News of Chen Qing and Shang Yuming exchanging blows from afar spread through Imperial Capital Jade Capital City like a stone cast into a still lake, sending ripples across the city.
Similar discussions were taking place within the residences of Jade Capital City's great families.
But Yan Kingdom's string of defeats had already crushed most people's spirits. Let alone these high-ranking nobles, even ordinary citizens no longer dared to harbor any hopes.
The inner palace, the Empress's bedchamber.
On either side of the phoenix couch, wisps of sandalwood incense rose from Green Jade coiling-dragon censers, their fragrance elegant and calming.
The hall was carpeted in thick snow-fleece rugs, making footsteps utterly silent.
The Empress, clad in phoenix robes, sat upright on a carved rosewood chair. Her well-maintained face still retained traces of her former Fenghua.
Her features bore a five- or six-tenths resemblance to Marquis Zhenbei's, though she possessed an added measure of regal grace and depth.
At this moment, her eyes were filled with complicated emotions.
"That... she really came back... She is meeting His Majesty right now."
The Empress frowned, her voice lowered so far it was as though she feared anyone outside the hall might hear.
Marquis Zhenbei sat in a guest chair below her, dressed in a black python robe with a jade belt around his waist.
Though he was one of Yan Kingdom's only two first-rank royal marquises, in his younger sister's chambers, he had restrained every edge of his sharpness. A rare gravity rested between his brows.
He nodded before speaking slowly. "Do not interfere in this matter, and do not offend her again."
His tone was calm.
Across all of Yan Kingdom, there could be counted on one hand the people capable of making this first-rank marquis speak so gravely.
And Xu Min—or