The carriage glided soundlessly into the night, weaving through the silent alleys, and finally stopped before a secluded, seemingly abandoned courtyard. Xiao Linyue led me into a room lit only by a faint candle, dismissing her personal guards; even my Chunyu was left waiting outside.
Only the two of us remained in the room. She was still dressed in black fitted attire, but her face looked unusually exhausted in the candlelight. The scar at her temple appeared even more ferocious amid the flickering shadows. She looked at me, her gaze as sharp as ever, yet lacking its former pure scrutiny—replaced instead by something complex, almost painfully intense.
"What happened to your eldest sister was aimed at me," she said bluntly, her voice hoarse. "They can't strike at my foundation, so they cut off my arms. Su Pei was the best choice."
"Your Highness…" My voice was dry.
"Call me Linyue." She interrupted me and took a step forward. The candlelight illuminated her eyes, the emotions within surging violently. "Su Yuzhi, listen. Your eldest sister—I will save her."
I looked up at her sharply. Given the current situation, how could she possibly save her?
"The evidence was fabricated. Witnesses can recant." Her tone carried the decisive ferocity of a frontier commander. "I have people in the Ministry of Justice prison as well. It just requires the right moment—and it requires… paying a price." She paused, her gaze locking onto mine. "But for you, I'll pay that price."
My heart clenched hard. "For me?"
"Yes." Her answer was resolute, her eyes like burning flames branded straight onto me. "Five years ago, at the foot of Yunqi Mountain, you saved my life. I, Xiao Linyue, have remembered that debt until now, and I will remember it for a lifetime. I know you're worried about your sister. Watching you fret and wither for her pains me more than my own injuries." Her voice dropped, carrying an unmistakable sincerity. "Su Yuzhi, what I feel for you is not just repayment. I…"
She seemed about to say something more, but forcibly stopped herself and changed the subject. "My third imperial sister, Xiao Yuhuang—she is no kind-hearted person. The depth of her schemes and the reach of her calculations are far beyond what you imagine. You think she's been protecting you in secret, shielding you from arranged marriages and from me? How do you know this isn't her way of dragging you—and the Su family—step by step into her chessboard? From the very beginning, you shouldn't have gone near her, much less… trusted her."
My mind shook violently. She knew about Xiao Yuhuang's secret maneuvers?
Xiao Linyue caught the fleeting expression on my face, a trace of understanding and deeper gloom flashing through her eyes. "It seems I guessed right. She really did set her sights on you. Yuzhi, listen to me—stay far away from her. For that position, she'll stop at nothing. Any obstacle, including those you care about, she may sacrifice. Your eldest sister's predicament today may well have had her pushing from behind!"
"Impossible!" I retorted instinctively, though my voice lacked strength. Xiao Yuhuang might be ruthless, but… would she scheme against my sister? Use my concern for my sister to restrain me and strike at the Eighth Princess?
"Impossible?" Xiao Linyue sneered, her smile filled with mockery and pain. "In this imperial city, for the sake of that chair, what is impossible? You're too clean, and too naive. That so-called 'affection' she shows you—before power, it shatters at a touch."
She stepped closer again, so near I could see the bloodshot veins in her eyes and feel the aura around her, a mix of iron-blooded severity and anxious heat. "I will get Su Pei out, whatever the cost. That is my promise to you. But you must also promise me—protect yourself, don't trust people so easily anymore, especially… Xiao Yuhuang."
After that, she said no more. She looked at me deeply, as if to carve my image into her heart, then turned away decisively. "It's not safe to stay here long. I'll have someone send you back. As for Su Pei, wait for news."
When I returned to the Prime Minister's Residence, I did not sleep the entire night. Xiao Linyue's words were like poisoned thorns, stabbing into my heart. Her feelings for me were fervent and direct, carrying a soldier's frankness and an unyielding force. And her warning about Xiao Yuhuang chilled me to the core. I could not fully believe it, yet I could not completely deny it either. This struggle for the succession had long since blurred everyone's true face.
A few days later, a turning point indeed appeared. The key "merchant witness" in the Ministry of Justice prison suddenly recanted, claiming he had been coerced into falsely accusing Su Pei, and implicated a minor official connected to a distant relative of the First Princess. Immediately afterward, two junior officers who had originally testified against Su Pei—one of them "unexpectedly" died in prison, leaving behind a blood-written statement proclaiming his innocence. Almost at the same time, the Eighth Princess, Xiao Linyue, disregarding her own situation of being "confined for reflection," knelt at the palace gates overnight. Citing a joint guarantee from dozens of frontier generals attesting to Su Pei's military merit and character, she even offered her own title and military authority as surety, imploring the Emperor to reinvestigate the case.
This move shook the court. At such a sensitive moment, with the attempted assassination of the Crown Prince still unresolved, the Eighth Princess staking everything, nearly gambling her entire future to vouch for a single general, carried unimaginable pressure and risk. Yet perhaps it was precisely this resolve—combined with the newly emerged "evidence" and voices in court sympathetic to the Su family or dissatisfied with the framing of a military officer—that led the Emperor to issue his decree at last: the evidence in the Su Pei embezzlement case was deemed questionable; Su Pei was to be released and restored to her post, though to remain "under probation, pending observation." The two officials and the junior officer became the scapegoats.
My eldest sister finally returned home safely. Though haggard and still bearing unhealed wounds, her life was spared and her future not entirely ruined. The entire Su household felt as though granted a general amnesty. Father wept openly, while Mother clutched my sister's hand, silent for a long time.
I knew that behind all this was Xiao Linyue's desperate gamble, one that had nearly wagered her entire political future. This heavy, blood-scented "life-saving grace" pressed down firmly upon the Su family—and upon my heart.
And not long after my sister's return, Aunt Qin quietly handed me a new secret note. It was in Xiao Yuhuang's handwriting, bearing only a single line, the ink dark and cold, as though one could smell the suppressed storm within:
"So she's grown impatient. Very well—the time has come."
The paper trembled slightly between my fingers. Through those icy words, I seemed to see her in the depths of the palace at this very moment—the surging fury in her normally quiet eyes at having her reverse scale touched, and a certain chilling resolve that had finally been made.
Xiao Linyue's reckless "snatching of a person" and confession had not made her retreat. Instead, it was like tossing a spark into a pot of oil on the verge of boiling.
She would no longer wait, nor proceed step by step.
The phoenix would spread its wings, and raging flames would scorch the heavens.