There was a small house in the western side of the capital city, only one street away from the bustling Yongxing Street. Just after midnight, a sedan chair stopped at the door of the house. A man dressed as a guard lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and helped down the person inside. “Your Highness.”

Xiao Cheng coughed. He asked, “Have you investigated thoroughly?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Wu Ya, the former servant from the Shangyi Bureau, lives here.”

Xiao Chen looked at the closed door and his eyes darkened. “Let’s go in.”

It was long past curfew and ordinary people were already sleeping peacefully. It was a moonless windy night. A faint light came from inside the house, casting a thin silhouette on the window; a silhouette that seemed to have been waiting for Xiao Cheng for a long time.

Reason told Xiao Cheng that this was most likely a trap. But right now, he didn’t care at all about anything else. Even if it was a trap, for a clue as to Shen Huaishi’s whereabouts, he had to jump into it. Fortunately, he brought a group of guards with him tonight. If the one inside this house wanted to assassinate him, it would a task more difficult that climbing to Heaven. He had nothing to worry about.

Xiao Cheng motioned for the guard to open the door. The two guards. one hand on the hilt of their swords, pushed the door open. Amidst the silence, the creaking of the door was particularly grating.

They were met with the sight of a man in white, standing in the room with the light behind him; with a beautiful appearance but a temperament as clear as icy jade. He bowed towards Xiao Cheng. “Your Highness.”

Xiao Cheng’s eyes deepened. “Cough… it’s you, Lin Qingyu.”

Lin Qingyu smiled slightly and said mockingly, “Why does Your Highness no longer call me ‘Little Qingyu’?”

Xiao Chen raised his hand. “All of you, step back.”

A guard hesitated. “Your Highness…”

Maybe it was due to the damage left by Shen Huashi’s sword or because he heard Lin Qingyu’s mocking tone, despite how pale Xiao Cheng’s face was, he did not forget to display a confident smirk. “He is nothing more than a doctor without even the strenght to truss a chicken. Does it look like he can thrust another sword through Gu’s chest? You can just wait outside.”

After the guards withdrew, only Lin Qingyu and Xiao Cheng were left in the room. Xiao Cheng stared straight at Lin Qingyu’s face. He used to be tempted by Lin Qingyu’s eyes that looked so much like Jingchun’s. But now he realized how ridiculous he had been.

The man in front of him was scheming, sinister and trecherous. The only things that lay hidden beaneath that peerless face was schemes and calculations. Didn’t Lin Qingyu’s presense her now signify that he had been the driving force behind everything?

How could such a person be like Jingchun?

Lin Qingyu said, “His Highness seems to have something to ask me.”

Xiao Cheng said, forcing out each word, “The palace sash that Wu Ya presented is not Jingchun’s.”

There were three of these palace sashes in total. One for himself and the other two, he gave to Shen Huaishi and Jingchun as evidence of their childhood friendship.

They had met in Changsheng Temple — a noble prince, a bodyguard from a shadow guard organization and a motherless fatherless little monk. The three had very different personalities — the prince was arrogant and contemptuous, the guard was loyal and honest and the little monk was guileless and innocent. Their identities were vastly different, they never should have crossed paths much less become close. His concubine mother had even instructed him, saying he would crown prince someday and then emperor and an emperor had no need for friends. But at that time, he had been too young. No matter how accomplished, he was nothing more than a child after all.

The time he spent in Changsheng Temple as a child, sheltering from illness, was the most relaxed and content he had ever been in this life. He didn’t have have to fight and scheme against his half-brothers; he didn’t have to remained solemn and composed in front of his Imperial mother; he didn’t have to wrack his brains thinking of ways to gain his father’s favor. He was just a child from an ordinary family with two good friends he got along with.

Once it was safe to return, he and Shen Huaishi bid farewell to Jingchun and returned to the palace. As a prince, he couldn’t leave the palace, but Shen Huaishi could. Every time he went out of the palace, he would go to Changsheng Temple to visit Jingchun and sometimes he would bring back the letters that Jingchun wrote to him. Until one day, Shen Huaishi couldn’t find Jingchun in Changsheng Temple. After inquiring, he found out that Jingchun had been found by his biological parents and brought home.

The sea of people is vast. It wasn’t easy two younglings to find Jingchun. Neither he nor Shen Huaishi thought that the next time they would see Jingchun, it would be in the palace.

A group of young newly selected palace eunuchs were lined up outside the Si Lijian, waiting for the old eunuch to purify their bodies. When Shen Huaishi was passing by, he heard a familiar sob and stopped to look, only to see His and His Highness’s good friend, wearing tattered clothes, tears running down his face, nose red from crying.

Shen Huaishi rescued Jingchun and took him to find Xiao Cheng. The rules in the palace were strict and there was no room for people of dubious origin. Xiao Cheng wanted to send Jingchun out of the palace but Jingchun buried himself in Shen Huaizhi’s arms, crying until he was out of breath. He said that he didn’t want to leave the palace, let alone go home and be beaten by his father. He wanted to stay in the palace with two friends.

Eunuchs had their bodies checked periodically. Jingchun could only escape once but not forever. The two couldn’t bear to let Jingchun get castrated so Xiao Cheng used some means to have Jingchun replace a little palace maid who had suddenly died of illness. The Young Xiao Cheng had no idea he had planted a seed for immeasurable trouble in the future and he had even felt smug about his meticulous arrangement.

Since then, the friendship between the three of them continued in the palace. Year after year, quietly, gradually, it deteriorated.

As he grew, he did everything to secure the position of crown prince. The Heavenly Prison Sect was loyal and devoted to him but he was ready to discard them when told to do so. However, the one thing he couldn’t let go of was that childhood friendship.

Because of their devotion to him, his father wanted to destroy the entire Heavenly Prison Sect. He planned everything and even though, because of Shen Huaishi, his heart softened and he hesitated in the end, he hadn’t stopped it from happening. Fortunately, he managed to rescue Shen Huaishi. But it was because of his soft-hearted hesitation, that his father became quite dissatisfied with him. So that when Jingchun’s hand in marraige was asked by the King of the North, he could do nothing.

He thought countless times, if he hadn’t saved Shen Huaishi’s life, would he have been able to keep Jingchun by his side?

Strangely, no matter how many times he thought about it, he never regretted his decision.

On the eve of Jing Chun’s marriage, the three met in secret. Jingchun hugged him and Shen Huaishi with tears in his eyes. He tightly held the palace sash, the symbol of their childhood friendship, and said that he would kill himself before the King of the North found out that he was a boy; he would not even leave behind a body to be found. In this way, they would not be implicated and the Dayu and the Northern Border would not fight because of him.

On the day of Jing Chun’s marriage, he saw with his own eyes, Jingchun wearing that palace sash as he was married away to the Northern Border. Later, he learned from the Tianji Camp that Jingchun was doing well and the King of the North doted him in every possible way. However, he didn’t know whether Jingchun had already revealed his identity. Thus, this matter became a heavy stone that could overwhelm him at any time. Only by ascending the throne as soon as possible could he, once this matter comes to light, protect himself and Shen Huaishi.

The palace sash that Wu Ya took out wasn’t Jingchun’s, nor was it his. So, it could only be Shen Huaishi’s. After Jingchun left, Shen Huaishi grew withdrawn, pouring his all into handling matter for him. The only person he had had any dealings with was Lin Qingyu.

Lin Qingyu… knew Shen Huaishi’s whereabouts.

Xiao Cheng’s eyes were burning, as though to see right through the person in front of him. “Where is he?”

Lin Qingyu shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Stop it with your drivel!” Xiao Cheng’s breathing quickened, “If you haven’t seen him, how did you come by that palace sash?”

“What is His Highness talking about?” Lin Qingyu said, “The palace sash was found by Wu Ya in his room after the Princess Jingchun got married.”

A sinister smile appeared on Xiao Cheng’s face. “You may be able to deceive others, but you cannot deceive Gu. Jingchun took his palace sash with him to the Northern Border. Even if you had a direct access to the highest authority, you would be able to get your hands on his. The one you gave to Wu Ya is Shen Huaishi’s.”

Lin Qingyu smiled as well. “Your Highness says it with such certainty. Then, why don’t tell this to the Emperor; having him punish me for my crime of deceiving the Emperor.”

Xiao Cheng gritted his teeth. “Lin Qingyu…!”

Lin Qingyu’s face was resplendent but his smile contained an indescribable sense of cunning. “Oh right, Concubine Chen… No, I should call her Chen Shi now. Chen Shi has pleaded guilty, repeatedly saying that this matter was her doing and that His Highness had no knowledge of what she did. If you go His Majesty to expose me, you will also be exposing yourself as an insider. Now, wouldn’t that be a waste of Chen Shi’s hard work?”

The taste of blood began to seep into Xiao Cheng’s mouth. He wanted nothing more than to hack to pieces this poisonous beauty, snap his bones and scatter his ashes. His pale lips was stained scarlet and he said coldly, “I’ll ask you one more time – where is Shen Huaishi?”

“And I’ll answer your Highness again. Your Highness should listen carefully.” Lin Qingyu said, “I do not know where he is. This palace sash was brought to me by someone else.”

Xiao Cheng’s chest heaved violently: “Impossible!”

“Why would that be impossible?” Lin Qingyu stepped forward. Clucking his tongue, he said, “How does Your Highness think I found out the truth? His sword was unable to take your life. Neither was he able to take away your position as crown prince. Then he can only think of some other way, don’t you think?”

“Hold your tongue!” Xiao Chen coughed violently, his eyes going bloodshot. “No matter how much Shen Huaishi hates me, he would never genuinely wish to take my life!”

Things having reached this point, Xiao Cheng has even forgotten he refer to himself with his respectful honorific. He must not be far from completely losing control.

Lin Qingyu gave a breathy sneer. It seemed he now had his answer as to whether Shen Huaishi missed that day due to a slip of the hand or due to his going soft-hearted.

“This palace sash was indeed voluntarily handed over to me by Imperial Guard Shen. Imperial Guard Shen is extremely skilled and an expert at concealing himself. Even the Tianji Camp is unable to find his whereabouts. A mere doctor without even the strength to truss a chicken couldn’t possibly have forced him to hand that over.” With eyes so similar to Jingchun’s, Lin Qingyu stared coldly at this “protagonist” wrapped in his halo. “You said he would never genuinely wish to take your life, but it was because of his sword that you have grown so weak. You’re even worse off than the late Young Master Hou. So, in the end, was he being soft-hearted or cruel?”

Xiao Cheng’s eyes were wide open. His once charming and handsome face had turned malevolent. His eyes, before frivolous and fickle, now held only intense love and hatred.

Lin Qingyu smiled, “Perhaps, he truly did not wish to kill you. You saved him. But the entire Heavely Prison Sect died because of you. After you saved him, did you treat him kindly? You treat him as your exclusive property, humiliated him in bed without restrain. And even out of bed, he had to risk his life to follow your orders. He suffered countless wounds, big and small, because of you. Several times, he came close to death. Granting you death with a single sword strike; where would be the fun in that? Watching you suffer all kinds of torment, opposed by all, deserted by your friends; abandoned by the Emperor, abandoned by Dayu; being reduced to mere trash. Wouldn’t this be more enjoyable?!”

Xiao Cheng couldn’t control his legs from taking a step back. He leaned against the room’s pillar. His lips trembling, he said, stricken with terror, “No…he-he can’t…”

“What is the truth, I have already told His Highness.” Lin Qingyu said calmly, “It is His Highness’s choice whether to believe it or not.”

Xiao Cheng’s face turned purple. He raised his eyes, looking at the teardrop mole at the corner of Lin Qingyu’s eye. He murmured, a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of his mouth. “Gu-guards…” Blood continued to flow from out his mouth, soaking the four-toed python on his chest, “Guards!”

The guards waiting outside the door heard the sound of movement and rushed in immediately. “Your Highness!”

Two of the guards supported Xiao Cheng on his left and right. A third person drew his sword and put it on Lin Qingyu’s shoulder. “You outrageous assassin! What have you done to His Highness!”

Lin Qingyu looked down at Xiao Cheng from above and said, “If you hurt me in the slightest, you will never see him again in this life.”

Xiao Chen closed his eyes. “…Return to the palace.”

Lin Qingyu showed a dry smile. “Take care, Your Highness. Forgive me for not seeing you off.”

It was past the third watch. Gu Fuzhou had been waiting quietly in the side room, listening to the entire of their big play. He knew that tonight there would only be a battle of words; there would be no violence. However, just in case, he surrounded had surrounded the residence with his trusted guards.

He had been a little uneasy when the guards broke in. But his wife was truly worthy of being his wife. With just a few words, he managed to escape unscathed.

Lin Qingyu pushed open the door to the side room and Gu Fuzhou greeted him with a yawn. “All done?”

Lin Qingyu nodded. “Xiao Cheng vomited blood.”

Spitting up blood was a grave matter. After he started vomiting blood back then, his body deteriorated rapidly and within a few months, he died right before Lin Qingyu’s eyes.

Gu Fuzhou took off his cloak and put it on Lin Qingyu. He placed his hand gently Lin Qingyu’s hair. “Then let’s head home.”