In an even more remote parlour in the Prince's manor, Yang Zhuofei's expression was slightly anxious. The day before, Feng Puzhi had had someone deliver a letter saying that she'd be coming to the manor, but now, the skies had already darkened, and her figure had yet to be seen. Feng Puzhi was a link in Yang Zhuofei's plans that couldn't be done without, and there absolutely couldn't be any mistake. Finally, just as the sun was about to set, a maid led an woman who looked as ethereal as an immortal in. Already nearing her seventies, Feng Puzhi's hair was as white as snow, but her face didn't have much in the way of wrinkles to match her age. "Feng-daozhang." Seeing she'd entered, Yang Zhuofei hurried forward to lend her an arm. Yet Feng Puzhi seamlessly dodged her, and as she did so, she placed a porcelain bottle on the table, and said, "This is the very last bottle of medicine; use it up according to prescription, and the traces on th...

Naturally, the executioner could sense this gaze as well. But the execution area had long since been surrounded on all sides by military officers and soldiers, and aside from Lian Zhigao, everyone else she could see kept their distance, and the bright glare of the sun stung her eyes so she couldn't open them fully. Never mind, the executioner thought; she was acting for the Emperor, and the Emperor was acting for the heavens. Even if there truly was someone who held a grudge against her for this, the heavens would bless and protect her. The angle of the shadow on the sundial slowly turned, and the surroundings of the execution area gradually went from a clamour to calm. Xie Qianbing, wearing official's attire, sat upright in a high position, and unexpectedly was somewhat distracted as she watched this scene. In a moment, when the stick in her hand fell to the ground, the blade in the executioner's hand would fall heavily as well. With merely a wave of her hand, she could s...

Jiang Changbai wanted to shout at her, but when she tried to speak, she discovered that, gathering up all her strength, she could only make a croak in her throat that didn't even manage to become a sentence; she couldn't even move, as if some unseen force had confined her atop the bed. Thin threads of terror arose as her body was out of her control, each one interweaving to become a great cocoon that surrounded her. At this moment, Jiang Changbai could only comfort herself that the person by her side was Song Juguang—regardless of what she was about to do, she would never harm her. The strange matters came one after the other. Outside, the rainstorm was torrential and the winds came in gales, but Jiang Changbai, whose clothes had been lifted up, couldn't sense a chill in the slightest. From her waist, a number sensation arose; she couldn't turn her head, yet she could still see Song Juguang's motions. In this dazed state, her spirit rose from her body, fluttering mi...

"What?" Jiang Changbai assumed she'd misheard, eyes full of disbelief as she looked at Song Juguang. Yet Song Juguang calmly met her gaze, and nodded earnestly and solemnly. "And it wasn't only these handful of letters—the letters they exchanged were more than these." "How do you know?" Jiang Changbai stared at her, rising fully from the chair; that bit of enchantment between the two previously was thoroughly blown away by these words. "What else are you hiding from Us?" Song Juguang calmly and unhurriedly pushed Jiang Changbai back into the chair. "Ah, Bixia, don't worry; what could this minister conceal from you? This minister merely caught some spiders' threads and horses' tracks, and I have yet to properly investigate the matter. So I thought I'd wait first; I hadn't imagined that in this period of waiting, you'd learn of it as well." Jiang Changbai stared fixedly at Song Juguang; though now, she coul...

"Take another careful look—are there other differences between this document and the letter?" Jiang Changbai returned to her chair, calmly and placidly gazing at the three before her. "Differences," Xie Qianbing muttered, bowing her head to look carefully. The style of writing was roughly the same; looking over the entire thing, there was only one difference. She raised her head, looking at Jiang Changbai, and asked, "Bixia, you mean the inscription?" "You are intelligent," Jiang Changbai nodded. "When the Great Li was founded, there was a General Song of outstanding military service, who didn't have any children, but did adopt in nearly a hundred homeless orphans. These orphans all took her surname of Song. In the countless years since, it can be counted as a common surname in the Great Li." In a flash, Song Juguang understood what Jiang Changbai meant. "The number of high-ranking officers in the army surnamed Song is not ins...

"It's good you've both come," Jiang Changbai said, gaze sweeping across the three of them; as she did so, she put that stack of letters to the side, and added, "tell me what the situation in the South is." "Putting down the rebellion in the South this time can be counted as a decisive victory. When we first arrived in Luyuan, we were lucky to receive timely intelligence, and so met up with reinforcements in the mountains. We happened to run into the rebel forces who were using the mountainous terrain to their advantage; the Cangwei army are, to a one, heroic and skilled in battle, and engaged with them in battle, winning decisively. Due to the location of the battlefield in the depths of the mountains, the fighting and outcome were rapid, and it didn't affect the common people." "…Afterwards, we pursued the retreating army to press home the attack, and realised with a start the frailty of Lian Zhigao's forces, who were unable to bear a...

She seemed to have contracted hysteria; before her eyes, the long-since withered and dead grasses were full of vitality, the peeling off wall paint brand new; even the dark and menacing moonlight, spilling over her figure, seemed like it was bright and warm sunshine. "Pei Yu!" In a daze, she heard someone call out; looking in the direction of the sound, and saw only a woman in palace maid's clothes, around her thirties, waving a hand at her. Pei Yu, Pei Yu, she repeated to herself, dust-covered memories floating to the surface; this was the old woman's name, but it had been many years since anyone had used it. At that time, she'd followed along with the Yuehua Princess to Shejin to form a marriage alliance; the eunuchs in the Palace had chosen a Shejinese name for her, meaning "loyal devotion". She'd truly deserved these two characters of "loyal devotion"; when Princess Yuehua passed away, she'd gone on to raise the child she'd lef...

Only as sunset approached did Xie Qianbing part with Wei Xiren in the outskirts of the city; Wei Xiren had, previously, been continuously stationed in the great barracks in the city's suburbs, and this time, returning to the capital, she naturally wouldn't enter the city. Xie Qianbing, on the other hand, only returned to the city as the doors were being locked; by the time she'd brushed off the dust and windsweptness of travel, the Palace's doors had long since been locked, and there was no chance at all to enter and have an audience with the Emperor. The tail end of summer's night breeze blew through the windows, making the candle flames on the tabletop sway and waver. Placed by the candle's flame was the bundle with the letters she'd collected from Lian Zhigao's residence; she'd secretly hidden them on herself on the journey, and even Wei Xiren hadn't seen them. It was just that the contents of these letters truly were shocking; were she to mer...