By morning, the blood had dried into the seams of Shen Lian's sleeve.
He hadn't noticed.
Li Xuan had.
"You reopened the wound."
"It isn't deep."
"It wasn't deep yesterday."
Shen Lian glanced down at the thin line of red soaking through fresh bandages.
"It still isn't."
Li Xuan exhaled through his nose. Arguing with him was like trying to convince rain not to fall.
"Sit."
"No."
"Shen Lian."
"I'm fine."
"You've said that three times."
"...Because it's true."
"It stopped being convincing after the second."
For the first time that morning, something almost resembling amusement crossed Shen Lian's face.
Almost.
Li Xuan caught it.
"There," he said quietly. "You do remember how."
"What?"
"To smile."
The expression disappeared before it had fully formed.
"You imagined it."
The physician arrived shortly after.
He wasn't from the palace.
Li Xuan trusted very few palace physicians now.
The old man examined the wound without asking unnecessary questions.
"Clean cut," he murmured.
"Poison?"
"No."
Li Xuan released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"But..."
The physician looked toward Shen Lian.
"...whoever attacked him knew exactly where to strike."
He finished wrapping the shoulder before standing.
"This wasn't meant to kill."
Li Xuan frowned.
"Then what?"
"Slow him down."
Those words stayed with Li Xuan long after the physician left.
Slow him down.
Not eliminate him.
Capture him.
Someone wanted Shen Lian alive.
That frightened him more than death.
Across the palace, Advisor Chen received another report.
"No body?"
The guard shook his head.
"They escaped together."
Together.
Chen repeated the word silently.
Interesting.
"So the Fourth Prince truly is involved."
He walked toward the window overlooking the capital.
For weeks he had followed traces.
Patterns.
Coincidences.
Now he had something far more valuable.
A connection.
He smiled faintly.
"I don't need the assassin."
The guard looked confused.
Chen continued without turning around.
"I only need the prince."
Late that afternoon, Li Xuan and Shen Lian left the safe house.
Staying any longer would only expose the physician.
The streets were crowded.
Perfect for disappearing.
Terrible for trusting anyone.
They walked separately.
Several paces apart.
Like strangers.
Neither looked at the other.
But each knew exactly where the other was.
A woman selling flowers brushed past Shen Lian.
Li Xuan noticed her hand linger near Shen Lian's sleeve.
Too long.
His instincts screamed.
"Down!"
Shen Lian reacted instantly.
A needle sliced through the air where his neck had been.
It struck a wooden post instead.
The woman was already running.
Li Xuan chased without thinking.
She was fast.
Professional.
She cut through the market with practiced ease.
Fruit carts overturned behind her.
People shouted.
Children scattered.
For a moment, Li Xuan gained ground.
Then—
She bit down on something hidden in her mouth.
A heartbeat later, she collapsed.
By the time he reached her...
She was dead.
Foam touched the corner of her lips.
A suicide poison.
No interrogation.
No answers.
Only silence.
Li Xuan searched her body.
Inside her sleeve was a single piece of folded paper.
No writing.
Only one symbol.
A black lotus.
When Li Xuan returned, Shen Lian had gone pale.
Not from blood loss.
From recognition.
He stared at the symbol for several long seconds.
Then quietly said,
"I know who sent them."
Li Xuan looked up.
"Who?"
Shen Lian folded the paper once.
Carefully.
As though afraid it might cut him.
"They were never trying to arrest me."
His voice was steady.
Too steady.
"They came to bring me home."
Li Xuan frowned.
"Home?"
For the first time since they met...
Real fear entered Shen Lian's eyes.
"The people who trained me."
He closed his hand around the black lotus.
"If they've entered the capital..."
He looked toward the palace in the distance.
"...then this was never about the Crown Prince."
Li Xuan felt the world shift beneath his feet.
Everything they believed about the conspiracy had just changed.
The palace wasn't the only enemy.
It had never been.