Isolated town in northern border region

On the day Xiao Lie returned from Chen, he did not go directly back to the palace.

He first had a prison cell built at the highest point of the palace city gate.

Iron railings, blue brick walls, with only a small window for ventilation.

The storage room next door was cleared out and turned into a latrine. They didn't even install a door, letting the wind blow the smell directly into the cell.

Outside the iron gate of the cell hung an iron plaque, densely engraved with Xiao Mu's crimes.

He murdered his brother to seize the throne, forced his own son to death, plotted to kill meritorious officials, colluded with the enemy to betray the country, and conspired with spies from the Chen state to sabotage steel mills and railways—one crime after another, without exception.

An iron plaque hung above the palace gate, so that every commoner could see the words whenever they looked up, from dawn till dusk.

Xiao Lie stood below the city gate, looked up at the iron plaque, and said to the soldier beside him.

"Hang it tight, this thing will perish with the nation."

Then he walked up the steps to the city gate and into the prison cell.

Xiao Mu sat in the corner, wearing an old prison uniform, his hair disheveled, his face withered, like an old object forgotten in a corner, which no one had tidied up for a long time.

He hadn't seen the sun in a long time; the window was too small, and the light that came in was only enough to illuminate a small patch of ground in front of him.

When he saw Xiao Lie enter, he neither looked up nor spoke, as if he had completely lost the desire to talk to anyone.

Xiao Lie stood at the door, watching him, but didn't go in; he just watched for a while.

He spoke after a moment.

"From today onwards, you will live here."

"Someone will bring you a meal every day, so you won't starve."

"Someone comes to empty the chamber pot every three days."

"The iron plaque outside the prison gate is engraved with what you did, and thousands of people pass by it every day."

He paused.

"In a few years, when the Great Chu becomes better, more people will come to see that sign."

He turned around without looking back.

"Live well and enjoy the sins of the rest of your life."

"Of course, I will give the order that from now on, no one will speak to you. You can just stay here and slowly rot!"

Xiao Mu heard the door close and the lock click, but still didn't look up.

He was huddled up against the wall, like a curled-up worm that hadn't stretched out in a long time.

That night, someone stood outside the cell for a while, looked in through the window, saw the motionless silhouette in the corner, and said something softly.

"It would be better to be dead."

Xiao Mu heard those words, but he didn't say anything.

For the first few days, Xiao Mu maintained a stiff composure.

He sat in the corner with his eyes closed, as if he was using silence to resist something.

He occasionally heard discussions coming from below the city gate, and at first he was able to convince himself not to listen or try to understand the words.

But those sounds would somehow find their way in, some high, some low, intermittent.

He discerned that some people said, "The King of Northern Frontier is the true Son of Heaven," some said, "Xiao Mu even killed his own son," and some said, "This kind of person doesn't deserve to die a hundred times."

He clenched his fingers so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, but the pain couldn't stop the sounds.

They become clearer at dusk, as if everyone in the city is speaking at the same time, while he huddles in a corner, trapped in a space that can only hold him alone, listening to all those sounds.

Half a month later, Xiao Mu began to change.

At first, he was talking to himself, muttering indistinct words to the wall, as if arguing with someone or explaining something.

Then he suddenly flew into a rage, grabbed the iron bars and shook them violently. The iron gate rattled and made a piercing noise as he shouted hoarsely down towards the city gate.

"What do you know! I am the Emperor!"

"I am the one destined by Heaven!"

Someone looked up from below the city gate, then lowered their head and continued walking, like a leaf rustling in the wind. No one stopped, and no one looked a second time.

His shouts echoed in the twilight, then were swallowed up by the approaching night.

The next day, his voice became hoarse, and he could no longer make a sound. He could only lie on the iron bars, panting, letting out a low, hoarse breath squeezed from his throat, like a wild beast locked in a cage gradually losing the ability to make a sound.

The light in those eyes was slowly seeping away.

A month later, Xiao Mu stopped talking.

Every day he sat on the floor of his cell, facing the wall, curled up, his hair matted into clumps.

The soldier who delivered the food placed it at the door, but he didn't touch it, even when the food got cold.

When the soldier came back an hour later, the food was still there, and he was still sitting in the corner, like an old sculpture that was gradually losing its outline, being worn down inch by inch by time.

People still lingered under the iron plaque at the palace gate; some pointed and whispered, some shook their heads and sighed, and some spat on the ground.

Meanwhile, in the prison cell atop the city wall, the huddled silhouette was growing smaller and smaller, like a stone slowly weathering away, receding little by little from the light filtering through the narrow window into the darker shadows.

Meanwhile, another "battle" was brewing in the Imperial Study.

Xiao Lie gathered Zhou Xun, Luo Daniu, Xiao Xiong, Chen Hu, and Bi Su together and closed the door.

"I need to tell you something!"

"The matter between Zhou Xun and Tie Muyun."

Luo Daniu was the first to slam his fist on the table.

"Mr. Zhou and Miss Iron? When did that happen? How come I didn't know about it!"

Xiao Xiong grinned, saying nothing, but the meaning in his eyes was quite clear.

"That blockhead Luo Daniu, what does he know besides eating, drinking, and relieving himself all day long?"

Chen Hu scratched his head.

"Mr. Zhou's physique... and the Iron Lady's skills... are they up to the task?"

Bisu covered her mouth and chuckled, like a cat that had stolen a dried fish.

Zhou Xun's face turned bright red.

"Your Highness! I...your subordinate..."

Xiao Lie waved his hand.

"Alright, alright, shut up. I'll take care of this."

In the days that followed, Xiao Lie used various pretexts to bring Zhou Xun and Tie Muyun together.

First, under the pretext of "discussing the details of the Xuzhou peace talks," the two were locked in the council hall and sat facing each other for an entire afternoon. Zhou Xun buried his head in revising documents until his forehead was sweating, while Tie Muyun sat opposite him wiping his knife. After wiping the knife, he wiped the table, and after wiping the table, he wiped the windowsill.

Finally, Tie Muyun stood up and said something.

"Mr. Zhou, if you feel uncomfortable, I'll wait outside."

Zhou Xun quickly looked up.

"No need... Iron Lady, you can just sit down."

Tie Muyun sat back down. The light from the window shifted a few inches to the ground. There was a table between them, and neither of them spoke again.

The second time, Xiao Lie had someone "accidentally" damage Zhou Xun's carriage wheel so that Tie Muyun could ride a horse to take him back to his residence.

As they passed a lotus pond on the road, Zhou Xun looked at the water and said something.

"Iron Girl, the lotus flowers over there are blooming beautifully."

Tie Muyun followed his gaze and glanced at him.

"Um."

Zhou Xun waited a while, then spoke again.

"Should we stop and take a look?"

Tie Muyun reined in his horse.

"Is Mr. Zhou in a hurry?"

Zhou Xun shook his head.

"No rush."

Tie Muyun dismounted and stood by the pond for a while. The wind blew and the lotus leaves rustled. Zhou Xun stood beside her, at a loss for what to do.

Tie Muyun stared at the flower buds for a long time, but he really couldn't see what was so interesting about them. He was too busy swatting mosquitoes!

That night, Zhou Xun wrote a sentence in his reply to Xiao Lie.

"Your Highness, if you arrange for the carriage to break down on the road again, I'll walk there myself!"

After reading the letter, Xiao Lie laughed so hard he slapped the table. Luo Daniu leaned over and asked him what he was laughing at, but Xiao Lie waved his hand.

"It's nothing, continue with the arrangements."

The third arrangement was more direct.

Xiao Lie transferred Tie Muyun to Zhou Xun's directly subordinate department on the grounds that "the northern frontier needs a deputy envoy familiar with grassland affairs," with the office located next to Zhou Xun's.

When Tie Muyun carried the knife and bow into the room, Zhou Xun was writing a document.

The two looked at each other through the door. Zhou Xun lowered his head and continued writing, but the pen tip didn't move for a long time.

Tie Muyun stood at the door for a moment before stepping inside.

The door was half-closed behind her, leaving a crack.

From then on, the two worked in offices separated by a wall. Occasionally, they would hear coughing or moving things from the other side, but they rarely spoke.

After Xiao Lie learned of this situation, he had a window opened in that wall.

When Zhou Xun opened that window the next day, he saw Tie Muyun adjusting his bowstring on the other side. The two looked at each other across the windowsill.

Tie Muyun lowered his head and continued to string the bow. Zhou Xun stood by the window for a while before turning back.

From that day on, that window was never closed again.

At the same time, the development of the State of Chu is entering a new stage.

The supply of rubber in Chen Kingdom has become stable, the railway in the northern frontier has been laid to the border of Chen Kingdom, new schools are being built in various places, and the sites for the first batch of public schools have been determined.

However, progress has not been smooth.

The powerful families did not openly oppose it; some even publicly supported it in the imperial court.

"The Northern Frontier King's move to establish schools is beneficial to the country and its people; I second that proposal."

However, they each had their own plans behind the scenes.

The people Xiao Lie sent out returned one after another, saying that in some places the schools had been built, but all the students attending were children from aristocratic families.

In some places, the requirement to "pass an assessment for admission" is actually used as a pretext to set extremely high barriers to entry.

In some places, the teachers sent to preach the saying, "All other professions are inferior, only those from noble families are superior."

When Xiao Lie finished listening to these reports, he was revising a document about the promotion of the school.

After listening, he put down his pen, remained silent for a while, and then said something to Zhou Xun.

"They've turned the school into their own backyard."

He folded the report and put it in the drawer.

"No rush. Let them be smug for a while, and then I'll show them how to deal with them."

The night outside the window was deep, and the candlelight in the imperial study flickered gently in the evening breeze.

As Zhou Xun reached the door, Xiao Lie's voice came from behind him.

"Old Zhou, can I attend your wedding before the New Year?"

Zhou Xun paused for a moment, but did not turn around.

"I'll do my best..."

He pushed open the door and went out. The night wind blew in and extinguished a candle, the light dimmed in one corner and then lit up again.

Zhou Xun's footsteps gradually faded into the distance in the corridor.