Chapter 14
Edward Quan ·
I had expected his stubbornness.
“Then we can keep wearing each other down.”
I looked at him calmly.
“Let’s see who can endure longer.”
I entered my room and slammed the door, shutting him and the long-cold meal outside.
Leaning against it, I slid slowly to the floor.
Buried my face in my knees.
At last, I couldn’t hold back.
I cried aloud.
I didn’t know how long he stood outside.
From that day, the capital grew stranger.
Accusations against Father flew into the imperial study like thick snow.
At court, the Third Prince’s faction pressed forward.
The crown prince’s kept losing ground.
Everyone avoided the Shens like a plague.
The General’s gates were so deserted a horse could gallop straight through.
Prince Yan’s residence was the opposite.
The Third Prince.
Grand Preceptor Li.
Officials who ordinarily had no dealings with Xiao Jingyan.
They began visiting constantly.
Bringing costly gifts.
Every word recruited or hinted.
They told him that, if he cut ties with the Shens and repudiated this daughter of a criminal official, they could guarantee his safety.
Even advance him in power.
He refused them all.
He threw every gift out untouched.
For the first time at court, he argued red-faced with the Third Prince for Father.
He even knelt outside the imperial study for a day and a night, begging the emperor to trust Father once more.
Shen Yi told me all of it.
I listened quietly.
Not moved in the least.
Only a cold wasteland remained.
Too late.
Xiao Jingyan.
All of it was too late.
If, when protecting Liu Ruyue, he had spared me even a little protection.
If, when using my dowry for the Lius, he had remembered a little of our marriage.
If, when everyone condemned me, he had stood beside me as firmly as now.
How could we have reached this point?
A broken mirror is hard to mend.
A heart once dead won’t live again.
Amid the capital’s storm, an urgent eight-hundred-li military dispatch arrived from the north.
Two hundred thousand Northern Man troops had broken the treaty and attacked the border.
The frontier was in danger!
The court shook.
In the throne hall, the emperor stared at the bloodstained report for a long time.
Silent.
Every eye was on him.
At last, he looked up and surveyed his silent ministers.
His voice carried thunder.
“Transmit my decree.”
“General Shen Ce will command all northern military affairs.”
“Deploy immediately.”
“Fight the Northern Man.”
“Furthermore.”
“The Third Prince has framed loyal servants and plotted improperly.”
“Strip his princely title.”
“Confine him to his residence.”
“He is not to leave without a decree.”
“Grand Preceptor Li.”
“For failing to guide his children.”
“For forming factions.”
“Dismiss him and investigate.”
“All associated factions.”
“Investigate thoroughly!”
Three successive decrees.
Three thunderclaps in everyone’s ears.
In an instant, the situation reversed.
Everyone understood.
The emperor had never doubted Father.
He had waited.
For an opportunity.
One that would let him uproot the Third Prince’s faction legitimately.
The Northern Man invasion was that chance.
The sharpest blade Father had placed in his hand.