"The Greedy Wolf Star has gone dark, and the curtain falls on the all-powerful minister…"
Liu Gongming gazed up at the night sky, his aged figure looking rather desolate.
"Chancellor Liu, I've not failed in my mission."
Li Fei appeared silently behind the old minister. "The eunuch cur has been put to the sword. The long night is about to end."
"Lord Li has done another good deed for the common people. Truly, a pillar of the state without peer."
Liu Gongming's sigh sounded distinctly jarring.
Li Fei seemed not to notice, playing the part of a gentle, courteous junior. "This humble woman has little talent and less learning. I can only wave swords and spears about. From now on, the court will have to rely on Chancellor Liu to hold things together."
"This old minister will keep the late Emperor's charge in mind and exhaust every effort."
Liu Gongming lowered his eyes, his back turned to Li Fei from start to finish.
"Chancellor Liu understands the greater good!"
With that admiring remark, Li Fei's figure vanished into the night.
"…"
Liu Gongming turned around. There was no one behind him, as if their exchange had been a hallucination.
But a Longevity Fruit had definitely appeared on the ground.
Zhao Bing, Lu Qianfan, Nie Yunyi… those who had once stood at the crest of the storm and turned the sun and moon with their hands were leaving the stage one after another. A veteran of four reigns, he had witnessed yet another era draw to a close.
The bleak chill of years rushing past and the whole world gone quiet froze the old man's body into a block of ice. Only a lick of hot blood deep in his heart still flowed.
Liu Gongming knew that if he fell too, the Great Song would truly collapse.
With a long sigh, the old man lowered his eyes, bent down, and picked up the Longevity Fruit. He wiped it on his sleeve and bit down with a crunch.
*
"Water…"
Li Fei's eyes opened, hollow with exhaustion and fatigue. Her lips were pale as paper. With her sickly face and piteous look, she was an irresistible sight.
Nine Thousand Years was dead and the court was rid of its greatest thorn. It was beyond doubt a cause for celebration, and naturally the late Emperor's widows meant to reward their heaven-sent heroine, a beauty beyond compare, in style.
But there were too many monks and too little gruel. Each noble lady could only take a sip. So when her own turn came, she naturally clamped on and refused to let go, sucking the marrow from the bone.
As everyone knows, once a sponge has been wrung by a hundred pairs of hands, no amount of squeezing will get another drop out of it…
All one can say is that the noble ladies were worthy of being reincarnated stars of heaven. Working together, they left even Miss Commander, who had slain an Earthly Immortal, with two fists against too many hands and no defense left.
Consort Hui brought a cup of clear tea and propped Li Fei up to give her a drink.
But the moment her soft, slender hand touched the back of Li Fei's head, Miss Commander, who hadn't so much as frowned with a Martial Saint's murderous sword at her throat, flinched like a bird that had seen the shadow of a bow. A single tear fell as she begged in a small voice:
"I, I'm already… bone dry."
Consort Hui laughed softly and wiped the tear away with her fingertip.
"Look at that. Aren't there still tears?"
"Gulp… this is too much! If you've got the guts, kill me! Kill me!"
Li Fei babbled nonsense.
Miss Tail, usually so lively and restless, was lying low too. She had clearly learned her lesson and didn't dare show off again.
"All right, drink."
Consort Hui patiently and tenderly helped Li Fei sit up and fed her the water bit by bit.
"Chicken soup's here!"
After the third cup went down, Consort Xiang walked into the room carrying a big clay pot of glistening golden soup. A generous amount of Serpent-woman scales had gone into it, left here earlier by Li Fei herself.
She had to admit it: this foreign noblewoman, seemingly so spoiled and willful that she'd never lifted a finger in a kitchen, was in fact deft and clever. She had a decent hand at cooking, and her soup came out neither too salty nor too bland, rich and delicious.
Catching the familiar aroma, Li Fei perked up at once. She didn't even mind the heat, slurping down the broth and tearing into the meat with relish.
Consort Hui took her lover's hand, and the two nestled together, quietly watching Li Fei eat, their eyes soft as water.
Evidently, the sight of the awe-inspiring Miss Commander trembling like a startled bird was simply too endearing, and it stirred the maternal instincts in their hearts.
"I'm alive again…"
With a giant serving of chicken soup in her belly, Li Fei finally regained a bit of her strength.
The witch race's adaptability was no joke. Like the legendary Beheading Witch Mami Tomoe, who could keep fighting two-threaded without batting an eye even after her head came off, Li Fei's constitution had been quietly transforming through round after round of rivers of water. She could now recover quickly even when her cells were desperately dehydrated.
But in the next moment she sharply noticed the overflowing maternal love in the two ladies' eyes. Her heart lurched and she thought, uh-oh.
To keep them from setting their sights on her DNA, Li Fei struck first:
"If you two sisters are willing, this younger sister can give you some immortal medicine to help you bear a precious daughter soon… And with the late Emperor not yet cold in his grave, as long as the right connections are greased, even if you two became pregnant, you could claim the child was the late Emperor's posthumous daughter. That should spare you a lot of gossip…"
"Little sister doesn't know it, but I've yearned for the immortals since I was young. I just never had the fate to seek the Way," Consort Hui said, taking Li Fei's hand and coaxing her gently. "If I could raise a little immortal, it would settle a regret in my heart… Would little sister be willing to help me realize it?"
—How does "helping others fulfill their wishes" turn into urging another girl to have a baby with your wife when it comes out of your mouth?
—If you want a baby, have one yourself! No way, no way!
Li Fei declined politely. "A matter this big can't be treated lightly…"
"Life is a play. If we sisters play at the world together, what's wrong with that?"
Consort Hui slipped an arm around Li Fei's shoulder and whispered into her ear. "Sister has an idea, actually…"
Her warm breath was thick with temptation. Li Fei listened to the idea, and her heart began to pound.
It turned out that the more you suppress something, the more it warps. The daughter of the Minister of Rites, so dignified and virtuous on the surface, so graceful and sweet-hearted as Consort Hui, had been thoroughly broken by a strict upbringing followed by a life shut away in the deep palace.
Her proposal was something like Russian roulette.
The two ladies would take a potion that let two women bear a daughter even on the plane of the Demon-Sealing Continent, and Li Fei would use her tail to play a three-way game of chance.
As for whose child it turned out to be, they would leave it to fate. And they would never test it, and would raise the child as their own daughter.
"What does little sister think?"
Consort Hui breathed the words out like orchid perfume.
Li Fei fell silent.
Consort Xiang knew no taboos. Consort Hui was thoroughly broken. And Li Fei… how could she claim to be a decent person?
The instinct to chase the Forbidden and the thrill of it stirred from the abyss of her soul, churning and boiling, and pushed Miss Witch to a decision.
"Well… it's not that I can't."
In the end, Li Fei made the hard decision in a hoarse voice.
*
"Pluck the flower when it's ripe for the plucking…"
The Empress Dowager lifted her brush and wrote out the line Li Fei had given her.
The seven-day mourning period hadn't ended yet, and Su Wen still wore plain mourning white, which made her complexion look all the more cold and clear.
Of course, the court's balance of power had been turned upside down in those few days, and Li Fei's killings had sent the capital into chaos. The court officials had long since put the late Emperor out of their minds and came and went freely during the condolence period. The noble ladies were only going through the motions. As long as they wore plain white and stayed within the imperial mausoleum, no one asked what they actually did.
"Mm…"
Su Wen suddenly gave a soft hum and pressed a hand to her temple, feeling pinpricks of pain. An inexplicable sourness and melancholy welled up inside her.
It was as if the flower she had so painstakingly cultivated, too reluctant to pick, had been left blooming on its branch, only to be snapped up by someone else.
A breeze suddenly blew from behind her, carrying the fragrance of tea.
"Guess who I am."
Li Fei's voice was coquettish and bright.
Su Wen's lips parted, but with her steady, self-possessed nature, she simply couldn't bring herself to say any of those cloying pet names. She turned and embraced her instead, saying softly:
"Who else could it be."
"I've been a bit busy these past few days. Did you miss me?"
Li Fei shifted her balance slightly and very willfully let her whole weight settle on the Empress Dowager, letting herself be held.
"Day and night."
Su Wen buried her face in her lover's shoulder, then her eyelids fluttered.
The moment her nose brushed those soft strands of hair, she could clearly smell a hundred flowers beyond the rich scent of tea, as if her beloved had rolled around in a garden before coming to find her.
The most obvious of them was orchid, the fragrance that filled Consort Hui's Weiyang Palace.
—So you've been busy at the Spider Cave these past few days, have you?
Su Wen lowered her eyes, a wave of dizziness washing over her.
Yet at the same time, her own singular visualization technique, a path she'd carved out herself, was advancing at an absurd speed. The clouds of mist along the road ahead were parting layer by layer. Her spirit surged with vitality, swelling and filling, and made her temples throb.
"Liking is possession. Love is letting go."
"As long as she's happy, isn't that enough?"
"It's the three palaces and six courts either way. Isn't a fairy ten thousand times better than that dog of an emperor?"
"…"
Miss Fiend had begun murmuring in her ear without pause. In the end Su Wen said nothing, only holding Li Fei tighter, as if to knead her into her own chest.
"How much did you miss me… ah!"
Li Fei suddenly cried out, because Su Wen had scooped her up behind the knees and lifted Miss Commander clear off the ground in her arms.
In other people's eyes, Li Fei was of course a commanding, mature beauty, with hair falling like a waterfall, a tall figure, and graceful curves.
But before the dignified, aloof Empress Dowager, she looked young.
After all, Su Wen was not only taller, so that Li Fei had to rise slightly onto her toes when they embraced, but her cold, elegant, upright face also looked more mature than Li Fei's. Even Li Fei's ample bosom paled before the mother of the nation.
Su Wen held Li Fei like an older sister holding a younger one, like a mother holding her daughter.
—I, I haven't recovered yet!
Seeing Su Wen silently heading for the bedroom, Li Fei, still shaken, anxiously tried to dissuade her:
"Empress Dowager, we're still in mourning. Restraint, restraint… we mustn't corrupt the future wise sovereign."
"'Pluck the flower when it's ripe for the plucking, and don't wait for an empty branch.' Those were your words, and I haven't forgotten them to this day."
Evidently, Su Wen had not changed her mind.
And so, during the mourning period for her husband, whose body was barely cold, the Empress Dowager in her white mourning dress, before even leaving the mausoleum where the imperial ancestors were buried, carried the late Emperor's favored minister openly into the room.
The mountains ringing the imperial mausoleum grew a little greener still.
*
"You really won't come with me?"
Li Fei twirled the ends of Su Wen's hair around her fingertip, reluctant to let go.
"Someone has to keep watch here."
Su Wen softly stroked the child she carried, her voice gentle and calm.
"I'll leave some of the sisters from my cadres here."
Li Fei thought it over and gave her instructions. "I've done them favors, and they agree with my ideas and revere my abilities… At the very least, they're unlikely to step out of line for three to five years."
"Just have them run the Court Entertainment Office day to day. In a crisis, they can hold off an Innate-realm expert."
"Counting the Imperial Guards and the royalists, plus Chancellor Liu running the show, that should be enough for you to protect yourselves."
"And before I go, I'll clear away some of your troubles. Make an example of a few, to scare the rest."
"As long as I can hold the situation down for a while, when I come back the next time, things can only be better…"
"Oh, right. The treasury's empty. Before I leave, I'll confiscate from as many troublemakers as I can. With silver in hand, people will naturally risk their lives for you…"
Su Wen listened quietly, looking with tenderness at her beloved's haggard face.
Only when Li Fei had laid out most of her plans did she speak.
"You have your path to immortality. I'll keep Zhao'er's realm safe for her. Don't worry too much, or you'll hinder your own Way."
Her voice was as cool as ever, but resolve filled her eyes.
Women are gentle by nature, but a mother is strong.
Su Wen, who had always been aloof and self-admiring, content to watch the flowers bloom and fall outside her window, had made up her mind to rule from behind the curtain. She would pave the way for the child she carried, so the state wouldn't fall and her daughter wouldn't become a ruler of a lost kingdom.
"Don't worry!"
Hearing Su Wen's promise, Li Fei's worried look vanished too, and she broke into a dazzling smile. "My abilities will keep growing! As long as the Great Song doesn't collapse any time soon, it will surely last for ten thousand generations!"
"Give me three to five years and I'll surely win my place as an immortal. By then, never mind the Great Song's territory, the whole world will be in my pocket."
"Our daughter is destined to rule all under heaven, the sun and moon in the sky."
In that moment Li Fei was radiant, her ringing voice like clashing spears and galloping warhorses.
That peerlessly beautiful, kingdom-ruining face was taken over by thick greed and ambition, like fruit in an oil painting that never rots, like the mist that shrouds a black forest, alive and steeped in Depravity, sweet to the point of rot. Even her jet-black hair looked like writhing snakes, giving off an enthralling, sinister charm.
Su Wen gazed deeply at this flower blooming in the abyss, and couldn't help reaching out to touch petals that ran with blood and poison.
*
Though the whole city was draped in mourning white, the teahouse by the city gate was as lively as ever.
A storyteller in plain cloth robes took a swig of tea, snapped open a paper fan with a flick of one hand, and with the other struck the table hard with his gavel block, seizing the crowd's attention with the sound.
Once the patrons had all turned their heads, the storyteller cleared his throat and began, brows dancing:
"Where the stone pillar was stained with blood, a true dragon fell at the ancestral temple."
"Demons ran rampant across the land and the people suffered. Eunuchs sowed chaos in the court, and nothing could bind the six realms. An extraordinary person emerged!"
"When we last left off: the eunuch thief Lu colluded with villains, assassinated the Son of Heaven, and schemed to usurp the throne. The great lords of the court were leaderless, and watched as the nation teetered on collapse."
"The officials plotted in secret deep into the night, yet had no answer for the eunuch who held up the sky with one hand."
"Just as they were in utter despair, they heard three bursts of laughter."
"The ministers looked closely, and the laugher was none other than a mere woman."
"The Minister of Revenue, Zhao Jingren, glared and bristled, and scolded: 'Chiliarch Li, you and I eat the same Great Song stipend. Instead of thinking how to repay the nation, you mock us. What is the meaning of this?'"
"Under the furious eyes of the officials, the woman was not flustered in the least. Laughing and talking, she looked down on the whole court and declared in a clear voice: 'I do not laugh at anything else. I laugh at all of you gentlemen present, for not having one plan to kill the eunuch thief!'"
"Zhao Jingren, in a rage, slapped the table and rose: 'Then what plan do you have?'"
"Chiliarch Li smiled with her hands clasped behind her, facing the whole court, civil and military, and said with high spirits—"
"'I, though untalented…'"
"'am willing to cut off Lu Qianfan's head and hang it from the east gate!'"
As the storyteller's voice suddenly soared to a stirring pitch, a great wind rose.
A chill settled over the listeners, who turned as one to look toward the city wall.
A severed head hung above the towering city gate, swaying back and forth in the wind.
Who could have imagined that this head, with two dark-red streaks of blood tears still on its cheeks, had once sat on the neck of Nine Thousand Years, a man whose name could stop a child's crying?
"…Who would have thought that the eunuch cur who had the whole court trembling at the mere mention of his name, when he ran into the righteous Chiliarch Li, would turn pale as gold paper and scurry away with his head in his hands, a miserable sight?"
"But even at the brink of death he refused to give in. He tried to tempt her with profit, offering his family fortune in exchange for his life."
"Chiliarch Li was furious, and thundered: 'The people below are easily abused, but Heaven cannot be deceived. Your pay and your stipend are the fat and grease of the common people! Today, this official will claim justice for all living beings!'"
"With that, her blade rose and fell, and she beheaded the villain, tears streaming, shaking like a sieve."
"The all-powerful Nine Thousand Years thus met his end under Chiliarch Li's blade, eyes open in death. And the late Emperor, who had an eye for talent, had drafted his final edict long before he was harmed, naming Chiliarch Li Commander of the Demon Suppression Bureau. It was only that the eunuch thief Lu, truly despicable, had hidden the late sovereign's imperial edict… until Chiliarch Li slew the traitor with her own hands and that final edict saw the light of day."
"With the hopes of all upon her, Chiliarch Li donned the red robe and took charge of the Demon Suppression Bureau. She strictly disciplined her subordinates and forbade them from bullying men or seizing women. For a time the great Song knew peace on the seas and clear rivers, with song and dance in the streets…"
"And that is how good and evil all meet their reward in the end, and how the cycle of Heaven never errs."
"Some of you will ask, just where did this Lord Li come from? How did she come by such courage and strategy?"
"Let me tell you. Lord Li was in truth a fairy of the heavenly palace, a close friend of the Immortal Venerable, high above, standing among the clouds. But she had a bodhisattva's heart that grieved for the world, and couldn't bear the suffering of the mortal realm. So she defied heaven's law and descended on her own, even at the cost of falling out with the Immortal Venerable who guards the passage between the immortal and mortal worlds, just to come here and rid us of tyrants and heal the world…"
"Some of you may not know that besides slaying villains, she also gave us grain seeds and reformed national policy. In the near term she's saved countless lives, and in the long term her merit will last a thousand years!"
"Perhaps Lord Li doesn't want our gratitude and asks only for a clear conscience. But in my humble opinion, once the common folk of the Great Song eat Dragon Blood Rice three meals a day, and no longer have to run for cover at the sight of the Living King of Hell of the Demon Suppression Bureau, every one of us should bow three times to Lord Li, to Saint Li! Otherwise, we don't deserve to be called subjects of the Great Song…"
Clang!
The crowd was still spellbound when a gold ingot suddenly landed heavily on the storyteller's table.
They looked around but saw no one, only felt a breeze pass by them and smelled the faint fragrance of tea in the air.
"This humble commoner kowtows in thanks to Immortal Li, Lord Li, Li the Just, Saint Li!"
Only the storyteller sensed what had happened. Cradling the gold ingot in both hands, he knelt trembling toward the heavens. "The immortal's great kindness will never be forgotten!"
The listeners, dazed and uncomprehending, knelt along with him:
"The immortal's great kindness will never be forgotten…"
The warm sun shone down on the earth, and the villain who had feasted off the whole world was finally gone.
But this time, it wasn't justice defeating evil. It was a greater evil swallowing the old one and dressing itself up as justice. Or perhaps it had always been that way?
____
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