At the Kui Wang’s mansion, in the Pavilion of Flowing Streams.

Jing Yu returned to report on his mission: “My Lord, that Lu Dicui… she’s disappeared somewhere.”

Li Shubai frowned slightly, putting down his brush to ask: “Weren’t you supposed to follow her from outside the Court of Justice?”

“Yes, but when we reached the city gates, she attracted others’ attention. While I was considering how to protect her, a passerby rescued her,” Jing Yu explained. “Remembering Your Highness’s instructions were to escort her out of the capital, and seeing she had already boarded a boat to leave, I didn’t follow further.”

“Mm, the Kui Wang’s mansion can help her temporarily, but we can’t look after her forever. Let her go her way,” Li Shubai said upon hearing she had escaped danger.

Jing Yu acknowledged this but didn’t leave. Li Shubai, seeing his manner, understood he had more to say and gestured for him to continue.

“The person who rescued Lu Dicui was Yu Xuan, who just resigned from his position as Director of the Imperial Academy.”

Li Shubai pondered for a moment, and made a sound of acknowledgment, but showed no other reaction.

Jing Yu, being very perceptive, bowed: “I shall take my leave.”

Li Shubai waved his hand. After Jing Yu withdrew, he sat alone in the waterside pavilion, feeling the water’s breeze from all sides as scorching heat invaded.

He stood up unconsciously, crossing the winding bridge over the lotus-covered lake toward the front courtyard.

Jing Qu, who was on duty today, sat in the side hall, animatedly chatting with Huang Zixia across from him while they both peeled lotus seeds to eat.

“Hey, Chonggu, I heard you’re going to Shu with His Highness. Shu is wonderful, the Land of Abundance, I’ve heard the scenery is especially beautiful!”

“Mm, we’ll probably leave soon,” she rested her chin in her hand, gazing at the lotus pond outside, speaking softly. Her gaze fixed on an invisible point in the air as if looking at someone both far away and close at hand.

Li Shubai watched her from outside the window, thinking of Yu Xuan who had promised to wait for her in Yizhou.

Yu Xuan.

A rather complex person, difficult to describe.

He was suspected of murder, possibly connected to her parents’ deaths, yet he was pure-hearted, helping orphaned children without seeking recognition; he was an orphan who strived for self-improvement, yet he degraded himself by daring to have entanglements with women like Noble Consort Guo. If one said he liked Huang Zixia, why did he submit her love letter as evidence of guilt, insisting she was the killer; if one said he hated her, why did he truly abandon his prospects to return to Yizhou to wait for her to clear her name?

Huang Zixia and Jing Qu had already seen him and quickly stood up to walk out, awaiting his instructions.

He gestured for her to follow, and they walked together along the willow-shaded path by the lotus pond.

The lotus breeze came gently, lifting the hems of their clothes, occasionally brushing lightly against each other before immediately separating.

Li Shubai stopped walking, standing in the willow shade gazing at a perfectly bloomed red lotus nearby, and finally set aside that thought, not mentioning Yu Xuan’s matter.

“There’s something I want to show you,” he said, leading her toward the Yubing Pavilion.

This was a warm pavilion, though now in the hot weather, he no longer stayed here. When they entered, the stuffy heat inside instantly reminded them both of Princess Tongchang’s storeroom.

Li Shubai took out the nine-grid box from the cabinet and opened it, then opened the inner box that resembled a magnolia, took out the charm inside, and handed it to her.

Huang Zixia took it with both hands, her eyes widening in surprise.

On the thick yellowish paper, between the strange background patterns, the six characters “widowed, disabled, orphaned, alone, abandoned, crippled” were still as clear as if just written. And now, besides the originally circled character for “orphaned,” another faint red circle had appeared, marking the character for “abandoned.”

Decline and abandonment, that is waste.

That red circle, its color still faint, seemed to have just emerged from the paper. But the way it painted someone’s fate so vividly as if carrying the scent of blood, made one shudder.

Huang Zixia looked up at him in shock, her voice trembling involuntarily: “My Lord… when did this appear?”

“Unknown. Since the matter of establishing the consort passed and the red circle marking ‘widowed’ faded, I’ve been busy with affairs and haven’t thought of it again. Until a few days ago when I felt uneasy and suddenly thought of it, so I took it out to look.” His hand pressed on the charm paper, and his expression seemed bewildered but not fearful, “It seems another inevitable storm is about to surge around me.”

Huang Zixia asked: “Who has been in and out of Yubing Pavilion recently?”

“Many people, from Jing Yu and Jing You to gardeners and servants, and during the days I wasn’t here after the patrol guards passed through if someone wanted to sneak in, there would always be a way,” Li Shubai frowned slightly, saying, “The range of suspects is too large, it would be difficult to investigate each one.”

“Yes, it would be better to have another breakthrough point,” she nodded.

“Let’s wait until we return from Yizhou,” he put the charm back in the box, since it couldn’t be prevented anyway, he casually placed it behind him.

Huang Zixia frowned at the box, saying: “Actually, at first, I thought the method of stealing the Nine-Phoenix Hairpin from the Princess’s mansion would be similar to how the red circles appear and disappear on this charm.”

“I never let anyone else handle the opening and closing of this box.”

Huang Zixia nodded, saying: “Yes, so how the culprit did it, and who did it… I still have no clue.”

“Since it has given me an omen, I shall face this omen,” Li Shubai’s features were stern, speaking with extreme calmness, “I want to see whether it’s a piece of paper that controls my fate, or I who grasps my own life.”

Huang Zixia gazed at him with reverence. In the summer’s backlight, he stood before this charm that marked his fate, yet straight and tall, like a jade mountain that had stood for tens of thousands of years, gleaming brilliantly, too dazzling to look at directly, never wavering or crumbling.

She looked at him, saying softly: “Still, it’s best to be careful in everything.”

He nodded, locked the box back in the cabinet, then casually took out the Zhang family’s scroll, opened it to look at the scribbles, saying: “Also, I think the true nature of this painting is definitely not the so-called three ways of death scribbles.”

“Yes, that was just us joking about the painting, forcing connections,” Huang Zixia sighed, “Who knew Lu Zhiyuan would be inspired by our jest then, trying to link this case with the late emperor’s last writing to confuse matters.”

“From a certain perspective, he was also an admirable old man,” As Li Shubai walked out with her, he remembered something else and mentioned casually, “There’s another admirable person—Empress Wang has returned to the palace.”

Huang Zixia was slightly surprised, saying: “The Empress moved very quickly.”

“The court and people are all dissatisfied with Noble Consort Guo, especially now that she’s lost even Princess Tongchang, her only support, how can she stop the Empress’s return to the palace? Moreover…”

He turned back to look at her, his eyes full of meaning: “This time, it was Noble Consort Guo who requested the Emperor to let the Empress return.”

The reason, of course, was that the Empress had already pressured her.

There were rumors in the streets that Noble Consort Guo frequently visited the Princess’s mansion and had an affair with Prince Consort Wei Baoheng, and she showed no restraint.

When a woman falls in love with a youth as young as her daughter, it’s like a wildfire catching the plains, sweeping across the sky, unbridled. Even when he coldheartedly burned the letters she wrote at great risk, she remained unrepentant.

And now, Princess Tongchang who had helped cover for them was dead, and her chances to meet Yu Xuan would become very rare. This unknown romance that ended before it began would be forever buried in their hearts, leaving only that one sentence as a noose around her neck, ready at any moment to drag her into the abyss.

She could never be a match for Empress Wang, in any aspect.

“It’s good that Empress Wang is back. Princess Tongchang’s tomb exceeds regulations, and the court is in an uproar over this matter again. I have no time to look into this, I don’t know if the newly returned Empress can suppress this matter.”

Huang Zixia asked in surprise: “My Lord has no time?”

In her impression, he was always well-organized, how could he possibly not have time to handle such matters?

Li Shubai turned his head to look at her, his gaze deep and distant: “Naturally, I also don’t want to manage it. Sometimes I think, perhaps when the person one treasures most encounters trouble, whether commoner or royal, everyone becomes unable to control themselves, doing things that no one can stop.”

So the Emperor would ignore the court officials’ objections and stubbornly build grandly for his daughter, using the most magnificent funeral rites to express his grief.

So Lu Zhiyuan, that stubborn and weak old man, would painstakingly plot to kill all those who had hurt his daughter, never hesitating even in the face of death by a thousand cuts.

Between a princess who received countless favors yet couldn’t get what she truly wanted, and a commoner girl who had a difficult life yet had someone willing to sacrifice everything for her, who would be the happier one?

“I wonder if I will have a daughter in the future, and what she will be like,” Li Shubai suddenly said, gazing at the lotus leaves and flowers swaying in the wind.

Huang Zixia said softly: “There are many who dote on their children in this world. I think His Majesty must have felt that he presented all the best things in the world before Princess Tongchang, that his daughter would surely have the happiest and most perfect life… but unfortunately, he was wrong.”

Li Shubai nodded, reflecting: “Everyone thinks the Emperor loved Princess Tongchang like a precious jewel, that her life must have been without flaw, but in fact, who could see her life riddled with wounds?”

Her father doted on her extremely, yet never knew what she wanted. When she was young and cut her hand on broken porcelain, she forever lost her toys. He gave her countless treasures, yet deprived her of childhood joy.

Her mother used her as a stepping stone for her position, even dragging her in as a shield when committing outrageous acts, covering up her unspeakable secret with Yu Xuan. Yet after her death, her first thought was to kill everyone around her to keep her secret.

Just because a man on the ball court gave her a dashing smile, she chose Wei Baoheng as her husband, not knowing he would covet the power she brought while being infatuated with another woman who was inferior to her in every way.

“So, having never experienced life in a normal family, that’s why she met with Qian Guansuo again and again. Perhaps only from him could she get something she forever lacked.”

The long-forgotten porcelain dog, the worldly experiences she never had, the father-daughter feelings of common people she never felt, made her unable to resist meeting with Qian Guansuo repeatedly. Because in all her life, she had never seen these things.

A princess trapped between golden pillars and jade walls, no one understood her barren, impoverished heart. Because of her unhappiness, her father piled more treasures around her, not knowing what his daughter needed might have been just a small porcelain dog from a street corner.

Li Shubai was silent for a long time, then suddenly let out a long breath, as if talking to himself: “I wonder what kind of father I will be in the future.”

Huang Zixia said quietly: “Best not… to be like His Majesty, extremely doting on his daughter, yet not knowing what she truly wants.”

Because broken porcelain once cut his daughter’s finger, he banned all porcelain from appearing near her. But he didn’t understand that sometimes what his daughter needed was just a crude porcelain dog commonly found in the market, not the mansion he built up with gold, silver, pearls, and jade.

“Also not like Lu Zhiyuan, silent and stubborn, not knowing how to nurture his delicate daughter, thinking it shameful for a man to show tenderness, allowing his rough attitude to hurt his daughter day after day.

“Not like Qian Guansuo, who abandoned his daughter in the most difficult times, then sought her out again when circumstances improved, thinking things could be the same as before, completely ignoring the irreparable rift.”

Li Shubai turned to look at her, asking: “Then, what kind of good father do you have in mind?”

Huang Zixia fell silent, thinking of that person who secretly watched her under the courtyard trees when she was young. That person who casually mentioned in front of her how other people’s daughters would make shoes for their fathers by hand, yet behind her back, boasted to everyone that his daughter was worth more than ten sons of others—her father.

That was her father, in her youth, she had thought her father ordinary and commonplace, never likely to achieve anything great in his lifetime, she had thought he was probably just like other people’s fathers.

However, today, her eyes finally welled up with tears as she told him: “The best father I’ve ever seen in the world was my father.”

Li Shubai looked down at her, saying nothing.

In his heart, he also thought of the person who left forever when he was thirteen. He had been his childhood’s towering mountain, he felt he could hide forever under those vast, protective wings, never seeing wind or rain.

Now, they had both become orphans.

In this world, they could never rely on others again, and could only walk forward step by step on their own, whether facing storms or brilliant sunshine ahead.