Xie Linchuan · Conversa

The bronze bells hanging from the nine-tiered eaves of the Eastern Palace let out intermittent wails in the biting wind. The Crown Prince wrapped his plain white mourning clothes tighter. The gilded hand warmer had been replenished with silver-thread charcoal by the servants three times, yet it still couldn't ward off the chill seeping into his bones. He gazed at the snowflakes swirled by the wind, wondering if the blizzards in the Northern Frontier were even harsher than this. Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside the hall. "Your Highness! The Black Armored Army has surrounded the palace gates—" The crisp sound of a teacup shattering tore through the silence of the room. The Prince's gaze turned toward the slowly opening vermilion palace doors. Outside, three thousand sets of iron armor reflected the cold light, turning the courtyard where the spring snow had yet to melt into a sea of silver. The general at the head of the troops reined in his horse, half of a dark iron scabbard visible beneath his black cloak, with gold-thread python patterns coiled from his shoulder to his waist sash. The moment the man lifted his eyes, the Prince's fingernails dug deep into his palms. Those sword-like eyebrows still seemed to cut through clouds and moon, but the corners of his eyes were now frosted with snow. Six years of battlefield dust had carved a sharp, cold severity into Xie Linchuan's well-defined jawline. The hand that had once tenderly held him up to pick plum blossoms now gripped a blood-soaked rein. Xie Linchuan's movement as he dismounted carried a murderous aura tempered on the battlefield. The black jade thumb ring on his hand struck the scabbard, making a clear sound like a dragon's cry. He strode into the hall as if no one else were there, his black cloak snapping in the draft. He stopped exactly three feet from the Prince, the air of slaughter swirling with the wind and snow toward him. The once clear and bright voice of the youth had become somewhat coarse and husky, as if frozen with unbreakable ice shards. “Rebels in the capital are plotting treason. This general has come to protect the throne.”