The spring of the tenth year of Minghui arrived later than usual. The lingering chill of late winter stubbornly clung to Linzhou City. The snow in the rear courtyard of the Su residence had yet to fully melt, yet another storm capable of overturning the entire estate had already crept in silently.
It was an ordinary-looking afternoon. Emma was in Su Che's study, tidying up the sheets of rice paper he had carelessly discarded the night before. Su Che was still hungover, and the courtyard was unusually quiet. Suddenly, an extraordinary commotion erupted from the front yard—the clatter of hooves, the clang of armor, and the butler's frantic shouts mingled together, shattering the stillness.
Emma paused in her work and instinctively walked to the window, peering out through the narrow latticework.
A squadron of guards clad in black combat attire, each with a regulation long sword at their waist, surrounded a pale-faced, beardless eunuch with piercing eyes. They marched straight through the front courtyard, heading toward the main hall. Their movements were silent, yet carried an aura of battle-hardened resolve, starkly different from the Su household's usual guards. The lead eunuch, his face stern and his stride steady, held a scroll of bright yellow paper in his hands.
Imperial envoys!
Emma's heart leapt. She had never witnessed such a spectacle, yet the overwhelming aura of imperial authority that washed over her instantly revealed the visitors' status. Why had they come? Though the Su residence was a prominent local estate, it was hardly significant enough to warrant an imperial eunuch personally leading such a delegation.
A vague yet powerfully unsettling premonition, like a spring bamboo shoot breaking through frozen earth, suddenly pierced the frozen soil of her heart. Her gaze involuntarily drifted toward Su Wan's courtyard, and the image of Gu Liang's eyes—eyes too clear, too luminous, utterly out of place in this murky environment—floated into her mind.
Could it be...
She forced herself to calm down and continued her work, yet her ears strained for every sound outside. The servants in the courtyard had also been startled, their whispers spreading like ripples across water.
"An angel from the palace!"
"Judging by the commotion, something major must have happened?"
"I heard they went straight to see the master and mistress..."
An uneasy atmosphere hung over the entire Su residence like thick fog.
Inside the main hall, the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Master Su and his wife knelt trembling on the floor, listening as the eunuch surnamed Shen read aloud the secret edict from the imperial capital. When words like "investigate the orphan of the late Crown Prince," "found in the Su family of Linzhou," and "named Gu Liang" were uttered, Master Su's vision darkened, and he nearly fainted. His wife was so terrified she trembled like a sieve, her face drained of color.
They never imagined that the frail girl their son coveted—and nearly poisoned—was the bloodline of the late Crown Prince, the very granddaughter the Emperor had been desperately searching for! Recalling their son's vile intentions toward the Princess and her treatment as a mere maid in their household, the couple felt disaster closing in, their own heads no longer secure upon their shoulders.
After announcing the secret edict, Eunuch Shen's gaze swept over the collapsed Su couple like a cold bolt of lightning. His voice held not a shred of warmth: "Where is the princess now? Bring her forth immediately. Not a moment's delay! Should there be the slightest mishap, do you understand the consequences?"
"Yes! Yes! This humble official understands! Understands!" Master Su kowtowed repeatedly, scrambling to his feet before personally leading men to Su Wan's quarters.
The news spread like wildfire throughout the entire estate.
"What?! That Gu Liang... is the princess?!"
"Good heavens! The Crown Prince's daughter!"
"It's over... it's over... Our eldest master..."
Shock, fear, and disbelief twisted across every face. The matron who had once bullied Gu Liang collapsed in terror, while the servants in Su Che's courtyard—those who had once coldly watched Emma—now stared toward the study with expressions of complex, indescribable dread.
Su Che was roused from sleep by his personal servant, Lai Fu, who pushed and shouted at him.
"Young Master! Young Master! It's terrible! Something awful has happened!" Laifu's voice was choked with tears. "That Gu Liang... she's... she's the Emperor's great-granddaughter! People from the palace are here!"
"Bullshit!" Still hungover, Su Che kicked Laifu away in irritation. "What nonsense are you spouting?"
"It's true, young master! The master and mistress have gone to receive them! The imperial envoys are in the main hall—armed with swords!" Lai Fu lay prostrate on the floor, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Only then did Su Che sober up completely, a chill racing from his feet to the top of his head. He suddenly remembered what he had done to Gu Liang, recalled Emma's icy gaze when she burst through the door that night... Cold sweat instantly soaked through his inner robe. The alcohol turned into endless fear, making him shake like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
Meanwhile, in Su Wan's courtyard.
Gu Liang was embroidering by the window with Su Wan when suddenly, her father burst in with a group of unfamiliar, imposing guards. Startled, Su Wan dropped her needle. Lord Su, without a moment's hesitation, knelt with a thud, tears streaming down his aged face: "Princess! This old servant has been blind! I have neglected Your Highness! I deserve death a thousand times over! Please change your clothes at once, Princess! An imperial envoy has come to escort you back to the capital!"
Princess? Return to the capital?
Gu Liang was utterly bewildered. She stared blankly at the kneeling Master Su, then at Su Wan, equally shocked and flustered, completely unable to comprehend what was happening. It wasn't until the seemingly ordinary jade pendant she had worn since childhood, never leaving her side, was reverently presented to her by Eunuch Shen, who revealed her true origins, that she felt as if struck by a thunderbolt, frozen in place.
She was... the Crown Prince's daughter? The Emperor's granddaughter?
The immense shock left her unable to think, only feeling the world spinning around her. Fragments of past memories surged like a tidal wave, threatening to overwhelm her: the vague warmth of a embrace, the terror of displacement, the hardships of being a maid in the Su household, the punishment of kneeling in the snow, the steamed bun offered by Sister Emma, Su Che's lecherous gaze, the night Sister Emma carried her away in a frantic dash...
"Liang'er... no, Princess..." Su Wan stepped forward to steady the tottering Gu Liang, her emotions a tangled knot of relief at her joy and sorrow at their impending separation.
Gu Liang looked at Su Wan, at the former "masters" kneeling everywhere, at the unfamiliar, imposing guards outside the window. An overwhelming sense of unreality enveloped her. She instinctively scanned her surroundings, as if searching for something to cling to.
"Emma... Where is Emma?" she asked, her voice trembling. Amidst this colossal reversal of fortune and the unknown path ahead, the first person she thought of was still the one who had offered her the first warmth in the snow.
Meanwhile, Emma remained standing silently in Su Che's study. The clamor, shock, and fear outside the window seemed utterly detached from her. Listening to the faint sounds of sobbing and farewells drifting from afar (that was Gu Liang bidding farewell to Su Wan), her face bore its usual, unchanging expression of emotional detachment.
Only her hands, hanging at her sides, tightened unconsciously. Her fingernails dug deep into her palms, leaving four crimson crescent moons.
The prophecy had come true.
Those eyes she had long recognized as extraordinary truly belonged to royalty.
Gu Liang was no longer the frail little girl who needed her protection. She was a princess, a phoenix poised to reclaim her rightful place.
And what of herself?
Emma lifted her eyes to the patch of sky visible through the window, divided by high walls. The Su residence, this prison, seemed poised to shatter. But what awaited her beyond—a wider, more expansive world, or... another, even larger and more formidable cage?
She did not know.
She only knew that the wheel of fate was grinding over everyone's lives with an irresistible force, thundering forward toward a completely unknown destination.