Shen Changyin didn't answer her. Xie Yu pursed her lips and stopped talking, resting her head on the carpet as she felt the carriage jolting along, silently calculating the route.
After turning past seven streets, the jolting eased. No more voices around them. The carriage came to a stop.
"General, we're here."
Someone lifted the curtain. After Shen Changyin stepped out, two others entered to drag Xie Yu down.
"General!"
A brightly lit mansion appeared before them. The wide vermilion doors were heavy, the threshold tall, the plaque coated with dust. It was an abandoned former Prime Minister's residence.
The rebels, with red cloth tied to their arms, guarded every five steps, greeting in unison.
Xie Yu watched Shen Changyin give a slight nod before being taken inside, growing more uneasy with every step.
They had only entered the city tonight, yet the rebels knew the mansion perfectly. Guards patrolled even the most hidden corners. Shen Changyin moved as though she had walked these halls countless times, passing through seven winding garden paths without hesitation.
She stopped. "Take her over first."
Xie Yu was brought into a hall draped with vermilion curtains.
"Stay put." They pressed her into a chair and shut the door.
Xie Yu examined the room. A small round dining table, tasteful decor, a bronze incense burner in the corner, and two side bedrooms with yellowed window paper.
She waited nearly fifteen minutes. No one came to kill her. She stretched her neck, found a comfortable position, and closed her eyes to sleep.
Just as she was drifting off, the door swung open. Shen Changyin stood outside, now dressed in fresh white robes. Her black hair hung damp, not fully dried.
Xie Yu said, "You bathed?"
Shen Changyin entered and sat by the table. The warm, moist air brushed Xie Yu's face. "Mm. Hungry?"
"Of course."
"Anything you avoid eating?"
Such treatment for a prisoner? Xie Yu said, "Do I even get to choose? I don't like cilantro."
Shen Changyin motioned to two maids. "Two bowls of polished-rice lean-pork congee. Plates of beef and chicken. Two plates of fresh vegetables. And add plenty of cilantro to hers."
Xie Yu clicked her tongue.
She knew it.
Before the dishes arrived, the maids lit incense. The warm, woody scent seeped through the cold spring night, and once again reminded Xie Yu of something.
At a time like this—rebellion, executions, chaos—Shen Changyin was calm, unhurried, attentive to quality of life. Either she was insane, unaware of urgency, or she had already played out this entire rebellion in her mind hundreds of times, accounting for every variable, certain nothing would escape her control.
Xie Yu leaned toward the second explanation.
The food arrived quickly. The maids set the dishes, then brought a large bowl of dark medicine. "Your medicine. The army physician repeatedly instructed that you must take care of your health."
Shen Changyin nodded. "Leave it there."
They placed it at the corner of the table, untied Xie Yu's ropes, and left.
Xie Yu shook out her sore wrists. Looking at the fragrant, beautifully prepared meal clearly made by a top chef, she felt triumphant, lifted the cilantro congee, and took a big sip.
"Ha! Fooled you. I knew you weren't a good person. I actually love cilantro."
Shen Changyin said, "The congee is poisoned."
Xie Yu choked violently, coughing as though the heavens were collapsing.
Then quickly recovered. "Impossible. You have many ways to kill me. You wouldn't need poison."
She proceeded to eat meat happily, eating half her fill before noticing Shen Changyin had been watching her.
"Why are you looking at me? Aren't you eating?"
Shen Changyin paused, shook her head, and picked up a piece of beef.
With food in her belly, Xie Yu felt much better. "I didn't expect someone like you to like these kinds of dishes. I always thought people who look like you only eat cold-fragrance pills."
"What are cold-fragrance pills?"
"Twelve taels of spring peony stamens, twelve of summer lotus stamens, twelve of autumn hibiscus stamens, twelve of winter plum stamens. Things that match your noble aura." She pointed at the bowl of medicine. "On this table, that bowl is the only thing that suits your style."
The bitter scent drifted to her nose; her mouth instantly tasted bitter. She made a pained face, then felt childish, and turned away.
"What exactly do you want? You're rebelling, can you at least act like it? Neither I nor those children by the river matter to you at all. Just let them go."
Shen Changyin didn't reply, continuing to eat calmly.
Xie Yu felt awkward. "Tsk."
She had said that word more times today than ever before. Shen Changyin was too strange. A rebel who threw cold, silent emotional abuse at her!
She was about to complain when a sharp sound sliced past her ear.
A black shadow flashed. Xie Yu instinctively reached out and caught it. A slender short arrow rested in her palm, its dark tip aimed at Shen Changyin's forehead.
Metallic clanging sounded outside. Someone shouted, "Catch the assassin!"
Shen Changyin calmly placed a piece of beef into her mouth.
Xie Yu broke down. "Do you have any emotions at all?!"
Several masked assassins stormed in. Their blades were sharp, their movements deadly, but none managed to get within two meters of Shen Changyin before being seized by the rebels.
Xie Yu watched, stunned. These rebels moved cleanly, swiftly, coordinated like modern special forces—completely unlike the ancient soldiers she imagined.
Who trained them? How could someone as sickly as Shen Changyin lead forces like this?
By the time her subordinates finished capturing the assassins, Xie Yu had finished her meal. Shen Changyin set down her chopsticks and took a sip of tea.
"Take them to the side courtyard."
The door closed gently. Xie Yu was left alone. They were clearly off to interrogate the assassins.
She waited a long time—long enough to pick at every hangnail on her fingers—yet no one returned. Finally, she couldn't stand it and stood up.
She tugged at the door and was delighted to find it unlocked. No guards outside either. She slipped into the back garden.
Wandering based on memory, she walked until something felt wrong. Voices drifted faintly from ahead. She followed them.
There it was: the side courtyard Shen Changyin mentioned. The heavy gate was ajar, a sliver of light escaping. A scream echoed out.
Xie Yu's heart lurched. She crept to the door and peeked inside.
The courtyard blazed with lamplight. Half the marble flooring was covered in blood. The coppery stench was thick and nauseating. A masked assassin screamed in agony, making her stomach churn.
She saw Shen Changyin too, holding a slender dagger between pale fingers as she personally interrogated her. Each small movement deepened the smell of blood, each shift drawing out a more desperate cry.
At last the assassin's head sagged. "I'll confess."
Shen Changyin rose and flicked her dagger.
Xie Yu's sharp eyesight caught a thin strip of flesh sliding off the blade—like the shredded pork in their congee.
Except it was human.
Her mind blanked.
This was an interrogation.
This was an interrogation.
This was an interrogation.
This was ancient times.
This was ancient times.
This was ancient times.
And the assassins had tried to kill earlier.
Her police academy instructors had always stressed that torture was forbidden, that a police officer with power must never become someone who inflicts pain.
But this was ancient times. She had to understand. She had to understand. She had to understand…
Even so, her hand trembled. She pushed the gate by accident; the creaking sound drew every gaze in the courtyard.
But she couldn't care. Her stomach heaved. She clapped a hand over her mouth, but still bent over and vomited into the bushes.
She finished quickly. Pale, freezing, she turned and ran.
She didn't know where she was running. Her steps staggered until she somehow returned to the room.
She shut the door, grabbed the arrow from the table, and held it toward the entrance.
But what could she possibly do? Against so many rebels? What could one arrow accomplish?
She could kill one. Could she kill them all?
She didn't know how long passed—maybe a moment, maybe forever—before the door slowly opened.
Shen Changyin stood there in white robes, hair still damp, like a water spirit dragging someone into the depths.
"You're afraid of me?" She approached her.
Xie Yu stepped back.
"You find me cruel and violent?"
One stepped forward, one stepped back. Xie Yu was quickly forced against the window. With nowhere left to retreat, she could only lift the arrow and aim it at Shen Changyin.
For a split second as their eyes met, she thought she saw disappointment and hatred inside the other's gaze. It vanished so quickly that she barely had time to be sure before hearing.
"You are a princess. What do you think allowed the Xie family to build thirty dynasties of power and hold them steady?"
"Of all the methods your Xie family has used, do you, Third Princess of this dynasty, imagine yourself cleaner than I?"
"But…"
The pale woman gave a faint laugh and raised two fingers to flick the arrowhead. "You saved me from this arrow just moments ago. Now you point it at me. I suppose that is only fair."
She grasped Xie Yu's hand, lifted the arrowhead upward, and exposed her own neck. "Since you are so righteous, determined to rid the world of someone as tyrannical as I am, you should know this spot is faster and more accurate."
"Do it."
—
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