At Fengyi Palace, the candles remained lit all the way until midnight. Every palace attendant in the room was fighting drooping eyelids, but the empress had given no order. Who would dare abandon their post on their own and go off to dreamland?
“Master, it’s already midnight.” The lampshade was removed, the spent candle replaced with a fresh one and lit. “His Majesty selected Noble Attendant Liu’s plaque tonight…” After frowning and weighing the wording for a moment, the speaker continued haltingly, “The lights at Yonghe Palace have already gone out.”
It was not that Nalan Xuan was throwing a fit and stubbornly waiting for Feng Xuanyi to come. He merely wanted some time to clear his head. Perhaps Feng Xuanyi’s behavior ever since his return to the palace had unconsciously become something he was used to, something that had made him harbor unrealistic fantasies until he had nearly forgotten the man’s true nature. Fidelity from an emperor was a joke. For a sovereign to possess genuine feeling at all was already rare enough in this world.
“Everyone, go rest.” Nalan Xuan, who had not spoken once all evening, finally gave the order. The entire roomful of attendants reacted as though they had been granted a pardon, and some visibly breathed out in relief on the spot.
“Master, this servant has already prepared the bed. You may retire whenever you wish.” He Xiang emerged from the sleeping chamber, came around the screen, and dipped into a curtsy.
Nalan Xuan did not sleep all night. In a single day he had gone through joy and irritation, an inexplicable irritation, and he tossed and turned in bed. At this moment, whether it was merely psychological or because he had finally chosen to listen carefully, he could clearly hear two heartbeats coming from within his chest.
The blood-red hibiscus patterns on the bed curtains stabbed at his eyes. The designs sprawling across the canopy overhead seemed like roots taking hold inside his heart, dense and prickling, leaving him unable to settle.
After a night of shallow sleep, Nalan Xuan rose unusually early, resulting in the first breakfast he had ever shared with Feng Xuanyi.
At the crack of dawn, Feng Xuanyi rushed straight to Fengyi Palace before morning court. No one knew why. When he saw that Nalan Xuan was also already awake, Feng Xuanyi visibly jolted, looking rather caught off guard. The perceptive attendants vanished without a trace in an instant, only to return shortly afterward carrying breakfast.
The moment Nalan Xuan saw Feng Xuanyi, who had clearly hurried over at such an early hour, the agitation inside him seemed to evaporate. He interpreted that as an increase in his own odds of winning.
In truth, Feng Xuanyi had not yet sorted out how he should face Nalan Xuan. He had only meant to look at him from a distance. Since Nalan Xuan normally never rose at this hour, Feng Xuanyi had planned to take one look and leave. Instead, he unexpectedly came face-to-face with him and, for a moment, actually felt somewhat awkward and guilty.
“Did you sleep well last night?” Sitting at the same table, Feng Xuanyi found their silence unbearable for the first time and opened with a question that was hardly skillful.
“If Your Majesty slept well, then naturally this subject slept well too.” Nalan Xuan had only intended to give some perfunctory answer, yet the words slipped out before he could think, and no matter how one listened, they sounded sour.
Both men froze at once. One was startled yet filled with an indescribable joy; the other was stunned, with helpless regret hidden beneath the shock.
Feng Xuanyi reached out and enclosed Nalan Xuan’s hand in his own. The chill in Nalan Xuan’s palm made him frown in displeasure. “It’s getting cold. The servants at your side should be paying more attention. Wear a few more layers. A few days ago the envoys presented some excellent snow-fox pelts. I’ll have them make you a cloak at once. If you’re afraid of the cold, don’t go outside early in the morning or at night. Wait until the sun is out. And remember, whenever you do go out, take a hand warmer with you.”
Nalan Xuan had never known Feng Xuanyi was capable of nagging like this. Yet once the man started, the words poured out like floodwater through an opened gate, while Feng Xuanyi himself remained entirely unaware, speaking with perfect seriousness and apparently enjoying every moment of it.
Nalan Xuan had never had the habit of eating breakfast, so everything Feng Xuanyi ordered was light and easy to digest. Whether the meal was tasteless to one or unexpectedly satisfying to the other, at least under everyone’s watchful eyes they passed the meal in relative peace.
Many had thought that the emperor finally summoning a consort other than the empress would give them a chance to suppress the empress’s arrogance, perhaps even let them gloat over his fall from favor. Yet Feng Xuanyi abandoned Noble Attendant Liu first thing in the morning and rushed to Fengyi Palace before court to take breakfast with the empress, only making the whole situation even murkier and his intentions harder to read.
That change lasted only a single day. From then on, Feng Xuanyi went right back to his usual ways. He reported to Fengyi Palace every day, and every night the great red lanterns outside Fengyi Palace were hung high to mark his stay. New beauties had clearly entered the palace, yet they did not even receive the chance to attend him. Their ranks were not low, but they entered the harem without receiving any favor, leaving Keshuqi and Yina’er in a rather awkward position.
Feng Xuanyi was naturally aware of all this, but he seemed determined to ignore everything and charge ahead regardless. He would head straight for Fengyi Palace the moment morning court ended, practically wishing he could remain glued to the empress’s side without taking a single step away. If the senior ministers had not all but threatened to die remonstrating with him, Feng Xuanyi might well have moved the Imperial Study into Fengyi Palace too.
Nalan Xuan had no idea what game Feng Xuanyi was playing. Perhaps the man had discovered his motives and intended to watch him personally, because he seemed to want to shadow him every moment of the day. Nalan Xuan had never explicitly told him his preferences, but after spending so much time together, Feng Xuanyi had gradually figured some of them out. At meals, he kept placing Nalan Xuan’s favorite dishes into his bowl, and whether it was tea or the pastries served during the day, everything was exactly what Nalan Xuan liked.
Suspicious though he was, Nalan Xuan could hardly reject such treatment to the man’s face. He enjoyed it while remaining on guard. Recently, however, Feng Xuanyi had begun sighing more and more often, and the furrow between his brows did not even ease in sleep. Nalan Xuan privately questioned Mo Yan about it, but Mo Yan only stammered that matters of the court were not something a mere servant like him should comment on.
Nalan Xuan understood. Feng Xuanzhe had probably been causing Feng Xuanyi no shortage of trouble outside the palace. Perhaps the time was finally ripe for those inside and outside to act in concert.
“Go to the Imperial Medical Bureau and obtain a dose of abortion medicine.” Nalan Xuan had barely risen and had not even changed clothes when he dropped this thunderbolt on He Xiang. He ignored the horrified expressions on Ji Yu, Xiao Jiu, and He Xiang’s faces, then very patiently added, “Remember, do it quietly.”
He Xiang went completely blank on the spot and did not react for a long while. Still, she did not dare question a decision made by the mother of the nation. With her entire body stiff, she shuffled out of the sleeping chamber and then fled toward the Imperial Medical Bureau as though escaping for her life.
Xiao Jiu was equally baffled, but since he was not the sort to obsess over something he could not understand, he immediately gave up trying and threw himself into the work in front of him: helping Nalan Xuan wash and dress. Ji Yu, however, had nearly scrunched his whole face into a frown. He studied Nalan Xuan with uncertain scrutiny and suspicion, yet he too kept to a servant’s place, saying nothing and daring to ask even less.
After receiving the morning respects of the various consorts, all outward courtesy over hidden undercurrents, Nalan Xuan left the palace with only Ji Yu and Xiao Jiu at his side.
He stopped before a remote, frigid palace gate. The walls had been neglected and unrepaired for so many years that three or four large cracks split across them, while countless smaller fissures spread outward like spiderwebs, crawling densely over the surface.
Xiao Jiu stared at the plaque above the gate for a long while before hesitantly turning back. Looking at his master, who had been behaving strangely since early morning, he finally could not hold back. “Master, this is the Cold Palace. What are you doing here?”
Without pausing, and completely ignoring the bewildered expressions on Ji Yu and Xiao Jiu’s faces, Nalan Xuan left them with a single instruction, “Wait outside,” then walked straight into the Cold Palace.