No matter what Long Mingze said, Xia Yuqing stood still. Tonight, she was going to get out of this garden cage, either by killing her way through or by forcing him to make a choice.
"Step back," she warned.
Her voice did not waver. Even with soldiers surrounding her, even with the emperor himself standing only steps away, she held the dagger with terrifying steadiness.
Long Mingze did not move. "Let her go," he said, his tone sharpening. "This has nothing to do with Concubine Lian."
"Step back," Xia Yuqing repeated. The blade pressed a fraction deeper. Consort Lian whimpered as a brighter streak of red trickled down her pale neck.
"You know I will do it," Xia Yuqing added quietly.
The certainty in her voice was not bravado. It was a fact.
Long Mingze's jaw tightened. He knew she could. She was not bluffing. She had set fire to deceive him. She had infiltrated the inspection line beneath his very gaze. She had just turned his own harem into a shield.
