The day Jin Mulan finally regained full consciousness, the mansion seemed lighter. Sunlight poured through the lattice windows. Servants moved with less tension.
Even the guards outside spoke more freely now that the lady of the house was clearly out of danger. Jin Mulan sat propped against cushions, still pale, still sore, bandages wrapped around her head, but awake and sharp-eyed once more.
Which, to Luo He, was the most important sign of recovery. He entered carrying a tray of herbal broth, fruit, and several things no one had asked for but he insisted were necessary.
He set it down beside her bed, then looked her over with the seriousness of a physician. Then immediately ruined the moment. "So," he said calmly, taking a seat beside her, "how long until you recover?"
She narrowed her eyes. "That depends."
"Okay," he replied. "Because I expect to give you a massage soon." She stared at him. He continued as if discussing military logistics.
Luo He :- "I discovered some interesting new methods."
Jin Mulan :- "That sounds threatening."
Luo He :- "It is therapeutic."
Jin Mulan :- "It sounds suspicious."
Luo He :- "It is advanced medicine."
Jin Mulan :- "No."
Luo He :- "You haven't even heard the details."
Jin Mulan :- "I know enough."
Luo He sighed dramatically. "This is why progress is slow." Despite herself, the corner of her mouth twitched. That entire day, Luo He remained beside her. He spoke almost without pause. Stories.
Observations. Complaints about court.
Ridicule of incompetent officials.
Descriptions of how badly Fei's footwork still offended him. Predictions of how many years it would take the Third Princess to become tolerable. Wild theories about how servants judged them in secret.
Exaggerated praise of his own brilliance.
Whenever Jin Mulan grew quiet, he found another subject before silence could settle. He never said directly that he was staying to keep her company.
He simply did.
And she noticed. Only bathroom breaks, brief errands, and the moments when she drifted into needed sleep interrupted his endless presence. Each time she woke he was there.
Sometimes seated beside the bed.
Sometimes reading notes. Sometimes staring out the window as if planning ten future disasters. Sometimes watching her and pretending he had not been.
Little Luo Lin visited again and again throughout the day. Each time she entered the room, she did so like a conquering general. Tiny feet stumbling quickly. Arms raised. Demanding attention.
The moment she saw her mother awake, she squealed and climbed directly onto the bed with the determination of someone ignoring all medical advice.
Jin Mulan laughed softly and gathered her close, wincing only slightly from sore muscles.
The child touched the bandage on her head, frowned at it, then kissed it with great seriousness. Luo He placed a hand over his chest. "She shows more bedside manners than most doctors."
Lin then immediately proved him wrong by trying to grab the bandage and pull it loose. "She has your temperament," Jin Mulan said. "Impossible," Luo He replied. "She acts with purpose."
Later, while nestled against her mother, Luo Lin began fussing and rooting impatiently. Jin Mulan sighed knowingly.
Without embarrassment, she loosened her robe and brought the child to nurse.
The girl latched with such force and enthusiasm that both parents looked down in surprise. "She fights harder here than I've seen in the courtyard," Luo He observed.
Jin Mulan gave him a warning glance.
"She may have been starving," he added. "She was fed recently," Jin Mulan said. Indeed, Luo Lin was already eating soft mashed foods now, and doing so with alarming greed.
Bing made certain the child never lacked for anything. Bing, standing nearby, smiled warmly. "She simply prefers what belongs to her mother." That made Jin Mulan unexpectedly soft-eyed.
She looked down at the child feeding peacefully, small fingers resting against her skin. Then at Luo He. He was watching quietly. No teasing. No arrogance.
Just watching the two of them with a strange stillness. When he noticed her noticing him, he immediately ruined it.
"If she keeps that appetite," he said, "we'll need a second kitchen."
Jin Mulan threw a pillow at him. He caught it easily. Lin laughed. And for the rest of the afternoon, the room felt less like a recovery chamber and more like home.
The next morning, Luo He returned to court with the calm expression of a man who had already won before anyone else knew the game had begun.
The palace halls buzzed with the usual faction whispers, polished smiles, and hidden daggers beneath silk sleeves. Ministers argued in low voices, scribes hurried between pillars, and guards stood rigid beneath banners of the Yu throne.
Yet the moment Luo He entered carrying nothing but a faint smile, several eyes followed him uneasily. He had spent only a short time in court, yet trouble seemed to gather wherever he walked.
When the emperor took his seat, the hall settled. Luo He stepped forward.
Behind him, attendants carried three sealed wooden boxes reinforced with iron bands.
They were placed one by one in the center of the chamber with heavy thuds that echoed across the polished stone floor. The emperor looked down. "What is this?" Luo He bowed lightly. "The beginning of your freedom my lord."
Murmurs swept the hall. He opened the first box. Inside were ledgers carefully copied records of bribes, illegal taxes, falsified grain counts, hidden land claims, and payments routed through which merchants tied to the Nang family.
The second box held witness statements, signed confessions, coded correspondence, and names of officials bought over years.
The third contained seized tokens, contracts, maps of smuggling routes, and evidence linking the Nang family to underground pits, gambling dens, extortion rings, and covert payments to armed groups beyond the frontier.
The hall fell silent. Even veteran ministers felt a chill. Luo He spoke plainly. "The Nang family did not merely profit from corruption." He glanced around the court. "They organized it."
The emperor slowly rose from his throne.
His voice thundered through the chamber. "Seal their estates. Arrest every implicated member. Freeze their accounts. Any resistance will be treated as treason."
Guards moved instantly. Several officials in court went pale. A few collapsed to their knees. Others tried to protest innocence but the ledgers already knew their names.
By noon, the Nang family mansion was surrounded. Imperial soldiers blocked every gate. Archers lined nearby roofs. War drums sounded through the district as nobles peered nervously through shuttered windows.
Some of the strongest Nang members escaped through hidden routes before the ring fully tightened.
They fled north to seek refuge with the self-styled warlord known as the Bizarre Barbarian a brutal frontier chieftain long financed by Nang gold.
His loyalty to them was no secret.
He had accepted three famed Nang beauties as wives in exchange for military favor and protection, proudly displaying the alliance like trophies.
Most of the remaining household was not so fortunate. They were captured in their own halls. Some surrendered immediately. Some wept. Some still demanded special treatment until chains answered them.
Those guilty of murder, treason, armed smuggling, and direct collusion with enemy forces were executed swiftly.
The emperor wanted an example made.
Heads fell before sunset. Yet Luo He advised restraint where profit still existed. So rather than destroy every criminal enterprise, the throne absorbed them.
The underground fighting pits remained open. The gambling houses continued operating. Smuggling routes were repurposed into taxable trade routes.
Extortion from small business owners to the large merchants were completely abolished. Anyone got caught will lose a hand and all filed complaints regarding extrasy were investigated.
Only now, their masters had changed.
"What tribute did they pay before?" Luo He asked casually. "Thirty percent," answered the finance minister. Luo He smiled. "Then they were underpaying."
By imperial decree, thirty became sixty.
Every coin that once fed private greed now flowed toward the royal treasury.
The ministers were stunned. The emperor laughed harder than he had in months.
"In one stroke," he said, "you cut rot from the tree and made the fruit sweeter." Luo He folded his hands behind his back. "No," he replied calmly. "I merely reminded everyone who owns the orchard."
Across the court, men who had once bowed to the Nang family lowered their heads to a different power now. And for the first time in years the emperor felt like ruler of his own capital again.