In Taiji Palace, Shen Xiao had held nothing back — laying out every last thing he had uncovered in Luo Prefecture — and then was escorted away by the Qianniu Guards.

Before he left, he swept his gaze over to the Crown Prince. His eyes were like ink, his face deathly pale; he looked at the Crown Prince and slowly broke into a smile.

Unworthy to be a ruler.

Shen Xiao had clearly not spoken a word, yet the Crown Prince read exactly those four characters from his face. He felt as though Shen Xiao’s every feature was mocking him.

After Shen Xiao was taken away, Emperor Zhengyuan waved a hand. “Seventh son, you may withdraw.”

Li Qin naturally assented. Once he had gone, the vast bedchamber sank into absolute silence, broken only by the Emperor’s deep and labored breathing.

The silence pressed against the Crown Prince’s back like a wall of stone, bearing down until his spine gave way. His whole body curled forward onto the floor, trembling violently.

He wanted to speak some word of pleading, but when he opened his mouth he found he could produce no sound at all.

After a long while, he finally heard his own throat produce a sound: “…Imperial Father…”

The voice was thin and faint as a thread, the pitch of a base creature begging for mercy — how could that be his voice? He was the most supremely honored heir apparent of the realm.

Yet there he was, trembling prostrate on the floor, and in the same craven tone he said it again: “…Imperial Father…ah!”

Before the word was out, the medicine bowl struck the Crown Prince squarely. The dark yellow liquid immediately soaked through the Crown Prince’s bright yellow court robes, leaving a spreading stain of murky filth.

The scalding heat of the medicine seeped through the thick winter clothing, pressing into the Crown Prince’s skin.

“You still have the face to call me Imperial Father!”

Emperor Zhengyuan bellowed, slamming his fist down on the table with such force it seemed as though he wished the table were the Crown Prince himself — as though he would gladly have beaten him to death on the spot.

To dispatch the Qianniu Guards to investigate was the way of truth and evidence. But even without evidence, from the conduct of Shen Xiao and the Crown Prince alone, Emperor Zhengyuan could judge with near certainty by instinct alone who was right and who was wrong.

He knew his son far too well — this son had too much ambition and too little ability; his position was too high for his virtue to match. So in his moments of triumph he became arrogant and unruly, and in his moments of defeat he became pathetically weak. Never had a moment been as clear as this: the Emperor looked at the Crown Prince, still trembling on the floor, and felt how utterly unsuited he was for the role of heir apparent.

The fist stopped striking the table. The Emperor’s violent, heaving breaths from fury gradually calmed; the hall returned to a dead silence.

The Crown Prince heard Emperor Zhengyuan say slowly, “Return to the Eastern Palace. Until the Qianniu Guards come back from Luo Prefecture, you are to remain in the Eastern Palace.”

Emperor Zhengyuan sighed — a long, exhausted sound, as though he had lost all his strength, all his tenderness, all his fury; toward the Crown Prince he had lost every last feeling, replaced by a bone-deep weariness.

“I will not tell you that you were wrong. Go back and think it over yourself. Whether right or wrong — you judge it.”

Yet hearing this, the Crown Prince suddenly raised his head, his face wild with panic as he stared at Emperor Zhengyuan.

He was not afraid of his father’s fury — fury meant disappointment, and disappointment meant the Emperor still cared. But now the Emperor was no longer willing even to teach him right from wrong — which meant…he had given up on him entirely.

The Crown Prince shuffled forward on his knees, grabbing hold of the robes hanging at the Emperor’s side. “Imperial Father, Imperial Father! Your son knows he was wrong — you may beat me or scold me as you wish, I—”

The Crown Prince’s words were not finished before Emperor Zhengyuan raised a hand and knocked the Crown Prince’s grip loose. He used no great force, but the Crown Prince was weaker still — he simply crumpled to the floor, reduced to an utterly prostrate, silent suppliant.

At that very moment, the palace doors were violently shoved open from outside. Liu Cou, throwing all ceremony aside, came tumbling and scrambling into the side chamber and dropped to his knees before the Emperor. His voice — already sharp by nature — was now honed to the point of a needle, driving straight into the Emperor’s chest: “Your Majesty, Cui… Cui Jinzhi has encamped his troops outside the palace gates — he wants… he wants…”

“He wants what?”

At the words “encamped outside the palace gates,” the Emperor’s pupils suddenly dilated. On the floor, the prostrate Crown Prince immediately straightened, as if finding his backbone in an instant.

Liu Cou spoke in a voice like a wail, shrill as a keen: “He wants to purge the Emperor’s side!”

“Cui Jinzhi says that the Seventh Prince and Shen Xiao secretly conspired to frame the Eastern Palace, to deceive Your Majesty — such a treacherous minister must not be allowed to remain at court. He must be executed today as a warning to all!”

The doors Liu Cou had burst open still stood unshut; a gust of cold air swept in with a rush. Emperor Zhengyuan felt a chill to the bone.

Leading troops into the city, encamping outside the palace gates — Cui Jinzhi was staging a rebellion!

Purging the Emperor’s side — what a lie. He was simply acting to save the Crown Prince now that he knew the Crown Prince was in jeopardy. What audacity. What unspeakable audacity.

Emperor Zhengyuan was so furious he shook from head to toe, raising a trembling hand to point at the Crown Prince. He was too enraged to speak coherently. “You… the things your people have done!”

Yet to everyone’s surprise, the Crown Prince, who had been prostrate with terror only a moment before, now fixed his gaze on the Emperor and suddenly began to laugh.

“Ha — Imperial Father… so you can feel fear too?”

The Crown Prince rose from the floor, brushed the dust from his robes with slow, deliberate movements — the air of a man who holds all the cards.

The more wretched and terrified he had looked a moment ago, the more wild and arrogant he was now in his rebound.

Cui Jinzhi’s sudden appearance had multiplied the Crown Prince’s confidence several times over. A divine army fallen from the sky — and just in time to save him!

“Imperial Father, do you hear that? The Seventh Brother and Shen Xiao are treacherous ministers — they have slandered your son. Should you not issue an edict ordering their immediate execution, to appease the anger of the troops outside the palace?”

“How dare you speak to me this way!”

Emperor Zhengyuan raged at him, “Cui Jinzhi’s act is treason — rebellion! He is forcing the palace!”

“He is purging the Emperor’s side!”

The Crown Prince cut the Emperor off and stepped forward. He was standing while the Emperor sat on the luohan daybed; his figure thus loomed large and tall above him. He looked down at the Emperor’s silver hair, at the withered frame that could barely fill out the heavy court robes.

Youth against old age. The outcome was already decided.

The Crown Prince gave a cold laugh. “Imperial Father, should you not issue an edict now, and deal with the Seventh Brother and Shen Xiao?”

“How dare you!”

Emperor Zhengyuan roared, trembling all over with fury at the Crown Prince’s arrogant display. He seized a teacup from the table and hurled it at the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince dodged aside — all the Emperor could do was shout: “Unfilial wretch, you unfilial wretch!”

Those two words seemed to strike the Crown Prince in a raw place. His gaze contracted sharply, his face turned an iron grey in an instant. “Unfilial wretch?”

“Who calls me an unfilial wretch? Imperial Father, I am the Crown Prince of this realm — and yet have you ever accorded me the respect that comes with that? Have you?”

All the resentment long buried in his heart could no longer be contained; every last emotion burst free at once.

“Do you even remember that I am the Crown Prince? All these years — first you elevated Second Brother, then you elevated Seventh Brother. Who are they, that they dare stand against me? It was because they had your backing! Why? I do not understand it. I am the Crown Prince — the ruler of the realm. How could you turn around and prop up other princes? Is that not slapping me in the face?”

“Do you know how rampant the Second Prince was a few years ago? Half the entire court was his people. Every time I spoke in court, someone would jump up to contradict me. Yet you sat up there on the imperial throne watching with cold eyes, not lifting a finger to stop him. You propped up the Second Prince to keep me in check — I understand that.”

Emperor Zhengyuan: “Was that not because of you? You were courting the great noble houses, building your faction — you were consolidating power before I was even dead. I propped up the Second Prince to put you in your place!”

Crown Prince: “If you had not propped up the Second Prince to threaten my position, would I have needed to exhaust myself scheming to win people over? After all that effort I had finally beaten the Second Prince down — but before I had even caught my breath, you turned around and elevated the Seventh Prince. The Seventh Prince is exemplary in every way — temperate, benevolent, considerate of the people, talented and virtuous. And me? In your eyes, I cannot hold a candle to the Seventh Prince — can I?”

All the emotions he had kept buried for so long poured out in a torrent, drenching Emperor Zhengyuan from head to toe. The Emperor looked at the Crown Prince before him, his features twisted with fury and bitterness, and could scarcely believe that this was the son he had once loved most dearly.

Why? He believed he had given the Crown Prince the finest fatherly love he could offer — everything a Son of Heaven could bestow upon a son, he had given without reservation: the position of heir apparent, the finest tutors and education from childhood onward, boundless tolerance for his countless missteps, nights and days of earnest guidance and teaching…

He had believed himself a devoted and tender father. Yet he had never imagined that in the Crown Prince’s eyes, he was seen in such a light.

Unworthy to be a father. From the Crown Prince’s twisted, arrogant face, Emperor Zhengyuan read those four words.

Those four words landed like a heavy, dull blow striking him squarely in the chest. Emperor Zhengyuan felt his vision swim and blur; he lurched and nearly fell, catching himself barely with an outstretched hand. He coughed without stopping.

Not one of the physical ailments that had beset him had brought him down, yet today the Crown Prince’s gut-striking words had finally undone him completely.

The Crown Prince looked at Emperor Zhengyuan coughing helplessly and wretchedly, and something flickered in his gaze — a brief, unwilling softness — but it hardened again just as quickly. “Imperial Father, do not forget — there are troops purging the Emperor’s side outside the palace gates, and the treacherous ministers are still at your side. Whether the army enters the palace or not rests entirely on a single word from you.”

Emperor Zhengyuan reached out and seized the Crown Prince’s sleeve. “Unfilial wretch — I will depose you! I will depose you!”

The Crown Prince showed no sign of backing down. “Then go ahead and depose me — I have long since grown weary of sitting in that heir apparent’s seat! It is your seat I want, not that precarious Eastern Palace chair where one lives in constant dread.”

Emperor Zhengyuan was so enraged by the Crown Prince’s treasonous words that he began to cough again. “Come here… cough, cough — come here!”

He shouted, “Seize this unfilial wretch and restrain him! Strip the Eastern Palace guards of their weapons and place them all under watch!”

Catching his breath, the Emperor continued his orders: “Muster every palace garrison troop in full formation — hold the palace gates at any cost and prevent Cui Jinzhi from entering the palace. Then dispatch riders to the Western Mountain barracks to call up troops. As quickly as possible!”

The Crown Prince was restrained by guards, yet not a trace of alarm showed on his face. The inner palace was the Emperor’s domain — but beyond the palace gates, it was already Cui Jinzhi’s domain.

The palace garrison numbered this few; as long as Cui Jinzhi broke through the palace gates and forced his way inside with his troops, by tomorrow that dragon throne would be his.