Don't Leave Tonight

After nightfall, rain began to fall over Heaven Dou City.

At first it was so light it made almost no sound on the green tiles of the Crown Prince's Residence. By the time Lu Yuan returned from the outer courtyard, it had grown heavier. Water streamed from the corridor eaves, and now and then muffled thunder rolled through the distant clouds.

A full day had passed since the Palace Coup, yet the Crown Prince's Residence was busier than ever. Once the decree appointing a regent was issued, reports from every department seemed to find a new destination. From afternoon onward, they arrived at the study in stacks: palace security, military orders, city defenses, secret passages in the imperial palace, and the network that had carried the Crimson-Gold Imperial Edict the night before. Qian Renxue put off none of it.

By the time the last official left, it was nearly midnight.

Lu Yuan pushed open the door. The lamp on the desk was still burning. Qian Renxue had dropped her Xue Qinghe disguise. Her golden hair fell over her shoulders, and she wore only a simple, pale robe. The Crown Prince who had made the entire court bow its head that morning seemed to have been left outside when the door closed. Now she sat beneath the lamp, slowly reading the last few pages of a report.

"Still not done?"

"One last report."

She did not look up. Her pen paused above the paper before she signed her name. Lu Yuan came to the desk and glanced down. It was an order to seal the palace's secret passages.

The Crimson-Gold Imperial Edict had escaped Xue Ye's bedchamber the night before through a passage known to only a handful of royals. Qian Renxue had not left the matter for tomorrow. She had