An hour later, in front of Jianji Hall, which was normally only opened during a Grand Assembly.
The dragon throne, hauled from the Imperial Study in Qianyan Palace, now sat squarely right beneath the gilded plaque of Jianji Hall.
Li Wei remained clad in that eye-catching, lavish Phoenix Robe, sitting with a powerful, commanding presence atop the dragon throne.
She faced the vast plaza before the hall and, at the far end of the plaza, the towering Zhaoming Gate.
An Emperor's Sword, "liberated" from the sovereign's bedchamber, lay horizontally across her lap.
At this moment, she kept her eyes half-closed and her back ramrod straight, radiating the poised, immovable demeanor of a true master.
Beside Li Wei stood Chuntang, her personal senior maidservant, who had just been tracked down near the ruins of Phoenix Ceremony Palace.
The young girl held her breath in concentration, expertly re-styling Li Wei's slightly disheveled hair bun.
At Li Wei's strong insistence, the complex pearl and jade hairpins that symbolized the status of the Empress were dismantled one by one.
With her slender hands and clever artistry, Chuntang gathered Li Wei's waterfall-like dark hair into a sleek serpentine bun, secured by nothing more than a Nine Phoenix Gold Hairpin, which lent an air of noble elegance without losing its fluid grace.
Once Chuntang finished tending to her, curtsied, and retreated to the side, Li Wei slowly turned her head, her gaze shifting to the other side of the dragon throne.
There, on a daybed likewise dragged over from the Imperial Study, Gu Jinzhi was wrapped tightly in a thick brocade quilt, leaving only his head exposed.
Amusingly, he also wore a cotton-cloth cap completely out of season, huddled inside like a silkworm cocoon.
"Tell me," Li Wei said somewhat impatiently, "will the enemy really come