She set down the outer robes in her hands and passed them to a palace maid. Taking the ivory comb from the maid combing Xie Yuzhang’s hair, she dismissed the others and slowly drew the comb through Xie Yuzhang’s waterfall of dark hair and said, “The Fifth Prince is of imperial blood. He is hardly someone this servant can presume to comment upon freely.”
Xie Yuzhang twitched the corner of her mouth. “A’Fei, we will be leaving soon.”
Many of the old cautions no longer mattered to Xie Yuzhang, a person destined to leave. She just wanted to hear an honest assessment of this fifth elder brother of hers from someone else.
Lin Fei reflected for a moment and chose her words carefully. “The Fifth Prince has very great ambitions.”
Just as she had expected somehow, Xie Yuzhang thought.
Fifth Brother was daring in word and deed. For a younger sister, this naturally made him more appealing than the Crown Prince, who was cautious in action and considered every word before speaking. She had always, in the past, been fonder of this fifth elder brother than of the Crown Prince.
He was indeed ambitious — and his ambitions had all been turned inward, toward the inner palace.
After her rebirth, Xie Yuzhang knew that as a princess, her voice carried too little weight in great matters. After failing to reach an understanding with the Crown Prince, she had also tried approaching the Fifth Prince, hoping he would urge the Emperor to slow the pace of curtailing the military governors’ power.
Xie Yuzhang naturally hoped that this Da Zhao dynasty would not collapse. Even if its collapse was fated, she still could not bear it and still hoped to delay it by even a single day.
But this fifth elder brother of hers was, just as Lin Fei said, ambitious — great ambition and meager talent.
His eyes were fixed only on the inner palace, on the imperial presence, on the Emperor and the Crown Prince. At a time when the great powers in the realm were gradually lifting their gazes toward the realm and the throne itself, his scope of vision was too narrow.
And yet his desires were great — and later on, he had implicated so many people.
Having lived a second life, Xie Yuzhang truly could not feel toward this fifth elder brother of hers the same warmth and closeness as she had in her past life. But she also could not relegate him to the indifference she felt toward the Noble Consort and Princess Anle.
“Let us leave it at that. No need to speak further of him.” She ended the topic. “Has Fuchun come by today?”
Lin Fei was about to say he had not, when a palace servant came to report, “Fuchun from Hanliang Hall is here.”
Lin Fei clicked her tongue. “How is it that speaking of him brings him here?”
Xie Yuzhang also laughed in spite of herself.
Fuchun entered the hall and told Xie Yuzhang, “The responsible officials have already submitted the roster to the imperial presence.”
He watched as Princess Baohua immediately sat up straighter. It was plain to see she had been greatly preoccupied with the matter of the attendant roster.
Fuchun had studied a few books in the inner palace, and his heart was not entirely given over to calculating self-interest. After his godfather’s passing, Xie Yuzhang was the first person who had been so kind to him, and Fuchun genuinely wanted to do something for her, so that this gnawing sense of guilt might lessen somewhat.
Seeing Xie Yuzhang moved, he quickly said, “Your Highness, it would be best not to trouble His Majesty these next two days.”
Xie Yuzhang was startled. “What has happened to Father Emperor?”
Fuchun leaned in and lowered his voice. “This servant doesn’t know the full details. Only that after the Chief Ministers left today, His Majesty flew into a great rage. It seems to be about some matter in the south. This is not a good moment.”
Having someone at the Emperor’s side truly was convenient.
Xie Yuzhang earnestly hoped that this person, when he was at another Emperor’s side in the future, would still be willing to help her in this way.
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