Chapter 137

The cicadas of midsummer pierced through the crimson palace walls, their cries like thousands of dull blades grating against everyone’s nerves. The sound surged from the locust grove in the Imperial Garden, reflecting off layers of palace halls to create a suffocating wall of noise beneath the gilded eaves. The buzzing of cicada wings, heavy with the scent of locust blossoms, wove an airtight web in the air, shrouding the entire Taiji Hall. Fu Yingzhi stood on the white marble platform before the hall, feeling the stone tiles beneath her feet scorching from the intense sun. The rising heat waves distorted the outlines of the distant palaces. She gazed at the bronze crane incense burner; the twisting trails of blue smoke rose up, morphing in the harsh sunlight into the shape of a ferocious beast's head. This burner was a treasure brought as tribute from the Western Regions during the late Emperor’s reign; the complex cloud patterns engraved on the crane’s slender neck were now plated in an eerie, shimmering gold.