Changqiu Palace was like a crystal fortress embedded deep in seafloor rocks, silently watching the changing currents around it, yet remaining consistently tranquil and peaceful. Seeing Shaoshang both exhausted and covered in wounds, the Empress indeed asked nothing, only methodically summoning the imperial physicians and having Madam Zhai arrange bathing and a change of clothes.

After re-bandaging the wounds on her shoulders and back, Shaoshang ate nothing and lay down directly. Her body and consciousness both seemed to soak into deep water of suitable temperature, with hazy, indistinct scenes flashing dizzying fragments of light through her mind. Shaoshang felt she might be dreaming of something very important, yet it also seemed nothing had happened at all.

When she woke again, more than half the afternoon had passed.

The Empress still asked no questions, only concerned herself with Shaoshang’s food, forcing her to consume more porridge and soup.

Shaoshang took a bite with no appetite, looked at the Empress, lowered her head, and took another bite.

The Empress’s heart was clear as she said gently: “Rest assured. Zicheng has already been brought up. Injuries were inevitable, but none are in vital areas and can heal. It’s you yourself—in just a few days you’ve lost a whole circle of weight. Women are better when plumper, otherwise how can they bear children? In the future, you and Zicheng…”

Shaoshang suddenly raised her head, tears in her eyes, her expression utterly resolute.

The Empress froze, as if understanding something: “You, you and Zicheng…”

Looking at the Empress’s kind face, Shaoshang was filled with shame: “Your Majesty, he deployed troops without authorization—it truly harmed the Crown Prince terribly! Yet I still defended him before His Majesty…”

The Empress slowly waved her hand, not letting her continue: “I’ve tasted enough of being manipulated by others since childhood—they tell you to be gentle and yielding, so you must be gentle and yielding; they tell you to marry a man with a wife, so you must marry a man with a wife. When did anyone ever ask if I was willing? When men act outside, how can women control them? Shaoshang, how could I not know your suffering?”

Shaoshang’s eyes moistened as she quietly lowered her head to drink porridge.

“There’s something you don’t yet know.” The Empress said. “Last night… oh, actually it was this morning before dawn. The Third Prince forcibly broke into Prince Ruyang’s villa, captured Chunyu Shi and her children for interrogation. The old princess was furious and kept shouting about filing an imperial complaint…”

Shaoshang made a sound of surprise.

“…But she didn’t succeed. Two hours later, the Third Prince found ironclad evidence of Ling Yi’s collaboration with the enemy and treason from sixteen years ago.” The Empress added the second half.

“So fast!” Shaoshang nearly dropped her spoon—she had thought that after threats and enticements, it would take at least ten days to half a month.

“Did Third Prince use harsh torture?” This was her first reaction.

The Empress smiled slightly: “No torture was used.”

Shaoshang’s admiration arose spontaneously: “Wow, I really didn’t see that Third Prince had such eloquence.”

“The third prince didn’t waste words with Chunyu Shi either.” The Empress smiled faintly.

Though the Third Prince had an impatient temperament, he wasn’t careless. On the contrary, he was perceptive and observant. After Shaoshang pointed him toward Chunyu Shi, he took action like an arrow.

First he suddenly asked Chunyu Shi if she had evidence of Ling Yi’s crimes. Chunyu Shi’s instantly changed expression gave the Third Prince more confidence. After throwing Chunyu Shi to his trusted subordinates for slow interrogation, he directly began searching for evidence himself.

Searching for evidence without leads seemed like finding a needle in a haystack, but in reality there were traces to follow. Chunyu Shi’s lips were sealed, but her servants weren’t necessarily so. The Third Prince dispatched all his advisors and clerks to separately interrogate them.

In just an hour, Chunyu Shi’s character, conduct, and behavioral patterns revealed clues—aside from the sensational severance case from years ago, in every other respect Chunyu Shi was just an ordinary high-born woman. Ling Yi had neither given her much wealth nor allocated her many people to command, so she couldn’t possibly have extended influence far and wide like Madam Xiao.

Though she had several friendly women, because of her humble origins and her relationship with Madam Huo, Chunyu Shi wasn’t particularly close to them either. Over more than ten years, the only person truly intimate with Chunyu Shi was old Princess Ruyang.

At this point, the Third Prince made the decisive call—with no natal family, no personal power base, where would such a woman without support hide life-preserving secrets? It must be within arm’s reach! But it couldn’t be hidden in the Ling household, because Ling Yi was meticulous and careful and would eventually find it.

So everyone turned their attention to the old princess who met with Chunyu Shi ten times a month. But Prince Ruyang’s mansion was already vast, plus the villas, estates, and Taoist temples—searching everything thoroughly would take nearly two months.

“Then how was it found so quickly?” Shaoshang was both puzzled and curious. “Where was it found?”

The Empress said: “Right inside a statue of Nüwa in the old princess’s room.”

Just when everyone was at a loss, it was still the Third Prince who perceived human nature.

Though Prince Ruyang’s mansion was vast, Chunyu Shi couldn’t just hide it anywhere—what if mansion servants lost it? Therefore, that evidence must have passed before the old princess’s eyes openly, and it couldn’t be just an ordinary flattering gift, or what if the old princess didn’t take it seriously and regifted it to someone else?

Thus, in the mountain of gifts Chunyu Shi had sent to the mansion over the years, the Third Prince noticed that Nüwa statue.

First, this was something Chunyu Shi had obtained from some shrine over ten years ago when the old princess was gravely ill, to pray for her recovery. Second, after the old princess recovered, she regarded this Nüwa statue as divine, burning incense and kowtowing before it daily, never parting with it. Third, Chunyu Shi’s maternal grandfather was a bricklayer, and the family also operated a pottery kiln…

The Third Prince, disregarding the old princess’s heart-rending struggles, shouts, and threats on her life, resolutely seized that foot-tall ceramic Nüwa statue and smashed it heavily on the ground—inside was actually a thick roll of silk letters, precisely the ironclad evidence of Ling Yi’s correspondence with enemy bandits all those years ago!

“Lucky he found the evidence! If the statue had been empty inside, the old princess would have fought the Third Prince to the death!” Shaoshang clicked her tongue.

But the Empress said: “Where in the world is there absolute certainty? For a great man to establish himself in the world, whether deploying troops or reading human hearts, if he dares not take any risks at all, wouldn’t that be timid and invite ridicule?”

Shaoshang heard the Empress’s implication and looked up at her: “Your Majesty, you detected early on that Lord Zicheng was not loyal to the Crown Prince, didn’t you?”

The Empress gazed into empty space, saying lightly: “Not so much detected as I’ve seen much—the so-called phoenix must roost in parasol trees. Zicheng is a phoenix, but the Crown Prince is not a parasol tree. The second prince is even less so. The third prince is…”

Shaoshang felt pained and told about the Dongbai Mausoleum incident, adding: “Actually Lord Zicheng became acquainted with the Third Prince earlier, which is why he’s so loyal to Third Prince…”

“I see.” The Empress sank into memories. “I was somewhat suspicious at the time. If he accidentally fell into water, why was Zicheng only wearing undergarments? The Crown Prince said perhaps Zicheng was young and playful and went into the water himself. But I knew Zicheng was mature beyond his years and wouldn’t take unnecessary risks. Even if he couldn’t swim and still went into water, he would have someone watching nearby or tie a rope around himself… Sigh, the Crown Prince is just like that. In perceiving human hearts and acting decisively, he’s far inferior to the third prince.”

Shaoshang said quietly: “Please don’t speak of the Crown Prince that way. The Crown Prince is kind and good-hearted, just…”

“What a ruler needs most is not kindness and good-heartedness, but clear rewards and punishments.” The Empress said decisively. “What is the way of ruler and minister? It’s that ministers brave fire and water for their ruler, sacrificing life and forgetting death; while the ruler trusts and values them, protecting and rewarding them.”

“These past two days, the third prince has run east and west without avoiding suspicion—going to the Ministry of Justice, interrogating soldiers, breaking into the prince’s mansion, pressuring the imperial uncle—and before the throne he spoke for Zicheng regardless of consequences, provoking who knows how much gossip, saying the third prince and Zicheng had long conspired together… But I know that in the eyes of those with discernment, this kind of sovereign is a good sovereign. If it were me, I’d also be willing to risk my life for a lord like the third prince.”

“Just like Prince Qian’an’s household back then—uncle had far more troops, prestige and reputation than His Majesty, yet in many ministers’ hearts, His Majesty was the enlightened ruler worth serving. Otherwise, when uncle later plotted rebellion, half his advisors and generals wouldn’t have refused to follow.”

Shaoshang knew the Empress spoke the truth, and her heart ached even more.

The chill of early spring hadn’t passed, and the sun set early. After just these few exchanges, outside was pitch black again. At this moment Cen Anzhi suddenly came in person to relay a message, saying the Emperor had told the Empress she could go over now.

Seeing Shaoshang’s puzzled expression, the Empress said: “I told His Majesty that when Zicheng woke up, he should let me go over. You should come along too.”

Shaoshang didn’t want to go and hesitated: “Lord Ling…”

“He has the surname Huo now. His Majesty originally wanted him to change back to his birth name Wushang, but Zicheng insisted on keeping Buyi—to comfort the departed Madam Huo and that poor child who died in his place.” The Empress said.

Shaoshang felt a wave of melancholy—A Li had taken A Zheng’s name, so A Zheng escaped death and continued living in this world with A Li’s name. She steadied herself and said softly: “Isn’t the Crown Prince going?”

The Empress said: “I told him to stay in the Eastern Palace these few days and not come out, not to get involved in anything… Sigh, he couldn’t get involved anyway.”

Shaoshang rode in the phoenix palanquin with the Empress. In the pitch-black palace lanes, lamp shadows layered upon each other. She felt as if in a dream—this scene seemed bizarre and fantastic as if imagined. Tonight’s palace seemed especially solemn and quiet. Palace maids and eunuchs shuttled back and forth soundlessly, without expression, without voice.

The Emperor’s bedchamber was permeated with thick medicinal odors. A large group of imperial physicians still gathered in the outer hall, waiting to be summoned at any moment.

The Empress didn’t enter through the main hall’s front door but was led by a young eunuch through a side hall. After walking about half a quarter-hour, they came to an exquisite, tranquil inner chamber. Thick carpets covered the floor, making footfalls soundless.

Directly opposite the inner chamber hung an enormous floor-length curtain of heavy brocade layered densely upon itself, embroidered with intricate fierce beast patterns, separating inside from outside.

The Empress sat on a low table to the side of the brocade curtain and beckoned to Shaoshang. Shaoshang sat over, and following the Empress’s pointing finger, she saw that between the densely hanging brocade curtains was just a gap that allowed them to see the situation outside.

Shaoshang focused her gaze through that gap. Two people knelt in the center outside—one was the Third Prince, the other was… She felt dizzy and could barely sit still. Earlier the Empress said she’d lost a whole circle of weight. She hadn’t looked in a mirror and didn’t know what losing a circle of weight looked like. Now she knew.

The Third Prince was speaking. Huo Buyi turned slightly to listen.

He wore white silk undergarments inside, with a thick, ink-black fur robe draped over his shoulders. The collar hung loosely open, revealing a chest like hard jade wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. His raven-feather long hair was only bound with a plain, unmarked mutton-fat jade hairpin. His thin, pale face showed a few traces of cold, somber pallor near his temples.

“…Ji Zun found over ten scholars to compare handwriting. That wretch Ling Yi wasn’t born a scholar and couldn’t write in several different styles, so comparison was easy—it’s definitely Ling Yi’s handwriting, no mistake!” The Third Prince was utterly contemptuous. “What can those blind fools say now? Hmph, those who slapped their chests guaranteeing Ling Yi back then are the same ones shrinking away and hiding now!”

“Your Highness, please say less.” Huo Buyi said softly, his voice revealing hoarseness.

“Last night Father Emperor already verified Zicheng’s identity, yet those bastards still chattered endlessly, discussing outside ‘such a vast city, Ling Yi only had a few people—how could he break the city and exterminate the family?’ Nonsense! The so-called thousand-li dike destroyed in a moment—calculating with intent against the unsuspecting, there are plenty of methods!” The Third Prince sneered.

The Emperor also seemed to have aged several years overnight, his expression sorrowful: “A Zheng, before your father died, did he say anything?… Was he killed immediately? You, you tell me in detail.”

Huo Buyi’s heart had long gone numb with pain. Before his eyes flashed the scene of his father, tall as a mountain ridge, collapsing thunderously. In that brief instant, his childhood of paternal kindness, maternal love, and sibling harmony ended.

“By then we’d been besieged for a long time. The city lacked everything—food, warmth, all insufficient. Fortunately, backing onto Xunyang Mountain, the city’s water source remained. That day at noon, A Li came showing off two apricots, saying he wanted to trade clothes with me to go out and play, because aunt always confined him—I hadn’t eaten fresh fruit in a long time, so I agreed.” Huo Buyi’s voice grew lower and lower.

The Emperor’s chest ached dully.

The Huo clan of Feng County had originally been the wealthiest family for miles around. No matter what natural or man-made disasters occurred outside, when had the Huo family ever lacked anything? Yet Huo Chong’s youngest son craved even an apricot—one could see how difficult the siege was then!

In a trance, the Emperor remembered what Huo Chong asked him before departing.

“How long does Your Majesty need this subject to hold off the Barbarian Armor bandits in the rear while you go forth to meet the Azure Tiger Army?”

“One month going, one month returning, half a month deploying troops—all together three months is sufficient!”

“The Azure Tiger Army are mostly greenwood heroes forced to rebel, and several leaders cannot command unanimous respect. This subject believes Your Majesty should not use brute force to eliminate them, but rather fight while pacifying, secretly winning them over—if the three hundred thousand valiant and battle-tested Azure Tiger Army can be taken into Your Majesty’s service, the foundation for conquering the realm will be complete!”

“…Then it would take at least half a year.”

“Then this subject will garrison for half a year!”

—The Emperor covered his aching chest, tiger eyes brimming with tears, wishing he could reverse time. He would rather the pacification of the realm be delayed twenty years than suffer the loss of his sworn brother.

Huo Buyi continued: “A Li and I looked very similar. Wearing my clothes, he swaggered off to play at the drill grounds. I ate one apricot, but thinking Mother said Father also loved apricots, I didn’t eat the second one. I snuck into Father’s study to place the apricot on his desk. Who knew that just after placing it I heard voices outside? In my panic, I hid in the secret compartment behind the bookshelf.”

“The ones who came in were Father and Ling Yi. From their conversation, I learned that Father had been injured on the city wall the day before. Father said it was a minor wound, but actually the injury was serious. To avoid shaking military morale and to prevent Mother from worrying, Father told no one, only having Uncle Li secretly bandage his wound. Who knew Ling Yi would notice? Ling Yi knew some medicine and volunteered to treat Father’s wounds.”

“Father was very impatient with Ling Yi, telling him to hurry up and lead people to the city wall, stop always hiding in the rear. Ling Yi agreed profusely. I watched him standing behind Father, needle by needle suturing Father’s torn wound…” His face showed an expression of agony. “Then something flashed in Ling Yi’s sleeve—a dagger slid out. With one slash he cut Father’s throat. Father couldn’t cry out, could only cover his throat and look at Ling Yi, then collapsed in a pool of blood.”

The Emperor cried out once in grief and wept with his face covered.

“After succeeding, Ling Yi didn’t immediately leave. He searched through Father’s study for a while, then severed Father’s head, hid it in his bosom and slipped away. Before leaving he also set fire to the study. I hid in the secret compartment, thinking I would burn to death. Fortunately those days had been rainy and damp, and Ling Yi wasn’t carrying lamp oil, so only half the study burned.”

“The compartment was built of blue bricks and had ventilation openings extending to the rear, but I was still overcome by smoke and fire. When I woke, outside was completely dark, with sounds of slaughter everywhere, corpses strewn about.” Huo Buyi recalled that nightmarish night—

Bodies and blood everywhere, disheveled maids and servants with severed limbs, why was that beautiful maid who embroidered flowers on his clothes dismembered with her entire body bare, why was that young guard who always thought of entering the military camp missing half his head with entrails spilled everywhere… Where was his mother, his three elder sisters? Oh right, there were also two elder brothers—they were young heroes who would never surrender.

After running for who knows how long, young A Zheng heard sounds of battle from another direction. He turned back and saw Huo Junhua protected by a group of guards, searching everywhere for her son, calling over and over ‘A Li, where is my A Li, where are you…’

At this moment, Huo Junhua saw her nephew wearing A Li’s clothes. He also saw his usually unfriendly aunt. Aunt and nephew stared at each other in stunned silence. A guard, while resisting enemies pressing forward to kill, shouted loudly: “Madam, the young master is found!”

Young Huo Buyi was about to shout ‘Uncle killed Father’ when Huo Junhua suddenly cried out and rushed forward to embrace him tightly, then laughing and crying called out ‘A Li, Mother finally found you, let’s go quickly, the city has fallen!’

He was stunned then. Even if the whole world mistook him for A Li, Aunt absolutely would not! He didn’t know why, but he understood that at that moment he absolutely could not shout the truth, so he let Huo Junhua carry him away.

“That dog-thief Ling Yi—no good at fighting, but brilliant at conspiracies and schemes.” The Third Prince sneered. “We should really make those blind fools look at Ling Yi’s silk letters and learn what ‘flawless calculation’ means!”

To scheme against a solidly defended city, how many people were needed, how much authority? Actually many people thought wrongly—as long as no one was guarding against you, just pouring some poison at key points was enough.

—From the separate accounts of Huo Buyi and the Third Prince, Shaoshang gradually reconstructed the truth from all those years ago.

Huo Chong originally only brought troops, but that city had just been seized from enemy bandits and hearts were unstable, so he could only bring his entire household to the city to demonstrate his resolve to live or die together. After two months of reorganization—finding spies, counting population and grain, demoting corrupt merchants—everyone in the city respected Huo Chong’s character and capabilities.

As the agreed half-year period approached, there was still no news of reinforcements. The city’s troops and horses were exhausted, soldiers wounded and sick in droves, while the two hundred thousand Barbarian Armor troops outside had also lost more than half. At this point both sides had bloodshot eyes. Everyone knew when the city fell, it would be time for massacre, so Ling Yi’s thoughts stirred.

That isolated city had four gates, guarded by Huo Chong’s four great household generals. One Vice General Li happened to be injured and not yet recovered, so Huo Chong showed intent to let Ling Yi take his place. After assassinating Huo Chong, Ling Yi went with Huo Chong’s command tally to take over the gate. The original defender let him through without suspicion.

At this time, Huo household guards had just extinguished the study fire and discovered a headless corpse. The body was burned so badly that clothing and form were hard to identify. The household troops absolutely couldn’t imagine their divinely valiant master being assassinated, so they went to ask Madam Huo to make decisions.

Just as everyone in the Huo mansion’s attention was drawn to the study, Ling Yi opened the gates to the bandits while simultaneously setting fires in multiple places throughout the city, shouting loudly that ‘Huo Chong has abandoned the city and fled’! The Barbarian Armor troops already outnumbered the city’s forces several times over. After entering the city they were like wolves among sheep.

When the defending generals gradually regained composure and calmly deployed to meet the enemy in the city, Ling Yi had the Barbarian Armor troops display Huo Chong’s severed head high. Suddenly leaderless, military morale was utterly lost. The Barbarian Armor troops thus drove straight in, massacring the entire Huo clan!

Huo Buyi said quietly: “Aunt took me to hide in Xunyang Mountain. When escaping the city, I saw Father’s head impaled on the city wall, and beside it was A Li wearing my clothes. Aunt also saw this and wept bitterly, then told others I was frightened, weak with illness, and couldn’t see people. While Ling Yi and General Wu were fighting the enemy outside, she took me and fled in the chaos.”

After all they were husband and wife—Huo Junhua obviously had some awareness. She had originally been looking for her son, but upon reaching outside and seeing the Huo mansion covered in corpses, she finally understood everything. Under the ‘protection’ of Ling household guards, she acknowledged A Zheng.

But Ling Yi knew none of this. He had been hiding in the shadows all along, only relaxing when he saw the Huo family completely exterminated.

He never anticipated that merely half a day later General Wu would arrive—at this time, the Barbarian Armor troops were still immersed in the pleasure of slaughter and plunder, so Ling Yi received the news faster than them.

Ling Yi was quick to seize opportunities. Not only did he immediately return to Xunyang Mountain, he also pretended to General Wu, who had just arrived, to be cowardly and grief-stricken while expressing determination to kill the bandits with his own hands. So he helped General Wu close three city gates, trapping most Barbarian Armor troops inside the city…

Speaking to this point, the Third Prince twitched his lips. “Wu Cheng—Father Emperor knows him. Once he’s on a killing spree, no one can stop him. Normally he fears people calling him unrighteous for massacring cities, but this time it was revenge—he could kill to his heart’s content. In short, the Barbarian Armor troops who entered the city were all killed cleanly, even those who laid down arms and surrendered. The next day, General Wu pursued the Barbarian Armor troops outside the city and won a great victory.”

The matter of colluding with Ling Yi was already secret. Only a few Barbarian Armor chieftains knew of it, and events arose so suddenly there was no time for other arrangements. Ling Yi was also lucky—General Wu killed everyone he saw, and after killing them burned all the Barbarian Armor’s supplies and camps in one fire, so no one could identify his crimes anymore.

By this time, Ling Yi already knew his wife and child had been separated in the chaos. He was extremely anxious. To avoid the Emperor’s wrath, the Ling brothers plotted overnight—the Huo family absolutely could not all be dead while the Ling family remained completely unscathed.

So while General Wu was still fighting at the front, they pushed some of ‘their own people’ into the chaotic troops as well, including the family of a dependent uncle, the entire maternal clan of Ling Er’s wife who had come to seek refuge, the entire sworn brotherhood family of Ling San…

In short, aside from the three Ling brothers, children who remained in Xunyang Mountain, and Ling San’s wife who was fortunately in the countryside for childbirth, the Ling family could also be counted as having ‘completely loyal martyrs.’

“Why didn’t you come find me then!” The Emperor struck the table forcefully.

Huo Buyi smiled miserably: “Your Majesty, if at that time this subject had not been only five or six years old, I certainly would have come directly to file an imperial complaint.” —If young A Zheng then had Huo Buyi’s current wisdom, courage and insight, naturally he would have known to report directly without wasting words.

But he wasn’t.

At only five or six years old then, he was terrified and helpless. Huo Junhua was his only support.

Huo Junhua believed the Emperor and General Wu wouldn’t believe her words. Moreover, if Ling Yi insisted A Zheng was his son, the Emperor certainly wouldn’t indulge her unreasonable behavior. Once Ling Yi rightfully reclaimed his son, wouldn’t A Zheng fall into the traitor’s hands? If Ling Yi wanted to scheme against A Zheng, it would be impossible to guard against.

Only after entering the palace did Huo Buyi gradually understand—he and Huo Junhua had lost the best opportunity to seek redress.

—His appearance had changed, and no one could ever prove whether he was A Zheng or A Li. Those ‘confidants’ who knew of Ling Yi’s collaboration with the enemy had also gradually ‘disappeared’ over two or three years.

He could only endure bitterly, secretly searching for evidence Ling Yi had overlooked.

Sixteen years passed. Huo Buyi and Ling Yi seemed to be in a race. Huo Buyi desperately grew up, year by year expanding his power base for secret investigation, while Ling Yi retracted his claws, year by year checking for omissions and filling gaps, smoothing over all errors from those years.

In the end, actually, Huo Buyi lost.