The Empress
A wind seemed to have risen outside the hall. Spring had warmed, the orchid trees had sprouted, and their leaves rustled in the breeze. Half-asleep, the Empress vaguely saw Yu Han enter and said, "What is it?"
Yu Han bowed. "Once this wind passes, spring will arrive. This servant came to report on Cold Defier."
"Oh, let me hear it." The Empress woke with a start. "What did you hear?"
"The Emperor has grown suspicious of Mount Tong Temple and brought the Yin Temple Sect inside. True Person Huai Hui's days are numbered."
"The Yin Temple Sect... I recall that Liu Zhan is its new sect master?"
"Liu Zhan is the one in the open, but there is another in the shadows: the newly admitted eunuch Meng Lin. Truly admirable—originally a True Person, yet he castrated himself and entered the palace to serve the Emperor. That resolve cannot be called anything less than immense." Yu Han gave a cold laugh.
"What proof do you have?" A jolt ran through the Empress's heart.
"Because he took the same path as Cold Defier." Yu Han smiled faintly. "The people inside reported it. Castrated at forty—he could not hide it from anyone."
The Empress fell silent. After a long while, she sighed. "You have all sacrificed much. By the way, my father and brother's deaths... truly had nothing to do with the Emperor?"
"They probably had nothing to do with him. When the lord and young lord died, the realm had not yet been fully pacified; it was not yet the time to cook the hound once the hare was dead. Besides, His Majesty was not yet Crown Prince then. He would not have gone that far. It could only be called fate's decree." Yu Han sounded wistful.
"Fate?"
That was