Night fell.
Lights blazed throughout the Imperial City. Carriages and horses kept heading down the imperial avenue toward the Palace City, the clatter of hooves and wheels unbroken, yet hardly a voice could be heard.
Holding an oil-paper umbrella, Xie Jinhuan waited outside the palace gates. He could understand the scene. Emperor Qian had already ascended the throne when he was born, and every day of the past decade and more had been like this. Now that the emperor had suddenly passed away, it truly felt as though an era had ended.
That afternoon, after Bing Tuotuo went to bathe, he had hurried back to the Prince's Manor, knowing that the transition between rulers might bring unrest. As it happened, he ran into the procession of Commandery Princess Changning and the Heir Apparent heading toward the Palace City.
Although he had been made Danyang Marquis, his office as the Commandery Princess's Halberd Bearer had not been revoked. He simply followed them to the Imperial City, but before he could exchange any words with her along the way, the Commandery Princess had already entered the palace.
After half a day's waiting, the rain had only grown heavier. Liu Qingzhi and the others who had accompanied them all stood waiting near the carriages.
Steward Hou had been the Pill King's bodyguard in his youth and had actually known Emperor Qian since childhood. For once, he was not spouting nonsense. He merely pinched the two wisps of mustache above his lip and gazed thoughtfully at the Imperial Palace, presumably pondering-when the emperor dies, the Crown Prince succeeds him. Then if the Crown Prince dies, wouldn't that mean...
Of course, this was only Xie Jinhuan's wild guess. Steward Hou's Divine Soul had been injured during the Witch Cult Rebellion; any sort of bizarre notion