined that I, who prided myself my whole life on my own brilliance, would be undone — at your hands!”

Her hair was in a tangle. I wanted to straighten it for her. I reached out my hand — and froze in midair. The last remaining trace of warmth in the deepest part of my heart was strangled and cut off by force.

I closed my fist, turned my face to the side, and said with impassivity: “At least — you were not undone by an outsider.”

She suddenly burst into loud laughter. Even as she was escorted out through the great hall, that laughter kept ringing on and on through the cold and desolate Qianyuan Palace.

On the day my aunt had been attacked by the assassin, her close personal maids had been killed. She herself had been frightened into unconsciousness. At that moment I had left several of the maids who attended me to stay at her side, in case any remnant threats in the palace tried again to harm her. These women had been personally selected by Xiao Qi from among his finest agents and had followed by my side in the guise of palace maids to protect my safety. Initially, I had left them there only to protect my aunt — but after the palace had been cleared of its elements, I had not called them back to the Prince’s residence. As many of the old palace servants were swept out in the purge and replaced by new people, these women had blended into the Zhaoyang Palace without catching my aunt’s notice. I had made an agreement with them: unless the situation was critical, they must not reveal their identities. Except for me, they need obey the orders of no one else.

Even I could not say clearly — from what moment had I begun to guard against my aunt? Perhaps it was because of her repeated tests, because of the wariness she showed toward me, or perhaps because of the suspicion and unease that ran deep in my own nature.

“Your servant was too slow to arrive — the Princess Consort must have been frightened!” Pang Gui came rushing in with his men. “Prince Yuzhang’s troops have taken over the guard of the Qianyuan Palace. The Prince and the Crown Prince are on their way from the Eastern Palace.”

I looked toward him, my voice unsteady. “And the Left Chancellor?”

“The Left Chancellor is unharmed. Master Wang Su has taken temporary command of the Imperial Guard. General Hu has been ordered to guard the Zhen Guo Duke’s residence and has not stepped one foot inside the gates.” Pang Gui lowered his voice, his tone carrying a note of happiness. “Princess Consort, please do not worry. The fire in the Eastern Palace was the Prince’s deliberate turning of a trap. The forces on both sides suffered no significant losses. All points throughout the city are calm and without incident. All is well!”

All is well — those four short words, falling on my ears in that moment, surpassed the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

Before my eyes everything slowly began to float and spin. Only then did I realize that my entire undergarment had long since been soaked through with cold sweat, and it clung to me coldly, chilling me to the bone.

Someone came forward to support me, intending to help me to a chair. I had barely taken one step when it felt as though the ground had swallowed my foot — the whole world spun and tilted.

The maid cried out in alarm, calling my name again and again, screaming for help.

It must have been a momentary dizziness. I gradually gathered my senses. I only felt they were making a fuss over nothing.

It was fortunate that father had merely led troops into the palace — that he had not rashly made his move. Had the palace guards and Hu Guanglie’s Tiger Brave Army truly fought each other in the open streets, that would have been a catastrophe of mutual destruction, beyond all recovery. My aunt had thought herself clever, having set a perfect trap — ready to catch them all in one sweep. Yet she had not known that the one to be caught in her net was not Xiao Qi, but herself. I had a fair sense by now of who had betrayed my aunt. If she could see with her own eyes the son she had so carefully protected standing at Xiao Qi’s side, wearing the expression of a victor as he looked at her — I wondered what she would feel.

The burning of the Eastern Palace was nothing but a performance to confuse everyone’s eyes and ears. It had neatly concealed this dangerous palace upheaval, burned away those crystal palace halls, and yet forged for Prince Yuzhang the meritorious achievement of protecting the Eastern Palace and suppressing the rebellion with an iron fist.

“Princess Consort — are you in the hall?” Xiao Qi’s voice came from far outside the hall, so urgent and anxious — without a trace of his usual composure.

A flutter of alarm went through me. Afraid of him seeing me in this state, I quickly took hold of a maid’s arm and forced myself to rise from the chair.

The moment my body moved, a sudden and violent pain tore through me as if to split me apart. Something hot rushed from between my legs. I slid softly downward. The maid beside me could not hold me. The pain grew sharper. I gritted my teeth and endured it. I felt a hot flow running down the inside of both legs.

What was happening? I had fallen forward onto the ground. Trembling, I reached out and lifted the hem of my skirts. Before my eyes — a sheet of crimson red!

The hall door opened. Xiao Qi stepped inside with great strides, his full armor gleaming.

“A’Wu —” He stopped abruptly. His gaze fixed and froze upon me.

I raised my eyes to look at him in confusion and bewilderment, not knowing how to explain what he was seeing. Not knowing how this had happened. I had not been hurt — yet blood was flowing from me for no reason I could understand.

His face had changed. His gaze moved from that crimson stain to my face. His eyes were full of nothing but shock and anguish.

“Call the imperial physician — call the imperial physician at once!” He scooped me up in his arms, and his very voice was trembling.

I managed a weak smile, wanting to tell him not to be afraid, that I was all right. But I opened my mouth and could not produce even the slightest sound. Leaning in his arms, my body grew colder and colder all over, and the world before my eyes grew dimmer and dimmer.