His words “I can wait no longer” left Ni Su heartbroken.

Paper pages fell like snow, providing a funeral in the cold wind for that scholar who had read the books of sages for twenty years and conducted himself with utmost integrity. The person who had driven him to death turned and left. Only the personal guards of the Yinye Bureau braved the bitter cold, poling boats to retrieve Dong Yao’s corpse.

“Ni Su, why did you go…”

Zhou Ting brought a thick cloak to drape over her, but seeing her shake her head, he paused and withdrew his hand. “Do you know him?”

“Yes, I know him.”

Ni Su’s pale lips moved. She circled around Zhou Ting, holding freshly broken willow branches, carrying a wisp of pale mist at her sleeve edge, walking forward step by step.

Zhou Ting watched her retreating figure.

A personal guard ran to his side. “Vice Commander Zhou, the weather is truly too cold. The brothers can’t hold out…”

“They’re all living people—what do you mean they can’t hold out?”

Zhou Ting suddenly turned his head, glaring at him.

The personal guard was frightened into silence.

Zhou Ting removed the blade from his waist and thrust it into his hands. “You all know this water is cold… But the person who died in it—isn’t he cold too?”

“I’ll retrieve him myself.”

From Yong’an Lake to Nanhuai Street was a road Ni Su had walked many times. Today she walked very quickly. In the broken brick crevices along the road, water had frozen to ice, and she nearly slipped when she stepped on it.

This year’s winter was too difficult to endure. Apart from sometimes when Qingqiong couldn’t sleep and would go buy breakfast at dawn, the rest of the time he stayed in the medical hall without going out.

His legs and feet felt as if they’d been frozen into ice, making him walk very slowly. Hearing the sound of the door opening, he emerged from his room and saw Ni Su return alone.

Only when she drew near and he saw the mist at her sleeve edge did he breathe a sigh of relief. “Miss Ni.”

Ni Su raised her head. “Qingqiong, do you still have charcoal in your room?”

“I do.”

“If you run out, remember to tell me.”

Ni Su nodded, then crossed through the corridor gallery, holding the willow branches as she headed toward the kitchen.

She looked very calm. Qingqiong slowly walked to the kitchen doorway. Seeing she was about to start a fire, he walked in. “Leave it to me. If I don’t do anything, I’ll be even more unable to move.”

Thinking he could also sit by the stove to warm himself, Ni Su said “alright.”

“That Dong Yao… how is he?”

While starting the fire, Qingqiong asked.

The willow leaves had turned pale yellow in winter. Hearing this, Ni Su’s movements paused. “He’s dead.”

The kitchen suddenly fell silent.

The firelight from the stove illuminated Qingqiong’s excessively pale face, melting some of the frost on his features into water droplets that slid down. He held a stick of dry kindling in his hand. “Why is it that good people never live long…”

“Oh right, that Sister Cai of yours came by earlier.”

Qingqiong remembered this matter.

“Sister Cai?”

Ni Su raised her head. “What did she come for?”

“It seems her husband is no longer serving as an official. She said she and her husband would be returning to her maiden home to stay for a while, so she wanted to see you before leaving, but who knew you wouldn’t be home again.”

Qingqiong spoke truthfully.

Last time Cai Chunxu came over, Ni Su hadn’t been home either. Now she’d missed her again. “When she returns, I’ll go to the Grand Commandant’s estate to see her.”

Ni Su finished boiling the willow leaf water and carried the basin of hot water to her room. She soaked a clean cloth in the water. “Xu Ziling, you’ve been following me this whole time without speaking to me—what’s the meaning of this?”

The faint mist gradually condensed into a person’s silhouette under the reflection of the room full of candlelight.

Ni Su turned her head and discovered his temples were somewhat disheveled. His face was clear-featured with refined bones, yet excessively pale. His pure white inner robe was stained with blood, and the pale blue round-collared outer robe had also been soiled with blood beyond recognition.

A person who loved cleanliness could never avoid finding himself in such disheveled circumstances.

Ni Su placed the cloth back in the basin and walked before him, reaching out to untie his sash. Seeing him about to raise his hand, she immediately said: “Don’t move.”

The hand Xu Hexue had been about to raise fell back down. He obediently stood still without moving.

Ni Su removed his outer robe. “I’ll wipe your face first. In a moment, you can use another pot of water to wipe your body.”

Speaking thus, she raised her head. “Or should I wash your hair as well?”

“A’Xi, I can do these things myself.”

Xu Hexue said softly.

“But I want to wash it for you.”

Ni Su said.

Xu Hexue pressed his lips together and made a sound of acknowledgment.

Outside, the daylight grew somewhat stronger. The pale gold color spread across the eaves corridor, making the candlelight in the room seem even weaker. After wiping Xu Hexue’s face, Ni Su had him lie down on a narrow bamboo couch. She sat on the bed’s edge, letting him pillow his head on her lap.

“Will it wet your clothes?”

Xu Hexue gazed at her.

While undoing his topknot, Ni Su pulled at the corner of her mouth. “If it gets wet, it gets wet. It’s not like I don’t have clothes to change into.”

Pillowing on her lap, Xu Hexue felt somewhat constrained, but as her hands combed through his hair again and again, his heart felt somewhat peaceful.

Ni Su used a gourd ladle to scoop up willow leaf water to wet his hair. Discovering his eyes were staring at her, she deliberately poked his cheek with her wet finger. “What are you looking at?”

Xu Hexue said nothing.

The sound of water dripped steadily. While washing his hair, Ni Su said: “I heard that Young Master He, with the status of a provincial graduate, was recommended for office and now works in Guangning Prefecture. Previously, when he and so many other scholars petitioned at the Dengwen Court seeking justice for my brother’s punishment, at that time you told me not to be sad, not to be disheartened. You said the justice I wanted, others wanted the same.”

“You said the official world is cold, but some people’s blood is still hot.”

Warm willow leaf water soaked Xu Hexue’s long hair. Ni Su put down the gourd ladle. “Dong Yao’s blood was hot. Young Master He and all those people implicated in this matter—their blood was all hot. I know there are many warm and gentle people and things in this world, but now, I truly feel a bit cold.”

“A’Xi, but I’m no longer cold.”

Xu Hexue gazed at her. “You also shouldn’t be this way for my sake. What’s hateful in this world are people, but what’s precious are also people. Just as I died unjustly, yet I met you.”

“You and my teacher both believed in me and acted for me. Now there are these people willing to reopen the old case for me. I was cold in the Netherworld for a hundred years, but now my heart feels very warm.”

He paused. “But I cannot watch them walk onto a path of death for my sake. They are all people who studied hard at their cold windows for years to have what they have today. Some finally obtained official status with great difficulty. If people like them could live longer, they would still have opportunities to help more people. If they exist, justice exists—even if not in the court, then in people’s hearts.”

Ni Su’s hands gathered his wet long hair. She suddenly tilted her head back, clenching her teeth, forcibly suppressing the suddenly surging bitterness. “Then what about you? What about clearing your name?”

Who exactly can wipe it clean?

“I no longer seek it.”

Water droplets continuously dripped from the ends of Xu Hexue’s hair into the basin. He said: “But I know you will seek it for me.”

Ni Su held back again and again. She lowered her head, her fingers threading through his thick, wet black hair. “Yes. No matter where you are, no matter how long it takes, I will seek it for you for this entire lifetime.”

“We who are alive will absolutely never give up.”

Pale gold daylight fell on Xu Hexue’s body. He still hadn’t changed out of that blood-stained inner robe. Pillowing on this woman’s lap, he said: “A’Xi, if only I had met you when I was young.”

He couldn’t help but reveal this innermost thought.

If there had been no betrayal by Pan Youfang, if his deputy general Xue Huai and all the Jing’an Army officers and soldiers who followed him were still alive, if his nineteenth year could have been lived peacefully.

He would still want to recover the Thirteen Prefectures, to beat the Danqiu barbarians so thoroughly they would never again dare bully the Qi people. He also wanted to meet Ni Su at that time.

He wanted to take her horseback riding, to go on spring outings with her flying paper kites, even to return to Que County where she grew up.

Xu Hexue suddenly reached out to clasp the back of her neck, forcing her to lower her head.

The warmth in his palm was like a handful of snow enveloping the skin at the back of her neck. A gentle kiss fell on her lips.

The daylight was pale and thin, the candle shadows flickering.

The sound of water dripped and dripped, soaking Ni Su’s skirt hem.

Qingqiong stood with his back to them outside the door. His loosely tied headband had been swept by the wind to the eaves corridor outside. His bare head was exposed to the cold wind, yet he still didn’t move.

——

Late at night, snow began falling again with increasing intensity.

In the study at the Jiang estate, Old Neizhi fell to his knees with a “thud.” “My lord, doesn’t the Court of Judicial Review already have a confession from Tan Guangwen? Tan Guangwen is already dead—who can tell whether what you now hold in your hands is real!”

“I’ve already compared the handwriting. It was definitely written by his own hand.”

Jiang Xianming rose and walked before him. “The confession in my hands is dated the sixth day of the eleventh month, while the one used to convict Tan Guangwen is dated the seventh day of the eleventh month. The sixth of the eleventh month was the very day Tan Guangwen was escorted to the capital. How could he have confessed on the sixth to privately increasing troops in Jianchi Prefecture, inadequate support of Mushen Mountain, and killing Miao Tianning, then on the seventh changed his statement, not mentioning Jianchi Prefecture at all, not mentioning that General Yujie ordered troops to divide into three routes to surround the barbarian general Meng Tuo at Mushen Mountain, only speaking of the single matter of killing Miao Tianning over a private grudge?”

“This confession is much clearer.”

“But my lord, the person who gave this to you clearly has ulterior motives!” Old Neizhi pleaded desperately. “Today Dong Yao committed suicide at Yong’an Lake. This matter has implicated over sixty people being interrogated at the Yinye Bureau. Some even hold official status… Even Hanlin Academician He Tong has been questioned by the Censorate because Xu Hexue’s poetry and writings were found in his home. Now everyone lives in fear, terrified of being implicated!”

“Isn’t the current situation exactly what those treacherous villains were aiming for with their actions?” Jiang Xianming forcibly helped him up. “The more they act this way, the more suspicious it is. They’re making an example to people like Dong Yao—don’t act rashly. Not to mention they’ll spare no effort to prove to His Majesty that this treason case from sixteen years ago was correctly judged by me, correctly judged by His Majesty. They’re using His Majesty’s hand to suppress and intimidate these people, to make them not dare mention it again.”

“They’re telling these people that even if His Majesty later learns this case was a miscarriage of justice, His Majesty will not permit anyone to overturn it.”

“They think this way they can terrify everyone.”

Jiang Xianming handed the letter in his hand to Old Neizhi. “This is the document severing the father-son relationship between my father and me. Keep it safe. When you return to my hometown, tell the old man on my behalf…”

Jiang Xianming’s throat choked. “Jing Nian did wrong sixteen years ago. Now, I cannot be wrong again. Jing Nian can no longer serve the old man and must even—sever the father-son relationship with him. This son is unfilial, yet can only be unfilial.”

With the document severing the father-son relationship as proof, in the future, his father would not be implicated by him.

“My lord…”

Old Neizhi immediately shed tears.

“Fortunately my beloved daughter has already married, and my wife passed away several years ago. Neither of them need to be implicated by me.” As Jiang Xianming spoke, he heard a cat’s meow. He turned his face to see a plump calico cat enter. He walked over, crouched down and held it before the steward, smiling slightly. “When I first brought it home, it was because rats were always gnawing at the books in my study. It’s excellent at catching rats. You take it with you too. Listen to me—leave tonight.”

The plump calico cat kept meowing in his arms. Jiang Xianming looked at it and, as if comforting it, stroked its head.

In the latter half of the night, the snow fell harder and harder.

Jiang Xianming sat alone in his study. Two candles provided light as he repeatedly examined the confession on the desk.

That year,

The windblown sand in Yongzhou had been fierce.

He had just taken office when the people of Yongzhou City surrounded the government office so tightly not even water could pass through. Between the court’s deliberation of the crime and the sentencing, common people continuously gathered at the government office entrance, requesting that the chief culprit who had caused their Yongzhou City to be attacked and half the city’s population to be slaughtered be given extreme punishment.

Having just experienced the barbarians’ bloody massacre, the hatred in the hearts of Yongzhou’s people was overwhelming and impossible to quell.

The edict to execute Xu Hexue was delivered to Yongzhou. He was swept up by the public opinion of the entire city and imposed the punishment of death by a thousand cuts.

That day,

The sun blazed fiercely, and that young general wearing crimson robes and silver scale armor covered in dried bloodstains had his eyes wrapped in cloth, unable to see anything.

The cloth wrapping his eyes was stained with blood, making his face seem even paler, his lips cracked and dry.

He said not a word.

Not until people removed his silver scale armor and tore open his robes did his relaxed hands seem to tense, then clench into fists.

Every blade the executioner brought down, Jiang Xianming saw it, and the people of Yongzhou City all saw it.

Amidst the gratified cheering of Yongzhou City’s people, that young man remained forbearing throughout. Though his entire body’s muscles and bones trembled, he never cried out once.

Fresh blood flowed across the execution platform.

Below were the people’s sounds of satisfied shouting.

That sound seemed to pierce through sixteen years of time, sharply stabbing Jiang Xianming’s eardrums. He slumped back against the chair, covering his face with one hand.

His palm was wet with moisture as he sobbed aloud.

He sat thus until dawn.

The candles on the desk burned out. Jiang Xianming changed into his official robes, donned his long-winged cap, had the driver prepare the carriage, and entered the palace.

Today Emperor Zhengyuan was to hold a heaven-worshipping ceremony with the assembled ministers in Tai’an Hall. Jiang Xianming got off the carriage at Yongding Gate. Many officials were also heading toward Tai’an Hall.

On ordinary days, hardly anyone accompanied Jiang Xianming, because he was the Vice Censor-in-Chief—people feared that if they said one wrong word, it would reach His Majesty’s ears.

Today he also walked alone.

“Censor Jiang.”

As he neared Tai’an Hall, someone hurried over.

Jiang Xianming looked up. “Ah, Commissioner Pan.”

“You look like you didn’t sleep well?”

While walking alongside him, Pan Youfang asked.

“To be honest, I didn’t sleep all night.” Jiang Xianming pulled at his lips.

Hearing this, Pan Youfang couldn’t help but sigh. “After all, we both served in the north. You must listen to my advice—at our age, we must pay more attention to our health.”

But Jiang Xianming only heard his first half sentence. His steps halted.

“Why did you stop walking?”

Pan Youfang stopped, looking at him puzzled.

“Commissioner Pan, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“That matter from sixteen years ago…”

“Stop right there!” Pan Youfang immediately raised his hand, then bowed to Jiang Xianming. “Censor Jiang, you’re someone close to His Majesty. Don’t ask me about such things at this juncture…”

Jiang Xianming said no more, walking forward with his head down.

Pan Youfang straightened, silently watching his retreating figure.

Meng Yunxian and Pei Zhiyuan walked together, both somewhat silent. First Dong Yao’s suicide, then He Tong being summoned to the Censorate for questioning—these matters pressed on their hearts like enormous stones.

Jiang Xianming saw the two of them and quickly walked forward. “Minister Meng.”

Meng Yunxian turned his face, expressionless.

“I think there’s now one matter for which only you can give me an answer.”

Jiang Xianming’s stiff, cold hands pressed against his sleeve edge.

“Minister Meng…”

Pei Zhiyuan instantly became alert, shaking his head at Meng Yunxian.

“I only want to ask Minister Meng—I was wrong, wasn’t I?” Jiang Xianming kept staring at Meng Yunxian.

Pei Zhiyuan wanted to pull Meng Yunxian away quickly, but Meng Yunxian brushed aside his hand. “Since it’s come to this, I wager that you, Jiang Jing Nian, were born unwilling to be a muddled person. If you want to ask, I dare tell you.”

He met Jiang Xianming’s gaze, his dark beard trembling in the wind. “Yes.”

That single word “yes” almost stabbed Jiang Xianming’s heart and lungs with pain.

Pei Zhiyuan’s heart jumped. He immediately pulled Meng Yunxian away, saying through gritted teeth in a low voice: “Minister Meng! What are you saying to him! At this juncture, what are you saying to that person!”

“Minxing, you should distance yourself from me.”

Being pulled forward by him, Meng Yunxian suddenly said.

Pei Zhiyuan’s spine stiffened. He abruptly stopped, his throat choking. “Minister Meng, you’re piercing my heart.”

The time for the heaven-worshipping ceremony drew near. All officials entered Tai’an Hall.

Shortly after, Palace Attendant Director Liang Shenfu and others surrounded Emperor Zhengyuan in his ceremonial robes as he entered the hall. All officials bowed low, calling out ten thousand years of life.

Welcoming the spirits, kneeling and bowing, offering incense and kowtowing again, presenting jade and silk, advancing the sacrificial vessels—after this came the initial offering ceremony and final offering ceremony. The entire heaven-worshipping ceremony lasted a full three hours. Emperor Zhengyuan was still ill, and with three hours of heavy wind and snow, he barely held out until the ceremony concluded before having Liang Shenfu transmit an oral edict for all officials to withdraw.

Prince Jia had followed behind Emperor Zhengyuan throughout. The group was about to surround the emperor and leave when the person in crimson official robes suddenly knelt down, blocking Emperor Zhengyuan’s path.

“Jiang Xianming?”

Emperor Zhengyuan, suppressing his discomfort, made out who was before him. “What are you doing?”

“This subject has something he must present to Your Majesty.”

Speaking thus, Jiang Xianming drew from his sleeve that confession and raised it high with both hands. Under the variously colored gazes of the crowd watching him, he declared loudly: “The confession used previously to convict Tan Guangwen was false! This subject holds in his hands the confession Tan Guangwen personally wrote on the very day he entered the capital. This subject requests Your Majesty examine it!”

At these words, the ministers’ expressions changed dramatically.

Prince Jia immediately raised his head, watching from among the crowd that Vice Censor-in-Chief kneeling on the ground, a man about forty-some years old. Meng Yunxian, Pei Zhiyuan, and even Ge Rang who had just replaced the convicted official Liu Tingzhi as Vice Commissioner of Military Affairs, as well as Grand Commandant Miao—every one of them stared intently at him.

No great change of expression could be seen on Emperor Zhengyuan’s face. He looked at Jiang Xianming before him. After a moment, he extended his hand. Under everyone’s gaze, his hand suddenly withdrew before touching that confession.

Jiang Xianming raised his head. Before him, his sovereign radiated authority without anger.

“How can you prove that the confession in your hands is the real one?”

“The confession used for conviction only mentions Tan Guangwen killing Miao Tianning over a personal grudge, but the confession in this subject’s hands details the full sequence of events very clearly.”

Jiang Xianming declared loudly: “Sixteen years ago! General Yujie Xu Hexue ordered troops to divide into three routes to surround the barbarian general Meng Tuo at Mushen Mountain. However, at that time, Wu Dai credulously believed a secret letter from Prince Qin Rili of Danqiu, thinking the Danqiu barbarians would take the water route to attack Jianchi Prefecture. He forcibly ordered the then-Prefect of Yongzhou Yang Ming to divide half the forces defending Yongzhou City to support Jianchi Prefecture. Commander Miao Tianning refused, but Yang Ming used schemes to obtain Miao Tianning’s command token and deployed troops rushing to Jianchi Prefecture. But those Yongzhou troops encountered people from the Danqiu Nanyan tribe halfway and were completely annihilated!”

“Yet their deaths were counted among the battle for defending Yongzhou City! Deceiving Your Majesty for sixteen years!”

“General Yujie issued orders commanding Tan Guangwen and Ge Rang to support Mushen Mountain from Nianchi and Longyan respectively. But Lord Ge never received this military order. When Tan Guangwen was being urged by Wu Dai to support Jianchi Prefecture, Du Cong falsely transmitted a military order saying the general commanded him to first support Jianchi Prefecture, then go to Longyan. However…”

“However, Tan Guangwen was unfamiliar with Longyan’s terrain and lost his way, causing the Jing’an Army’s thirty thousand men… to perish at Mushen Mountain!”

Tai’an Hall fell into deathly silence.

Wind and snow surged through the wide-open hall doors, howling ceaselessly.

Grand Commandant Miao secretly clenched his fingers within his sleeves. As one who had been a fierce general under General Yujie’s command back then, Ge Rang also listened with his heart and intestines torn.

“Censor Jiang! What is your meaning! Based solely on that confession of unknown origin in your hands, you speak before His Majesty as if it were true! Were the military reports from Yongzhou back then false? Would the people the court dispatched to investigate in Yongzhou not have known?” Hanlin Reader-in-Waiting Zheng Jian was first to step forward. “Back then there was also iron-clad proof that the Danqiu royal court bestowed the title of prince on Xu Hexue! Yet tell us—you who executed Xu Hexue by a thousand cuts in Yongzhou back then, what exactly are you doing now?!”

“We also wonder where exactly Censor Jiang heard what words, where he obtained this confession. Now when rumors are rampant, why does Censor Jiang want to add fuel to the fire at this time? Could it be you also believe those people like Dong Yao?” Palace Censor Ding Jin said at the opportune moment.

“You need not play word games here.”

Jiang Xianming laughed coldly. “Dong Yao was driven to death by you, Director Ding, at Yong’an Lake. Such a young man—and now over sixty more people are imprisoned in the Yinye Bureau! You people—you just want to use them to intimidate all those who dare overturn Xu Hexue’s case, don’t you? You think there will be no one else who dares, but I want to tell all under Heaven—if we are to uphold justice and righteousness in this world, we cannot not dare!”

Meng Yunxian stood nearby, his heart trembling.

Things His Majesty previously did not know, no matter how many people tried to block them, had now still been laid openly and honorably before His Majesty.

His Majesty could no longer avoid knowing.

Emperor Zhengyuan looked down at him. “Jiang Xianming, you personally executed him.”

“This subject knows.”

“Since you know, what are you doing today?”

“This subject did wrong and cannot refuse to acknowledge it.”

Emperor Zhengyuan questioned coldly: “Do you mean that I misjudged you?”

Jiang Xianming raised his head, meeting Emperor Zhengyuan’s gaze. His lips moved slightly. “Since executing Xu Hexue sixteen years ago, this subject has received Your Majesty’s trust. After serving as Prefect of Yongzhou for only a few years, I returned to the capital to become this Vice Censor-in-Chief. This subject is grateful to Your Majesty. Throughout this life, this subject has always believed he was fulfilling the duty of a subject—serving the sovereign, serving the people. All these years, this subject has wanted to be a person with a clear conscience.”

“But it turns out that all along this subject’s path, I have been treading on the bones of the Jing’an Army, drinking the blood of General Yujie…”

Jiang Xianming’s eyelids grew moist. “This subject… in Yongzhou, executed by a thousand cuts our Great Qi’s youngest and finest General Yujie!”

“Jiang Xianming!”

Zheng Jian spoke sternly. “Now this case has not yet been re-examined, yet you’ve already reached this conclusion! What exactly is your intent?!”

“This subject!”

Jiang Xianming bowed low. The cold wind filled his sleeves. “Beseeches Your Majesty to re-examine General Yujie Xu Hexue’s treason case!”

“I, Jiang Xianming, am willing to return to General Yujie every one of the one hundred and thirty-six cuts he suffered while alive!”