Older people need little sleep. The sky had barely begun to lighten when Hua Yizheng rose. Seeing light from the study, he thought nothing of it — his eldest son sometimes arrived at the study before him.

When he pushed open the door and took in the scene before him, the ease on his face drained away at once. He stepped briskly inside and asked, “What has happened?”

Hua Zhi came back to herself. Seeing it was her grandfather, she moved to rise and pay her respects — but she had been kneeling for so long that her legs had gone entirely numb, and instead of rising she tumbled back down.

Shao Yao hurried over to help. Hua Yizheng followed and, gesturing for Shao Yao to support her to a chair, asked again, “What has happened?”

Hua Zhi’s mind had grown somewhat slow. She rubbed her temple. “Yanxi has gone to investigate. Once it is confirmed, I will tell you.”

Hua Yizheng looked at the map and knew the matter was no small thing. He pressed no further. “Up all night? Go back to your room and rest properly.”

Hua Zhi nodded. After Shao Yao had worked her legs back to feeling, she let Shao Yao support her back to her room.

Yet rest was not to be had that day. She had barely slept two hours when Wu Yong arrived. She had told Shao Yao earlier to wake her if anyone came — Shao Yao shot Wu Yong a glare, then another, but in the end she stepped into the room and roused Hua Hua. She knew that what lay before them was no small matter.

“General Wu, Yanxi—”

Wu Yong cut her off. “I know. Last night the Shizi had someone inform me of the situation.”

He knew, and he had still come — which meant he had come for her. Hua Zhi nodded. “General Wu, please speak.”

“I have released everyone from my inner household.”

Hua Zhi was taken aback. She had not expected Wu Yong to act so decisively.

“From the principal members down to the servants — all released. My inner household now probably doesn’t even have a female mosquito left.”

“General Wu, you have toppled an entire boat with a single sweep. Those women are rather innocent in this.”

Wu Yong glanced at Shao Yao — whether he was explaining to Hua Zhi or speaking for Shao Yao’s benefit was unclear. “There is a black market in Yinshan Pass. I wonder whether you are aware of it, Miss.”

“I have heard of it.”

“To say I am completely clean in this position of mine would be impossible — but I have always considered myself no extortionist. I took the tacitly permitted share and stretched my hand no further. What last night’s investigation revealed was that others had been doing the stretching in my place. The people of my inner household and that black market had long since formed a single web. They used my name to provide convenience for the market’s operators, and in return received enormous sums.”

Wu Yong gave a cold smile. “Innocent? No, not at all. They can leave Yinshan Pass with the considerable wealth they accumulated and go anywhere they please to begin anew — marry handsomely, bear children in comfort. The household has produced no children all these years, and they have all attributed the fault to me. When I announced this morning that I would release them, not a single one said she wished to stay. They were glad to go — my decision suited them perfectly.”

“But they may not be able to bear children after all.”

Both Hua Zhi and Wu Yong turned to look at Shao Yao, who had once again delivered a stunning statement with a perfectly blank face.

Shao Yao blinked. “The same substance administered to you affects them equally. The more favored among them — the effect is more severe. Definitely unable to conceive. The others may still have a chance, but it will be considerably harder than for most.”

Wu Yong covered his face and laughed — and the small kernel of bitterness dissolved away with it. When he had said what he said this morning, there had been, in part, an element of testing. If anyone had voluntarily chosen to stay, he would not have treated her badly. But none had — not a single one — and some had even seemed to exhale with relief. They had wanted to leave long ago.

Of course they had — they had gathered enough to go and live well.

Shao Yao sidled up to him. “Are you alright? Don’t be in such a hurry — this medicine I can reverse.”

Wu Yong lowered his hands. His eyes held the moisture of something laughed out — in Shao Yao’s reading, it appeared as grief. She gave his shoulder a pat, brisk and full of spirit: “Once I have cleared that medicine from your system, go marry ten or twenty more, have dozens of children, and infuriate every last one of those barren women.”

“…” Wu Yong laughed again — this time with genuine joy. He had never, before now, contemplated simply driving everyone from his inner household. Even after his heart had stirred for Shao Yao, even after understanding exactly what stood between him and her, he had never made such a plan. They had all followed him in the flower of their youth. They had given him their finest years. How could he be so ruthless?

Yet the people he had not wished to wrong had been ruthless to the marrow — all that past innocence, all that past beauty, rotted away by the corrosion of gold without a trace remaining.

Still, through an unintended chain of events, the obstacle between him and Shao Yao had been cleared. He had earned the right to pursue.

Only now… how fervently he had once hoped that Shao Yao would not awaken to the ways of love — that was exactly how fervently he now hoped she would come to recognize and accept it.

“No need to smile quite so much.” Shao Yao muttered. She was acutely attuned to emotion and knew perfectly well the difference between his two bursts of laughter. Seeing that Wu Yong was alright, she drifted back to Hua Hua’s side and murmured a private word in her ear: “Did he go mad with rage?”

Hua Zhi cut her a sidelong glance, took hold of her, and would not let her step forward again — and said nothing to tell her that Wu Yong was not mad with rage, but truly glad. As for what he was glad about, she would rather not know.

“Did General Wu come only to tell me of this?”

“Yes.” Wu Yong did not flinch. “For me, this matter was important.”

Shao Yao gazed at him with a pitying expression. A whole courtyard full of beauties, all gone — that did seem rather important.

Wu Yong’s cheek twitched. He very nearly declared himself on the spot, but he forced the impulse back down at once. At a moment like this, the idea that Shao Yao might accept him was nothing short of laughable — she would more likely accuse him of bad faith.

Hua Zhi had no wish to watch Wu Yong’s conspicuously calculating expression any longer, and was just about to show him out when she heard Jia Yang announce from outside, “I request an audience.”

“Come in.”

Jia Yang spotted Wu Yong and showed no surprise. He saluted him and said, “We went to the garrison commander’s residence first. When you were not there, we guessed you had come here.”

He was looking for Wu Yong? Wu Yong’s manner sobered at once. “Has Zuo Ling’s identity been confirmed through interrogation?”

“Yes. She has been confirmed to be a remnant of the Chaoli people.”

For a long moment, Wu Yong was speechless. A remnant of the Chaoli people had been hiding within his own household — and though Zuo Ling had not been favored, she had still been in the household for five years. He could not…he simply could not…

Hua Zhi took up the thread. “And the false eunuch?”

“Her too. The Seven Lodges Division has already moved to arrest her.”

Hua Zhi thought for a moment, then turned abruptly to Wu Yong. “Have you looked into that physician’s background?”

“The physician never detected that I had been poisoned. He was simply bought off by Zuo Ling.” Wu Yong at last found a thread to address Shao Yao with. “Is that substance very difficult to detect?”

“Yes — an ordinary physician would not be able to identify it. I have particular expertise in toxins and have made a specific study of such things to know the signs.”

Hua Zhi pretended not to see Wu Yong’s scheming and cut into the conversation. “Jia Yang — see if the Seven Lodges Division can trace the vine to find more fruit. We have already pulled out two with this single sweep, and I am deeply concerned about whether there is a third in Yinshan Pass.”

“Yes.”

Author’s Note: As promised — three updates. Is the plot too dry? These chapters are a turning point.