Pei Su walked to the entrance of the governor's mansion and saw Jiang Suining waiting for him outside.
Although Pei Su's departure was not a grand affair, a large group of high-ranking officials from the governor's mansion still saw him to the gate.
Among them, the governor of Bingzhou, Liu Hun, his corpulent body jiggling, ran over from a distance, his eyes bloodshot as he cried out, "Your Highness! Will you come to Bingzhou again?"
Everyone else cursed inwardly: *This Liu Hun is utterly shameless. He's a provincial governor, for goodness' sake, yet he acts like this!*
Pei Su was also a little surprised. He had only shared a few cups of wine with this governor at a banquet and had no other connection to him. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought the man was his real father!
"If I have the chance, I will certainly come to Bingzhou to visit again."
Though he said this, everyone present was astute enough to know it was just an empty pleasantry. There were seventy-two provinces in the realm; the fact that the Heir had visited Bingzhou even once was all thanks to Lord Liu.
Pei Su's gaze swept further back. Behind the crowd of Bingzhou's high officials, their children and the young ladies of the various prominent families were also squeezed together, gazing in his direction.
Liu Zhi was among them, surrounded by the other young ladies. She wore the most vibrant purple lotus-patterned skirt, and her eyes were still slightly red.
It was said that after Jiang Suining had followed Pei Su into the mansion today, Liu Zhi had secretly come to watch from afar, then ran back to her chambers without a word and had a good cry.
"See that woman in the purple skirt?"
Pei Su suddenly gave Jiang Suining a gentle nudge, placing a token in her hand.
"She did me a favor. Go and tell her that if she wishes to enter the capital in a few years, she can use this token to find the Palace Administration. Someone will arrange for her to serve the Empress as a Palace Administrator."
Jiang Suining, unfamiliar with such courtly positions, belatedly took the token and walked toward Liu Zhi. The high-ranking officials in the front all hurried to make way.
"Miss... Liu?"
Liu Zhi was in a daze when she saw the girl who made her burn with jealousy appear before her.
Up close, Jiang Suining's appearance once again filled the group of aristocratic young ladies with unparalleled envy and jealousy. No matter the world, a woman's pursuit of beauty is always the same.
But Liu Zhi remained relatively calm. She knew that a girl who could stay by the Heir's side was not someone she could afford to be rude to.
Besides, after her father, Liu Gongyun, had spent the better part of an hour counseling her, Liu Zhi had finally understood that the Heir was not someone she could easily aspire to be with.
As the dual Heir of both the Pei Duke's Mansion and the North Guard Marquis Mansion, Pei Jiumu's consort would have to be a princess or a royal daughter; no one else was qualified to even be considered...
"Is something the matter, sister?"
Liu Zhi managed a smile, but the more she looked at the girl before her, the more bitter her heart became.
"It's just... the Heir asked me to give this token to you."
"He said you did him a favor, Miss Liu. In the future, you can use this token to enter the capital. He will arrange for you to serve the Empress as a Palace Administrator."
Having spoken her piece timidly, Jiang Suining left, but Liu Zhi remained frozen in place.
Not only her, but her companions and even the high-ranking officials who had been secretly eavesdropping were all stunned.
A Palace Administrator—in charge of supervising the palace maids and female officials of the inner palace, upholding the Empress's authority. Although it was only a fifth-rank position, it meant serving directly beside the current Empress!
To say something treasonous, no one knew when the current Emperor would emerge from his seclusion. The Empress now basically wielded the Emperor's authority. If one performed well and became the Empress's confidante...
"Sister, didn't you say last time that you liked that cloud-patterned skirt I have at home? I'll have someone send it over to you tomorrow!"
"Oh, Sister Liu! The jade lotuses in our estate will be blooming in a couple of days, you must come and enjoy them with me!"
"..."
In an instant, the group of "sisters" who had once treated Liu Zhi as an equal immediately lowered themselves, fawning over her, massaging her back and shoulders.
Even their elders approached her with kind smiles, showering her with solicitous inquiries.
Liu Zhi naturally knew the reason for the change in everyone's attitude. It was all because of a single token, a single sentence, from the Heir.
She clutched the purple token tightly in her hand, watching as the carriage carrying Pei Su and his entourage departed, a complex mix of emotions flickering in her eyes.
She was happy that the Heir remembered her, yet sad that there would be no further connection between them...
Though Bingzhou was large, it was insignificant in the grand scheme of the Great Jin. In the end, they were all just local magnates.
Even the most ordinary aristocratic clan in the Imperial Capital held a natural sense of superiority over provincial families.
To say nothing of the Pei Family, one of the most ancient and preeminent houses in the Imperial Capital, known and feared by all under heaven.
To have had such a brief connection with this world-famous Heir was already more than enough for these young ladies of Bingzhou, a story to tell for a lifetime.
And she...
That's right! She could still go to the Imperial Capital!
She could escape the small pond of Bingzhou and fly to the higher, farther Imperial Capital. Perhaps she could even continue to see the Heir!
As if she'd had an epiphany, Liu Zhi's eyes began to shine.
These common, unremarkable women around her would probably never see the Heir of the Northern Marquis again in their lives.
In a few years, they would be married off by their families within the small world of Bingzhou, wed to husbands of equally average standing, and then spend the rest of their lives serving their husbands and raising children, a cycle repeating endlessly through the generations.
But she...
A flame suddenly ignited in the depths of Liu Zhi's heart. It was called ambition.
******
"Lan'er, the first time I saw you, it was in a village in Qingtian County, Yuzhou. You were in ragged clothes, your face covered in filth, gnawing on a stolen steamed bun. The old couple who had taken you in had caught the plague. When they handed you over to me, they gave me only a single black and white token..."
The token was neither gold nor jade. Its material was cool to the touch, dark and profound. It was rectangular, and within the black, there was a striking seal-script character for "Order."
"Xiao Bo was wanted by the Imperial Court and didn't dare move about freely, but I can tell you now, this is a commander's token for the Chen Army of the Northland. You said you never knew your father, and that your birth mother was a songstress from a high-class brothel. Perhaps... your birth father is from the Northland..."
*Whoosh!*
Zhao Lan startled awake from his dream. His eyes opened to pitch darkness; it was already the dead of night.
He was lying in a ruined temple. Inside stood a giant, dilapidated Buddha statue, neglected for many years and covered in cobwebs and dust.
Zhao Lan closed his eyes again but found he could no longer sleep.
He turned his hand over and produced a black and white token. He studied it for a long time but found nothing new.
His childhood memories were extremely hazy. He had no memory of his birth mother at all. His consciousness began in the home of an old couple, and after that, he was raised by Xiao Bo...
As for this token, Xiao Bo had said his mother had left it with him. The old couple had kept it, and then Xiao Bo had kept it.
His birth father?
Zhao Lan felt little about it. Xiao Bo had raised him for twenty years; he was not his birth father, but he was more of a father than any could be. On his deathbed, he had even entrusted him with the Divine Blade Dragon Sparrow and charged him with shattering the Pei Clan's conspiracy.
As for his so-called birth father, the man had abandoned his own mother. He surely didn't care about them, so Zhao Lan couldn't be bothered to look for him!
From now on, he had to be more covert with his movements. Once he entered the Martial World, he figured that even if the Pei Family wanted to find him, they wouldn't be able to.
Just as Zhao Lan was thinking this, he suddenly heard footsteps outside the temple.