The bronze lamp flickered as though swayed by an unseen breeze.
A man with a head of white hair, unhesitatingly using the finest lamp oil, raised his gaze from the document he was diligently revising. He was the Left Chancellor, a man who had recently turned seventy. Once a key supporter of the rebellion against the previous emperor, it was thanks to his backing that a man who had been no more than an older half-brother could ascend the imperial throne.
“…Was it my imagination?”
Just as the Left Chancellor lowered his gaze back to the document, the floorboards of the corridor behind him creaked.
“…Is it Zhen?”
“It is.”
A slender shadow cast itself against the lattice of the redwood screen. Words were exchanged through the door separating them.
“You’ve ensured the end of her life this time, haven’t you?”
“I’ve come to report on just that.”
Zhen spoke with a trace of delight coloring his voice.
“Cai Feiling will not be killed.”
“What did you say?”
The Left Chancellor began to rise from his chair but collapsed back into it as though struck by a powerful dizziness.
“That’s why I’ll be killing you instead, Left Chancellor.”
“W-What is this…?”
Looking down, he saw a spider perched on his thumb—a venomous creature with vile purple hairs. He tried to brush it away, but his paralyzed fingers could only twitch faintly.
“When a contract is annulled, the client is killed—that’s the assassin’s code. Didn’t you know? Those who harm others will themselves be harmed. Curse someone, and you dig two graves.”
The Left Chancellor’s face turned pale as he called out.
“Someone! Is there no one here?”
“No one will come. They’ve all been stung by dream venom wasps and have likely sunk deep into sleep by now.”
“Y-You… Do you think you’ll get away with this? A mere poisoner dares— I… Do you know who I am—”
His frantic shouting grew incoherent as the neurotoxin spread, rendering his tongue sluggish. Soon, he would be unable to utter a sound.
“Who, indeed? A decrepit old fox who could do nothing but rewrite official ledgers and line his pockets. The one who wanted Cai Feiling dead to make a fortune from poison sales. For some, times of plague and war are the most profitable.”
The Left Chancellor’s gaze fixed on empty space, his eyes clouded white. Blood poured from behind his eyes, streaming out of his nose and mouth. It spilled onto the rosewood desk, soaking the papers. He died spewing copious blood. The venomous spider fell from the lifeless old man’s back, slipping through the screen’s gaps to return to Zhen.
“Good work.”
Zhen praised the spider and tucked it into the sleeve of his hanfu.
“No matter how much wealth one amasses, there is no satisfying greed. Clinging to power and craving more, they destroy themselves. Just like wretched spirits.”
He furrowed his brow disdainfully.
Zhen leapt onto the corridor roof, stepping silently across gilded tiles under the moonlight. Without a sound, he traversed to the palace rooftops.
“In contrast, she—”
Lighting a pipe, Zhen exhaled a thin wisp of smoke, conjuring the image of a silver-haired figure in his mind.
Cai Feiling, the deposed princess, ostracized as a monster for bearing the sins of her late father. She devoted herself to creating medicine in atonement.
Had she been merely a pitiable girl, Zhen would have killed her without hesitation.
But she was anything but pitiable.
Wearing peacock feathers in her hair, a green silk dress tied with a blue sash, she carried a radiant smile on her lips. Yet there was neither coquetry nor enticement. She consumed the poison that surrounded her, thriving defiantly like a flower in full bloom—a flower with venom.
“A flower that consumes poison, is it?”
The more beautiful a flower, the more potent its poison.
“Ah, it’s irresistible.”
Drawing deeply on his pipe, Zhen’s half-lidded eyes softened with indulgence.
A fierce wind howled. Black clouds swirled, devouring the moon. A storm was brewing.
Exposed to the gale, Zhen smiled ominously, the dull gleam of violet flashing in his eyes.
“Cai Feiling—will you master this poison, or will it consume you from within? I can’t wait to see.”
