This was a war of unequal strength—no gunpowder smoke visible, yet every step held deadly intent.

After quarreling with Ling Buyi, Shaoshang’s mind was in complete chaos. One moment she thought about how to shake off those tailing her, the next moment her tender feelings twisted and turned as she thought that Ling Buyi also had good intentions, and she shouldn’t have been so harsh just now—she should have been softer.

Who knew that before the end of the workday, the Yellow Gate Commandant from the Emperor’s side came to convey an oral decree: starting immediately, Shaoshang should live permanently in Changqiu Palace without needing to return home. First, she could redouble her familiarity with etiquette; second, she could help organize the Empress’s Thousand Autumn Banquet.

In short, accompanying the dignified and virtuous Empress day and night would allow Shaoshang to be influenced by what she constantly saw and heard—those near vermillion become red. Clearly the Emperor hadn’t considered that those near ink become black.

Shaoshang went limp on the spot, as if struck by a thunderbolt from a clear sky, or like having a bucket of expired pickle water poured over her head. After being stiff and dazed for a while, she came to her senses. Quarreling one moment, detention the next—what wasn’t clear about this situation?!

In her belly she cursed Ling Buyi’s eighteen generations of unvirtuous ancestors ten thousand times over—this bastard! Your old lady hasn’t squandered your family fortune, hasn’t ruined your prospects, hasn’t turned the top of your head as green as the Hulunbuir grasslands. That you’ve turned a proper matchmade marriage into a postmodern behavioral art style of highway robbery already shows your unique taste. In any case, your old lady has a blood feud with you—we’ll fight to the death!

“This honored internal official, this subject has received His Majesty’s decree and understands His Majesty’s good intentions, but…” Shaoshang struggled in her death throes. “Could you let me return home today to pack up my personal belongings? I’ll enter the palace first thing tomorrow morning without any delay.” She needed to go home and humbly consult Old Cheng and Director Xiao on how to fix that bastard surnamed Ling!

Who knew that Yellow Gate Commandant’s face was all smiles: “Young Lady Cheng, don’t worry—Master Ling has already prepared everything for you. In a while, his people will deliver everything you need. You can trust Master Ling’s arrangements. Since he was fourteen, he’s served His Majesty—everything he does is proper and without the slightest leak.”

Shaoshang felt dizzy and faint, suddenly having a feeling of going astray in cultivation.

Sure enough, before the evening meal time arrived, she saw Liang Qiu Fei leading a procession of heavily laden eunuchs and maidservants filing in to move all necessary living items into the quarters the Empress had newly assigned to Shaoshang. Shaoshang could only watch the bustling crowd arrange things in the room.

Four sets of person-height lacquered wooden cabinets placed against the wall one by one; eight tall brass palace lamps stationed in the four corners—four in flying swallow form, two in palace maid form, two in linked branch form, the first six all able to contain smoke inside;

Six sets of brand new embroidered brocade bed curtains—two sets of soft silk, two sets of thin gauze, plus breathable ramie and heavy brocade;

Three tables—one square dressing table, one long writing desk, and one small round table suitable for placing snacks and flowers;

On the dressing table sat two cosmetic boxes, one large and one small. The large one was a double-layer painted jewelry box, the small one a nine-piece nested set of rouge, powder, and fragrant cream cosmetic boxes. Judging by their heavy appearance, both boxes should be filled to the brim;

Beside them were seven or eight hand fans arranged in rows—bamboo woven, lacquered wood, even some with floral satin stretched over them…

When Shaoshang turned around, the lacquered wooden cabinets had already been filled with piles of colorful silks and fine hemp—from outer garments to underclothes, from shawls to cloaks, even intimate small clothes, everything complete.

She couldn’t help but sigh: “Guard Fei, your young master certainly acts with incredible swiftness.” To have everything ready so quickly—it must have been stored at home long ago. Thinking of this, her heart softened slightly, and she decided to forgive Ling Buyi just a tiny bit.

Liang Qiu Fei stood far away in the corridor, his lips wriggling a few times. A young eunuch on the side rushed to answer with a smile: “Young Lady Cheng doesn’t know—originally Master Ling was going to return to the residence to fetch things, but later His Majesty directly opened the palace storehouse for the master to select and use.”

Shaoshang swallowed a bellyful of disordered true energy and forced a smile: “I wondered how it was done so quickly.” Fine, she was the one lacking knowledge. Now she wouldn’t forgive him even one tiny bit!

“…However, those clothes were indeed fetched by people Master Ling sent back to the residence.” The young eunuch continued.

Shaoshang: Can you finish speaking in one breath?

“Does your master have anything else for you to convey?” Seeing the young eunuch very diligently running into the room to direct the palace maids’ work, she asked with feigned arrogance.

Liang Qiu Fei seemed to know something, his face bitter: “Master said, following your wishes, all the people have been withdrawn. If you have any matters, you can go find him yourself.”

Others couldn’t understand these words, but Shaoshang’s heart was clear. Immediately delighted, she said: “He agreed? Then, then can I go home?” Knowing one’s errors and being able to correct them—there’s no greater virtue. She decided to forgive him a few more drops.

“…You still can’t go home.” Liang Qiu Fei’s voice grew even lower. “Master said, either all the people stay, or all the people are withdrawn. These few days, you should think it over properly yourself.”

Shaoshang turned these words over in her mind several times before understanding. Immediately she sneered: “Your master doesn’t think that without him, I can’t survive in this palace, does he?”

Liang Qiu Fei didn’t even dare raise his head. After a long while, he mustered his courage: “Young lady, my master is all, all for your own good, that’s why…” Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the suddenly furious girl: “Would I be for my own bad?! Is he the only one who’s for my own good?!”

After shouting this, seeing she’d nearly attracted the attention of the eunuchs and maidservants around, Shaoshang could only stamp her foot and leave.

Liang Qiu Fei dared not open his mouth again and fled from Changqiu Palace as if flying, swearing as he ran that when he returned, he must consult his brother who had four female confidantes on how to speak with young ladies.

Shaoshang went directly back to her previous temporary quarters, wielded her brush on a bamboo slip to write several words, sealed it with cloth and fire wax, and had a palace maid transfer it outside the palace to send to the Cheng family. Who knew that palace maid indicated with difficulty that without “connections,” messages from inside the palace couldn’t be sent out. If she randomly found guards outside the palace to deliver messages, she’d be beaten to death with rods, the crime being “privately exchanging items and unauthorized transmission of palace secrets.”

Shaoshang took a deep breath, protected her three-inch dantian, forcefully slapped down on the table, and turned to find the Empress to request reinforcements.

As a result, the Empress seemed completely unaware, saying with slight surprise: “Send a message? There’s no need—Zicheng said he’d speak well with your family for you. Didn’t he tell you? If you’re willing to stay in the palace to keep me company, I’m naturally very happy. I’m just afraid you’ll feel lonely.”

Shaoshang looked at the Empress’s smiling, pleased face, suppressed her internal injury, and once again returned defeated.

For the next several days, Shaoshang seemed isolated from the real world, each day only studying, eating, resting, accompanying the Empress on walks for leisure and gossiping. Inside the palace walls square overhead, time passed especially slowly. Even the dripping water clock seemed like an old movie in slow motion—each drop taking an age to fall.

On the second day of staying in the palace, Shaoshang had already counted how many whiskers and eyelashes that palace maid’s tabby cat had. On the third day, she’d counted how many blue stones there were from the Changqiu Palace gate to the corridor. Now she finally understood why the Empress was so learned—because each day with nothing to do, there was only holding volumes and reading slowly for self-comfort.

Ling Buyi still came every day, but Shaoshang was very resolute in not speaking to him, not even meeting his eyes once. However, it seemed Ling Buyi also had no intention of speaking to her or meeting her gaze. He remained polite and gentle, proper in deportment, crystalline as the spring night moon, spirited as autumn day’s clear breeze. From the moment he stepped through the Changqiu Palace gate, the eyes of all the palace maids were filled with joyful brightness.

Shaoshang couldn’t tell anyone they’d quarreled and could only stifle herself half to death alone.

However, even though the two of them behaved as usual, in just three short days the Empress had detected the anomaly.

That night when the Emperor stayed in Changqiu Palace, she couldn’t help but voice her doubts to him. The Emperor first pretended ignorance, claiming to know nothing when asked three times. The Empress tapped the phoenix couch and said in a low voice: “…They act as if nothing’s wrong, but their words and behavior are no longer as intimate as before.”

“Zicheng actually behaved intimately with Shaoshang in front of you?” The Emperor was somewhat excited.

The Empress stopped tapping the phoenix couch and started tapping the Emperor: “I said intimate, intimate! Not behaving intimately! Where did Your Majesty’s mind go?! Before, sometimes when flower petals fell on Shaoshang’s head, Zicheng would brush them away for her. When walking, the two would hold hands, talking and laughing. And the way they looked at each other… Alas, these past days it’s all changed. Your Majesty, did they have a quarrel?”

The Emperor said: “They just bickered a bit—nothing serious.”

The Empress lowered her head in brief thought, understanding: “Your Majesty, Shaoshang staying in the palace isn’t her own intention, is it? Did Zicheng force her to stay?”

“What do you mean ‘force’?” The Emperor feigned indifference. “Young men and women quarreling—it’s all just showing off, playing around.”

The Empress said urgently: “Your Majesty, these past days Shaoshang has been listless, looking so pitiful. She’s accustomed to freedom—how can she bear the palace’s constraints? This won’t do!”

“Zicheng is also very pitiful!” The Emperor immediately voiced a rebuttal. “These past days he’s lost another circle of weight.”

“In Your Majesty’s eyes, Zicheng loses weight every day.” The Empress rarely talked back.

Seeing the Empress had grown angry, the Emperor drew her shoulder to embrace her at his side as they lay down, coaxing: “You don’t know—as they say, without grievance there’s no married couple. How can they join in matrimony without quarreling? Before, they were so harmonious—I always felt something was missing. Quarreling is good. Quarreling from time to time isn’t a bad thing. When they make up again, the two will have no barriers between them. Besides, this is just a civil quarrel…”

The Empress exclaimed: “A civil quarrel? Does that mean there are also military quarrels? Must they actually fight to count?!”

The Emperor laughed: “Shen An, don’t be alarmed. If they actually fought, that wouldn’t be a quarrel—it would be called ‘brawling in the bedchamber.’ A military quarrel is like Uncle Prince Ruyang and the old princess—quarreling until everyone knows, not caring about face at all. These two haven’t gotten anywhere near that yet.”

Hearing the Emperor speak with such pleasure and fluency, as if very familiar with the topic, the Empress felt somewhat melancholy. After a while, she said softly: “What if they don’t make up? Will they just remain at an impasse like this?”

The Emperor seemed to recall past events and sighed: “How could they remain at an impasse forever? Alas, in this world, where are there lovers who remain forever at an impasse? After quarreling, either they make up, or they part ways like swallows flying in different directions. However…” He smiled again. “Don’t worry—Zicheng and Shaoshang won’t be like that. I’m here—they’ll live together in harmony and beauty…”

The Empress was silent for a long time. Pillowing on the Emperor’s arm, both earnest and gentle, she requested: “Your Majesty, though Shaoshang occasionally doesn’t understand things, her nature is pure and honest. Her heart is clean. She treats this subject with the utmost sincerity and filial piety. Please do this subject the favor of letting Shaoshang return home each day to get some air.”

The Emperor laughed and sighed: “Speaking of which, this young lady does have some ability to win people’s affection. Fine, for Shen An’s sake, just until your birthday banquet. After your birthday passes, whether they’ve made up or not, I’ll release her. But you can’t tell Shaoshang about this, or else she’ll leisurely count the days waiting to go home!”

Seeing the Emperor had yielded, the Empress could only nod in agreement with a smile.