The palace at night was a tapestry of silences, each thread taut with unspoken schemes. My identity remained a shadow, yet Li Jun's questioning gaze and Liu Rufeng's veiled threats had begun to fray its edges. The game was accelerating, hurtling toward its most perilous phase.
That evening, summoned to the Crown Prince's private chambers, I found myself standing once more in that familiar tension—the air between us thick with politics and something far more dangerous.
"Are you prepared for what comes next?" The Prince's voice was a blade sheathed in velvet, his gaze piercing through my carefully constructed armor.
I met his eyes without flinching. "I've only just begun."
A pause. Then, quietly: "You're stronger than I anticipated. But this is no simple conflict between states—it's a web where every silken strand leads to another's throat."
I knew it better than he realized. The granary scandal wasn't merely about missing grain—it was the first domino in a chain that could topple kingdoms.
A messenger's hurried footsteps interrupted us. The Prince's voice dropped lower. "New developments in the granary investigation."
My spine straightened. The granaries—lifeblood of the realm, and now a weapon in someone's hands.
"We must act swiftly," he said, and in his eyes I saw the cold calculus of a man who'd already chosen his sacrifices.
As I stepped back into the moonlit corridors, the weight of it all pressed upon me—the labyrinth of loyalties, the faces I couldn't trust, the truths that might destroy me as surely as lies.
And yet—
The night air was cool against my skin as I walked, each step carrying me deeper into the viper's nest.
But fear?
No.
Fear had burned away long ago, leaving only a sharp and glittering resolve.
Let the path be treacherous.
Let the knives come.
I would meet them all—not as prey, but as the storm itself.
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