Everyone might have had countless questions in their hearts, but since the empress had already spoken, they could hardly remain there refusing to leave. One after another, they rose, took their leave, and departed.
Liu Yin deliberately lingered until the very end. He said nothing, merely leaving Nalan Xuan with a look that could only be described as provocative before departing.
“Send someone to take a look. Since Noble Concubine Xiao is unwell, the Imperial Medical Bureau should be keeping a close eye on things too.” Nalan Xuan’s voice revealed no emotion, and his face showed nothing at all.
“Yes.” He Xiang accepted the order and personally went to see to it.
The morning gathering had ended early, leaving Nalan Xuan with some time to walk around the palace. Thinking of the person who had followed behind Yelü Zhen yesterday, his eyes narrowed and a bloodthirsty curve appeared at his lips. There was probably someone who would be particularly eager to hear this news.
Ever since Feng Xuanyi ascended the throne and the former empress became the Empress Dowager, she seemed to have undergone a complete change of temperament. She withdrew deep into the palace and wholeheartedly devoted herself to Buddhist practice, almost never venturing outside. She never asked about Feng Xuanyi’s affairs at court, while Feng Xuanyi likewise never interfered in the Empress Dowager’s affairs within the harem. He had even dispensed with the most basic courtesy of paying his respects to her each day. No one questioned it, and no one dared disturb the Empress Dowager’s secluded cultivation. Technically, the Empress Dowager still stood above the empress within the harem, but during Feng Xuanyi’s reign, the entire inner palace had effectively been left in the empress’s hands. It had been so under the former Empress He Yilan, and it was the same now under Empress Nalan Xuan.
Since even the emperor treated the Empress Dowager with such indifference, none of the consorts were idle enough to seek out an elderly woman merely to exchange pleasantries. The Empress Dowager’s palace soon became so deserted that one could have caught sparrows at its gates. Aside from the servants assigned there, hardly anyone came or went.
Today, however, a grand imperial procession slowly emerged from around the corner of the palace walls and made its way toward the Empress Dowager’s residence. Countless maids and palace attendants flanked it on both sides in a long formation, while seated upon the phoenix palanquin was none other than the current empress, Nalan Xuan.
A palace servant who had come out to empty a basin had followed the Empress Dowager into seclusion from the bustle of the palace many years ago and had not heard the music of strings and flutes in a long time. Catching sight of such a procession from afar, the servant became so nervous and flustered that, still clutching the bronze basin, they could not even decide where to put it.
Inside the main hall’s inner chamber, the Empress Dowager knelt upon a cushion. The sumptuous brilliance of her former years had long since faded. Not a single jewel adorned her hair. Although the fabric of her clothes was of the finest quality, the cut and colors were so plain that even an ordinary wealthy household might have considered them austere. Yet the Empress Dowager sat with her eyes closed, calm and at ease, her back perfectly straight. Though she was already the mother of two sons and faint traces of age had appeared around her eyes and brows, remnants of her former beauty were still plainly visible. Prayer beads slipped one by one through her fingers in time with the silent movements of her lips. Before the Buddha burned a single stick of incense. All worldly splendor had fallen away, leaving only lamplight, Buddhist scriptures, and quiet devotion.
“Your Majesty, the empress is outside requesting an audience.” The maid beside her had hesitated for a long time, nearly beside herself with anxiety, before finally daring to interrupt the Empress Dowager’s prayers.
The Empress Dowager did not pause her fingers or even open her eyes. Her voice was slightly hoarse, as though from going too long without speaking. “Tell him to go back. I have withdrawn from worldly affairs for many years. The affairs of the harem are entirely for the empress to decide.”
“Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager hasn’t summoned you yet. You can’t go inside, Your Majesty—”
As though he had expected from the beginning that the Empress Dowager would refuse to see him, Nalan Xuan pushed open the door and entered directly, leaving the protesting palace servants behind him.
The maid glanced at the empress standing calmly in the hall with his hands behind his back, then at the Empress Dowager, who remained motionless in prayer. Having received the Empress Dowager’s signal, she did not know whether she was supposed to deliver the reply or not. Her eyes darted anxiously between the two of them until, drenched in sweat, she suddenly dropped to her knees with a thump, looking ready to cry.
“Your Majesty is sincerely devoted to Buddhist practice, so this humble subject ordinarily would not dare disturb you. However, I have a piece of news that I fear no one besides Your Majesty would care to hear.” Seeing that the Empress Dowager remained immovable upon her prayer cushion, Nalan Xuan was in no hurry. He narrowed his eyes and drew a deep breath, savoring the rich scent of sandalwood within the hall with the composure of someone entirely certain of himself. “It concerns a ‘rebel and traitor.’ I wonder whether Your Majesty would be willing to have a word with this humble subject.”
The moment those words fell, the strand of beads that had been moving rhythmically through the Empress Dowager’s fingers dropped to the floor, its crisp impact sounding as startling as a thunderclap.
The maid kneeling nearby broke out in a cold sweat, utterly at a loss. Everything had been perfectly peaceful—why had the empress suddenly come to discuss rebels and traitors with the Empress Dowager? Wasn’t he deliberately looking for trouble? The palace attendants who had hurried in after Nalan Xuan also dropped to their knees. With their status, they could hardly grab the mother of the nation and physically drag him out, especially when the Empress Dowager herself had yet to say anything.
“What?” The Empress Dowager’s eyes flew open. The stillness that had lain undisturbed in them for years suddenly churned into towering waves. Her body was stiff after remaining in the same posture for so long, and when she turned, she stared incredulously at the unfamiliar man before her. He was dazzlingly beautiful and extraordinary, so striking that for a moment she actually forgot why she had turned around at all.
Nalan Xuan’s lips curved slightly. He looked gentle and harmless, and even his voice was soft, as though afraid of frightening this woman who had spent so many years secluded in the palace. “Exactly as Your Majesty is thinking.”
The Empress Dowager’s delicate brows drew together as she regarded the empress personally appointed by Feng Xuanyi with a complicated expression, unable to conceal her suspicion and disbelief. She rose, but after kneeling for so long her legs had gone almost entirely numb, and she staggered, barely caught by the maid standing a step away. No matter how carefully she scrutinized him, she could not discern the thoughts hidden beneath that unruffled expression. In the end, she compromised. “All of you, leave us.”
“Yes.” At the Empress Dowager’s command, the attendants quickly withdrew. Only Nalan Xuan and the Empress Dowager remained in the hall. An eerie silence settled between them, as though they were locked in a contest of wills, neither willing to be the first to break the oppressive quiet.
“This ‘rebel and traitor’ you mentioned… who is it?” In the end, naturally, it was still the Empress Dowager who yielded first. It was only a possibility—perhaps even one that could not withstand close scrutiny—yet already her voice was trembling beyond her control.
Nalan Xuan had no intention of hiding it. Since he had come here, naturally he meant to tell her. He might enjoy speaking in circles, but sometimes going straight to the point really did achieve twice the result with half the effort. “The former Prince Yi, the legitimate eldest son, Feng Xuanzhe.”
“You… you have news of Zhe’er?” Feng Xuanyi had already been emperor for two years. During those two years, she had long forgotten what happiness felt like, what hope was, what comfort was, even what anger was. Joy, rage, sorrow, and delight had all seemed to become distant things of the past. Her sole concern had been her child—the only child she truly acknowledged. The victor became king and the defeated a bandit. Given Feng Xuanyi’s ruthlessness, if she had ever truly gone before him to plead, she feared that even the faintest chance of survival would instead have become certain death. So she fought for nothing, said nothing, asked about nothing, and cared about nothing. She treated herself as though she were already dead and spent every day praying before the Buddha, believing the rest of her life would pass beneath a lonely lamp in devotion. Yet now this young man, the current empress, had brought her news of him. Her joy and excitement overflowed visibly, her voice trembling uncontrollably. She forgot all concern for rank, propriety, and dignity and instinctively hurried forward three steps to seize Nalan Xuan’s sleeve, asking the question that had haunted her through countless days and nights. “He… he’s still alive, isn’t he?”
She asked with such caution, trembling so badly, that although it was phrased as a question, she was desperately pleading for an affirmative answer. Nalan Xuan did not know what this woman would do if the news he had brought had been precisely the opposite.
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