The chieftains of the three clans led a grand and sweeping delegation into the capital, presenting tribute and paying obeisance to the Emperor of the new dynasty. Alongside the three clans came the envoys of the Kingdom of Changsha.

The Emperor held an elaborate reception ceremony for the three-clan delegation and the Changsha envoys and bestowed rewards upon each. Among these, Yuan Handing’s rewards drew particular attention.

He was granted the title of Grand General Who Pacifies the South, Duke of the First Rank, with a hereditary fief exempt from forfeiture across generations. Beyond this, several days later, on the eve of the delegation members’ departure from the capital after concluding their audience, a eunuch arrived at the guest residence with a summons for Yuan Handing to enter the palace.

To receive such profound imperial favor from the Emperor on the very eve of his departure — Yuan Handing, beneath the gaze of countless envious eyes, left the guest residence and followed the eunuch into the palace. He walked through tier upon tier of great halls blanketed in the night’s darkness, passed through a tranquil courtyard, and followed the guidance of palace lamps until he arrived at last before a building at the far end of the courtyard.

The eunuch stopped, bowed respectfully, and said: “Please, Grand General, enter and wait inside.”

Yuan Handing looked ahead and saw that above the center of the hall’s entrance hung a plaque bearing three characters: “Hall of Serene Heart.”

He gave a nod and stepped inside.

The hall’s interior was brightly lit with lanterns, its beams painted and its blinds lacquered red. On the south wall hung several works of calligraphy and painting. Through the half-open lattice windows, the night breeze drifted in steadily, carrying with it the faint, heart-clearing fragrance of flowering trees. The surroundings were elegant and refined — this was not the imperial study he had imagined upon arriving. By the look of it, this place suited its plaque’s inscription perfectly, feeling more like a private pavilion for intimate gatherings between friends.

Yuan Handing quieted his breath and stood in the center of the hall, waiting in stillness for a long while. The Emperor did not come. Unease began to stir slowly within him.

He went to the doorway and glanced outside, only to find that the eunuch who had escorted him here had also vanished without a trace, having slipped away at some point. The night was hushed and dim; aside from himself, not a single soul was visible in any direction.

Yuan Handing hesitated, caught between advancing and retreating, and was about to call out for someone when he suddenly heard from the corridor he had walked through on the opposite side — the faint, soft sound of footsteps.

He looked up, and through the dimness he could make out what seemed to be a woman with her personal attendant walking in this direction. The attendant carried a palace lantern in her hand; as they drew nearer, the light brightened and illuminated the figures.

Yuan Handing finally recognized them — this palace maid was Danzhu, and the woman walking toward him was Mu Fulan.

This was the first time the two had met since she had left the Kingdom of Changsha.

He was greatly surprised. He had expected to wait for the Emperor but instead she had come — then, thinking it through, understanding dawned.

From the very first words out of the eunuch’s mouth upon arriving at the guest residence, no mention had been made of a summons from the Emperor. That had been his own assumption.

So it was not the Emperor who wished to see him — it was she who had summoned him into the palace.

Though somewhat surprised, the knowledge that he would be able to see her before leaving the capital still filled him with quiet delight.

He immediately stepped over the threshold and moved to meet the woman walking toward him, then knelt on the corridor stones and pressed his forehead to the ground in respectful greeting.

When Mu Fulan saw him, a flicker of surprise crossed her eyes and she stood still for a moment, but soon a smile appeared on her face, and she stepped forward and bid him rise.

She entered the hall. Yuan Handing followed her in, then stopped at the entrance to the hall and said with respectful courtesy: “On this visit to the capital, this subject has not only received great imperial favor — exceptional rewards bestowed far beyond the usual measure — but during the day was also granted an audience with the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince treated this subject with the utmost courtesy and conveyed to him the Empress’s greetings and expectations.”

Mu Fulan smiled and said, “A student’s duty to a teacher is like a duty to a parent. The Crown Prince received your instruction in riding and archery in the past, and to revere you is his proper conduct. Elder Brother, please do not stand on ceremony with me.”

Yuan Handing gradually relaxed, a smile breaking onto his face as well.

“This visit to the capital has benefited this subject greatly. On the eve of departure, to be received by the Empress and to express his gratitude in person — this is this subject’s honor. Empress, rest assured — upon returning, this subject will redouble his loyalty and not fail the grace of heaven. If the Empress has summoned this subject here tonight and has further matters to command — please speak freely. This subject will go through fire and water without hesitation!”

Mu Fulan smiled and said, “I have no particular business. Though Xi’er conveyed my greetings to Elder Brother during the day, thinking that Elder Brother departs tomorrow, and I happen to have no commitments this evening, I sought out Elder Brother to bid him farewell. As it is inconvenient for me to leave the palace, I had Elder Brother brought here instead. I wish Elder Brother a smooth journey and an early return home.”

Yuan Handing had assumed her private summons meant there was something delicate she could not say openly, or something she required his help with — but it had only been to bid him farewell. He bowed his head again in gratitude.

Mu Fulan came forward, helped him up herself, and chatted with him a while longer about matters in the Kingdom of Changsha.

Yuan Handing understood that her present station was entirely unlike what it had been when she was the regent princess of Changsha, and he knew it was not fitting for him to linger. After a little more conversation, he took his leave and bowed farewell.

Mu Fulan did not detain him. She walked him to the hall entrance and said, “I have prepared some things for Nanny Mu and A’Ru — I trouble Elder Brother to take them back and ask Nanny Mu to look after A’Ru well. When I have time, I will go back and visit them.”

Yuan Handing agreed to everything. Mu Fulan stood on the steps outside the hall entrance and watched until his figure gradually disappeared at the far end of the palace walkway — then the smile faded from her face.

She turned her gaze toward the stretch of dark sky above where the Hall of Yuanchen lay, stared for a moment without a word, then immediately set her steps toward the Hall of Yuanchen.

The hour was already late, yet the lamps in the imperial study still blazed as bright as daylight. Xie Changgeng sat behind his desk, head bowed over a memorial. The hall was utterly soundless; the attendants on duty in the corners held their breath and kept absolutely still — it was so quiet that even the faint brush of the Emperor’s pen against paper could seemingly be heard.

The eunuch Cao Jin entered, signaled wordlessly to the other attendants with his eyes, and when the hall was left with only himself and the Emperor, walked to his side, bowed, and said quietly: “Your Majesty, this servant has made the arrangements — the Empress has already gone over.”

“Tonight’s matter is entirely discreet. Not a soul outside the matter will know of it.” Cao Jin added carefully.

Xie Changgeng’s gaze remained on the open memorial before him, and he said nothing.

His expression was impassive, as though he had not heard. He finished reading one memorial, closed it, raised his hand to take the next one from the stack on the desk — and when his fingertips touched the edge of the scroll, his hand suddenly stilled. His complexion slowly drained of color, and a moment later, as though he could suppress it no longer, a violent cough burst from him.

The Imperial Physicians had warned that on the day of his injury, His Majesty’s lungs had been damaged. Though the external wound had since healed, the internal injury still required time and careful treatment. In the course of daily life, if the circulation of breath and blood were disrupted, it would provoke an internal cough — something that could not be disregarded.

Cao Jin came forward and rubbed the Emperor’s back. Seeing him cough uncontrollably, his face contorted with pain, until he suddenly bent his head low — and when he slowly straightened again, on the memorial before him there appeared a cluster of vivid crimson blood, striking and alarming.

The eunuch was stunned. When he came back to himself, he opened his mouth to call out for someone to summon the Imperial Physicians — and was stopped.

The Emperor closed the memorial, shut his eyes for a moment, and said: “Bringing the physician would only produce the same result. I know my own condition. Go — simply bring me my medicine.”

Cao Jin’s eyes reddened. He knew the Emperor’s temperament — his word was final. He could only step back.

He retreated to the entrance of the imperial study, turned, opened the door, and was about to step across the threshold — when he gave a start.

Standing outside the door was a woman whose expression carried the unmistakable shadow of suppressed fury.

“Empress!” The eunuch came to his senses, quickly stepped aside, and bowed to her in greeting.

Mu Fulan lifted her skirt hem and stepped into the imperial study. “Out,” she said.

The eunuch turned back quickly. Through layer upon layer of curtains, he could just make out the Emperor still sitting with his head bowed over another memorial, as though nothing had happened, apparently unaware of the movement by the door. He hesitated, then said carefully, “The Empress has come so suddenly…”

“Get out.” Mu Fulan said coldly, and stepped forward.

The Empress was gentle in nature and generous in virtue, lenient with those in her service — such as she was at this moment was something none had ever witnessed before.

The eunuch dared not say another word, bowed in assent and withdrew, pulling the door shut behind him.

Mu Fulan walked straight in, came before the Emperor, fixed her gaze on the man across from her, and lowering her voice to a restrained edge, said word by word: “Xie Changgeng — what was the meaning of tonight’s performance?”

She waited a moment. The man remained seated upright, head slightly bowed, eyes lowered, the hand holding the brush still moving across the page — as though her words had not reached him at all. She could contain the fury churning within her no longer, stepped forward, and with a swift motion snatched the memorial he had been annotating right out from under him.

His wrist gave a slight tremor. The tip of the brush dragged sideways across the page, leaving a long streak of ink.

“Your Majesty the Emperor — pray tell, was the purpose of this to test loyalty and treachery — or to catch a pair of conspirators in the act?”

She threw down the memorial — whose author she could not have said — and said with a cold laugh.

Xie Changgeng slowly set the vermillion brush across the brush rest, raised his eyes, and looked at her. His lips moved, as though he wished to speak — yet could not find the words.

Mu Fulan’s mind replayed the events of the evening: Cao Jin had come with a message, inviting her to proceed to the Hall of Serene Heart, saying the Emperor had summoned her there. She had not understood why, but she went nonetheless.

She could never have imagined that the person she would find waiting there was Yuan Handing.

What infuriated her even more was that Yuan Handing had clearly also been kept in the dark, believing it was she who had privately summoned him into the palace.

She had not felt anger like this in a very long time — so fierce that on the walk here, her hands clenched into fists she could not stop from shaking.

Seeing him like this, she had no desire to hear what he might say. She continued: “Your Majesty the Emperor, I have always regarded you as a man of wisdom, but now I find I must doubt it. An act this ridiculous and foolish serves only to humiliate me, to humiliate Elder Brother Yuan — and to humiliate Your Majesty yourself.”

“This is the second time!”

She finished speaking and turned to leave, her hand already on the door — when from behind came a quiet, measured voice.

“I thought there were things you and he would want to say to one another…”

She stopped. She turned her face.

He still sat as before, looking at her. His complexion was somewhat pale, but compared to a moment ago, he appeared far calmer, and his voice was very steady.

“Do you remember what I once said to you — that I would not interfere in any of your affairs.”

He said. Before his eyes seemed to rise the image of that night — her face lighting up with unguarded, radiant joy the moment she heard Yuan Handing’s name.

“Yuan Handing traveled thousands of miles to come here. I thought you must want to see him, but perhaps for the sake of appearances, you had held back from doing so. If he left like this, and the next time you two met was unknown, it seemed a pity.”

He paused for a moment.

“You came to the capital not of your own wish. Whether you believe it or not — I truly hope that while you are here, you may live as comfortably as possible. That was why I made such an arrangement. If it was presumptuous, it is also a failure of my consideration. I ask for your forgiveness.”

Mu Fulan was taken aback.

She looked at the man before her.

He was unmistakably Xie Changgeng — the man she could not escape across two lifetimes, familiar to her as the other half of her own being — and yet in this moment, or perhaps since some point she could not identify, it was as though he had changed, and no longer resembled the man she had known.

That feeling had, in truth, long been creeping up on her. It was just that it had always been hazy and indistinct before — never as clear and sharp as it was at this very moment.

The anger in her heart gradually dissipated, replaced by a vague, inexpressible bewilderment — a disorientation even she could not put into words.

She looked at this man, stood silent for a moment, then said slowly: “Xie Changgeng, I am grateful that you have thought so carefully on my behalf — but you truly do not know me, Mu Fulan, in the slightest.”

“I tell you this: if the day ever comes when I wish it, I will not need your arrangements. I know myself what to do.”