As Shen Xiao was leaving the Hanyuan Hall, Cui Jinzhi was being summoned in.

The two of them crossed paths at the threshold.

Shen Xiao’s official rank was lower, so he spoke first. “Deputy Minister Cui.”

The two men were of a similar height, but Shen Xiao was thinner, his bearing cooler, while Cui Jinzhi — worn by recent events — was even more ashen-faced than before, his entire frame almost hunched and diminished.

Standing before him, though of lower rank, Shen Xiao now carried himself with something of the air of one who has prevailed.

Cui Jinzhi did not return his greeting. He did not even spare Shen Xiao a sidelong glance. Shen Xiao took no offense and stepped out through the palace doors.

The doors closed behind him. Shen Xiao quietly reflected — His Majesty was very displeased with Deputy Minister Cui’s role as the prince consort.

He walked the whole way toward the Danfeng Gate. The junior eunuch who had just been dispatched by the Emperor to carry the message to Princess Pingyang was heading in the same direction, moving at a run, hurrying ahead with urgency.

By the time Shen Xiao stepped out through the Danfeng Gate, the junior eunuch had already delivered the message to Princess Pingyang and finished the run — the sweat had not yet dried — yet his face was wreathed in smiles, and a fine jade pendant dangled from his hand, clearly a generous reward given for delivering good news.

Shen Xiao did not know the specifics of what good news it was, but a faint smile came to his own lips as well — she must, by now, be happy.

He looked ahead. Princess Pingyang’s large, black carriage stood parked some fifty paces away, evidently preparing to return to the manor.

A guard walked toward Shen Xiao. “Sir Shen, my lady the princess requests your presence.”

—

He lifted the carriage curtain, and Li Shu looked up to see Shen Xiao approach.

From the Hanyuan Hall to the Danfeng Gate — no more than a quarter of an hour’s walk — yet in that span, Li Shu felt as though her mood had swung from the depths of the earth to the heights of the sky. She had never before experienced such a violent shift.

She had thought she would be trapped in Cui Jinzhi’s pit of fire forever. Who could have imagined that in a single turn, Imperial Father had already granted this matter?

A Son of Heaven’s word, once given, is rarely retracted — for to retract it would be to lose credibility before the court. That Imperial Father had changed his mind was a thing of extraordinary rarity.

After she had left the Hanyuan Hall, Imperial Father had received Shen Xiao almost at once. Was it Shen Xiao who had swayed him?

Shen Xiao had by now drawn close. Across the carriage window, the two of them met each other’s eyes. “Your servant pays his respects to the Princess.”

Shen Xiao raised his gaze slightly and saw that the golden hairpin was now set in Li Shu’s hair. Simple and unadorned as it was, it was actually quite lovely. Li Shu’s looks tended toward the cool and remote, her gaze habitually detached — precisely the kind of bearing that suited brilliant ornaments like the golden hairpin, for she could carry even extravagance without being overwhelmed by it, and so appeared all the more distinguished.

Shen Xiao fixed his gaze on Li Shu for a moment, then said, without any particular preamble, “The princess is in good spirits.”

Li Shu blinked and reflexively touched her face. She had not smiled.

But her mood was indeed good.

In the face of bitterness, joy is always amplified — she had just been in despair when Imperial Father had given her hope, and that hope now felt all the more precious for having been wrested from the dark.

Even to receive so small a fraction of care from Imperial Father felt to her like ten times its measure. Because she had known so little of it, she cherished all the more keenly even the smallest gestures of goodwill from others.

It was not that refusing the separation would have brought Imperial Father no benefit. It would have — yet when faced with the choice between power and family, he had in the end chosen her. She was deeply moved by this.

Li Shu asked, “Was it that obvious?”

She considered herself a person of considerable reserve, not given to letting her emotions be easily read by others.

But Shen Xiao was more perceptive than most. He gave a nod. “The princess’s eyes are smiling.”

Li Shu heard this and laughed. “Eyes smiling?”

It was the first time anyone had ever described her this way. Most people, if they refrained from saying her eyes were sharp as blades, were already showing considerable generosity.

She glanced at Shen Xiao. His face was still cool and expressionless as ever, yet Li Shu sensed that his mood, too, was good.

So she turned his words back on him. “Sir Shen’s mood is also good.”

“Sir Shen’s eyes are smiling.”

She had returned his exact words to him directly.

Shen Xiao found himself momentarily choked by his own words, and laughed despite himself — the smile spreading from his eyes outward across his whole face. When he smiled, there was something of the feeling of clouds parting to reveal moonlight.

Li Shu smiled as well.

Strange — in Shen Xiao’s company, she found it rather easy to smile, and felt quite at ease in her heart, even though Shen Xiao wore the face of a grim, forbidding figure.

Li Shu steadied herself inwardly and turned to the matter at hand. “Sir Shen has helped me more than once, and I have not yet properly thanked you. If you have time, will you honor me by sharing a cup of wine?”

Shen Xiao did not decline. He nodded. “Very well.”

And so the carriage led the way, with the sedan chair following behind. They proceeded all the way out through the Danfeng Gate and arrived at the front of the Xiankelai Tavern. The two went up to the third floor and entered the private room called the Gold and Jade Chamber.

The attending maids ushered Li Shu into the room. Shen Xiao, however, stood fixed outside and did not enter, lost momentarily in thought.

This was his third visit to the Gold and Jade Chamber.

The first time had been when he impeached her, and she had fixed him with a gaze cold as ice, interrogating him relentlessly.

The second time had been when he was fleeing Grand Princess Kangning, and she had cornered him with nowhere to turn.

How the stars had shifted and the currents changed — now, on this third visit, who could have anticipated that the two of them would one day sit at the same table and share a drink? Shen Xiao felt once more that the distance between himself and Princess Pingyang had grown very small indeed — so small that it seemed as though a single reach of the hand might close it entirely.

Li Shu turned and, seeing that Shen Xiao stood outside without entering, considered for a moment and understood what occupied his thoughts. Both of his previous visits to the Gold and Jade Chamber had been unpleasant experiences; by choosing this place, she had inadvertently rubbed salt in old wounds.

She genuinely meant to thank Shen Xiao, and inwardly cursed herself for the poor choice. She quickly said, “Let us try somewhere different today. Let’s go to another establishment.”

She was already moving toward the exit. “I recall there is one not far ahead that is quite good — even Princess Anle, picky as she is, goes there often.”

But Shen Xiao stepped forward and stood in the doorway, blocking her path. “There is no need. Let us stay here.”

She liked this tavern. He need not have her accommodate him.

That she had the consideration for him at all was enough.

And so the two sat down. Someone had evidently given instructions in advance, for all the dishes brought up were from the Huaiyang style of cuisine — light broths and delicate flavors throughout. Li Shu’s hand was injured and she could not manage chopsticks; moreover, she had no appetite for such mild fare, and so she did not touch a single bite.

Instead, she managed to grip a wine cup with her index and middle fingers, and Hong Luo held the pot of Shidong Spring wine and filled it for her. She drank from it slowly.

Seeing this, Shen Xiao took a few bites and then set his chopsticks down as well.

The attending maids had all withdrawn; only Hong Luo remained to serve, so there was no need to guard one’s words.

Li Shu raised her cup again — this time to offer a toast to Shen Xiao. “First, I thank Sir Shen for the matter of seizing the grain.”

Shen Xiao drank along with her.

Li Shu raised her cup again. “Second, I thank Sir Shen for rescuing me from the foot of the cliff that day.”

Another cup, drained to the last drop.

Shen Xiao seldom drank, and his tolerance for wine was poor. After entering officialdom, he had attended few banquets — his forthright and unaffiliated nature saw to that — and his capacity for drink had never been trained. Shidong Spring wine was strong besides, and quite unforgiving for one unaccustomed to it.

Wishing to stop, he said, “The princess need not keep thanking me. The grain requisition was not done solely to help you — it was also to help myself, and more so to help all those affected by the disaster. It was the right thing to do in any case.”

“As for rescuing you from the foot of the cliff — anyone would have done the same. It is what any decent person would do.”

Li Shu leaned back in her chair and, hearing this, let out a soft laugh. “The grain requisition was right to do, the rescue was what any decent person would do — Sir Shen makes a fair point. So would you have helped any other person in the same way?”

Shen Xiao was taken aback for a moment, but Li Shu seemed to have spoken the words only in passing. She raised her cup again. “Third cup — I thank you for finding the hairpin.”

“Fourth cup…”

She hesitated for a moment, then continued, “I do not know what you said in the Hanyuan Hall just now, but after you came out, Imperial Father changed his mind and agreed to the separation.”

Perhaps because the joy had already passed, those emotions that were harder to name began to surface slowly. Li Shu drank another cup, her gaze settling in the small space before her, and repeated the words once more. “I and Cui Jinzhi have separated.”

Shen Xiao was startled.

He had gathered that the Emperor was displeased with Deputy Minister Cui, but he had not imagined it had already reached the point of a formal separation.

Shen Xiao was at a loss for what to say. To offer congratulations seemed wrong given her expression — that quiet, drifting look. To offer condolences seemed equally misplaced, for she did not appear sorrowful.

What showed on her face was, in truth, a kind of quiet mourning for what had passed.

There was no need for Shen Xiao to say anything in any case. The wine was beginning to take hold of Li Shu, and she started talking of her own accord. “I met him when I was ten. Now I am twenty. In all these ten years, the first five I never entertained any thought of feeling between us — and yet we got along well and cheerfully. The last five years, once we were married, I found myself mired in quiet unhappiness instead.”

“When I first knew him, he was the foremost young nobleman in all of Chang’an. How many young women had wished to marry him. I lived in the palace with no one to care for me, and yet he treated me well without any thought of return, expecting nothing. I wanted to read — he brought me books. I wanted to practice calligraphy — he taught me. I said I wanted to leave the cold palace, and he said ‘very well,’ and took me out of it.”

“And so I wanted to marry him too. He had many people around him, and I used means to drive them all away, one by one, until at last he married me. But… what is forced is never sweet. In the end, feelings cannot be compelled. Now we have torn away all pretense entirely — we are not even strangers to one another, we are less than that.”

—

The pot of Shidong Spring wine emptied in no time. Hong Luo poured the last drop into Li Shu’s cup, then went out to call for more.

Li Shu picked up her cup and rose to her feet. The wine had brought a faint flush to her cheeks, but her steps were steady and unhurried. She walked to the window and looked out.

In the northern wards of Chang’an, tall buildings were rarely seen — so close to the palace, imposing structures were forbidden, lest they overshadow the majesty of the imperial house. Thus, though she stood only on the third floor, the view was remarkably open. Looking north, one could see red walls and golden roof tiles stretching endlessly — a palace complex that had no visible end.

Li Shu pointed toward the palace city. “When I was young, I lived there.”

Shen Xiao walked to her side and looked in the direction she indicated, but among those layer upon overlapping layer of palace halls, there was no way to distinguish which might be the cold palace.

Li Shu said, “From the cold palace to the Hanyuan Hall — Cui Jinzhi helped me a great deal along the way. But now we have, after all, gone our separate ways.”

Her gaze drifted somewhere distant. “How far I go from here — that will depend on myself alone.”

Whether she could climb higher, or would be thrown back into the cold palace — or even lose her life — all of it depended on her now. Cui Jinzhi would no longer help her; he would do everything in his power to push her down, locked with her in a struggle to the death.

The Eastern Palace would not let her go.

Nor would she let the Eastern Palace go.

Li Shu raised the cup in her hand and drained it in one go. She had drunk too quickly, and the accumulated effect of the cups before it struck her all at once — she felt her head swim.

Her capacity for wine was actually quite respectable; not a few ladies of the great families could match her. So this was only a momentary dizziness. She leaned against the window frame, closed her eyes, and let herself settle.

Why had she said so much to Shen Xiao that had nothing to do with anything? Li Shu thought to herself. Had this man been practicing some sort of witchcraft that made people lay their hearts open instantly?

For her true purpose in inviting him for wine today was to say one single thing —

She wanted to propose an alliance with him.

The road ahead was long. To contend with the Eastern Palace, she alone was not enough. Furthermore, no matter what she did, she was still only a woman — she could whisper in Emperor Zhengyuan’s ear, but many matters at court still required genuine officials to act.

The Crown Prince relied on the great families. To bring down the Crown Prince meant bringing down the great families. Shen Xiao was of humble birth — he was the best possible candidate for an alliance.

She only did not know whether he would be willing.

The dizziness had finally passed. Li Shu was about to open her eyes and raise the matter of alliance — when she suddenly felt it.

Shen Xiao reached out and lightly touched the top of her head. The gesture was very gentle — in truth only a slight brush of her hair. Had she truly been drunk, she would not have felt it at all.

He carried a note of quiet comfort in the touch, and actually nuzzled the crown of her head with his palm.

Li Shu, leaning against the window frame, froze entirely for a moment —

What on earth was this supposed to be? The ally she was cultivating was patting her head — what was she, a cat?

Should she pretend to have fallen into a stupor, or should she surface and let on that she had felt it? Li Shu was quite at a loss.

It was not that she was flustered herself. She was flustered on Shen Xiao’s behalf.

If she were suddenly to open her eyes, Shen Xiao might very well shoot straight up onto the ceiling, or else vault over the railing and flee the building entirely.

She was thinking of Sir Shen’s life, naturally.

—