After cracking the cipher, Luoyun paced several circuits around the room.

At this point, Old Cui and his son stepped forward of their own accord and said: “Shizi’s Consort, if you trust us, we can set out for the capital immediately to look for news of the Shizi.”

Luoyun said in a low, steady voice: “I will go with you.”

Old Cui’s head began to shake at once. “That simply won’t do. In times like these, with soldiers everywhere and the roads in chaos — if something were to happen to you, how would we ever answer to the Shizi?”

Luoyun had already thought it through. She said firmly: “I will not enter the capital. The road there passes right through Maolin County, does it not? My younger brother serves as an official there. I can stop and stay with him for a time. Once you have gathered news, you can send word to Maolin — it is only a few days’ journey from the capital, which is far better than sending word all the way to Liang Prefecture.”

The Cui father and son were still reluctant, but Luoyun had made up her mind. She said: “You need not make this difficult for yourselves. If no one in the entire household will escort me, I can simply hire an escort company at my own expense. It makes no difference.”

Old Cui well understood that this Shizi’s consort had a will of her own. Better to have people she trusted at her side than to let her be escorted by strangers of unknown character whose loyalty could not be guaranteed.

In the days of preparation before their departure, Luoyun kept Old Cui and his son watching the movements on Xianyin Mountain at all times.

The Cui father and son reported that pigeons flew in to the mountain at regular intervals — even without looking, one could easily picture the scene: a cloud of birds swirling busily above the mountain peak. It was almost impossible to imagine — a slight, lean old man well past his fiftieth year, wielding nothing but his astounding wealth, sitting in his remote mountain retreat, pulling the strings of princes and lords across a thousand li, savoring the intoxicating feeling of having the world in the palm of his hand.

Viewed in this light, among all the dark horses You Shanyue had wagered on, Han Linfeng was the least easily managed. Now that a shift had come at court, You Shanyue had entered a stage where choices had to be made — and Han Linfeng was the one he had chosen to discard.

The broader situation had yet to be decided, and You Shanyue had not yet broken openly with Han Linfeng. But Luoyun desperately wanted Han Linfeng to learn in time of You Shanyue’s dealings with the feudal princes — so that he would not find himself caught off guard.

Before leaving, however, Luoyun felt she ought to study You Shanyue more carefully. Over the past several days she had been quietly asking around, gathering whatever old stories existed about the man. She made a sudden discovery: in his youth, You Shanyue had once violated the decree of Emperor Xuanzong of Wei — which forbade feasting, drinking, and gambling on the anniversary of the Sacred Virtue Emperor’s death — and had been arrested by the authorities for gambling on that very day. He had served a year in prison.

During that time, his wife and son were left without anyone to care for them. Pressed by enemies who seized the opportunity to do them harm, they were forced into a life of displacement and hardship. In the end, his wife died a wretched death, and his son was left to wander the streets, where he contracted a pulmonary illness.

When You Shanyue was released from prison, what followed was bloody and methodical retribution. Every enemy who had persecuted his wife and child suffered complete ruin: their families destroyed, their children brought to grief, their deaths arriving in circumstances strange enough to make one suspect the unseen hand of You Shanyue at work.

Luoyun looked over the intelligence her people had compiled, and felt a chill pass through her.

Those enemies had indeed been the direct cause of his wife’s death. But a man with You Shanyue’s vindictive nature — one who would seek vengeance for even the smallest slight — could he truly bear no grudge against the imperial house of Wei, whose decree had put him in prison and left his wife and child without protection?

All these years, the vast fortune he had deployed, the steady cultivation of one feudal prince after another as his hidden stakes — was this truly nothing more than a gambler’s game?

And thinking now of the chaos currently engulfing the capital, Su Luoyun realized that this Gold Lord was not really elevating anyone to the throne. He operated on a principle of absolute equality: commoner or imperial family, it made no difference — those who offended him would, in the end, be brought to ruin.

At this thought, her mind raced through one idea after another. The first instinct that rose in her was to find some way to get You Shanyue under control.

But You Shanyue kept many skilled fighters close at hand, and must have deployed countless informants throughout every prefecture and county. A move made without sufficient preparation would startle the snake in the grass, and a cornered mad dog could do untold damage.

So, turning it over and over, Luoyun concluded she had no choice but to set You Shanyue aside for now, and focus first on establishing that Han Linfeng was safe.

And so, after making her preparations, Luoyun decided to travel by water route to Maolin County.

In the year she had spent in Liang Prefecture, she had purchased several more shipping businesses. Traveling by her own vessels would make movement considerably more convenient.

As for her mother-in-law, the consort of the Prince of Zong — Luoyun only sent word to her after she was already aboard the boat. The reason she gave for leaving was simple: the shop had run short of fragrant goods, and she had gone personally to restock supplies.

Knowing her mother-in-law as she did, if she had been honest and formally requested permission to leave, she would never have been granted it. Better to act first and explain later.

During the days of travel, Old Cui and his son made several more forays to catch pigeons. They intercepted not only messages coming out of the capital but also coded dispatches from You Shanyue to the Prince of Dongping in the capital.

The substance of those messages was roughly as follows: the channels with the three princes had all been cleared and smoothed; informants had been planted beside each of them. As long as the Prince of Dongping could win over the remaining feudal lords and seize his moment with skill, ascending to the throne was only a matter of time. However, of all the feudal princes, the Beizhen Wang household was in truth the greatest threat. He urged the Prince of Dongping to treat the Beizhen father and son with courtesy and keep them close — that was the wisest approach. As for Prince Consort Zhao Dong, who was leading troops to the capital in loyal defense, his threat was not especially great; he had already devised a method to keep Zhao Dong in check…

The rest she could absorb, but this — You Shanyue claiming he could keep Zhao Dong in check — made Luoyun’s temper flare.

She could not begin to understand how a man of Zhao Dong’s blunt and upright character would ever submit to being managed by You Shanyue.

She compiled all the decoded dispatches from recent days into one packet, and had Old Cui take charge of it to deliver to Han Linfeng.

The fast ships of the shipping company carried large sails, and under conditions where comfort was not the priority, they could travel at considerable speed.

Throughout the journey, whether from seasickness or something else entirely, Luoyun could not stop retching. Her face went as white as paper, and she could not keep anything down.

Xiangcao, Ji Qiu, and the other maidservants watched with worried hearts and wanted to ask the boatmen to slow the vessel’s pace.

But Luoyun stopped them, saying only that she was perfectly fine and that making good time was what mattered.

When they arrived at Maolin County, Old Cui and the others parted ways with Luoyun there — switching to horses to continue the journey, making inquiries along the route for any trace of the Shizi.

Su Guiyan was entirely unprepared for his elder sister’s sudden arrival. When a servant came to announce it, he was so overjoyed that he could not even wait for a carriage driver, and drove the carriage himself to the riverside wharf to receive her.

He had already learned through earlier letters from home that his sister’s eye ailment had fully healed.

But when he actually saw Luoyun step off the boat, lift the gauze of her traveling hat, and look toward him with a smile alive in her eyes, the sight of those luminous, expressive eyes moved him so deeply that his voice caught in his throat and he could barely speak.

In Luoyun’s mind, Guiyan was still the half-grown child she remembered from before she lost her sight. Although during her years of blindness she had traced the shape of his height and felt the lines of his brows and nose, to actually see a poised and steady young gentleman standing tall and upright before her brought a wave of emotion she could not suppress.

Sister and brother held each other, laughing and crying at once, neither knowing quite where to begin.

After the warmth of their reunion had settled somewhat, Luoyun looked around and noticed that the river wharves of Maolin County were reasonably calm — none of the scattered, chaotic scenes of displaced commoners she had witnessed elsewhere along the route.

When she asked about it, she learned that the stability and order in Maolin County were entirely due to her Uncle Hu’s timely dispatch of troops.

During the disaster relief effort in Yan County some time ago, Luoyun had asked her uncle to contribute a large sum of money. He had followed her instructions and donated it under the name of the naval garrison rather than her own, giving the garrison’s commanding officer a fine reputation for caring about the people’s welfare. It happened that the Emperor had sent officials on an inspection tour, who heard reports of the local situation from the people and brought the matter to the attention of their superiors. The commanding officer had received a commendation as a result.

Hu Xuesong himself was quick-witted and highly capable; the commanding officer not only declined to hold him accountable for having taken troops to Yan County without orders, but actually promoted him, filling a vacant position and placing him in command of half the naval garrison.

Since the great upheaval broke out in the capital and left the realm without a clear center of authority, the unrest had gradually spread outward from the capital into the surrounding counties. Local garrison commanders received no fewer than three or four transfer orders each day, issued in the names of various princes — but not one of them came with the proper military tallies and official seals, and so the soldiers did not dare move on any of them, regardless of whose name was attached.

Hu Xuesong was worried about his two younger relatives. The one in Liang Prefecture was too far away to reach; but the one in Maolin County was close enough to protect. He was confined to the naval garrison on standby duty and could not come in person, so he dispatched a company of soldiers to be placed at Su Guiyan’s command.

Combined with the county militia already stationed in Maolin, they had managed to maintain local order — with no fear of displaced commoners descending in force.

When Luoyun returned to the residence, she also met her brother’s newly wedded wife, Qian Xiaoyu.

She was the beloved daughter of Huaishan Prefect Qian Boyong — a proper young lady from a distinguished household.

Just as the matchmaker Li Guitian had described her, Miss Qian was plain in appearance and somewhat plump in figure, and standing beside the fine-featured Su Guiyan, the pairing did not seem especially well-matched at first glance.

But Luoyun knew that her brother had never placed much importance on a woman’s outward appearance.

When Guiyan spoke with Qian Xiaoyu, warmth showed in his eyes; and Qian Xiaoyu would from time to time look quietly at her husband, her gaze full of feeling. The depth of affection between husband and wife needed no words.

The young couple were evidently well suited in temperament, and their life together appeared to be genuinely good.

Although Miss Qian was no beauty, she had married into the Su family — a merchant household — and yet her manner carried not the slightest hint of condescension toward their origins.

Luoyun was sincerely grateful for the kindness she showed her brother, and instructed Xiangcao to present the gifts she had prepared for her sister-in-law.

In addition to fine quality bolts of cloth and elegant ornaments, Luoyun had also brought a pair of mutton-fat jade bracelets that had belonged to their mother — and this time, acting in her mother’s stead, she was finally able to place them personally on her daughter-in-law’s wrists.

As for Qian Xiaoyu, she had heard beforehand that this elder sister-in-law of hers was said to be beautiful. But seeing her in person, she found that a woman of such remarkable looks and such uncommon bearing could hardly be described by the single word “beautiful” — it was simply not enough. No wonder a merchant’s daughter had married into a princely household. Her face alone was the kind that made people fall a little helpless with admiration.

But once the two of them began to talk, Qian Xiaoyu discovered that this elder sister-in-law was nothing like the gentle, agreeable, beautiful-but-hollow woman she had imagined.

Within moments of sitting down, after only a few exchanges of pleasantries, Luoyun was already asking her brother about the shifting currents of the current situation — mentioning key matters of persons and events that even those living not far from the capital were unaware of, and yet somehow this sister who had been living far away in Liang Prefecture knew them with startling precision.

And her manner of speaking, her bearing and composure, were not in the least inferior to the daughters of aristocratic families. Her husband had lost his mother young, and yet he had grown into a man of real worth from a merchant household — with an elder sister like this to guide him, it was no surprise at all.

And so, though they were meeting for the first time, Miss Qian found herself developing a quiet, heartfelt respect for this sister-in-law.

Luoyun told her brother and sister-in-law, briefly, that Han Linfeng had also gone to the capital.

With the capital in turmoil, even before open warfare had begun, various feudal lords had been making their way to the capital in loyalty to the throne. That Lord Beizhen had led troops there was in fact what one might expect of him as a member of the imperial bloodline.

But the situation at present was unstable and deeply unclear. Once a new emperor took the throne, Su Guiyan was somewhat worried that his brother-in-law might end up accused of harboring treasonous ambitions — charged and held to account.

Luoyun herself did not know what the future held. Han Linfeng had still not entered the capital; his whereabouts were unknown. Her only fear was that he might be deceived and exploited by the Prince of Dongping, and used as a weapon in someone else’s hand.

Although the capital, not so very far away, was in utter chaos, Maolin County, separated from it by a single range of hills, remained tranquil — its modest little town still living by the rhythm of simple clothing, simple food, and the crow of the rooster at dawn.

Her brother’s home was not the grand courtyard of a princely household, and there were no elders to keep schedule for. Luoyun could have slept late each morning — but instead she lay awake every night.

Old Cui’s party had still sent no word. Luoyun’s heart burned with anxiety; she could eat almost nothing each day.

One afternoon, with nothing to occupy her, she went out with her maidservants and guards for a walk along the river wharves, and also to see whether any boats had come in.

When she reached the wharves, she found several large vessels moored there.

From the look of them, they appeared to be official boats. Servants were filing off in a steady stream, carrying luggage, and several figures who had the appearance of official household attendants were questioning the wharf clerk in charge of registering vessels: “Where is the county deputy magistrate of Maolin County? Tell him to come at once and receive visitors of distinction from the capital!”

At this moment, several more people disembarked from the boats.

Luoyun stood in the shade of a nearby tree and did not recognize any of these richly dressed figures. But Ji Qiu quickly murmured to her in a low voice: “Shizi’s Consort — those people getting off… there are people from the Lu Ducal household, and from the Jun Ducal household. Why would these great aristocratic families from the capital all be coming to Maolin County?”

Luoyun was momentarily taken aback. She had taken tea in the company of these aristocratic ladies before, but at that time she had still been blind and had never seen their faces.

Just then, another woman descended from one of the boats — a gauze-veiled traveling hat on her head, supported on either side by maidservants as she made her way down. Behind her came a woman holding an infant in swaddling clothes.

Luoyun had just registered who these people might be, and was turning to leave, when the veiled woman suddenly called out clearly: “Su Luoyun?”

Because of the heat, and with her guards accompanying her, Luoyun had not bothered with a traveling hat for her walk. It seemed someone who knew her had recognized her.

And that voice — Luoyun could not help turning her head.

At that moment, the woman lifted her veil, revealing a face of striking, flawless beauty.

Luoyun did not recognize her. But Xiangcao behind her whispered in astonished surprise: “That… is that not the consort of Prince Rui?”

Luoyun’s heart gave a sudden jolt. She looked more carefully at this elder sister Fang — the second of the Fang daughters — whom she was seeing for the first time.

She had known long ago that Han Linfeng had once refused this young woman’s ardent pursuit of him, and had thought nothing particular of it at the time — merely a matter of incompatible temperaments, nothing more.

But now, looking clearly at Fang Jinshu’s brows and eyes and face, she felt a quiet, involuntary admiration for the self-control Han Linfeng had exercised — that he had been able to refuse a woman of this exceptional beauty?

If Luoyun had not already shared his bed and knew perfectly well what kind of man he was, she might genuinely have mistaken him for a man entirely indifferent to women.

Fang Jinshu herself had not expected to see Su Luoyun here, in this rural backwater. By instinct, she glanced around, searching for the tall figure who appeared only in her dreams. But beside Su Luoyun there were only maidservants and guards — the man she had hoped to see was not there.

When Fang Jinshu lifted her veil, her personal guards tensed with alarm. The entire journey of their flight, they had kept this consort of Prince Rui from showing her face to anyone. And now this willful young woman had suddenly uncovered herself, exposing her presence and whereabouts.

The captain of her guard, a trusted retainer of the Lu Ducal household, had been personally instructed by the Duchess of Lu to take every care and on no account to let anyone discover the Second Young Miss’s whereabouts.

He immediately drew his sword, intending to cut down Su Luoyun and her party before they could carry word elsewhere.

But the guards accompanying Su Luoyun were not to be trifled with. Before the guard captain could even advance with his men, they had already drawn their blades and formed a protective line in front of her.

At this moment, the Duchess of Lu and the other ladies also caught sight of Su Luoyun. They exchanged startled looks among themselves.

Fang Jinshu let out a cold, disdainful laugh and said: “She is not of the Sixth Prince’s faction. There is no need to be so alarmed. Allow me to speak with her a moment.”

Once the guards stood down, Fang Jinshu took two steps forward and looked Su Luoyun up and down with leisurely appraisal. It was said that the climate of Liang Prefecture was harsh and unkind to the complexion — yet the woman before her seemed, if anything, to have grown somewhat more striking than when she had last been seen in the capital. And those eyes…

“You can see?” Fang Jinshu exclaimed in surprise, noticing that Luoyun’s gaze had been following her the entire time.

Su Luoyun nodded and gave a courteous bow. “Please do not worry, Princess. I am only staying temporarily at my brother’s home. This is a remote and out-of-the-way place — there are no ears and eyes from the capital here. You and your family may depart in complete peace of mind.”

At these words, Fang Jinshu gave a self-mocking smile. Depart? And go where?

She had the misfortune of quarreling with the Ninth Prince not long ago and had left in anger without a word, taking her son and returning to the Lu Ducal household. Little had she known that this impulsive departure had saved her from catastrophe.

When the palace coup broke out and the Rui Wang household was completely surrounded, the veteran and experienced Duke of Lu grasped the situation at once.

Although both the Sixth and the Ninth Prince were his sons-in-law, in a struggle for power of this magnitude, what did kinship count for? If the Sixth Prince could not tolerate his own younger brother, why would he spare that brother’s wife and child?

The Duchess of Lu clasped her second daughter and infant grandson and wept bitterly. This daughter — born so late in life, almost miraculous — had she come into the world only to suffer such calamity?

In the end, husband and wife deliberated together and resolved, at enormous personal risk, to send their daughter and the swaddled infant away — to take shelter for a time at the family’s ancestral home in Songyuan, and wait to see how the situation developed before deciding on the next step.

But at the time, the Sixth Prince had placed men to guard all the courier stations and waterways. The Second Young Miss had hidden for a long while in an old retainer’s cottage in the countryside. Then the upheaval in the capital erupted into full chaos, and the Lu Ducal household gathered their valuables and fled the capital along with several other great noble families.

Before the chaos broke, the Emperor had sent several messengers out carrying letters — among them an imperial edict designating the Ninth Prince as his chosen successor to the throne. The messenger had been pursued and nearly killed; in his haste he had thrown the edict into a local government office in the capital. The person who picked it up knew full well it was a burning coal, and eventually the edict found its way to the Lu Ducal household.

Now the Lu Ducal household carried that edict, brought the Second Young Miss and the Ninth Prince’s orphan, and together with several other families of the Ninth Prince’s faction had made their escape — guided to this location by a naval garrison commander who was a trusted subordinate.

The commander had mentioned that a nephew of his, one of his most relied-upon subordinates, served as the county deputy magistrate here, and had recently dispatched troops to Maolin as well. It was relatively peaceful, with no bands of displaced commoners causing trouble.

What none of these families had anticipated was that this county deputy magistrate was the younger brother of the Shizi’s consort of Beizhen — and that the Shizi’s consort herself was here as well.

Although she had only recently become a widow, Fang Jinshu’s manner was as imperious as it had ever been. Apart from the exhaustion of days of hard travel, she showed little sign of any particular sorrow at her husband’s death.

She chose a spot in the shade of a tree and settled herself on a folding stool her maidservants brought her, then tilted her chin upward with her habitual air of arrogance and said to Luoyun: “You… have you still not had any children?”

When Luoyun nodded, Fang Jinshu laughed with mocking contempt. “He is not so young anymore, and he married someone like you who produces nothing? What is the reason? Have you not seen a physician?”

Luoyun looked at this woman in the midst of her flight, and had no desire whatsoever to trade barbs with her. She simply gave a respectful bow again and said: “Since all of you distinguished guests have arrived, I will go and ask my brother to come receive you properly as soon as possible. Please wait here a moment…”

Watching her walk away with her maidservants and guards, the Duchess of Lu said to her daughter in mild but pointed reproach: “How could you simply show your face like that to anyone? If word gets out to someone with ill intentions, what then?”

Fang Jinshu gave another cold, unimpressed laugh. “The way things stand now, the princes are all converging on the capital — whoever has the greater strength will be emperor. Do you and Father truly believe some kindhearted lord is going to march into the capital and then come to escort us home in triumph? My husband is dead. That empress and her wretched Sixth Prince are the targets now. Who is going to spare a thought for a pair of powerless orphans?”

Nearby, the Duchess of Jun, who had been resting, heard this and felt her expression shift slightly. She found Fang Jinshu’s defeatist talk distinctly dispiriting.

Her own preference had been not to tie herself to the Lu Ducal household in this. But the Duke of Jun had insisted — he kept saying that the Ninth Prince was the one the Emperor had formally designated, and that regardless of who eventually took the throne, the wisest move was to distance themselves from the Empress Wang faction as early as possible.

And so the Jun Ducal household had, without hesitation, joined the Fang family in escorting the consort of Prince Rui and her child out of the capital.

What they had not anticipated was that their flight would bring them all the way here — to the home of the younger brother of the Shizi’s consort of Beizhen.

The Duchess of Jun recalled that when her third son had broken off his engagement with the Commandery Princess of the Beizhen household, the two families had parted on deeply unpleasant terms. Now here was the entire Jun Ducal household arriving at the door — surely this Su Luoyun would take the opportunity to make them pay for it?

The Duchess hurriedly whispered an urgent consultation with the Duke of Jun about whether there might be some way to move their party elsewhere.

The men, however, did not consider it any kind of problem at all.

The Duke of Lu, overhearing this exchange, said dismissively: “My former student is the naval garrison commander. The soldiers stationed in Maolin County are all from the naval garrison. Even if that county deputy magistrate Su’s maternal uncle is also an officer in the naval forces, he still must take orders from the commander. And my student is sending men here to protect us. What can one minor official of the lowest rank do here? In times like these, if those siblings dare breathe a word of this to anyone, we will have them arrested and executed on the spot. What does the Beizhen Wang household amount to? Why should you be so wary of them?”

Princes had come flooding into the capital from all sides, and yet none of them had heard anything about the Beizhen Wang household sending anyone at all.

And even if they had — what of it? The Beizhen branch was a distant, somewhat obscure line of the imperial house. None of the princes making their plays for the throne would think to count them in.

Though rumors about the Shizi of Beizhen and the Iron Mask Army had been spreading wildly, to the aristocratic families of the capital who actually knew Han Linfeng, the very idea struck them as laughably absurd.