Zongzheng Heng's Plans

The back gate.

Without Fuzhi and Qingyan at her side day and night, Jinglan Garden was as good as blind and deaf.

Zongzheng Heng came and went more freely than ever, as though no one else were there.

At noon that day, he had deliberately been especially rough with Qiao Shuyi.

Once the madwoman was satisfied, she curled up in his arms and fell into a deep sleep, her lashes lowered, her breathing long and even.

He waited a while, and only after confirming that she was fast asleep did he gently slip free, put on a robe and go out.

The back gate of the west courtyard.

As soon as he stopped, a dark figure silently swept down from the top of the wall and landed before him. Dropping to one knee, the figure presented a small celadon bottle with both hands.

"Master, the antidote to the Power-Dissolving Powder has been obtained. Once taken, it will purge all the remaining poison within two shichen."

Zongzheng Heng took the small celadon bottle, his fingers tightening slightly around it.

For more than ten days, he had been no better than a cripple in the manor.

The only benefit was that, over those ten-odd days, everyone in the manor had learned that the second young lady had a male favorite.

As long as no major secrets were involved, Qiao Nanyu's hidden guards would not suspect him.

Who would pay any mind to a plaything a woman had seized and brought back to the manor?

The Cold Owl Guard lowered his head and continued his report:

"Master, I have rescued Lord Zhou and settled him somewhere safe outside the city. The Prince of Jin'an has had many matters to deal with recently and is exhausted in body and mind. He has not investigated Lord Zhou's whereabouts."

Zongzheng Heng tucked the antidote into his sleeve, his gaze darkening slightly.

"Mm. I will meet him in person later."

He knew that Zhou Yan and the Prince of Jin'an had close dealings.

But he knew even better that Zhou Yan had no intention of rebelling.

Qiao Nanyu had thrown him into prison solely over a household affair.

What could be pried from the mouth of such a man was worth more than any secret letter.

"Master, there is one more thing. I was ordered to investigate where the Prince of Jin'an trains his troops, and I have made a discovery. The Prince of Jin'an has established a separate, hidden camp in a valley thirty li outside the city. The valley is in a strategically perilous location, its entrance concealed behind dense forest. Ordinary people could never find it. Several thousand men drill in the valley every day. They are fully armed, their provisions are plentiful, and barracks stretch across the grounds. This was no undertaking of a day or two."

Zongzheng Heng's gaze darkened further.

He had long known that Qiao Nanyu harbored the heart of a wolf.

Yet hearing it with his own ears still made the fire in his chest burn hotter.

Several thousand men drilling, fully armed and well provisioned-this was hardly just maintaining troops. He was clearly preparing to revolt.

"Keep watching. The account books, the letters, the training grounds-note every last detail for me. When the time is ripe, I will settle every account at once."

The Cold Owl Guard kowtowed. "I obey."

"One more thing." Zongzheng Heng lowered his gaze, his fingertips rubbing the porcelain bottle in his sleeve. "Is what I asked for ready?"

The Cold Owl Guard took a confidential letter from inside his robes and presented it with both hands.

"The layout of the Prince of Jin'an's study, the times when the hidden guards change shifts, and the locations of the keys to every guarded entrance are all in here. I have confirmed that there is a secret compartment in the study, behind the bookshelf. It can only be opened by turning a celadon brush holder in the fourth space on the third row. The Prince of Jin'an's secret letters are most likely hidden inside."

Zongzheng Heng took the letter and tucked it inside his robes.

"You may go."

"Yes."

The dark figure flashed away, vanishing beyond the wall.

When he returned to Jinglan Garden, Qiao Shuyi was still fast asleep.

She lay curled up on the daybed by the window, her black hair spread like clouds, traces of a satisfied flush lingering on her cheeks.

Zongzheng Heng removed his outer robe, lay down beside her and gathered her into his arms.

She did not wake. She merely nuzzled against his chest by instinct, found the most comfortable position and continued sleeping soundly.

Zongzheng Heng lowered his head and looked at her face.

A faint light filtered through the window lattice, falling across her features.

Her face had shed its flamboyance and madness, leaving only an almost transparent serenity. She was like an enchantress who had stepped out of an ancient painting, cloaked in moonlight and with her sharp edges hidden, deceiving people into believing she truly was an innocent immortal from the painting.

He raised a hand, his fingertips brushing over her brows and eyes.

His reluctance to part with her was real.

So was his hatred.

Before long, he would never see this face again.

She would fall along with the Prince of Jin'an's Manor.

How did the Prince of Jin'an raise a daughter like you?

He dotes on you so much. Shouldn't you be the sort of sheltered, innocent young lady who knows nothing of the world?

How did you come to have such a temperament? Rebellious, outrageous, mad enough to make a person grind his teeth, and yet...

If only you could always be as well-behaved as you were that day-

He remembered her sitting on his shoulders beneath the flowering tree, picking fringe blossoms. She had wrapped her arms around his neck and said with a smile, "I need no ladder to the clouds, only these fringe blossoms to grow old together." And he had replied, "Since we have pledged to grow old together beneath the fringe blossoms, let us spend every spring and autumn of this life together."

If that day could have lasted forever, he might truly have kept his promise.

But that promise did not conflict with Su Yunyan.

It was perfectly ordinary for a man to have three wives and four concubines. He held Su Yunyan in his heart; she was like moonlight, cool and pure, shining on the loneliest, coldest days of his youth.

Qiao Shuyi, meanwhile, was fire and madness, an abyss that burned his skin and flesh raw, yet one he could not help jumping into.

He truly... did not want her to die.

But she had carved words into his body, becoming the person who held his fatal weakness in her grasp.

Zongzheng Heng's gaze darkened, like an immeasurably deep abyss.

As emperor, he could not allow anyone to hold anything over him.

What did it matter if he could not bear to part with her?

She had to die.

He closed his eyes for a moment and drew the woman in his arms closer.

She stirred in his embrace, as though he had hurt her, and gave a muffled murmur before snuggling closer into his arms.

He did not let go.

Without realizing it, Zongzheng Heng fell asleep beside her.

Several more days passed.

During those days, Jinglan Garden remained filled with lively voices.

Qiao Shuyi kept him with her to admire flowers, compose poetry, play pitch-pot and drink wine, as though none of the world's troubles had anything to do with her.

Zongzheng Heng kept her company, laughing and playing along just as he always had.

Only occasionally, the moment she turned away, his gaze would pass over her shoulder and settle on the distant upturned eaves and interlocking brackets, dark currents surging in his eyes.

He already had the evidence.

The account books from the countinghouse, the secret letters from the study, even maps marked with the training grounds, provisions depots and weapons workshops-all of it was in his hands.

That afternoon, Qiao Shuyi took her nap as usual.

Zongzheng Heng waited until she was fast asleep, then rose, put on his robe and left Jinglan Garden without a sound.

At the back gate, a dark figure had been waiting for some time.

Zongzheng Heng took an oilcloth-wrapped bundle from inside his robes and handed it to the Cold Owl Guard.

"Take this back to the capital overnight and deliver it to Gu Huai'an, the Minister of War. Tell him to take it to the trusted senior officials I left in the capital."

The Cold Owl Guard accepted it with both hands and lowered his head to receive the order.

Zongzheng Heng stood with his hands behind his back.

"Convey my verbal instructions to Gu Huai'an."

"First, under the pretext of congratulating Qiao Nanyu on his birthday, select eight hundred elite soldiers from the capital and disguise them as a ceremonial procession bearing gifts. Bring them to Jinzhou with great fanfare. With so many eyes watching, Qiao Nanyu will not grow suspicious. He will only think I am trying to win him over."

"Second, secretly mobilize the garrisons in Yanzhou, Qingzhou and Xuzhou. Under the pretext of a rotation and training exercise, each is to send two thousand men to surround Qiao Nanyu's training valley under cover of darkness. Remember, wait until the eight hundred men have entered Jinzhou and taken control of the manor before making a move. Most of the soldiers in the valley are Qiao Nanyu's trusted men. If they learn of this beforehand, there will surely be a hard battle. I want victory without bloodshed, not both sides crippled."

"Third, provisions are Qiao Nanyu's lifeline. Those granaries are what he has relied on to maintain his troops all these years. Have Gu Huai'an send men to take control of the three granaries east, south and north of the city within three days. Not a whisper of this may get out. As for the weapons workshop west of the city-"

He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Send men to infiltrate it and replace the people in charge with our own. Weapons in hand but unavailable to Qiao Nanyu are nothing but a pile of scrap iron."

The Cold Owl Guard committed each instruction to memory, marveling inwardly.

His master had humbled himself in the manor these past days, yet he had not neglected a single matter outside it.

He had probably begun laying out the pieces of this game before he even entered Jinzhou.

Qiao Nanyu thought he was the hunter, little knowing that he was the bird trapped in the cage.