Promise

The Prime Minister had emerged from seclusion. At noon on the seventh day after Li Zhaoyuan's visit, Xu Yuan, who had been handling official business at Ink Hidden Pavilion, learned the news immediately.

The moment he entered the inner courtyard, Xu Yuan noticed that it seemed no one had returned home these past few days. Deprived of human presence, the courtyard felt cold and deserted.

The inner courtyard had always had someone in it—either their old man or the three younger ones. Whenever the other three were around, they would find time to tidy the place up. Xu Yuan himself did no work, but as long as he stayed there, he would at least leave behind traces of human habitation.

Recently, everyone in the inner courtyard had been busy. Xu Xinyao had been holed up in the Institute of Investigation, while Xu Changge had practically taken up permanent residence at Sword Pavilion ever since losing to him that day. With no one at home, over more than half a month, the lush leaves of the several century-old ginkgo trees in the yard had all fallen. The golden leaves carpeting the ground had withered and begun to rot beneath days of unbroken autumn rain, and quite a few weeds had even sprouted across the earthen clearing.

At a glance, it was cold and dilapidated.

When a courtyard was too large and lacked human warmth, it would always become like this.

As he considered whether to move his workplace into the inner courtyard, Xu Yuan walked through the narrow corridor connecting several rooms and entered the study.

A trail of footprints crossed the fallen leaves in the courtyard, leading straight to a half-closed wooden door within. Following them inside, he saw his old man in an ink-black robe patterned with crimson, seated