Of course death wasn't an ending Xie Yu wanted, but she wasn't about to believe the Second Princess just because she came shouting at her.
Seeing Xie Yu unmoved, the Second Princess recounted what happened in court that morning.
Since "purging traitors" and consolidating power in the empress's name, Shen Changyin had seized much of the northern authority. She replaced many officials with her own people, drew in neutrals, and her influence grew rapidly.
But this morning, she suddenly ordered her confidant to impeach an official who had just joined her faction.
"Lord Zhao was originally the prefect of Shuozhou. She came to the capital to report on her administration but got stuck here because of Shen Changyin's situation."
"Shuozhou is the northern province. Anyone traveling between the capital and Shen Changyin's frontier stronghold must pass through it. Of course she wanted to control it."
"This Lord Zhao took the initiative to side with her. That made it extremely easy for her to place her own people in the Shuozhou garrison. She even offered to introduce a few county magistrates under her command to her."
"That's plenty sincere, right? Honestly, she made Mother furious—how dare she openly pledge loyalty to Shen Changyin."
"But this morning, Shen Changyin suddenly accused her of imposing illegal taxes and hiding land and households. She presented stacks of account books, who knows whether they're real or forged, and sealed her guilt completely."
"Mother wasn't about to defend her. She burst into a rage, ordered her arrest on the spot, and sent people to seize the entire Zhao family. Now every single one of them is locked up in prison."
"These past ten days, you weren't here, but we saw everything. She was affectionate and courteous with Lord Zhao before. Now that she's gotten her benefits, she threw her away like trash. Not just ungrateful—she repaid loyalty with enmity."
The Second Princess's expression twisted.
Her own maternal clan held power, and she'd entered court at sixteen. She knew political scheming well.
When interests conflict, of course one protects oneself.
But Shen Changyin pushed her own ally to death even when it gave her no advantage.
That terrified her.
Xie Yu crossed her arms and stared at the pattern in the marble floor.
She saw a little horse, a lollipop, and a vaguely flower-shaped blob.
The Second Princess suddenly snapped, "Xie Yu!"
Xie Yu looked up and, somewhat absent-minded, thought her name might be Xie Yi.
So she called back, "Xie Yi!"
The Second Princess massaged her temple in pain. "Were you always like this? Or did your tutors never teach you anything?"
The Xie family had ruled for thirty dynasties. Every succession was a bloody battle. Every direct-line royal was trained in strategy and scheming from childhood. Even the least competent were selfish and cunning.
How did such a person like this appear?
She blamed Xie Yu's birth mother.
Although both wives could bear children, because emperors were busy with politics, princesses were usually carried by concubines. But Xie Yu had been born when the empress traveled south incognito and got involved with a farmer. The woman died of postpartum bleeding, so the empress brought the child back and tossed her into the palace.
No one cared whether Xie Yu grew well. As long as she showed up alive at banquets from time to time, that was enough.
Now the Second Princess was extremely dissatisfied with the tutors.
They'd raised her into this?
She explained everything clearly and thoroughly. "Do you understand your situation is no different from Lord Zhao's?"
"Shen Changyin is only using your status as a princess. It reassures the other factions that she won't attack our family in the short term."
"It also lets her join the battle for power openly."
"But once she gets what she wants, do you think she'll keep you alive?"
"Of course not. She'll get rid of you just like she did Lord Zhao."
"No—you'll die worse than her. At least she didn't threaten her authority. But you, as a princess with a legitimate claim to the throne, could take power back from her at any time."
She broke everything down piece by piece.
"Do you understand now?"
Xie Yu lifted her head. "I never said I didn't understand."
She simply didn't care.
She and Shen Changyin had made a pact: as long as she wasn't caught at the end of the month, the engagement would be void.
But she hadn't told anyone the rest—
Even if it was voided,
she had no intention of returning to the capital.
The empress was old and obsessed with alchemists and pills.
The princesses were all ambitious.
And the regent…
The regent was a thousand times more troublesome than all of them combined.
So she had to run far, far away and live the ordinary life of a commoner.
If she could occasionally help the neighbors catch a few petty thieves, gain a tiny bit of fame, and be written into some Biography of Chivalrous Heroes by wandering scholars, her life would be worth it.
Seeing her like this, the Second Princess had no other choice.
She sighed and said, "I just hope you don't forget that Shen Changyin is not a kind person. She is someone who hides a sword behind her smile."
"And another thing, I've already heard about how you were deceived outside the palace. You should know that all scams are based on gaining trust. If today I tried to persuade you to trust someone, it could very well be because I wanted to harm you."
"But right now I'm only telling you not to trust Shen Changyin. Do you think I would harm you?"
"Move out of here as soon as you can."
The Second Princess rose to leave.
She strode with long, powerful steps, and the ring of jade pendants on her waist clinked with a clear sound.
She opened the door.
Shen Changyin was standing right outside — straight-backed, elegant, like a slender bamboo.
"Second Princess."
Xie Yi's expression froze for a moment. After regaining composure, she spoke politely: "Regent, I will take my leave."
"No need to see you out."
Shen Changyin stepped over the threshold and entered the house, first washing her hands in the copper basin.
Xie Yu: "You heard everything?"
Shen Changyin: "Only the latter half."
"Is what she said about Minister Zhao true?"
"She indeed braved imperial wrath to side with me, and she indeed will die because of me."
Xie Yu waited, but nothing more came.
"That's it?"
Shen Changyin finished washing, walked to the table, and sat down.
Her gaze rested on the floral pattern of the tablecloth.
"Does Your Highness wish to dig into the details?"
Xie Yu thought about it, then shook her head. Better not.
What was that saying?
When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back.
What Xie Yu thought was: when you're trying to crawl out of the abyss, don't look back.
Shen Changyin had that air of a creature born from the abyss — not to be looked at directly.
"I'm going back to my room. Call me when lunch is ready."
Shen Changyin did call her.
She even knocked on Xie Yu's door again at dinner.
Both meals were eaten in awkward silence, a stiff politeness hanging between them.
Maybe an explanation was needed after all.
The next morning, Shen Changyin instructed a maid,
"After breakfast, brew an extra pot of clear tea."
The maid asked, "Shall we prepare some pastries for your conversation with the Third Princess?"
"No need."
She paused. "Actually, yes. Green bean cakes and white kidney bean cakes — both help digestion."
The maid withdrew. Shen Changyin lifted her arm and knocked on the door three times, her knuckles tapping rhythmically.
"Third Princess."
Silence. The room was completely quiet.
She waited patiently, then knocked twice more.
After saying, "Pardon the intrusion," she pushed the door open.
The room was empty.
The bedding was folded neatly into a square and had long gone cold.
Its owner had escaped again.
Shen Changyin lowered her gaze.
She stood by the bed for a while before turning to leave and closing the door tightly.
In the main hall, two portions of breakfast had been set on the round table — one larger than the other.
But no one would eat the larger portion anymore.
—
The capital city, a lively long street.
On both sides were rice shops, cloth shops, tea stands — shops frequented by common folk.
Vendors who had entered the city at dawn to sell vegetables were still there.
People who knew how to manage household affairs came out early to shop, so the street was crowded, and the noise blended together.
In such a lively setting, even a group of beggars sunning themselves in a corner didn't attract much attention.
Xie Yu was among the beggars, wearing the beggar's clothes she had just bought for 20 coins.
She couldn't help sniffing herself all over.
"How many days has it been since you washed these clothes?"
She asked the seller — a 15-year-old beggar girl.
The beggar girl held a broken bowl, put a few coins into it from her pocket, and shook it toward passing pedestrians.
When she had a moment free, she gave Xie Yu a sideways glance.
"Beggars need to wash their clothes?"
Xie Yu: "…Fair point."
But she still resolved to visit a tailor later and have two light sets of short-sleeved shirts and shorts made to wear under the beggar rags.
She watched the sun, timed things carefully, and waited.
When the vegetable vendors were packing up, the street grew quieter.
From the street's end came the clatter of horse hooves.
"The big officials are done with court," said the beggar girl. "Too bad they're all on horseback. They never give me money."
Of course Xie Yu knew that.
She also knew that this road was the one Shen Changyin always took after court to reach the Weiwu Army's camp outside the city.
Soon enough, riders appeared at the street entrance.
It was Shen Changyin and her subordinates.
Today she wasn't wearing white, but a purple official robe.
Unexpectedly, purple suited her — making her skin look even fairer and more vivid, like a newly blooming iris.
Watching the sunlight fall on her purple robe, Xie Yu suddenly wanted grape juice.
Shen Changyin did not gallop.
She tightened her reins so the horse walked slowly while she observed the street.
She observed the lives of the people; Xie Yu observed her.
Xie Yu had already scouted the street before hiding among the beggars.
There was something interesting here.
She wondered if Shen Changyin could discover what she had just discovered.
It wasn't something small like "a peddler tampered with her scale," but something much bigger.
Shen Changyin's lowered gaze swept quietly from her tall white horse, taking in everything.
The people on the ground couldn't see her expression clearly.
The citizens were used to seeing officials ride through the streets, so although they stiffened, they weren't panicked — just hoping the bigshot would hurry and pass.
Suddenly, Shen Changyin pulled her reins tight.
Her white horse halted before a shabby tea stall.
Xie Yu leaned back against the wall and started laughing.
The beggar girl beside her asked why.
Xie Yu looked at the girl's anxious eyes and said with a smile, "The moment she stopped in front of that tea stall, you got this nervous? You really don't know why?"
"You beg here every day — don't tell me you don't know that tea stall is where half the thieves in the capital sell stolen goods?"
The beggar girl fell silent.
The tea stall was tiny — less than two meters wide, narrow and dark, the owner too stingy to light a lamp.
Out front was a little canopy with a few crude tables and stools, almost always empty.
Xie Yu had observed the patrons early that morning and noticed several petty thieves entering with bundles and leaving empty-handed.
That was how she determined this was a fencing point.
These were her criminal investigation skills as a police academy student.
Although her teachers always said she was naïve and easily deceived, when Xie Yu focused, she could still reach the right conclusions.
She didn't know where Shen Changyin learned her skills.
She watched Shen Changyin wave her hand and give instructions, and her subordinate turned and rode toward the administrative office.
The beggar girl saw it too and became nervous.
She had no thief friends, but several older beggars did.
When she told them what happened, they immediately slipped away to warn their thief friends.
After resolving the tea stall issue, Shen Changyin continued forward.
Her horse drew closer to the cluster of beggars.
The beggar girl was tense, her broken bowl no longer shaking.
Officials like Shen Changyin — powerful and observant — instinctively frightened her.
Xie Yu was nervous too.
She had changed clothes, made her hair messy, dirtied her face with soot, and flipped up the collar of the beggar coat to cover half her face.
Would Shen Changyin recognize her?
This was the moment of truth.
Her heart was pounding in her throat.
Shen Changyin's white horse reached them.
The young regent in purple looked down at the beggars.
—
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