Qingyun Terrace (Part Three): Qi Yanhan Forced to Kneel in the Ancestral Hall

"Send someone to the yamen immediately and report it," Zhou Yao said, her fists clenched so tightly she couldn't sit still. "Have them issue a nationwide arrest warrant. In a city as large as Chang'an, I refuse to believe we can't catch a single woman."

After the guard rushed out, Zhou Yao finally felt she should never have taken pity on Linglong and returned her deed of sale.

This was the first time something like this had happened, and Zhou Yao was at a loss. She paced the courtyard twice in agitation.

"Your Highness," Qi Yanhan entered from outside the courtyard. "The mansion's guards have told me the whole story. Might I ask, what happened that you're suddenly searching for your dowry items?"

Zhou Yao's gaze at Qi Yanhan was rarely tinged with bewilderment.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Qi Mansion, Qi Xiaohan, who had gotten into a brawl with Zhao Wenhua at Qingyun Terrace, had only today been carried back to the mansion by the servants. His face, bruised and swollen, was still puffed up. Even as he was placed on the bed, he kept howling in pain.

His voice carried clearly across several courtyards, and it quickly brought Old Qi over.

Old Qi entered with a grim face, and the servants immediately knelt in a row.

"Why are you so foolish!" he slapped the table in frustration. "You never learned anything good from a young age, idling about, roaming all over Chang'an with your worthless friends, causing trouble wherever you go!"

"I could tolerate everyday mischief, but you chose to fight with that Zhao boy right at the critical moment when foreign envoys are visiting Chang'an and the palace is hosting a banquet! And it's become common knowledge! You've made me lose face completely!"

Qi Xiaohan lay on the bed, sprawled lazily with one leg crossed over the other, rolled his eyes at Old Qi impatiently, then turned his face to the other side.

"Hmph! If I can't control you, then I'll find someone who can!" Old Qi turned and stormed out of the courtyard, looking as though he never wanted to see Qi Xiaohan again.

In the court, the Qi and Zhao families now contended for dominance, with the Qi family having a slight edge due to their support of the Crown Prince. The emperor saw all this, and his betrothal of Zhou Yao to Qi Yanhan had been meant to suppress the Qi family.

Zhao Wenhua was Old Zhao's only son. Since the two had come to blows at Qingyun Terrace, Old Qi would never just sit idly by.

As soon as he returned, Old Qi gave orders to seal off Qingyun Terrace. Everyone inside was detained, and Old Qi sent men to investigate the cause of the incident. Overnight, all the hidden guards were searching for the courtesan who had instigated the fight between the two young masters.

Meanwhile, with Linglong having stolen her dowry jewelry, Zhou Yao was left with no way out, and even Qi Yanhan couldn't help with this.

"Does Your Highness know the risk of this matter is extremely great?" Qi Yanhan's fox-like eyes held a faint hint of a smile, as if he were watching the fire from across the shore, utterly unconcerned.

"I know what I'm doing, Master Qi. If you have nothing to do, perhaps you should worry about yourself?" Zhou Yao said mockingly, but when she saw Old Qi approaching from the doorway, a bit of amusement appeared in her eyes. "Here he comes."

She rose and greeted Old Qi with a slight bow. "Since you're here, I'll take my leave."

Not long after leaving the courtyard, she heard from the servants that Old Qi had punished Qi Yanhan with the family code. The servants relayed it vividly, saying that Old Qi had used Qi Yanhan's failure as the elder brother to set a good example and keep watch over his younger brother as grounds to impose family punishment. After ten strikes with a rod, Qi Yanhan was then ordered to kneel in the ancestral hall for the night, and he had yet to be allowed out.

Zhou Yao's tea set had been replaced with a fresh one, and the freshly brewed tea had already gone cold. She rose and headed to the ancestral hall.

The Qi family's ancestral hall was distinctly different from the other courtyards; a water channel ran right past its entrance, making the place feel unusually damp and chilly. Even in high summer, stepping inside sent a chill through her, making her shiver.

After only a few steps, Zhou Yao noticed Qi Yanhan kneeling on the floor. His back garments were already soaked through with blood, and he was straining to maintain a proper kneeling posture, not daring to relax in the slightest.

"Are you alright?" Zhou Yao was the first to speak. Qi Yanhan, clearly unwell, didn't put on his usual pretense.

He nodded faintly and said in a weak voice, "Your Highness must have seen through me all along. In your eyes, my long-laid schemes... must have been a joke, weren't they?"

"I admit... the jade pendant I shattered then... was an ordinary trinket..." Qi Yanhan paused, his voice hoarse from going without food for so long. "Cough... earlier, when you were turned out of the inn... that was also..."

She finished his sentence: "That was also your doing, wasn't it?" She looked down at him from above. "Remember, don't try to play tricks behind my back. Don't forget, Qi Yanhan, the one in control of the Qi family now is still Old Qi. The only reason you're still alive is that you still have some use to the Qi family."

"Consider this the price for deceiving me. If there's a next time, things won't end this easily." Zhou Yao pinched his chin, her gaze warning as she looked at his disheveled state.

After a moment's thought, she released her grip and turned to leave.

"Your Highness, why do you think I did all this...!" he called out in a hoarse voice.

Zhou Yao was nearly out of the ancestral hall when she heard this and abruptly stopped. A thought crossed her mind, and she gave a light laugh. "Fine." "I'll help you regain real power. What can you offer me in return?"

Qi Yanhan blinked weakly, his lips moving as if to speak, but before a sound could come out, he fainted. The wounds that had just stopped bleeding broke open again, and within moments his robes were soaked with blood once more.

By the time Qi Yanhan opened his eyes again, Zhou Yao had already reapplied medicine to his wounds and stopped the bleeding.

"Awake?" Zhou Yao waved a hand in front of his face to check his condition.

Qi Yanhan didn't speak, only nodded slightly.

"Since you're awake, rest well. I'll handle Old Qi."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

From that moment, the two were truly bound together in cooperation. The incident at Qingyun Terrace had caused quite a stir. When Zhou Yao next heard news of it, Qingyun Terrace had been shut down for harboring suspects. Most of the women there had been sold off to buyers in the slave trade, and the matron who had once kicked Zhou Yao had died on the spot for obstructing officials in their duties.

Zhou Yao ran her fingers over the porcelain cup in her hand, then ordered Duyun to secretly buy back those unfortunate women and settle them in a residence outside Chang'an.

A week later.

Bige and Zhou Yao were playing in the courtyard when, unexpectedly, someone in the distance shouted, "Help! Someone come quick! The study... the study is on fire!"

Taken aback, the servants in the mansion fell into chaos. Bige, having just finished his meal, also rushed toward the fire, letting out panicked "wer, wer" sounds as he ran.

When Zhou Yao hurried over to the study, she saw Qi Yanhan standing quietly in the outer courtyard, a smile on his face, watching as the fire consumed everything inside. Her ears filled with the servants' frantic shouts and the crackling of burning wood; the sight hit her before the smell of smoke did.

Bige, having arrived with Zhou Yao, wasted no time in grabbing a thick rope in his jaws, frantically helping the servants drag out bundles of bamboo scrolls from the fire.

Qi Yanhan's fox-like eyes locked onto Zhou Yao. He raised a finger to his lips, a gesture for silence, and said slowly, "In the fire, all evidence will be reduced to ashes—so it is for me, and so it is for those corrupt officials' traces."

"Madman," Zhou Yao thought, but she said nothing, watching his false display. Yet deep down, she was not as calm as before.

Qi Yanhan was putting on a performance for the outside world.

"Your Highness flatters me," Qi Yanhan said, his gaze falling on Bige as he dragged scrolls. He praised, "Your Highness mentioned that you rescued it in the Western Regions—it truly seems to have remarkable intelligence. If it's not too much trouble, might I borrow it for a couple of days?"

Before she could answer, Qi Yanhan gestured with his eyes. "As Your Highness can see."

Zhou Yao fell silent, then nodded in understanding.

Soon, the books and scrolls were moved to other places. The once pristine, thriving hall now bore no resemblance to its former self; all that remained were endless ashes and half-burned posts. When the acrid smell of smoke finally reached her nose, Qi Yanhan said to her, "As long as Your Highness keeps your word, I will spare no effort."

After Qi Yanhan had been gone a while, Zhou Yao found Bige amid a pile of scrolls, where he'd been working busily. Oddly, on any other day, he would struggle when she picked him up, but today he was unusually excited and refused to leave the scrolls.

Zhou Yao had no choice but to shift her gaze to the scrolls. As it turned out, they were a letter of introduction from General Sun's residence, saying that the general had just returned from the front lines and had not seen Old Qi for a long time, along with other pleasantries.

General Sun? If that were the case, it seemed the General Sun's household was preparing to align with the Crown Prince's faction.

The next day, before dawn, General Sun and Senior General Sun did indeed come to the Qi Mansion to pay a visit. Since Qi Yanhan's injuries had not yet healed and he was not fit to see guests, they naturally visited Old Qi in the adjacent courtyard.

After dressing properly, Zhou Yao went to the front hall of the Qi Mansion and saw Old Qi seated in the host's seat with a smile. As the Grand Tutor, he coveted power he did not deserve. In his youth, he had favored a concubine and cast aside his wife; in his old age, he was dragging the court into chaos.

He cannot be allowed to remain...

The two generals of the Sun family had always remained neutral at court, stationed for years at the border defenses, with undeniable merits in repelling the Xiongnu. If they also defected to the Crown Prince, his position would truly be secured.

The branches beside the corridor entrance whispered in the wind. Zhou Yao hadn't expected anyone to come walking her way. Getting caught eavesdropping would be quite troublesome.

She quietly pressed herself against the tree behind her, trying to use the trunk and dense leaves to partially conceal her figure.

The footsteps seemed to quicken. Zhou Yao wanted to peek out to see the situation.

Suddenly, a flash of light crossed her vision. The other person moved swiftly; before she could react, she was pinned to the ground, a blade only a hair's breadth from her throat.

Realizing the danger, Zhou Yao's mind raced for a way out. But before she could devise a clever plan, the sword was withdrawn from her neck.

The man's voice came from behind her, filled with undisguised surprise. "It's you?!" He released her from his grip, taking two steps back.

"You... what are you doing here..." He sounded flustered, quickly helping her up from the ground. "Oh dear, if I'd known it was you, I wouldn't have resorted to force."

"Get up, the ground is cold. Your clothes! Your clothes must be dirty." He scratched his head anxiously. "I'm sorry, I was too hasty."