Arriving at the Daoist temple, the emperor dismissed his attendants.
Wang Delan stood outside the temple gate, staring blankly at the statue of the Three Pure Ones inside.
The door to the side room opened silently, a wave of warmth rushing out.
On the narrow bed, a gray, bundled shape caught Xiao Zhi’s eye. The corner of a Daoist robe peeked out from under the blanket, hanging limply off the side of the bed.
Before he knew it, he had already walked to the bedside.
The person on the bed was lying face down, her face buried in the blanket, motionless.
Dead?
Xiao Zhi lifted the blanket with his fingertip.
Sensing the slight movement, Yun Yi furrowed her brows and mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep.
Xiao Zhi didn’t catch it.
He had experienced her sleeping posture once before. Whenever there was something on the bed, her leg would always end up on top of it.
Like a pillow.
Like a blanket.
Like him.
Right now, deep in a sweet dream, her neck was slightly tilted, her two hands curled into soft fists tucked beneath her chin.
Xiao Zhi watched silently for a moment.
Tch. Sleeping face down—her neck was going to suffer for it tomorrow.
He snapped back to himself and suddenly let out a quiet laugh.
What kind of amusement was this? Skipping the morning court session to come here and secretly watch someone sleep?
Xiao Zhi made a move to leave.
The person on the bed stirred again. Her soft lips parted slightly, as if speaking once more.
The emperor sat down closer, the hem of his dragon robe draping over the edge of the bed, silently unfurling in the dim light. He asked in a low voice, “What are you saying?”
In response, he only heard two vague, muffled hums.
He propped himself up on his arm and leaned in close.
A warm breath brushed past his ear. A clear, low voice suddenly broke into his hearing. Yun Yi murmured, “I’m in pain.”
Xiao Zhi heard her clearly.
—
Before the statue of the Three Pure Ones, the emperor stood silently to one side. An invisible pressure radiated from him, making even the divine statues seem dim in comparison.
“Is there anything unusual about Miss Yun?”
“Your Majesty, this servant reports that Miss Yun’s shoulder… appears to be injured.” The palace maid recounted every detail.
The emperor’s gaze suddenly snapped toward her. “Why was this not reported?”
The palace maid’s voice trembled. She likely wouldn’t live to see sunrise. “Miss Yun said it was nothing serious, that she just needed to sleep a few days… and rest.”
The emperor’s displeasure grew. His expression was more serious than ever. “She can heal an injury in this rundown place?”
The palace maid and eunuch: … Wasn’t it you, Your Majesty, who told her to stay here?
—
In Yun Yi’s dream, she was walking into a grand hotel.
Someone in the dream spoke to her: “Madam, enjoy your stay.”
Ooh la la, so international.
She jabbered back a string of English.
The hotel staff member suddenly dropped his smile. His attire shifted, and his voice changed back to a cold, familiar male voice: “Are you speaking in code?”
“Doesn’t even understand English. Country bumpkin,” she muttered. Then she sneezed. Her neck suddenly felt warm, as if someone had gently wrapped a scarf around it.
The man said nothing more.
The next moment, she was placed onto a bed like a piece of luggage, and a large cushion was tucked in beside her.
Five-star hotel service really lives up to its reputation.
Yun Yi instinctively patted her pocket. Empty. She let out a regretful hum: “Oops… forgot to bring tip money…”
—
The emperor carried her back to the bedchamber, sweaty and exhausted.
Thin arms, thin legs. Where did all this weight come from?
Pig.
Afraid she might wake up midway, he mentally rehearsed a few excuses.
—The Daoist temple caught fire.
—The Three Pure Ones favor men over women and don’t like women staying overnight in the temple.
Who would have thought she slept like a hibernating bear?
The moment Xiao Zhi placed the pillow beside her, her knee automatically bent and crushed it flat.
Fine.
The emperor went to the morning court with a dark face. Before leaving, he made sure to instruct the palace attendants to summon an imperial physician to examine her.
The guard said, “Your Majesty, the Imperial Medical Institute may have the Empress Dowager’s spies.”
Xiao Zhi replied, “Find that severed tongue.”
“Your Majesty…?”
“Don’t summon Imperial Physician Zhang.” Xiao Zhi knew that Physician Zhang often took the Empress Dowager’s pulse and prescribed her calming tonics.
“When the physician arrives, put that tongue in front of him. Make him look at the tongue while he examines Miss Yun.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Whoever dared to leak a single word could forget about keeping their tongue.
The imperial physician knelt trembling beside the bed. When he recognized that the object before him was indeed a human tongue, his face turned as pale as paper.
Yun Yi smelled medicine. Then a pair of hands began pressing and kneading her shoulder with just the right amount of pressure. Was this a hotel spa service? It felt pretty good.
She opened her eyes contentedly into slits and found herself staring directly into the terrified eyes of a palace maid.
“Miss Yun, this servant hasn’t hurt you, have I?”
“Huh?”
This place was a room much larger than the side room at the Daoist temple. Although the furnishings weren’t elaborate, they exuded a certain refinement.
The air carried a familiar scent—similar to the emperor’s.
“Where is this?”
The palace maid answered truthfully, “This is the side chamber beside His Majesty’s bedchamber.”
Yun Yi clenched her fists: I saved his life, and I can’t even sleep in the dragon bed? Isn’t that how the billionaire romance novels go? The heroine takes a bullet for the billionaire and wakes up in his 200-square-meter king-size bed.
Although the bed she was on wasn’t large, the soft, luxurious brocade bedding was at least decent.
Yun Yi picked up the blanket and pressed it to her nose, inhaling deeply.
The smell of feudal imperial power.
The palace maid’s eyes widened: Save me. Is she crazy? Sniffing the emperor’s ambergris incense—does she want to achieve immortality?
“Where is he?”
The palace maid’s pupils shuddered. “…His Majesty has gone to the morning court.”
“Oh.” Yun Yi raised her hand to fluff the pillow soft, then casually threw her knee across it, adjusting herself into the most comfortable position to sleep in.
The palace maid dared not speak. Every single move this young woman made was a capital offense.
“What’s your name, little sister?”
“This servant is surnamed Yu, given name Lian’er.”
Yun Yi reversed her name: “Yu Lian’er… Lian… Yu… ‘lotus leaves stir the fishing boat below’—your name is very pretty!”
The palace maid’s heart stirred slightly. After all these years of serving as a slave in the palace, this was the first time anyone had ever said her name was pretty.
Yun Yi rolled over and went back to sleep. Perhaps her shoulder injury was weighing on her mind, and her body had quietly activated some kind of protective mechanism, dragging her into an even deeper slumber.
—
The assassination attempt was the talk of the court.
The ministers assumed the emperor, having been frightened, would not appear at court. No one expected Xiao Zhi to show up looking completely unruffled.
The anti-emperor faction clutched their sleeves: There’s no fault to find even if we wanted to.
Elder brother Xiao Qian: I made a good choice giving up this throne. I never realized my younger brother was such a workaholic.
Fifth brother Xiao Li: You’re pretty hard to kill. Last night was just an appetizer. The real main course is still to come. Just you wait.
Up on the dragon throne, facing the ministers’ genuine and feigned concern, Xiao Zhi said calmly, “It’s nothing. The three masked assassins killed themselves. I cut out the tongue of the remaining one.”
The ministers: “Hiss…”
“The assassins have been sent to the Ministry of Justice. Minister Cen, I trust you will conduct a thorough interrogation on my behalf?”
Minister of Justice Cen Ni’s official robes were soaked with sweat. How am I supposed to interrogate someone with no tongue? Nevertheless, he steeled himself and accepted the imperial edict.
Wang Delan quietly stepped forward and reported in a low voice by the throne: “Your Majesty, the imperial physician applied medicine and bandaged Miss Yun. The young lady has fallen asleep again.”
“Still asleep?” Two whole hours had passed during the morning court, and she still hadn’t gotten up to eat?
The ministers in the hall observed the emperor’s expression darken slightly. Each held their breath and lowered their gaze, not daring to make a sound.
Wang Delan hesitated for a moment, then reported truthfully: “Miss Yun was crying out in pain in her sleep.”
The emperor’s expression gradually darkened. “Bring the assassin up.”
Since the founding of the Great Yan dynasty, such a scene had never occurred in the Golden Throne Hall.
The palace attendant who should have been sent to the Ministry of Justice for interrogation was dragged by the guards into the court.
“Haah…” A streak of bright red saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth. Both arms hung limply at grotesque angles—his bones had been shattered inch by inch.
The civil officials standing solemnly below all changed their expressions.
“He can endure quite a bit,” the emperor said in a flat tone. He rose from the dragon throne and walked slowly to the side of the limp, crumpled attendant.
“Rest assured, Minister Cen of the Ministry of Justice excels at interrogation. Everyone who passes through his hands talks in the end.”
Cen Ni’s throat tightened. “…”
Xiao Zhi raised his foot and stepped down on the attendant’s shoulder blade.
Crack—the sound of shattering bones suddenly exploded in the hall.
Then Xiao Zhi slowly crouched down and said to the attendant in a voice barely audible to anyone else: “A broken shoulder hurts, doesn’t it?”
The attendant’s throat produced strange, rasping sounds: “Ah… ah…”
Off to the side, Xiao Qian brushed a splatter of blood off his robes with distaste and let out a “tsk.” “Who are you venting this anger for?”
He knew his younger brother too well.
Ever since he was a child, Xiao Zhi had been the type to settle every grudge. If someone close to him was wronged by anyone, he would charge in recklessly, his mind hot, to get even.
It had been the same back then, when the fifth brother had fallen into the well.
Xiao Qian was truly afraid that his younger brother would end up with blood on his hands. If Xiao Li had drowned, how could his mother—the newly installed matriarch of the Xiao family—ever have let Xiao Zhi off?
Xiao Zhi had been only five years old then. And there had still been so many years ahead.
After court adjourned, Xiao Qian intercepted the imperial procession.
The anger in Xiao Zhi’s eyes gathered once more. “Does Prince Huai know the penalty for obstructing an imperial procession?”
Xiao Qian poked the wound on his brow. “That little tiger of yours has marred my handsome face.”
“If you’re sick, get treatment.” Xiao Zhi dropped the carriage curtain.
“Fine, just wait for me, little brother.” Xiao Qian ran to the front of the carriage and stopped before the imperial chariot. Facing the carriage, he walked backward leisurely with his hands behind his back. “Of course, I’ll collect that debt later.”
Just as Xiao Zhi was about to return to the palace, he received an urgent report.
During the mourning period for the late emperor, various foreign envoys had come to pay their respects. The Northern Di envoy had been ceremoniously escorted out of the capital yesterday—but news arrived today that he had suddenly fallen gravely ill at the post station, his condition dire.
Xiao Zhi pondered for a moment. “Bring the envoy to an official residence in the capital and send Imperial Physician Zhang to treat him properly.”
Imperial Physician Zhang was the Empress Dowager’s spy. Sending him out of the palace would be excellent. If he failed to cure the Northern Di envoy, he could be punished as well.
During the late emperor’s reign, the Northern Di had frequently invaded the south. The last battle had been five years ago. After that war, the Northern Di had retreated a thousand li and signed a peace treaty with Great Yan.
But Xiao Zhi knew that this piece of paper was only temporary.
A minister hurried forward. “Your Majesty, the envoy is not suffering from an acute illness—he has been poisoned with a strange toxin. He absolutely cannot be moved.”
Poisoned? Xiao Zhi’s fingers, which had been turning a thumb ring, paused. “Move the chariot. We’re going to the post station.”
—
Yun Yi slept until the sun was high in the sky without waking.
Throughout the morning, the palace maids, strictly following the emperor’s orders, entered the side chamber several times to check on her injury.
Yun Yi only registered that the back of a warm, soft hand was gently touching her forehead. She rolled over groggily, and someone tucked the corner of her blanket in for her.
The stinky emperor wasn’t here, but his entourage of assistants was pretty useful.
—
With Xiao Zhi absent, the irritating imperial guard captain and the underdeveloped young eunuch were also gone.
Xiao Qian strode through the palace as if no one were there, taking a casual tour of the emperor’s bedchamber.
As expected of the Great Yan emperor—in just one morning, the bedchamber had been completely renovated. The screen had been replaced with a larger, carved rosewood standing screen, and even the dragon couch had been swapped for a brand-new one. A palace maid was kneeling in the center of the bedchamber, carefully laying down the floor platform.
Xiao Qian gazed at the auspicious clouds and mythical beasts carved into the floor platform. He had worried for nothing. After his inspection, he turned to leave.
The palace maid, startled by his presence, kowtowed nervously: “Your Majesty.”
Xiao Qian glanced at her twice and smiled.
How had such a dull-witted palace maid caught Xiao Zhi’s eye?
“Hm.” Too lazy to explain, Xiao Qian casually straightened a porcelain vase on the curio shelf.
Creak—the door to the side chamber cracked open.
Xiao Qian lifted his gaze an inch and looked through the curio shelf.
A furtive, peeping gaze met his eyes directly.
Four eyes locked.
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