It was the final watch of the night. The hour was late.

The sky this evening was particularly overcast — only a handful of stars were visible overhead. It was like a heavy quilt pressing down on the dead and silent countryside.

Farmers kept early hours, and by nightfall they were already asleep. A blanket of stillness had fallen over everything; even the sound of wind could not be heard.

Then, all at once, the sound of hoofbeats and cartwheels broke out along the ridges between the fields, as though a column of soldiers were riding fast. The rolling sound of wheels echoed through the quiet night like distant, muffled thunder.

The gatekeeper had been snoring away in his sleep, and he woke with a start. For a moment his heart leaped with the sensation that something was about to happen on this night — but the thick weight of drowsiness pulled him back under almost at once.

He had barely pressed his head to the pillow again —

“Bang, bang, bang.”

Someone was hammering at the great gate with tremendous force.

The pounding shook the entire estate and startled a good number of the household guards to their feet.

The gatekeeper scrambled up at once, throwing on his clothes as he called out in a rasping voice, “Who’s there?”

In the dead of night, who would come to the estate? Apart from periodic inspections and grain collections sent by the main household, this estate almost never had visitors.

But whoever was knocking gave no answer — either they hadn’t heard, or they had no wish to reply. They simply went on beating at the gate with relentless force.

The gatekeeper kept hollering “Coming, coming!” as he stepped out of the gatehouse and, gathering himself, lifted the heavy crossbar.

The bar had barely been removed — the gatekeeper had not even gotten the door fully open — when the gate was flung wide from outside. Soldiers flooded in like a tide, each one carrying a torch, and together they turned the night bright as noon.

At the foot of the steps outside, several hundred more soldiers stood arrayed, flanking a single tall, upright figure in dark teal — cool and solitary.

That figure stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking up at the lanterns above the gateway. When the great gate swung open, his gaze fell on the gatekeeper.

His eyes were colder than any star in the sky.

His voice was deep. Though he wore merely an eighth-rank official’s robe, he radiated a presence that left no room for doubt. “Ministry of Revenue Supervising Official Shen Xiao, acting on imperial command to levy grain.”

The gatekeeper was so overpowered by the man’s aura of cold authority that he couldn’t help but take a step back.

Shen Xiao lifted his foot and strode through the gate. Several hundred soldiers swept in around him — an imposing sight indeed.

The gatekeeper was jostled to one side by the surge of soldiers and finally came to his senses.

Grain levy?

The estate had received no word about releasing any grain.

The torches formed a river of fire and flowed toward the granaries. Under the shroud of night, the great granaries loomed in clusters. Counting them carefully, there were exactly ten — no more, no less. Three thousand shi per granary, ten granaries for thirty thousand shi.

Shen Xiao stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the stacked granaries. A thin smile touched his lips.

The amount was exactly right.

He raised a hand, and soldiers surged toward the granary stacks to begin moving the grain. A few sacks had just been carried to the granary door when an uproar broke out.

“What in the world do you think you’re doing?! Have you lost all sense of fear? Do you know whose estate this is?!”

A man in his mid-forties, with twenty-some household guards behind him, came charging over with fierce momentum. He snatched the grain sacks directly out of the soldiers’ hands.

This was Steward Liu, the estate manager.

Upon learning that Ministry of Revenue men had arrived, he had scrambled for an outer coat in his rush — he hadn’t even had time to put on his shoes — and had come flying into the granary red-faced and white-faced all at once.

The soldiers saw him seizing their grain and shouted right back. “By Ministry of Revenue order, this grain is to be transported — no one may obstruct us!”

Steward Liu exploded. “Transport it? You’re robbing it!”

“Do you have any idea where you are? How dare you come here and raise a ruckus. This is Princess Pingyang’s estate!”

The words had barely left Steward Liu’s mouth when a cold, hard voice erupted with fury. “Princess Pingyang? Ha! This official is breaking into Princess Pingyang’s estate precisely — and seizing Princess Pingyang’s grain precisely!”

A tall, lean figure in a dark teal official’s robe parted the crowd and came to a stop in front of Steward Liu.

Steward Liu was taken aback for a moment, then roared in outrage. “Listen to the nerve of you, my lord — you’ll be sorry you crossed the Princess!”

Shen Xiao’s face held a cold smile.

She had provoked him so many times — but the wheel of fortune turns, and it was long past time he struck back.

Shen Xiao had no patience left for squabbling with this estate manager. He raised his hand, and dozens of soldiers stepped forward, seizing the manager and the household guards and holding them in place.

“Continue transporting the grain.”

Steward Liu’s arms were pinned behind his back by soldiers. He could only watch helplessly as they carted away the grain, so angry he was nearly beside himself.

The sheer audacity — daring to rob the Princess’s grain!

The estate normally had over a hundred guards, as this was one of the Princess’s largest estates and needed to be well-managed — no negligence was permitted. But at noon today the Princess had sent people over and, citing some trouble at another estate, had transferred away the majority of the guards. Now only twenty-some remained.

Had the Princess not transferred them away, it could have come to a direct fight, and the Ministry of Revenue might not have been able to seize the grain at all!

Steward Liu seethed, feeling as though every muscle in his body was twitching with the strain. He lowered his voice and ordered the guard at his side, “Quick! Get word to the Princess at once!”

The grain seizure had gone too far. He, Steward Liu, could not take responsibility for this — could not hold back Ministry of Revenue men on his own. Unless the Princess came herself, there was no way to resolve this mess!

The guard received the order and slipped away quietly. Steward Liu hesitated for a moment.

This Lord Shen looked fierce enough, and he had soldiers with him. The Princess was, after all, a woman — even if she came, she would likely not be able to stop them from seizing the grain.

This would not do. Besides the Princess, other reinforcements were needed.

Steward Liu ordered another guard, “Go quickly and fetch the Prince Consort. The Prince Consort has soldiers at his disposal — I refuse to believe they can’t stop these bandits!”

*

Princess Pingyang’s mansion.

It was now the final watch of the night, and at this hour Li Shu would ordinarily already be asleep. But tonight she had stayed in the study, idly turning through the pages of a book for lack of anything better to do. Hong Luo stood at her side, already stifling yawns.

Hong Luo kept urging her. “Your Highness hasn’t slept since last night — do rest early tonight.”

Hong Luo knew what Li Shu was waiting for. She said, “If anyone comes from the estate in Wannian County, this servant will wake you immediately. Please sleep first — there’s no need to stay up waiting for the news.”

But Li Shu only shook her head.

Whether this plan succeeded or failed rested entirely on Shen Xiao. If he had the nerve to go through with it, the subsequent steps would all fall into place and Li Shu would be able to elevate him — but if he lacked the courage and did not dare seize the grain, then all her scheming would come to nothing.

She did not usually devise plans with so many uncertain variables, but this time… she trusted Shen Xiao, even to the point of blind trust.

She had not had many dealings with him, yet the all-or-nothing courage she had witnessed in him truly made her look at him differently.

To obtain an official post, he had willingly served as a bedchamber companion.

To enter the Second Prince’s fold, on his very first day in office he had dared to impeach her.

To climb higher, he had dared to propose the grain levy at the risk of offending every minister and official in court.

She admired that reckless, all-or-nothing bravery she saw in him — she admired it, and so she intended to use it.

She could only hope he wouldn’t disappoint her, and would seize the grain smoothly and without incident.

Once Shen Xiao went to seize the grain, those at the Wannian County estate would surely panic and send someone rushing to her for reinforcements. That was exactly what Li Shu was waiting for.

The night deepened, and her eyes were beginning to blur. Li Shu set aside the scroll she was holding, no longer in the mood to read.

The image of Shen Xiao’s fury floated before her eyes — those fierce, proud brows of his, cleaving toward her lashes like a blade.

When he had stormed off with a flick of his sleeve, she had felt, in her heart, a small twinge of… guilt.

Those who had risen from humble origins were almost always intensely proud. Yet the words Li Shu had spoken in front of Eunuch Chen had thrown his dignity to the ground, trampled it to pieces, and then spat on it for good measure.

In the world of court politics, dignity was not worth a single coin. If you wanted to climb higher, dignity was the first thing you had to abandon — just as she, Li Shu, had abandoned her dignity before the Crown Prince, playing the obedient dog for all these years in exchange for the position she occupied today.

For some reason, Li Shu always felt that she and Shen Xiao were alike. Although she was a princess, her early life had been much like his — both had come from lowly origins and had clawed their way up step by step through their own efforts. Both were willing to be used by others, willing to cast aside everything, all for the sake of obtaining more power.

She did not want Shen Xiao to follow the same road she had walked.

She waited a good while longer, and by the time the midnight watch had come and gone, Li Shu was growing drowsy, propping herself up on one arm with her elbow on the table, eyes drifting shut.

She had barely dozed off when footsteps sounded outside, followed by a maidservant’s voice at the door. “Your Highness, someone has come from Wannian County! They say there is urgent news and beg to see you.”

Li Shu jolted fully awake.

“Quickly — let them in.”

The guard had ridden hard the whole way and arrived drenched in sweat that he had no time to wipe away. The moment he entered the study, he dropped to his knees. “Your Highness, Ministry of Revenue men have come and are seizing the grain from our estate!”

He was too rattled to worry about courteous speech. The guard was so agitated he might as well have been shouting.

“An eighth-rank official from the Ministry of Revenue has brought five hundred soldiers and stormed straight into the granary. Steward Liu tried to stop them, but he had the Emperor’s grain levy decree as his warrant and just started seizing the grain outright!”

He had rattled off all of this like a string of firecrackers, fully expecting the Princess behind the table to erupt in fury and leap to her feet, immediately rallying the mansion’s guards to go to Wannian County and beat those troublemakers back.

After all, Princess Pingyang was not a soft-tempered person.

But when he finished speaking, the study was very quiet.

After a long pause, he heard the Princess’s attendant say, “Your Highness, now you can go to sleep.”

Somehow that tone carried a distinct note of relief.

Li Shu nodded. “Indeed, I am quite tired.”

The guard was thoroughly baffled. “Your Highness… we’re shorthanded at the estate and can’t hold back the Ministry of Revenue men. Do you want to send some guards over?”

But the Princess’s voice came out sounding unhurried and languid. “No need. The Ministry of Revenue comes to seize grain wielding His Majesty’s decree — am I supposed to resist even His Majesty? You may go. Tell Steward Liu not to try and block them anymore. Let them take what they want. This Princess will have her own plan by morning.”

The guard had not quite processed all of this. He only half-understood the Princess’s words, but in any case gathered one thing — come rain or shine, whether the Crown Prince wanted to wed or a mother wished to marry off her daughter, the Ministry of Revenue wanted grain, and all three were things that simply could not be stopped and saw no point in stopping.

The guard hurried to add, “Well then… I fear the Prince Consort may already be mustering his men to go to Wannian County. Should this servant go and stop the Prince Consort?”

Li Shu started at that. “What did you say? How did Cui Jinzhi get involved in this?”

The guard explained hastily. “Steward Liu said the Ministry of Revenue had brought soldiers and felt it would be safer to have the Prince Consort come as well — with him there, it would hold them in check — otherwise —”

Before he could finish, Li Shu’s voice rang out through gritted teeth. “Hong Luo, prepare the carriage — to Wannian County!”

*

An hour had passed. The moon hung at its zenith.

Shen Xiao stood with his hands behind his back in the now-empty courtyard. Once the last sack of grain had been carried out, he turned and walked away. The hem of his robe flared with the movement — a sharp, decisive air about him.

Steward Liu was beside himself with rage.

The Princess had entrusted the estate to him, and yet he had bungled it. He would probably be stripped of his position by the Princess the very next morning.

Steward Liu came rushing forward and grabbed Shen Xiao by the sleeve. “Lord Shen, you’ve seized the Princess’s grain. Are you not afraid of the Princess’s retaliation?”

Shen Xiao gave a cold laugh.

Retaliation? Then let her come.

He had nothing left to lose, in any case.

If he failed to secure the grain, the Second Prince would make an example of him. If he succeeded in seizing it, Li Shu would make a great spectacle of the affair.

He had no retreat — so he might as well stake everything on one desperate throw.

Shen Xiao’s sleeve gave a sharp snap as he shook free of the steward’s grip and strode out toward the gate with long steps.

But the moment he stepped through the door —

“Lord Shen, what unbelievable audacity! To come to this official’s estate and seize grain — you bring soldiers for your levy, but this official has soldiers who kill men!”

The torches lit the fields bright as day. All of Shen Xiao’s men stood on guard beside the carts, watching Cui Jinzhi with wary eyes.

Cui Jinzhi’s robes whipped in the wind as he sat astride his horse, twenty mounted personal guards arrayed behind him, all on tall, powerful horses — an imposing and formidable sight.

Cui Jinzhi had come riding at full gallop, departing in such haste that he had no time to muster more soldiers — only his twenty personal guards. But every one of them was worth a hundred men in a fight, and if Shen Xiao was truly shameless enough to go head-to-head with him, the Cui family’s soldiers had never been afraid of anyone.

Shen Xiao stood on the high stone step, his gaze passing over Cui Jinzhi with cool, dispassionate eyes. “Lord Cui misspoke.”

“This is Princess Pingyang’s estate, not yours. This official is seizing Princess Pingyang’s grain — not yours.”

Cui Jinzhi’s gaze sharpened.

What was Shen Xiao implying? He and Sparrow were one — how dare an outsider put a wedge between them?!

Shen Xiao turned to the soldiers standing dumbfounded beside the carts. “Push the carts. Begin moving the grain.”

“Who dares move?”

Cui Jinzhi let out a shout and suddenly drew the narrow blade at his hip. On his heels, his twenty cavalry guards moved as one, immediately pulling their own narrow blades, pointing them directly at Shen Xiao.

“Anyone who moves another inch — don’t blame this official for being merciless with his blade!”

He then fixed Shen Xiao with a cold stare.

Duke Cuiguo’s line had been forged on the battlefield. Cui Jinzhi, though he had not served in the military like his father and elder brothers, had not abandoned the Cui family traditions.

Twenty-one gleaming blades leveled at Shen Xiao from a distance, reflecting the firelight of the torches. Shen Xiao narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenching, and held Cui Jinzhi’s gaze steadily. Two words came from between his lips.

“Move the grain.”