“Lord Shen, you are blocking the way to the door.”

Those words were like a bucket of cold water thrown over his head, jolting Shen Xiao instantly to his senses.

He snapped his head up, looking toward Princess Pingyang where she stood above him.

Li Shu watched his jaw line tighten in an instant. Anger and disappointment flashed across his eyes, but the turbulence was quickly suppressed. Those pitch-dark eyes now merely stared at Li Shu, calm as the night before a torrential storm.

Li Shu raised an eyebrow slightly.

She had expected him to be furious — or resentful, perhaps even to curse her outright.

Was that not how ordinary people were? When you refused to help them, they grew angry, as though she were born a saint, obligated to lend a hand to every person she encountered in distress.

Help them? Laughable — what benefit would she gain from it?

Shen Xiao was truly an exception. He was born for the cut and thrust of the officialdom.

What was she to do? She found herself somewhat reluctant to let him ruin his official career here today.

At that moment, from outside the room, Grand Princess Kangning’s impatience boiled over. She called out once more: “Pingyang, open the door!”

Grand Princess Kangning’s voice, laced with fury, pierced through to the interior of the Golden Jade Pavilion, and in an instant it extinguished whatever inclination Li Shu had entertained — forget it, forget it, she would not help Shen Xiao after all.

If she helped Shen Xiao, she might gain a future capable official — but Shen Xiao had come from a humble background, and by the time he clawed his way to prominence, that would be thirty to fifty years from now. Yet the price she would pay was an outright and total offence to Grand Princess Kangning.

True, the Grand Princess rarely meddled in court affairs, so offending her might not matter much. Still, when navigating the court, it was best to tread carefully at every step, and to make as few enemies as possible. What was more, although Grand Princess Kangning had no voice in court matters, she was after all the Emperor’s one and only full-blooded younger sister, pampered for years, and that indulgence had carved into her bones a willful and wanton nature. If Li Shu truly clashed with her head-on, she feared the Grand Princess would despise her from this day forward.

It was not worth offending Grand Princess Kangning over a mere official of the eighth rank.

Two ends of the scale: on one side, giving offence to Grand Princess Kangning; on the other, destroying the career of the newly crowned top scholar.

Li Shu weighed the matter in her heart for no more than a moment, then made her decision.

She believed only in shrewd calculation. She had always held contempt for sentiment — that feeble, weak-willed emotion.

“Lord Shen, step aside. Please rise.”

Li Shu raised her hand and gestured for Shen Xiao to stand.

Shen Xiao knelt on the ground, his head tilted back to look at her. The unnatural flush that had colored his face had faded. His left arm had been bleeding steadily; now his complexion had turned pallid, which only made those eyes of his — dark as the deepest night — all the more striking. Slowly he straightened his spine, fixed his gaze unwaveringly on Li Shu, then rose to his feet and stepped aside of his own accord, making way by the door.

He smoothed the disarray from his robes, then stood quietly in place, perfectly upright.

Fresh blood, seeping from his left sleeve, had dyed the dark cerulean fabric crimson. It fell in drops, one after another, onto the dense weave of the carpet — like water dripping through a clepsydra, counting down the moments before a fate utterly and completely lost.

Outside the Golden Jade Pavilion, Grand Princess Kangning had waited in vain for a response, and her impatience surged higher still.

Her expression dark and grave, she turned to the captain of the guards and said, “Break the door down.”

The captain of the guards started. “This… this is…”

This was Princess Pingyang’s private box — how could they simply ram the door?

Grand Princess Kangning shot him a withering glare. “I said, break it down!”

Who knew whether Pingyang was on her side or not?

Grand Princess Kangning was the youngest daughter of the late Emperor and the one and only full-blooded younger sister of the current sovereign. While the late Emperor still lived, the favor she received had been no less — if anything more — than what Princess Anle enjoyed today, and she had strutted through Chang’an as she pleased.

Even now, as power had shifted to a new generation and her circumstances were no longer what they once had been, the arrogant and domineering disposition she had cultivated in her early years was carved deep in her very bones.

Anyone who truly provoked her displeasure — even if she did not kill them — would be flayed alive.

The captain of the guards steeled himself, raised his hand, and ordered two guards under his command to ram the door.

Just as they were about to strike, the door of the Golden Jade Pavilion suddenly swung open from the inside.

Princess Pingyang was dressed all in plain garments today. There was nothing imposing about her appearance, and yet every single guard outside the door instinctively bowed their heads.

“I pay my respects to Grand Princess Kangning.”

Li Shu offered Grand Princess Kangning a faint smile. “Might I ask what the Grand Princess has misplaced, that she comes with such a great show of force to search my private box?”

Li Shu had no intention of helping Shen Xiao — but neither did she welcome Grand Princess Kangning conducting herself in this willful, wanton manner.

Ramming her door? Did the Grand Princess truly think she, Li Shu, was still the neglected, low-born daughter she had been in years past?

Grand Princess Kangning caught sight of Shen Xiao standing in the shadowed fringe of the lamplight. The anger on her face softened somewhat, and she explained to Li Shu: “I lost a hair pin from my headpiece, so I wished to come inside Pingyang’s box to look for it.”

The moment those words left her lips, the silent figure of Shen Xiao standing to the side seemed to sway slightly.

The hair pin clutched tight in his hand felt as though it weighed a thousand pounds, pressing down on his clenched fist. What had moments ago been his weapon of self-defense had now, in the blink of an eye, transformed into the very instrument that would condemn him to death.

Grand Princess Kangning was no fool — there was no way she would say outright that she had tried to coerce Shen Xiao, that Shen Xiao had refused, and that his refusal had displeased her. Even if everyone in all of Chang’an knew the Grand Princess for her dissolute ways, what was said beneath the surface could never be brought out into open daylight.

No matter whether nobility, aristocrats, or imperial kin — regardless of how corrupt they might be in private — on the surface, a fine and dazzling veil of respectability always had to be maintained.

Grand Princess Kangning stepped forward and, with a cold, sweeping glance at Shen Xiao, said icily: “A hair pin lost is just lost — I could not care less about the thing itself. It is the theft that is the grievous crime. The top scholar chosen with such painstaking effort by His Majesty — and yet the man turns out to have such a blot upon his character. A person of this sort, how could he serve as an official at court?”

“Would you not agree, Pingyang?”

The Grand Princess turned to Li Shu with the question.

Li Shu said nothing. Her gaze fell on Shen Xiao.

He was still standing straight and tall, bearing himself with composed dignity — except that now his long lashes had dropped low, veiling the expression in his eyes, making it impossible to read what he was thinking.

Li Shu let out a quiet sigh in her heart.

Grand Princess Kangning’s excuse was flawless. Shen Xiao was holding the “stolen goods” in his hand — he had been caught red-handed. There was no escaping this catastrophe.

Li Shu withdrew her gaze from Shen Xiao and looked toward Grand Princess Kangning instead. “What the Grand Princess says is right.”

The matter was settled. Grand Princess Kangning smiled.

“What occasion is this today? Why is Xiankelai so lively?”

The voice of Second Prince Li Yan suddenly rang out.

He came ascending the staircase, trailed by several court officials dressed in everyday clothing and a long retinue of guards — an imposing procession, a true picture of courtiers surrounding a prince.

A prince going out was a grander affair than a princess, and no less.

Li Yan climbed the steps and took in the entire scene before him at a glance, including the figure of Shen Xiao standing to the side.

Shen Xiao. Of humble birth. Shen Xiao, who on his very first day as an official had dared to impeach Princess Pingyang.

Li Yan smiled, offered Grand Princess Kangning a bow of greeting, and said: “My respects to Imperial Aunt.” Then, smiling, he turned to Li Shu: “Little sister Pingyang is here as well.”

He had spent years training in martial arts, and his complexion was darker for it; when he smiled, he appeared thoroughly open and good-natured. He smiled and exchanged pleasantries with Li Shu as though, only days ago, he had not been grinding his teeth outside Princess Pingyang’s mansion gates.

Then Li Yan’s gaze shifted and came to rest on Shen Xiao, who stood silently in the corner.

“Oh — Lord Shen is here too. This evening I had intended to invite you for a drink, yet I searched everywhere and could not find you.”

A brief silence fell over the scene.

A mere eighth-rank official of common birth, who had set foot in the officialdom for less than half a month — and yet Shen Xiao was apparently on close terms with the Second Prince of the realm.

Grand Princess Kangning’s eyes betrayed her surprise; Li Shu was even more astonished. But the person most astonished of all was Shen Xiao himself.

He raised his eyes and cast the Second Prince a quick glance — and received a smile in return.

Seeing that no one spoke, Li Yan appeared to notice for the first time the guards who ringed the Golden Jade Pavilion in a menacing formation. He turned to Grand Princess Kangning: “Imperial Aunt, what has happened? Why are your people surrounding Pingyang’s box?”

Grand Princess Kangning looked at the Second Prince, then looked at Shen Xiao. She had had no idea when Shen Xiao had managed to attach himself to the Second Prince. But regardless of whose coattails one had latched onto, there was still no one at court she did not dare offend.

The Grand Princess said coldly: “Nothing of any great importance — nothing more than a lost hair pin.”

She lifted her chin and pointed toward Shen Xiao. “Who would have thought that the hair pin had turned up in Lord Shen’s hands? In his attempt to escape punishment, Lord Shen had taken refuge in Pingyang’s box. Worried that Pingyang might come to harm, I promptly ordered the guards to surround the Golden Jade Pavilion.”

The words were high-sounding and perfectly proper. Li Shu let out a cold, inward laugh.

“Ah… so that is what happened,” said Li Yan with a nod, smiling at Li Shu. “Pingyang was not frightened, I hope?”

Li Shu shook her head, and with cool eyes watched Second Prince Li Yan play out his performance.

Whatever was he scheming?

And so Li Yan broke into that open, good-natured smile once more and said to Grand Princess Kangning: “Imperial Aunt has surely misunderstood. Lord Shen and I have been acquainted for some time — he would never do anything like stealing. I would imagine that Imperial Aunt’s hair pin fell somewhere without her noticing, and Lord Shen happened to pick it up.”

Li Yan raised an eyebrow at Shen Xiao. “Is that not so?”

Shen Xiao lifted his gaze, was silent for a moment, then said: “The Second Prince’s name is well-known throughout the realm.”

The corner of his lips curved in a faint smile, as though after days of careful planning he had finally, today, achieved what he had set out to accomplish.

As he replied, Shen Xiao moved his injured left arm behind his back, out of sight.

The Second Prince wished to frame this matter as a “misunderstanding” — then he would play along.

Only then did Grand Princess Kangning perceive Li Yan’s intent. Her expression went cold at once. “Second Brother, what you mean to say is… that I have falsely accused Shen Xiao? Falsely accused a mere eighth-rank official?”

She let out a cold, scornful laugh. “Now that is strange and peculiar indeed — Shen Xiao has been the top scholar for less than half a month, yet you say you have been ‘acquainted for some time’?!”

Li Yan hastened to reply: “It is said, ‘Two strangers may feel they have known each other for a lifetime; old friends may feel like new acquaintances.’ It is true that Lord Shen and I have not been acquainted long, yet by some happy coincidence we simply get along.”

He smiled. “To be candid, Lord Shen’s family was poor. I admired his learning and talent, and genuinely could not bear to see him living in hardship, so I recently sent him a few small gifts to supplement his means. Though those gifts were of no great value, had he wished to sell them to buy gold hairpins and the like — he could have bought quite a few. With such funds at his disposal, why would Lord Shen go to the trouble of stealing? One would have to be out of one’s mind. So I think this matter with the hair pin must simply be a misunderstanding… of some kind.”

Li Yan pressed his palms together toward Grand Princess Kangning in a bow. “Would you not agree, Imperial Aunt?”

Grand Princess Kangning’s expression was black as if she had swallowed a live fly. She glowered at Li Yan with a murderous stare.

Well! The audacity — Second Brother had actually dared to stand against her!

The Grand Princess was silent for a long moment, then finally let out a cold, contemptuous laugh. “If Second Brother says it is a misunderstanding, then a misunderstanding it shall be.”

In recent years, Second Brother had made quite a name for himself at court. Even the Crown Prince could do nothing against him. Since he was determined to protect Shen Xiao, Grand Princess Kangning had no recourse.

But she had filed away this matter in her heart — sooner or later, she would have her revenge.

Grand Princess Kangning stormed off in fury and swept downstairs, with Wu Qing and the other guards hurrying to follow in her wake.

In an instant, the entire retinue had departed and vanished. The corridor outside the Golden Jade Pavilion at last fell open and empty.

Li Yan watched until the Grand Princess’s figure disappeared down the staircase, then turned around — and found Li Shu staring straight at him.

The open, good-natured expression Li Yan had worn moments ago was gone. His face became stern, all business, and he said coldly: “Pingyang, the night is late. You should return to your mansion.”

With that he raised his foot and walked toward his own box. As he passed Li Shu, Li Shu suddenly called out to him.

In a low voice, she said: “Second Brother, what exactly are you scheming today?”

Li Yan looked sidelong at Li Shu, and a cold smirk crossed his face. “So there are things that even you cannot see through — that is rare indeed. Could it be that your scheme of ‘substituting grain for money’ has exhausted every last bit of your mental capacity?”

Li Yan lowered his head and leaned close to Li Shu’s ear, in the manner of a pair of siblings sharing an intimate confidence. “You weigh the advantages and disadvantages before you act — and so do I. I am no more a saint who helps everyone indiscriminately than you are. I help Shen Xiao because I have my reasons.”