Eastern Han Dynasty, not the Three Kingdoms

At three quarters past midnight, the streets of Chang'an were already fading into silence. However, Ma Xiu, the commander of the imperial guards, was standing in formation beneath the western city's corner tower. He stood with his sword drawn, his black armor gleaming coldly in the lantern light. The ten imperial guards behind him had all sheathed their swords, their hooves even wrapped in thick felt—this wasn't an arrest for a wanted criminal, but rather a fear of disturbing the neighborhood's night patrol.

"I'll go to the West Market Tavern for a stroll and then be back." Ma Xiu lowered his voice, his fingertips brushing against the carved Xiezhi pattern on the knife handle. "If I run into that old fellow in the bamboo hat, I'll just pretend I didn't see him." He remembered Ma Chao's knuckles turning white as he gripped the tea bowl during the day, his anger clearly mingled with pretense—how could the King of Liang not know that, although Li Ru's move had disrupted the harem, it had effectively put the talismans and military symbols of the Tianshi Mansion into the palm of Xiliang's hand.

At this moment, the aroma of wine wafted from Jia Xu's mansion. Li Ru and Jia Xu sat across from each other, enjoying a few small dishes. Li Ru picked up a pickled vegetable with his chopsticks, his eyelids half-closed beneath his bamboo hat, watching the fragmented golden light cast by the bronze lamp in the wine cup. "This Wenhe wine, it seems, becomes more mellow with age." He suddenly chuckled, and the wine flowed from the corners of his mouth into his beard, leaving dark marks on his blue robe.

Jia Xu, sitting in the main seat, twirled his goat beard, the cloud pattern on the cuffs of his brocade robe brushing against the bronze jar on the table: "Mr. Wenyou is in such a good mood. I'm afraid the Prince of Liang's personal guards have turned over the city gates."

Li Ru slammed his wine cup down on the table, spilling the remaining wine onto the copper seal of "Zhengyi Dafu." "If he really wanted to arrest me," the old fox narrowed his eyes, revealing the corners of his eyes reddened by the smell of alcohol, "that kid Ma Xiu would have kicked down the door with a torch long ago."

Jia Xu paused as he poured wine for him, the gilded ladle making a crisp sound against the spout of the pot. "Zhang Lu is willing to give away his two daughters," he said, gazing at the swaying bamboo shadows outside the window. He suddenly lowered his voice, "I'm afraid he wants more than just an alliance, right?" Li Ru laughed so hard that the jade hairpins on the bamboo crown swayed: "Of course, he wants the Tianshi Dao's talisman water to be poured on the Xiliang royal flag!"

Amid the clatter of wine cups, Li Ru's smile suddenly faded. He poked the fennel beans on the plate with his chopsticks, and the beans made a crunching sound as they rolled on the celadon plate. "But the benefit..." He looked up at Jia Xu, his wrinkles gleaming with cunning. "Fame, wealth, and beauty, which one doesn't belong to the Prince of Liang?"

The night wind carried the fragrance of locust flowers through the window lattice. "I was just trying to make his 'destiny' play more realistic," the old fox's voice suddenly deepened. "In the end, it was just to give that girl Dong Bai an explanation." He picked up a fennel bean and tossed it into his mouth. The crisp sound of his teeth crunching the bean shell was particularly clear in the silence. "Who else could be blamed in the end?"

Jia Xu gazed at the cloudy yet piercing eyes beneath Li Ru's bamboo cap, and suddenly remembered the envious cries of the Baqiao people during the day. When the cold light of the Western Liang cavalry and the talismans of the Celestial Master Dao intersected at the Liang Palace, this old fox had already calculated everyone's reaction.

Suddenly, the sound of a night watchman knocking on a gong was heard outside the courtyard. The sound of "dong-dong" startled Li Ru so much that he looked up suddenly.

The copper wick burst into a spark, casting the shadows of the two people on the blue brick floor. What was hidden in the aroma of wine in the room was never drunkenness, but the thick soup of power and intrigue cooked with blood and bones by the counselors behind the hegemony of King Liang.

The candlelight flickered in the bronze sparrow-shaped lampstand. As Ma Chao removed the jade belt from his waist, he heard Ma Xiu's deliberately quiet footsteps from the corridor below. A guard in black armor stood outside the curtain with his head bowed, the red tassels on his helmets still wet with night dew. "Prince Liang, we've searched the east and west markets and the post stations, but there's no sign of Mr. Li Ru."

Ma Chao, however, looked at the sparks from the candle wick and chuckled softly, the hem of his brocade robe brushing against the fox fur-covered footstool. "Never mind. Do you think this search is a bandit suppression operation?" He reached out to tuck Dong Bai's scattered hair behind her ear. "If Mr. Li wants to hide, even ten Ma Xius wouldn't be able to find him."

The night breeze blew through the hall, lifting a corner of the Xiliang map spread out on the desk. Ma Xiu stole a glance at the intertwining shadows of the two men in the study, remembering the clamor of carriages and horses on Baqiao during the day, now only the crackling of candlelight remained. "Your Majesty, please forgive me," he knelt on one knee, the clatter of armor plates clashing distinctly in the silence. "I did overlook something during my search..."

"Get up." Ma Chao interrupted him, his eyes falling on the Tianshidao stronghold marked on the map, "Mr. Li dared to send Zhang Lu's daughter here, how could he not know to give Bai'er an explanation?" He suddenly laughed softly, "That old fox is probably drinking somewhere right now."

Dong Bai suddenly raised her hand and pinched Ma Chao's waist, her fingertips rolling over the red marks left by the day: "I'm afraid you're really looking forward to this 'three beauties marrying together' scene, right?" There was a hint of anger in her voice, but a smile flickered in the corners of her eyes, startling the swifts perched under the eaves and flapping their wings.

Ma Chao grabbed her hand and pressed it into his palm. The candlelight illuminated their clasped hands clearly. "Do you think I'm really angry with him?" He tapped the border between Hanzhong and Xiliang on the map with his knuckles. "If Zhang Lu's Fu Bing can join my army, what's the big deal if I get two more wives?" Dong Bai looked up at this, but saw a sly glint in the eyes of the King of Liang. "It's just hard for Mr. Li. You have to bear the blame for 'deceiving the harem' for me, and you have to be on guard against your revenge later."

Dong Bai laughed when she heard this. "What's the point?" She untied the jade crown that held Ma Chao's hair in his bun, letting his black hair fall down like a waterfall. "It's just that when that old fox comes tomorrow, I'll ask him to redraw the blueprint for expanding the palace. I can't really let that girl Fu Bao cry in the fourth courtyard, can I?"

Ma Xiu stood outside the door, listening to the sounds of playfulness coming from the study before bowing and retreating. The moon, like water, streamed across the veranda, casting a pale, cold light on the leaves of his armor. As the night watchman struck the third watch, he suddenly heard Ma Chao's chuckle from inside the main room: "Bai'er, do you know what Mr. Li sent you? It wasn't a beauty. It was clearly the military talisman for half of Hanzhong..." The candlelight cast a swaying shadow on the window paper, a clear sign of affection between a man and a woman.

The sunlight at dawn filtered through the carved window lattices, casting a fine golden gleam on the blue bricks of the palace's main hall. Ma Chao scooped almond curd from his bowl with a silver spoon when he heard a sharp tinkle of a bronze bell beneath the eaves. Just as the maid was about to pass on a message, she saw Li Ru and Jia Xu stepping side by side through the moonlit gate. Morning dew still stained the old fox's bamboo crown, and wine stains clung to the cuffs of Jia Xu's brocade robe.

Dong Bai put down his celadon bowl and went to the corridor with Ma Chao. "Mr. Wenyou, what are you doing..." He looked at Li Ru's feigned panic and suddenly chuckled. The hem of his dark brocade robe brushed the moss in front of the steps. "You smell of alcohol! You are in a very refined mood, sir. Where did you drink last night?"

Li Ru lifted the corner of his blue robe and was about to bow, but Ma Chao held him back. "Prince Liang is embarrassing me," the old fox said, his voice hoarse with morning mist, his eyes darting around beneath his bamboo hat. "I heard that the king sent his personal guards to search Chang'an last night. I was so frightened that I sobered up a little."

Dong Bai leaned against the porch pillar, her fingertips tracing the lotus carvings, her dark gold-trimmed skirt gently lifting in the morning breeze. "My uncle seems to be in a good mood," she said, looking at the wine stains still wet on Li Ru's sleeves. She suddenly raised an eyebrow, "I wonder which great master he drank with last night?"

This made Jia Xu pause in his beard-twisting hand. Li Ru, however, clapped his hands and laughed, shaking the jade hairpin on the bamboo crown: "Who else could it be? Of course, he was hunted down by the king and had nowhere to go, so he had to hide in Wenhe Mansion and drink alone!"

At the hour of Mao, sunlight filtered through the carved lattice windows of the study. Ma Chao stared at Li Ru with a sharp look, tinged with a hint of amusement.

"Sir, please tell me," Ma Chao tapped the bronze paperweight with his fingertips. "Sir, you went to Hanzhong to bring back Zhen Mi, so why did you bring back two Shao carriages with beauties on them?" Before he finished speaking, Dong Bai had already placed the gilded teapot heavily on the table. The amber tea splashed over the rim of the cup and splashed onto Li Ru's clothes.

Li Ru stroked the goat beard beneath his bamboo crown and chuckled, not caring at all about the tea splattering on his clothes. "My lord, do you know the nursery rhymes that have been circulating in Chang'an these days? Ever since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, prophecies have been like a thorn in the flesh, causing unrest in the Han Dynasty."

"Mr. Wenyou is saying that Zhang Lu's daughter's marriage is also a fulfillment of the prophecy?" Ma Chao looked at the swaying shadows of the locust tree branches outside the window and suddenly lowered his voice.

Ma Chao clenched the paperweight fiercely, a coolness from the bronze spreading through his palm. "This king only believes that the iron cavalry can flatten the pass." He tapped his knuckles on the map of Xiliang on the wall. The arrow mark pointed from Longxi straight into Hanzhong. "If a few nursery rhymes could conquer the world, why did Lord Dong burn down the palace and move the capital?"

"That's exactly what I want to say about Prime Minister Dong!" Li Ru suddenly stood up, and the sound of his bamboo crown hitting the bronze bells hanging on the beams made them jingle. "Prime Minister Dong had an army of 200,000, so why did he lose in the end?" The old fox's emotions fluctuated, and he made a harsh sound. "It was because we only cared about seizing power at that time. In order to gain power, we repeatedly made concessions to the aristocratic families. But we didn't know that the people's will was the real savior!"

Dong Bai suddenly tightened her grip on Ma Chao's hand, her dark gold-studded skirt sweeping across the embroidered cushion. "Sir, are you saying that aristocratic families are a cancer?" She looked at Li Ru puzzledly and said, "But who among the governors and prefects in the world doesn't come from an aristocratic family?"

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Ma Chao looked thoughtful and said, "Sir, do you want me to use the Taoist teachings of Heavenly Master to win the hearts of the people? But how could that old scoundrel Zhang Lu be willing to be a pawn?"

Upon hearing this, Li Ru laughed so hard that the window papers rustled. "My lord, why do you think he gave away two of his own daughters?" The old fox picked up the ink stick on the table and slowly ground it in the inkstone. "He had no choice. Hanzhong is a strategic location. No matter if it is Liu Zhang of Yizhou or me, Xiliang, or the princes of the Central Plains, as long as they are determined to rule the world, they will eventually annex Hanzhong. He just assessed the situation and felt that the king had a greater chance of winning. What I want is not just his small piece of land in Hanzhong." The ink gradually thickened, just like the scheme surging in his eyes. "When Miss Fu Bao's dowry is moved into the palace, the believers of Tianshi Dao will think: The King of Liang is destined by heaven. Even Zhang Tianshi wants to marry into this family. When the news spreads throughout the world, the king's prestige will be even greater!"

The morning light suddenly shone brightly, illuminating the dust in the study. Dong Bai watched Li Ru grind his ink. "Uncle, this chess game is really big. I just don't know who are the pieces and who is the chess player?"

Li Ru ground the ink. "In these troubled times," he dipped his wolf-hair brush into the ink and approached the hanging map. "The one who can make the people follow him willingly is the true master of chess." The brush tip passed over a line that connected Xiliang and Hanzhong.

Ma Chao tapped his fingertips on the bronze paperweight and scanned the map: "As long as Zhang Lu submits to us, we can get the land of Hanzhong. Why do we need to rely on marriage?"

The old fox stroked the goat beard under his bamboo crown and laughed softly, "My lord, do you know why Zhang Lu calls himself 'Master'?"

"Although he is the prefect of Hanzhong," Li Ru's nails scraped across the border of Ba County on the map, making a harsh sound, "what he values ​​more is his status as the current Heavenly Master of the Heavenly Master Dao." "The ink in the inkstone shimmered in the morning light, just like the calculations surging in his eyes. "For Zhang Lu, the prosperity of the religious tradition is far more important than the gains and losses of territory."