The sound of the water clock echoed through the heavy night.
Only two wind-proof lanterns remained lit in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Their dim yellow light cast dark shadows on the golden brick floor, elongating Emperor Tiansheng's figure draped in a cloak.
On the imperial desk lay a report submitted by the shadow guards of the Imperial City Department.
The dense, fly-head-sized regular script detailed everything that had happened at the water pavilion in Shichahai.
How Kong Zongyun had lost his composure and torn up his manuscript, how Gu Zongming had bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle, how Zhao Xuan had slumped on the ground in a sorry state, and even Xu Qinghuan's aloof figure as she boarded the boat—all were written on the paper.
After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Emperor Tiansheng leaned back in his dragon throne, his gaze lingering for a long time on the fourteen words at the end of the report:
*How can the canal be so clear? Because there is fresh water coming from the source.*
"Heh."
A cold sneer broke the silence in the hall.
Emperor Tiansheng raised his hand and tapped his fingers twice on the Xuan paper.
"What a Xu family girl," Emperor Tiansheng's voice was hoarse and cold. "The father is out front biting people and confiscating properties, turning the capital upside down, while the daughter is in the back writing poetry and articles to build a reputation.
Confiscating the wealth of the noble families to fill my treasury, then turning around and running to Shichahai to steal the noble families' reputation with two poems and an article."
Eunuch Li, standing in the shadows, bowed even lower, his whisk touching the ground as he held his breath.
"She is forging an iron turtle shell for herself," Emperor Tiansheng casually brushed the secret report onto the floor, the paper fluttering down onto the golden bricks. "With Kong Zongyun and Gu Zongming acting like this..."
"From now on, if anyone tries to use the reputation of a cruel official to punish Xu Youde, the spit of the scholars in the world will drown them. Even I..."
Emperor Tiansheng's tone stopped abruptly as he just looked at the report.
"Even I would have to weigh the consequences if I wanted to crack this shell."
Eunuch Li moved half a step and tentatively asked, "Your Majesty, this Xu family girl is acting too arrogantly. Should this servant send someone to the Earl of Chengyi's mansion to... give her a warning?"
"A warning about what?" Emperor Tiansheng glanced at him sideways and snorted coldly. "This girl has deep thoughts."
"She knows that a solitary minister won't live long, so she found herself a protective talisman. A knife with its own thoughts is dangerous, but at the same time, this knife will become sharper."
"I still prefer a knife with thoughts."
"Besides, the Third Prince has been making some moves lately."
Emperor Tiansheng stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the night outside. The glazed tiles of the imperial city gleamed coldly in the night.
"That old fox Xu Jie, relying on his disciples and former subordinates spread all over the court, and relying on his position as the Chief Grand Secretary for three generations, even dares to fool me. Does he think that throwing out those six families as scapegoats will protect the foundation of his Xu faction?"
"Dream on."
"Right now, the leading figures of the Imperial College and the Jiangnan literary circles are both in seclusion. The pure stream faction is in chaos, and the foundation of the Xu faction has been forcibly pried open by this girl."
Capital, East Second Alley, Xie Residence Annex.
A solitary lamp burned, wax tears piling up on the bronze stand.
Xie Yunwan sat stiffly at the desk, a piece of paper emitting the fragrance of ink spread out before her.
It was a rubbing she had bought at a high price from a student at the Imperial College.
On the desk, besides this rubbing, were scattered over a dozen crumpled pieces of Xuan paper.
They were all drafts she had copied, with messy strokes and dried ink.
She couldn't write it.
That kind of truth that pointed directly to the origin made her unable to put pen to paper.
She tried to deconstruct it with the gorgeousness of the classics, history, philosophy, and literature, and to imitate it with the ancient simplicity of the previous dynasty's style, but she always lacked that vast aura.
"What exactly are Chancellor Kong and Great Scholar Gu thinking?"
Xie Yunwan indeed lacked some foundation in Confucianism.
The candlelight flickered, reflecting on her fair cheeks.
The talented woman of Great Qian—these words used to be a dazzling halo above her head.
In Jiangnan, she only needed to casually recite a few lines of poetry lamenting spring and autumn to attract the pursuit of countless talented scholars.
But now, those words she was so proud of seemed completely weightless in front of these ten words.
"How can the canal be so clear..." Xie Yunwan softly recited, her voice tinged with powerlessness.
Being born in the same era as such a woman was truly something that made one both amazed and frustrated.
She originally thought she was the chess player, but now she realized she didn't even have the qualifications to be Xu Qinghuan's opponent.
She picked up the pen, dipped it in ink, and wrote a line on a plain sheet of paper.
"The literary vein of Great Qian may change. I cannot see through the reactions of the great scholars."
No superfluous nonsense, nor did she complain about her frustration. She merely stated a fact.
She folded the plain paper, stuffed it into a bamboo tube, and sealed it with wax.
"Someone come."
A trusted subordinate outside pushed the door open and entered.
"Eight hundred miles expedited, send it back to Jiangning and deliver it to my grandfather's hands," Xie Yunwan handed over the bamboo tube.
The subordinate took it with both hands, bowed, and retreated.
Xie Yunwan leaned back in her chair, staring blankly at the flickering candlelight. In this game of chess, she could only be a spectator.
...
The storm at Shichahai stirred up far more than just huge waves in the literary circles.
Those censors of the pure stream faction who had originally planned to jointly impeach Xu Youde at the morning court assembly for forcing his way into the scholars' gathering and insulting gentility all stuffed their prepared memorials into the brazier upon hearing the news that Kong Zongyun and Gu Zongming had both gone into seclusion.
Even the Chancellor had performed the ritual of a half-teacher. If they, as disciples and grand-disciples, went to impeach the Xu family, wouldn't that be seeking death? The entire Censorate of the pure stream faction collectively went silent; not a single person dared to even cough in the court.
The undercurrents of the various princes fighting for the throne also completely deviated from their original trajectory because of this poem.
South of the city, deep within an inconspicuous courtyard.
Down a dozen stone steps was a secret room that never saw the light of day.
The walls were covered with relationship charts of the officials in the Great Qian court, complex lines outlining a web of power.
The Fourth Prince, Xiao Jingming, wore casual clothes and held a cinnabar brush in his hand. He usually had a very low presence in the court, spending his days either worshiping Buddha or compiling books. Even Emperor Tiansheng praised his tranquil nature.
Those courtiers only thought of him as an idle prince with no interest in the throne. Who could have imagined that this secret room hid the bottom line of the entire Great Qian officialdom?
On the list, some names had already been crossed out, with their dates of death noted beside them.
Xu Qinghuan's name was prominently listed.
Originally at the bottom, he had thought the Xu family was nothing more than a knife in the Third Prince's hand, bound to break sooner or later.
But right now, this knife had grown its own roots, plunging deep into the deepest part of Great Qian's literary vein.
Xiao Jingming raised the cinnabar brush and drew a heavy red cross over the three words "Xu Qinghuan" in the column of those who could be killed. The cinnabar was glaring.
Then, he walked to the desk and rewrote this name in another register.
Before the ink was dry, he used cinnabar to annotate a line of small characters next to the name.
*Must be won over.*
*If she cannot be obtained, she must be destroyed.*
"A woman who can make the scholars of the world submit, and yet be treated as a sharp knife by Imperial Father." Xiao Jingming put down the brush, his fingers rubbing the words on the register, a gloomy smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "The Third Prince, oh the Third Prince, you thought you seized the initiative, but you don't understand what kind of monster you've provoked."
The Third Prince's Residence, Study.
Xiao Jingyan sat in the main seat, playing with a jade thumb ring in his hand.
Below him stood several of his trusted advisors, reporting the outside movements in low voices.
"Your Highness, the two elders Kong and Gu have gone into seclusion, and the price of paper has doubled.
"This Xu Qinghuan is not only exceptionally talented, but her mind is also incredibly deep. She deliberately provoked the scholarly circles to draw out the Grand Libationer of the Imperial College, and then used such an unprecedented masterpiece to suppress the entire scene."
"This is akin to rubbing the faces of all the scholars in the world into the dirt, only to toss them a bone right after. Now the wind in the scholarly circles has completely changed."
Xiao Jingyan stopped turning the jade thumb ring on his hand.
He did not get angry.
He recalled the look on Xu Qinghuan's face when she read that account book late that night at the Chengyi Count's Manor.
At that time, he thought he was the chess player, taking the chips given by Xu Jie to buy off a vicious dog. Now, reviewing the entire process, he realized that he was nothing more than a porter for Xu Jie's scheme of borrowing another's knife to kill.
And Xu Qinghuan had not only seen through this play within a play, but even used his hand to push the Xu family into the position of the Emperor's isolated and loyal ministers. Now she had used two poems to forge a layer of literary armor for herself.
Such methods, such calculation, could never belong to a mere merchant's daughter.
"I have become a pawn." Xiao Jingyan suddenly laughed out loud. There was no anger in his laughter, but rather a hint of excitement.
The advisors looked at each other in dismay, not daring to reply.
"This is true politics."
Xiao Jingyan stood up, walked over to the bookshelf, pulled out an ancient book, and ran his fingers over the yellowed pages.
"There must be give and take for it to be a real game. She borrowed my momentum, so I must go and probe her depths."
He turned around and ordered, "Go to the storehouse and find that set of ancient ink from Li Tinggui of the Southern Tang Dynasty, as well as those quires of Chengxin Hall paper."
"Your Highness is planning to..."
"Prepare the carriage for tomorrow." Xiao Jingyan straightened his cuffs, his eyes brimming with calculation. "I will pay a visit to the Chengyi Count's Manor under the guise of visiting a famous scholar.
"I want to seek some advice from this extraordinary woman, the finest in the world, whom I met in Taoyuan County."
...
Meanwhile, the main gates of the Chengyi Count's Manor were tightly shut, the crimson paint and copper nails gleaming coldly in the air.
In front of the two stone lions at the entrance, aside from four imperial guards with straight swords at their waists and sharp eyes patrolling back and forth in the open, the shadows were already surging with hidden currents.
Over a dozen waves of spies from various factions kept a close watch on the manor.
All the civil and military officials in the court, as well as the various vassal kings, wanted to figure out who this sharp blade, which had just grown an ironclad shell, was going to strike next.
