The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's carriage was already prepared. Ning Fengzhi and Gu Rong boarded, and it slowly left the sect, heading toward the palace.
Inside the carriage, Ning Fengzhi leaned against the cushions with his eyes closed, his fingers lightly tapping his knee.
Gu Rong sat opposite him, arms folded, watching him.
"What are you thinking about?" Gu Rong asked.
Ning Fengzhi opened his eyes and looked at the streets flashing past the carriage window.
"I was wondering..." he said softly, "just what kind of person Queen Eva really is."
Gu Rong raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Ning Fengzhi shook his head without explaining.
The carriage rumbled along the flagstone road, its wheels making a rhythmic sound against the pavement.
Pedestrians stepped aside. Some recognized the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's emblem on the carriage and murmured among themselves.
Ning Fengzhi paid them no heed.
Queen Eva's image played over and over in his mind.
Ink-black hair, emerald eyes, a languid smile, and that seemingly inborn presence that no one could ignore.
He had seen her many times.
At court banquets, at important ceremonies, beside Xue Ye.
Every time, she had been so composed, so elegant, so... unfathomable.
Ning Fengzhi had met many people.
Ambitious ministers, recluses who concealed their abilities, and geniuses whose brilliance shone like an unsheathed blade.
But Queen Eva was one of the most inscrutable people he had ever met.
Her smile was always perfectly measured, her words always watertight, her gaze always impossible to read.
Was a woman like that really just an ordinary queen?
Ning Fengzhi did not know.
But he knew that Xue Qinghe's decision to make her his queen could never be as simple as it appeared.
The carriage stopped before the palace gates.
Ning Fengzhi and Gu