“Sister Shishi, it’s been a long time.”

The long street lay dim in the fading light, not far from the outer wall of the imperial palace; lamplight seeped from a courtyard on the other side, casting a warm, hazy golden glow. As Ning Yi walked over, his guards followed alongside him, but even with so many people present, the street still felt remarkably quiet.

Shishi, dressed in a pale pink gown befitting a lady of refinement, stood by the roadside, smiling with a touch of caution. “That must be… the Prince of Guangyang’s private residence? The one that just saw you out…”

“Mm.” Ning Yi glanced back at the courtyard gate. “The prince’s steward, and also Lord Tan Zhen.”

“Did they… give you any trouble?”

To have been received into such a courtyard, and finally seen out by a high official like Tan Zhen and the prince’s own steward — for most people, this would already be something worth boasting about. But Shishi was no such shallow woman; having witnessed the entire scene in front of the Qin residence earlier, she could more or less guess what the Prince of Guangyang’s people had wanted with Ning Yi.

Ning Yi had already drawn close, and smiled. “Got scolded a bit. Nothing serious.”

He said it lightly enough. Shishi, unsure how to respond for a moment, simply turned to walk alongside him. As they rounded the corner ahead, the prince’s residence disappeared behind them. The street ahead remained rather dim, still some distance from the bustling residential quarters and marketplaces; the area was mostly lined with the estates of prominent households. A carriage rolled slowly toward them from up ahead; behind Ning Yi and Shishi, the guards and drivers followed quietly along.

“I remember last time we spoke, we were talking about Taiyuan — feels like a long time ago now. How have you been lately, Shishi?”

“Much the same. Attended a few poetry gatherings, met this person and that. Speaking of Taiyuan…”

“Now that’s turning into empty boasting,” Ning Yi said quietly.

Shishi walked alongside him, silent for a moment. “Others may not know, but I do — how much the Right Chancellor’s household has done. Earlier… earlier, in front of the residence, I saw the Second Young Master being wrongly accused… it’s a good thing you went to find Chancellor Li, Liheng…”

Ning Yi shook his head. “That’s only the beginning. Chancellor Li himself is… in a precarious position too. A few more incidents like this, and there won’t be much he can do.”

“Was it Tan Zhen and the others behind it all? Is that why they called you over?”

“Only partly.” Ning Yi smiled. “The men in the crowd shouting slander against Shaoqian — those were sent by them. I derailed their scheme, so they’re a bit put out. This whole case was ordered by Wang Fu, and Tie Tianying was simply acting on the implication. It hasn’t grown too large yet — some underlings wanted to push it through quickly and then take the credit to Wang Fu, which is why we’re still managing to hold it back.”

His tone remained even, and then he smiled again. “It’s been so long since we last saw each other — is this really what you want to ask me about, Shishi?”

“I suppose to you, I must seem like quite the busybody.” Shishi smiled as well, then said, “As for happy things… there’s nothing particularly happy to speak of. At the Alum Tower, there’s laughter every day, of course. I’ve met plenty of impressive people, but the more I meet, the less I can tell whether the joy is real or just for show. Seeing Brother Yu, Brother Chen, and seeing you, Liheng — those were genuinely happy moments.”

“Mm.” Ning Yi nodded.

Shishi thought for a moment, hesitating, then finally said: “Liheng, you’re already… preparing to leave, aren’t you?”

Ning Yi pressed his lips together, then shrugged. “If you look closely enough, it’s plain to see, isn’t it. I imagine Madam Li saw it long ago too.”

“Everyone else just assumed you wanted to sever ties cleanly with the chancellor’s household. Even Madam wasn’t entirely sure… but I could see it.” The two of them walked on slowly; she lowered her head, lost in memory. “When was it we met again in Jiangning — a few years ago now?”

“Er, the ninth year of the Jinghan era…” Ning Yi frowned, thinking.

“It was the ninth year of Jinghan,” Shishi said, nodding, her gaze fixed on the road ahead, a smile on her face. “Five years, just like that. Really, from that time we met again in Jiangning, to when you later came to the capital as well — sometimes I felt that we’d simply grown closer in distance, and other times I kept feeling that, between us, nothing had ever really closed the gap at all. Now, looking back, I suppose I’ve finally come to understand you a little, Liheng. I’m glad of that — but you’re leaving now, so I don’t even know whether to call this a happy thing or not.”

A light breeze blew past. Shishi smoothed her hair and turned her gaze aside; Ning Yi found himself at something of a loss for words. He walked on a couple more steps before noticing that Shishi had stopped behind him. He turned back; in the dim evening light, her face carried a clear sorrow. “Liheng, is it truly… beyond saving now?”

Her voice trembled slightly by the end. This wasn’t sorrow simply over Ning Yi’s departure — there was something more complicated woven into it. Pity is something everyone feels, and this woman before him, though she saw many things with clear eyes, in truth carried a deep and compassionate heart for the suffering of the world. She had once campaigned tirelessly for wronged sisters of her trade, had thrown herself into disaster relief efforts, and when the Jurchens came, had gone personally to the city walls to tend the wounded. However much impact one woman could have was beside the point — her sincerity was beyond question. She knew Ning Yi’s character well enough to know he wouldn’t give up until the very last moment; her words now, spoken perhaps first out of concern for him, inevitably led her thoughts elsewhere once spoken aloud, and fear began to take hold of her heart.

Ning Yi stood there, opening his mouth. “It’s hard to say whether things might still turn around.” He paused. “But there’s nothing more we can do… You should prepare to head south too.”

“I have no family left in the south.” Shishi said. “In truth… Bianliang was never really home either, but there are so many people here… Er, Liheng, are you planning to go back to Jiangning?”

“That’s the plan, for now.” Ning Yi looked at her. “Leave Bianliang. Next time the Jurchens come south, nothing north of the Yangtze will be safe anymore.”

Shishi nodded, and the two of them began walking again. After a moment of silence, another carriage rolled past them, its lantern swaying. Shishi said quietly: “I can’t understand it. Things have already come to such a state — why do these people keep doing this… In every other instance before, I could always understand the reasoning. But at a time like this, why can’t they, just once, be wise?”

“Because of the songs and dances still playing before their eyes,” Ning Yi said, after a moment’s silence. At this point, the street they were walking along stood slightly higher than the surroundings; looking out to one side into the night, through the gaps in the tree-lined shadows, one could faintly make out the city’s prosperous, peaceful nightscape — this, even after having just weathered the horrors of war. “And besides… the Right Chancellor’s household made a few mistakes. One of them, in particular, is the real trouble — there’s no dodging it.”

“What was it?” Shishi turned to look at him.

“On the day the Jurchens attacked the city, His Majesty went chasing after the Empress, trying to flee the city, and the Right Chancellor’s household used certain means to keep him from leaving. His Majesty lost face over it, and he will absolutely never bring it up again — but…” Ning Yi lowered his head with a faint laugh, then raised it again. “Looking back on it since, piecing things together, this might actually be the real reason His Majesty was willing to abandon Taiyuan entirely just to bring down the Qin family. There are plenty of other reasons given, but none of them really hold up under scrutiny — this is the one matter in which His Majesty behaved dishonorably, and he knows it himself. Chasing after the Empress? Who would believe that. Cai Jing, Tong Guan — these men all have their own stains. But of everyone, it was the Right Chancellor who kept him there. Perhaps ever since, whenever His Majesty sees Chancellor Qin, he instinctively avoids the memory of it — but precisely because it’s something he dares not even think about, the Right Chancellor was bound to fall.”

Shishi’s lips parted slightly, her eyes gradually widening.

“At the time, with the fighting so perilous, I was outside the city and had no idea what was happening. The Right Chancellor should have realized the danger of it, but in such chaos, with so much else demanding attention, there was no good way to remedy it. By the time enough time had passed, all that was left to hope for was a stroke of luck.” Ning Yi shook his head, his gaze and tone remaining calm. “Heh… it may not even be true — I might just be judging a gentleman’s heart by a petty man’s standards. There’s no real point in dwelling on it now. Let it go.”

Listening to that calm voice, Shishi found herself stunned into silence for a long while. Matters of the human heart, no one can ever say for certain — but Shishi understood that this possibility was far from small. She looked again at Ning Yi’s face, recalling the punch he had taken earlier in front of the Qin residence, and then being summoned afterward by Tan Zhen and Prince Tong, “given a scolding” — these past days, it seemed, had been filled with exactly this kind of face, this kind of business, surrounding him constantly.

Shishi herself had gone to help defend the walls; the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives inside and outside the city, the brutal, life-and-death struggle she had witnessed with her own eyes, remained vivid in her memory even now. If, after such a monumental sacrifice, after such arduous effort, the one sliver of hope purchased with the deaths of well over a hundred thousand people were to be destroyed by nothing more than the wounded pride of a man who’d failed to flee — even if that were only some small part of the reason — she could understand just how bitterly disheartening that would be.

And she could sense, too, just how much exhaustion and fury must lie beneath this man’s calm composure as he maneuvered these past days among all these great officials and petty clerks.

She tucked that feeling away in her heart. “Then… is there anyone left from the Right Chancellor’s household who can still be saved? If there’s anything I can do…”

“Don’t get involved in this.” Ning Yi shook his head at once. “It won’t help, and it’ll only bring you trouble.”

“There’s always something that can be done. I’m not afraid of trouble — just like before, when you had those storytellers speak up for the Right Chancellor. As long as someone speaks up…”

“That’s exactly why it’s stopped, isn’t it. They’re absolutely determined to bring down the Right Chancellor’s household now — if I push that kind of propaganda any further, the storytellers under me will end up thrown in prison too. The Right Chancellor earned real merit defending the city — to move against him now, they need to discredit him first, and they’ve already made their preparations. There’s no fighting it head-on.”

The night wind blew past, carrying a quiet chill. After a moment, Ning Yi spoke again. “Don’t dwell on it too much. Go to Jiangning. We’ve been friends a long time — if you have nowhere to stay, I can see to it that you’re settled — I’d already meant to come remind you of this anyway, so this works out. Honestly, when the Jurchens march south again, if you refuse to leave, I’ll have to send people to drag you away myself. We know each other well enough by now that you don’t need to thank me — it’s only right that I do this.”

Shishi burst out laughing. “Then I suppose I’ll just wait for you to come catch me…”

The light along the street flickered unevenly. Though she was smiling now, as she stepped into the darker patches of shadow, tears began falling from her eyes despite herself, and she couldn’t stop them.

When the Jurchens had besieged the city, standing in that hellish battlefield, watching hundreds and thousands die, she had still been able to hold onto a faint hope in her heart. When the Jurchens were finally driven back, she had been able to leap with joy and celebrate aloud. But only now, in this quiet, peaceful atmosphere, hearing the calm words of the man beside her, did she feel a despairing sorrow rise up from the very marrow of her bones — a chill so deep it left no room for even the faintest hope.

Anger and exhaustion meant nothing here; effort meant nothing either; even being prepared to be hurt, whatever she might still do would mean nothing…

Seeing her suddenly break into tears, Ning Yi stopped. He took out a handkerchief and offered it to her, wanting to say something comforting, though in truth he wasn’t entirely sure himself why she’d suddenly started crying. Shishi simply stood there, gripping his sleeve, silently letting the tears fall for a long while…

…

The details might differ here and there, but just as Ning Yi and the others had predicted, once the larger course of events had begun, it flowed on like floodwater — unstoppable, impossible to hold back.

As though feeling nothing of spring’s warmth at all, by the time March had passed, Qin Siyuan’s case had expanded further still. This expansion was half genuine, half fabricated. By the time Qin Siyuan had returned to prominence, the situation with the Jin and Liao had already begun to clarify, and in wasting those earlier years, to secure logistics for the campaign against Liao, the Right Chancellor’s household had indeed done a fair number of things through emergency expedient measures. As for forming factions and pursuing personal gain, it might pale in comparison to men like Cai Jing or Tong Guan — but if one truly wanted to dig it all up, the pile of evidence would still prove startlingly large.

Tang Ke, serving as the presiding judge in the case, found that even handling matters strictly by the book couldn’t halt this momentum — his own apparent inclination to help Qin Siyuan only made the case appear more complicated even as its outlines grew clearer, and this in turn extended the time the case took to resolve — and time was precisely the necessary condition for rumor to ferment throughout society. By April, as the first hints of summer began to show, public denunciation of the “Seven Tigers” within the capital grew ever more intense. And since, of the Seven Tigers, only Qin Siyuan was currently under investigation, he gradually became the focal point of everyone’s attention.

As these matters deepened, April brought no shortage of developments. After the first ten days of the month had passed, Qin Shaoqian was finally thrown into prison as well — this time genuinely implicated in his father’s case, with no way left to avoid it. On Ning Yi’s side, the Secret Investigation Bureau began being handed over; officials dispatched by the court gradually took over affairs that had once been managed by the chancellor’s household. Ning Yi did his best to smooth the transition, though friction inevitably arose along the way. Meanwhile, old rivals like Tie Tianying, having found their opening at last, came around more and more often to provoke trouble and make things difficult — exactly as expected.

Meeting each challenge as it came, Ning Yi had long since prepared himself mentally for all of this. Occasionally, waking at midnight, or during a lull in his work, he’d find anger settling ever more heavily in his chest — but the day of his departure was also drawing ever nearer. And so things went, until something happened quite suddenly.

By now, it was already the latter part of April of that year.

Time seemed to pass slowly, yet in truth moved swiftly.

Summer, and the season of pouring rains, was upon them…