Unease

Duàn Yì sorted things out in his mind. There were three factions within the Great Xia imperial family whose interests were tied to his.

The first was Zhenbei King's Mansion. Their relationship should have been one of mutual exploitation, each taking what they needed. Though they were indeed close by blood, years of estrangement had long planted its roots.

No matter what he did or how he did it, he could never truly gain Zhenbei King's Mansion's recognition.

In other words, if he obediently followed Xia Hong's arrangements, both sides could live in peace. But if he harbored other thoughts and grew greedy for the position of Heir Apparent—or even the throne itself—then that balance and tacit understanding would inevitably shatter. Their blood kinship might turn them into enemies facing each other in life-and-death conflict.

The second was Prince Duan's branch. Duàn Yì might not have borne Prince Duan any ill will, nor did he have any other designs on him, yet his very existence, coupled with the deliberate actions of Xia Hong and the others, had placed him and Prince Duan in opposition from the start.

With him around, Prince Duan's chances of gaining the court's support might be drastically reduced, perhaps even reduced to nothing.

Without him, Prince Duan might have gotten his wish, borrowing the court's strength to take command of the northern lands and become the new King of Zhenbei.

One could well imagine how deeply Prince Duan himself loathed Duàn Yì's existence—so much that he would gladly kill him and be done with it.

The third was Chen Xing, along with the Great Xia central imperial family represented by Yan Yunxiao. One of its representatives, the Crown Prince, held a friendly attitude toward Duàn Yì—naturally, because Duàn Yì was worth using.

To put it bluntly,