Yu Lü and Fang Xi hurried after him and found that a light drizzle had begun again outside. It was faint and cool, not enough to warrant an umbrella. Su Ziji walked along the palace road rather than taking a palanquin, leaving the two of them to follow.
Su Ziji held out his hand to catch the fine threads of rain. Far away, the palace gate loomed against the night sky. Palace lanterns shone brightly, and figures flickered to and fro, as though ghostly shadows had joined them.
With the emperor's explicit instructions, the Imperial Executioner's Sword, and the Royal Command Token, at least I won't be plunging headfirst into a mire.
Or rather, I'll still have to plunge into the mire, but now there are a few ropes on the bank that could save my life at a critical moment.
But those two things were given to me by someone else. What can be given can naturally be taken back. If they're taken back at the critical moment, I may never climb out.
This affair was bound to be exceedingly difficult.
Precisely because he knew this, Su Ziji's feelings grew still more complicated when he glanced from the corner of his eye at the two men following him.
Yu Lü was steady by nature, but even he could not help feeling stirred by the prospect of investigating the Seven Granaries, an undertaking that could win him a lasting place in history. His face was faintly flushed.
As for Fang Xi, there was even less need to say it. To him, everything that had happened today was like a dream.
Whether it was finding another village beyond the dark willows and bright flowers, his reckless last throw turning into success in the selection, or immediately receiving an assignment as one