Chapter 3

Chapter 3

From then on, Xie Wuyang and I became allies in the shadows.

He searched the archives for me, transferred the former servants of the Cui Family out of the labor quarters one by one, and even discovered that what my father had desperately protected before his death was not a memorial to the throne, but a Northern Frontier Armament Flow Map. The missing section of that map corresponded exactly to the Si Family’s private storehouses.

In return, I entered the inner palace for him, kept an eye on Si Yuesheng, and listened to the idle gossip that was never meant for the ears of external officials.

We were both using each other.

Yet the human heart is the one thing that refuses to obey orders.

Once, Si Yuesheng punished me by making me kneel in the Imperial Garden. She took offense at the way I looked at her, saying that the daughter of a disgraced official dared to stand before her mimicking the poise of a high-ranking consort. I knelt on the stone slabs for four hours. By evening, my knees were bruised a deep purple, and I could barely stand.

When Xie Wuyang climbed over the wall into the Cold Palace, I was gritting my teeth while applying medicine to myself.

His brow darkened the moment he saw the injuries on my knees. “Who did this?”

“That’s a pointless question.” I tucked the medicine bottle into my robe. “Who else in this palace is bored enough to bother besides Si Yuesheng?”

He crouched down and pulled my leg toward him without a word. I instinctively tried to shrink back, but he looked up at me, his voice not loud yet impossible to refuse: “Don’t move.”

I froze and remained still.

He dipped his fingertips in the ointment. When they touched my knee, his touch was light-so light it was as if he were afraid of breaking something. It was the first time someone had treated me this way since my family was destroyed.

My throat tightened, yet I forced myself to maintain a cold, hardened facade. “Did Lord Xie break into the Cold Palace at night just to apply medicine for me?”

“No.” He kept his head down. “I also came to tell you some news. Pei Chengli is holding a consort selection.”

I snapped my eyes toward him.

His expression was calm, as if he were speaking of a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him. “If you want revenge, the best path isn’t in the Archives Bureau; it’s in Chengming Hall.”

I understood what he meant.

Only by getting close to Pei Chengli could I reach the deepest secrets. But once I entered the inner palace, this unspoken understanding between Xie Wuyang and me-which already couldn’t see the light of day-would be even harder to maintain.

“Can you bear to let me go?” the words slipped out.

The moment I said it, I regretted it.

At a time like this, I shouldn’t have asked such nonsense.

Xie Wuyang’s movements paused for a heartbeat before he resumed bandaging my wound. His tone was indifferent. “Cui Mingyi, live first, then seek revenge. Don’t be like my father, charging into a death trap even when he knew what it was.”

But I could hear it-he was angry.

I said softly, “If I enter the palace, there is no turning back.”

“When have you ever had a way back?”

I had no answer.

He tied the final knot of the cloth bandage and suddenly looked up, his gaze locking onto mine. “If there ever comes a day when you no longer want your revenge, come find me. I will take you out of the palace.”

A breeze blew past the palace walls, carrying the lingering chill of early spring. I looked at him, and my heart felt as if it had been suddenly seized by something.

I should have rejected him more cleanly then.

But I didn’t.

I only said, “Wait until I’ve finished killing them all.”

Xie Wuyang smiled and stood up, as if he had long expected that answer.

“Fine,” he said. “Then I will wait until you’re finished.”

Only later did I realize that some promises sound like they are about the future, but from the day they are spoken, there is no future left.