Emperor Jingren read late into the night, posing questions to Lin Boyuan as he read. He looked at Lin Boyuan with appreciation. Lin Boyuan bowed his head and smiled in satisfaction.

Yesterday before bed, the emperor had arranged to exercise with the empress in the morning, yet the empress waited till nightfall, and he didn’t return. The empress watched the moon rise into the sky and reckoned that it must be past eleven at night by the sandglass, so she sent someone to get news from the imperial study. Soon she received word: the emperor had summoned Censor Lin to the imperial study after court, and the two of them had been in discussion ever since. They’d even had lunch and dinner delivered by the imperial kitchens, and Lin Boyuan had eaten with His Majesty. Though one had sat above while the other sat at a short table below, with no breach of convention, it was still a great honor.

“Lin Boyuan…” The empress pronounced this name, then laughed quietly. “I was careless. I only had eyes for the palace and forgot that there are many people outside the palace as well.”

Then she donned her phoenix robe, picked up a cloak, and went to the imperial study with a number of maids and eunuchs. The palace women were meant to use sedans when they went out, but the empress thought a sedan would slow her down. She walked out, and her attendants had to trot the whole way to keep up with the empress’s brisk steps. Among the empress’s retinue, the ever-present Xiahe was absent.

The empress soon reached the imperial study. Eunuch Lian and Little Shunzi were keeping watch at the door. Seeing the empress, they didn’t manifest their previous faint enmity. Instead, they looked relieved.

“My Lady,” Eunuch Lian said quickly, “that bastard Lin Boyuan gave the emperor a memorial to read, as thick as a book, and each page of it had been perfumed. His Majesty has been reading it ever since he left court. It must be at least ten hours by now. After so much time, though it’s only scent, it must have sunk in.”

“So Lin Boyuan wishes to enter His Majesty’s dreams tonight?” the empress said coldly. “A fine plot! He’s wasted as a mere sixth-rank censor!”

This was different from the palace women. Whatever escapades Emperor Jingren might have with those women, these were all matters of course. There were too many women in the harem; even if something really did happen, it wouldn’t make too deep of an impression on Emperor Jingren. But the same wasn’t true for Lin Boyuan, who came from outside the palace and had only appeared before Emperor Jingren today. Emperor Jingren must be well-disposed toward this person who used his genuine erudition to show his loyalty to His Majesty. If he dreamed of Lin Boyuan tonight, he wouldn’t be able to get him out of his head.

Sometimes the start of a ruinous passion can be very simple, perhaps only picking up a person’s pen or liking the same book, or even something as insignificant as an inadvertent look back; all of it can make a person fall in love. When one person begins to pay particular attention to another, perhaps affection has already quietly taken root.

Everyone understood this. It was precisely because they understood it that they had to sigh in admiration of Lin Boyuan’s tactics! They’d all spent two or three years fooling around in the palace without anything to show for it, while Lin Boyuan, on the contrary, had held out for so long and had now gone from unremarked to astounding in a single move.

“Regardless of anything else,” said the empress after looking down in thought, “first let’s get him out of there. It’s late, after all.”

If Emperor Jingren dozed off now and had a sensual dream, then woke to see the scholarly Zhuangyuan Lin sitting beside his desk with his head nodding or a look of exhaustion on his face, it was quite possible he would feel even more tenderness for him.

Though the empress was everyone’s enemy, she had been empress all these years without getting the emperor. At the moment she couldn’t be considered an active threat; Lin Boyuan was the immediate problem.

Now Eunuch Lian and the empress formed an unprecedented alliance. Eunuch Lian knocked on the door and entered. Seeing Emperor Jingren drowsing, he immediately took a balm to promote wakefulness from his pocket and quickly smeared it on his sleeve, so a clear chill wafted from it when he waved his hand. He trotted over to the desk and flapped his sleeve. He announced loudly: “Your Majesty, the empress is here.”

Emperor Jingren was surrounded by a cold, clear scent. He became much more alert. Hearing that the empress was here, he said at once, “Ask her in.”

Unlike the pure consort, Emperor Jingren had considerable reverence for the empress.

The empress walked into the imperial study with dignity. Seeing others present, she bowed to Emperor Jingren and said softly, “Your subject wife arranged yesterday to take care of Your Majesty’s health. When I saw that Your Majesty had yet to retire for the night so late, I became concerned. Your Majesty, staying up late harms your constitution.”

Emperor Jingren at last realized that it was past eleven at night. If he didn’t go to sleep now, he would have to go straight to morning court. He put down the stack of paper, of which he had read only half, and his gaze fell on Lin Boyuan. He said to Eunuch Lian, “It is late. See Subject Lin back to his residence.”

Eunuch Lian nodded and obeyed. To the visibly unwilling Lin Boyuan he said, “Censor Lin, this way, please.”

Lin Boyuan shot a glare at the meddling empress, but he had no choice but to kowtow, express his thanks, and follow Eunuch Lian out of the imperial study.

Inside the imperial study, the empress strode up to the dais and stood before the desk. “Though Your Majesty seems a little weary today, some of the frustration has left your brow. Has something good happened?”

Emperor Jingren nodded and said, “There was a development in what we spoke of yesterday, precisely because of Lin Boyuan. This man is an exceptional talent and a skilled essayist. Rarest of all, he can do more than just write pretty essays. We only had some notions about the new law, but he has already put so much thought into it!”

He pointed out the stack of paper on the desk to the empress.

“This…memorial is rather too sloppy,” the empress said placidly. “I may be ignorant of court matters, but I understand some rules. A thing like this will have no power to sway the civil and military officials. Why not have this transcribed into a standard memorial and presented to Your Majesty another day by the Bureau of Communication? Then you can have all the civil and military officials read it.”

“Lin Boyuan said he was worried the Bureau of Communication would suppress the memorial.” Emperor Jingren sighed. This sort of thing was nothing new. He wanted to put reforms in place, but he couldn’t work on everything at once. He had to start with the most important things. Whatever else the Bureau of Communication might do, they wouldn’t conceal an important memorial, and through Embroidered Guard he could learn of many things that didn’t pass through the Bureau of Communication, so it wasn’t a priority.

“Your Majesty is tired,” said the empress, smiling. “The Bureau of Communication might suppress something Your Majesty does not know about, but if Your Majesty is already aware of it and instructs the Bureau of Communication to copy it out according to procedure, would they really dare to suppress it?”

“You’re right.” Emperor Jingren massaged his temples. He really was tired; such a simple thing hadn’t occurred to him. He needed to get some rest.

“As for Zhuangyuan Lin…” the empress began. “Wouldn’t it be better to put a practical person like him in his proper place, rather than the Censorate? If what matters most to him are the interests of the people, then his greatest wish must be to do something for those people himself, no?”

Emperor Jingren nodded. He thought that the empress made a good point. “Yes. When the new law has been settled, we can order Lin Boyuan to take responsibility for implementing it. This will raise his standing, and ensure that someone we trust is taking care of this matter. That’s good.”

The empress smiled in satisfaction and counseled the emperor to rest now for the sake of his health; tomorrow he could think it through further. When Lin Boyuan had gone to do his work, would he have further opportunities to see Emperor Jingren? Probably he would, but he wouldn’t have to appear in front of him at court every day, like now.

Emperor Jingren and the empress strolled to Qifeng Hall. The summer night wasn’t cold, but there was some dew. The empress put the cloak over him. Emperor and empress held hands. It felt nice.

Qifeng Hall was different from usual. Before, the atmosphere had been dignified and solemn. Today, from the bed curtains to the quilts, everything was in warm colors; it had a sense of softness and comfort. Emperor Jingren had already been feeling weary. When he saw these furnishings, he felt even more compelled to sleep. After washing up, he quickly got into bed. Seeing the empress undress and lay down beside him, Emperor Jingren smiled.

“Your Majesty.” The empress reached out to gently massage Emperor Jingren’s temples. In a very gentle voice, she said, “Though it’s said that what occupies one’s thoughts during waking hours will also occupy one’s dreams during the night, the people we dream of at night may only be those we’ve seen the most of during the day. Your Majesty must not take it to heart.”

“The one we’ve seen the most of during the day—that must be Zhuangyuan Lin? Why would we dream about him?” Emperor Jingren was very comfortable. He closed his eyes. “Are you telling us to dream of you, Empress?”

“What if I am?” Though the empress’s voice was rough, it was very calming to listen to.

“We will dream of you,” Emperor Jingren said with a smile. He felt rather pleased.

“If you dream of Zhuangyuan Lin instead, I’ll be angry.”

“Mention it again and we really will dream of him.” Emperor Jingren rolled over and put his arms around the empress, kissed her lightly on the cheek, and groggily said, “We will try to dream of you, Jinyi.”

Then he fell deeply asleep. He really was exhausted.