Huang Zixia felt her heart skip a beat, but then remembered seeing Yu Xuan leave earlier – it seemed the Emperor had spared him.

“We truly wanted to kill him,” the Emperor said, falling into a brief daze before tilting his head back with a long sigh. “But upon seeing him, somehow, We abandoned the thought.”

Li Shubo remained silent, only slightly turning his head to gaze at the Princess’s coffin.

“Perhaps We’ve grown old, no longer able to harden Our hearts to destroy such a jade tree.” The Emperor turned to look at Li Shubo. “Have you ever met this Yu Xuan?”

“Yes, elegant and distinguished, unmatched in the world,” Li Shubo said calmly.

Noble Consort Guo sat there motionless for a long while, then suddenly stood up and hurried to Princess Tongchang’s coffin, holding its edge as tears poured down like rain.

Li Shubo remained composed as usual, saying, “Your Majesty was right not to kill him. Otherwise, if he were to accompany the Princess in eternal rest underground, how would the Prince Consort cope?”

The Emperor nodded, closing his eyes, his face weary.

Huang Zixia stood behind them, quietly listening to their conversation. In the summer afternoon, cicadas chirped incessantly. She heard the Emperor’s voice, mixed with the noisy cicada sounds, slightly weak: “Tomorrow, the Ministry of Justice will publicly try this case. We have already decreed that once the trial ends, the criminal will be taken to the execution ground for death by a thousand cuts.”

Li Shubo pondered briefly before asking, “Is the case conclusive?”

“Both witness testimony and physical evidence are present.”

“If the true culprit is caught, it will comfort Tongchang’s spirit in heaven.” Li Shubo glanced back at Huang Zixia before continuing, “As your humble brother holds a position in the Ministry of Justice, I shall naturally attend tomorrow.”

“The weather is hot, and Linghui cannot remain long. We have decided that after the criminal is executed, We will temporarily place her in Imperial Father’s Zhen Mausoleum. Once her mausoleum is built, she will be properly buried.”

“That would be best.” Li Shubo spoke, but saw the Emperor leaning back in his chair, looking up at the sky, no longer moving, not even his eyes, only his breathing growing heavier.

After a long pause, he took his leave from the Emperor and left the Princess’s residence with Huang Zixia.

In the summer afternoon, the capital was shrouded in sweltering heat, with barely anyone on the streets.

In the ice bucket inside the carriage, ice carved into immortal mountains was arranged, though the heat had eroded it until the immortals and flowering trees were no longer visible, leaving only the mountain’s outline.

Melting ice dripped into the water below with soft sounds.

Even sitting next to the ice, Huang Zixia still felt the heat, with sweat seeping through her back. She felt Li Shubo’s scrutinizing gaze, making her extremely nervous.

In such a situation, knowing neither friend nor foe, there was no possibility of controlling the scene. To avoid a complete defeat, she gritted her teeth and spoke first: “This servant wishes to ask Your Highness a question.”

His examining gaze showed a hint of surprise: “What is it?”

“Is there any way to make someone experience hallucinations, seeing things that never happened?”

Li Shubo shook his head, saying, “Impossible.”

“However, when I just met Yu Xuan, he said that on the day my parents died, I was holding that package of arsenic with a strange expression.”

The name Yu Xuan, spoken from her lips, caused ripples in her heart, but they quickly spread and dissolved into nothingness.

Li Shubo thought briefly before saying, “Perhaps this explains why he has always insisted you were the murderer – because he saw you behaving unusually at the time of the incident.”

“But I truly never did that!” she insisted.

“Did he remember wrongly, or did you forget?” Li Shubo asked.

“He remembered wrongly,” Huang Zixia replied without hesitation.

“There might be another possibility – he lied.”

“But… what would be the point of lying to me, the person involved?” Huang Zixia asked bewilderedly.

“If you, the person involved, don’t know, how could I?” Li Shubo’s voice turned cold. “Besides, haven’t you already arranged to meet in Yizhou? You can confront each other then and understand.”

Huang Zixia heard his chilly tone and fell silent, listening to the ice water drip “plop” as the carriage slowly came to a stop – they had arrived at Prince Kui’s mansion.

As Huang Zixia stepped down from the carriage, she felt a wave of heat rush over her like a tangible wave, causing her to stumble slightly.

Li Shubo was behind her and reached out to steady her.

She regained her balance and was about to thank him, but he had already released her and walked past her toward the interior.

She stood there, watching his back for a moment before turning toward the stables.

He didn’t look back, but as if eyes had grown on the back of his head, his cold voice came: “Where are you going?”

“Taiji Palace,” she turned to say. “I want to try to save the maids and eunuchs who served the Princess.”

“How has Eunuch Yang been?”

Empress Wang had just awakened from her afternoon nap, still carrying a hint of languor. In the deep hall, Empress Wang’s jade-like skin was wrapped in gauze robes like light clouds, seemingly untouched by the summer heat.

Huang Zixia, who had galloped from Prince Kui’s mansion, looked much worse – a few strands of hair had come loose around her forehead, tiny beads of sweat dotted her nose, and her hastily arranged clothes outside the hall were not quite neat, making her appear quite disheveled.

Empress Wang gestured for everyone around her to withdraw, then picked up an embroidered handkerchief from the table and offered it to her, asking, “What brings you here in such a hurry?”

Huang Zixia accepted it, dabbing the sweat from her nose, and said softly, “Congratulations to Your Majesty, your return to the Great Ming Palace is imminent.”

Empress Wang studied her face for a moment, seeing her serious expression, and smiled slightly, saying, “The Penglai Hall is near the water, certainly much cooler than here. If we can return sooner, that would naturally be good.”

Huang Zixia nodded, “This servant knows Your Majesty must already be preparing to return to the palace, but helping Your Majesty return even one day earlier is also this servant’s duty.”

“First tell me why you came to inform me of this so urgently.” Empress Wang reclined on her couch, holding a white fan painted with celestial maidens scattering flowers, fanning herself almost imperceptibly.

“Noble Consort Guo has a secret that might have been noticed by the Princess’s eunuchs and maids. Now that the Princess is dead, she wants all those close servants to be buried with her.”

Empress Wang covered her lips with the white fan, though it couldn’t hide her curved eyes: “It seems to be a very important secret.”

“Actually… it’s just one sentence,” she said softly. “And I have one more thing to ask of Your Majesty.”

“What is it?”

“The other person involved in this matter, Imperial Academy Instructor Yu Xuan, is my… former acquaintance. I believe if Your Majesty knows this secret, it can be used to admonish Noble Consort Guo, without needing to make it known to the world.”

Empress Wang smiled, “That’s natural. I have tolerated Noble Consort Guo in the palace for over a decade, and will naturally continue to let her serve as my right hand in the palace.”

Huang Zixia lowered her head silently, saying softly, “Yes.”

“Then, what is Noble Consort Guo’s secret sentence?”

Before Huang Zixia’s eyes, dreamlike images flashed – the wind-blown lotus from the day she first met Yu Xuan, the scattered lotus flowers in her arms floating quietly on the water, ripples disturbing the surface, never to be calm again.

Yu Xuan standing outside her door all night when she first moved to her external residence, unable to sleep, snowflakes on his eyelashes melting into water, falling like tears.

On the day of the tragedy at her home, he helped her carry plum blossoms, the blazing red blooms next to his smile more brilliant than any blood she had ever seen.

And the fragments of letters he had scattered in the incense burner at Xingtang Temple, losing all color in the fire, leaving only black ashes.

She closed her eyes and whispered as if in a dream: “I wish to follow the moonlight’s flow to illuminate you.”

The sunset was like a brocade, spread over Chang’an City. Huang Zixia looked up to the west, the sky seeming so low it could be touched.

After the most brilliant sunset glow, another day was about to pass.

Huang Zixia returned to Prince Kui’s mansion and sat down in her room, removing her hairpin and unconsciously drawing on the bed while organizing all the clues.

After confirming everything was correct, she put the hairpin back among the silver pins and sat on the bed thinking, finally realizing where that strange feeling came from—

Li Shubo hadn’t summoned her.

Usually, when she returned to the mansion, someone would always tell her the Prince wanted to see her.

But now, when she had made such significant progress, she didn’t know to whom to report the case developments.

She sighed, lying down on the bed, reviewing the events in the alley beside the Princess’s residence in her mind once more.

Yu Xuan said he saw her holding a package of arsenic with a strange expression.

Impossible – in her memory, after buying the arsenic, before she could make that bet with him, she heard about the family massacre in Long Zhou and rushed there to investigate. After interviews, she discovered the daughter had poisoned the family’s food because her parents had separated her from her lover, sending the entire family, including herself, to the underworld. She wrote him that letter in melancholic reflection and returned to Yizhou two days later. Exhausted from travel, she arrived home at dusk, ate dinner, and went to bed, sleeping deeply without dreams. Early the next morning, when Yu Xuan came, she had just woken up. He asked about what she had written in the letter, and seeing nothing unusual, went with her as usual to view plum blossoms in the back garden, before taking his leave when her grandmother and uncle arrived.

At that time, she hadn’t even opened the cabinet containing the arsenic, how could she have been holding it?

Had his memory failed, or had hers?

Was he lying? But his expression couldn’t have been feigned, and what would be the point of lying to her face?

Huang Zixia felt utterly exhausted and unconsciously lay back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“So still – what are you thinking about?” a voice sounded beside her.

As if in a dream, she murmured unconsciously: “Yu Xuan…”

As soon as these words left her mouth, she suddenly felt her scalp tingle and thin sweat seep from her back.

She quickly sat up and looked toward Li Shubo standing in the doorway.

The slanting rays of the setting sun had dimmed, and darkness was approaching. The fading glow outlined his silhouette but wasn’t clear enough to reveal his expression.