"The Empress has had no small amount of wine tonight either. Minister Li, see her back to Funing Palace."
Eyes hazy with drink, Zhao Bing added his instructions to Li Fei: "I know your medical skill is superb. I place the Empress's body in your hands and rest easy..."
"I can see myself back."
An odd discomfort prickled through Su Wen, and she cut Zhao Bing off.
"I know you are proud and prefer your own company, but sitting alone in Funing Palace is a lonely business. Having an immortal maiden to talk with can only do you good."
Zhao Bing waved a hand. "Besides, there is a great deal about the customs of our Great Song that the immortal maiden still does not understand. As mother of the nation, you ought to show extra care toward a servant who has rendered the court such merit."
Plainly he had set his mind on winning this immortal maiden over, and seeing that she and the Empress got along, he played the sentiment card while he was at it — rather like throwing a meat bun at a dog and expecting to see it again.
Once the swaying emperor had been helped indoors by the eunuchs, the imperial physician escorted Her Majesty the Empress back to Funing Hall in person, and finished off the day's course of treatment while she was at it.
One thorough massage later, a trace of the wine had been driven from the body along with the sweat — and with something else besides.
Afterward she turned bright-eyed to Her Majesty with questions about the workings of the court.
"Your Majesty, I am newly arrived and still know so little about the court... would you tell me about it?"
Out of professional habit she laid her cheek intimately against Su Wen's shoulder, wholly untroubled by the thin sheen of sweat lingering on that pale, fragrant skin — offering ample sincerity while asking a favor, and making nimble use of her physical advantages, came to Miss Top Courtesan as naturally as eating and drinking.
The effect was outstanding.
Su Wen had spent the whole day being dragged through the fussy rituals of the Longevity Festival, had drunk herself pleasantly warm at the night banquet, and had just been thoroughly worked over by a massage. A faint drowsiness had already settled over her.
But meeting the imperial physician's burning eyes, Su Wen considered a moment, then laid out everything she knew.
"At court today, Lu Qianfan's power overshadows everything... though of course, even he has what he fears..."
Li Fei listened closely and committed every word to memory.
Since arriving in Lin'an she had questioned Chancellor Liu and Nie Yunyi often enough about the state of the Song Dynasty, but both men stood inside the game: their answers were either incomplete and shaded, or so colored by their own positions as to be badly slanted.
Su Wen, by contrast, made no show of herself at all. For years she had lived secluded in the depths of the palace, watching flowers bloom and fall, clouds gather and unfurl, keeping clear of everything except that one time she stuck her neck out for the Zhang family. Add to that a mind fine-grained and sharp, and she had, without ever meaning to, arrived at a penetrating grasp of this treacherous, undercurrent-riddled situation. Nor did she play the riddle-monger the way Chancellor Liu did; in cool, objective language she told Li Fei all she had seen and heard, holding nothing back.
By the time the exchange wound down, the night was deep.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for showing me the way through the fog."
Li Fei, richer by a considerable haul, thanked her sincerely.
"It was nothing."
Su Wen lowered her eyes. "It is late. I am going to sleep."
"Your Majesty, I — I'm actually afraid of the dark. I daren't walk the paths at night..."
Hearing herself dismissed, Li Fei squirmed and hinted.
"Then I shall send a few guards to escort you back."
Su Wen was silent for a moment, something conflicted flickering through her eyes, and then her tone cooled.
"I wouldn't dream of troubling Your Majesty..."
The imperial physician bid her a regretful goodnight, then set off home under the moonlight with a palace maid to light her way.
Only when that lovely, aggrieved silhouette — three backward glances for every step — had vanished from sight did the corners of Su Wen's lips curve, faint and slight.
…
The night was cool as water. Nie Yunyi sat by the pond in the Prime Minister's Residence, and beside him sat an old Daoist — none other than Perfected Ge.
"An immortal art of the Saint Realm... coming from her, that's hardly a surprise."
Nie Yunyi drank a mouthful of wine and looked toward the middle of the pond, where the bright moon lay reflected. At a glance it was pure and gentle; look closer and it turned dim and fathomless, impossible to read.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
A woman of matchless grace came treading over the moonlight, like a goddess beneath the moon, ethereal and without flaw.
"Immortal maiden. Forgive the intrusion." Perfected Ge cupped his hands in salute.
"Immortal maiden this, immortal maiden that — just call me Fellow Daoist."
Li Fei waved him off, unsurprised by Perfected Ge's presence.
After all, the talisman Nie Yunyi had once used to run a "lie detection" on her had come from Perfected Ge's own hand. It would have been stranger if the two of them had no connection at all.
"Do you truly intend to help the man on the throne live forever?" Nie Yunyi came straight to the point.
"Immortality is never so simple."
Li Fei let out a scoffing laugh and played Retreat to Advance. "Why doesn't Hero Nie stick Perfected Ge's talisman on me first, and then we can talk?"
"That won't be necessary. But I do require a reasonable explanation."
Nie Yunyi shook his head slowly.
"First of all, the line in your old texts about how 'long consumption of the Longevity Fruit permits ascension to immortality' is pure fantasy."
Li Fei found a rock and sat down, entirely unabashed. "This world beneath this sky has never produced a single immortal — so on what authority did the author dare pronounce such a thing? In fact, while life-extending medicines are hardly common cabbage in the immortal realm, their output far exceeds anything the Great Song can manage. There is no shortage of people with fortunes beyond counting who pay dearly for such drugs. And guess what?"
"The first dose works best. After that, the effect only grows weaker and weaker!"
"I am merely handing His Majesty a sweet date in exchange for his trust."
"Even so, it will cost us at least a full sixty-year cycle, and the Great Song cannot afford the wait." Nie Yunyi's voice went low.
Freshly tutored by Su Wen, Li Fei grasped his meaning at once.
At present, the various powers within the Great Song hung in a delicate balance.
Lu Qianfan's faction was strong, and he could be ruthless indeed when purging those who opposed him — but he would not move rashly against Innate masters. The more completely he blotted out the sky with one hand, the more tightly he was lashed to the leaking hull of the Great Song. Burn up all the living strength of the realm, and what would he face the next crashing wave with?
The upright faction, led by Nie Yunyi, whose hearts truly lay with the realm, ground their teeth at the very thought of Lu Qianfan — yet they shared the same worry. If internal bloodletting went too far, the dynasty would topple and the common people would suffer for it. So they endured and restrained themselves, steering clear of Lu Qianfan's edge, unwilling to take the path where jade and stone burn together.
Then there were the fence-sitters clustered around Chancellor Liu. They blended into the dust, offended no one, put self-preservation above all, and would never start trouble lightly — yet they still kept an eye on the larger picture, and would bare their fangs at anyone who tried to drag them all into mutual destruction. Strictly speaking, the Mountain-Moving Sect fell into this category too.
Nor could the strength of the imperial house be dismissed. Even a rotten ship still holds three parts nails; however close the dynasty came to collapse, Zhao Bing kept in hand a body of men wholly loyal to the throne.
All told, whether it was the tangled roots of the great clans or the ambitions of the powerful ministers, every side held itself in check and none dared widen the struggle carelessly. But such a balance was terribly fragile. One trigger, and it would shatter.
That trigger was the naming of an heir.
The upright officials had given up hoping for anything from Zhao Bing. If they lay low now, giving Lu Qianfan a wide berth, it was because they were waiting for the imperial house to put out new branches and raise up a sovereign who could restore the Great Song — but Zhao Bing's heart had room for no one but Lu Qianfan.
Worse, the imperial bloodline had withered to almost nothing. Apart from Zhao Bing, only Prince Rong's household remained, the sole surviving fruit on the branch. And after Prince Rong's failed bid years ago, in order to root out any future trouble, not only did the bloodline of his manor die off one after another in bizarre sudden deaths — his own body had been tampered with as well, so that he could no longer father children, and the hope was cut out of him.
By the time the assembled officials finally realized Zhao Bing had no intention whatsoever of letting the imperial house flourish, it was too late for regrets. They sought out every famous physician alive to treat Prince Rong, with pitifully little result; only the fiercest, most violent medicines could buy him a sliver of a chance, and at the price of spending down his own lifespan.
Which was why Prince Rong, though scarcely different in age from Zhao Bing, looked so plainly aged — and had nonetheless gained a son and a daughter. The trouble was that the boy was rather a brat. Short of being driven to the absolute wall, even Nie Yunyi would rather hold his nose and go on acknowledging Zhao Bing as emperor.
In such a situation, producing an heir became the first priority for a great many people. Only with a dragon son born could the upright ministers draw in the support of the royalists and even the neutrals, assist a new emperor in setting the court in order, and breathe life back into this tottering country.
And Li Fei's extending Zhao Bing's lifespan amounted to easing the urgency of the whole branch-and-leaf question.
"So has all this daily nagging from the ministers accomplished anything?"
Li Fei put the question back at him in earnest, then answered it herself. "A cornered dog will jump a wall — but an emperor isn't a breeding boar. You can't just tell him to sire and have him sire!"
"At the very least we mustn't drive south by heading north." Nie Yunyi's voice was heavy.
"The matter of the heir is pressing, yes, but even without the elixir of immortality His Majesty has decades of good life left, and we could hardly wait until he's doddering to install a new sovereign. A few Longevity Fruits change nothing about the larger picture. Better to treat her gently and win her trust."
Li Fei smiled faintly. "Of course, that's only the first step. After that, I have three plans."
"I would hear them in full."
Nie Yunyi settled himself and assumed the posture of a man listening closely.
"First: I can cure Prince Rong's condition."
Li Fei spoke with confidence.
Nie Yunyi weighed it for a moment, then shook his head.
"It won't work."
"His Majesty has no heir, but the state cannot be without one, which is the only reason he made a certain concession and let Prince Rong's young son live... If Prince Rong's line were truly to flourish with sons, then however soft-hearted His Majesty may be, he would be forced to do something cold and merciless."
"So curing Prince Rong is no different from raising a rebellion."
Li Fei shrugged.
"Then it's the second plan. I know an art of begetting life — let Lu Qianfan carry on Zhao Bing's line for him. The dynasty gets its succession, and Nine Thousand Years won't have the energy left over to make mischief..."
"That is out of the question!" Nie Yunyi's face changed violently. "To do such a thing would be to hand the dynasty straight into Lu Qianfan's hands."
"So once the child is born, you simply kill Lu Qianfan. Problem solved."
Li Fei egged him on. "If you mean to turn the heavens over, you can't be flinching at every step. Better to seize control fast, with thunder, than to scheme back and forth without end — that's how you keep the internal bleeding to a minimum. Expecting no blood at all is a fool's daydream."
"Let's hear the third road."
Nie Yunyi thought longer this time, and still shook his head in the end.
Lu Qianfan had committed atrocities beyond counting — and besides, the art of begetting life was far too heretical. He truly could not bear to see the next sovereign of the Great Song brought into the world by some appalling dark art, with an executioner's blood running in his veins.
"Then it can only be the third plan: The Crown Prince Replaced by a Cat."
Li Fei blew out a long, murky breath. "I imagine Lu Qianfan wouldn't much care to endure ten months of pregnancy himself — and as it happens, I also know the method of Surrogate Birth."
"Which means all I need do is tell His Majesty that if we take a few drops of blood from the two of them and implant it into another body, their offspring can be born from that other woman's womb... I don't believe they could refuse such a method. And given His Majesty's weak character, he would certainly use a woman's womb to continue the imperial line and hide the truth, to avoid being flayed by every tongue and brush in the realm."
"But... I am the only one who knows this technique. So whether the child that comes out is the offspring of Lu Qianfan and His Majesty, or the flesh and blood of His Majesty and that woman — isn't that entirely for me to say?"
As she spoke, Li Fei's expression turned grim.
"It's only, only... that this rather violates a physician's ethics..."
"Setting the realm to rights is the greater virtue."
Perfected Ge spoke up in consolation.
Not even Chancellor Liu had been admitted to tonight's discussion, yet Nie Yunyi let this old Daoist sit in on it — proof enough of how far he trusted the man.
"Mm, I understand. Everything requires a choice; otherwise I'd never resort to such a low expedient."
Li Fei bowed her head, pressed a hand over a conscience she did not possess, and sighed deeply.
"There is one gaping hole, however."
Perfected Ge's face was grave. "Determining whether two bloodlines share a source is hardly a profound art... any ordinary Daoist can pick out the father before the child is even born."
"Given the imperial house's resources, I expect that once the fetus has existed a few days and shows a spark of life, they can identify both parents."
"So if you mean to swap the heavens and the sun, Lu Qianfan must die."
"By then, however divine the imperial house's methods may be, all they can confirm is that the child is His Majesty's legitimate son — they will have no way to tell whether Lu Qianfan's blood runs in the young prince's veins..."
"Mm. So you'll have to kill Lu Qianfan."
Li Fei covered her mouth, her eyes dark and unreadable.
The sky was slowly brightening, but at some point a pale white mist had filled the fields on every side. It looked to be a day of heavy fog.
"Farewell!"
The three of them took their leave of one another and went their separate ways.
Li Fei strolled on through the haze, very little life in her face.
Nie Yunyi had, for the moment, accepted her plan to kill with a borrowed knife, and had willingly agreed to be that knife — yet Li Fei could summon no gladness at all. Her steps were heavy instead, weighted with fatigue.
Once she had left the comfort zone of Loxibrook, and once she had run into a wall on the high-society route she was best at, everything had turned difficult.
These past few days the imperial physician might have looked like a fish in water, singled out for favor by the emperor, the Empress, and Hero Nie — but the truth was otherwise.
Nie Yunyi maintained a steady guard and wariness toward this so-called immortal maiden. Let Li Fei expose even a sliver of her true nature and she'd be summoned to a midnight interview, then have to scramble for ways to settle him down again.
Zhao Bing appeared to trust his immortal maiden a great deal, but in the end that was only because Li Fei gave far too generously — and his bond with Lu Qianfan was unbreakable. However hard Li Fei worked at it, her weight in the emperor's heart could hardly match that of Nine Thousand Years.
As for Her Majesty the Empress, what lay between her and the imperial physician could never see daylight; exposure would mean death without question. Li Fei even suspected that merely setting down the Forbidden course of treatment in writing would be enough to get the record buried.
And on top of all that, she had to watch for the open blades and hidden spears of Lu Qianfan's faction.
With all those currents churning below the surface, Li Fei could only take one step and then look for the next, gathering intelligence, revising her plans again and again — and even then she might not get what she wanted.
Treading on thin ice like this, blind and unaided, wore her out. There were moments she wanted to let it all rot and run home to Loxibrook.
There she could have all the security she wanted, could indulge in a little temper and a little wheedling, and no matter how enormous the disaster she caused, the worst outcome was being shut in the basement to bear a few daughters.
Fortunately, it stayed a passing thought.
Li Fei slapped both hands hard against her cheeks, brushing the weariness from her face, and put her bright, dazzling smile back on. Then, with a creak, she pushed open Miss Stepdaughter's door.
Outside, the fog was still thick, thick enough that no one could make out the road ahead — but inside the room the laughter of young girls rang out, rising and drifting toward the sky.
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