Early summer, fourth month. Western Park, Changping Platform.
Wu Clan songs, dances, and conjuring tricks were being performed on the platform, while the reigning Empress and the legendary Grand Princess sat side by side watching... The Empress came from the surviving legitimate royal line of the former Southern Chen dynasty in the south. She had married the present sovereign early on to win the hearts of Jiangnan's people, and they had been married for over twenty years. The Grand Princess needed even less introduction: she had been the previous dynasty's Empress Dowager and was the sovereign's full elder sister. Now that all his brothers were dead, she was his only surviving full-blooded sibling.
The two sat together, with only three or four consorts and princesses accompanying them. The Duke of Ying's eldest daughter, Bai Yousi, happened to be passing through on official business-a rare occurrence-and was actually keeping them company with her sword in hand.
Meanwhile, not far below the platform, Zhang Xing, deputy Regular Inspector of the Crouching Dragon Guard, stood looking straight ahead with seven or eight similarly dressed subordinates. He wore dark cloud-patterned brocade robes, a small cap secured with a tasseled cord, an embroidered covering over his curved saber, and a black sash slung diagonally across him.
But neither Zhang Xing nor those seven or eight Crouching Dragon Guards had their eyes on the two women on the platform.
Was this a joke?
The sovereign was pushing fifty, and so was the Empress. They already had several grandchildren. The Grand Princess had officially crossed the threshold of fifty this year, and her favorite granddaughter had died just last year. What were they supposed to stare at? Were they trying to get their names jotted down in a little book and their heads chopped off?
By contrast,