Soon after, A Duo was brought in. Shen Nian had already been surprised to learn about the assassination attempt, but now he was even more shocked to see that the assassin was a woman.
At the sound of the Emperor saying her name—A Duo—Shen Nian's face went utterly blank.
He was so stunned that all expression simply drained away.
A Duo's hands were bound. She was a beautiful woman, with azure-blue eyes—clearly a foreigner from beyond the borders.
She looked worn out—her hair was a mess, and her clothes were ragged and dirty.
But the moment she saw the Emperor, her eyes blazed with a fierce, almost crazed light.
The imperial guard behind her tried to force her to kneel, but A Duo struggled against him. Qi Junmu raised a hand, and the guard did not press her further. Qi Junmu looked at A Duo and asked, "Why did you try to assassinate Prince Jin?"
"Prince Jin?" A Duo laughed wildly, her expression twisted. She stared straight at the Emperor and said, "Originally, we meant to assassinate you. But you never leave the palace, and we could not enter the capital of Da Qi. Then we learned that Qi Junzhuo had gone to Qingzhou. He carries the blood of Yunhai in his veins, yet he has never once thought of Yunhai—nor has he ever considered avenging the princess. Such an ungrateful wretch is better off dead."
Qi Junmu listened without even a flicker on his brow. He knew which princess she meant — Qi Junzhuo’s birth mother had been the Princess of Yunhai.
She had died in childbirth after hearing of the destruction of Yunhai; it was said that before her death, she had cursed Emperor Jing for refusing to send troops, declaring that since he was so cold and heartless, may Da Qi too suffer the misery of a crumbling realm and a displaced people.
He had expected as much. After all, only someone bearing a blood feud of the deepest kind would dare to assassinate Qi Junzhuo.
Perhaps he had long foreseen this day; perhaps he had not. In any case, he had left A Duo to languish until now, and he had his reasons.
A Duo was, after all, just a woman, locked up here in a courtyard full of men.
She would grow fearful and uneasy. With no one to speak to her, she would grow suspicious and start second-guessing. And then she would slip up.
And indeed, in just a few sentences, she had already revealed that something was deeply amiss.
Qi Junmu leaned back in his chair and regarded A Duo lazily. "Have you seen me before?" he asked—or perhaps seen a portrait.
Otherwise, she would not have fixed her gaze directly on him without so much as a glance at Shen Nian, and spoken with such certainty about his identity.
He had never left the capital, and A Duo was from the western frontier—so how had she come to know his face?
At this, A Duo smiled eerily and said in a soft voice, "You think that just because you are in the imperial palace, you are safe? There are far too many people who want you dead. We of Yunhai have allies as well. If you, the Emperor, were to die, someone would help us restore the kingdom of Yunhai."
A transparent attempt at sowing discord. Before Qi Junmu could even react, Shen Nian could not help but interject: "Nonsense."
A Duo turned to look at him, her smooth, fair brow furrowing.
Shen Nian's face was full of mockery. "You speak endlessly of assassinating Prince Jin for the sake of Yunhai. Are you not afraid that by doing so, you will provoke His Majesty into issuing an edict ordering the execution of all Yunhai people within Da Qi's borders? Once that decree is issued, you will have nowhere left to go—and who would dare to shelter you then?"
A Duo's face went pale, her composure shattered.
Shen Nian continued in a cold voice: "Back then, when Yunhai was destroyed, word reached Da Qi too late. The Yunhai ruler was weak and opened the gates to welcome the enemy, and besides, our Da Qi has no naval forces—we truly did not refuse to help out of spite. So why, in the eyes of people like you, is this Da Qi's fault? And what does this have to do with Prince Jin? He was not raised on Yunhai's grain, nor did he drink Yunhai's water. He is His Majesty's most valued brother and a prince of Da Qi. Why should he be subject to your random assassination attempts?"
A Duo gritted her teeth and said: "Your Da Qi stood by and watched us die. You deliberately let my Yunhai kingdom fall. He carries the blood of both Yunhai and Da Qi in his veins—he deserves to die."
Shen Nian wanted to say more, but Qi Junmu shook his head at him. He rose and looked at A Duo. "I had thought I might get something useful out of you," he said. "But now it seems you are good for nothing but wild accusations."
A Duo laughed. Her expression was eerily strange—she showed no fear, only a flicker of excitement. "Don't you want to know where I got your portrait from, Emperor?"
Qi Junmu ignored her. He glanced at Shen Nian and prepared to leave.
A Duo grew anxious. As he turned, she called out: "I have a good younger sister. That day, we went together to assassinate Qi Junzhuo, but she was not captured. Tell me—where do you think Qi Junzhuo has hidden her? Let me tell you the truth: your portrait came to us through your own good brothers. You are the Emperor of Da Qi, but you are a lonely Emperor. The brother you trust betrays you. Your other brothers want your life. They all want you dead."
Qi Junmu stopped and turned back. He looked at A Duo's frantic expression without a word. The real reason he had come today was to find out why Qi Junzhuo had hidden that assassin away.
He knew he would not get the truth from A Duo's mouth, but he still wanted to settle the matter.
Whether A Duo was trying to sow discord or deliberately speaking such venomous words to make him suspicious of Qi Junzhuo, she now had only one fate: death.
If she lived, and someone rescued her, her wild ramblings would become a blade aimed straight at Qi Junzhuo's heart.
Then, even if Qi Junzhuo had a defense, he would not be able to clear himself.
With these thoughts, Qi Junmu glanced at the imperial guards behind A Duo. His brow grew cold, and killing intent showed plainly on his face.
A Duo smiled. "You need not lift a hand," she said. "We Yunhai people—our souls never die. In the end, we return to the blue sea."
With that, she threw herself violently against the wall not far away.
A Duo smelled the scent of blood. Blood ran over her eyes and across the bridge of her nose.
She thought of that night, when the flames lit up everything. The Yunhai were a sea people—born knowing how to swim.
But that night, the flames were immense, burning from afar to close at hand, scorching their eyes with pain.
In her home, her mother had comforted her, saying: "Do not be afraid. Our princess is a consort of Da Qi. The Da Qi Emperor will send people to rescue us."
They waited through the night. No Da Qi reinforcements came. Instead, the enemy arrived, and her entire family was slaughtered. She hid beneath her bed. Her younger brother, who had not had time to flee, lay dead with his eyes wide open. Blood slowly seeped into the water, and she was drenched in its stench.
She stayed in the water for a long time. At some point, she lost consciousness.
When she woke up again, someone had saved her. From that day on, she had no kingdom and no home.
Those who saved her trained them, teaching them to remember vengeance for their families.
They were a group raised on hatred—hatred for Da Qi as well.
Over the years, they had killed those who had destroyed their homes and families, and then they had been forced into a life of exile, fleeing to the very Da Qi they hated.
Now, at last, she could go home.
A Duo faintly heard her mother's voice, and she smiled just so.
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