"Jiang Wang is going to kill Zhuang Gaoxian." In Changle Palace, Jiang Wuhua, who was trimming a pot of Quyi plum, suddenly said.
The branches of the Quyi plum curved and turned, yet it could brave bitter cold. It bloomed at the autumn equinox and withered at the winter solstice, hence its name, "Quyi." Though a precious variety, it had never been much favored by famed scholars, who considered it too servile in appearance. But in Jiang Wuhua's garden, where a hundred flowers bloomed together, every variety could be found.
There was not a single servant in the flower garden.
Only Crown Princess Song Ning'er, half-squatting beside the flowers with a watering can in hand, and the Great Qi Empress, seated in a warm pavilion and sipping soup from a jade spoon.
The life and death, stay and departure, of the foremost young military achiever of the present age tugged at the hearts of far too many people.
In Qi State today, no one knew how many were awaiting the outcome at Delu Palace.
The Empress, Crown Prince, and Crown Princess in this Quiet Intent Garden were merely among them.
The Great Qi Crown Prince, whose plain, unremarkable features had inherited none of the Emperor's or Empress's finest looks, leisurely worked his shears and repeated, "When he attains True Insight, that is when he will go kill Zhuang Gaoxian."
"Does he dare?" The soup personally simmered by the East State Crown Prince was exquisite, but the Great Qi Empress's voice was cool and indifferent. "Zhuang Gaoxian is the legitimate ruler of a state, invested in his position by imperial decree. How can he be killed without cause? To rashly lay hands on Zhuang Gaoxian is to challenge the institutions of states, to challenge the foundations of the present world. The