In Tianshangjing, there are countless pavilions and high terraces, adorned with emerald greenery and weeping willows, exquisite and magnificent. But in this prosperous city, the preeminent establishment is known as Que Tower.
Located due east of the Imperial City beside Chiyin Lake, Que Tower stands a hundred feet high and covers a hundred acres. Shaped like a pagoda with six stories, its body is coated in brilliant cinnabar lacquer and topped with a glazed gold roof. The eaves curve upward like the wings of swallows, earning it the reputation: "A thousand miles of crimson clouds upon the lake; the phoenix alights upon the Yin Que Tower."
In the center of the first floor lies a massive circular wooden platform called the Jinling Stage. Upon it, songs and dances celebrate peace and prosperity as silken sleeves flutter; bells chime and lithophones ring in melodious harmony. Sandalwood incense rises from the base of the stage, swirling in misty veils. Looking up, a massive pearl hangs from the ornate ceiling, glowing brilliantly like a bright moon.
Extravagance and clamor filled every corner of the tower.
With a loud *thud*, the door to a private room was flung open. A youth’s clear yet agitated voice rang out, "Ye Zhao, I heard you were expelled! Is it true or not?!"
The wind rushed into the room through the open window, fluttering the pale blue gauze curtains. The silver-threaded begonia flowers embroidered upon them seemed to come alive in the breeze; as the silk moved, it felt as though one had fallen into a sea of clouds and illusory mountains.
The person leaning against the windowsill, propped up by his arm, slowly turned his head. With a faint smile, he replied, "It’s true."
He was the kind of person who made others feel comfortable at a single glance—like a young master who had not yet been tainted by the world, clean and gentle, like the moon over a clear breeze. He wore a moon-white brocade robe embroidered with faint gold patterns. His figure was slender and elegant but did not appear frail. With delicate brows and bright eyes, his gaze was as clear as autumn ripples, and his shoulder-length hair was as soft as silk.
Jiang Ziqi sighed and sat down opposite Ye Zhao. A look of helplessness crossed his handsome, sunny face. "What did you do this time that was serious enough for expulsion?"
Ye Zhao reminisced, "I couldn't help falling asleep during the lecture."
Jiang Ziqi was instantly baffled. "That’s it?"
Ye Zhao loved to sleep in class; it wasn't a rare occurrence. How could it have turned out so seriously this time?
Ye Zhao sighed softly and continued, "When I woke up, I was startled by a book Master Yang threw at my head."
He paused, looking at Jiang Ziqi, and spoke each word clearly: "It was a book of erotica. It happened to land right on my face. Master Yang saw it, gave me a scolding, and expelled me."
Jiang Ziqi was stunned. "..."
Zhiyuan Academy, a sanctuary of sacred learning... reading erotica in broad daylight?
Seeing Jiang Ziqi’s eyebrows rising higher and higher as his expression shifted to shock, Ye Zhao quickly clarified, "That book wasn't mine. I didn't read it."
Jiang Ziqi closed his mouth, which had been ready to launch a tirade. He studied Ye Zhao for a moment and ultimately chose to believe him. "Then the book was...?"
"I was fast asleep; I don't know who put it there." He shifted to a self-deprecating joke. "...Or perhaps the Heavens couldn't stand my daily desecration of the classroom and decided to let me go home and sleep properly? Haha..."
Jiang Ziqi let out a cold snort. "I'm surprised you can still laugh."
However, his grim expression softened slightly. He understood that someone had clearly set Ye Zhao up. Perhaps they didn't truly hold a grudge, but simply found it fun to play a prank on him.
Who could blame them? Ye Zhao was a dandy whom anyone could trample upon. Furthermore, this friend of his had been like soft water since childhood—drifting with the current, settling wherever he landed, seemingly without a temper. It was inevitable that people looked down on him, treating him like a piece of dough that could be kneaded and flattened at will.
Yet, Jiang Ziqi sometimes felt that Ye Zhao simply didn't take anything to heart, and thus didn't care or bother to argue.
Just like now. He let out a helpless sigh of frustration. "How could you sleep so soundly? Now look what's happened—you've been sabotaged..."
Ye Zhao felt rather guilty. "...I cannot control when the drowsiness comes."
"You always have an endless supply of sleep." Jiang Ziqi’s eyelids flickered rapidly, as if he were rolling his eyes.
Ye Zhao replied, "No. I didn't get any sleep last night."
"Oh?" Jiang Ziqi crossed his arms. "Don't tell me you went out to play thief?"
Ye Zhao felt a bit embarrassed but said something seemingly irrelevant: "Do you know what day it is today?"
Jiang Ziqi thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered it was Ye Zhao’s birthday. "You went to Mount Bushe last night?"
Though it was phrased as a question, he already knew the answer. Every year on his birthday, Ye Zhao would go to Mount Bushe to offer incense. It had to be at the very start of the day—at the hour of the Rat, midnight.
This tradition had been in place since he first learned to walk.
Supposedly, back then, Lady Ye had lost two children in succession and remained unable to conceive for a long time. Lord and Lady Ye had traveled to the foot of Mount Bushe to burn incense and pray for a son, choosing the earliest hour of the day to do so.
Ye Zhao nodded. "I only returned this morning. I spent the whole night in the carriage."
"You didn't go home after offering incense?"
"I couldn't get back," Ye Zhao continued. "When I reached the city, I was stopped by the guards. They said I had to wait until morning for the gates to open."
Jiang Ziqi instinctively voiced his confusion, "How could that be?"
People were allowed to enter and exit the gates of Tianshangjing at night, provided they were registered. He pondered the matter for a moment, thinking, *Did something happen? Inside the city... or outside?*
Unable to figure it out, he turned to another piece of news and asked, "Did you see anyone on Mount Bushe last night?"
Ye Zhao was puzzled. "Who?"
Jiang Ziqi smiled thinly and said slowly, "Lord Tianshu."
Ye Zhao’s face instantly filled with surprise. Jiang Ziqi didn't find the reaction strange; disbelief was the correct response. If he had actually seen him, that would be seeing a ghost!
He said, "Everyone in Tianshangjing is saying Lord Tianshu has returned. You didn't know?"
Ye Zhao had rolled straight from the academy to Que Tower; he truly hadn't heard. "I didn't know."
His fingers slowly traced the rim of his teacup. After a moment of thought, he added, "However, though I didn't see Lord Tianshu, I did see an old gentleman."
Jiang Ziqi’s heart stirred. "What did this old gentleman look like?"
Ye Zhao reflected, "It was too dark, and he ran very fast. I didn't see him clearly."
"At the time, were you carrying a lantern?"
"Yes."
"...Were you also wearing black clothes?"
Ye Zhao felt Jiang Ziqi’s expression stiffen for a moment, but he answered frankly, "I was."
Jiang Ziqi fell silent. He stared intently at Ye Zhao, his expression remaining strange for a good while. Finally, he said, "Congratulations. You’re famous in Tianshangjing again."
"Huh?" Ye Zhao was dazed. What "good deed" had he done now to be the talk of the town? Had the news of his expulsion spread that quickly?
Jiang Ziqi’s face turned solemn. "Did you go up Mount Bushe?"
Ye Zhao hesitated for a moment before slowly nodding. "How did you know?"
Jiang Ziqi was almost driven to a frustrated laugh. "The person in this morning’s rumors who claimed to see Lord Tianshu return was an old man. When I was heading back, I heard him arguing about it with my father. Now, the rumor is spreading like wildfire. Tell me, are you famous or not?"
Fine, he understood. A case of failing eyesight had caused him to "debut" under the name of a legend...
Ye Zhao fell silent.
Jiang Ziqi crossed his arms and asked with a serious face, "How did you get up the mountain? Did you find a side path?"
Ye Zhao shook his head. "No. I just walked up the stone steps from the foot of the mountain, step by step."
Jiang Ziqi was shocked. "How could they let you up?"
Ye Zhao roughly understood who "they" referred to. "You mean the guards at the foot of the mountain? No, I didn't see them. That’s why I was able to go up. Otherwise, when would I ever get such an opportunity?"
Jiang Ziqi was now both shocked and suspicious. *How could that be? Where were the guards?*
He followed up with another question: "Then you weren't stopped by anyone else? What about the hidden guards?"
Ye Zhao was confused. "What hidden guards?"
Looking at Ye Zhao’s bewildered and innocent gaze, Jiang Ziqi simply didn't know what to say. Then he heard Ye Zhao add, "But I didn't go all the way up. I stopped halfway."
Truthfully, he had been scared at the time, especially when the old man let out that howl. It was bound to attract people, so he had slipped away quickly.
Jiang Ziqi let out a long sigh and rubbed his forehead weakly. "I’ve never seen you be this bold before. Do you know what kind of place Mount Bushe is?"
Ye Zhao: "I know."
Seeing his "I don't get it" expression, Jiang Ziqi continued, "That is a restricted royal zone. Do you understand the meaning of those words? The people guarding that empty mountain are far more numerous than what you see on the surface. In the shadows, the hidden guards stationed there are countless!"
Jiang Ziqi was as serious as could be. "So, how were you able to get up there?"
Hearing him say this, Ye Zhao finally realized the gravity of the situation. But he didn't have the answer either. After a long pause, he managed to squeeze out, "...Well, what do you think?"
Jiang Ziqi almost laughed again. *You caused this mess yourself, and now you’re asking me?*
As it turned out, Jiang Ziqi really couldn't leave Ye Zhao’s problem alone.
He pondered for a long time before saying sternly, "Act as if nothing happened last night. You never went to Mount Bushe, and that old man never saw you. Do you hear me?"
Ye Zhao nodded. He then heard Jiang Ziqi mutter to himself, "...I’ll go back and investigate to see if anything happened outside the city last night."
He understood that Jiang Ziqi felt something was fishy. It was best if he didn't reveal that he was the "Lord Tianshu" who had been misidentified.
He picked up his tea and sipped it slowly, but his mind was racing. Jiang Ziqi was wrong; if someone wanted to investigate, they could still find him. The city guards had seen him, and there was a record of him leaving the city last night. Among those clues, he was undoubtedly the most conspicuous person.
He looked up at Jiang Ziqi, hesitating whether to share his thoughts. In the end, he said nothing, knowing it was useless—those traces could not be erased.
Thus, he began to think of how he might wipe away the tracks he had left behind.
Jiang Ziqi, unaware of his thoughts, left as hurriedly as he had arrived.
The wind rose, and the ancient chimes on the corners of the tower swayed with a rhythmic tolling. Ye Zhao turned his gaze out the window.
This was an excellent vantage point, offering a view of more than half of Tianshangjing. From this height, the capital was as beautiful as a painting. The scaled-down houses and pavilions were exquisite and delicate, with countless carriages and pedestrians moving between them. The warm golden sun pierced through the milky white clouds, falling upon the streets and alleys of Tianshangjing like a dusting of gold powder, making the scene even more radiant and dreamlike.
From this window, he was directly facing a towering pavilion within the Imperial Palace—the highest point in Tianshangjing.
—The Star-Plucking Tower.
Rumor had it that it was originally built by a previous emperor as a place for a favored concubine to dance. It was meant to be a symbol of decadence and waste, but later, because of one person, it became a legendary site.
Things themselves are neither right nor wrong; it is only the meaning humans bestow upon them that differs.
Years ago, it was from there that Lord Tianshu turned Tianshangjing into a chessboard in his hands, sitting in command to crush the Western Ze army of over a hundred thousand.
Decades had passed, and the mechanisms within the city had been dismantled after the war. Only the twelve circular spires remained standing, silent witnesses to that great battle of old.
Whenever he saw these towers, dozens of feet high, the words "signal tower" naturally surfaced in Ye Zhao’s mind.
He didn't know what that meant; it was just a thought he had.
Since childhood, strange and eccentric ideas he couldn't explain would often pop into his head. As it happened more often, he grew used to it. Since he couldn't find the reason behind it, why waste the effort?
The human brain is always full of infinite mysteries.
For instance, Ye Zhao never expected that someone would come knocking so soon.
The door was flung open once more. Ye Zhao turned his head, barely swallowing the words, "Why are you back again?"
The visitor was not Jiang Ziqi.
The man walked with measured, unhurried steps. He wore a black, close-fitting uniform with dark patterns, a long saber at his waist, black boots, and a jade belt. A hideous scar ran from his forehead to his ear, crossing his right cheek. Beneath a severed eyebrow was a gaze like that of a wild beast; anyone caught in those eyes would feel a chill run down their spine.
The moment Ye Zhao met his gaze, his heart skipped a beat. He couldn't help but recall the rumors about this man.
Wei Feng—Commander of the Yulin Guards, a personal guard who answered only to the Emperor. He was the sharpest blade in His Majesty’s hand. His daily work consisted of investigating cases, arresting people, imprisoning people, and killing people. Beyond that, he also handled matters in the shadows.
Over the years, he had arrested countless officials who had committed crimes. He was a famous madman and the "Terror of All" in Tianshangjing, a man everyone avoided like the plague.
No one wanted to be sought out by him, for it meant one thing—you were in big trouble!
***
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