Guards stood in dense ranks outside the Hall of Mental Cultivation.
Su Ziji looked around. Seeing no sign of Princess Consort Qi nearby, he asked, "Where is Princess Consort Qi?"
"Your Majesty, over there!" The guard had already changed his form of address. He pointed, and Su Ziji looked in that direction to see a woman dressed in white mourning clothes, her hair disheveled, stumbling along with only a handful of attendants.
Most of the bodies had been cleared away by then, though bloodstains remained scattered across the ground, and people were steadily scrubbing them clean. Su Ziji went over. "Princess Consort Qi, they told me you had come. This place has not yet been cleaned up. Do not let it frighten you. Prince Qi's heir will still have to rely on you in the days ahead!"
His words were warm. Princess Consort Qi stood in a daze, only coming to her senses after a long while. She made a formal curtsy and said softly, "Greetings, Your Majesty."
"Mm." Su Ziji silently accepted her greeting and looked her over.
They had, of course, met before. Princess Consort Qi was Prince Qi's principal wife, and as his nephew, Su Ziji had naturally paid his respects. But that had amounted to no more than a bow from a distance; he could hardly have stared at her discourteously. Now, face-to-face, he felt that her looks were not particularly outstanding, and her complexion was extraordinarily pale.
Su Ziji could not help sighing. Slowly, he continued, "The matter between Prince Qi and me was a family affair. Prince Qi plotted rebellion, and by rights, his family should have suffered for it."
"But the founding emperor and the late emperor had few descendants. How could I bear to slaughter more of them?"
"Rest assured. Once the