Shangguan Xi remained silent, as if he did not know how to respond.
Yan Weichi had no intention of waiting for a reply. The moment her words fell, she strode out.
Upon seeing this, Yu Feiyan called out, "Hey! Where are you going?"
Without looking back, Yan Weichi answered, "Just going for a stroll. Don't wait up for me to eat!"
***
Over the next few days, the entire Crown Prince's Mansion was a hive of bustling renovation activity.
Shangguan Xi spent his time tending to his injuries and recovering his vitality.
As for Yan Weichi, she left early and returned late every day, bringing back all sorts of strange objects. No one knew what she was so busy with.
One night, Yu Feiyan simply could not curb his curiosity. He went to Shangguan Xi's study to ask about the situation.
"Senior Brother, do you have any idea what Yan Weichi is actually up to? She hasn't eaten at home for several days now."
Shangguan Xi was in the midst of reviewing the roster of officials from the Six Ministries and paid little mind to Yu Feiyan's words. Hearing the question, he merely gave a slight shake of his head and said, "No."
"No? Aren't you even curious?" Yu Feiyan pressed on.
Shangguan Xi replied indifferently, "What is there to be curious about?"
"Ugh..." Yu Feiyan was long accustomed to Shangguan Xi's cold demeanor.
He had always attributed this sort of temperament to the inner cultivation method of Qianqiu Xue. After all, practicing such an internal art required one's mind to be as tranquil as an ancient well and one's disposition to be as cold as frost, free from extremes of sorrow or joy.
And yet... and yet Yan Weichi was truly bizarre.
How could the daughter of a concubine who raised pigs possess such a fiery temperament, not to mention know so much?
Yu Feiyan declared, "Forget it. You aren't curious, but I am! I'm going to go ask her!"
Just as Yu Feiyan made to leave, Shangguan Xi put down the roster and intercepted him, saying, "Even if you go ask, she won't necessarily tell you. As long as we know she harbors no ill intent toward us, let her be."
Yu Feiyan was just about to argue when thunder suddenly rumbled outside.
*Rumble! Crash!*
Yu Feiyan observed, "Spring thunder rolling—the weather is about to change."
Shangguan Xi rose and walked over to the window. Staring out at the sky—where lightning flashed and thunder rolled even though the rain had yet to fall—he murmured softly, "The sky over the Capital City is about to change, too."
Yu Feiyan looked at Shangguan Xi, his face eager and raring to go as he asked, "Has Senior Brother already chosen your target?"
Shangguan Xi stated, "Yang Yunfeng, Junior Minister of the Ministry of Personnel."
Yu Feiyan understood. Shangguan Xi intended to begin his infiltration from the Ministry of Personnel, gradually gathering the power of the Six Ministries into his own hands.
Yet how exactly did he plan to do it?
And what was so special about this Yang Yunfeng?
Just as Yu Feiyan was about to inquire further, Steward Zhang walked in from outside.
"Reporting to the Crown Prince, the Crown Princess has gone out!" Steward Zhang's face was etched with worry, clearly filled with anxiety.
Shangguan Xi frowned slightly and looked up at the sky.
Though it was only early evening, the present scene looked as though a heavy downpour was imminent. Not only was the sky pitch black, but lightning flashed and thunder rolled in the distance. What on earth was she going out for at an hour like this?
Shangguan Xi asked, "Did she say where she was going?"
Steward Zhang gave a slight shake of his head.
*Rumble! Crash!*
The lightning and thunder grew increasingly violent.
Seeing this, Yu Feiyan offered, "This is far too dangerous, Senior Brother. I'll go check on her!"
Shangguan Xi thought for a moment and replied, "There's no need. I don't have that much leisure to waste on her. Deliver this letter to Tianshu; he will know what to do."
Shangguan Xi produced a letter and handed it to Yu Feiyan, then turned back to his desk to resume his work.
Feeling that important matters took precedence, Yu Feiyan pushed Yan Weichi to the back of his mind.
Yet despite claiming he would pay her no heed, once Shangguan Xi sat back down, he found himself unable to calm his mind enough to continue plotting.
He turned his gaze to the packet of lotus seed candy that Yan Weichi had previously thrust upon him, then glanced out at the gloomy weather. In the end, unable to help himself, he changed into a set of night-walker's garments and quietly slipped out of the Crown Prince's Mansion.
He simply had to see what on earth Yan Weichi was sneaking around to do.
***
The Capital City was vast, and finding someone whose whereabouts were unknown was no easy task.
Yet finding someone behaving bizarrely was not particularly difficult either.
No sooner had Shangguan Xi stepped onto Xuanwu Avenue than he overheard a mother and son conversing.
"Mother, I want a kite too, I want a kite!" a young boy whined, pestering his mother.
Dragging him by the hand, the mother hurried along as she replied, "Be good and stop making a fuss. It's about to rain, so we can't play with kites. When it clears up tomorrow, Mother will buy you one."
"Then why could that older sister play with one just now?" the boy demanded, unconvinced.
With a bitter grimace, the mother muttered, "She... she's probably an idiot. Alright, alright, stop carrying on and let's hurry home. One look at this sky tells you the rain won't be small!"
An idiot?
Shangguan Xi raised an eyebrow slightly, finding that this description fit Yan Weichi to a T.
He traced the direction the mother and son had come from, backtracking against their path.
Sure enough, before long, he spotted a square kite flying high in the air—pure white and entirely devoid of any aesthetic appeal.
With fierce gales currently sweeping through, the kite was flying exceptionally high.
Shangguan Xi pulled a mask over his face, tipped his toes, and leaped into the air, gliding swiftly in the direction of the kite.
After a few bounds, he caught sight of Yan Weichi, who was walking along while flying the kite.
What on earth was this girl up to?
Out flying a kite in such atrocious weather?!
Shangguan Xi found himself utterly unable to comprehend her actions.
However, he did comprehend her trajectory.
The path she was walking step by step led nowhere else than to the estate of Second Prince Shangguan Li.
Shangguan Xi's expression turned stern, though he still could not fathom Yan Weichi's intentions.
Yet he had a gut feeling that Yan Weichi was up to no good.
With practiced patience, Shangguan Xi continued to trail her, watching as she skirted around to the back alley of the Second Prince's Mansion and came to a stop beside a large tree.
She then tucked the kite's spool into her waistband and began scaling the tree using both hands and feet.
Though her movements were far from agile, it was not difficult to tell she was quite familiar with this particular tree.
In just a few scuttling moves, she reached the fork in the trunk.
What on earth was this girl trying to do?
At that exact moment, Shangguan Xi was not the only one feeling perplexed.
A mysterious man dressed in purple was also bewildered.
The man was lying in the tree taking a nap—the very same tree Yan Weichi had climbed.
However, the dense canopy concealed his form, preventing both Yan Weichi nearby and Shangguan Xi in the distance from detecting his presence.
Lowering his gaze to look at Yan Weichi below, he raised an eyebrow in curiosity and thought to himself, *Such a bizarre little lass. Why would anyone climb a tree to fly a kite?*
Yet an even stranger spectacle awaited them.
Once Yan Weichi had steadied herself, she gave the spool a tug to confirm the kite was still flying smoothly.
Then, with a flip of her wrist, a slingshot materialized in her palm.
Hidden in the shadows at a distance, Shangguan Xi was naturally unable to make out Yan Weichi's movements or tell where she had pulled the item from.
The man in purple overhead, however, saw it clearly; he distinctly observed Yan Weichi produce the item out of thin air.
Growing intrigued, the man in purple turned sideways to focus his attention entirely on Yan Weichi.
After taking out the slingshot, Yan Weichi produced a soft ball roughly the size of an infant's fist from who-knows-where.
The soft ball appeared to be crafted from sheep's stomach.
She placed the soft ball onto the slingshot and took aim at the Second Prince's estate.
What was she up to now?
In the shadows, Shangguan Xi's mouth twitched as he muttered to himself, "Could she possibly be trying to smash Shangguan Li's windows with a slingshot? How... utterly childish!"
Shangguan Xi had clearly guessed wrong.
Instead, Yan Weichi launched those soft balls one by one onto the roof of Shangguan Li's estate.
Moreover, she possessed an uncanny sense of timing.
She only released a ball the moment she saw a flash of lightning.
When the ball landed on the roof, it coincided precisely with a crash of thunder.
The deafening boom of *rumble-crash* masked the dull *thuds* of the soft balls landing.
Upon striking the roof, the soft balls instantly burst apart with a soft *snap*, oozing a colorless liquid that was impossible to make out.
What on earth was she doing?
Neither Shangguan Xi nor the man in purple could figure it out.
The two of them silently observed every single move Yan Weichi made.
Seeing that all the balls had been launched, she drew a small knife and severed the kite string.
Next, she tied a small stone to the tail end of the broken string.
Finally, she used the slingshot to launch the small stone up onto Shangguan Li's roof.
Following a crisp *clack*, the small stone, trailing the kite string, landed firmly on the roof.
Caught by the wind, the kite fluttered in the sky—unable to fly away yet unable to fall down.
It remained virtually anchored to Shangguan Li's rooftop.
Yan Weichi quietly watched the scene unfold before her. Once she confirmed everything was in order, she climbed down using her hands and feet.
That was it?
What... what was the point of all this?
Just as both Shangguan Xi and the man in purple failed to make sense of the scene, the lightning and thunder in the sky grew increasingly ferocious.
Yan Weichi broke into a run, darting into a shadowy alley directly opposite the Second Prince's Mansion, and gazed up at the kite.
Since she had no intention of leaving, neither Shangguan Xi nor the man in purple planned to move either.
All three of them, each hidden in their respective shadows, watched the kite dancing in the sky.
Before long, a bolt of purple-and-white lightning split the sky in two.
In an instant, the blinding illumination turned the dark night of the Capital City as bright as day.
Hidden in the shadows, Yan Weichi clenched her hands together in excitement, craning her neck to watch her kite.
*Rumble! Crash!*
*Crack!*
The lightning struck the kite with pinpoint accuracy.
*Bzzzt-crack!* Trailing a blaze of sparks and electricity, the electric arc surged straight down the kite string and directly onto Shangguan Li's roof!
With a deafening crash, the entire roof was blown wide open!
Yet this was not even the final act.
The moment the roof took the hit, it instantly erupted into roaring flames!
A terrifying sight!
"Good heavens, someone come quickly! The roof was struck by lightning!"
"Help! Someone help, there's a fire! It's on fire!"
"Quick, notify the Prince! Put out the fire!"
...
The Second Prince's estate instantly descended into utter chaos.
Standing off to the side, Yan Weichi snapped her fingers and said with a beaming smile, "It worked! Justice from the heavens! This way, Shangguan Xi won't have to worry about the old Emperor giving him a hard time!"
Hearing this murmured monologue from the shadows, Shangguan Xi felt a sudden, inexplicable surge in his chest.
So... so she had gone to all this immense trouble simply to vent his pent-up grievances.
So her busyness over the past few days had all been a scheme to draw down lightning to incinerate Shangguan Li's roof.
So... so she actually held his words so deeply to heart.
Shangguan Xi frowned slightly, at a loss for how to describe the sensation blooming in his chest.
Watching Yan Weichi skip away in high spirits, her face beaming with joy, Shangguan Xi's lips curved upward as he couldn't help but offer a faint, involuntary smile.
Once both husband and wife had departed, the man in purple who had been up in the tree earlier leaped down to the ground.
As ill luck would have it, he was spotted directly by a servant from the Second Prince's estate who was rushing out to fight the fire.
The servant shrieked in alarm, "You're the one who set the fire!"
Dusting the dirt from his head, the man in purple retorted irritably, "I think you're the one blowing hot air! This young master is neither the God of Thunder nor the Mother of Lightning! Where would I get the ability to strike your roof?"
Paying the servant no mind, the man in purple tipped his toes and glided away.
As he walked, he muttered under his breath, "Such a formidable lass—tung oil, saltpeter, and silver wire. To think she'd employ such an ingenious method of arson. This young master must find out who you are."
***
Crown Prince's Mansion.
No sooner had Yan Weichi reached the gates of the Crown Prince's Mansion than heavy raindrops began to fall.
Yan Weichi looked up at the sky and gave a cold chuckle. "A bit too late with that rain. That fire should at least be enough to burn down one of his entire side courtyards."
Extremely satisfied, Yan Weichi figured Shangguan Li had smashed her print shop, so she had torched one of his courtyards.
Tit for tat, after all!
Joyfully skipping back to her chambers, Yan Weichi pushed open the door—only to find Shangguan Xi seated at the desk.
Stunned, Yan Weichi froze in place, stumbling over her words, "Th... the Crown Prince?"
Putting down the blueprints in his hand, Shangguan Xi looked up at her constrained figure and asked in an even tone, "Where have you been?"
Yan Weichi pressed her lips together. "I... I went out for a walk!"
"Thunder, lightning, howling wind, and driving rain—and you went out for a walk?" Shangguan Xi did not expose Yan Weichi's lie, but he was clearly probing her.
Feigning composure, Yan Weichi replied, "Y... yes! I was out walking, and halfway through I realized it started raining, so I came back!"
Shangguan Xi rose to his feet and closed the distance toward Yan Weichi step by step.
Perhaps because she harbored a guilty conscience, Yan Weichi felt a twinge of panic and retreated step by step.
Seeing that she was about to back right into the door panel, Yan Weichi instinctively raised both hands, palms facing outward, adopting a defensive posture.
"Your Highness, if you have something to say, just say it. There's no need to stand so close—"
***
Shangguan Xi had originally intended to back her into a corner and force the truth out of her, but when he lowered his gaze and caught sight of the faint, jagged scratches peppering the back of Yan Weichi's hands, the words caught in his throat.
Those wounds must have been caused by climbing trees.
The hand Shangguan Xi held behind his back clenched into a fist, his emotions tumultuous.
The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, neither able to guess what was passing through the other's mind.
Just as Yan Weichi was finding it difficult to endure the awkward atmosphere any longer, Shangguan Xi suddenly spoke up: "Yan Weichi, how about I send you away?"
"Huh? Away?" Yan Weichi looked at Shangguan Xi in bewilderment.
Shangguan Xi nodded solemnly.
His surroundings were far from safe; the Empress, the Duke of Anguo, Prince Changxin, and his various brothers—every single one of them viewed him as a thorn in their side and a nail in their eye.
Even when he was far away in the military camps, he had faced countless assassination attempts.
Now that he had returned to the Capital City, he was treading on thin ice and finding every step an arduous struggle.
Especially since the attacks of his Cold Gu Poison were growing increasingly erratic.
He knew full well that his days were numbered, and he only wished to complete his unfinished mission as swiftly as possible.
Yet among all those missions, Yan Weichi was not a part of the equation.
Since she had no place in his plans, he could not afford to drag Yan Weichi down with him.
Thus, he wanted to send her away.
Yan Weichi stared fixedly at Shangguan Xi, a sudden sense of grievance welling up inside her.
She had just gone out of her way to help him vent his anger, and not only was she getting no gratitude or smile from Shangguan Xi, but he actually wanted to chase her away?
After a brief silence, Yan Weichi couldn't help but ask, "Why?"
Shangguan Xi frowned. "You and I share no true husband-and-wife bond; our marriage was merely forced upon us by circumstances. I can send you anywhere you wish to go. By my side... there is no need for a woman."
*So I'm actually disliked by him?* Yan Weichi looked at Shangguan Xi, an oppressive lump rising in her throat.
Yet the very next moment, she broke into a beaming smile. "Fine! Since the Crown Prince is granting me my freedom, I won't stand on ceremony. I'll leave as soon as dawn breaks tomorrow! No need for you to escort me! Now, if Your Highness would please take your leave!"
Yan Weichi felt she had agreed readily enough.
To her surprise, Shangguan Xi pressed the matter further, dropping another bombshell: "Pack your things now and leave the Capital City immediately!"
With that, Shangguan Xi bypassed Yan Weichi and strode directly out of the room.
Left standing in place, Yan Weichi heard Shangguan Xi instructing Steward Zhang in the courtyard to prepare a carriage.
Yan Weichi truly could not make heads or tails of the situation.
Everything had been completely fine during the day. She had merely gone out for a stroll, so why had Shangguan Xi turned hostile and refused to acknowledge any ties the moment she returned?
"Could it be because I ruined his good time and didn't let those four maidservants wait on him hand and foot?"
At this thought, Yan Weichi couldn't help feeling a flicker of anger, and she gritted her teeth. "Fine, I'll leave! Who cares about you anyway!"
Turning on her heel to grab her clothes, she glanced back—only to find a soaked man in purple sitting right on her windowsill.
The man waved cheerfully with a grin. "Hi there, little lass!"
When on earth had this fellow gotten in?
Just as Yan Weichi was about to cry out in alarm, the man flicked a finger through the air, directly striking her acupoints and freezing her in place.
Standing stiffly where she was, Yan Weichi felt a wave of tension as she thought, *Among the people the Empress sent, there are actually experts this formidable. I underestimated the enemy's capabilities.*
The man in purple looked at Yan Weichi and continued with a grin, "Using silver wire to draw down lightning, saltpeter to spark fire, and tung oil to fuel the flames—little lass, you're quite something. But do you have any idea that the fire you just started burned right through this brother's robes?"
***
The man in purple gestured for Yan Weichi to look at the hole near the hem of his long gown.
It certainly looked as though it had been scorched.
Was he one of Shangguan Li's men?
Yan Weichi's expression grew even more tense, but currently unable to move or speak, she could only pray that Shangguan Xi would quickly discover the anomaly in her quarters.
After issuing orders for the carriage to be prepared, Shangguan Xi returned to his study to write a letter.
He had yet to figure out how to settle Yan Weichi properly, but he knew he had to send her away.
Yan Weichi thought her methods were clever, but she failed to realize they were full of loopholes.
Even that mother and son on the street had seen her flying a kite; if Shangguan Li wanted to investigate, how could she possibly escape?
If the charge of plotting against an Imperial Prince was slapped on her, he might not be able to protect her.
Shangguan Xi wrote furiously with his brush. Just as he finished the letter, Yu Feiyan hurried back through the heavy rain.
"Phew, this rain really came down in a hurry!" Yu Feiyan muttered, brushing the moisture from his head as he strode toward Shangguan Xi.
"Senior Brother, let me tell you, I heard some fantastic news on my way back just now. Heh! Guess what it is?"
Without guessing, Shangguan Xi already knew it must be the news of the Second Prince's estate being struck by lightning.
Having no patience for idle chatter, he hurriedly handed the letter to Yu Feiyan and instructed, "Make another trip to Red Sleeve Tower. Have Tianshu dispatch someone to deliver this letter to Fengling Pass, for Wu Tiancheng."
Wu Tiancheng was the garrison commander of Fengling Pass and had also served as Shangguan Xi's deputy commander back in the military.
Hearing Shangguan Xi mention this name, Yu Feiyan grew tense as well and hurriedly asked, "Has the nation of Nandian invaded? Is there a battle at Fengling Pass?"
Shangguan Xi gave a slight shake of his head. "No. I want to send Yan Weichi to Fengling Pass."
"Huh? Why?" Yu Feiyan looked bewildered.
Before Shangguan Xi could offer an explanation, however, Steward Zhang's frantic cries rang out from the doorway.
"This is terrible, this is terrible! Your Highness, the Crown Princess is gone!"
Shangguan Xi and Yu Feiyan rushed urgently to Ruochu Courtyard.
Upon arrival, they discovered the doors of Yan Weichi's bedchamber thrown wide open, with sheets of paper from inside scattered all over the floor by the howling wind.