Chapter 1

For three years, I disguised myself as a man and took my elder brother’s place as an Imperial Censor.

I was such a coward that I never dared impeach a single person.

The emperor called me useless, then secretly ordered me to find the Regent’s faults and submit a memorial denouncing him—enough to get him killed.

If he didn’t die, I would.

Was that even remotely fair?

To save my neck, I stuck to him around the clock like a dog-eared plaster. In the end, I discovered a secret room hidden in his chambers.

But when I excitedly led my colleagues from the Censorate inside, I never expected to find the walls covered in portraits of me.

And the usually cold, stern Regent was half-undressed, doing that thing…

1

“Lord Pei, what do you think of the Regent?”

In the imperial study, the young emperor stood by the window, smiling as he wiped his sword.

I knelt on the floor, trembling from head to toe.

“Your servant observes him every day. The Regent is honest and upright. I have found no fault in him.”

“Oh?”

The emperor lifted the sword and slowly laid it against my neck. Then he used my collar like a rag, dragging it back and forth along the blade.

“Is that so?”

“Of course not!”

I put on a solemn, righteous expression.

“It’s all a façade. The Regent is trying to deceive everyone. I must not have investigated deeply enough. Your Majesty, please give me a little more time. I will expose his true colors!”

The young emperor burst out laughing.

“Then I’ll give you one more month.”

The tip of his sword edged a little closer to my throat.

“If you can’t impeach him to death, you’ll be the one who dies.”

I swallowed hard and forced my trembling legs to carry me out of the study. Tears sprang to my eyes.

What had I ever done to deserve this?

2

A year earlier, my twin brother, Pei Feng, had been promoted from Pei County to the capital and appointed an Imperial Censor. But on the night before he was due to take office, someone poisoned him, leaving his entire body paralyzed.

The whole family fell into chaos.

Yet my brother lay in bed and shouted at us not to let the secret get out.

“I know someone who can cure this poison, but it’ll take time. A-Ning, you’ll go to the capital in my place tomorrow.”

I stared at him, bewildered, and pointed at myself.

“Me?”

Pei Feng said he couldn’t afford to lose the post.

Once he recovered, we could quietly switch identities again, without anyone being the wiser.

I thought so too. We looked so alike that we’d played at swapping places since childhood. Pretending to be him for a little while shouldn’t be a problem.

Soon after I arrived in the capital and took office, a letter came from home.

Good news! They’d found a miracle doctor, and Pei Feng’s poison was cured!

Bad news: he could only move one leg.

Two months later, the other leg started moving too.

Another two months after that, your brother’s backside began moving! He was doing rehabilitation exercises in the courtyard every day. At this rate, he’d be back to normal before long!

The image was so vivid I refused to picture it.

And so I kept posing as a man for an entire year.

Every day, I lived in fear, terrified that one slip would get me played to death.

To keep my head down, I truly hadn’t impeached anyone once in that whole year.

You’re good, I’m good, everyone’s good.

But I’d forgotten that an Imperial Censor who never impeached anyone was a useless one.

At last, the emperor noticed me—the fish that had slipped through his net.

He ordered me to find the Regent’s faults and denounce him. If I couldn’t bring him down, I had to at least cut his power.

It was easy enough to understand. The emperor had been on the throne for only a year, while the Regent, Fu Nangui, held all the real power. They appeared to get along, but there had long been bad blood between them.

I thought the assignment would be easy.

Who was Fu Nangui, after all?

He’d gone to war at sixteen, been made a prince at twenty, and now, at just twenty-five, he was the all-powerful Regent.

How could a man with that kind of standing and influence have no dirty secrets?

Impossible.

Yet after half a month of secret investigation, I still couldn’t find a single fault.

Fu Nangui wasn’t greedy, lecherous, cliquish, or self-serving.

His only hobbies were martial arts and painting.

But from the emperor’s tone, it sounded as though I had to find something even if there was nothing to find.

I glanced down at my collar, which the emperor’s sword had slashed open.

Damn it. It was the new outfit my mother had just sent me.

The more I thought about it, the more aggrieved I felt. I walked out of the palace in tears. I wasn’t watching where I was going and crashed into someone, landing flat on my backside with stars bursting before my eyes.

When I came to and looked up, Fu Nangui’s face was right in front of me.

I’d been thinking so hard about impeaching him that the words came tumbling out before I could stop myself.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going! I’m going to impeach you!”

Fu Nangui looked down at me.

“Who did you say wasn’t watching where he was going?”

I turned around and realized I’d trampled an entire flower bed on my way there. The gardeners’ eyes looked ready to bore holes through me.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

I tried to get up, only to nearly fall over again.

Fu Nangui instinctively reached out to steady me, but his hand caught my collar. The tear in my already-ruined clothes grew even worse.

Just then, the emperor came strolling through the imperial garden with his ten-year-old younger sister. The little princess happened to see us.

“Uncle Regent is beating Lord Pei! Uncle Regent is beating Lord Pei!”

Huh?

If you’ve put it that way…

I grabbed Fu Nangui’s hand before he could pull away and clung to him in terror.

“Don’t hit me! Please don’t hit me!”

Fu Nangui: “…”

The emperor joined in without missing a beat.

“Regent, what grudge do you have against Lord Pei? Must you really go this far?”

Without a word, he made Fu Nangui take responsibility and ordered him to bring me back to his manor to recover. Once I was well, we would attend court together.