Once the Emperor moved against someone, he did so with decisive swiftness. The Zhang Family’s affair broke in the ninth month and was already settled by the tenth.

Yunjing’s officialdom underwent a complete changing of the blood. The pieces on the board were reshuffled anew. With this freshly dealt hand, the Emperor played with far greater ease.

Becoming an emperor was not something achieved in a single stroke — it always had to be done step by step.

The Emperor who had reached this point was no longer the same Emperor who had first entered the capital five years ago, who had only just ascended to the throne. The imperial authority of Da Mu had been consolidated and strengthened.

The fall of Zhang Gong’s faction implicated many people. Li Weifeng was one of them. This meant Xie Baozhu had not seen him for some time.

When she saw him again, he still wore that same grinning, carefree expression — only his eyes concealed exhaustion.

“I brought your father a roe deer. It’s already simmering on the stove. The weather’s turned cold, drink more of the broth.”

“I read the book you told me to look at. It’s quite interesting.”

“Aren’t you dressed a little thin today? Don’t you want to add another layer?”

Li Weifeng chattered away as usual. But on this day, Xie Baozhu said nothing throughout. She finished her last row of turning the soil with her hoe and still did not say a single word.

Li Weifeng was silent for a moment, then finally said: “Tigress, say something.”

Xie Baozhu leaned on her hoe and raised her eyes. Sure enough, she spoke. She asked: “I heard your new wife took her own life?”

Li Weifeng’s sharp gaze swept toward the female guards on the field ridge. They flinched. Their fathers and brothers were all retainers and personal soldiers of the Marquis of Beirong — they knew very well that this lord, who appeared to have a good temper, was anything but temperless. Both of them shrank back a step.

In truth, no one could blame them. Everyone was talking about this matter. The two of them had been chatting with the village soldiers, and the big wife had overheard.

Sensing Li Weifeng’s glance, they quickly withdrew.

Only Xie Baozhu and Li Weifeng remained in the cool breeze. He said: “It wasn’t like that.”

Xie Baozhu said: “I’m only asking you whether it’s true or not.”

Li Weifeng was silent for a moment, then said: “It is.”

Xie Baozhu gave a cold laugh, picked up her hoe, and turned to leave.

Li Weifeng stepped forward and seized her arm, asking sharply: “What do you mean by this?”

Xie Baozhu pulled against his grip. That hand was like an iron vice — how could she possibly pull free? She gave up the futile struggle and said coldly: “Although she had the surname Zhang, she had already married you — she was your wife. Guilt does not extend to daughters who have married out of their maiden family. You were her husband. You didn’t protect her. You drove her to take her own life. Li Ziyi, I misjudged you.”

Li Weifeng’s lips pressed tight: “I didn’t drive her to it! She is the mother of my daughter. I told her — she was a person of my household, not someone of the Zhang Family! I told her she had nothing to fear! That in my household, she could go on living exactly as she always had!”

But Zhang Fen did not believe him.

Zhang Fen was a person who craved power and status, and who loved to kick others when they were down. She was utterly convinced that everyone else was the same way. Merely imagining the mocking looks people would direct at her after her maiden family’s downfall was enough to destroy her. And just at that moment, Li Weifeng had come to her door and said all of this to her.

Li Weifeng thought he was consoling her. In Zhang Fen’s ears, it sounded like nothing but mockery and derision.

The moment Li Weifeng’s back was turned, Zhang Fen hanged herself.

By the time Li Weifeng was summoned back, her body had already begun to grow cold.

Yet now, all of Yunjing was spreading the story that when the Zhang Family collapsed, the Marquis of Beirong had driven his first wife to her death.

The reason Li Weifeng had not come by these past days was partly because he had been occupied with Zhang Fen’s burial, and partly because he had been moving — out of his outer residence and back into his own Marquis of Beirong’s mansion.

But throughout that mansion, every corner bore Zhang Fen’s tastes. Moving back in, he felt as though he were living in someone else’s home.

In the past, he had wished desperately that this woman would simply vanish from the face of the earth. Now she had indeed vanished — yet it had not improved Li Weifeng’s circumstances in the least. The looks people gave him carried a certain wrongness to them.

“Other people thinking that of me — fine!” He said with irritation. “But how can you think that of me! What kind of person am I — don’t you know?”

Xie Baozhu looked at him for a while, then said: “Because for some things, you don’t look at the process. You look at the result.”

Then she added: “Since Madam Zhang is gone, these two female guards have no need to stay at my side. Take them back with you.”

She pulled her arm free from Li Weifeng’s grip, knocked the dirt off her hoe, shouldered it, and turned to leave.

“Tigress!” But Li Weifeng called out to stop her.

Xie Baozhu turned her head.

Li Weifeng said: “I no longer have a wife. Will you be my wife?”

Xie Baozhu thought it over seriously, then said: “No.”

Li Weifeng was silent a moment, then asked: “Why?”

Xie Baozhu said: “No is no. What is there to explain?”

Li Weifeng, unwilling to give up, said: “You like me.”

Xie Baozhu said: “I merely don’t dislike you. Saying I like you is going too far.”

Li Weifeng said: “I don’t believe that.”

Xie Baozhu turned and said: “Suit yourself.” She shouldered her hoe and went home.

Returning home, she dismissed the two female guards. Prince Shou kept sighing.

He said: “Father is old and doesn’t know when he might die. Find yourself a place to settle down.”

Xie Baozhu said: “Who goes first isn’t certain.”

Prince Shou: “Ptah!”

Xie Baozhu said: “My years are limited. It isn’t worth leaving family behind for him.”

Prince Shou: “Ah.”

There are many things in this world that are not impossible to do, nor beyond one’s ability — it all comes down to whether one is willing, and whether it is worth it.

Li Gu had cleared out Yunjing’s old faction and reorganized the capital’s power structure. Court matters were going quite smoothly. Everything that was not going smoothly involved people close to him.

He came to speak on Li Weifeng’s behalf, saying to Xie Yuzhang: “Put in a word with your sister.”

Xie Yuzhang said: “How does one say something about a matter like this? Whether someone likes someone or is willing — can that be decided by talking?”

She said: “I regret what happened with Second Brother. Thinking back on it, I actually knew Lin Shi’s heart was never with Second Brother. But I always thought — Second Brother has everything going for him; life married to him could never be bad. Yet I forgot what kind of person she was. If she herself felt no stirring of the heart, she was like iron. A peaceful life lived out together was not impossible — but the moment an opportunity arose, everything shattered, and there was no repairing it. My sister has the same composed nature as she did. I don’t know whether my sister is someone who can make a life with someone, but in matters like this, it is better not to force things.”

She spoke of another person’s heart being like iron — yet was her own heart any different?

Li Gu had understood this long ago, and so he too did not dare to force things.

Xie Yuzhang said: “Master Mo — is he planning to push forward the imperial examinations?”

Li Gu said: “Your information is quite well-informed.”

Xie Yuzhang said: “It’s being talked about all over the neighborhoods.”

Xie Yuzhang continued: “The imperial examinations — this matter was tested since my grandfather’s time, but each time the results were unsatisfying. Those selected rose no higher than the green robes and were heavily suppressed. In the end, the matter always faded away without resolution. In my father’s time, he extended great courtesy to Master Mo, repeatedly invited him, but Master Mo simply would not leave his retreat. I imagine it was because he felt my father fell short of my grandfather and lacked the boldness to realize his ambitions.”

Li Gu said: “Yes. The lifelong aspiration of my teacher is to break the world of aristocratic families governing the realm, and to select officials by talent alone.”

Xie Yuzhang smiled: “Master Mo was right to wait until he found you. You are the sort of person who simply cuts and kills everything down, effectively clearing the road for him.”

Li Gu held his teacup and asked: “Yuzhang, am I the kind of person who frightens you?”

Xie Yuzhang answered: “You wield your blade to sweep away long-festering decay and corruption, bringing fresh air to the world. Only those who cling to convention and refuse to release their entrenched interests would ever fear you.”

This time around, Li Gu had again exterminated the Gao clan — an entire surname wiped out. Although the aristocratic families who followed him also shared in the benefits, those with discernment quietly felt a chill. This Emperor’s blade was far too sharp when it turned toward the noble families.

Even within the rear palace, Cui Shi and Deng Wan had gently urged him more than once to reduce the bloodshed he caused.

Li Gu heard Xie Yuzhang’s words and broke into a smile.

At the end of the tenth month, after Master Mo was appointed Prime Minister, the court indeed issued a proclamation to all under heaven announcing that a trial of the imperial examination system would be held the following spring.

The aristocratic families were thrown into an uproar. In the wine houses and teahouses of the Eastern Market, noble family scions could often be seen gathered together, heatedly denouncing the examinations with great indignation.

These young nobles frequently occupied the main hall, engaged in grand debate. Many young women took the opportunity to quietly observe from the upper floor. Both sides were fully aware of the other’s presence, and so those downstairs dressed more and more brilliantly, speaking with ever greater passion and fervor.

Those upstairs covered their faces with their sleeves and whispered quietly — the young gentleman of such-and-such family looked rather fine.

On this particular day, however, just as the young lords were at their most impassioned, a voice rang out from above — clear and bright as an oriole from an empty valley: “Luorou, let’s go. These aristocratic scions are truly disappointing. There’s nothing worth watching here.”

The young lords, who were in full display at the time, were first stunned, then furious. They all craned their necks upward, wanting to see which family’s young woman was so insufferably arrogant.

But when they looked up, no words came.

A young woman in the full bloom of her beauty lightly lifted her skirt and was descending from the upper floor. Her face was luminous and jade-smooth, her gaze turning like flowing light — like soft clouds veiling the moon, like a drifting breeze scattering snow.

At her age, she still outshone many young women of sixteen or seventeen. For years she had occupied the top position on the beauty rankings without a single person challenging it.

This so-called beauty ranking was something these aristocratic lords had themselves concocted from generation to generation — how could they fail to recognize this beauty? She was none other than Princess Yongning, Xie Yuzhang.

Someone recovered his wits and, unwilling to concede, folded his hands and said: “What does Your Highness mean by those words?”

Xie Yuzhang walked down the stairs at a leisurely pace and said: “Does the young lord know — in the shops of the Western Market, how much does a brush cost? And how much for a quire of paper?”

The aristocratic scion was momentarily at a loss and genuinely could not answer. Born with a silver spoon in hand, when had they ever needed to worry about such matters as brushes, paper, ink, firewood, and rice?

“Naturally the young lord would not know, for he was born to wealth and privilege — he has all the books he could ever read, all the paper and ink he could ever use.” Xie Yuzhang said. “But I can tell the young lord: one brush costs fifteen copper coins. A quire of rough paper costs thirty-five copper coins. Fine paper is more expensive — sixty copper coins. Though I imagine that paper, to the young lord, is only what the household accountant uses for keeping records. What the young lord uses is probably Chengxin paper, Zhuguang paper, and the like. And the young lord certainly doesn’t know what those papers are actually worth in money, let alone that what a commoner household earns after a full year of hard labor is likely less than what the young lord spends on a few quires used for painting.”

“I was upstairs listening to the young lords mock common-born students for having ugly handwriting. Yet I think — if commoner students had the unlimited supply of Chengxin paper and pine-soot ink that the young lords enjoy, the ones being mocked for ugly handwriting would probably be the young lords.”

“To raise a single scholar in a commoner family — what hardship that takes. Yet you, young lords, dine on gold and feast on jade, growing up steeped in the fragrance of ink from childhood — and you actually shrink from competing with them on equal footing? You truly disappoint me.”

Someone called out loudly: “We are not shrinking from competition — we simply disdain to compete. Those people are not worthy.”

Xie Yuzhang smiled: “Since the young lord is so confident, then demonstrate through your scholarship that they are unworthy. Or is the young lord merely full of bravado on the outside, with nothing but straw inside? Pushing excuses every which way — just to conceal your own lack of nerve.”

The onlookers burst into laughter. The young lords were furious and declared in unison: “We are not afraid!”

Xie Yuzhang flicked her sleeve and said with ease: “In that case, Yongning eagerly awaits, and looks forward to seeing the young lords shine brilliantly next year.”

This incident quickly spread throughout Yunjing. When Prime Minister Mo learned of it, he smiled faintly and took up his brush to compose a rhapsody titled “Rhapsody on a Beauty.”

The ancients long said: one can paint a beauty’s skin but not her soul. Yet I have seen a beauty whose beauty lies not in her skin, nor in her bones, but in her spirit.

When the realm needed her, she did not retreat — she went to wed beyond the frontier, offering her very person in service to her country.

When her people needed her, she did not retreat — she understood farming and could ride and shoot.

When her nation’s capital fell, she did not retreat — her heart was bound to the people of the Central Plains, and she sacrificed herself, marrying again in accordance with the customs of the northern peoples.

The day this beauty returned, the whole city turned out to watch. They all said she was beautiful, yet none of them knew precisely where her beauty lay. I write this piece to tell the puzzled people: this beauty’s beauty lies in her spirit.

Her spirit is noble and precious. She was born a princess; she returned as a princess still.

This beautiful princess endured suffering, yet returned still full of vitality, still like a young woman who appreciates an upstanding and distinguished gentleman.

Yet the gentlemen have disappointed her. These lords who were born with brush in hand and ink fragrance in the air — they actually cowered, too afraid to compare their fine literary talents with the sons of common families.

What a pity it is. With such a beauty in the world, there is no equally brilliant gentleman to match her. This old man, who has seen all the joys and sorrows the world has to offer, cannot help but lament with regret.

This rhapsody quickly spread among the people. When people of that era wrote rhapsodies, they favored the elaborately parallel style. For someone like Li Gu, a man of the sword, attendant readers at his side would render it into such plain language and read it to him.

Li Gu looked past the ornate phrasing and extraordinary literary talent, going straight to the core of this rhapsody.

Prime Minister Mo had used the rhapsody on a beauty as a vehicle to mock the aristocratic scions for their cowardice in battle. Yet this rhapsody had also, genuinely and sincerely, celebrated the beauty.

That beauty of noble spirit — she was henceforth imprinted deep in the hearts of the people.

The Emperor smiled faintly.

In the twelfth month, Lin Fei gave birth to a son who took the Lin surname.

Lin Zi planned to wait until the child was five years old and had become established, then formally adopt him out to Lin’s eldest brother. At that time, he would also search among relatives and branch families for another child to adopt for Lin’s second brother. That way, both elder brothers would have lineage to continue their ancestral offerings.

Lin Fei would remain outside for two more years, after which she would be said to have “recovered from her illness” and return to Yunjing.

These arrangements were all planned and settled, and Xie Yuzhang was informed.

Lin Fei had given birth to a son. Xie Yuzhang reported this to Li Gu, saying: “This child bears the Lin surname. His maternal uncle will henceforth also be his paternal uncle, and will personally guide him. He was born a son of the Lin clan of Jiangdong.”

Li Gu said: “In my life, I have killed so many people and wiped out more than a few entire households. Those whose families I destroyed — never was it truly the case that not a single soul survived. Every family has blood that lives on somewhere in the world. They naturally hate me and fear me. As long as they have the ability, they are free to come and kill me in revenge. There is nothing to fear — no need to worry.”

Xie Yuzhang’s heart was put at ease.

With the minor New Year approaching, Xie Yuzhang began preparations for the holiday. Gift exchanges were needed for all the households of the Xie Family village, the various female cousins of the Yang Family, the Yang Chamberlain’s mansion, the Earl of Guangping, and the various families they regularly associated with.

On this particular day, just as she was looking over the gift register, Yuan Yu came to report: “Your Highness, His Majesty has dismissed court today, and the palace gates are sealed.”

Xie Yuzhang froze.