He turned to the soldiers and said in a low, authoritative tone, “You few — go to the prisoner camp and bring back a female interrogator. Make it someone experienced with female prisoners. Go, quickly!”
“Mm.” The Emperor gave a noncommittal hum, then added lightly, “The prisoner camp is a fair distance away, and the night is already late — the night watch will likely have closed the camp as well. Go find the right personnel tomorrow. Leave this matter to Weixiang for now — the rest of you may withdraw.”
The soldiers exchanged glances, then bowed their heads and accepted the order, withdrawing from the tent with appropriate discretion.
The tent fell quiet. A fine silk handkerchief dropped onto her face, covering her eyes.
“Appearing before the imperial countenance in such a state of disarray — what a disgrace.”
Xiao Nanhui sniffled, and only then did she realize that all the urgency and grievance of the moment had pushed tears from her eyes.
She was not someone who cried easily — no matter how grave her injuries had been before, she had never shed a single tear. She did not quite know what had come over her now. Perhaps it was everything she had endured, and the feeling in this one moment that the days of constant fear and vigilance had finally come to their end. And even now, knowing who this person truly was, she still found herself unable to stop the emotion from spilling over.
She wiped her face twice, left and right. As her composure gradually returned, an acute awkwardness crept in.
The combination of emotion and circumstance made her feel deeply out of sorts all over. And thinking it through — she hadn’t even formally paid her respects yet. She promptly used the position she was already in to prostrate herself in a proper bow.
“Your subject Xiao Nanhui pays her respects to Your Majesty.”
Five or six breaths passed before the voice returned.
“You have labored greatly in service of the realm — how could you prostrate yourself in the dust? Rise, please.”
She was still wary and dared not lower her guard, though she was ready to rise. Then she noticed the man bending forward to peer at his meditation chair.
The Emperor extended two fingers and, very slowly, lifted a long strand of hair from the glossy black fur surface, then released it with a light touch. It drifted down and settled directly before Xiao Nanhui’s eyes.
“Our chair — did you sleep comfortably in it?”
Xiao Nanhui’s whole body gave a jolt, and the torso that had just begun to straighten thudded back flat to the ground.
“Your Majesty, I had no idea — I didn’t know—”
She hadn’t known you were the Emperor! If she had known you were the Emperor, would she have gone to all this trouble? You were the Emperor — why didn’t you say so sooner? It was because of you that she had wracked her brains back in Huozhou with all those schemes, convinced the imperial seal was about to fall into someone else’s hands—
Wait. He is the Emperor — then during the whole time in Huozhou, who had been holding down the capital? Did her adoptive father know about this? And if he didn’t know, and she knew now, would knowing somehow implicate him?
Xiao Nanhui’s mind churned through all of this, her expression shifting through a dozen different shades in quick succession — none of which she was aware of herself.
Ding Weixiang stood watching nearby, and after a while, he simply could not watch any longer. He let out a pointed, forceful cough.
The person on the floor gave a start and came back to her senses. “Your — Your Majesty, the reason I came is to report a matter of grave urgency.”
The Emperor changed his posture and waved a hand with a casual air. Ding Weixiang slipped out of the tent. A moment later, even the sounds of sentinels changing the night watch outside the tent could no longer be heard.
Xiao Nanhui understood the signal, and without pause, she laid out in full everything Su Pingchuan had encountered, combined with her own observations in Bijiang, and offered her analysis of the current situation. She had considered reporting the matter of Pu Huna and An Lu as well, but decided against it — the affair was too strange, and to speak of it now would invite accusations of speculation and groundless rumor, so she set it aside for the time being.
Throughout, she glanced from time to time at the man’s expression, but not a trace of emotion was visible on it.
After the better part of half an hour, she had said everything there was to say. Silence settled over the tent, natural and inevitable.
The Emperor sat with his eyes half-closed, motionless, as though not even a single crease of his garment had shifted. After quite a long while, he finally parted his lips and exhaled four unhurried words.
“I see.”
I see? That was all?
Xiao Nanhui was taken aback, and felt rather sorry for all the saliva she had spent.
“Your Majesty, your subject believes this matter is no trifling—”
“You have come a great distance, through dust and hardship — you have truly toiled greatly. You may go and rest now.”
She was ill-at-ease with such an abrupt end to the conversation. She lingered for a moment, and then that voice which had a way of putting people on edge came once more.
“What is it? Did you wish to rest upon our meditation chair once more?”
Terrifying.
Truly terrifying.
Xiao Nanhui retreated step by step, practically stumbling as she fled out of the tent.
---