Chancellor King pulled over the tattered curtain and wrapped it around his shoulders, speaking heavily: “…After you left, Lucas Carter lost the emperor’s favor. Edward Foster served the empress and was deeply favored, taking the post of Chief Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. Because of this, the Embroidered Uniform Guard declined, and the Twelve Divisions became nominal only. After Lucas Carter died, Ryan Carter took up the burden alone, and from then on, the Eastern Depot became the patron of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, no longer associating with the Eastern Palace. Later, the emperor suddenly fell ill and was often bedridden, so the trivial affairs of the court were handed over to the cabinet and the Eastern Palace. Who would have thought the Hua family, relying on the empress’s favor, placed many incompetent people in the court, causing the resurgence of bribery among the Six Ministries. The problem of the empress’s relatives has become entrenched; the crown prince has submitted many memorials, but Edward Foster, relying on his authority to approve documents, controls state affairs with the empress, so the prince’s memorials never reach the emperor. Not only that, after the emperor fell ill, the empress cut off all greetings from the cabinet and the Eastern Palace.”

“Eunuchs bring disaster to the country!” Samuel Carter sighed repeatedly. “If I had known Edward Foster had such ambition, we should never have spared him back then!”

“If you kill one Edward Foster, there will be another Pan Ruxi, Pan Ruyi!” Chancellor King said woodenly. “The harem meddles in politics, and the empress’s relatives dominate. Samuel Carter, you don’t understand, these are deep-rooted problems of the Eight Great Families of Qudu. Unless the Eight Great Families are eliminated, this will happen again and again! The empress has long resided in the palace—how could she control court affairs? It’s all because the Hua family has accumulated power for so long. Even if the empress weren’t surnamed Hua, but another of the Eight Great Families, this would still have happened.”

“But,” William Sullivan couldn’t help but ask, “isn’t the crown prince the legitimate son of the empress?”

“No.” Chancellor King lowered his head. “His Highness’s birth mother was a concubine in the palace. The empress has no children of her own, never gave birth. But His Highness was raised in the palace by the empress herself. As the saying goes, even a tiger won’t eat its cubs… but in the imperial family, there is no true father and son.”

The hall fell silent again.

Samuel Carter exhaled cold air and said hoarsely, “Because of my drunken negligence, my father lost the emperor’s favor. If not for that, His Highness would never have ended up here.”

“I once thought, with Lucas Carter and you before him, Ryan Carter would never turn against us.” Chancellor King clutched the tattered curtain, recalling with bitterness, “Who would have thought he…”

“You don’t know, Grand Tutor,” Samuel Carter looked at William Sullivan, “nor does Chuan’er. My father, Lucas Carter, was the late emperor’s sworn brother and also the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. But my father’s wife died early, and he never remarried, so he adopted three sons. Besides me and Ryan Carter, there was an eldest brother. The eldest brother, unable to bear the horrors of the imperial prison, left the capital early and went to serve as a soldier at Tianfei Que. Ryan Carter and I served in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, dutifully staying by our father’s side. All the Ji family’s boxing and sword techniques were taught by my father. Later, because of many things, my father thought Ryan Carter was not upright and suspected him of flattery, so he only passed on the family’s core teachings to me. From that moment, our brotherhood was completely broken. After my father died, Ryan Carter purged his subordinates, sent the old ones away, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard… was no longer what it used to be.”

Chancellor King murmured, “This is fate. The Eastern Palace officials worked together, yet still couldn’t protect His Highness. The emperor suspected the crown prince of treason, but the commanders of the Eight Great Camps in Qudu have always come from the Eight Great Families. The Embroidered Uniform Guard found treasonous documents and insisted they were His Highness’s doing. Our people were thrown into the imperial prison; many died, and those who couldn’t withstand torture confessed. The emperor, furious in his illness, believed Edward Foster’s slander, and His Highness was left with no way out.”

His face was streaked with tears, and he seemed to go mad again.

“His Highness is trapped here, with no way out! Why not kill me? Why let me linger on alone! Living is so painful, yet I still haven’t gone to the afterlife.”

He suddenly fixed his gaze on William Sullivan, his tone growing wilder.

“—I am not resigned! Years of planning ruined in one day! So many Eastern Palace officials dead or wounded, His Highness’s injustice still unredressed—I am not resigned!” He grabbed William Sullivan’s arm again. “You are so young, you still have a chance!”

“Grand Tutor…” Samuel Carter stood up, trying to stop him.

“You can protect him for a while, but can you protect him for a lifetime!” Chancellor King gripped William Sullivan tightly. “Today, I forgive you for your fatherly heart, I do not hate him, I do not blame him, but can you make the whole world think the same? As long as his surname is Shen, there will always be people who want to kill him! Will martial arts really keep him safe? Samuel Carter, your father was a martial arts master, but in the end, didn’t he still die lonely and sick! In this Qudu, in this ever-changing tide of power, invisible killers are the deadliest! How can you bear to let him face wolves and tigers so defenselessly!”

Samuel Carter clenched his fists in silence.

Chancellor King pulled William Sullivan, but suddenly fell to his knees. He looked at William Sullivan, his voice trembling and choked with sobs: “I am Qi Huilian of Yuzhou! You don’t know me, let me tell you—I was the top scorer in all three imperial exams in the fifteenth year of Yongyi. Since the founding of the Great Zhou, only five people have ever achieved that. I was an official of the Eastern Palace, also Minister of Personnel, and Deputy Chief of the Cabinet. I taught the crown prince, and now, now I will teach you! I will teach you everything I have learned in my life—will you accept?”

William Sullivan stared into Chancellor King’s eyes, extraordinarily calm. After a brief silence, he knelt down with a “thud” and kowtowed three times to Chancellor King.

“Sir, you teach me poetry and books, and I will avenge your old enemies.”

* * *

At the hour of the rabbit, Sophia Reed left home and headed to Zhaozui Temple. The air was cold and clear, and snow was still falling. He breathed into his hands as he walked, looking for a bun shop along the way.