At court, the impeachment of the Minister of Rites grew increasingly serious. A subordinate official had filed charges against his own superior, and one unsavory revelation after another about the Minister of Rites continued to surface.

The Emperor was furious. The impeachment was handed to the Court of Judicial Review, and a secret order went out to the Embroidered Guard.

The Embroidered Guard had already caught wind of the Minister of Rites’ misconduct before any of this. Someone had exposed the matter before they could investigate further.

Qi Hanzhou’s brow furrowed as he received the secret order. His gaze swept over the details, lingering first on the Ministry of Rites officials named within, and he read that section for a long while. His deputy stood beside him and, noticing the young general’s puzzled expression, said without thinking, “We’d already been considering looking into the Ministry of Rites. Doesn’t this order from His Majesty just hand us the opportunity? But why did the Minister of Rites’ matter surface now?”

“Because of Hu Buyu. Hu Buyu’s close ties to the First Prince shifted the balance at court.” Qi Hanzhou’s brow remained creased. He knew exactly how Madam Hu and her daughter, and Hu Buyu himself, had ended up on the First Prince’s side. The turning point had been the rainy night at the Huguo Temple. From that person intercepting Madam Hu and her daughter to the First Prince arriving with the Imperial Guard to protect Hu Buyu, every step had been that person’s doing. One could say Hu Buyu had been pushed into the First Prince’s camp by his hand alone.

Riding in the same carriage, leaving the palace together, none of that said much on its own.

But at court, with countless eyes watching, the Emperor had praised the First Prince because of Hu Buyu. That was the problem.

If Hu Buyu had never made it to the capital, nothing would have happened.

But once Hu Buyu reached the capital and established his footing, certain people at court could no longer sit still.

“The people behind the assassination attempts must have known Lord Hu was the Emperor’s trusted man,” the deputy said, puzzled. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have sent so many death soldiers after him.”

“Only a few people knew that,” Qi Hanzhou said. “What runs through the court is factional politics. The Crown Prince is young. They would never stand by and watch the First Prince’s influence grow unchecked.”

“Then the ones who sent assassins after Lord Hu were the Crown Prince’s faction?” the deputy said, startled.

“Not necessarily,” Qi Hanzhou said.

All the evidence pointed to the Crown Prince’s faction, but factional struggles played out both openly and in the shadows. No conclusions could be drawn yet.

The Minister of Rites had been recommended to the court by the Prince of Yongjia, and the man belonged to the First Prince’s faction. Factional strife in Great Yuan was nothing new. With the Crown Prince recently disgraced and the First Prince rising on the tide, the Crown Prince’s faction had gone quiet and made no visible moves. Without question, Hu Buyu was the one who had upset the balance.

Upset the balance, and certain people would want to restore it.

“Why the Ministry of Rites? If the goal is to cut the First Prince down, wouldn’t the Ministry of Revenue be a better target?” the deputy asked. The Ministry of Revenue was the First Prince’s stronghold. Striking there would do real damage.

Qi Hanzhou destroyed the secret order. “Because the second-in-command at the Ministry of Rites is Vice Minister Ning, who is riding high right now and is the Sixth Prince’s maternal family.”

“One fire, and it can burn a whole chain of ships.”

The image surfaced unbidden: a prince soaked to the bone in the rain, those eyes lit by a flash of lightning, empty of sorrow and joy alike. Ying Fusheng must have known that pushing Hu Buyu forward would shatter the balance at court. The Ning family had been gaining prominence, the Sixth Prince was basking in imperial favor, and they would very likely become a target that killed two birds with one stone. Yet he had done it anyway, pushing his own maternal family to the edge of the blade. Why?

Unless the Ning family was a target he had set up long ago.

The palace banquet last year.

Qi Hanzhou’s gaze sharpened. “Is the Sixth Prince in the palace?”

The deputy blinked, then quickly caught up. “He went out a few days ago, but he’s been in the palace since… hey! Young General, where are you going?”

……

Spring had arrived, and the palace held a garden outing in the Imperial Garden. The Crown Prince had been under house arrest for two months and was finally released. When Consort Ning heard the news, she was so overjoyed she could barely take it in, and the exhaustion of recent days eased somewhat. Perhaps because the Ministry of Rites was in disarray and Vice Minister Ning had raised the matter before the Emperor several times, word came from the Cining Palace on the morning of the garden outing, lifting Consort Ning’s house arrest.

The order came from the Empress Dowager herself. That meant things had taken a turn for the better.

Consort Ning had Bizhu begin preparations at the crack of dawn.

Bizhu was quietly worried. Consort Ning’s mental state had been deteriorating. “My lady, about the garden outing…”

Consort Ning looked at her own reflection in the bronze mirror and caught none of the concern in Bizhu’s voice. She frowned. “What about it? Why are you standing there? Come and dress my hair.”

The garden outing in the Imperial Garden included consorts, princes, and princesses alike.

Before the appointed hour, the Imperial Garden was already filling up. When Ying Fusheng arrived, he spotted Consort Ning from a distance. She looked different from the way she did during his visits to the Weiyang Palace. Her color was unusually better today.

She had made a deliberate effort to prepare herself, dressed in simple, unadorned robes with almost no ornaments. But a careful look still revealed the hollowness around her eyes that had not fully faded. The careful grooming made her look like someone just emerging from a long illness, the kind of appearance that invited sympathy.

Ying Fusheng knew his mother cared more than anything about what others thought of her.

The Empress Dowager’s punishment had left her seething, but she had no choice but to lower herself and play the agreeable role, the easiest way to earn people’s pity.

If she had not been stealing glances at the Crown Prince while pretending to chat with the other consorts, the performance would have been worth nine out of ten.

“You seem to have spent this time cultivating your mind and conduct,” the Empress Dowager said, her tone measured. “You look as though you’ve sorted yourself out.”

The shadows under Consort Ning’s eyes were still faintly visible beneath her powder, applied with just the right hand. “This consort has been fasting, reciting sutras, and praying these past days, keeping your teachings close to heart.”

“That is good.” The Empress Dowager glanced at her briefly, then her gaze shifted as Ying Fusheng approached. “Little Six is here?”

Ying Fusheng had been walking over for a while, quietly watching Consort Ning’s performance. He paid his respects to the Empress Dowager and then moved to Consort Ning’s side, calling out softly to her.

Quite a few eyes turned their way. Consort Ning felt Ying Fusheng draw close and swallowed her revulsion. She gently drew him in and smoothed his outer robe upward to shield him from the cold wind, every gesture the picture of a mother’s concern. She even had Bizhu bring over a hand warmer. “The weather is warming, but your health comes first.”

The Empress Dowager glanced at Ying Fusheng. Seeing the child leaning close to Consort Ning, and Consort Ning looking at him with apparent warmth, some of her bias softened slightly. “It’s getting late. Let’s go.”

Empress Xu stood nearby with the Crown Prince and the Eighth Prince. The Eighth Prince had wanted to go to Ying Fusheng, but seeing the Crown Prince standing in the way, he held back, though his eyes kept drifting over. Ying Fusheng gave him one glance, then shifted his attention elsewhere.

The Crown Prince had spent two months under house arrest. He was noticeably more composed than before, still carrying that mild and graceful air, but the emotions he used to show openly around Ying Fusheng were gone. He stayed close to Empress Xu rather than hovering near the Empress Dowager the way he used to. The house arrest had steadied him. Consort Ning had not seen the Crown Prince in some time, and some of the pent-up frustration in her chest eased at the sight of him. He was walking with Empress Xu, and she could only steal careful glances.

After weeks of house arrest, seeing the Crown Prince did not ease her longing. It only made her want to look at him more.

Bizhu kept a close watch on Consort Ning’s state and had to cover for her mistress more than once.

The moment other eyes looked away, Consort Ning released Ying Fusheng’s hand, and all her earlier warmth vanished.

She watched the Crown Prince walk away with Empress Xu, and her body began drifting in that direction without thinking, her steps quickening.

Bizhu quickly lowered her voice. “My lady!”

“Mother?” a voice said.

Consort Ning came back to herself, realizing she had nearly lost her composure. For a disoriented moment she had thought the word was the Crown Prince calling for her, but she turned to find Ying Fusheng standing at her side, his face full of concern. Her gaze fell on his face. Since the Huguo Temple, sleep has been impossible. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that overlapping silhouette from that night.

Ying Fusheng had always been sickly, his face perpetually wan, often too weak to leave his bed, his every expression timid and shrunken.

But after recovering at the Cining Palace, once the pallor faded and the sickness lifted, his features became impossible to ignore. Consort Ning found herself more and more convinced that the eyes now looking up at her were overlapping with Empress Xu’s eyes, the ones that always looked down at her from above.

A faint clean scent drifted over, something like medicine from Ying Fusheng’s robes.

Without knowing why, Consort Ning fixed her gaze on his face, and the malice in her eyes began to spread.

Bizhu noticed her mistress’s posture shifting and called out again. “My lady!”

Ying Fusheng looked over with a puzzled expression.

Consort Ning’s face gradually went cold. She was holding herself together through sheer force of will, but the past half month of poor sleep had taken its toll. Every time she thought of the Crown Prince under house arrest while Ying Fusheng basked in favor, the rage inside her refused to be contained. She told herself to be patient. There was no proof, no evidence. No one would discover the child swap. And even if someone noticed that Ying Fusheng didn’t resemble her, his face resembled the Emperor, and a son taking after his father was the most natural thing in the world.

Wait a little longer. Wait until Ying Fusheng returned to the Weiyang Palace.

She forced herself to stay calm and walked with the group, turning her schemes over in her mind.

The Imperial Garden was vast. At its center sat a water pavilion connected to the Wangyue Pavilion not far away, with a stream murmuring beneath the bridge.

Ying Fusheng kept watching Consort Ning. She seemed composed on the surface, but her steps kept shifting between slow and hurried, and several consorts in the distance had already begun watching her, studying her carefully. His nominal grandfather Vice Minister Ning was riding high at court, and Consort Ning had even had her house arrest lifted early despite the Empress Dowager’s fury. The old Consort Ning had been invisible in the palace, never competing for anything. The current one was a different matter entirely.

“Mother, are you all right?” Ying Fusheng said, looking at her.

Consort Ning was terrified of anyone noticing something wrong. “Of course I’m fine…”

Ying Fusheng gave her a slightly worried look, then shifted his gaze back toward the group behind them.

Consort Ning was wound tight and jumping at shadows. She followed his gaze without thinking and found several consorts already watching her. She had always guarded her reputation carefully and was acutely sensitive to any unusual attention, especially after the rumors about her angering the Empress Dowager. Now she saw more than one person looking her way, their eyes moving between her and Ying Fusheng, and the composure she had barely managed to hold together began to crack.

What were they looking at?

Why were they looking at her and Ying Fusheng? Had they noticed something?

A stir broke out ahead. Consort Ning looked up.

Empress Xu, walking beside the Empress Dowager, turned her head slightly, and her gaze seemed to drift toward Consort Ning and Ying Fusheng. Consort Ning’s body moved before her mind could catch up. She shot her hand out almost instantly, meaning to block those probing stares, to cover Ying Fusheng’s face. But her arm swept across Ying Fusheng as he walked, and he stumbled, lurching sideways and toppling over the edge.

The snow had melted and the spring warmth had left the ground damp. Ying Fusheng seemed to slip, and when his waist struck the bridge railing, he flipped backward and fell.

Consort Ning stood frozen, rooted to the spot.

“The Sixth Prince has fallen into the water!” someone cried out.

The crowd lurched in alarm. A figure thrashed in the water below.

Eyes flew in from every direction. The guards nearby leapt in immediately and pulled the Sixth Prince out. With so many people around, the guards had acted the moment he hit the water, and he had swallowed only a little. Consort Ning heard Ying Fusheng coughing and sputtering and finally snapped back to herself. She started forward to check on him, but after a few steps, whether from panic or something darker, she caught the look in Ying Fusheng’s eyes as he turned toward her, and her mind lurched back to that winter night the previous year, to the look he had given her when he came to after falling into the water then.

Ying Fusheng looked at her. Consort Ning’s feet faltered.

The people nearby followed Ying Fusheng’s gaze, and what they saw was Consort Ning’s face, something in her expression caught between fear and something else entirely.

Why was Consort Ning making that face?

Consort Ning stared at Ying Fusheng’s face and at those eyes that seemed to be mocking her. The Sixth Prince’s silence was taken by everyone else as shock from the fall, and no one noticed the absence of any mother-and-son warmth in his expression. No one was watching him. Every eye was on Consort Ning and her strange behavior.

Empress Xu immediately sent someone to fetch the imperial physician. Moving quickly toward the scene, she passed Consort Ning standing motionless, and caught the look she had just directed at Ying Fusheng. It was not the look of a mother. It was hostility. It was fear. If the incident at the Huguo Temple could be explained away as distraction and anxiety, two and three times could not.

She paused, watching as a palace maid called Consort Ning back to herself. Only then did Consort Ning belatedly run to Ying Fusheng’s side, pushing through the onlookers and trying to check on him.

Ying Fusheng’s expression had returned to normal. Consort Ning went through the motions of concern, unaware that the faces around her had taken on all manner of expressions.

“What happened?” The Empress Dowager’s face was thunderous, and seeing Ying Fusheng chilled and soaked, her expression turned several degrees colder. Her reproachful gaze swept the surrounding crowd.

A garden outing in the Imperial Garden, with so many people present, and a prince had still managed to fall into the water?

The palace attendants rushed to beg forgiveness. The consorts stammered. One of them said quietly, “Just now I saw Ning Jiejie reach out her hand, and then the Sixth Prince fell.”

“Nonsense!” The words burst out of Consort Ning before she could stop them.

The bastard had slipped on his own. Her voice had come out too loud, and with weeks of poor sleep leaving her blood and energy unsteady, the force of her denial carried a wild, unhinged edge.

The consort who had spoken shrank back two steps in fright. But her words had planted a seed. Quite a few people had indeed noticed Consort Ning reaching out at an odd moment. Whether she had pushed the Sixth Prince or he had slipped was still unclear, but why had Consort Ning suddenly reached toward him when he had been walking perfectly steadily?

The crowd fell silent. Ying Fusheng lowered his eyes slightly, his gaze unreadable.

The moment the shout left her, Consort Ning’s reason reasserted itself. She was shaken, realizing she had completely lost her composure and screamed in front of everyone without a thought for appearances.

“Ning Jiejie, why are you so agitated?” Noble Consort Yun said.

Consort Ning had always kept a low profile in the palace. Compared to the coquettish Noble Consort Yun, she had been almost excessively careful and had maintained cordial relations with most people, always speaking in soft, measured tones. The face she had just shown, however brief, was nothing like the person they had known, and more than a few consorts were now looking at her differently.

“Something seems off with Ning Jiejie…”

“Yes, when has she ever acted like this?”

“She’s been strange lately. The last time I went to the Weiyang Palace…”

The whispers seemed to grow louder, and sharp glances pressed in from all sides.

This was wrong. This was not how it was supposed to go. Consort Ning’s composure had shattered. She was only a few steps from Ying Fusheng. Crouching low, she looked up and found him watching her. His gaze was utterly calm, as though he had expected this display all along, and there was none of the usual dependence in his eyes. That look was what Consort Ning hated most. It was exactly like Empress Xu’s, that same quality of looking down from above.

An uncontrollable fury rose in her. The nightmares of recent weeks had blurred the line between dream and waking until she could barely tell them apart.

“The wind outside is cold,” Empress Xu said suddenly.

The Crown Prince stepped forward. “Someone take Sixth Brother somewhere warm.”

Consort Ning’s head snapped up at the Crown Prince’s voice, but she was in no state to speak. He didn’t look at her. He simply turned and walked away.

The Imperial Garden had descended into chaos. The Empress Dowager had people attend to the Sixth Prince, while Consort Ning sank to the ground, her gaze unfocused. Whatever semblance of concern she had managed to show for Ying Fusheng earlier was entirely gone. Her expression shifted between something vicious and something blank, a face none of the other consorts had ever seen on her before. Even Noble Consort Yun, who had just been goading her, frowned.

“Help Consort Ning up,” Empress Xu said, surveying the scene. This was the Imperial Garden, surrounded by guards and palace attendants. A consort losing herself like this in full view of everyone was a disgrace to the imperial family. Her words fell, and the attendants moved at once, helping Consort Ning to her feet.

The Empress Dowager’s expression had gone as dark as it could go. Aunt Yu at her side had already sent someone to get Ying Fusheng into dry clothes.

The wind in the Imperial Garden was strong. The bystanders were dismissed, and the group quickly moved to the warm inner hall of the Wangyue Pavilion.

The imperial physician had just arrived when another voice rang out.

“His Majesty the Emperor!”

Word of the incident in the Imperial Garden had reached the Emperor immediately. He arrived to find the garden in disarray, consorts gathered in a cluster, and Consort Ning’s bearing in complete disorder.

Qi Hanzhou accompanied the Emperor, having been nearby when the incident occurred.

He followed the Emperor inside now, keeping his distance and hanging back at the outer edge, his gaze passing through the crowd to find the Sixth Prince wrapped in thick robes and drinking something warm.

He looked as though he had been chilled through, his face extremely pale. If Qi Hanzhou had not already noticed the Ministry of Rites affair in advance, and if he had not seen this person’s sharp tongue in action at the Huguo Temple, he might have been taken in by the face he was making now.

“What happened?” the Emperor asked.

Eunuch Rong explained quietly. The Sixth Prince had just been pulled out and was recovering, and had said he had slipped and fallen.

Consort Ning had never lost her composure like this before. She had held her position as a favored consort for years, and her conduct had always been beyond reproach. Quite a few people had seen her reach out her hand before the prince fell. Whether it had been a push or a slip, no one could say for certain. But no one in the room believed the simpler explanation. The Empress Dowager had witnessed her behavior more than once. Empress Xu had seen her lose herself at the Huguo Temple as well. Once could be put down to distraction and anxiety. Twice, three times, and that excuse no longer held.

The Empress Dowager sat among the group, her expression deeply unsettled. The Emperor listened to the reports around him, his gaze settling on Consort Ning where she knelt, her hair ornaments in disarray, all trace of her usual dignity gone.

“Physician Chu,” the Emperor said, his expression unreadable. “Examine her.”

“My lady, this physician will take your pulse,” Physician Chu said, reaching for Consort Ning’s wrist.

Consort Ning had no idea how things had come to this. Her instinct was to pull her hand away from the physician. But the Emperor’s face was cold, and she had no choice but to extend her hand. It seemed she was finally grasping that this was not a dream but reality, and as she realized that everyone around her was questioning her state of mind, panic crept into her expression.

Physician Chu took her pulse and frowned deeply. He caught the lingering scent of incense on her. “My lady, have you been using anything of late? Incense, perhaps?”

The palace maids confirmed that Consort Ning’s food, clothing, and daily use items had all been as usual. “But my lady has been burning calming incense frequently these past days.”

The calming incense had filled the hall day and night. Now that Consort Ning thought back on it, she had indeed been jolting awake from nightmares each time the incense ran out. It was as though she had found a reason for her own unraveling. “Yes, the calming incense. Your Majesty, please stand up for me. Someone has been trying to harm me.”

“Where did the calming incense come from?” the Emperor asked.

Bizhu, standing nearby, hesitated before she had to answer. “The Sixth Prince sent it.”

What was Consort Ning implying? That the Sixth Prince had sent calming incense to harm her?

Empress Xu looked immediately at Ying Fusheng. He had gone even paler the moment Consort Ning’s words landed.

The Emperor turned his head. “Little Six. Is this true?”

Ying Fusheng did not deny it. He steadied himself and explained, “Your son did send calming incense to Mother. She had been restless for a long time, and calming incense helps with sleep. The incense I sent was what I use myself.”

His poor health and frequent convulsions were well known to the Cining Palace attendants. The calming incense had come from the imperial physician, and the Sixth Prince had often asked the physician for extra portions to send to the Weiyang Palace for Consort Ning.

Everyone present knew this.

Consort Ning’s mind, still hazy, slowly recalled that Ying Fusheng had been bringing things over regularly during this period, and calming incense most of all. To avoid suspicion and to show that she missed her son, she had mentioned the incense to everyone she spoke to, and to demonstrate her care for Ying Fusheng, she had kept it burning. She had used it ever since.

If she insisted the calming incense was tainted, she would be accusing her own son of poisoning her. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

No one was listening to her explanations anymore. Consort Ning’s current state carried the unmistakable edge of madness. First the strange behavior when the prince fell into the water, then the accusation that someone was trying to harm her, and the incense in question had been sent by her own child. The consorts who had children of their own frowned. No sane person would think a gift from their child was meant to harm them. If there truly had been a poisoning, suspicion would naturally fall on other things. Only Consort Ning would point immediately to the incense.

Qi Hanzhou’s brow furrowed slightly. He turned and instructed a nearby palace attendant to go and retrieve the calming incense.

The incense burners were changed every few days, and the Weiyang Palace had many of them, with no shortage of incense.

The attendants brought every incense burner from the Weiyang Palace along with the unused calming incense and handed them to the physician for examination. Consort Ning and Bizhu stood frozen, watching the incense with the look of people bracing for catastrophe. The physician examined the incense carefully and after some time delivered his verdict. “This physician reports to Your Majesty: there is nothing wrong with the calming incense.”

The calming incense was clean. Her food, clothing, and daily items were all clean. Then where had Consort Ning’s madness come from?

“Someone search the Weiyang Palace. Every corner.” the Emperor ordered.

The color drained from Consort Ning’s face!