The night was deep, and the rear palace lay in silence.
Li Chengzhen lay on his bed, eyes open, staring fixedly at the dark canopy above. He feared the dark, so the crystal palace lanterns in his room kept their candles burning through the night.
He couldn't sleep.
That evening, Li Yao and Li Chengyou had crawled through the dog hole again to play with him for a long while. Li Yao had even handed him a fishing rod, promising they would go fishing in the pond the next day.
Li Chengyou had grinned boastfully, declaring himself an expert at fishing.
"What's so fun about fishing?" Li Chengzhen murmured to himself in the quiet of his bedchamber, the small fishing rod left by his sister resting beside his pillow.
Fishing—he hadn't done it in years.
