The most bewildered person in all of this was probably Su Huailing herself. When she saw the always forbidding Jing Xixian, who could peel someone’s skin off without batting an eye, give her a gentle smile, she was quite frightened. She wasn’t even sure why things had turned out as they had; she had only done as Jing Xixian had ordered her: joined the out of town students and tricked them into heading toward this stand while putting in an occasional word about how much the Imperial College students disdained scholars from other places.

While the out of town scholars were very unified, the members of their group at the lantern market today had joined as they met up, and none of them knew each other very well. It was easy for Su Huailing to be included. But there was one strange thing about it: the out of towners seemed to be blind. They hadn’t realized that Su Huailing wasn’t one of them, and moreover, no matter how many flaws there were in her attempts to sow discord, it was as if none of them heard.

When the fight broke out between the Imperial College and the out of towners, the inconspicuous Su Huailing silently withdrew, and no one noticed her from beginning to end. This was also improbable.

Jing Xixian was quite pleased. He had discovered that Su Huailing had a miraculous quality: she could easily precipitate a disaster. Even among the well-trained Embroidered Guard, Su Huailing’s most offhand statement could somehow send a number of guardsmen into a rage. This was just the kind of woman to bring about the fall of a dynasty; working in the prison, she actually had a strong adverse effect on the morale of the Embroidered Guard. But Jing Xixian had never trod the beaten path: he had found a suitable position for Su Huailing.

See—she had performed wonderfully with today’s assignment.

The Imperial College students arguing like fishwives in the market in front of Emperor Jingren was enough to wipe away all of Grand Secretary Lin’s prestige. The head of each successive class of Imperial College graduates had been Grand Secretary Lin’s best student; and when the talented party of Imperial College students entered the court, they would practically all be Grand Secretary Lin’s followers. Now Emperor Jingren had a handle on this year’s class and had advanced a step in his plans to break up the factions among the civil officials.

Young Master Li, however, had been a pleasant surprise. The original intent had been to apply pressure bit by bit to the unbreakable civil official factions, but instead Young Master Li had made Emperor Jingren a gift of Chancellor Li’s weakness.

Of course, Emperor Jingren couldn’t simply have Chancellor Li and Grand Secretary Lin and their ilk all beaten to death over a little thing like this; at this stage he was only spinning silk from cocoons: dissolving their immense influence over the court a bit at a time.

At first Emperor Jingren had needed a few major courtiers to balance each other out. Now, however, his authority had stabilized. No one at court dared defy him. Therefore, he no longer needed major courtiers who could sway the opinion of the court. He needed to weaken them little by little.

Looking at all the people kneeling before him, Emperor Jingren said mildly, “Today is a holiday. We would not want to spoil the festivities for everyone. Let us set this matter aside until the court assembly tomorrow.”

Then he gave Chancellor Li and Grand Secretary Lin a look, stood, and left with his guards. Grand Secretary Lin and Chancellor Li, who had forced their way into his company when he went out incognito, didn’t follow. They had to stay behind to clean up. Senior Official Tan, meanwhile, accompanied him briefly, then asked to leave early on account of his old age. He wasn’t afraid that Emperor Jingren would be displeased by this. He could tell that the emperor had already achieved his goal and didn’t want him along anymore, so his request to leave was sure to be granted.

Now that everyone who had been in the way was gone, Emperor Jingren took some snacks from the empress and began to eat. Everything the emperor ate had to be tested for poison; though these snacks had been bought casually out on the street and no one should have gone out of their way to poison them, it was still better to be careful, so the empress licked all the snacks Emperor Jingren had bought in the name of testing them for poison, up to and including the sugar sculpture that the young emperor had eaten earlier.

On this subject, Emperor Jingren only shot the empress a glare and said nothing.

Prince Huainan accompanied Emperor Jingren. He had a feeling that since he’d said what he had, Emperor Jingren had been looking at him with approval. Though he didn’t know why the emperor was in a good mood, he couldn’t go wrong starting up a conversation now.

“Imperial Brother,” said Prince Huainan, approaching, “for the holiday today, I bought a number of lanterns. Nothing exotic, but all very finely made. I want to come to the palace to present them to Mother.”

Emperor Jingren was in an excellent mood. He nodded slightly. “Naturally you ought to visit Mother. You did very well today.”

Delighted by this praise, Prince Huainan said, “I was only watching the fun.”

“What you said was well said,” said Emperor Jingren. “When a foreign enemy invades, the nation that is still locked in internal strife will be trampled underfoot. Though the students of the Imperial College are not officials, they show the court in miniature. If even as minor a body as the Imperial College is like this, the fighting at court will only be more fierce. We wish for a peaceful world and riches for our people, but they think only of having successful careers and riches in their own pockets. If only everyone could devote all their efforts to the good of the people.”

As he spoke, he felt someone take his hand. Without turning his head, he knew it was the empress. Whenever he was feeling unhappy, the empress would always be there beside him.

Though Prince Huainan was a bit of an idiot, he still sensed that Emperor Jingren wasn’t in the right frame of mind for a nice chat, so he took a half-step back and said nothing else. Emperor Jingren was in no mood to continue strolling through the lantern market, so he returned to the palace.

The palace was brightly lit. Prince Huainan went to Cining Palace with some lanterns, while Emperor Jingren returned to Chengqian Palace with a single guard.

Upon entering Zichen Hall, he dismissed all the attendants, and the guard hugged Emperor Jingren from behind.

“Your Majesty,” the empress said softly, “I am certain your wish will be fulfilled.”

Emperor Jingren rested peacefully in the empress’s embrace with his eyes closed, a trace of weariness on his face. Though he’d just spent fifteen days resting, he still seemed exhausted.

After quietly holding Emperor Jingren for a while, the empress said in his ear, “Why don’t I help Your Majesty loosen up?”

Emperor Jingren narrowed his eyes and frowned slightly. “No.”

Whenever the empress helped him loosen up, they ended up in bed, and every time, instead of getting rest, he ended up more tired.

“We must attend court tomorrow,” Emperor Jingren said, hinting that the empress ought to settle down.

“It’s just that Your Majesty looks tired, and I want you to rest,” the empress said quietly, slowly easing off Emperor Jingren’s clothes.

Emperor Jingren put a hand on the empress’s in a token attempt to stop him, but in the end he was still carried off to bed for a massage.

Fortunately, the empress knew that Emperor Jingren couldn’t be too tired when he went to court in the morning. He was very gentle. Emperor Jingren didn’t have too much to deal with before falling asleep in the empress’s arms. As he slept, the weariness in his face was gone, leaving only peace.

The empress kissed Emperor Jingren’s face and fell asleep holding him.

—

After the fifteenth, everything returned to normal. Emperor Jingren once again became busy, while the empress had to put his hand to the matter of the selection. Their period of happiness seemed to have been the spoils of theft; they had been together without any worries, forgetting all irritations. Now they had to wake from the dream and face what must be faced.

Despite his vexation, the empress attended to the selection. As soon as he saw the portraits of the girls offered as candidates, he couldn’t help thinking that here he was choosing someone for the person he loved to sleep with and have children with; women in the past had hard lives, he thought.

With all the stalling and delays, the selection still wasn’t on track by the third month, and time was passing. The ministers waiting to send Emperor Jingren their daughters couldn’t help offering their advice, but Emperor Jingren didn’t seem to care. No matter who asked him about it, all he said was that the empress had full responsibility for this. So the ministers went home and told their wives to go to the palace and pay their respects to the empress, while the wives who’d been scared out of their wits by the empress on New Year’s Eve didn’t dare mention the selection to him. When they went to the palace, they only made a bit of small talk, then went home and fobbed off their husbands.

The smart ones focused their attention on the empress dowager. She was also distressed about the question of her son’s heirs, so when they spoke to her, she would go to the empress. But as soon as the empress said, Yes, I know what I am about, the empress dowager didn’t dare say anything further. Nor did she dare mention the girls that the wives had recommended to her.

In the harem, the empress was an overpowering force. No one could oppose him.

The empress, meanwhile, wasn’t simply delaying for the sake of delay. He knew that if he waited just a little longer, a major event from the original novel would occur, and when that happened, no one would be in the mood to think about the selection.

Sure enough, in the third month, an urgent dispatch arrived from the frontier: the herding tribes had invaded. To repel the assault, Marquis Zhenbei and three of his sons had gone into battle and perished. Only his third son, Xiao Jinshu, who had previously lost the use of his legs, survived.

This news stunned the court. Marquis Zhenbei had guarded Mobei City for many years and thoroughly quelled the already splintered herding tribes. The defensive line along the northern border was tight as a drum. The courtiers had all been scheming to claw back some of the money from the northern border army’s pay; it had never occurred to them that Mobei might one day fall into enemy hands.

Emperor Jingren saw the army messenger alone in his study. Expression grave, he said, “Tell us, if the military situation is so dire, why has word of it only reached us now?”

The messenger bowed his head low. He sounded near tears. “When the fighting began, the marquis instructed the army supervisor to send a missive requesting aid from the court, but the army supervisor said that one or two such battles occurred each year, and the marquis could resolve a little matter like this himself; there was no need to ask the court for reinforcements. But it wasn’t reinforcements that the marquis wanted, it was supplies. The herding tribes have well-provisioned soldiers and powerful horses. They are a strong fighting force. But our soldiers do not have enough to eat or wear, and their weapons are rusted. How could they win against such an opponent! The situation was urgent. The marquis ordered the army supervisor to send the missive several times, but he wouldn’t. The court has been skimming off the funds allocated for the army’s expenditures year after year, so the army supervisor didn’t dare ask for money. The marquis had no choice. He ordered me to sneak out of the city and race to the capital to ask for aid. But just as I reached the vicinity of the capital, I received a message by carrier falcon saying that the marquis and the three generals had died in battle. Only the third young master is still resisting at the head of the remaining soldiers, keeping the herding tribes from taking the city!”

“These greedy officials!” Emperor Jingren was furious. “They can’t even leave army and disaster relief funds alone! Convey our decree: we wish to see the ministers of revenue and war!”

It was the middle of the night. The two ministers were rousted from their beds before sunrise to see Emperor Jingren. When they heard the contents of the urgent dispatch, they fell to their knees and trembled, not daring to speak.

The three of them spent the night in deliberations. Emperor Jingren did not sleep that night. In the morning, he brought the full weight of the news crashing down all at once on the heads of the court.