Most martial artists carry an inherent aura of pressure about them.
Those who have killed a few men bear a murderous glint in their eyes. Those who have killed hundreds create a void around them that none dare approach within a hundred paces.
Then there are those who have reached the pinnacle of the craft. Their killing intent is restrained, their temperament indistinguishable from an ordinary person’s, yet they can claim a life in a heartbeat.
Zong Hao undoubtedly belonged to that third category.
As it stood, Xiao Nanhui could not feel a shred of the murderous aura she had witnessed that day in the backyard of the Prince of Xuanyuan’s manor. It was as if the man standing before her were merely an ordinary elder. He looked so frail and aged, so peaceful and harmless, that even the most timid fawns and the most distrustful phoenix-birds were willing to draw near him.
She took a step forward. The soles of her boots crushed the soft stems of fresh grass, letting out a faint creak.
The fawns startled, their ears pricking up as they bolted into the dark thickets. The two phoenix-birds took flight, their white forms swallowed by the night in an instant.
"All birds and beasts possess a spiritual nature. Does Miss Xiao agree?"
He did not turn around as he spoke, yet he already knew her identity.
Xiao Nanhui hesitated on how to begin. She quickly decided to scrap the countless mental drafts she had prepared and get straight to the point.
Since he already knew who she was, if that incident from years ago truly involved him, he would surely know why she had come.
"I have disturbed your peace, sir. Please forgive me." She bowed respectfully, keeping her posture low. "This junior has a question and hopes to find an answer from you."
Zong Hao did not speak. He simply lowered his head to gather the scattered stalks of green wheat.
His body was hunched, his movements slow and stiff. His hands fumbled along the ground for a while before he managed to pick up a small bundle.
The green wheat was fresh, thin, and soft. Mixed in with the meadow grass, it would be difficult to pick out strand by strand even in broad daylight.
How long would it take him to finish at this rate?
Xiao Nanhui sighed and instinctively stepped forward to help. She had only gathered a few stalks when she realized the old man was staring fixedly at her.
She paused awkwardly, then handed the small bundle of wheat to him.
"It is dark. I feared your eyesight might not be enough, sir..."
She cut herself off halfway, realizing her words might be improper, and stood there feeling somewhat at a loss.
After a long silence, Zong Hao suddenly cracked a smile.
It was the first time he had shown such an expression in all the time she had known of him.
But the smile vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by a look that was slightly mocking and deeply inscrutable.
"So, this is why you are able to stay by his side."
Xiao Nanhui thought she had misheard. Just as she was about to ask for clarification, he spoke before she could.
"I will ask you a question. If you can answer it, I will answer yours. If you cannot, you shall never ask again."
Xiao Nanhui pondered for a moment. Realizing she had no room to bargain, she nodded.
"Very well."
"Green wheat is crisp and tender, while apple grass is dry and bitter. Tonight, the deer of this wilderness have tasted the green wheat. Will they still linger for the apple grass?"
It was a strange question, but Xiao Nanhui considered it seriously. After a long pause, she spoke firmly.
"They will."
The old man’s gaze was sharp as a torch, his voice steady. "Why?"
"Because the deer have an instinct for survival. In the wilderness, green wheat is scarce, but apple grass is abundant. It is true that green wheat tastes better, but apple grass fills the belly. Even if they refuse to eat for one day, or two, by the third day, they will stop for the apple grass."
Zong Hao nodded, though there was no hint of praise in his eyes.
"Your words are quite perceptive, young lady. I only hope you remain as alert in the future as you are tonight."
There was a hidden meaning in his words, but Xiao Nanhui did not wish to dig deeper.
"I do not know what you imply, sir, but I have practiced martial arts since childhood. A martial artist is always alert. You, of all people, should know this best."
Faced with her "counterattack," the man showed no sign of displeasure. Instead, his tone took on a quality of dispassionate admonishment.
"Alertness is easy to maintain when one is an outsider, but difficult to sustain once one is part of the game. To the deer, the green wheat is but a fleeting illusion brought about by my presence. To dwell on it is to sink into a quagmire. Just as certain people are to you, young lady—merely a grand dream born of a chance encounter. To indulge in it is to spin a cocoon around yourself. Do you understand?"
If she had been in a fog before, Xiao Nanhui understood somewhat now.
The "certain people" Zong Hao referred to likely meant the Emperor.
Yet, for some reason, the moment she realized this, she felt neither guilt nor fear.
On the contrary, she felt a slight urge to laugh.
To think that she, an orphan of no rank or name, could prompt a figure like Zong Hao to say such things to her—perhaps her presence wasn't as insignificant as she had imagined.
"I have taken your words to heart, sir. Now, it is my turn to ask." She paused, trying to remain as calm as possible. "May I ask... what is the origin of the ribbon on the banner in your hand?"
Zong Hao’s expression changed. He continued to meticulously arrange the wheat in his hand, but his entire being suddenly radiated an aura that made one afraid to approach, much like that day in the Prince's backyard.
Just as Xiao Nanhui thought she would not get the answer she sought, he finally spoke.
"That is no ordinary ribbon. It is a woven silk used in ancient times to record prophecies when divining the celestial signs. The secrets of heaven are woven into the silk as warp and weft, kept as proof for the day they come to pass. None but those of the proper lineage may interpret them. The most important prophecy among them is tied to the National Seal; it is called the Tianshou—the Heavenly Ribbon." He paused, his voice dropping lower. "I have spent half my life traveling, collecting the world's prophecies here. Only one remains missing."
Xiao Nanhui’s heart gave a heavy thud.
She felt she knew exactly where that piece of silk was.
Forcing herself to stay composed, she tried not to betray her emotions as she pressed further.
"Why do you wish to collect all the prophecies in the world, sir?"
This time, he did not give her a straight answer.
"That is a second question."
Zong Hao’s gaze pierced through the deep night toward her, carrying a pressure that was almost unbearable.
But Xiao Nanhui did not back down. She was suddenly seized by a reckless sort of courage.
The answer might be right in front of her. She couldn't retreat. If she did, she might never have another chance to know the truth, and she would regret it for the rest of her life.
Licking her dry lips, she whispered, "You also asked me two questions just now, sir."
The air seemed to freeze for a moment. The night wind died down; the owls folded their wings, and the insects fell silent.
After a long while, the man finally let out a soft chuckle. The sound was hollow and weak, diffusing into the boundless mist.
"Because there are no prophecies in this world. There is only fleeting illusion and the ugliness of the human heart."
Sweat pooled in Xiao Nanhui’s clenched palms.
"If they are but false words, why care for them? When the time comes, the falsehoods will break on their own."
"A prophecy says there is a fierce tiger in the mountains. The people are terrified. To prevent a tiger attack, they strike iron to make pestles all night long. The clanging of metal startles the tiger into the mountain, and the tiger enters the village to eat the people. Tell me, young lady—did the prophecy come true, or did the prophecy guide everything toward the direction it was destined to go?"
Xiao Nanhui was speechless.
It was a question with no solution. No one could give an answer; no one could prove it.
"Since you do not answer, I shall ask one more. You are so interested in this ribbon—have you perhaps seen it somewhere before?"
It was here.
The thing she had been avoiding had finally come.
Xiao Nanhui shook her head slightly, delivering the words she had rehearsed countless times in her mind.
"Never. That day at the Prince’s manor, during the blessing, was the first time I saw it."
She was not good at lying. Almost the instant she finished, her heart began to race.
He hobbled a few steps closer to her. She could almost see his silver hair and beard swaying as if moved by an invisible wind.
"The blessing ceremony lasted but a moment. Miss Xiao remembers it quite clearly."
She had heard that those whose martial arts reached a certain height could hear a person's heartbeat from a dozen paces away and see the dilation of their pupils, using these signs to judge if a person was lying or panicked.
Zong Hao’s footsteps stopped. Suddenly, the aura surrounding him shifted.
It was as if an invisible net had spread out with him at the center. She was beneath that net, about to be exposed with nowhere to run.
Sweat slid down her temple, but she didn't dare wipe it away. She had only a dagger in her boot; even if she still had Pingxian, she would be no match for the man before her.
She shouldn't be calculating her chances of winning, but rather her chances of staying alive.
She should say something, but the oppressive pressure made her mouth feel as if it were glued shut.
*Ahem.*
A cough came from the mist behind them, carrying a hint of undisguised exhaustion.
"Attendant Xiao."
Upon hearing those two words, Xiao Nanhui’s frantic heart suddenly calmed.
Simultaneously, that terrifying killing intent vanished, retreating back into that aged body until not a trace remained.
"I told you to come to the courtyard to change your boots. Why haven't you come?"
His voice drew closer. Because he was not a martial artist, the uneven sound of his footsteps was clearly audible.
No matter how much Zong Hao suspected her, he surely wouldn't let her blood spill on the spot in front of the Emperor, would he?
Xiao Nanhui finally shifted her gaze. The moment she turned her head, she saw the man walking toward her through the mist.
He seemed to have come out on a whim, in a bit of a hurry. Beneath his cloak, he wore only a thin robe, and he wore no crown.
"This servant greets Your Majesty. I did not know Your Majesty was here; please forgive my intrusion. I simply couldn't sleep and came out for a stroll, not expecting to run into..."
She stopped mid-sentence, glancing sideways out of the corner of her eye, only to find the area empty. Where was the old man in brown?
Where did he go?
"What? Was there someone else here just now?"
Does that mean he didn't hear her conversation with Zong Hao?
"No... no." She instinctively tried to deny it. "Just me. I was saying, I didn't expect to run into Your Majesty here."
Her ability to adapt on the fly had improved significantly; she managed to make this nonsense sound almost plausible.
"Minister Xiao, your lying is quite clumsy."
This man... why did he always have to undermine her?
Xiao Nanhui’s expression stiffened, and the corners of her mouth slumped.
"It was Master Zong. I don't know how, but he suddenly vanished again."
The corner of Su Wei’s mouth curled slightly, carrying a hint of mockery.
"He owes a debt. Naturally, he has no face to see Us."
With that, he turned to leave. Seeing this, Xiao Nanhui hurriedly followed.
She didn't want to stay behind and wait for Zong Hao to return.
Stepping onto the slippery stone steps again, the mist seemed to have thinned slightly. The glazed lanterns decorating the eaves of the various courtyards cast glowing spots of light into the surroundings.
Su Wei was in front, and she was behind. He didn't walk fast, but she didn't dare overtake him.
He seemed very familiar with the layout here. Whenever they reached a fork, he chose a path without the slightest hesitation.
She was curious. "Has Your Majesty been here before?"
"No."
"Then the way... how are you so familiar with it?"
"I have walked it once. Naturally, I remember."
He remembers after walking it once? Xiao Nanhui was stunned. Even though it was him saying it, she couldn't help but feel a bit skeptical.
"The stone walls and steps here all look the same, and the courtyards are all the same size. How does Your Majesty distinguish them?"
"Observation." He paused, then suddenly stopped and turned around. "Even with the same object, if you observe closely, you will find that every day and night, every hour and moment—even every heartbeat—it is different."
His sudden stop caught her off guard.
Her soles, already slick with moisture, combined with her failing legs, caused the usually steady-footed woman to stumble and crash into his back.
Her hand instinctively grabbed out, catching right onto his belt. Before she could recover from the embarrassing position, the man’s voice rang out with impeccable timing.
"Take Attendant Xiao, for example. Tonight, she likely ate half a catty of sliced cakes and drank two taels of yellow wine."
Realizing the implication of his words, Xiao Nanhui’s face flushed red. she quickly covered her mouth and stood up straight. He, however, acted as if nothing had happened and pointed to the courtyard directly in front of them.
"We are here."
She didn't dare look around and quickly performed a bow.
"The night is late. This servant shall take her leave."
Having said that, she didn't wait to see his reaction. She hurried to the courtyard gate and gave it a hard push.
*Eh?* Why wouldn't it move?
When she left, she had found the walls too slippery and had purposely left the door unlocked. Could some blind fool have come by and locked it again?
She couldn't lose face now. Xiao Nanhui turned back with a "everything is under control" smile, then took a breath, walked to the side, and began rolling up her sleeves to climb the wall.
"Are you so impatient that you must climb Our wall?"
Xiao Nanhui froze. She stiffly retracted the leg she had already lifted halfway.
Swallowing hard, she looked closely at the gate and the wall.
This courtyard looked exactly like hers, but the wall lacked the mark she had made when she left.
This truly wasn't her courtyard.
Of course it wasn't, because this was where *he* lived.
It turned out the Emperor’s courtyard looked no different from the others from the outside. In that case, if someone truly wanted to attempt an assassination, it wouldn't be an easy task.
Only... in such a large courtyard, how many people were living inside?
Previously, only Ding Weixiang and Shan Jiangfei lived with him. But now that there was a beauty by his side, who could say if she would be accompanying him through the long night?
Once that thought surfaced, a flurry of other questions followed.
Did they sleep in two rooms or one? In two beds or one? Would they be sleeping, or...
Xiao Nanhui let out a burp.
The taste of undigested cakes mixed with yellow wine rushed out of her nose, making her feel disgusted with herself.
In that instant, the tension she had been holding snapped. The muscles from her outer thighs down to her knees began to shake uncontrollably.
The few sips of yellow wine could no longer suppress it; the bone-deep pain finally surged up.
It hurt terribly, yet she had to endure it and maintain an air of nonchalance.
She couldn't let that Cui Xingyao watch her make a fool of herself from behind the wall—letting her say that someone who had survived three great camps was a weakling who couldn't even stand straight.
"This servant was merely testing if the wall was sturdy. Your Majesty surely has others waiting in the courtyard. With such a beautiful night ahead, I shall not disturb..."
"Who is in the courtyard? And what beautiful night is there?"
This wretched Emperor was asking despite knowing the answer. Did he really want her to shamelessly say something like "a moment of a spring night is worth a thousand gold"?
She sputtered for a moment. Before she could think of how to respond to such an awkward topic, his voice rang out again.
"You have already tried to climb the wall. It is a bit late to think of leaving now."
***
