Li Zhenzhen hurried to the main hall.

The main hall was lit with candles as thick as a man’s forearm. Li Gu stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his long shadow stretching across the floor.

Li Zhenzhen hesitated for a moment, and in a haze recalled the last time she had been alone with Li Gu like this in the night — it was when the chaos in Hexi had come to an end, and he had come to announce her fate to her. Was he here now to announce her fate again?

Li Gu heard the sound of footsteps and turned around. He looked at her and called: “Elder Sister.”

Though he still called her Elder Sister, Li Zhenzhen sensed keenly that something about Li Gu had changed. This change made her feel uneasy within.

“Shiyi!” Li Zhenzhen stepped forward quickly. “It’s my fault! It’s all my fault! My people arrived too late!”

As she said so, she began to weep.

Li Gu studied her for a moment.

“Indeed it is Elder Sister’s fault.” He said. “I entrusted my inner household to Elder Sister, and Elder Sister has disappointed me.”

Li Zhenzhen’s weeping abruptly stopped.

Her lips trembled.

“How is that my fault!” she argued. “How was I supposed to manage it! Each and every one of them is someone you share your pillow with, someone who has borne you children — look at the way you indulged them! I had no legitimate authority!”

Li Gu nodded and said: “Elder Sister is right. When it comes down to it, the blame is still mine.”

His composure frightened Li Zhenzhen.

She wanted to ask Li Gu exactly what he had decided to do with her. These past days she had been somewhat apprehensive, but in her heart she had always felt she should come through unscathed. After all, the ones who had acted were Deng Wan and the others — not her. The fool she had sent had leaped out there for the purpose of saving someone, and had gotten her dragged into the matter instead.

Most importantly, she was Li Ming’s daughter! Li Gu could never bring himself to strike heavily against Li Ming’s daughter!

But now her inner unease began to swell, and she was not so confident as before.

“Elder Sister.” Li Gu spoke first. “The Deng woman is dead.”

Li Zhenzhen’s eyes flew wide open. Fear rose unbidden from the depths of her heart.

“She… she laid hands on Little Azure…” She forced herself to say. “She, she deserved to die.”

“Yes. I think so too.” Li Gu said. “She deserved to die.”

“Then…” Li Zhenzhen did not dare ask about herself, so she asked about others first. “The others?”

“They will live.” Li Gu said. “My children cannot be without their mothers.”

Li Zhenzhen let out a breath of relief.

But Li Gu continued: “Elder Sister, drink this cup with me.”

He stepped aside, and only then did Li Zhenzhen see the offering table — on it sat a tray, the tray holding two wine cups and two wine vessels.

Two!

Li Zhenzhen’s color changed dramatically.

Of course — he said his children could not be without their mothers. But she — she was not the mother of any of his children!

Li Gu filled one cup with wine, set down the vessel, then used the other vessel to fill the second cup as well.

He held one of the filled cups out before Li Zhenzhen.

Li Zhenzhen stepped back in horror: “You! Shiyi, you cannot treat me this way!”

Li Gu said: “Why can I not?”

“Li Shiyi!” Li Zhenzhen cried out. “I am my father’s only flesh and blood left!”

“There is still Little Niuwa.” Li Gu said. “Next year she will be sixteen. I will establish a household for her and choose her a fine husband. The children she bears will carry the Li surname — my adoptive father’s line will have an heir to continue it.”

“Li Shiyi! You cannot treat me like this! This is all your own fault!” Li Zhenzhen was hysterical. “It was you who refused to establish an Empress! It was you who doted excessively on the First Imperial Prince! It was you who favored that childless Deng the Fifth!”

“Yes.” Li Gu said. “I was wrong, and so Little Azure is gone. The Deng woman was wrong, and so she died. Elder Sister was also wrong — equally, she must bear the price of her mistake.”

“I entrusted my inner household to you, and what did you do? You watched from the riverbank. You observed from the high platform.”

“Elder Sister, I know you wanted to become Empress.”

“But this Empress’s ceremonial robes,” Li Gu fixed his gaze on her, “are something you — cannot fill.”

Tears streamed down Li Zhenzhen’s face.

“I originally intended — I originally intended to manage your inner household well.” She wept. “I wanted to be someone who could let you sleep with peace of mind. But… you don’t know how hard it is to endure within those high walls. This isn’t an ordinary inner household — this is the rear palace. I don’t even have the freedom to step outside the palace for a walk down the street. Day by day, I could only drag through it inside the palace… watching the brothers from Hexi, day by day, forget more and more about my father and me…”

Li Gu raised that cup of wine: “Elder Sister, drink this cup. Our bond as brother and sister ends here.”

Li Zhenzhen wiped her face with her sleeve and said: “You take good care of Little Niuwa!”

Li Gu said: “I will.”

Li Zhenzhen said: “Swear it!”

Li Gu said: “I will care well for Little Niuwa, and ensure that my adoptive father’s line has an heir to continue it. If I break this oath, may I lose my head, and may my dynasty be lost.”

Li Zhenzhen then accepted that cup of wine. Her hand trembled for a long while before she finally tilted it back and drained it in one go.

The medicine took effect quickly. Li Zhenzhen felt the world spinning around her and collapsed to the ground.

She saw Li Gu walk back to the offering table, pick up the other cup, and also drain it in a single gulp.

She saw the attendants enter. She heard Li Gu tell them to bring another quilt — to make sure she did not get cold.

A person is about to die — what does it matter whether they get cold? Li Zhenzhen was puzzled. She closed her eyes in puzzlement.

……

……

She opened her eyes to a completely unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar serving women.

Li Zhenzhen was bewildered.

Seeing that she had woken, a serving woman stepped out quickly. Very shortly, a man entered — none other than the Marquis of Beirong, Li Weifeng.

“Seventh Brother!” Li Zhenzhen called out. “You — why are you here? Where is this? Why — why am I not dead?”

Li Weifeng’s expression was complex. After a long while, he said: “Elder Sister, this is my estate in the countryside.”

“You will live here from now on.” He said. “From now on, you are a cousin from the old hometown who has come to seek refuge with me.”

“The few performers you were fond of — Shiyi had them all sent over with you.”

“You want to go out for a walk, you want to come into the city for a stroll — all fine. Just wear a veil hat when you do, and don’t let people recognize you.”

“Only from now on, you are just yourself. The Noble Consort Li in the palace died suddenly in the night. That person no longer exists in the world.”

Li Weifeng finished speaking and sighed, then said: “Elder Sister, don’t be afraid — you still have me.”

So Li Shiyi Lang had severed the bond of siblings with her and driven her out of the palace. It turned out that what he had meant by “our bond ends here” was that from this point forward he would no longer shelter her — not that he was asking her to die…

If anything, it was Li Da Lang who truly shared blood kinship with her as clan brother and sister. Yet Li Gu, who had expelled her from the palace, had entrusted her to Li Weifeng, the one he trusted most.

Li Zhenzhen prostrated herself on the floor and wept.

The next day, the Princess of Hexi came to the estate to see her, tears streaming down her face: “What did Mother do? Did you have a hand in Little Azure’s death? Uncle said that from now on, that person no longer exists in the world.”

Li Zhenzhen also wept, and told her daughter: “You obey your uncle well. If you are wronged, tell him — he took an oath and will look after you well. As long as you are obedient, that is enough. You must absolutely not harbor resentment toward your uncle.”

The Princess of Hexi said: “Why would I harbor resentment toward Uncle. I have no father and no paternal family. Even my maternal grandfather is gone. Without Uncle, who knows what kind of state the two of us would be living in.”

Her daughter, still so young, had always been far clearer-headed than she was.

Li Zhenzhen was overcome with remorse.

But time could never flow backward, and no one could return to the past.

No one could go back anymore.

Deng Wan died on the eve of the minor New Year. That night, Li Gu rushed back to the palace, and the next day was the minor New Year. All government offices suspended work and ceased operations.

At midday, the palace sent out news. Deng Wan’s death was something Xie Yuzhang had known about. But Li Zhenzhen’s death came as a considerable shock to her.

The palace sent out only these two announcements of death. All other matters were affairs of the inner chambers and were not publicly disclosed. Xie Yuzhang, just like everyone else, knew nothing. Her aunt by marriage, Lady Yang, even made a special trip to her residence to try to get information.

“They say it coincided with the New Year holiday and they did it so as not to dampen the people’s festive spirit — that both consorts would be buried that very day. How can that be? Even the greatest holiday cannot outrank proper state rites, can it?” Lady Yang said. “Not even an auspicious date was chosen. They didn’t call the court ladies to come and perform the funeral rites. Not even the slightest face was given to the two consorts.”

The First Imperial Prince had not yet come of age, so the full court and common people were not required to observe mourning on his behalf.

But the funeral rites for someone of Li Zhenzhen’s status as an inner court noblewoman should have followed extensive protocols — even Xie Yuzhang herself should have gone into the inner palace to weep at the funeral and offer proper ritual offerings.

Now none of that was happening.

Lady Yang told Xie Yuzhang: “The inner palace situation is unknown right now. The New Year’s Eve banquet is still going ahead as planned, but it is said that the ladies and their families need not enter the palace.”

“Zhuzhu.” Lady Yang lowered her voice. “What on earth possessed the Noble Consort and the Consort Deng to bring this madness upon themselves — actually causing the death of the First Imperial Prince?”

Although on the surface it was said that the First Imperial Prince had died by accident, the ladies of the various palaces had been locked away for days, and among the Yunjing nobility, people had long been whispering privately. With the sudden deaths of both the Noble Consort and Consort Deng the previous night, people immediately assumed the two of them had been the culprits.

Xie Yuzhang was silent for a long while, then said: “The First Imperial Prince died by accident. There are no culprits.”

Lady Yang said with reproach: “Come now — you and I, surely there is nothing I can’t say to you? It’s not as though I’m going to go around telling everyone.”

Xie Yuzhang gave a wry smile.

For the next several days, no further news came from the palace. Anyone from any of the six palaces who presented her token was refused entry. The relatives of the various consorts and ladies, unable to see their family members inside or get any word through, were understandably anxious.

Xie Yuzhang also did not see Li Gu for a long time.

The next time she saw Li Gu was on the morning of New Year’s Eve.

Xie Yuzhang woke naturally at her usual hour, but found that the serving women did not file in one by one as they normally did, each attending to their duties and serving her as she dressed and freshened up.

Somewhat puzzled, she sat up and called out.

Unexpectedly, from the side room outside, Li Gu’s voice responded: “They are outside. Do you want to call them in?”

Xie Yuzhang received a great shock. She quickly got up, draped a robe over herself, and pushed open the latticed screens to come out.

In the side room, the daybed was normally where the attending serving women slept. Now the daybed had bedding and pillows on it, and one person had just sat up — wearing only a middle layer of trousers, bare-chested above the waist, his chest solid and powerful, his waist lean and strong. It was Li Gu.

Li Gu saw that her pair of slender feet were bare of stockings, feet pale as snow trodden upon the floor. He frowned, crossed over to her, scooped her up with one arm, and carried her sideways to the daybed, then pressed the quilt over her feet.

The quilt inside was warm and heated — the warmth had not yet dissipated.

Xie Yuzhang said: “When did Your Majesty arrive?”

Li Gu picked up his inner robe and pulled it over his head: “Last night.”

Xie Yuzhang wanted to speak, but Li Gu said: “You were already asleep. I told them not to disturb you.”

Xie Yuzhang moved her toes, tucking them further in. It was warmer deeper inside. She asked: “Your Majesty slept here?”

Li Gu did not answer, but turned to look at Xie Yuzhang, and frowned.

He asked: “Why are you calling me ‘Your Majesty’?”

Xie Yuzhang was startled.

Li Gu turned fully to face her and said: “Yuzhang, you have been calling me ‘Your Majesty’ this whole time.”

Xie Yuzhang was wearing only a single outer robe thrown over her. Li Gu’s inner garment had not yet been closed at the collar, still exposing his chest. In such a casual and unstudied situation, Xie Yuzhang had nonetheless been calling him “Your Majesty” throughout. And she was someone who, when she lost her temper, dared to send him out the door. When the two of them were alone together, it was frequently “you” and “I” between them — never “Your Majesty.”

Xie Yuzhang found herself unable to respond.

Her shifting between “Your Majesty” and “you” was entirely dependent on the context and the topic. The switching required no thought — it was instinct, the instant she opened her mouth.

Just now, when she had seen him, the word that had come out of her mouth was “Your Majesty.”