The Crown Prince panicked the moment he heard those words. He had sent word to the Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud to deal with the jade pendant as part of the cleanup, and that had already been done the day before. By all reasoning, the matter had been handled. How had this jade pendant ended up in his imperial father’s hands? 

“This son lost the jade pendant some days ago and has been unable to find it…”

“And it found its way outside the palace?” the Emperor demanded.

At that, the Crown Prince lost all composure and murmured, “This son does not know.”

He had no idea where things had gone wrong, and he was even more afraid that his imperial father had learned about the training grounds incident. “Perhaps a palace attendant picked it up…”

The Emperor’s expression was cold. He was clearly not satisfied with what the Crown Prince had said. “Last night, fires broke out across the capital region. The blaze burned through the stables of the Court of the Imperial Stud.”

The Crown Prince was completely thrown. He had known nothing about fires in the capital region and had received no word of it at all. That jade pendant should have been in the Vice Director’s hands. He did not dare let himself think further about what had happened, and he did not know how much his imperial father already knew. His mind was in disarray. He did not dare look up, and from the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Ying Fusheng standing nearby. A flash of mockery crossed the other’s eyes, undisguised.

That look did not fade. The Crown Prince felt a nerve struck almost instantly. Nothing had gone right since the Wangyue Pavilion incident. The credit from the palace banquet had been stolen from him. Shen Yunfei, whom he had wanted rid of, had become his study companion. From the moment Ying Fusheng had appeared, certain things had seemed to go off course.

If not for this person…

“Imperial Father, there may be a misunderstanding regarding the jade pendant,” Ying Fusheng said, stepping forward to offer an explanation.

The Emperor looked at the Crown Prince, who stood in silence, then looked at Ying Fusheng, who had spoken up on his behalf. “Crown Prince, I am asking you.”

The Crown Prince’s thoughts were in complete disarray. “This son does not know.”

The Emperor’s eyes darkened slightly, and he seemed displeased with the answer.

The hall fell silent. The Crown Prince’s mind was a tangle of confusion, and he had lost all sense of direction.

At that moment, Eunuch Rong walked in and spoke in a low voice. “Your Majesty, the Grand Secretary of the Xu family has arrived.”

The Emperor’s brow furrowed slightly at the mention of the Grand Secretary of the Xu family. Ying Fusheng noticed the brief shift in his expression. The Emperor quickly waved his hand and told Eunuch Rong to show him in.

A short while later, a sound came from outside the hall.

Ying Fusheng looked toward it and saw an elderly man approaching.

When the Grand Secretary of the Xu family entered, the hall grew a shade quieter.

His temples had gone white. He walked with the bearing of a man of letters and bowed in greeting before the Emperor.

When the Emperor saw him arrive, some of the gravity in his expression eased. “The Grand Secretary has come?”

“Hearing that Your Majesty has been troubled by the military pay case, it is this subject’s duty to help relieve Your Majesty’s concerns.” The Grand Secretary of the Xu family presented a memorial. “Regarding the matter of official position trading that has been discussed at court, this subject has already had it thoroughly investigated. All the officials involved are named within, and the evidence is conclusive.”

The Emperor had someone bring it to him. As he scanned the contents, his brow smoothed. “The Grand Secretary has been diligent.”

The Crown Prince felt as though he had found his anchor when he saw the Grand Secretary of the Xu family arrive. Ying Fusheng stood quietly and watched the elderly man. As the leader of the literati faction, the Grand Secretary of the Xu family held a position of great prestige and seniority in the cabinet and rarely stepped forward to handle matters personally. He had the appearance of a man of letters, with a gentle bearing, and his features bore some resemblance to Empress Xu. But beneath that scholarly manner lay an exceptionally deep calculating nature. In a later life, it was this very man who had devoted himself tirelessly to the Crown Prince’s cause, brought down the First Prince’s faction, and successfully placed the false crown prince on the throne.

The Crown Prince and the Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud had planned the runaway horse incident on their own initiative. The Grand Secretary of the Xu family had come to get the Crown Prince out of trouble.

The attack on Vice Minister Shen, the trading of official positions through the imperial examinations. Someone needed to come forward and give an account.

That memorial was the Grand Secretary of the Xu family’s account, and his imperial father’s purpose had thereby been served.

The old man’s gaze traveled across the room and came to rest on Ying Fusheng from a distance. As the seasons turned and the spring snow melted, most people had already shed their heavy winter clothes, yet he was still dressed in thick layers, and his frame looked even slighter than others his age, so slight he seemed barely able to bear the weight of his robes. He stood to one side, looking as though none of this had anything to do with him. His eyes were still and deep. For someone so young, his face showed not a single crack. He looked exactly like a prince summoned to an audience, carrying a trace of apprehension, fitting the image of a timid and frail child that the palace reports described. He bore no resemblance whatsoever to the smooth-tongued Vice Minister Ning.

If he were his student, he would consider this child steady and worth cultivating.

But he was a prince.

The Grand Secretary of the Xu family looked away. The anxiety in the Crown Prince’s eyes beside him was barely contained, until the old man finally spoke. “Your Majesty, regarding the training grounds incident, the Crown Prince is by nature well-meaning and was likely taken advantage of by someone with ulterior motives. The officials implicated through the Court of the Imperial Stud are numerous, and a careful investigation is still needed.”

From the high seat, the fury the Emperor had carried was already soothed by the Grand Secretary’s memorial. He looked at the Crown Prince kneeling on the ground, and the displeasure in his eyes turned to disappointment. Then he looked at the Grand Secretary of the Xu family, who had come specifically for this, and his expression deepened. At last he said, “Very well. The Crown Prince has acted improperly. He is confined to his quarters for two months, and is to copy out the ancestral precepts and reflect at all times.”

The Crown Prince started and quickly looked up.

Since becoming the heir apparent, he had never been punished so severely. He could barely keep himself upright.

Shen Yunfei was nothing more than the son of a convicted official…

But the Emperor had no interest in speaking with him further. He waved his hand and left.

Ying Fusheng gave a slight bow toward the Grand Secretary of the Xu family and also left the hall.

“Two months of confinement. The Crown Prince should reflect carefully.”

The Grand Secretary of the Xu family said, “You act rashly and take matters into your own hands. Your mother is very worried.”

The Crown Prince was full of resentment. “Grandfather, I…”

The Grand Secretary of the Xu family bowed and excused himself, leaving the Crown Prince alone in the hall.

As he came out, a palace attendant was waiting with a respectful bow. The Grand Secretary of the Xu family did not turn to look, but from the corner of his eye he watched the figure walking away in the distance. He spoke in an unhurried tone. “Go and tell the Empress that the Crown Prince is safe for now, but his words and conduct must be watched more carefully going forward. His Majesty’s intentions are difficult to read. It is best not to wade into these murky waters any further.”

The palace attendant acknowledged the instruction respectfully. The Grand Secretary of the Xu family had already left the side hall of the Wenhua Hall.

…

Inside the Wenhua Hall, classes had been dismissed for the day. With the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince called away, Shen Yunfei had been on edge the entire time. He knew the full story, and he knew the Sixth Prince had been working behind the scenes for the Shen family. He had been afraid the Sixth Prince might be caught up in the fallout for helping them, and only when he saw Ying Fusheng’s figure approaching from a distance did he finally let out a breath.

But the moment he drew close, he saw Ying Fusheng come to a stop, his gaze drifting to the road in the distance.

The Emperor’s procession had long since moved on, and only scattered palace attendants were moving about. He could not tell what His Highness was looking at. “Your Highness the Sixth Prince?”

Ying Fusheng came back to himself and turned around. When he glanced toward the side hall, his eyes grew slightly guarded.

Palace attendants moved about. The elderly man who had come specifically to the Wenhua Hall was no longer in sight, but Ying Fusheng knew that having been in the same room as the Emperor just now, he had likely drawn the attention of quite a few people.

Ying Fusheng quietly withdrew his gaze. The Xu family had moved fast.

The Crown Prince was still young at this stage, and his worst tendencies showed themselves with the slightest provocation.

But the truly difficult opponent was not the Crown Prince at this point in time. It was the vast web spread out behind him.

The Grand Secretary of the Xu family. In his previous life, this had not been his first encounter with this maternal great-uncle, and he knew the plans the man had laid for the Crown Prince. This elder whose students spanned the realm had devoted an immeasurable amount of effort to the Crown Prince. One could say he had schemed out everything on the Crown Prince’s behalf, and it was he who had built the Crown Prince’s power base in that later life. In his previous life, when Ying Fusheng had learned that something was wrong with his own identity, he had once sought help from this renowned great-uncle. But the letter he sent asking for help disappeared without a trace, and what he received in the end was a message carried by that man’s shadow guard:

‘The prince is weak and without ambition. His ailing body is unfit to bear the weight of great responsibility…’

By the time he died in his previous life, this great-uncle had already become a senior statesman who had served three reigns, a veteran minister who schemed for the realm, and the new emperor’s most trusted confidant.

The Xu family had chosen the new emperor. That made them strangers to him.

“Your Highness.” Shen Yunfei called again.

Ying Fusheng snapped back to the present. As his mind cleared, the spring snow melting before him was not the desolate wasteland of the cold palace. “Classes are over. Why are you out here looking for me?”

“The Imperial Tutor dismissed us. His Majesty… did not make things difficult for Your Highness?” Shen Yunfei asked with some unease.

Ying Fusheng tilted his head at the question, finding it puzzling. “You should be asking me how the Shen family fares.”

“Last night’s fire. The Qi family already knows.”

Shen Yunfei tensed at the mention of the Qi family. He had barely finished setting the fire the night before when he heard the Qi family army stirring. The Qi family had noticed the Court of the Imperial Stud at almost the same time as him. If the Sixth Prince had not warned him to leave himself a way out, he would barely have slipped through Qi Hanzhou’s covert watch. “Did Young General Qi discover me?”

Hearing Shen Yunfei speak of Qi Hanzhou with such wariness, Ying Fusheng’s expression remained natural. He gave a light laugh. “He has the nose of a wolf. Hard to evade. The other point I made was simply this: all that was needed was for the Qi family to know that someone set the fire, and that someone is trying to save your Shen family. That is enough. There is no need to dig further.”

Shen Yunfei looked at the Sixth Prince standing before him, shorter in frame than himself. The new year had just begun, and after his next birthday, the Sixth Prince would be no more than eleven.

Yet the Sixth Prince had none of a child’s innocence. Even his own father spoke of Qi Hanzhou with wariness, but in the Sixth Prince’s eyes, he seemed to understand Qi Hanzhou deeply, even describing him with something like “the nose of a wolf.” And this was the young general of the Qi family, a man who could gallop into battle and take an enemy commander’s head.

Ying Fusheng looked at him. “What are you thinking?”

His thoughts had been seen through. Shen Yunfei was about to explain himself, but Ying Fusheng had no interest in what was on his mind. He looked into the distance, where a furtive palace attendant was moving away, and said simply, “The military pay case will have a resolution. Over the next few days, we should not see each other.”

Shen Yunfei heard the distance in those words, but he also understood that the two of them needed to keep their distance for now.

He had no choice but to take his leave. As he turned to go, he noticed a palace attendant at the Sixth Prince’s side swapping out his hand warmer, and his thoughts drifted for a moment. He was that frail?

The Wenhua Hall emptied. Song’an finished gathering their things and handed His Highness a fresh hand warmer, then said quietly, “Bizhu came by earlier.”

Palace attendants from every residence moved in and out of the Wenhua Hall, making it easy for informants to blend in. With the Emperor having come in person, the eyes and ears of the various consorts had all arrived.

When it came to the Emperor and the Crown Prince, certain news would travel faster than expected.

“Word of the Crown Prince’s punishment will spread quickly.” Ying Fusheng held the hand warmer, his gaze resting on it. As he turned it in his hands, warmth crept inch by inch to his fingertips and eased the chill that clung to him. He paused after speaking, and when he continued, his tone had cooled slightly. “You have not sent word to the Weiyang Palace in a long while. She can endure a month or two, but not this particular piece of news.”

“Remember, when you go, bring her some calming incense from me.”

Song’an’s expression shifted at those words. Seeing the cold look in His Highness’s eyes, he said, “This servant will see to it at once.”

…

In less than a quarter of an hour, news of the Crown Prince’s punishment had spread throughout the imperial city, and word rippled through the inner palace. The full reason for the punishment was unclear, but those who had overheard fragments passed along that the Emperor had flown into a rage and had even thrown down the Crown Prince’s jade pendant.

Since being established as heir apparent, the Crown Prince had always enjoyed the Emperor’s deep favor and had never faced a serious punishment. This severe reprimand struck everyone who heard of it as something almost unheard of.

And in contrast to the Crown Prince’s heavy punishment, the Cining Palace received an imperial gift of Peiyuan pills. The Emperor, mindful of the Sixth Prince’s frail constitution, had bestowed the medicine as a special gift.

The rewards and punishments spread through the palace, and everyone had something to say.

But very soon, an even greater case threw the capital into complete upheaval.

Two days after the fires in the capital region, a stunning development emerged in the military pay case that had shaken the entire court. The Embroidered Guard discovered a large quantity of unaccounted grain and fodder mixed in among the stores at the burned stables in the capital region. Most of it had burned, and some of the grain had been mixed in with miscellaneous items, its sacks burned open. These grain stores had served as cover, but the most shocking discovery came when the scene was cleared afterward: a portion of buried official silver was found beneath the stable floor.

It was military pay silver that had never been processed, hidden in the stables for an unknown length of time. Had it not been for the fire, no one would ever have known that official silver lay concealed there.

The Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud took his own life in the street, unable to face the consequences. All officials connected to him were taken into custody.

It was not unusual in itself to find official silver at the Court of the Imperial Stud, given that horses and carts passed through it from every corner of the realm and the grain and funds it handled daily were beyond counting. But the moment the unaccounted grain and official silver came to light, the overseer Qi Hanzhou ordered a comprehensive investigation into the Court of the Imperial Stud and all its subordinate departments. The astonishing finding was that the missing military funds had been hidden at various locations throughout the capital region. They had never left the capital at all, concealed in plain sight until now.

When this news broke, the entire court was shaken, and a string of officials were caught up in the fallout.

The Emperor erupted in fury and ordered the Embroidered Guard to conduct a full investigation. Vice Minister of War Shen Changcun was cleared of all wrongful charges. For his meritorious service in reporting the matter, and accounting for his failure to detect the irregularities, he was demoted from Vice Minister of War to Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud, with three months’ salary withheld as punishment.

After court was dismissed, Eunuch Rong quickened his pace and caught up with the young general walking ahead. “Young General, a moment. His Majesty requests your presence.”

The military officers who were his elders and uncles saw this and tapped Qi Hanzhou on the shoulder.

Qi Hanzhou said his farewells and followed Eunuch Rong.

“Young General, you had barely arrived at court when the military pay case was broken and His Majesty’s concerns were put to rest.” Eunuch Rong spoke as they walked. “This military pay case has troubled His Majesty for a long time. Now that the truth has come to light, it is enough to bring some comfort to the spirit of General Chen’s household.”

Qi Hanzhou heard the meaning beneath those words. “To ease His Majesty’s concerns is this subject’s honor.”

Eunuch Rong smiled. Looking at the young man of no more than thirteen or fourteen, who wore an expression of complete composure, he thought of how decisively the young man had acted: first deploying the Qi family army to put pressure on the capital garrison, then surrounding officials in the dead of night, with all the boldness of youth. “Young General, you do bear some resemblance to General Qi in his younger years.”

At the mention of Qi Shen, Qi Hanzhou glanced over involuntarily.

Eunuch Rong said no more. The Qianqing Palace had come into view.

Inside, the Emperor had not yet changed out of his court robes. Several memorials lay open on the table before him. “Hanzhou, you are here.”

Qi Hanzhou had grown considerably in height. Young as he was, his face had already lost all trace of boyishness.

The Emperor had watched him grow up, and seeing him now, there was a measure of warmth in his eyes. “Your father will set out for the frontlines in a few days. The fighting has stopped for now, and you handled the military pay case well. I have discussed it with your father. The position of Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Guard is temporarily vacant. I am keeping you here to gain some experience.” The Emperor’s tone was easy as he spoke, his manner toward Qi Hanzhou much like that of someone addressing the son of a close friend. Seeing Qi Hanzhou say nothing, he gave a light laugh. “What, do you still want to go back to the northern frontier?”

Qi Hanzhou paused. “This subject…”

“You have spent your life since childhood at the frontier with your father and have had little time in the capital. Keeping you here is also your father’s wish.” The Emperor looked at him. The hand turning the memorial stilled. “The Qi family is the sharpest blade the imperial house possesses. Even a fine sword needs years of tempering. So it is with people.”

He said no more than that. Qi Hanzhou’s frame tensed slightly. He understood the deeper meaning in the Emperor’s words.

…

When Qi Hanzhou left the palace, the Embroidered Guard’s token was already in his hand. Eunuch Rong walked with him until he disappeared at the far end of the imperial city.

Watching him go, the eunuch accompanying Eunuch Rong said, “Godfather, why do you treat Young General Qi with such deference?”

“The Qi family are born to serve at the emperor’s side. Since the late emperor’s reign, they have been the imperial house’s blade.” Eunuch Rong watched the figure disappear in the distance. “That one is a demon who crawled out of Youzhou City. Do not let his age fool you. Four years ago, he was barely more than a half-grown child, and he dragged his Shixhiong’s corpse out of that ghost city on his own.”