From beginning to end, everything had gone so smoothly that it could hardly have been smoother, exactly as Nalan Xuan had originally anticipated. Through a series of “coincidences,” Nalan Xuan entered Prince Rong’s residence. For someone who had spent years struggling through the mire where power and desire collided, a bright, carefree personality untouched by such filth was undoubtedly deadly in its appeal. Add to that a face and body that lost to no one, and naturally he would be favored.
Everything that came afterward was the same: Feng Xuanyi’s suspicion, Feng Xuanyi’s exploitation, Feng Xuanyi favoring him once more. Now that Nalan Xuan had recovered all his memories, there was no need for any of those ridiculous questions of why. Everything was painfully simple. A person so innocent, born into a society defined by struggles for power and living among those at the very bottom, naturally deserved suspicion, so repeated testing was inevitable. If that innocence was false, then using a pawn that could be discarded at any moment to confuse the enemy was an extraordinarily profitable bargain. If it was genuine, then once Feng Xuanyi possessed supreme power, keeping such a beautiful person who was utterly devoted to him at his side would at least be pleasing to the eye.
Viewed merely as a spectator, the process of climbing step by step to the position of empress was almost thrilling. Every carefully calculated move, every round of scheming and intrigue, every instance of mutual exploitation, flattery, and ingratiation—back then Nalan Xuan had found it disgusting, yet now he almost felt there had not been enough of it.
There was only one thing Nalan Xuan had miscalculated despite all his schemes: emotion. If Feng Xuanyi was cold-blooded and heartless, then how was Nalan Xuan any different? Anyone who possessed loyalty and feeling—or even the faintest trace of affection—would never willingly gamble with emotion. Only to someone without feeling could emotion become the cheapest and most profitable bargain imaginable. Yet after calculating everything else so carefully, Nalan Xuan had overlooked precisely that one word, and it had left him utterly defeated.
He had correctly calculated Feng Xuanyi’s cold-blooded heartlessness while simultaneously overestimating his own. The performance had become real. He had sunk too deeply into the mire and could no longer pull himself free. At least during those years when he had forgotten his past and forgotten himself, Nalan Xuan had genuinely fallen in love with the one man in the world least capable of possessing anything resembling true affection, loving him completely, without reservation, resentment, or impurity. Even more unbelievably, they had conceived a child together—a child Feng Xuanyi had personally killed! And the original objective behind everything, the lives of his clan, the beginning of the entire scheme, the very reason he had swallowed every humiliation and borne every burden, had repeatedly been compromised and abandoned for the sake of a child who was only half connected to him by blood.
For the innocent Nalan Xuan he had once been, death truly would have been the best solution. He had no plan left, no road forward, and nothing remaining in life that he wished to hold onto. But for the Nalan Xuan who had now recovered everything, death was far too dull. He could die, but he could not simply kill himself. Death itself was not frightening, yet he would much rather make everyone who had betrayed him suffer lives worse than death—even if the process tortured him just as brutally.
“Awake?” Suddenly, the door opened. Candlelight flickered inside the dim room, illuminating the newcomer’s half-smiling face until he looked almost ghostlike, enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine.
Nalan Xuan leaned his body slightly backward, bracing both hands beside himself and lifting his shoulders in an easy, relaxed posture. His eyes remained lowered, completely unsurprised by the uninvited guest. “Was I ever asleep? How can you call this waking?”
“Heh. I nearly forgot who Her Majesty the Empress is. After making a leap like that, how could you possibly react like ordinary people and faint from fright?” The man deliberately prodded at his sorest point.
Nalan Xuan returned the favor without hesitation. “Naturally. How could I compare with Your Highness, who can laugh off even his own status and name? The ‘this prince’ you used to call yourself and the ‘I’ you use now really do suit each other.”
The person who had saved Nalan Xuan and now stood before him was none other than Feng Xuanzhe, the late emperor’s eldest son, stripped of rank and power, who by all logic should have fled as far away as possible.
Feng Xuanzhe paid no attention to Nalan Xuan’s jab. During the better part of the past year, only he himself understood what it had been like to live in hiding without seeing daylight. Imperial kin, exalted status, noble identity, the most legitimate candidate to inherit the throne—every halo that had once surrounded him had become a present-day shackle, even a death warrant issued from hell. Before he had time to nurse his hatred or gather strength for a return, he had been suppressed so thoroughly that he could barely breathe. Compared with all of that, a few cutting words were hardly unbearable.
“Where is this?” Nalan Xuan asked directly.
“The Minister of War’s residence.” Feng Xuanzhe answered just as directly, making no attempt to conceal anything.
“Heh. I never expected Your Highness to have such leisurely tastes. With pursuers constantly behind you, you still have time to stroll around right beneath his nose. Admirable, truly admirable. As for Minister Xiao, I hardly know whether to call him loyal or simply extraordinarily courageous.”
Without bothering to circle the issue, Feng Xuanzhe said, “He probably won’t be able to remain Minister of War peacefully for much longer.”
“So you were thinking of using me as a bargaining chip in exchange for getting out intact?” Nalan Xuan asked with amusement.
“Perhaps I considered it once. But from the moment you jumped, you lost that value. If he truly treasured you so much, would he really have allowed you to jump? Even if you simply slipped and fell, the entire city should be in chaos right now searching for you.” Feng Xuanzhe smiled venomously, looking as though he were waiting eagerly to watch the spectacle. He moved closer and gestured for Nalan Xuan to listen. “But listen outside. It’s the dead of night. Even the cicadas have fallen asleep, yet no one has come looking for you. What value do you think you still hold in his eyes?”
Had this happened before, Nalan Xuan’s face would undoubtedly have turned livid, because Feng Xuanzhe had struck directly at the most painful point. Now, however, Nalan Xuan remained perfectly composed, as though the matter had nothing to do with him. “So? May I ask what instructions Your Highness has after going to such trouble to save me? Could it be that you want to seize the throne? I had no idea I possessed such abilities. What an extraordinary honor.”
“Good! Very good!” Feng Xuanzhe laughed instead of becoming angry. “Remember what I’m telling you. Anyone who has betrayed me will never be allowed to live comfortably.”
“Of course.” Nalan Xuan’s expression did not change, though inwardly he could not help thinking that Feng Xuanzhe and Feng Xuanyi truly were brothers.
“He has something to say to you.” Feng Xuanzhe did not remain any longer and turned to leave. “But I look forward to hearing good news from you.”
The room had no windows and appeared to be a secret chamber. It contained only a few simple pieces of furniture and a concealed door that would have been difficult to notice without careful inspection. Nalan Xuan was still wondering whether Feng Xuanzhe had really come all the way in merely to mock him and announce that he intended to make Nalan Xuan miserable—whether the man was simply bored or had nothing better to do—when the hidden door opened again with a rough creak.
Nalan Xuan had expected some new method of torment, perhaps a punishment designed especially for him, or Xiao He arriving to take Feng Xuanzhe’s place in another round of interrogation. Instead, the person who entered was unexpectedly the foreigner Yelü Zhen. “Why are you here?!” Even someone as unfathomably calculating as Nalan Xuan, even someone long accustomed to hiding every joy and anger and never allowing others to know his thoughts, had genuinely spent a period of his life as the innocent “Ning Xuan.” Faced so suddenly with something entirely beyond his expectations, instinct reacted before his thoughts could restrain it.
“After everything that has happened, that’s all you want to ask?” Yelü Zhen’s expression was grave, as though he were desperately suppressing a blazing anger ready to erupt at any moment.