Wei Manor – Three Days Later

Silence.

No guards at the gate. No banners. No soldiers training in the courtyard. Just the soft creak of empty halls and servants packing valuables into crates they were no longer paid to protect.

General Wei Xuanzhi sat alone in his war chamber.

Not as a commander.

But as a man whose name now sat at the bottom of the palace’s disgraced register.

His sword—his ceremonial blade—lay in front of him.

Sheathed.

By imperial decree, he could no longer draw it again.

Outside the Gates – Zhou Mei Arrives

Dressed in her finest silks, Zhou Mei dismounted from a palanquin, eyes bright with rage and desperation.

“Let me through!” she shouted. “He needs me! Where is your master?”

The old steward bowed low. “The general does not take visitors.”

“I am not a visitor,” she spat. “I’m the woman who stood by him when—”

“And where was Lady Zhou when the Crown Princess took the throne?” he asked softly.

Mei’s mouth opened… and closed.

The gate shut in her face.

For the second time in her life, Zhou Mei was not chosen.

Imperial Palace – Crown Princess’s Garden

Shen Lianhua stood among white plum blossoms, dressed in deep violet. She held no scrolls. No weapons. Just a single lotus bloom plucked from the pond.

Xiao Fen approached from behind, breathless.

“It’s done. His house is under seizure. His accounts are frozen. His name will be stripped from the Book of Military Merit.”

“And Zhou Mei?”

“Turned away from every noble hall she approached. She’s already being whispered about.”

Lianhua didn’t smile. Didn’t sigh.

“Good,” she said simply. “Let them fade. No execution. No spectacle. Just… silence.”

“Let the court see what happens when you gamble with the wrong woman.”

Later – Crown Prince’s Private Study

Li Shenzhao poured her a glass of warmed plum wine.

“You did it,” he said. “Without war. Without bloodshed.”

“No,” Lianhua said. “There was blood. Just not his.”

She looked into the wine like it held the past.

“He killed the girl I once was. But she gave birth to me.”

“This me.”

Shenzhao touched her cheek, gently.

“And this you is unstoppable.”

Elsewhere – In Hiding

Wei Xuanzhi stared at his reflection in a tarnished mirror.

No armor. No command. No purpose.

But worse—he remembered.

Not everything. But enough.

A bride. Her lips pale. Her last breath poisoned. His hand letting go of hers without guilt.

And her eyes.

Her eyes.

They were the same eyes he’d just seen above the war table.

He dropped the mirror.

“No,” he whispered. “No… she can’t be…”

But deep down?

He knew.