After Mu Fulan went inside, she exchanged a few words with Nanny Mu, who had come to receive her, then returned to her room.

The maidservants, knowing her habit of changing clothes after coming in from outside, needed no instruction — they quickly brought out the everyday set she usually wore around the house.

Mu Fulan stepped behind the screen beside the bed, and with the maidservants’ help, removed her outer robe. Beneath it she wore only her undergarment — a soft madder-dyed fitted garment of close-woven fabric that wrapped snugly around her figure, leaving only an expanse of pale white back and both arms bare. Below, she wore a single white skirt. Her silhouette from behind was slender and graceful, her waist willowy and fine, small enough to cup in one’s hands.

Her mind was wandering somewhat. She lowered her head, tilting a fair and smooth stretch of neck downward, her thoughts drifting as she lifted her arms to thread them into the sleeves.

Her arms had barely slipped inside when the room door was suddenly pushed open by someone.

She turned her head and saw Xie Changgeng stride straight in.

He had apparently not expected her to be in the middle of changing. The instant his gaze fell upon her, his footsteps faltered and he stopped short at the edge of the screen.

The maidservants quickly turned to bow to him.

He neither stepped further inside nor retreated back out — he simply stood there and ordered everyone else to leave.

Seeing his expression unpleasant, the maidservants glanced at Mu Fulan. Finding no objection from her, they curtsied and withdrew.

Mu Fulan came back to her senses. She turned her face away again, still with her back to him, and finished putting on her garment herself, drawing the front closed and tying the sash.

He was doing his utmost to contain his emotions, yet his face was stiff, his eyes dark and cold, something deep and unsettled roiling beneath the surface.

She knew Xie Changgeng far too well. Others might not notice this look of his, but she could see it at a glance.

He was very angry right now.

Something must have gone wrong — something that involved her.

With her back still turned to him, she rapidly ran through her mind all the things that might have provoked such fury.

Had the matter of her meeting with Zhang Ban that day been discovered?

Or had he found out about Xi’er — the child who had called her A’Niang?

If it were either of those two things, it was indeed possible they might have stirred this kind of rage in him.

But she quickly dismissed the thought.

Both matters she had handled with extreme care. Even if there had been a slip somewhere, there was simply no way he could have caught wind of it so quickly.

Then if it was neither — what else could have happened?

Her slender fingers finished tying the sash. She slowly turned around to face him.

They stood facing each other, only a few paces apart.

She quietly raised her eyes and stole a glance at him, just about to probe with a question, when Xie Changgeng across from her spoke first, each word deliberate and precise: “Consort Mu — you wish to dissolve this marriage? Then I shall grant your wish.”

“I will write you a letter of release right now, so I need not stand in the way of your happiness with your beloved. In broad daylight, before all eyes — you dare to carry on like this openly!”

He finished speaking and hurled at her, like a blow aimed squarely at her head, a piece of paper that looked like a letter. Then he turned and walked out, his figure and footsteps swiftly disappearing.

The paper fluttered down to the ground at her feet.

Mu Fulan was taken aback. She bent down and picked it up.

It was indeed a letter — addressed to her. It bore no signature, but a single glance at the contents made it clear it had come from Zhao Xitai, the heir apparent of Prince Qi’s household.

Zhao Xitai wrote that yesterday at the Protection of the Nation Temple, he had been able to see her again. After returning, with memories of the past flooding back, his heart had been turbulent and he had tossed and turned through the night unable to sleep. That very night, he had happened to overhear a conversation between his father, Prince Qi, and his advisors — learning that the Empress Dowager only intended to leave Changsha Kingdom alone for now, and would certainly move against it in the future. He had therefore gone out of his way to send her this letter, urging her to be sure to remind her royal brother to take precautions.

He said he was deeply worried about her current situation. Xie Changgeng was a man of bandit origins, low-born and utterly without honor, who now served as the Empress Dowager’s instrument of killing. Such a petty man risen to power would sooner or later discard her like a worn-out shoe — he was not someone to be relied upon.

Zhao Xitai ended by saying that in the future, if she encountered any difficulty, she must be sure to let him know. Whatever the matter might be, he would devote every last effort to help her.

Mu Fulan finished reading the letter. After a brief moment’s thought, she understood.

The man who had suddenly appeared just now, claiming to be delivering a letter from the consort of Prince Qi, had in fact been sent by Zhao Xitai.

A letter of such content — before sending it, Zhao Xitai must have instructed three times over that it was to be kept well away from Xie Changgeng and delivered directly into her hands.

No wonder the man, the moment he spotted Xie Changgeng returning, had not even dared to produce the letter and fled immediately.

Mu Fulan did not pause to think about how the letter had ultimately ended up in Xie Changgeng’s hands.

She stood holding the letter, lost in thought.

Though she now had Zhang Ban as a supporter, if she were being honest, she had no complete certainty that this time’s situation could be resolved as smoothly as the previous Changsha Kingdom crisis had been — by using Zhang Ban’s influence.

This time was different from the last. There was an added variable in the middle: Xie Changgeng.

He was her husband. If the Empress Dowager wished to detain her as a hostage, whatever her considerations might be, she would inevitably bring the matter before him and require him to take a position.

For her, this matter was one of safety — even life and death. But for Xie Changgeng, it was neither here nor there, with no direct bearing on his own interests in the slightest.

By instinct, Mu Fulan felt certain that Cao Jin was one of Xie Changgeng’s people. With such a pair of eyes and ears inside the palace, if Zhang Ban spoke on her behalf, it would almost certainly not escape Xie Changgeng’s notice. If he chose to turn a blind eye, Zhang Ban should be able to manage the matter, and she could slip away without trouble.

But if he bore some resentment toward her — or even outright hatred — and deliberately sabotaged the effort, then even with Zhang Ban interceding on her behalf, it would likely come to nothing.

Since a few days ago, even as she was thinking of how to make use of Zhang Ban, she had also been considering how to resolve this other variable as well.

She did not expect Xie Changgeng to speak on her behalf before the Empress Dowager. She only needed him not to obstruct Zhang Ban when he worked to resolve the matter on her behalf.

In those early days after her return, driven by her overwhelming grief and hatred, all she had wanted was to break free of him as quickly and completely as possible, and never lay eyes on him again in this lifetime.

But as circumstances continued to shift and change, she had gradually begun to realize something. Given the nature of her relationship with him, and taking into account his current standing and the state of Changsha Kingdom, many of the things she wished to do could not, in reality, completely bypass him.

Pure hostility and wishful thinking about never seeing him again for the rest of her life would not solve the problems she faced.

She needed to rebuild her relationship with him.

This was something she found deeply against her will. But she had to face it — and accept it.

Just that day, on the way back after meeting Zhang Ban, she had still been thinking about how to break through the deadlock between them. She had not expected that something like this would happen.

It appeared rather grim — trouble piled on top of trouble. His discontent with her, because of this letter, had likely reached its peak. He had just now even said words agreeing to dissolve their marriage.

But looked at from the other side — was this not also a perfectly good opportunity?

Mu Fulan thought for a moment, then quickly made up her mind.

She had promised Xi’er, who had only just found his way back to her, that she would return to be with him as soon as possible.

She could not be detained here.

It had been many years now — since he had killed a man in anger at fourteen, taking a reckless, desperate gamble — that Xie Changgeng had never again allowed his emotions to spiral so completely out of control.

It was not that he cared about what the letter said of him. Had he cared about such things, he would never have climbed to the position he held today.

What enraged him was the fierce hostility the woman of the Mu family directed at him, and her repeated betrayals and humiliations.

The past could be set aside — that had been a marriage contracted out of mutual interest. She had married him against her own will, following her father’s command, and having been attached to someone else before the wedding was not so strange.

But now, here in the capital, in broad daylight and before all eyes, she had not the slightest notion of restraint. First the meeting at the Protection of the Nation Temple — and within a single night, she had managed to coax that Zhao Xitai into writing her such a letter, discreet in its wording yet saturated between every line with tender sentiment, brazen and unchecked, to this degree.

Xie Changgeng reached the study and, picking up his brush, wrote out a letter of release without pause.

When the last character was set down, the five fingers gripping the brush tightened in a single surge of force. With a faint crack, the hardwood shaft of the dark ebony brush snapped cleanly in two.

He tossed away the broken brush, rose from his seat and went to the window. He pushed it open and stood there facing outward. After a moment, the expression on his face gradually eased.

He turned back to the desk. Just as he was about to call for someone to send what he had written to her, he heard two soft knocks at the door.

He lifted his eyes. The door was pushed open, and a figure appeared in the doorway.

Consort Mu had actually come of her own accord. She stepped across the threshold and walked toward him.

He pushed the paper in her direction, then moved to leave.

“Xie Changgeng — please stay.”

A voice called out from behind.

He seemed not to hear it.

Mu Fulan went after him.

Xie Changgeng stopped and looked coldly at her as she came to stand before him and block his path. “Consort Mu,” he said, “what you wanted — I have already written it. From this day forward, take care of yourself.”

He lifted his foot to go. His sleeve was caught again by someone’s hand.

He stopped. He looked with some surprise at the hand she had reached out to grasp and hold his sleeve, refusing to let go. Then his expression shifted into one of undisguised disgust.

Mu Fulan released her hold. Without looking at the paper still spread open on the desk, its ink not yet dry, she met his gaze and said: “Will you hear me out first? I am afraid you may have misunderstood. Between me and the heir apparent of Prince Qi — aside from having met briefly as children in the palace — there is nothing between us whatsoever. All these years, I have had absolutely no contact with him. Running into each other yesterday at the Protection of the Nation Temple was purely by chance. It was certainly not a private meeting I had arranged with him. As for that letter just now — I knew nothing of it.”

“This is the capital. Even if I were utterly heedless, having come here, I would not dare do anything so reckless as carrying on with someone in secret. Even setting aside your dignity — would I truly be so careless as to throw away the dignity of Changsha Kingdom as well?”

Xie Changgeng’s expression remained stony and unresponsive. He merely adjusted the sleeve she had just held.

Mu Fulan looked at him and went on softly: “You are about to leave. This morning the Empress Dowager summoned me and asked about my plans going forward. You have never said a word about any of this to me, and in truth, I am frightened…”

Her voice grew quieter and quieter. She slowly lowered her eyes and stood still before him, not moving.

After a long silence, Xie Changgeng finally spoke.

“Consort Mu — was it not you who insisted on dissolving this marriage when I came to Yue City to fetch you? I am now granting your wish. I go to Hexi. You return to your Changsha Kingdom.”

Mu Fulan said, “The Empress Dowager has always regarded our Mu family as a threat. Now that she has brought me to the capital, once you leave, how could she simply let me return so easily? What she asked me this morning was nothing but a test. Others may not see it — but surely you do, Xie Changgeng?”

Xie Changgeng said without expression, “What difficulty is there in that? When I am gone, is there not still the heir apparent of Prince Qi? He will help you.”

“He has no power to do so. No one can help me.”

She shook her head.

“Xie Changgeng — only now do I understand. In this world, the only person who can protect me is you.”

Mu Fulan slowly raised a pair of beautiful eyes and looked steadily at Xie Changgeng across from her, speaking in a quiet voice.