Chapter 37

Shen Mei was extremely, extremely cautious.

Not long after the two of them left the city, Shen Mei led Shen Ling off their horses at a concealed spot. He tied two dummies onto their horses, then pulled Shen Ling straight into the mountain forest.

Snow began to fall from the sky. The woods were pitch-black, making it difficult to see anything, yet Shen Mei’s pace never faltered, as if he had walked this way hundreds or thousands of times.

“Aren’t we going to pay our respects at Dad’s grave?” Shen Ling held Shen Mei’s sleeve and followed in his footsteps.

“As long as Dad’s in our hearts, we can pay our respects anywhere.” 

Shen Mei’s pace was so fast that his voice wavered a little. “Once we’re settled, we’ll carve a memorial tablet for the old man. Then you can pay your respects every day if you want. But we must cross this mountain before dawn.”

Shen Ling’s mouth twitched. “Bro, you sure are a filial son.”

“The old man loved us the most when he was alive. He won’t hold it against us over a little thing like this.” As they walked, Shen Mei suddenly stopped, then reached out and pressed Shen Ling down. The two of them quickly hid in the dense shrubs.

Shen Ling could barely see anything; everything around him was pitch-black. But his ears could pick out the rustling among the trees: snowflakes striking the pine needles, then a faint rush of wind, as if some great birds were passing overhead one after another. Now and then, he heard the crack of a dead branch underfoot.

Shen Mei held Shen Ling down without moving a muscle, even keeping his breathing light. Both of them were dressed in black, and the two of them now blended almost seamlessly into the night.

It was unclear how long had passed—so long that a layer of snowflakes had gathered on Shen Ling’s body—before the rushing sounds overhead finally stopped.

“Run.” Shen Mei yanked Shen Ling to his feet. “They’re assassins from Prince Jing’s household.”

Shen Ling’s scalp instantly prickled with fear.

“Weren’t you and Prince Jing’s heir madly in love? What on earth is going on here?”

“Who was in love with him? I was just stringing him along to get some money for our escape. He looks down on me, and I look down on him too.” 

A trace of disdain slipped into Shen Mei’s voice. “Prince Jing may be a ruthless, ambitious figure, but each generation of his descendants is worse than the last. Li Zhen is stupid and petty. He won’t let you or me off the hook.”

“Besides, if Prince Jing wants to inherit the throne legitimately, someone will have to take the blame for regicide. We’re the perfect scapegoats: an evil consort and a treacherous minister. After killing the Emperor, he can kill us too, announce to the world that he avenged the sovereign, and give His Majesty a derogatory posthumous title branding him as lecherous. The history books will portray them as loyal ministers who restored order, while we’ll be remembered as a nest of snakes and rats.” 

Shen Mei gave a cold laugh. “Use us and then kill us? Not a chance.”

Shen Ling looked at Shen Mei in surprise. “You thought that far ahead?”

“I told you I’d get you out of the palace before the end of the year.” Shen Mei spoke softly. 

“Since we were kids, when have I ever broken a promise?”

Shen Ling was stunned.

“Hurry up and climb. Once we’re over this mountain, they won’t be able to catch us.” Shen Mei tugged Shen Ling along. 

“From there, we’ll go through Qingzhou, then Jiangzhou, and into Lanzhou. By the time spring comes, we’ll be able to reach Yingzhou. I’ve arranged our travel permits and false identities. Just follow the plan.”

Shen Ling had never thought Shen Mei could be so dependable. Following behind his brother like a little tail, he felt his eyes grow hot and said, touched, “Bro, so you’re not an idiot after all.”

Shen Mei: “…Shut up and run, will you!”

＊

Outskirts of the capital.

The assassins fired several arrows, striking the horses in the rump. The horses whinnied and shook the “riders” off their backs. 

Dozens of assassins rushed forward and pried the figures off the horses with their long blades, only to discover that they were two wooden dummies with exaggerated, mocking grins painted on their faces.

“We’ve been tricked.” The assassins immediately turned back to search the way they had come, but at the pass they ran into another group of black-clad men.

Both groups were secret guards. Sensing something was amiss, they immediately attacked, and the two sides clashed.

The battle lasted from nightfall until dawn. As Prince Jing’s heir saw daybreak approaching and his men still hadn’t brought back the heads of the two Shen brothers, he grew anxious and sent out another group. They returned with terrible news.

His men had been completely wiped out.

“What? You couldn’t even kill two useless nobodies?” 

Li Zhen was so furious the veins in his forehead bulged. He smashed a teacup and roared, “Send troops! Send the cavalry straight out! I’d like to see where Shen Mei can run with that dead weight in tow!”

This time, he sent the troops of Prince Jing’s residence to hunt them down in force. 

Yet Shen Mei and Shen Ling vanished as if they had never existed, without leaving so much as a strand of hair behind. They did manage to capture a small group of secret guards on the outskirts of the capital, but those men were all deathsworn. When cornered, they took poison and killed themselves, leaving nothing to uncover.

Only the Emperor had deathsworn like these.

Li Zhen stared at the dozen or so corpses, utterly stunned.

Had Li Sui really loved Shen Ling so much that he still wanted to protect him even after his own death?

He hadn’t realized the Emperor was such a lovesick fool.

After thinking it over, Li Zhen sent people to ransack the Shen residence. He grabbed a set of Shen Ling’s discarded clothes, threw them onto a corpse, destroyed its face, and had it dragged back tied behind a horse. 

Then he planned to publicly claim that the ‘evil consort’ had tried to murder His Majesty and fled the palace, but had now been captured by him. He could also spread stories about a fox spirit sucking out men’s vitality, and about Li Sui not being the true Son of Heaven, to fool the common people, then kill a white fox to bolster Prince Jing’s standing.

It didn’t matter if they’d escaped. Shen Ling couldn’t bear children, and a runaway male concubine wasn’t going to produce some long-lost imperial heir.

He didn’t need to worry. It was only that Shen Mei had cheated him out of some money.

He thought his plan was absolutely brilliant. 

By the time he was halfway back to the residence, he could no longer keep the smile off his face. He pushed open the door and saw his father studying the terrain of the Imperial retreat over a sand table.

“Father, Li Sui is dead. When shall we make our move? The Ruan father-son pair must have taken control of the Imperial retreat and been concealing the news of His Majesty’s death. All we have to do is expose the fact that His Majesty has passed away and surround the retreat. At that point, we’ll take it without a fight, and taking the throne will be within our grasp.”

Li Yong didn’t even look up. 

“The Imperial retreat is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The current commander of the imperial guards knows what he’s doing and won’t be easy to deal with. We need to be careful.”

“What’s there to be careful about?” Li Zhen asked, baffled. 

“Li Sui only took a thousand guards with him. We have three thousand men from the city defense camp, plus the five thousand we brought back from the Southwest. Eight thousand against a thousand! Even if we simply surround the Imperial retreat, we can exhaust them to death!”

Prince Jing had returned to the capital without an imperial decree, bringing a private army he had hidden in the mountains disguised as bandits. Every man was battle-hardened and ruthless. 

They had also seized the Empress Dowager from the Former Emperor’s mausoleum. Once Li Sui’s body was brought out and the Empress Dowager forced to endorse them, they would have half the throne secured.

Li Yong was cautious and wanted to think things over some more, but Li Zhen could no longer wait. His father had spent his life on the battlefield, while Li Zhen had been kept in the capital as a hostage since childhood. 

For years, he had bowed and scraped, watching the political tides churn inside and outside the palace as the various factions fought one another.

The Crown Prince had been so gentle and benevolent, yet Prince Cheng had still poisoned him with a cup of wine. The ruthless Prince Cheng had died when a meteor struck him, while Prince Qin had died from a plague… Clearly, the Former Emperor’s bloodline had been fated to lose the throne from the very beginning.

Now that Li Sui was dead too, the Former Emperor’s bloodline had been severed. They had fought for the country for years; surely it was time for father and son to sit on the throne.

“Father, time waits for no one. If you won’t go, I will.” Li Zhen’s eyes burned like sparks.

Li Yong furrowed his brows. He was a burly man with the physique of a true warrior. He studied the map of the Imperial retreat again and again, then said in a low voice, “If Li Sui is dead, there should be chaos. It’s far too quiet inside the Imperial retreat. Something’s not right.”

“Even Li Sui’s concubines have fled—how could he possibly survive? His men are just holding things together.” 

Li Zhen was brimming with confidence. “I put a deadly poison in Li Sui’s wine. I saw him drink it with my own eyes. How could he possibly still be alive?”

“Father! This is our chance! You’ve been regent for years, and you’re not even fifty yet. This is the prime of your life. Don’t you want to sit at the very top and rule the world?” 

Li Zhen’s eyes were full of longing for the throne. “There are only two branches of the imperial family left. With Li Sui dead, the rest will have to submit, whether they want to or not!”

Li Yong thought his son had a point. After all, an opportunity like this could vanish in an instant. He considered it from every angle, then decided to lead the troops into battle.

The wind howled through the snow as the horses thundered onward. Every soldier of Prince Jing’s household tied a strip of white cloth around their arm to mourn the Emperor. 

Prince Jing personally led his troops to the Hot-Spring Palace, intending to try diplomacy before resorting to force. But after sending in a formal request for an audience, he received no response.

An hour later, Li Sui appeared alive on the walls of the Imperial retreat, wearing a fox-fur cloak. Smiling, he invited Li Yong into the city for a talk.

Li Zhen looked as if he’d seen a ghost.

Prince Jing was much steadier than his son. Realizing they had fallen into a trap, he immediately ordered an assault on the city.

Eight thousand against a thousand, a private army against the imperial guards—the gates of the Hot-Spring Palace were nearly battered to pieces.

After a full day and night of fierce fighting, Li Yong still hadn’t breached the Hot-Spring Palace. 

Then, from the north, the sound of galloping hooves suddenly rang out, like a sudden clap of thunder that made the very earth tremble.

General Zhuang had brought ten thousand northern cavalry back to the capital to report for duty, and was shocked on hearing that Prince Jing had rebelled. 

He rode at full speed for three days and arrived just before the Imperial retreat was about to fall, joining forces with the imperial guards to launch a pincer attack against Prince Jing’s troops. 

The Northern Army, seasoned by countless battles, swept through Prince Jing’s forces like a black tide, shattering their formation. Prince Jing suffered a crushing defeat and fled with his son.

Li Sui returned to the palace.

The court officials were as silent as cicadas in winter. Li Sui dealt with a large number of officials who had colluded with the Jing Prince: some were beheaded, others imprisoned. 

Once again, the court had been swept by a bloody purge. Only then did Li Sui truly secure his hold on the throne.

On the very day he returned to the palace, Li Sui summoned Meng Fan to inquire about Shen Ling’s whereabouts. Meng Fan knelt before him, disheveled, with half an arrow shaft still embedded in his shoulder. 

His face pale, he said in a low voice, “Your Majesty, I’ve just learned that on the day Shen Mei left the palace, he took Second Young Master Shen back to the Shen residence. The two of them shook off the secret guards and escaped the capital without a trace. As a result, our reinforcements arrived too late, and the secret guards were wiped out… Young Master Shen may now have fallen into the hands of Prince Jing’s heir.”

Li Sui: “…”

The poison in Li Sui’s wine had been switched out beforehand. What he drank was an anesthetic that left his entire body paralyzed, making him appear to be dead. 

He had felt everything as Shen Ling sobbed and performed CPR on him—even when Shen Ling pressed so hard that he cracked one of Li Sui’s ribs. His chest still ached faintly to this day.

It had only been a test.

At the time, he had thought that if he died and that idiot cried his heart out, he would make Shen Ling Empress once he was revived.

Sure enough, Shen Ling really cried pitifully.

Looks like I do mean something to him after all.

Li Sui knew Shen Mei was shrewd, and that Prince Jing’s heir had been fooled by him like a dog. Protecting Shen Ling shouldn’t be difficult for him. If a real battle broke out, staying at the Hot-Spring Palace would be even more dangerous. 

That was why Li Sui had given Shen Mei a token and a group of secret guards, so the two brothers could hide outside the capital. Once Prince Jing had been dealt with, he could simply bring them back.

“What do you mean, the secret guards were wiped out?” 

Li Sui looked at Meng Fan with a pleasant smile. “And what do you mean, the two of them vanished without a trace?”

Meng Fan knelt on the ground, cold sweat streaming down his forehead. “Your Majesty, this was my fault…”

“Find them.” 

Seated on the dragon throne, Li Sui’s gaze was cold as the depths of winter. “Find them at any cost. Bring them back alive if possible—or bring me their bodies if they’re dead. Otherwise, don’t come back.”

＊

At that moment, Shen Ling and Shen Mei were huddled in the hold of a cargo ship, looking like two shabby little mice with Shen Ling’s small shoulder bag tucked between them. 

Shen Ling was seasick. Clutching a wooden bucket, he vomited, then lifted his head and asked in despair, “Bro, how long are we going to be stuck on this ship?”

With his back against the wall, Shen Mei broke a hard biscuit into small pieces and slowly swallowed them. While Shen Ling wasn’t looking, he took a pill from inside his robe and swallowed it. 

“It won’t be long.” The tight, stabbing pain in his chest eased. 

Shen Mei spoke quietly. “Hang in there. We’ll be able to get off in two more days.”

Author’s Note:

Li Sui: Beep, Resurrection Card
Shen Ling: Beep, Escape Card