Ever since the day Han Ruifeng had made his move in an attempt to eliminate the threat permanently, he had already decided to tear away all pretense. Naturally, he was no longer afraid of the truth eventually coming to light.
“Your Majesty is now the empress, no longer the Ning Xuan who once ate and lived alongside this minister in Prince Rong’s Residence. And this minister is no longer Mo Qi, the servant who could be ordered around by anyone in the residence. Etiquette is something neither of us can simply ignore anymore.” Han Ruifeng spoke without servility or arrogance, calm and composed, every word carrying more than one meaning.
So that means the friendship forged while suffering together can simply be discarded. It means you can kick me while I’m down without hesitation. And whatever you may have done can all be excused as nothing more than circumstances forcing your hand?
A vicious light gleamed deep within Nalan Xuan’s eyes.
“I’m going to ask you only one thing.” He spoke directly, without circling around it. “Did you put something into that bowl of ‘pregnancy-preserving medicine’? And that day beneath the city wall—were those people yours as well?”
Nalan Xuan’s silence before now did not mean ignorance, and the absence of open conflict did not mean nothing had happened. Had Feng Xuanzhe not saved him that day, then even if the fall itself had failed to kill him, someone would probably have finished the job with a few extra blades.
Perhaps Han Ruifeng had not expected Nalan Xuan to ask so bluntly. Surprise flashed briefly through his eyes before he replied slowly, still maintaining perfect respect. “His Majesty’s heart is impossible to fathom and the imperial will impossible to influence. How could a few words from this minister possibly determine His Majesty’s decisions? As for anything else, this minister does not understand what Your Majesty is referring to.”
He neither admitted it nor truly denied it. He simply circled around the question and feigned ignorance. That alone was enough for Nalan Xuan to reach his own conclusion. An open spear was easy enough to avoid; a hidden arrow was far harder. And when that hidden arrow had been lying beside you all along, waiting for the chance to strike, it became nearly impossible to guard against. Yet matters had already reached this point, and discovering every detail now would change nothing. In the end, he had only himself to blame for trusting the wrong person.
Light shifted through Nalan Xuan’s eyes, sometimes sharp and openly dangerous, sometimes weary and faintly helpless.
“In the eighth month of Emperor Huawen’s thirty-fifth year, Han Ke, then a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet holding the Secondary Second Rank, was impeached for keeping former officials of the previous dynasty among his guests. He praised the previous dynasty’s achievements while disparaging the laws of the current one, extolled its literature and poetry, and composed the seditious poem On Past and Present. He was arrested for his crimes. Emperor Huawen was furious and imprisoned the entire household pending investigation, then sent troops to search the residence. They discovered more than seventy seditious poems and one surviving adherent of the former dynasty. The evidence was overwhelming and impossible to deny. Without further inquiry, Han Ke was sentenced to death and his crime implicated all nine clans.” Nalan Xuan’s gaze drifted into the distance. He spoke almost lazily, wearing a smile as though recounting something amusing. “But even the most airtight punishment can have gaps. As the saying goes, money can make even ghosts turn millstones. No matter how incorruptible an official claims to be, a family like that is bound to have accumulated some savings. If enough silver changed hands, I wonder whether it might have been possible to preserve at least one branch of the family line.”
Han Ruifeng remained silent, his expression suggesting he had no idea what Nalan Xuan was talking about.
Nalan Xuan was in no hurry either. The two simply sat there in silence, waiting each other out. Nalan Xuan could afford to waste time. Han Ruifeng could not.
“What exactly does Your Majesty mean by this?” Han Ruifeng finally asked. “Countless officials have risen and fallen throughout history. Such things are hardly unusual. Since when has Your Majesty taken an interest in them?”
His tone sounded perfectly casual, but Nalan Xuan saw clearly the hand that had tightened almost imperceptibly and the knuckles turning pale beneath the strain. His smile deepened. “If even you have no idea what I mean, then naturally I understand even less.”
“There is one more thing. I wonder whether Noble Lord Han has ever heard of it.” Nalan Xuan abruptly changed the subject, his smile taking on a deeper meaning. “Han Ke did preserve one surviving branch of the family line, but in doing so he abandoned a precious daughter who was still in the bloom of youth. That kind of choice was certainly ruthless enough.”
Han Ruifeng’s hand tightened further. Even his breathing became faintly uneven.
Nalan Xuan watched the reaction with great satisfaction, his mood improving considerably. “It’s getting late. I shouldn’t interfere with Noble Lord Han’s rest any longer. You should return to your palace. And whenever you have time, do come sit with me in Fengyi Palace more often.”
“This minister takes his leave.” Han Ruifeng rose and knelt in farewell, his expression perfectly unchanged. Only he himself knew how stiff his entire body had become and how difficult each step felt as he walked out of Fengyi Palace.
Nalan Xuan watched Han Ruifeng’s back disappear from sight, the curve of his lips turning almost bloodthirsty in its cruelty. “I heard the Imperial Household Department recently selected several capable new servants for the palace?”
Though phrased as a question, Nalan Xuan spoke with complete certainty.
“Yes.” As chief attendant of Fengyi Palace, Ji Yu naturally knew every large and small matter concerning the palace.
“I thought the maid assigned to tending flowers seemed rather good. Clean, efficient, quick with her hands. Noble Lord Han’s status is quite different now from what it once was. It would invite ridicule if Luoxiao Palace lacked enough servants. I imagine the two of them would get along very well. Tell the Imperial Household Department to reassign her to Luoxiao Palace.” Nalan Xuan spoke casually, but Ji Yu could already smell blood in the air.
“Yes. This servant will handle it immediately.” Adding servants to a palace was easy, as was one master sending servants to another. But if the servant’s origins and transfer were to become impossible to trace afterward, Ji Yu would have to make a personal trip to the Imperial Household Department and arrange matters carefully.
Nalan Xuan turned his gaze toward the window, no longer bothering to conceal the venom and ruthlessness in his eyes. Han Ruifeng, whatever earth-shaking or perfectly justified reasons you may have had, anyone who betrays me will learn just how unfortunate it is to have been born into this world. Watching blood relatives destroy one another… now that is something worth looking forward to.
At the same time, Feng Xuanyi was nearly overwhelmed with work in the imperial study, dealing not only with affairs of the outer court but the harem as well.
Heaven alone knew how difficult it had been for the current Feng Xuanyi to climb out of bed that morning. The person he loved had been right beside him, yet anything he said would have been difficult to voice—or rather, impossible for Nalan Xuan to trust. Mo Yan had to urge him three separate times before Feng Xuanyi finally reminded himself that there would be plenty of time ahead and forced himself to leave. Then came the endless arguments over the ceded territory. The court officials respected the distinction between ruler and minister enough not to point directly at his nose and curse him by name, but their language remained fierce, leaving the entire court in uproar. Feng Xuanyi still felt no regret.
His complete lack of remorse and apparent lack of intention to recover the territory only enraged the officials further. When morning court ended without a result, every official whose rank was high enough to request entry into the imperial study immediately did so. Before long, the imperial study was surrounded so tightly that not even water could have passed through. One after another, they spoke at exhausting length, repeatedly explaining the consequences and dangers of surrendering ten border cities, desperately hoping the emperor might reverse disaster at the last possible moment.
Feng Xuanyi remained unmoved. No matter how hoarse they argued themselves, he refused to yield. Yet he did not openly contradict them either. Whatever they said, he neither refuted nor answered. He embodied the principle of meeting ten thousand changes with no change of his own. Whenever they pushed him into a corner from which silence was no longer possible, he would make some harmless remark about irrigation, agriculture, or another issue of the people’s livelihood and blur the focus. One could hardly accuse the emperor of neglecting his duty when he was still thinking about the people’s welfare. Yet if one claimed he cared about the suffering of the common people, he had just abandoned tens of thousands living in those ten frontier cities.
After an entire morning of arguing above and below the court hall, Feng Xuanyi was exhausted. When the officials finally decided they had said enough for one day and withdrew to recover their strength before continuing the battle tomorrow, Feng Xuanyi experienced true weariness for perhaps the first time. He had barely propped one elbow upon the desk and had not yet lifted a hand to his brow when a palace attendant entered to report, “Your Majesty, Noble Concubine Xiao requests an audience. She has already been waiting outside for quite some time.”
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