Chapter 13

Again and again, I dreamed Heng received the forged decree and killed himself with his sword. I woke drenched in cold sweat.

One night, in a fierce fever, I saw a hazy dream.

He was twelve again, standing at Zhutang Courtyard’s gate, soaked through, his lips purple.

He looked at me timidly.

“Lady Shen, could I stay for two days?”

I reached to pull him in, but my hand passed through him.

As though he couldn’t see me, he turned and walked into the snow.

I desperately called his name, but he couldn’t hear. He went farther and farther, disappearing into the white storm.

The scene changed.

He stood in armor at the northern camp.

Before him, a eunuch held an imperial-yellow decree and read shrilly.

“Xiao Heng, Seventh Prince, guilty of plotting rebellion. Your crime is unforgivable. Take your life immediately!”

He accepted it, his face pale.

Looking up at the sky, he murmured, “Mother, I cannot fulfill my duty to you.”

He drew his sword and put it to his neck.

I rushed forward, screaming no, but however hard I ran, I couldn’t reach him.

I watched the blade cut down.

Blood stained the snow red.

“Heng!”

I woke in terror, soaked in sweat.

Only an oil lamp flickered in the room.

I sat up and touched my arm, gasping, my chest aching as though gripped in a fist.

More than half a month passed.

Late one night, urgent hoofbeats sounded outside the estate.

I pushed myself from bed and rushed out, disregarding my injuries.

“What happened? Did the decree reach him?”

My voice trembled.

The black-clad man knelt, exhilarated.

“My lady! Thank heaven! Our riders took the fastest route and reached the northern camp exactly two watches before the eunuch with her forged decree!”

The bowstring stretched tight within me suddenly relaxed. My eyes blurred.

“Soon afterward, her eunuch arrived. As he publicly read the death order, His Highness produced the true decree and exposed her scheme to alter the imperial will and seize power.”

“The soldiers already respected him. With the truth revealed, the army supported him as one. He selected a hundred thousand elite troops and marched straight for the capital!”

At last, the great weight on my heart lifted.

Heng was alive.

“What about Chuntao? What is happening to her?”

His face darkened.

“After you left through the tunnel, she held the guards in the front courtyard to buy you time. They discovered it. My lady tortured her for your whereabouts and the decree’s route. She said nothing. After every kind of punishment, they threw her into the imperial prison.”

My heart tightened.

She had entered the palace with me years ago. We had endured so much together.

“When Heng’s army enters the capital, the first thing is to save her. Whatever the cost, she must live.”

“Understood.”

Then victories arrived one after another.

His hundred thousand soldiers swept south. Prefectures and counties submitted at the news.

The rightful imperial army drew closer.

At the estate, I waited restlessly and lost my appetite.

The men urged me to look after myself.

“His Highness will be heartbroken if he returns and finds you so thin and ill.”

“When he returns. When he comes back safely, we can think about that.”

### Part 17

A few days later, dust billowed along the horizon.

Heng’s army reached the moat outside the capital. A hundred thousand soldiers formed ranks beneath the walls.

They did not attack immediately.

He sent an envoy to read the late emperor’s succession decree to the guards on the wall, publicly declaring all the Noble Consort’s crimes of forgery and persecution.

After hearing it, the defenders’ loyalty collapsed.

Many lower-ranking guards already resented her relatives’ control of the court. Now they understood the truth. No one wanted to die for her and her son.

Late that night, the deputy general guarding the southern gate secretly contacted the camp. He offered to open the city to the imperial army.

At dawn, the gate slowly opened. The northern troops entered in orderly ranks.

When Heng entered the palace hall in armor, the Noble Consort and Yu had already been seized by palace guards and forced to kneel.

Seeing him, the Noble Consort—