The summer night sky was clear as if washed, with stars embedded in the heavens, emerald green and enormous.

Huang Zixia returned to Prince Kui’s mansion by starlight and moonlight, and sure enough, Li Shubai was still reading in his study.

Four phoenix-winged octagonal palace lanterns blazed brilliantly overhead. He had changed into a plain gauze robe, its pure white flowing softly over his form, appearing extraordinarily clean in the current lamplight, like snow fallen across a thousand mountains.

His quiet and clear demeanor in this still night made Huang Zixia’s previously unsettled heart instantly return to its place.

She passed through the curtains and quietly walked to sit before him, kneeling.

Without raising his head, he asked, “Did Wang Yun grow suspicious of you?”

She nodded and asked, “Your Highness already knew?”

“I didn’t know,” he closed the book in his hand and set it aside, saying, “but hearing mansion staff say Wang Yun invited you to meet, I sent a blank letter just in case.”

Huang Zixia silently nodded, understanding his meaning was that this blank letter could rescue her if there was trouble and if not, she could ignore it.

“Wang Yun… he already knows I am Huang Zixia.”

“After all, you are his fiancée, and a fiancée who brought him great shame and humiliation, so he’s bound to be more sensitive,” Li Shubai said calmly, as if nothing was amiss. “If he saw a eunuch who looked similar to Huang Zixia and didn’t care at all, that would be strange.”

“But there might be trouble later.”

“There won’t be any more trouble, because I will help you resolve it,” Li Shubai said. Though his tone was light and casual, his words carried an indisputable force.

Huang Zixia nodded, and because of this one sentence from him, suddenly felt all the anxiety and palpitations caused by Wang Yun dissipate. The storm she had sensed approaching in her premonition also dissolved into nothingness at this moment.

She lowered her head contentedly, smiling slightly.

In the long night’s silence, the two sat facing each other. Li Shubai, sitting before her, looked up to see her downturned face. The palace lanterns on the table cast a faint rosy glow on her features, and through her jade-white cheeks showed a hint of peach blossom color, delicate and soft, as if in this dark night, an unknown spring day was quietly blooming beside him.

He saw the lamplight quiver like water waves on her eyelashes, and immediately turned away his gaze, directing his eyes to the table before she could see him, where in the glass vase, the little red fish was sleeping motionlessly.

As if to break this silence, Li Shubai changed the subject: “What about what I mentioned earlier, about giving me an explanation?”

Huang Zixia instantly recalled what Li Shubai had said to her at the ball game field today. She had helped someone who Li Shubai had dismissed from the honor guard, which meant she was secretly working against him, practically not taking her master seriously at all.

She suddenly felt pressure a hundred times greater than when facing Wang Yun, her breath catching for a moment before she said softly: “Your Highness is my master, to you I owe loyalty; Zhang Xingying is my friend, to him I owe righteousness. Though loyalty and righteousness are hard to fulfill together, Zhang Xingying has shown me kindness, and I must maintain propriety by repaying that kindness… so after thinking it through, I could only help him first.”

“So, your relationship with them is closer, and by comparison, I am more distant, is that right?” Li Shubai glanced at her, saying slowly, “Huang Zixia, you truly understand sentiment and righteousness, clearly distinguishing between close and distant relationships.”

Huang Zixia instantly felt cold sweat seeping from her back, and instinctively defended herself: “Your Highness’s kindness to me is as heavy as mountains, Huang Zixia probably cannot repay it in this lifetime… while what I owe Zhang Xingying, I can repay.”

Li Shubai watched her in the lamplight, seeing her constantly keeping her head down submissively, appearing guilty and uncomfortable, the lamplight playing across her features, rippling faintly as if covered by a restless gauze veil.

Only then did he slowly say: “Actually, I have no interest in questioning what Zhang Xingying does. I just don’t like people acting behind my back.”

She quickly bowed her head to acknowledge her mistake. He then changed the subject, asking: “Is there any progress with the Jianfu Temple matter?”

Huang Zixia hurriedly recounted everything she had seen at Jianfu Temple today, then demonstrated with gestures: “That iron wire was about two feet long, not straight, with a semicircular curve at the rusted end. The straight end seemed to have been tempered, with a slight dark gleam.”

“I’ll go to the Court of Judicial Review tomorrow to look at it,” Li Shubai said, then looked at her again, saying, “Also, today I promised Princess Tongchang to let you investigate the strange occurrences around her, but actually, you need not be too tense. Though she is a princess, you are from my household and not under her command. Your involvement in this case is just helping the Court of Judicial Review and has nothing to do with her. So if she makes excessive demands, you can defer to Cui Chunzhan.”

Huang Zixia silently mourned for Cui Chunzhan while responding: “Yes.”

“And the biggest question is—” Li Shubai said, “these two matters, do the deaths of the Prince Consort and the eunuch Wei Ximin at Jianfu Temple have any connection?”

“What happened at the ball game field, yet it’s so complicated, so…” At first, she truly didn’t want to get involved in this trouble. Huang Zixia thought to herself, looking helplessly at Li Shubai, asking with her eyes, didn’t you also not want to get involved in this at first?

Li Shubai clearly saw her confusion but didn’t speak, only tapping his fingers lightly on the table twice, as if considering something, but finally pulled open a drawer and took out a paper to hand to her, still without speaking.

Huang Zixia took it puzzledly, concentrating on the characters written there.

Shu Prefecture candidate Yu Xuan came to the capital last month to prepare for examinations, serving as an assistant at the Imperial Academy, helping explain the Zhou Rites. Princess Tongchang heard of his reputation and invited him to her mansion to lecture on the Zhou Rites. Though Yu firmly declined three times, he was unsuccessful, and now enters the mansion once every five days to give lectures.

The paper contained only a few sentences. Huang Zixia put down the paper, pressing her lips together as she looked at Li Shubai, but didn’t speak.

Li Shubai said lightly: “Regarding this matter, there are quite a few rumors in the marketplace.”

Huang Zixia, who had managed to stay relatively calm when first seeing the connection between Yu Xuan and the Princess’s mansion, finally showed a slight change in expression.

Regarding the marketplace rumors about Princess Tongchang and Yu Xuan… what kind of rumors do they go without saying?

“Unexpected, isn’t it, that he would become involved with the Princess’s mansion,” Li Shubai didn’t look at her, leisurely taking a sip of tea, his gaze falling on the quiet little fish in the glass cup, “I hear that though he is young, his scholarship is very solid, often having his unique insights into the ancient sages’ writings. Moreover, his conduct and studies are both very proper, and all the professors, teaching assistants, and instructors at the Imperial Academy praise him endlessly.”

Huang Zixia stood in the lamplight, silent for a long while, not speaking.

“Regarding this… ” he considered for a moment before continuing, “sworn brother of yours, what do you plan to do?”

Huang Zixia said softly: “He now firmly believes that I am the murderer who killed the whole family, hating me to the bone. I think… for now we should avoid meeting if we can.”

“There’s one thing I find very strange,” Li Shubai put down his teacup, his gaze slowly falling on her, thoughtful, “He spent many years with you, and you were close to each other’s hearts. He should know better than anyone what kind of person you are, so why would he insist on believing you are the murderer?”

Huang Zixia silently gazed at him, for a long, long time, before saying softly: “Both his parents died, and later my father adopted him. Last year, he passed the provincial examinations in Shu, and by law, the court provided him with a house and servants. The first night he moved in at my parents’ urging, it snowed all night. The next morning when I went to see him, I found someone standing outside the Commander’s mansion wall covered in snow, and looking carefully, it was… Yu Xuan, frozen until his whole body was cold.”

When she reached this point, her voice couldn’t help but tremble, and it took a long while before she suppressed her breathing and continued with difficulty: “He said he couldn’t get used to his new residence, it felt like he had no home anymore, so, sleepless at midnight, he simply braved the snow to walk to our door, but was too embarrassed to come in, could only stand outside for a while, feeling that being even an inch closer to us was good…”

Li Shubai saw tears in her eyes, as if she was still that Huang Zixia living happily in the Commander’s mansion, her eyes gazing blankly at a point in space where there was clearly nothing, yet she seemed to be looking at her most beautiful years, that time of her maidenhood that had already forever passed and could never return.

Yu Xuan had run through her entire girlhood, which was the most important and beautiful part of her memories from that time.

He turned away his gaze, lowering his voice to say in the most calm tone: “It sounds like he was very attached to you all.”

“Yes… his regard for our family was greater than anyone else in the world—so, it’s also harder for him to forgive me, who destroyed what he valued most.”

“Besides this?” Li Shubai asked again.

She hesitated for a moment, turning her gaze to him.

His expression was calm, his ten fingers interlaced with his chin resting on them, his gaze dark as he pressed her: “Besides this, there must be something else that convinced him you were the murderer.”

Huang Zixia gently bit her lower lip, and after a long while, finally said in a trembling voice: “A letter… I wrote him a letter.”

“What did it say?”

Though much time had passed, Huang Zixia still remembered the contents clearly. She slowly recited the most crucial words from it—

“The case I investigated in Longzhou the other day has come to light, the two were truly dying for love, the so-called murderer was just one who failed to die in their suicide pact, living on in shame. In my sighing reflection, my heart boils, thinking if you and I were in such a situation, would I also be able to abandon my family and set foot on a path of no return?”

As he listened to her speak each word of the love letter she had once written to another, Li Shubai’s fingers holding the glass cup unconsciously tightened. He forcibly suppressed the dark tide surging in his heart and slowly asked: “When was this written?”

“Just… two days before my family’s bloody incident.”

“This is the letter Yu Xuan presented to the officials after your family’s incident?”

“Yes…”

“The evidence of guilt is conclusive, isn’t it?” A cold smile appeared at the corner of his lips, his gaze sharper than a blade’s edge, “The letter you wrote with your hand is your greatest evidence of guilt.”

Huang Zixia clenched her jaw, not speaking.

What she had done with her own hands was beyond remedy, she didn’t want to defend herself, nor could she.

Deep in the night, the tree shadows lay thick. The moon had been covered by clouds, and except for the lamplight shining on them, all they could see was darkness.

Li Shubai stroked the glass cup, pondering for a long while before looking at her and slowly speaking: “The grievances between you and Yu Xuan, I shouldn’t interfere. Take care of yourself.”

She raised her head to look at Li Shubai before her, in the lamplight he gleamed coldly, light shifting across him, making him appear especially resolute and cold.

She silently bowed, preparing to withdraw.

“Oh right, there’s something I need to tell you,” Li Shubai added, “Compared to Princess Tongchang and Yu Xuan, there’s another person you need to keep in mind—from the Supreme Palace, someone sent word today requesting your immediate audience.”

Huang Zixia was startled and asked: “Now?”

“It’s too late today, tomorrow then,” Li Shubai said, “Since she has business with you, you probably can’t leave the capital anytime soon, and what she will entrust you with must be related to Noble Consort Guo and Princess Tongchang, so I think it might be necessary for you to stay in the capital and handle this case.”

“Yes.”

He gazed at her with calm, deep eyes, saying: “Recently Noble Consort Guo has been making frequent moves, her intentions as clear as daylight. The Empress summoning you must be about this matter.”

Huang Zixia silently nodded, listening as he continued: “I hope you know your capabilities. If you cannot complete it, there’s no need to force yourself, I will step in when the time comes.”

She nodded again, but stubbornly said: “I will do it well.”

The corner of his lips lifted slightly in a mocking smile as he said: “How presumptuous.”