Inside the Imperial Study of the Qin Kingdom Imperial Palace.
The Qin Kingdom's Lord sat at his desk, focused on the state affairs that had piled up over the past several days.
His thoughts had been tangled like hemp throughout those days, his mind tethered to the battlefield at Huai Mountain Pass a thousand miles away. He had scarcely known peace, day or night, as he waited for reports from the front.
Just as he lifted his vermilion brush to annotate a memorial, a soft snap rang out—the brush clasped in his hand had broken in two without warning.
Before he could recover, a flurry of panicked footsteps came from outside the Imperial Study.
Then Eunuch Li stumbled and scrambled into the hall, his face deathly pale and his voice trembling uncontrollably. "Your Majesty... something terrible... something terrible has happened..."
"What has frightened you so?"
The Qin Kingdom's Lord raised his eyes, his brow tightly furrowed, unmistakable displeasure in his voice.
A vague, ominous premonition stirred within him.
"Your Majesty..." Eunuch Li nearly sobbed as he prostrated himself and repeatedly knocked his head against the floor. "The ancestral temple just sent word... His Highness the Second Prince's life lamp... suddenly... suddenly went out..."
After speaking, Eunuch Li kowtowed several more times. Only his stifled sobs and the sound of his forehead striking the floor echoed through the silent study.
The Qin Kingdom's Lord froze. The broken brush slowly slipped from his fingers and landed on the open memorial with a soft tap.
Crimson cinnabar spread like blood, gradually staining the paper red.
Incense smoke curled through the Hall of Tranquility.
Empress Shi knelt on a cushion before the Buddha statue, slowly fingering her prayer beads as she murmured sutras.
Empress Shi ordinarily did not believe in Buddhism, but these past