It was still only dusk, yet the sky had already turned heavy and dark.

Outside the window, a fine drizzle had begun to fall at some unknown moment. The evening breeze carried in the damp coolness of light rain, mingled with the acrid smell of burning pine oil, drifting in from the direction of the palace gates. In the distance, the flickering of firelight was dimly visible, and thick coils of smoke wrapped around the nine layers of the palace halls above.

I turned my head and said to Yuxiu, who knelt behind me, with quiet indifference. “You stay here. The children will be looked after by their nurses, and I will not trouble your family’s elderly and young.”

Having said this, I turned and walked toward the doorway.

“I want to see him once more!” Yuxiu suddenly fell to her knees. “Wang Fei, I beg you — let me go to the palace gates, just to see him from a distance!”

I stopped where I stood, unable to bear to turn back. She already knew that life’s final parting was upon her.

“Live well — you still have your children, you still have the rest of your life.” I steeled my heart silently, and said with resolve, “He never loved you, and he took concubines without restraint, and then imprisoned you by force. Such a man is not worth grieving over!”

Behind me there was a long silence. Yuxiu suddenly broke into a loud laugh. “Worth it — Wang Fei, who are you to tell me what is worth it?”

I furrowed my brow and did not want to hear any more of this, and raised my foot to step toward the doorway.

“Is the Prince so different? A man who had no regard for your safety, who abandoned you and left you to fend for yourself — is dedicating yourself to him so very worth it?”

This anguished question pierced through my chest like an arrow.

She knelt on the ground, yet she held her head high, her gaze tranquil and unyielding as she looked at me.

She was, after all, someone who had been at my side for nearly ten years — she knew just where to find the gaps in my defenses, and she knew what words cut deepest.

I looked at her, and something inside my chest went cold, inch by inch.

If I had heard these words in days gone by, perhaps I truly would have been struck down by them. But unfortunately, I was no longer the fragile A’Wu of old.

“It is precisely because he is Xiao Qi that he would dare take such a bold risk and place me here, at the eye of this storm.” I raised my face with a faint smile. “And it is precisely because I am Wang Xuan that he dares release this entire situation into my hands.”

“In terms of affection and shared bonds, we are husband and wife, we are lovers.” I said each word slowly and deliberately. “But on the path of this great imperial ambition, we are kindred spirits fighting side by side. In peacetime, I will be in my inner chambers grinding his ink and tending to incense. In times of upheaval, I can step forward to cut through thorns and blaze his trail. If he had treated me merely as a jeweled beauty in a gilded chamber, he would not be the Xiao Qi who truly sees me, knows me, and trusts me — nor would I deign to stand shoulder to shoulder with so common and ordinary a man!”

The last word fell, and Yuxiu was dumbstruck. Even I was startled motionless by what I had just said.

Were it not a conviction long planted deep in my heart, how could words like these have leapt from my lips in a moment of anger?

The great imperial enterprise, the great imperial enterprise… The one who had always desired this great imperial enterprise was not Xiao Qi alone.

That is right — the husband I had always wanted was precisely the most powerful and most exalted man under heaven.

He would conquer the world. He would conquer me — and be conquered by me in return.

This was what had always been buried in the marrow of my bones and the pulse of my blood: a sweeping, unspoken ambition, beyond the reach of words.

These words, so long buried at the bottom of my heart, today at last could be spoken openly and in full light — no longer needing to be evaded, no longer needing to deceive myself.

However startling, however perilous, every step of this situation had been — I had never once doubted Xiao Qi’s intentions. It had not even crossed my mind.

Xiao Qi and I had gone through many misunderstandings and suspicions on account of our respective calculations. Over these years, having been through one turbulence after another, we had at last been able to release the burdens in our hearts and trust each other wholeheartedly.

To have reached this day — having passed through ten thousand towering precipices — if one could not lay down the weight on one’s heart, how could one cross that final and most dangerous pass?

As for being a pawn, as for being used — those are merely the narrow-minded speculations of others.

Having been tempered by knives of wind and blades of frost, adrift through a turbulent age, we had walked this whole way through blood and tears and bones — we were long since an inseparable whole.

Call it hearts in accord, call it kindred spirits — he has me, I have him. This alone is enough.

What he shoulders is the world, the family and the nation. He is destined never to be an ordinary man who paints his beloved’s brows by the window. And I am destined never to be an ordinary woman sheltered in her inner chambers, indifferent to the world. Since we chose each other from the beginning, we can only walk forward side by side, facing wind and frost together.

I turned and left. The hall doors closed with a heavy boom behind me, shutting out Yuxiu’s startled, grief-struck gaze along with everything else.

Night had deepened and the drizzle had grown urgent. I drew my cloak tight and, without waiting for attendants to hold up an umbrella, hurried up to the palace gates.

Beneath the city walls, the rebel forces had already surrounded the palace on all sides. Outside every gate the troops were arrayed in grim formations — bows drawn, blades unsheathed, spears and halberds like a forest. Vast torches drenched in pine oil illuminated the gates in a blaze of firelight.

Both Wei Han and Pang Kui had come at the news. I greeted them with a composed smile. “You have both worked hard.”

The two of them were steady and unruffled. With the enemy numerous and our own forces few, and the situation so tense just below — in such circumstances it was all the more necessary to project calm and soothe the hearts of one’s men.

I walked close to the parapet and looked down, and a soldier at my side immediately stood up to block me. “Wang Fei, be careful!”

This young man was barely eighteen or nineteen years old. I turned my eyes to look at him with a smile. “It is all right — do not be afraid.”

The soldier, with his thick brows and large eyes, immediately flushed crimson, opened his mouth and found nothing to say, and simply nodded vigorously.

Wei Han let out a great laugh, stepped forward and clapped him hard on the shoulder. “Young fellow, you’ve never fought a real battle before, have you! What is this spectacle compared to anything? Even a woman is unafraid — can we, iron men that we are, truly be frightened?”

The soldiers standing all around in solemn stillness suddenly erupted in laughter. The tension and anxiety of half a day’s stress loosened with that shared laugh, and on those young, resolute faces there arose a surge of lifted spirits, and something a little warmer besides.

I gave Wei Han an approving smile and a nod, then walked toward a quieter spot.

The two of them followed. The smile faded from Wei Han’s face. Pang Kui, taciturn as always, said nothing, though the corners of his lips pressed into a line etched like a blade cut.

I turned my gaze sideways toward the rebel encampment’s flickering fires in the near distance and asked quietly, “Song Huai’an has simply surrounded the palace and made no move at all?”

“That is correct. At the moment he holds still, and I find myself with mixed feelings.” Wei Han said coldly with his hands clasped behind him. “On the encouraging side, it seems he is being held in check by some external force and dares not act rashly. On the concerning side, as the night grows late, I fear he may launch a night assault under cover of darkness.”

I nodded. “Tonight is indeed a matter of treacherous uncertainty — we must be vigilant in responding.”

Pang Kui suddenly spoke. “Wang Fei, why not bind the Song family’s elderly and children to the top of the city wall? It would intimidate him, and make him hesitate to act out of fear of harming them.”

I turned slightly away without answering, brow furrowed.

“Commander Pang speaks with reason — when facing a great enemy, we must not be hampered by compassion!” Wei Han’s voice was hard as iron.

Binding Song Huai’an’s aged mother and three young children to the city wall was indeed a vicious tactic — and would certainly have an intimidating effect.

“Is it truly so necessary?” I did not turn around but gave a faint smile. “As you yourself just said — the restraint of external forces is likely more useful than this method.”

Wei Han was momentarily taken aback. “The eastern outskirts garrison standing fast may hold him in check for a time, but may not necessarily be able to restrain him for long.”

I turned around, with a half-smile that was not quite a smile. “When you speak of external forces, do you mean only the eastern outskirts garrison?”

“This subordinate is slow-witted and does not understand what Wang Fei means.” His eyes flashed with sharp intelligence, and a nearly imperceptible flicker of astonishment passed through them.

I looked directly into his eyes. “No wonder the Prince places such trust in you — your discretion is deep, your composure unfathomable, your loyalty unswerving. Wang Xuan is full of admiration.”

Wei Han fell silent and lowered his head.

“You have difficulties you cannot speak of, and I will press no further.” I turned and instructed Pang Kui, “Commander Pang, take men to patrol every corner of the palace. Do not let the slightest thing slip through.”

“This subordinate obeys.” Pang Kui, never a man for unnecessary words, immediately turned and left.

When Pang Kui had walked well away, Wei Han let out a faint sigh. Behind the iron mask, his deep eyes gleamed with a sharp light. “Wang Fei, please forgive this subordinate — it is not that I doubt Commander Pang. It is only that the matter concerns a secret, and this subordinate’s orders are that it can only be reported to the Prince alone…”

“I understand — you need not explain.” I gave a slight smile.

He looked steadily at me. “Aside from the Prince, Wei Han has in my life never admired anyone. Today, I cannot but acknowledge that Wang Fei has earned my heartfelt respect!”

I smiled and said nothing, and looked at him quietly.

Wei Han at last acknowledged openly, “This subordinate received a secret order from the Prince to keep covert watch over the capital. The Hu clan case was reported to the Prince in secret long ago.”

A great stone in my heart finally fell to rest. I let out a breath and said, “Indeed — that day you were bold enough to submit a confidential memorial to me about the suspicious circumstances of Hu Guangyuan’s death, which means you must necessarily have also reported it to the Prince. If I am not mistaken, Hu Guangyuan had fallen early into a trap laid by Song Huai’an, implicating him in corrupt offenses. Song Huai’an used the opportunity to eliminate him, then let the Empress learn of it, exploiting the Prince’s misunderstanding of me to sow discord — which is what eventually led to the blood-stained secret imperial edict?”

Wei Han silently nodded.

I said with a sigh, “And the palace maid from Zhaoyang Palace who managed to escape undetected from the palace — that was also facilitated secretly by him. You led the Iron Guard in pursuit to beyond Linliang Pass, intercepted and killed the Empress’s men, and recovered the secret edict — yet you did not know that Song Huai’an was operating covertly at the same time, having already dispatched his trusted men to infiltrate the northern frontier and secretly inform Hu Guanglie.”

Wei Han showed a trace of remorse. “In those days I only thought that Song Huai’an had eliminated Hu Guangyuan out of personal enmity and to strike at the Hu faction. I had not imagined he would be so audacious as to use the Empress, to scheme against General Hu, and actually threaten the Prince’s safety!”

I heaved a long sigh, at a momentary loss for words.

Whether for power, for name, or for matters of the heart — by that point Song Huai’an had long since planted the intention of replacing Xiao Qi in his mind. Eliminating Hu Guanglie was only his first step in sweeping away all obstacles.

I gazed toward the northern sky in the distance and said quietly, “I believe the Prince is already on the road back to the capital at this very moment… Perhaps it is Hu Guanglie himself who is leading the vanguard army back to the capital in defense of the throne.”

Wei Han gave a firm nod. “Let us hope so!”

I pressed my hand to my chest and let out a long breath. The greatest stone that had long hung suspended in my heart finally came to rest. How fortunate, how very fortunate — in the end I had not wronged a loyal man, and I felt all the deeper regret and remorse for having once harbored an unreasoning prejudice that had led me to misjudge Hu Guanglie.

Prejudice, in the end, is what leads people astray — and had nearly led me astray as well.

Father had often told me that I was too clear-cut in my loves and hatreds, always judging people by my own preferences, which inevitably led to hasty conclusions. At the time I had thought nothing of it — but looking back now, I suddenly felt a cold sweat come over me.

If I had not always harbored a preconceived view of Hu Guanglie — detesting him for his hot temper, his lack of manners, his hunger for military glory and appetite for profit — how could I have made such a careless judgment, deciding on the basis of Hu Guangyuan’s death and Hu Yao’s single confidential edict that Hu Guanglie would rebel?

What blinds one’s eyes is often not the false appearances arranged by others, but one’s own preconceived prejudices.

In those days, when one garrison after another had fallen in battle, Xiao Qi had investigated the lax state of the defenses, sternly rebuked Hu Guanglie, docked six months of his stipend, and ordered him to remain at home in reflection.

Seeing that disorder had broken out, I had been worried that Hu Guanglie, resentful of his punishment, might stir up more trouble, and had gently advised Xiao Qi: “You must still leave a man some dignity — this punishment is a little too harsh.”

Xiao Qi had said with serene indifference, “Do you also think it too harsh? Then I will make it even harsher — how would that be?”

Sure enough, the very next day he had ordered Song Huai’an to take charge of the capital’s administration and announced preparations for a northern campaign, shaking the court and the whole country.

And it was heard that Hu Guanglie had been confined to his residence, drinking every day and making a great scene.

With the Hu faction so clearly losing ground, they scrambled to defect to the Right Chancellor, competing to curry favor with Song Huai’an. Song Huai’an’s faction had for a time an unrivaled ascendancy.

The long-running strife between Hu and Song owed in part to old grievances and rivalry over rank, but there was also Xiao Qi’s subtle arrangement, causing the two to check and balance each other in a carefully calibrated equilibrium. I had long known that Xiao Qi would not simply take sides — whether to suppress or to elevate, there was always his own reasoning behind it. Sure enough, ten days later Xiao Qi issued an edict to launch the northern campaign, with Hu Guanglie designated as vanguard commander leading a hundred thousand crack troops.

I had asked him — his earlier full effort to suppress the Hu faction, had that been an intentional test of his mettle?

Xiao Qi had replied, “I was merely putting him to a test.”

“Putting him to a test?” I had been astonished, and after a moment’s reflection had felt a vague unease. “You suspected he had turned against you?”

Xiao Qi’s expression had been unfathomable. “Some things look entirely different depending on whether you use your eyes or your heart — what appears on the surface is not necessarily the truth.”

“Wang Fei?”

Wei Han’s voice startled me abruptly back to the present. I came to my senses — the night wind had turned cold through and through, the firelight blazed fierce, and there was no trace of Xiao Qi.

The cold iron armor on a frosty night, the campaigner not yet returned… With that thought, an inexplicable ache rose in my heart. I turned my face aside and let the night wind dry the gathering warmth at the corners of my eyes.

Those old comrades of his — Xiao Qi had never completely trusted any of them.

Tang Jing had aroused his suspicion early on. And Hu Guanglie was the first to allow him to dispel his doubts. Xiao Qi had tested him again and again with repression — if he had not come to believe in Hu Guanglie’s loyalty, he would never have entrusted him with one hundred thousand troops.

The one who had truly given him pause was Song Huai’an. This man’s thoughts were meticulous, concealed without a trace, with no flaw visible before anyone. Xiao Qi was no god — he could not know everything. I feared that in the beginning even he had been caught in indecision, which was why he had not dared send Song Huai’an to the front. When two armies clashed, a single moment of carelessness could bring disaster to the entire nation. At that time, everything was still unclear, and I was about to give birth — already facing an enormous ordeal… He had not wanted me to bear even more anxiety, and in the end had not told me of his own suspicions. Perhaps at that time he had also harbored a hope for the best, hoping all would remain peaceful.

Thinking back to how he had asked me again and again before setting out whether I would resent him — I now suddenly understood that his remorse had not been merely because he was leaving me to face the dangers of childbirth alone. At that time he had already weighed everything carefully and, knowing that the capital might be riddled with danger, had still chosen to drive off the foreign invaders first and press down on the internal crisis for the time being. He had left Song Huai’an in the capital — and also left Wei Han to covertly monitor his every move. He had gone north in person to campaign, engaging the Turks at the front; and I had remained behind in the capital, facing all the turbulence alone… He had trusted me — just as I trusted him. At this very moment and place, we were truly fighting side by side.

Thinking over all these past events, both Wei Han and I fell silent.

Wei Han let out a sigh. “Hu Guangyuan made one terrible mistake on impulse — though the consequences were deserved, it is still a pity to lose such a fine young man.”

I gave a rueful smile. “People are not saints. It is not as though Hu Guanglie has been free of corrupt conduct himself. The Prince knows well that he has always had a habit of extracting money in the army… only he had the sense to know where to draw the line, never committing a major offense, so the Prince also pretended not to know.”

Wei Han shook his head. “Old Hu’s greatest fault was his love of money. During the campaign to subjugate the seventy-two tribes of the southern frontier, he was the first to charge into the king’s palace of the southern chieftains, and secretly helped himself to the royal staff — Song Huai’an reported it to the Prince, saying that his concealing the royal staff showed a disloyal and treacherous ambition. But when the Prince looked into it, he found out that Hu had been coveting the large piece of emerald inlaid in the staff, had already pried the gem loose, and simply discarded the rest of the staff as worthless.”

I was silent for a moment, then finally could not suppress a laugh.

Though Hu Guanglie was greedy for money, his greed was nothing more than petty acquisitiveness. Compared to the appetites of the noble clans and powerful families at court, it was small indeed. I had long since grown accustomed to the insatiable greed of the imperial relatives — seizing tens of thousands of taels at a go, not deigning to accept anything less than a thousand. After Xiao Qi came to power, he struck hard at the culture of corruption and graft at court. Former major offenders were banished, exiled, or put to death. Yet Xiao Qi had not investigated everything completely to the end, nor driven every wrongdoer to desperation — he had left a way out for officials whose crimes were not too serious.

This was precisely what is meant by the saying “when water is too clear, there are no fish.” Drive people to the wall and there would be no one left to serve you.

Hu Guanglie’s petty greed was within the bounds of what Xiao Qi tolerated. As Xiao Qi had once said, “A man who loves money and cherishes his life and fortune often has little room left for ambition.”

Compared to Hu Guanglie, Song Huai’an was upright and clean in his personal conduct, with every appearance of high principle — in the world’s eyes, the two were clearly superior and inferior.

As things now stood, however, the man with his common love of profit and money had proven far more trustworthy than the gentleman of soaring ambition.