Chapter 7

Chapter 7

On the day I entered the capital, the voices of the commoners lining the streets shouting “Minister Shen” were deafening.

I had waited many years for those two words.

It wasn’t for the glory, but to prove that I didn’t need anyone’s marital surname or the title of Princess Consort to stand here.

When Yin Xianshan looked at me from the street corner, his eyes were like those of a man lost in a blizzard catching sight of a lamp.

But my lamp had long since ceased to burn for him.

My return to the capital took place three months later.

It wasn’t for Yin Xianshan.

It was because the “Superintendent of the Jiangnan Salt Circuit” had been elevated to the “National Salt Administration Capital Office.” An imperial decree had appointed me as the Chief Commissioner of the Capital Office, granting me a seat in the Grand Secretariat to discuss state affairs.

On the day I entered the capital, the civil and military officials came out of the city to welcome me. The procession was even more bustling than the Regent’s wedding years ago.

Someone in a tavern remarked with a sigh, “Shen Zhiwei is set to become Daliang’s first Female Chancellor.”

Sitting in the carriage, I lifted the curtain to take a look.

Among the crowds by the roadside, Yin Xianshan stood tall, like a tree that had been struck by lightning but refused to fall.

He was much thinner than before, with deep shadows under his eyes.

Seeing me look at him, he took a step forward, his voice hoarse. “Zhiwei.”

I let the curtain fall.

“Drive on.”

That night, he scaled the wall and entered my manor.

It was the same familiar sound of landing, the same familiar scent of agarwood-so familiar that I was momentarily dazed.

“You have amnesia; you shouldn’t have come here.” I didn’t look up, continuing to review the ledgers.

“I remember everything.”

My brush paused.

He stood under the lamp and placed an old brocade pouch on my desk.

Inside was that faded red string and a broken black jade buckle.

“Ning Zhiheng stole your jade buckle. She bribed the old servants from the Cold Palace and attributed everything you did to herself.”

His voice was so low it was almost broken. “I’ve investigated everything. All the testimonies, account books, and witnesses are at the Dali Temple. The Ning Family was imprisoned this morning.”

I remained silent for a long time before asking him, “And then?”

His eyes were bloodshot, his Adam’s apple trembling.

“And then, I’ve come to beg you.”

“For what?”

“To give me another chance.”

I closed the ledger and finally looked up at him.

This man had once been my deepest obsession.

I had taken a blade for him, taken the fall for his crimes, and burned my very life for him.

But as I looked at him now, all that remained was a very calm sense of exhaustion.

“Yin Xianshan,” I said. “What you owe me cannot be repaid with a single ‘chance’.”

He took a step forward, his voice shaking. “Tell me how to repay it, and I will.”

“Then first, return to me the reputation I lost the year I was dismissed from office. Return to me those three months of snow at the Imperial Mausoleum. Return to me the thirty-seven letters I burned.”

He froze in place.

I smiled thinly.

“You see? You can’t repay it.”