Zuo Canglang stepped out of the Phoenix Resting Palace. Before her, the palace complex stretched out in an endless, sprawling maze; for a moment, she found herself at a loss as to where she should go. Seeing her deathly pale face, Bi Dongting hurried over to ask, "General? Shall I have someone escort you back?"
Zuo Canglang shook her head without a word. Bi Dongting continued, "General, why did you choose to keep that child today? This was a hard-won opportunity to bring down the Jiang family. I fear we have let a golden chance slip through our fingers."
A cold sweat broke out across Zuo Canglang’s body. Seeing that she was truly unwell, Bi Dongting did not dare press further. He turned to a confidant and said, "Go to the Southern Serenity Palace and tell Weiwei to come and help the General back. Then, send for the imperial physician."
The guardsman acknowledged the order and hurried away.
Zuo Canglang stood rooted to the spot for a while before suddenly asking, "What did you just say?"
Bi Dongting replied, "I said the General should not have let such a fine opportunity pass. General, what is wrong?"
Zuo Canglang said, "I am fine. That child should be kept. If His Majesty ever intends to name Murong Ze as the Crown Prince, we will find a way to have him undergo a blood-dripping test with the Second Prince. Once he discovers the Second Prince is not his biological son, he will certainly question Murong Ze’s lineage as well."
Bi Dongting was quite surprised. Zuo Canglang continued, "Even if we exposed the matter now, he currently needs the Jiang family. Besides, the scandals of the royal house are rarely aired in public. After a while, the matter would simply be suppressed and forgotten."
Bi Dongting said, "I only felt that since Consort Xian is currently so favored, if the General is feeling slighted, it would have been good to take this chance to suppress her influence."
Zuo Canglang looked up at him. After a long silence, she simply shook her head.
Before long, Weiwei came running. Seeing Zuo Canglang’s expression, she was startled and quickly supported her. "General, you’ve been out for so long without a word. What has happened now?"
Zuo Canglang shook her head and returned with her to the Southern Serenity Palace, where she collapsed into bed. Late into the night, an attendant suddenly entered, wearing a fawning smile. "General?"
Zuo Canglang opened her eyes. Through the beaded curtain, she saw the attendant holding something in his arms. She sat up and asked, "What is it?"
The attendant gave a signal, and a palace maid carried the bundle inside. "His Majesty said this is a gift for the General."
Zuo Canglang pulled back the gauze bed curtains and saw an infant cradled in the maid’s arms. She froze. "Whose child is this?"
Her first thought was Jiang Bilan, but it was impossible for Murong Yan to send Jiang Bilan’s child to her. The maid placed the infant on her bed and said, "The wet nurse is waiting outside. From this day forward, the Third Prince is the General’s child."
The Third Prince? Zuo Canglang glanced at the soundly sleeping infant on the bed. The child was chubby, though his face was still wrinkled, clearly having just been born. It felt as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over Zuo Canglang’s head. Her voice turned as cold as ice. "Where is the child’s mother?"
The maid knelt on the floor and said, "Reporting to the General, His Majesty said that you are the child’s mother. The Third Prince has only one mother—the General."
Zuo Canglang practically leapt from the bed. She grabbed the maid by the collar, hauling her up. "Where is the child’s mother?!"
The maid lowered her head and remained silent. Suddenly, a name flashed through Zuo Canglang’s mind—Zhidong of the Lotus Caressing Hall!
Without even putting on shoes, she pushed the maid aside and stumbled out of the Southern Serenity Palace, sprinting toward the Lotus Caressing Hall. It was a night in the twelfth lunar month; the dripping water turned to ice. Her hair was disheveled and her feet were bare, clad only in her white inner robes. Yet she felt no cold; she only ran with all her might toward the Lotus Caressing Hall.
The Lotus Caressing Hall was small and deserted. There was a faint scent of blood in the air. Only then did Zuo Canglang stop, looking around in a daze. Finally, she turned back toward the outside and saw two attendants coming from the direction of the fish pond. Zuo Canglang kicked one aside and seized the other. "Where are the people from the Lotus Caressing Hall?"
The two attendants exchanged a glance, trembling and refusing to speak. Zuo Canglang followed their gaze toward the fish pond, where the surface of the water was still rippling.
She dashed forward, ignoring the freezing air and the icy water, and plunged into the lotus pond. The two attendants were horrified and hurried forward. Zuo Canglang swam with all her strength and soon felt a cloth sack. She dragged the sack toward her, and in an instant, fueled by an unknown strength, she tore open the tightly bound mouth of the bag.
The woman inside was struggling desperately. Zuo Canglang lifted her head above the water. The woman gasped for air, looking like a vengeful ghost, her face filled with absolute terror. Even through the sack, her limbs clung tightly to Zuo Canglang.
Gritting her teeth, Zuo Canglang dragged her step by step to the shallow water. The mud stained both their garments black, and the woman’s lips had already turned purple from the cold. The moment they cleared the water, the woman scrambled out of the sack on all fours and collapsed onto the wet mud of the bank, weeping loudly.
Zuo Canglang did not cry. She dragged her mud-soaked body onto the shore and walked to a nearby ancient banyan tree, unable to go any further. She slowly sat beneath the tree, leaning against the rough bark. She wrapped her arms around herself, and only at that moment did she begin to feel the cold.
The chill seeped into her very marrow, making even the act of breathing require every ounce of her strength.
Once Zhidong had finished her crying, she slowly approached the banyan tree. Seeing Zuo Canglang, she whispered, "General?" In the Kingdom of Yan, even a lowly palace maid would recognize her.
On this midwinter night, the stars and moon were devoid of light. In the distance, attendants arrived with lanterns. In the dim, reddish light, Zhidong saw the woman covered in shards of ice. That resolute face, beneath the withered branches of the ancient tree in the fragmented cold of the night, was covered in tears.
Zuo Canglang fell ill as soon as she returned to the Southern Serenity Palace. Cheng Han and the other physicians took turns examining her. Fortunately, the cause was merely the cold, and the prescriptions they wrote were all similar.
Murong Yan was in the imperial study. Jiang Biyao was grinding ink for him as they spoke. Suddenly, Wang Yunzhao spoke from outside the door: "Your Majesty, word has come from the Southern Serenity Palace. They say the General is ill."
The tip of Murong Yan’s brush paused. "She was fine; how did she suddenly fall ill?"
Wang Yunzhao replied, "I heard the General went to the Lotus Caressing Hall and rescued Zhidong from the pond."
Murong Yan’s brow furrowed deeply. Wang Yunzhao asked, "Does Your Majesty wish to go and see her?"
Murong Yan stood up immediately. Jiang Biyao called out, "Your Majesty?"
Murong Yan patted her hand. "You go back first."
Jiang Biyao said, "I have long heard of the General’s illustrious name and have always admired her. Might I accompany Your Majesty to the Southern Serenity Palace tonight to visit her?" Before Murong Yan could speak, she added, "If it would displease the General, then never mind."
Murong Yan didn't even consider it. He simply said, "What is there to see? She doesn't have three heads and six arms. It is late; go back."
With that, he hurried out of the imperial study.
In the Southern Serenity Palace, the servants were well-trained; though busy, they were not in disarray. When Murong Yan entered, he saw Zuo Canglang lying on the bed. Her clothes had been changed, but her hair was still damp.
Murong Yan sat by the bedside. Seeing Weiwei drying her hair with a towel, he took the towel himself. As he rubbed her hair, he asked, "How is she? With so many of you, you couldn't even keep an eye on one person! Who was on duty at the Lotus Caressing Hall?!"
The two attendants were terrified and fell to their knees. Murong Yan swept a glance over them and said, "You useless curs, you actually dared to stand by and watch while the General went into the water to save someone! Men, drag them out and beat them to death."
The attendants begged for mercy repeatedly. Though Zuo Canglang’s face was flushed with fever, she still managed to say, "Forget it."
Murong Yan did not wish to argue with servants at such a moment. "Get out, all of you." The attendants scrambled away. He sat by the bed, drying her hair while asking, "What was all that for? On such a cold day, if you won't stay properly in the palace, fine—but to jump into the water!"
His voice remained incredibly tender, as if he were not the same man who had just ordered a woman who had just given birth to be sewn into a sack and drowned. Zuo Canglang felt as if she were trapped in a realm of ghosts; she did not even dare to open her eyes. For the first time in her life, she felt fear—a terror that pierced her heart and lungs.
Even though she had walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, even though she had turned cities into pools of gore, at this moment, she lacked the courage to open her eyes. *It was my mistake. All these years, I mistook a demon for a god.* He had fashioned himself a golden body and assumed a merciful countenance, and she had worshipped him with pious devotion.
She finally understood why, all these years, Murong Yan had never trusted her, nor the old subordinates of the Wen family. It was because he himself knew that a demon is a demon. One day, the brilliant golden shell would peel away, and he would finally reveal his true form with nowhere to hide.
And before petty, shadowed men, he was the true, supreme object of faith. Thus, he would never truly trust them, just as darkness cannot harbor a flame. As long as he remained, men like Jiang Sanyi and Gan Xiaoru would never lose power. For they were the ones who truly understood exactly what kind of man he was.
Seeing that her lips were dry and cracked, Murong Yan brought some water and said, "Drink a little. Hmm?"
Zuo Canglang opened her lips. The water entered her throat, carrying a hint of warmth. Murong Yan reached out to feel her forehead and said, "Now you know how miserable it feels? You have to suffer through it yourself, don't you?" He pressed his face against her forehead and said, "No matter how much my heart aches for you, I cannot suffer in your stead, can I?"
He continued to whisper those sweet words of love, as if he were the most tender lover in the world and she his only beloved. When he embraced her, it was as if he were embracing his entire world, a love where only flowers bloomed along the path, without wounds or deception.
Zuo Canglang reached out and pressed her hand against his heart. In truth, the most terrifying thing in this world is not that the person you love does not love you back. It is that you love someone, using your lifeblood to warm and cradle them, only to find in the end that you are holding nothing but a stone.
Years ago at Nanshan, the flowering vines covered the fields and the daylilies were in full bloom. She had thought it was the source of her longing, but it turned out that no one had ever responded to that encounter.
In the end, it was only her dream. In truth, there was no youth in that dream, and there had never been a meeting. Now, the sixteen-year-old version of herself stood in the empty, wild mountains, looking around in a daze. Between the vines and the flowers, there was no one—only the mountain mist and the clear wind.
***
