Chapter Forty Enough Is Enough

CHAPTER FORTY

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

“You have to let her go!” I slap the glass of Qin Zheng’s quarantine chamber. Wan’er and her mother voluntarily went with the Gewei Bu, stopping me—and Taiping, who stumbled out of the back offices with Auntie Kudi—from attacking the agents. But I can’t just do nothing on my part.

“Calm yourself.” Qin Zheng stands behind the glass, reading a stack of papers about something completely different—there are graphs on the pages. “If your assistant and her mother are innocent, they should be able to clear the matter up.”

“What if they can’t?”

Qin Zheng looks up from his papers, brows furrowing. His under-eye circles are so severe it looks like he smeared soot beneath his bottom lashes. “Then why was your assistant’s mother spreading counter-revolutionary rhetoric?”

“The definition for that is so broad! That short story wasn’t even published; she just shared a draft with friends!”

One of whom reported her , I realize in a rage.

But then my fury fades, because what were they supposed to do when not reporting would doom them if the story were found to be transgressive?

This is exactly what we’ve been bringing about. Friends being forced to betray friends.

“Your Majesty can get a copy of the story from the Gewei Bu to judge it yourself,” I add. “Please.”

Qin Zheng lets out an aggravated sigh. “I do not have time to read stories . Your lady friend is not more deserving of clemency simply because she is your friend.”

“I’ll sleep with you! In the dream realm!”

There’s a stunned moment before he drops his arm, crushing his papers. “Is that what you think I would want?” he says, voice as tense as a loaded spring.

“Isn’t it?” I hook a finger in my armor collar. “I’ll do it. However you like best.”

It wouldn’t be real, anyway.

“Listen to yourself!” He shouts with a force that turns to static through the glass wall’s intercom. “Have you no faith in the revolution’s systems of justice?”

I don’t answer.

He turns his back on me, shaking. “Leave. Your assistant and her mother will go through an investigation like every other suspect in Huaxia. That is final. Do not interfere.”

“Or what?” I snap. “You’ll arrest me, too?”

“I will make sure you never see the light of day again,” he says over his shoulder.

I scream again and again as I parry swords with Qieluo past midnight, using the gigantic bedchamber in my palace residence as a training space. Qieluo didn’t used to use a sword, but she’s learning how to fight with one alongside me. We both forged our swords out of an extra bit of spirit metal from the Yellow Dragon and the White Tiger respectively over the past few months.

I feel bad for keeping Qieluo up so late, but I had to take this aggression out somewhere. I couldn’t bear to stay with Taiping, who’s worried sick about Wan’er. I couldn’t concentrate on any books. I couldn’t even practice sculpting constructs on a pottery wheel without hurling the whole ball of clay against the wall.

“Hey, slow down!” Qieluo holds a hand out, pausing our sparring. Stray hairs drift loose from her updo. Sweat shines on her forehead beneath the teeth of her White Tiger crown. “Careful! The baby!”

“The baby?” I sneer, remembering the four-month-pregnant padding under my armor. Padding that’s supposed to be a boy , according to Doctor Hua’s latest checkups on Auntie Wei. With a growl, I raise my sword, angling the blade toward my belly.

“Whoa!” Qieluo grabs my arm.

“It’s not even—!” I catch myself before the truth escapes me.

Once the tension leaves my body, she loosens her grip. Swaying, I let my sword slip to the ground. It thuds against the long carpet in the bedchamber and skids across the floorboards. Head hanging low, I sink to the carpet as well.

“What are we doing?” I ask quietly, cradling my forehead.

Qieluo squats down next to me but says nothing. I didn’t expect her to. Not when any wrong string of words could get her killed.

It’s hypocritical of me to only have a problem with this once it implicated someone close to me. I know that. But if the system is harming even Wan’er, who I know would never betray the revolution, then clearly something is broken.

I can’t stop fantasizing about breaking Wan’er and her mother out of the Tianlao. I can barely hang on to the understanding that it will make everything worse. Qin Zheng wouldn’t tolerate that kind of rebellion from me.

But what if it wasn’t just me?

I extend my arm. Qieluo helps me up.

“Contact as many Phoenix Ladies as you can.” I attach my sword to my hip. “Tell them to gather at Unification Plaza first thing in the morning.”

Qin Zheng likes rallies? I’ll give him a rally.

I fetch my scythe from against the wall and head for the door to find Taiping. I bet she hasn’t slept.

“Hold on, Central Chat is down.” Qieluo shuffles after me.

Once we get outside, however, something’s not right. My residence guards are talking urgently with each other, tablets in hand. They never chat while on duty.

“What’s going…” I trail off when every lantern in view goes dark, leaving us beneath nothing but starlight.

Hurried footsteps scuff toward us from the distance.

“Your Highness!”

I bristle at Yizhi’s voice. My instinct is to turn away, yet he’s dashing so feverishly through the estate walkways, dressed haphazardly in his purple official robes, that I give pause.

“You need to get to the throne room right now!” he keeps shouting. “The pilots at the Han frontier have mutinied!”