On the final day the coffin lay in state, word finally came: someone had been seen moving about Beishan late at night, shifting several massive boulders and burying them beneath the snow. "Looks like they went with Plan B," Yu Wanyin said. "Are our people in position?" "They've been lying in wait in the mountains for days," Xiahou Dan said. "On the day of the funeral procession, the palace guard will also seal off Beishan. They won't get a chance to move." They finalized the operational details with the shadow guards, and then Yu Wanyin brought up the matter of Xie Yong'er. Xiahou Dan raised no objection and arranged for a carriage to see her off. Even with everything in place, Yu Wanyin felt a growing unease, as though some crucial detail had slipped past her. She ran through the plan again and again in her head, and the more she thought about it, the more dangerous it seemed. "Don't spend all your worry on other peopl...
It was less that any one person had done this to him than that heaven itself seemed determined to drive him mad step by step. The foul air churned in Xiahou Dan's chest, rattling through every organ, and when it finally left him, all that came out was a faint, tired mutter. "Unlucky bastard." Something in Yu Wanyin's expression shifted. She took his hand. "His luck won't stay bad forever. He ran into us." For a moment Xiahou Dan wasn't even sure who she meant by "us." His confusion must have shown on his face, because she added, "You and me." They still hadn't gotten anything out of the former crown prince. He seemed to know his life was already ruined. Whenever anyone looked at him, he only smiled that thin, sinister smile, one that sometimes looked exactly like the Empress Dowager's. Xiahou Dan had issued the decree stripping him of his title and confining him to reflect on his wrongs, but he hadn't had him ki...