Li Shiyi hadn't chosen to ride a boat, and had only bought a few short-distance train tickets, following the map to travel from one town to the next. Only on leaving the Southwest did she sense that the world was truly in chaos; all over were malnourished and sickly refugees, the majority of which couldn't enter the city, only cowering and cringing as they crowded the outskirts, mixed in with the beggars. Her gait was hurried as she walked between the peace and the unrest, listening to the youths within the city weep with the longing for tanghulu, and also listening to the children outside the city, whose chests stuck to their backs with hunger. The money in her possession wasn't much, but distributing change along the road, after four or five days, her financial situation was somewhat tight. Luckily, she'd always had a plan, and had set aside her travel expenses as one, and the savings for emergencies as another, and only the remainder was to help the needy along the r...

The candle flames, submerged in the breeze of the night, shivered, the darkness attacking like thick fog, and not having the slightest intention to retreat. The evening dew condensed on the eaves stopped as they fell; the rolls of firecrackers, left behind by the children, stopping as they were fanned into a fire by the winter wind; even the scent of sulphur, disrupting the mind's calm, threading through the crack of the window, stopped. There was only one person wandering outside of time; she wore a beautiful, graceful qipao, and had raven hair, red lips, a jade face, and passionate eyes, so beautiful it caused one's heart to tremble. Her slow steps trod in the corridor, her footsteps light and agile, as if she were treading on clouds. In the small crack of time, memories flashed like rustling quicksand; in the Warring States period, she'd only just woken, and had drunk a mouthful of morning dew, walking bare-foot towards Xia Ji. As the Great Ming fell, the Qing army enter...

The leaves were rustled by the wind; those gleaming eyes were incredibly low, flashing in the lush vegetation, as if something were crawling forward. Jiang Changbai, suddenly seeing it, was startled, and unconsciously retreated half a step. Song Juguang, seeing Jiang Changbai's peculiarity, followed her gaze and looked between the vegetation. At this time, that thing had drawn even closer, its whole body gleaming black, only a line of white spots beneath its jaw. A pair of eyes stared at the two; although the eyes were small, the killing intent within them was overflowing, and seeing it, one's fine hairs stood upright. It was the black bear that that hunter had wasted her life for without gaining. Just then, Song Juguang had listened to He Leyong's words, and had only taken it as the mountain not having any great wild beasts at all, and the words of the old, tea-selling woman at the foot of the mountain were only her subjective conjecture. As a result, she'd lowered her...

He Leyong was naturally an incredibly intelligent person; how could she not guess that, having come now, Jiang Changbai and Song Juguang had a request for her? After all, from the time her identity had been exposed and she'd been chased out of the Prince's residence, she'd lived in Mount Tongshan. Mount Tongshan was only a day's travel from the capital, but in the past six or so years, He Leyong hadn't received any news from the capital. To say nothing of the matter of, then, the matter having been brought before emperor by the imperial censor, causing Emperor Tai to be infuriated, such that even Prince Ling had been scolded heavily. If there truly wasn't some matter, then presumably, they wouldn't have come to find her. Jiang Changbai had always only had reverence for this teacher, and so, she hadn't thought of concealing it, and said candidly, "Laoshi, we want to invite you to enter the court as an official." But the next moment, He Leyong...

Song Shijiu returned to the room with the same expression as usual; for a rare turn, Li Shiyi wasn't reading, and was sitting on the bed, folding up a few light grey coats; she raised her eyelids to look at Song Shijiu, and it seemed like a meager smile was hung on her face; she asked, "Will you wash your face? I'll pour the water." Song Shijiu let out an "en", sitting down on the bed with her arms crossed, and watched the clothes Li Shiyi had folded in a daze. She'd folded even the clothes neatly and carefully, the creases like a framework, regular and at angles. She thought and thought; in the end, she felt that Li Shiyi hadn't been like this before; before, she'd been both done as she wished and been free and at ease; stealing from coffins and robbing tombs, if she truly feared the laws of the heavens, then why was she in this profession? She gazed at Li Shiyi, holding up and pouring out of a copper pot, and felt a particular idea was faintly ...

The second hand ticked away, drilling into Song Shijiu's ear, a pressure as if urging her to open her mouth. She gazed at Li Shiyi; she was still a slender bamboo, the cool breeze and floating moon, slim and elegant, like the clean origin within the turmoil and chaos of war. The Taishan Fujun was good, and the xiansheng who inquired of the coffins was fine as well; actually, she'd always been this attractive; how had it been that she'd thought, at that time, that she was like an enchantress? She couldn't quite remember. She followed blindly in suit of her, as if having been wrapped within a shell, hidebound by convention. Only in this moment, she felt the inflexible clock having run into her mind, the second hand, at one side, separated from the hour hand, letting out a ticking " beng " sound, like some sort of lamenting sound of termination. Her curled lashes were like the clock's hand as well, touching as they closed, then breaking apart. She asked Li Sh...

Today's morning court was exceptionally brief. In the curtain of darkness the night before, when everyone been preparing to lock their doors, the three of Yan Gaoge, Wen Congyun, and Nie Tianzong, carrying the imperial edict, led forces to, one after another, surround the residences of a number of court officials. The three of them had been Song Juguang's personal guards before, and had no relatives nor friends in the court, and as a result, weren't sentimental in the slightest. Seizing and imprisoning all happened at once. If it had been done another time, the next day's court would definitely have the ministers whom those whose houses were searched and whose possessions were confiscated had made friends with pleading for leniency. But, perhaps, the matter of someone being killed by beating on that day of ascension was still fresh in their minds; this time, there actually wasn't anyone who dared to express an opinion. "Since no one has any matters to report, t...