Dusk settled over the vermilion walls of the inner palace.
The sky darkened by degrees, and the shadows between the halls stretched longer and longer, swallowing up the remaining light.
Most of the day had already slipped away.
Inside the Imperial Study, the auspicious-brain incense in the bronze crane’s belly had burned more than halfway down. Only a wisp of blue smoke remained, winding beneath the carved golden ceiling.
Emperor Tiansheng sat alone behind the imperial desk.
His body was deeply sunk into a bright-yellow bolster, while most of his face was hidden in a dim corner where no lamps had yet been lit.
The hall was eerily quiet.
Several unsealed confidential memorials lay arranged in neat rows on the desk.
Eunuch Li, Chief Eunuch of the Directorate of Imperial Accoutrements, hunched over with bated breath, carefully tending the silver-thread charcoal in a bronze brazier with a pair of fire tongs.
He did not even dare breathe too loudly, afraid that the slightest sound might disturb the emperor behind the desk.
“Companion Li.”
Suddenly, the emperor’s voice came from the shadows.
The fire tongs in Eunuch Li’s hand froze.
He hurriedly set them down, retreated two steps, and knelt with his forehead nearly touching the floor. “This servant is here. What are Your Majesty’s orders?”
“After court dispersed today, the area outside Zhengyang Gate must have been quite lively.” Emperor Tiansheng raised his withered hand and spoke with an almost languid air. “Those upright-minded officials and ministers who spend every day shouting about ancestral laws and regulations have probably trampled the threshold of the Chengyi Earl’s Residence flat.”
“Your Majesty is correct. The Directorate of Imperial Security just sent in a report. The entire avenue from Zhengyang Gate to the Chengyi Earl’s Residence was clogged with carriages for a full two li.”
A flicker of hesitation crossed Eunuch Li’s eyes. Choosing his words with care, he reported, “The senior officials of every ministry, along with representatives of several Jiangnan clans currently in the capital, all went bearing lavish gifts.”
“Lavish gifts.” Emperor Tiansheng gave a mocking laugh, his tone soft and quiet. “I merely bestowed upon her the empty title of Princess Wanping, and these people could not wait to send her money.”
His fingers reached forward and pulled out the green-vine memorial at the top of the stack.
He opened it.
It was an urgent confidential report from the Directorate of Imperial Security.
Every detail of the chaos caused by the officials crowding outside Zhengyang Gate that day had been recorded inside.
The report described Xu Qinghuan’s response:
She had refused every piece of gold, silver, and jade offered by the officials. Instead, she had forcibly converted the gifts into shipbuilding timber and pig iron, making the officials send the materials to the Ministry of Works to be registered and stored. There, they would serve as deposits against maritime-trade bonds.
Emperor Tiansheng’s hand paused on the page. A cold hum, impossible to read for emotion, escaped his throat.
“Well done, Princess Wanping.”
Emperor Tiansheng had risen to the throne through intrigue and his own formidable methods. How could he fail to understand Xu Qinghuan’s intention?
“She refuses the real gold and silver that people are offering her. Then she turns around and puts them on the fire, transforming their illicit payments into military supplies recorded openly under the court’s accounts.”
“Your Majesty…” Eunuch Li cautiously raised his head. “The Princess’s actions have certainly cost those officials their dignity. I heard that several of them changed color on the spot.”
“What does losing face matter?” Emperor Tiansheng spread the memorial flat on the desk, a hint of admiration passing through his eyes. “She is declaring her loyalty to Me! She is telling Me that Xu Qinghuan will never touch private money. Every benefit must pass through the court’s accounts!”
He reached for a wolf-hair brush from the brush stand.
“She is borrowing My authority to establish rules, getting ships built without spending a copper of her own, and, by the way, wiping her own hands clean of any possible leverage.”
“This girl… is almost too clever for her own good.”
The brush descended.
In the upper-right corner of the memorial’s cover, Emperor Tiansheng wrote a prominent character: Cunning.
He set the first memorial aside.
His gaze shifted to the second.
He opened it. The pages within were covered in ink.
This confidential report concerned the Third Prince Xiao Jingyan. After the grand court audience, he had not returned to his princely residence. Instead, he had gone straight to the Chengyi Earl’s Residence.
“The Third Prince did not sit still either.” Emperor Tiansheng’s voice revealed neither joy nor anger, though his brows rose slightly in surprise.
Eunuch Li’s body trembled, and he dared not reply.
He alone failed to notice the cunning glint that flashed through Eunuch Li’s eyes.
Emperor Tiansheng continued reading.
Then his gaze sharpened.
The confidential report stated:
The Third Prince had entered through the main gate, where he was led by Xu Qinghuan’s elder brother, Xu Wuyou, and her second brother, Xu Zhan.
Upon reaching the rear residence’s warm chamber, the Xu brothers had cleared the room completely.
The Directorate of Imperial Security’s informants had been unable to approach and had heard not a single word.
Moreover, Xiao Jingyan had stayed for only half an hour before departing in haste.
“He went to the Chengyi Earl’s Residence through the main gate rather than the back entrance. He brought few attendants and stayed only a short while.” Emperor Tiansheng murmured to himself, a smile spreading across his face before he gave a slight shake of his head. “Xu Wuyou and Xu Zhan personally stood guard at the door. What could they have been discussing that required such secrecy?”
“Your Majesty, the Third Prince…”
“Half an hour.” Emperor Tiansheng interrupted Eunuch Li. “Tsk. The Third Prince has finally shown some promise.”
He was just about to add his mark when a thoughtful look crossed the emperor’s face.
The brush hovered in midair for a moment. A drop of cinnabar fell, spreading into a red blotch on the paper.
When Emperor Tiansheng saw the fallen drop, he gave a grave nod and wrote a single character:
Steady.
The third memorial was picked up.
Emperor Tiansheng opened it casually.
This report did not record the movements of officials outside the palace. Instead, it pointed directly at the First Prince, Xiao Jingxing.
The emperor’s formerly relaxed brows abruptly gathered beneath a veil of gloom.
The writing on the memorial was bold and forceful:
After court dispersed that day, the First Prince had not returned to his residence. He had turned into the inner palace and gone straight to the chambers of Noble Consort Wan.
“He went to the inner palace?” Emperor Tiansheng murmured.
His gaze moved farther down the page.
The Directorate of Imperial Security’s account was remarkably detailed:
The First Prince had entered Noble Consort Wan’s chambers and remained there for a full two hours before emerging.
During that time, Noble Consort Wan had dismissed every palace maid and eunuch serving in the outer hall. No one had been permitted to approach.
Emperor Tiansheng grew suspicious.
Two hours.
Everyone else dismissed.
Outside the palace, the First Prince had just hosted a banquet in the capital for generals who had retired from the nine frontier garrisons.
Inside the palace, he had immediately gone to seek out his mother.
One arrangement outside, another within. Military connections on one side, the imperial harem on the other.
His brows drew together. An undisguised suspicion and ruthlessness rose in his eyes, and he clicked his tongue heavily.
He did not write a single word on this memorial.
He raised his arm and casually flung it into a corner of the desk.
Eunuch Li shrank into a ball, so frightened that his forehead nearly struck the brick floor as his whole body trembled.
Could the First Prince have violated some taboo?
Eunuch Li was no simple man himself, but even he could not deduce the reason.
Emperor Tiansheng lifted the bright-yellow bolster behind him.
He left the imperial desk and strode steadily toward a broad painting table on the right.
“Companion Li.”
“This servant is here!”
Eunuch Li scrambled to his feet and hurried over in quick, mincing steps. With practiced efficiency, he took up the ink stick and poured water into the Duan inkstone, grinding the ink.
Emperor Tiansheng drew a large-sized double-hair brush from the brush holder. He softened its bristles in the water basin, then dipped it generously into the deep, lacquer-black ink.
The brush touched the paper.
Ink spread outward from the tip.
Emperor Tiansheng turned his wrist. His strokes were powerful and sinewy, without the slightest hesitation.
A dark line slashed down from the upper-left corner of the paper. In an instant, the spine and claws of a ferocious tiger seemed to leap into being.
A tiger descending the mountain—fierce and aggressive, radiating the murderous aura of a beast ready to devour anything in its path.
Another heavy stroke of ink.
The tiger’s gaping, blood-red maw sprang vividly to life.
Eunuch Li did not dare stop grinding the ink. Even the rhythm of his breathing rose and fell with the emperor’s movements.
Emperor Tiansheng turned the brush tip and dipped it lightly into clean water.
In the lower-right corner of the painting, he made a few light strokes with his brush.
With only a handful of strokes, a white crane spread its wings.
Its neck was held high, its sharp beak thrusting straight toward the tiger’s face.
The white crane, wings outstretched and ready to cry, and the descending tiger, pouncing from above, instantly became locked in a deadly struggle upon the paper.
Tiger and crane battled.
The tiger sought to tear the crane’s wings apart; the crane sought to peck out the tiger’s eyes.
The painting was nearly complete. Only the final touch of dark ink remained to bring life to the tiger’s eyes.
Emperor Tiansheng dipped the tip of his brush into the Duan inkstone once more.
Yet at the very moment the bristles touched the edge of the inkstone, an unnatural flush suddenly spread across Emperor Tiansheng’s face.
The strength abruptly left his right wrist.
The entire forearm, steady as a mountain only moments before, began to tremble uncontrollably.
The wolf-hair brush slipped between his fingers and fell from his hand.
Eunuch Li caught the scene from the corner of his eye and was so terrified that the ink stick in his hand nearly slipped free.
“Your… Your Majesty!?”
Before Eunuch Li could cry out—
Emperor Tiansheng felt his chest contract violently. A hot, sickly-sweet rush surged up from deep within and shot toward his throat.
“Pffft—”
A mouthful of filthy, black, viscous blood gushed from his mouth and nose!
The blood scattered through the air, landing squarely in the center of the rice paper.
The descending tiger’s ferocious face and the white crane’s sharp beak were instantly smeared and covered by the sticky crimson stains.
The black ink and red blood on the paper mingled together, becoming a horrifying pool of sludge.
Emperor Tiansheng’s knees gave way. His body swayed before pitching forward.
“Your Majesty!” Eunuch Li’s shrill scream rang through the imperial study.
Within the dim palace hall, only that pool of black blood continued to spread slowly across the paper.
