Chapter 18: Leaving the Provincial Capital

Pei Su walked to the entrance of the Governor-General's Office and found Jiang Suining waiting outside.

Although Pei Su's departure was not made into a grand affair, a large number of senior officials from the Governor-General's Office had still come to see him off at the gate.

Among them, the Bingzhou prefect Liu Hun — his rotund body jiggling with every step — came waddling over from a distance, eyes rimmed red, calling out: "Young Lord! Will you come back to Bingzhou again?"

Everyone secretly sneered: Liu Hun really had no shame. He was a prefect of an entire province, yet here he was carrying on like this!

Pei Su was also somewhat taken aback. He had only shared a few cups of wine with this prefect at the banquet and had no other connection with the man — anyone who didn't know better would have thought Liu Hun was his own father!

"If the opportunity arises, I will certainly come to Bingzhou again for a visit."

Those words were said, but everyone present was sharp enough to know it was mere pleasantry. Of the seventy-two provinces under heaven, the Young Lord's visit to Bingzhou even once was already a blessing owed entirely to Lord Liu!

Pei Su's gaze swept further back, and he saw that behind the crowd of Bingzhou officials, their children and the young ladies of the great noble families had also pressed together, craning their necks to look in his direction.

Liu Zhi was among them, surrounded by the other young ladies at the center of the group. She wore the most brilliantly colored purple lotus dress, and her eyes were still faintly red.

Word had it that after Jiang Suining followed Pei Su into the compound today, Liu Zhi had secretly come to steal a glance from afar, then turned and fled back to her chambers without a word, where she cried her heart out.

"Do you see that young woman in the purple dress?" Pei Su said quietly, giving Jiang Suining a gentle nudge and placing a token in her hand.

"She did me a favor. Go tell her that in a few years, if she wishes to come to the Imperial Capital, she can use this token to seek out the Palace Supervisory Office — someone will arrange for her to serve beside Her Majesty the Empress as a Palace Supervisor."

Jiang Suining was unfamiliar with the titles of the imperial court. She took the token belatedly and walked toward Liu Zhi's direction, the officials in front hastily stepping aside to clear her path.

"Miss... Liu?"

Liu Zhi was still in a daze when she saw the girl who had driven her mad with jealousy step up before her.

Up close, Jiang Suining's appearance stirred a wave of incomparable envy and admiration among the assembled young ladies of noble families. In any world, women's pursuit of beauty is always the same.

But Liu Zhi kept her composure. She understood clearly that the girl standing before her — one who could travel at the Young Lord's side — was not someone she could afford to look down upon.

Moreover, after nearly one hour of counsel from her father Liu Gongyun just now, Liu Zhi had finally come to understand: the Young Lord was not someone she could so easily aspire to.

As the Young Lord of both Duke Pei's Manor and the Northern Pacification Marquis's house, the consort of Jiumu would need to be nothing less than a princess or royal daughter to even be considered.

"Is there something you need, little sister?"

Liu Zhi forced a smile. The more she studied the girl before her, the more bitter she felt.

"It's just... the Young Lord asked me to give you this token."

Jiang Suining placed the purple token in Liu Zhi's hand.

"He said Miss Liu did him a favor, and that in the future you may use this token to enter the Imperial Capital. He will arrange for you to serve beside Her Majesty the Empress as a Palace Supervisor."

Jiang Suining finished her timid delivery and turned to leave, but Liu Zhi remained rooted to the spot.

Not only her — her companions, and even the officials who had been secretly straining their ears to listen, all froze in unison.

A Palace Supervisor — overseeing and managing the palace maids and female officials of the inner court, upholding the authority of the Empress, a rank of the fifth grade. That was a position right beside Her Majesty the Empress herself!

To say something bordering on treasonous: no one knew when the current Emperor would emerge from his seclusion, and at present it was essentially the Empress who wielded the Son of Heaven's authority. If one performed well and became a trusted confidante of the Empress...

"Sister, didn't you say last time that the cloud-patterned dress at my home was beautiful? I'll have someone send it to you tomorrow!"

"Hey, Sister Liu! In a couple of days the jade lotuses at our estate will bloom — come enjoy them with me!"

"..."

In an instant, the group of young ladies who had treated Liu Zhi as an equal all lowered their attitudes and began fawning over her, rubbing her back and patting her chest in flattery.

Even the elders came over warmly to inquire after her health and offer their greetings.

Liu Zhi naturally understood why the people around her had changed their tune. It was all because of a single token and a single word from the Young Lord.

She clutched the purple token tightly in her hand, watching as Pei Su's carriage departed into the distance, a swirl of complex emotions passing through her eyes.

She was glad the Young Lord still remembered her, yet grieved that he and she would have no further connection.

Bingzhou might be vast, but set against the whole of Great Jin, it was nothing worth mentioning. When all was said and done, they were all merely local noble families.

And even the most ordinary of the great clans in the Imperial Capital held a natural sense of superiority over provincial families.

To say nothing of the Pei Clan — even among the Imperial Capital's elite, they were the most ancient and supreme of all the great houses, feared and known by every soul across the land.

To have shared even this brief connection with the Young Lord whose name resounded throughout the realm — the young ladies of Bingzhou were already more than satisfied. It would be enough to talk about for the rest of their lives.

But she...

Right! She could still go to the Imperial Capital!

To escape this small muddy pond called Bingzhou and fly to the higher, farther Imperial Capital — perhaps she might even see the Young Lord again!

Liu Zhi seemed to have worked something out, and a bright light flickered in her eyes.

Hmph!

These ordinary, mediocre women around her — they would probably never get to see the Heir of the Northern Marquis again for the rest of their lives.

They would spend a few years in this middling place called Bingzhou, be arranged into a marriage alliance by their families, wed some equally unremarkable husband, then spend their lives as dutiful wives and mothers — generation after generation, the same cycle repeating endlessly.

But she —

A flame suddenly ignited deep within Liu Zhi's heart. It was called ambition!

* * *

"Lan'er, the first time I saw you was in a village in Qingtian County, Yuzhou. You were in tattered clothes, your face covered in grime, gnawing on a steamed bun you had stolen. The old couple who had taken you in had fallen ill with plague. When they handed you over to me, all they gave me was a single black-and-white token..."

The token was neither gold nor jade. Its material carried a cold sensation — dark, deep, and rectangular, with a striking seal-script character for "Command" set in black against black.

"Uncle Xiao was being hunted by the court and dared not move about freely, but I can tell you now: this is a military command token of the Northern Chen Army. You say you never knew your father, and that your birth mother was a singing girl from a High-class Brothel — perhaps your birth father was a man from the north..."

Whoosh!

Zhao Lan jolted awake from his dream. All around him was pitch darkness — it was already deep in the night.

He lay inside a ruined temple. Within it stood a great Buddha statue, abandoned for many years, worn and decrepit, cobwebs and dust blanketing every surface.

Zhao Lan closed his eyes again, but found that no matter what he did, sleep would not come.

He flipped his hand and produced the black-and-white token, studying it carefully for a long while, yet found nothing of note.

Zhao Lan's memories of his childhood were already very hazy. He had no recollection whatsoever of his birth mother. His earliest conscious memories were of living with an elderly couple, and after that came being taken in by Uncle Xiao...

As for this token, Uncle Xiao had said his mother had placed it on him, and it had been kept by the old couple before eventually passing to Uncle Xiao.

His birth father?

Zhao Lan felt little about the matter. Uncle Xiao had raised him for twenty years — not his birth father, yet better than one. Even in his dying moments, Uncle Xiao had entrusted him with the divine blade Dragon-Sparrow and charged him with shattering the schemes of the Pei Clan in the days to come.

As for that so-called birth father — a man who had abandoned even his own mother — he clearly cared nothing for the two of them, and Zhao Lan had no desire to seek him out!

Going forward, he would need to keep his movements even more concealed. Once he entered the jianghu, even if the Pei Clan had the will to find him, they would not be able to.

Zhao Lan was thinking all this when, unexpectedly, the sound of footsteps came from outside the temple.