Yun Yi’s hands were steady as she held the rabbit and sidled up to Xiao Zhi.
In a voice as faint as a mosquito’s hum, she said: “If you came to my home, I’d treat you the same way—all new toiletries. Which law of Great Yan says your comb can’t be used to brush rabbit fur?”
Xiao Zhi: Fine, fine, you’ve got a sharp tongue.
Yun Yi turned her head away and looked at the Emperor’s entourage of attendants behind him.
Fearing the Emperor might lose face, she dropped to her knees with a thud and lightly tapped the rabbit’s head with her fingertip: “Your Majesty, have mercy!”
“…”
Xiao Zhi’s headache only grew worse.
.
Having missed the elk, Helian Tu had caught a wild boar instead.
He was about to present it before the Emperor, but to his dismay, the Emperor himself had already left early.
Despite the court officials’ deliberate flattery, Helian Tu remained unsatisfied.
He suddenly kicked the wild boar’s hind leg—the forest tyrant let out three agonized squeals, blood gushing from its rear, and died on the spot.
The civil officials present were stunned speechless.
Many servants had accompanied their masters to the spring hunt.
One servant had a distant relative working in the palace’s laundry bureau.
“They’re the Emperor’s close attendants, after all. The eunuch’s robes are steeped in fine incense,” the servant said with vivid detail. “I wonder which eunuch it is who wears them.”
Helian Tu stopped in his tracks and glanced over: “Which one?”
The servant, who had been gossiping about palace secrets, felt a chill run down his spine and quickly knelt: “This servant pays his respects to the young Khan!”
Helian Tu rewarded the servant with a silver ingot and extracted the information from him.
Incense, honeyed fragrances—only one eunuch’s robes received such treatment.
The laundry attendants didn’t know which eunuch it was.
“Then how do you distinguish the eunuchs’ robes?” Helian Tu added another silver ingot.
The servant: “The inner hems of the collars and sleeves all have cloud embroidery patterns.”
Clouds.
Helian Tu squinted up at the sky. White clouds blazed across the vast expanse.
So there really was such an oblivious eunuch.
Lowborn as he was, yet he dressed in women’s clothing, masquerading as a noble lady.
.
The noble young Khan of the Northern Di declined the palace’s arrangements and, that evening, went to the largest tavern in the capital to experience the splendor of the Central Plains metropolis.
Taverns were also hubs for gossip.
“Stop dreaming—not even a fly could get into the hunting grounds, and you think you can get in to see the Emperor?” a dissolute young master teased.
The serving girl replied: “Can’t I even dream a little? That’s how it goes in the storybooks!”
“Be careful—they say His Majesty has a taste for men.”
“How could that be…?”
“My uncle holds office at court—he naturally knows.”
Helian Tu spent the price of a full table of drinks and extracted key information from the young wastrel.
The current Son of Heaven favored eunuchs, leaving the harem empty.
How long had the national mourning been over? The spring hunt had already begun, yet the Emperor still hadn’t held a consort selection.
So this was how eunuchs brought ruin to a state.
“Sir.” The serving girl, seeing his generous spending and his foreign features, summoned a Hu girl from the tavern to serve him wine.
Helian Tu looked at the Hu girl’s large, jewel-like eyes but felt no interest.
The face he had painted with his own hands lingered before his eyes.
Could the Emperor’s “cut-sleeve” affliction have rubbed off on him?
.
Yun Yi caught the delicate fragrance on her clothes.
Back when she was in the laundry bureau, she’d been grateful just to have clothes that didn’t stink after washing. Truly, specialized work should be left to professionals.
After dinner, she suddenly felt drowsy.
She took a short nap, planning to find the princess after she woke up.
At that very moment, the princess was clutching a newly purchased storybook, eagerly searching everywhere for Yun Yi, wanting to read it together.
The side-chamber door creaked open.
Yun Yi leaned out and looked—the outer room was an empty bedchamber.
No one.
And no rabbit either.
Yu Lian’er: “Miss, His Majesty has gone to the imperial study.”
“What about my rabbit?”
“His Majesty brought it along while attending to state affairs.”
“…”
In the night sky, clouds draped like thin gauze, just covering the moon.
Where was justice in this world—even rabbits had to work at night?!
Yun Yi slipped into the imperial study. It was much smaller than the one in the palace. The rabbit cage sat on the imperial desk, with Wang Delan adding hay to it.
Xiao Zhi was reviewing memorials, his head not raised. Having practiced martial arts for years, he sensed a trace of a person’s presence and said: “You’re here—why not come in?”
Yun Yi slid through the door. “How did you know it was me?”
“Sneaking around like that—who else could it be?”
“…”
“Your Majesty, Minister Fan has urgent business and requests an audience.”
Yun Yi hadn’t expected official business even at this late hour. She immediately looked for a screen to hide behind, but the Emperor grabbed her by the back of her collar.
“What’s there to panic about? Is Fan Xun a man-eating tiger?”
“I…” Her identity was special—cross-dressing as a man made her inherently uneasy.
“Are you afraid to be seen?”
No sooner had Xiao Zhi pulled her over to stand by the chair than the hall doors swung open.
Fan Xun stepped in with the moonlight, bringing in plenty of nighttime air.
He boomed with full vigor: “This minister pays respects to Your Majesty—long live the Emperor, long—”
The little rabbit in the cage suddenly hopped twice. Xiao Zhi turned his head, slipping his finger through the cage bars to scratch the rabbit’s head.
“Get to the point.”
Fan Xun: “The young Khan Helian has gone to Zui Luan Pavilion.”
The rabbit suddenly stopped moving, its large eyes gazing toward the round moon outside the window.
Xiao Zhi didn’t seem concerned. He said dismissively: “Tonight is the fifteenth—the city is naturally bustling.”
The people of Yan revered the full moon. On the fifteenth of each month, several famous establishments had singing and dancing girls performing, making it livelier than usual. If Helian Tu was going with the local customs and willing to spend money at Yan’s taverns, wasn’t that a good thing?
“He sought out Hu girls and entertainers.”
“That’s his freedom,” the Emperor lost patience. “Minister Fan, why must you report to me on Helian Tu’s carousing?”
Minister Fan was about to rise when, in the blink of an eye, the young eunuch who had been standing diagonally behind the imperial seat when he entered had vanished.
He blinked—perhaps the curling smoke from the incense holder had blurred his vision. Remembering Helian Tu’s scandalous conduct, he hurriedly said: “The Hu girl was a spirited woman. She refused to serve the young Khan alongside the entertainers, and the young Khan slashed her face with a knife.”
Xiao Zhi: “Princes who break the law are equal to commoners before the law. If the Ministry of Justice’s prison can hold the Fifth Prince of Great Yan, it can certainly hold the young Khan of the Northern Di.”
“Your Majesty, this—”
“Do you think I would allow him to act with impunity under my rule?”
His voice rang with authority, echoing through the imperial study. Fan Xun’s knees went weak, and he knelt without rising.
After a moment, Xiao Zhi asked: “The Hu girl at Zui Luan Pavilion?”
Fan Xun said with no small sympathy: “Your Majesty, that Hu girl fell into the water a few days ago. After being rescued, she stayed at the medical clinic for one night, then returned to Zui Luan Pavilion to receive guests.”
So it was the woman Yun Yi had saved.
Xiao Zhi’s fingertips went inexplicably numb. He instinctively looked behind him.
On the shelf, the lion-shaped incense holder had just broken off half an incense stick. A bit of ash fell into the tray, and that faint ember died silently.
It was as if that ash had burned the tip of his heart.
“Little Chair?”
Fan Xun heard the Emperor murmur something—gone in an instant, so brief it might have been a hallucination.
Fan Xun only knew of Little Bat, not Little Chair. “Your Majesty, how should the young Khan of the Northern Di be handled?”
To have him arrested would require an imperial decree.
Xiao Zhi forced himself to regain composure and sat back in his imperial seat.
It was better she had gone—no more hiding and skulking in this devouring palace.
Yu Lian’er ground the ink, waiting quietly for the Emperor to draft the decree.
Miss Yun had disappeared without a trace, and His Majesty’s mood was naturally poor.
His handwriting, usually flowing like a dragon’s path, now trembled slightly at the final stroke—a clear sign of a troubled imperial heart.
The imperial brush had drafted the decree personally; only the seal remained to be affixed.
Wang Delan brought forth the treasure casket.
Inside were several drawers containing newly carved imperial seals.
Among them was a hidden compartment, secured by a magnet—only the Emperor, using another magnet, could pull the compartment down from the top.
Inside that compartment was the rubber stamp Yun Yi had made for him.
Xiao Zhi opened the hidden compartment—and froze.
Where was the fake imperial seal?
What lay inside was clearly his true Heirloom Seal of the Realm.
Xiao Zhi held the imperial seal in his palm, turning it over and over.
From Yun Yi’s perspective, having transformed into the imperial seal, the world looked like this: flip→ back← forth↑ down↓
“I’m going to throw up…” The little qilin beast atop the seal stuck out a tiny tongue, its eyes rolling back into its head.
The ever-deferential Fan Xun inexplicably felt the atmosphere in the imperial study grow much lighter.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the decree, which read:
[Helian Tu, son of the Khan of the Northern Di, has flouted the laws of Yan, disfigured a woman’s face, and acted as a brigand. The Ministry of Justice is hereby ordered to conduct a strict trial.]
“Minister Fan, do you think anything more should be added?”
Fan Xun broke out in a cold sweat—he was a military man.
He steeled himself and said in a scholarly tone: “No leniency shall be shown, so that the national law may be upheld.”
The Emperor followed his advice and added a few more strokes to the decree.
Yun Yi recalled the day the Hu girl fell into the water—Helian Tu had extended an oar to try to save her.
At the time, she hadn’t thought he was cut from the same cloth as the Fifth Prince; she’d thought he wasn’t a bad person.
Now, thinking back, saving the Hu girl had just been a pretext—the one Helian Tu had truly wanted to rescue was probably Yun Yi herself.
A despicable wretch who bullied women—even flaying every inch of his skin wouldn’t be enough to vent this fury.
Xiao Zhi picked up the imperial seal.
Out of the corner of his eye, Fan Xun saw the little beast atop the seal open its gaping maw.
Then he watched the Emperor rub the beast’s head with his thumb and say in a soft voice: “Time to stamp it. We’ll play later.”
In the blink of an eye, the little beast had returned to its original form—no more rolling eyes, the tongue back inside its mouth. Fan Xun strained his eyes wide, staring unblinkingly at the imperial seal.
The Emperor pressed the seal into the red inkpad, and after a moment, stamped it onto the decree.
Three consecutive seals fell before the name of the young Khan of the Northern Di.
They were glaringly red.
Like the blood splattered from an executioner’s blade at the moment of beheading.
“Minister Fan.” Xiao Zhi’s voice had gone cold, as if the sweetness just moments ago had been Fan Xun’s illusion. “Those who shear hair, mutilate noses, or disfigure faces destroy a person’s entire life—by law, the punishment is two hundred strokes of the cane.”
Two hundred strokes—Fan Xun’s heart skipped a beat.
But the young Khan was tall and strong; he might just survive two hundred blows.
How generous. Yun Yi wasn’t pleased. Seizing the moment when Fan Xun wasn’t looking, she bit down on the Emperor’s thumb.
Unexpectedly, the jade thumb ring on his finger blocked her bite.
Yun Yi: Oww oww oww—that hurts…
Xiao Zhi carefully lifted the imperial seal higher and examined its beast head from side to side.
“What’s the rush?” he said softly, slipping his fingertip into the little beast’s mouth, making it bite down. “You’ll chip your teeth.”
Fan Xun stiffened his back and pricked up his ears to catch the Emperor’s decree. Chipped teeth—what kind of new punishment was that? Were they going to pull out all of Helian Tu’s teeth?
That wouldn’t be out of the question… would it?
Fan Xun ventured a bold suggestion: “Your Majesty, by law, if the young Khan had harmed a woman of respectable birth, the punishment could naturally be increased. But that Hu girl—”
Yun Yi had studied a bit of history and knew that many Hu girls were trafficked into the Central Plains by Hu merchants, forced to dance and receive guests in brothels and taverns.
She hated that she was trapped inside the imperial seal again, unable to do anything—unable to speak up for the Hu girl!
“Hu girl?” Xiao Zhi said slowly. “Issue an edict immediately: the woman the Emperor and the princess rescued while in disguise during our private visit—I will redeem her freedom. I confer upon her the title of Kanghua County Princess, with a third-rank honorific.”
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