Eunuch Li’s eyes widened, the corners of them splitting with alarm. Instinctively, he was about to let out another howl when the cry was already on the verge of bursting past his lips.
Then he suddenly froze, his face turning deathly pale.
He hurriedly bit down on the tip of his tongue, trying to force himself to calm down.
The taste of blood flooded his mouth, choking back the half-formed scream.
“What was that noise?!”
Outside the hall, the armed palace guards on duty heard the disturbance and immediately drew their blades. They hurried over, already stepping onto the white-jade stairs.
Eunuch Li knew things were going badly. Cold sweat poured from him as he quickly braced himself against the palace doors.
He swallowed the blood in his mouth in great gulps, forcibly suppressing his pounding heart and lungs.
“All of you, stand down!”
Eunuch Li was an old fox who had spent decades navigating the palace. His reaction was naturally swift.
He raised his voice into a shrill pitch and deliberately softened his tone, striking just the right note of a eunuch’s characteristic sharpness and impatience.
“His Majesty slipped and knocked over that ancient Southern Tang inkstone! He’s in a foul temper. Which fool wants to come in and invite disaster? Without an imperial edict, anyone who approaches within half a step will be beaten to death!”
The footsteps outside abruptly stopped. There was a brief silence.
Then the captain of the guards lowered his voice and apologized before leading the others back down the steps.
Listening until the sound of their boots faded away, Eunuch Li finally collapsed.
He slid limply down the door and sank to the floor. Beneath his robes, he felt cold all over.
Casting aside all concern for his dignity, he scrambled across the floor on hands and knees and lunged toward the imperial desk.
Emperor Tiansheng lay on his back amid the seams between the bricks, his eyes tightly shut and his face as gray as death.
Trembling, Eunuch Li extended his index and middle fingers and held them half an inch beneath Emperor Tiansheng’s nose.
A thread of breath, exceedingly faint and intermittent, brushed across his fingertips.
He was still alive!
Eunuch Li let out a long breath of relief. Only then did he realize that the python robe covering him was soaked through with cold sweat.
He forced himself upright, and his gaze inadvertently swept over the tall painting table.
The painting of a fierce tiger and white crane, personally created by the Emperor, had been drenched in a large pool of thick, filthy black blood.
The pitch-black imperial ink and the foul-smelling poisonous blood had merged into an indistinguishable mess.
The filth and grime of the royal struggle for succession, along with the ruthlessness of the Son of Heaven’s heart, were all laid bare in that foul, sticky pool of blood and ink.
Eunuch Li suddenly reached out and tore down the sheet of rice paper. He crumpled it into a ball, then darted several steps to the red-clay brazier in the corner.
He stuffed the paper into the dark-red coals.
As the flames touched the edge, the rice paper quickly curled and blackened.
Just as the fire was about to consume the entire painting, Eunuch Li’s hand stiffened.
His expression changed drastically. Then, as swiftly as lightning, he thrust his hand into the brazier and pulled out the remaining half of the charred paper.
The tiger’s head and the crane’s neck, which had been locked in combat on the page, had already turned to ash. Only half of the tiger’s body and one crane’s wing remained.
Eunuch Li clenched his teeth, pressed the scrap against his chest, and vigorously stamped out the sparks along its edges.
He then carefully folded the half-burned paper and placed it back on the table.
He hurriedly crawled on his knees to Emperor Tiansheng’s side.
His hand reached toward the Emperor’s waist. His fingertips trembled as he unfastened the carved golden dragon token that symbolized supreme imperial authority.
Clutching the token tightly, Eunuch Li rose to his feet.
He drew several deep breaths. His eyes gradually turned cold.
Then he strode to the corner of the inner hall and knocked three times with his knuckles against the wooden panel beside the display shelf.
Two young eunuchs in plain-colored robes appeared soundlessly, their heads bowed.
“You two—take this token and lock every door and window around the Imperial Study.” Eunuch Li lowered his voice, his gaze icy and grim. “Do not let even a fly inside.”
Half an hour later.
The cold moon hung high in the sky.
A young palace eunuch carrying a lantern hurried down a side path, leading the elderly chief physician of the Imperial Medical Academy. Together, they slipped into the side hall of the Imperial Study.
The old physician carried a heavy medicine chest. Cold sweat streamed down his face and dripped from his chin onto the front of his robe.
His expression was filled with anxiety. He truly had no idea why he had been summoned into the palace at such an hour—
or why such meticulous precautions had been taken to conceal his movements.
Eunuch Li lifted the bright-yellow bed curtains, revealing a thin, withered wrist.
The old physician’s face instantly filled with horror, and countless possibilities rose in his mind.
Poison? Assassination? Being made a scapegoat?
He could not bear responsibility for any of them.
He hurriedly fell to his knees, reached both hands beneath the curtains, and placed two trembling fingers against that wrist.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
The old physician’s body suddenly began to tremble violently.
As though electrocuted, he snatched his hand back and bent his entire upper body down until his forehead touched the floor.
“E-Eunuch Li…” The old physician could not conceal the despair in his voice.
Eunuch Li knit his brows tightly and urged him in a deep voice, “Speak. What has happened?”
The old physician kept his head pressed to the floor. His voice came out muffled, already carrying a hint of sobbing.
“His Majesty… His Majesty has not fallen ill from some sudden ailment.”
He swallowed and struggled to steady his breathing.
“His Majesty is advanced in years and has long suffered from deficient qi and blood.”
“But the true cause is the lingering poison that took root in his body many years ago. This time… it must have been triggered by a violent upheaval of His Majesty’s emotions, causing the poisoned blood to surge backward.”
“The residual poison is ferocious. It has already damaged the very foundation of His Majesty’s health!”
There was no movement behind the curtains for a long while.
The old physician remained prostrate on the floor, trembling from head to toe. He had already resigned himself to death.
Rustle.
An aged hand suddenly pushed aside the bed curtains.
Emperor Tiansheng had awakened!
He slowly opened his eyes.
They were cloudy and murky, yet they still held a ferocity sharp enough to pierce through flesh and bone.
He looked at the old physician lying on the floor, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
“Your Majesty!” The instant Eunuch Li saw Emperor Tiansheng awaken, he crawled forward on his knees. “This old slave deserves death for allowing You to suffer!”
The old physician hurriedly lifted his head and began fumbling through his medicine chest. “I shall immediately prepare a prescription to nourish Your Majesty and expel the poison…”
“No need.”
Emperor Tiansheng’s voice was weak, yet every word carried a cruelty that cut to the bone.
“Nourish me? Expel the poison? Do you take Me for a three-year-old suffering from indigestion?”
The old physician’s movements froze. His face turned ashen.
With great effort, Emperor Tiansheng turned his head. Another thin stream of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Eunuch Li and the old physician both went pale with fright and began to rise to support him.
But Emperor Tiansheng merely waved a hand.
“Convey My verbal decree… From this moment onward, the chief physician is to be confined to the Imperial Pharmacy for life.”
Emperor Tiansheng spoke each word slowly.
“He is to prepare medicine for Me and may not take a single step outside. His family members living elsewhere are to be brought into the inner city of the capital.” He seemed entirely unconcerned with his own critical condition. “See that they are ‘settled’ properly. If even the slightest word of My pulse is leaked, his entire family—nine clans of them—will be subjected to death by a thousand cuts.”
The old physician’s eyes rolled back at those words, and he nearly fainted. All he could do was repeatedly kowtow and give thanks for the Emperor’s mercy.
“Go prepare the medicine.”
The old physician scrambled out of the side hall.
Emperor Tiansheng drew several labored breaths. He closed his eyes, and his eyelids concealed that glint of ruthless intent.
“Companion Li.”
“This old slave is here!”
“Go to the Grand Secretariat and issue an edict. Say that I have come down with a slight cold and will be resting for three days, suspending court. The affairs of every ministry are to be temporarily handled by the Grand Secretariat.”
Emperor Tiansheng opened his eyes, his tone terrifyingly calm.
“Seal the news within the Imperial Study…”
He could hold on no longer. The deathly pallor spreading across his face seemed to have seeped onto Eunuch Li’s as well.
“This old slave obeys!”
…
The following morning.
The world was shrouded in gray.
Yesterday’s snow had yet to melt completely. The north wind carried shards of ice through the streets and alleys of the capital’s one hundred and eight wards.
The imperial guards at the palace gates changed shifts.
With the first peal of the morning drum, news that the Son of Heaven had suspended court and withdrawn from state affairs had already spread throughout the inner and outer cities.
In the various government offices, senior officials exchanged glances when they crossed paths, probing one another cautiously, yet none dared make a reckless move.
…
Outside Zhengyang Gate, on a bustling avenue where four streets met.
Far from the imperial court, the place was utterly free of the tense, danger-laden atmosphere that gripped the halls of government.
Steam billowed from an old teahouse on the street corner.
The great copper kettle over the stove breathed clouds of white vapor, while the gurgle of boiling water mingled with the noisy chatter of the patrons.
Several traveling merchants in plain short jackets sat around a chipped square table, warming themselves by the brazier and drinking tea alongside two failed scholars wearing scholar’s caps.
The poisonous blood, imprisonment, and scheming deep within the palace were worlds away from the common people in the marketplace.
The hottest topic of conversation today was not the Son of Heaven’s convalescence from a chill, but the bold declaration Princess Wanping had made in court the day before.
“Have you heard? That Commandery Princess Xu wants to establish some kind of Maritime Trade Office overseas. She even claims there’s a mountain made entirely of silver across the sea!”
One of the scholars slapped the table, his face flushed with excitement.
“If they can really bring all that silver back, Great Qian will never need to levy additional taxes again! That would be a contribution for the ages!”
The other failed scholar shook his head, his voice tinged with sourness. “No matter how round you draw the pie, someone still has to eat it. Where is the court supposed to get the money to build ships?”
Just then—
Bang!
The traveling merchant beside them slammed his tea bowl onto the table.
A few drops of the coarse tea splashed out.
He removed his thick felt hat and called out to everyone around him.
“What are you all doing here, idly wagging your tongues? Do you know what happened at the Tongzhou docks last night?”
Every eye in the teahouse turned toward him.
The merchant swallowed, a sharp gleam in his eyes.
“I came straight from Tongzhou overnight. Less than two hours after nightfall yesterday, every timber shop around the capital went mad!”
He counted them off on his fingers.
“Hundred-year-old firs for building great ships, iron nails and tung oil for repairing hulls, rough hemp rope—the prices all tripled!”
The scholars drew a collective breath.
The merchant slapped his thigh.
“Tripled! And even at that price, there wasn’t enough to sell.”
“Those wealthy merchants with Jiangnan accents brought crates of silver and practically smashed down the doors of the lumberyards. They bought up everything in sight, leaving not even a scrap behind!”
The tea patrons erupted in astonished cries, their eyes burning with excitement.
“Damn those great clans and noble houses! They really don’t hold back!”
“They’re snatching up supplies at triple the price? Do they truly think they can make a fortune sailing overseas?”
No one cared about the court’s fate…
What did the emperor matter?
In the end, he was still far beyond the reach of ordinary folk like them.
Among the common people, only tales of silver and enormous profits were circulating.
The enormous furnace that was Great Qian had already been fed its first bundle of kindling by the frenzy over shipbuilding and overseas voyages.
In a shadowy corner of the teahouse,
a small table held nothing but a bowl of tea, scarcely touched.
A traveler in blue, wearing a broad bamboo hat and a blue-green robe, silently listened to the merchant’s grand pronouncements.
He placed several copper coins, still warm from his body, on the greasy tabletop.
The traveler in blue said nothing. He tugged down the brim of his hat, concealing his face completely in shadow.
Then he rose and pushed open the rickety wooden door.
Cold wind carrying flecks of snow rushed toward him.
His steps were swift. Within a few breaths, he had turned into an empty dead-end alley.
He stopped and glanced left and right.
After confirming that no one was nearby, he drew a small, intricately crafted bamboo tube, no bigger than a walnut, from within his wide sleeve.
The traveler in blue pulled the fuse from the tube. At some point, his other hand had produced a gray-white messenger bird.
With practiced ease, he fastened the bamboo tube to the bird’s leg, then raised his wrist.
The gray bird spread its wings and took flight.
After circling once, it pierced through the capital’s falling snow and raging wind, shooting northward into the vast sky without looking back.
