Lian Yuxi's POV
Where were you an hour ago?
Yifeng's question hit like a blade between my ribs.
I stared at the message written in blood: The Phantom Blade sends her regards.
My name. My signature. Framing me for a murder I didn't commit.
I was in my chamber, I said carefully. Cleaning my weapons. Then I heard someone climbing your window—Little Jin. After we found Concubine Liu's body, we came here.
Can anyone verify that?
You can. You saw me drag Jin through your window. You were there when we found Liu. My voice hardened. Are you accusing me, Your Majesty?
The title felt like ice on my tongue.
Yifeng stared at the black silk tassel in his hand—Shadow Guild signature. The kind I used to leave at my kills.
No, he said finally. I'm asking questions someone else will ask. Commander Zhao. The ministers. My mother. He met my eyes. Two murders in one night. Both signed with your name. How do I defend you if I don't know the truth?
The fact that he wanted to defend me made my chest tight.
Someone's setting me up, I said. Someone who knows Guild signatures. Someone who wants you to doubt me.
I know. He dropped the tassel. Which is why we're going to investigate properly. Find real evidence. Prove your innocence before the court demands your execution.
He turned to the guards. Move Minister Feng's body to the physician's examination room. Seal this chamber. No one enters without my permission.
What about Concubine Liu? I asked.
Her chamber is still sealed. We found her body in the pond, but she wasn't killed there. Too clean. No signs of struggle in the water. His jaw clenched. Someone dumped her after she died. We need to find where she was actually murdered.
Understanding clicked. Her private chamber.
Exactly. And I want you to investigate it. Use those assassin skills. Find what my guards missed.
Your Majesty, Commander Zhao protested. She's a suspect
She's my personal guard, Yifeng said coldly. And she's better at finding evidence than your entire battalion. She goes. You watch her. If she's guilty, you'll catch her. If she's innocent, she'll prove it.
Zhao's expression promised I'd be watched very closely.
Good. Let him watch me prove my innocence.
Concubine Liu's chamber smelled like death and jasmine tea.
I stood in the doorway, studying the scene with eleven years of training. The body was gone—moved to the physician—but everything else remained untouched.
A woman in her thirties with kind eyes and graying hair approached. She wore physician's robes and carried a medical bag.
You must be the infamous Phantom Blade, she said without fear. I'm Qian Suyin, Imperial Physician. His Majesty asked me to assist.
Did you examine the body?
Thoroughly. Nightshade poisoning. Six hours dead, give or take. Consumed in liquid form—probably tea. Suyin's sharp eyes studied me. You're wondering if I think you killed her.
Are you?
I think if you wanted someone dead, you wouldn't leave clumsy evidence. Guild assassins are precise. This? She gestured at the room. This is someone pretending to be you. Badly.
Relief flooded through me. At least someone believed me.
What do you see? Suyin asked, testing me.
I stepped into the chamber carefully, avoiding disturbing anything.
Two tea cups on a low table. One used, tea stains dried at the bottom. One clean, untouched.
She had a visitor, I said. Someone she trusted enough to invite for tea.
How do you know she trusted them?
I pointed at the table arrangement. The tea set is positioned for conversation. Both cushions adjusted for comfort. She wasn't ambushed—she hosted someone. Poured tea for two.
Why is one cup clean?
Her visitor didn't drink. Probably made an excuse. Claimed they already had tea. Weren't thirsty. I moved closer. They poisoned Liu's cup while she was distracted. She drank, died within minutes.
Suyin nodded slowly. Smart girl. What else?
I examined the window. The latch was scratched—fresh marks, metal on metal.
Someone opened this window from outside. After Liu died. I touched the scratch marks. Probably to stage the scene. Make it look like an intruder broke in.
But the door wasn't forced, Commander Zhao noted from the doorway, watching me like a hawk.
Because she let her killer in through the front door. The window was opened later to create false evidence. I turned to Suyin. Did you find anything unusual on the body?
Ink stains on her fingers. Fresh. She'd been writing something shortly before she died.
Where's her writing desk?
Suyin led me to a small desk in the corner. Papers scattered across it—household accounts, letters, poetry.
Nothing unusual.
I studied the desk surface. Ran my fingers along the edges. Felt something—a loose panel in the back.
I pressed. It clicked. A hidden compartment opened.
Inside: documents. Financial records. Lists of names and numbers.
What is this? Zhao demanded, reaching for them.
I grabbed them first. Scanned quickly.
My blood ran cold.
Embezzlement, I breathed. Massive embezzlement. Someone's been stealing from the imperial treasury for years. Hundreds of thousands of taels.
Yifeng appeared in the doorway. Show me.
I handed him the documents. His face went white as he read.
These names, he whispered. Ministers. Court officials. Even... He stopped. Looked at me. My mother's household.
The Empress Dowager. Again. Every thread led back to her.
Liu discovered this, I said. That's why she died. She found proof of corruption, and someone silenced her before she could report it.
Who knew she had these documents? Suyin asked.
Whoever she was planning to give them to, I said. She invited them for tea. Trusted them. But instead of helping, they killed her to protect the conspiracy.
Yifeng's expression turned cold. Deadly. Dragon-like.
We need to find everyone on this list. Question them. Find who
Your Majesty. I'd moved to the window, examining the outside wall. There's something here.
Caught on a nail protruding from the window frame: a black silk tassel.
Shadow Guild signature.
My signature.
But wrong. The knot was tied incorrectly. The silk was cheaper quality than Guild standard. This was a fake—someone imitating Guild work.
Someone planted this, I said, holding it up. Someone who knows enough about Shadow Guild signatures to copy them, but not enough to do it perfectly.
How can you tell? Zhao demanded.
Because I tied a thousand of these during training. The knot is wrong. Three loops instead of four. Guild masters would execute an assassin for such sloppiness. I showed Yifeng. This is a copy. A frame job.
So someone inside the palace knows about Shadow Guild signatures, Yifeng said slowly. Someone with access to silk tassels, poison, and information about Liu's investigation.
Someone powerful, Suyin added. Someone who can move through the palace unquestioned.
We all thought the same thing but didn't say it.
Someone in the Empress Dowager's inner circle.
Or the Empress Dowager herself.
Your Majesty! A guard burst into the chamber. Emergency! The Jade Lotus Pavilion—it's on fire!
My investigation target. The teahouse owned by the Empress Dowager.
The place where payments for my assassination contract were being coordinated.
Now burning.
That's not a coincidence, I said.
No. Yifeng's eyes met mine. That's evidence destruction. Someone's covering their tracks.
We ran.
By the time we reached the merchant district, the Jade Lotus Pavilion was an inferno. Flames climbed into the night sky. People screamed and scattered.
Guards tried to contain the blaze, but it was too late. The building collapsed inward, taking all evidence with it.
I stood watching my first mission burn to ashes.
Convenient timing, Zhao muttered beside me.
Too convenient, Yifeng agreed grimly.
Then I saw him.
Across the street, watching the fire with satisfied eyes.
A man in dark robes. Tall. Scarred face. Familiar.
My blood turned to ice.
Wei Shen.
My former handler. The man who trained me. Who should be dead or back at Guild headquarters.
He was here. In the capital. Watching.
Our eyes met across the flames.
He smiled.
Then vanished into the crowd.
Your Majesty, I said urgently. We need to leave. Now.
Why—
Because the Shadow Guild is here. Inside the city. And they're not just framing me.
I grabbed his arm, pulling him back toward the palace.
They're hunting me.