The emperor was only eleven years old at the time, an age when he was most restless. The banquet had only been going on for half an hour when he started yawning and went to take a nap.

When he woke up, the Vice Minister of Rites was kneeling at the palace gate, begging him to seek justice for himself and his tragically deceased son.

What decisions could a child of ten or so make? He had no choice but to ask his mother for permission.

The young empress dowager gently stroked his head, confined Song Ting to his quarters for a month, and deducted half a year's salary.

How could such a palliative punishment quell Dong Ji's anger? He knelt at the palace gate every day, submitting memorial after memorial, and even threatened suicide.

The Empress Dowager remained unmoved, and simply added another half month of confinement to Song Ting's house.

"When treacherous officials are in power, the country will cease to exist!"

Disheartened, Dong Ji left only these words before crashing his head against the palace gate and dying.

Before the blood had even cooled, an imperial edict was sent to the Song residence, and Song Ting, who was still under house arrest, was promoted to Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, with the responsibility of supervising all officials.

From then on, he became one of the emperor and empress dowager's closest confidants, holding the power over the life, death, honor, and disgrace of officials of all ranks in the court.

The name Huaiyue was forgotten at that spring banquet, along with the two lives lost.

Song Ting never imagined that this Young Master Huaiyue was actually the person he had been secretly searching for.

It is the Chu Huai Preface.

It turns out they missed each other again.

He should have gotten him a long time ago.

Song Ting carefully helped Huaiyue up, placing her hand on Huaiyue's cheek: "You look a lot like an old friend of mine."

Huaiyue lowered her eyes: "This servant dares not."

Song Ting's eyes trembled, as if she had been hurt by those three words.

"May I ask where your hometown is, sir? Have you ever been to Chang'an?" he asked cautiously, as if afraid of disturbing the person in front of him.

Huaiyue lowered her eyes and replied, "I am from Yangzhou. When I was young, my family suffered a famine, so I fled to Yingtian with my parents."

"After my parents passed away, my mother took me in and I was able to eat. I never left Jiangnan, let alone went to Chang'an."

The madam quickly added, "Yes, yes, Huaiyue has been raised by my side since she was ten years old and has never left Zuichunlou. It must be that you have mistaken her for someone else."

"Is that so?" Song Ting's voice was even softer.

He slowly raised one palm, his thumb resting on Huaiyue's left eye, gently stroking it.

"Yes, he doesn't have your red mole here."

Huaiyue kept her eyes down, not daring to look at him, as docile as if she were being rubbed by him.

"Why didn't you dare look at me just now?" Song Ting asked.

"I know I am lowly and dare not offend your eyes, sir."

Song Ting released her hand, and Huaiyue was about to kneel again, but Song Ting stopped her again, almost pleading: "Don't kneel, don't kneel before me."

Huaiyue stood still. Song Ting turned his head and instructed his men:

"Qi Zhou, you take your men and leave first. I... would like to ask Young Master Huaiyue for a cup of wine."

Song Ting booked the entire pleasure boat, and all the male prostitutes and guests were dismissed, leaving only him and Huaiyue on the boat.

Huaiyue gently stroked the strings of the zither with both hands and asked softly, "What kind of music would you like to hear, sir?"

Song Ting wanted to take his hand, but for some reason lowered her arm, her gaze falling unintentionally on Huaiyue's face.

"There are only the two of us here, Master, please don't do this."

Huaiyue glanced at him and said indifferently, "You jest, sir. Since you have nothing to say, then I will play whatever comes to mind."

"Master," Song Ting slowly knelt down beside him, "please look at me."

"My lord, I have already told you, you have mistaken me for someone else. You are of such high status, how could I possibly be your master? Are you perhaps making fun of me?"

Song Ting's eyes immediately reddened, and she said in a trembling voice, "But you are my master. Even if I die, I will never mistake you for my master."

The music suddenly stopped. Huaiyue placed her hands lightly on the instrument, and the sound became even fainter than before, almost inaudible.

"Then why don't you just die, sir?"

Just a cup of tea ago, he was clearly a male courtesan who was trembling with fear upon seeing the Imperial Guards from Chang'an, not daring to even raise his head.

But now he seemed like a completely different person, his eyes and voice were extremely cold.

Song Ting's palms were covered in cold sweat. He knelt in an extremely submissive posture, his head bowed: "I cannot die yet."

"If that's the case, why bother with this pretense, sir?"

In the blink of an eye, Huaiyue's sharp edge seemed to have been concealed, and he looked at Song Ting with a seductive gaze.

"Sir, you scared away my guests, and now you've booked me but won't listen to my music. Could it be that you want to spend the night with me?"

Song Ting froze.

Huaiyue had already stood up and slowly peeled off his outer robe bit by bit, as if the person who had told Song Ting to die was not him.

"Stop!" Song Ting hurriedly stood up, pulling out his black python...

The clothes were draped over his body, and his voice trembled even more violently, "I won't say anything more, don't demean yourself like this."

He still had his hands on Huaiyue's shoulders, but she pulled away twice and handed the official robe back to him.

"I dare not ask for your clothes, sir; that could cost me my head."

The python robe was the highest-ranking robe bestowed by the Emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty, symbolizing immense honor. At that time, only Song Ting, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was bestowed with a python robe by the Emperor.

In addition, anyone who dares to wear a python robe is committing an act of usurpation, which is punishable by death.

But in Song Ting's eyes, no matter how luxurious the clothes were, they were nothing compared to the person in front of him. He said in a deep voice, "It's just a piece of clothing."

“But does Your Excellency not know how many people have turned against each other and betrayed their masters for the sake of this uniform?” Huaiyue said. “Does Your Excellency dare to say that you have never done such a thing?”

Of course he had done it. In order to climb to his current position, he had harmed countless loyal ministers and generals, and his hands were already stained with countless lives, including the parents and relatives of the person in front of him.

Between them lay mountains of corpses and seas of blood, piles of white bones. Song Ting thought to himself, how could he dare to beg for this person's forgiveness again?

"My lord." Huaiyue placed her palm on Song Ting's chest and smiled gently. "Since you don't want to listen to me play the zither, and you don't want me either, then what exactly do you want?"

He slowly approached Song Ting, the two of them so close that Song Ting could smell the faint, cool fragrance emanating from him.

It was a different scent from the strong perfume and cosmetics smell in the painted boats.

Many years ago, when Song Ting first came to this person's side, she had smelled this fragrance.

Later, when the two became intimate, Song Ting even went so far as to ask what kind of incense the other was burning.

The man's hair intertwined with his own, and he spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, tinged with intimacy:

"You're the one who scented my clothes, and you're the one who lit the incense in my room. Don't you know what kind of incense I used?"

Song Ting naturally knew this; he was just asking that question on purpose.

He inhaled the soft, long hair of the person before him and laughed, calling Chu Huaixu a "fragrant princess" with her own natural scent.

The latter wasn't annoyed with him, laughed to himself for a while, and then played around with him on the bed.