"You may escape death, but you cannot escape punishment." Abbess Jingming snorted.
"I can show leniency, but sect rules are sect rules. Once this matter is settled, return to the sect and receive your punishment."
"As you command," Su Qingwan said. The corners of her lips curved upward.
After that.
In the half month following the suppression of the rebellion, Upper Capital restored order at its own pace.
The stone steps before the Imperial Mausoleum, once drenched in blood and ashes, had been washed clean. After several rains, the dark stains in the cracks had faded so much that, without looking closely, one could scarcely tell what had happened there.
Seals had been pasted across the main entrance of the Palace of Compassionate Tranquility. No footsteps passed through the courtyards within its walls anymore, and most of the palace servants who had once whispered beneath its corridors had vanished forever. It was as though they had never existed.
When the wind swept over the palace walls, it gently stirred the bronze bells beneath the eaves, making them ring in soft, evenly spaced notes that spoke of former glory.
In the Martial Suppression Bureau's archive, the case files concerning the Empress Dowager's faction had been sorted and bound, then filed according to the implicated officials' ranks, charges, and sentences. They filled two entire rows of shelving. Every volume bore a number and date written in vermilion on its cover, forming an uninterrupted sequence from first to last.
Yue Lang, Jiang Chen, Mu Xingze, and the others sat in the duty room, checking figures against a consolidated roster. The calluses on their palms repeatedly rubbed against the coarse paper as they turned the pages. Three large stacks of files lay before them: concluded cases, cases still under review, and cases requiring new