It was no surprise that Han Ge’s abode was as small as the previous elderly couple’s hut. Living together with Mu Buo Shi Ri, the brown-haired man, they eked out a living by trading horses and goats. Each time Shi Ri traveled to the nearest town with their finest breed of livestock, he would take the opportunity to exchange bits of information with the next spy.

     As fate would have it, he was headed up there the very next day. Since Li Wai and I were taking the longer but safer route to reach the Forbidden Palace, I entrusted Shi Ri with the letter I had written to He Wen. Enclosed in it were orders for the minister to follow, ensuring that he could pave my way back to the throne without any hiccups. I held no doubts in his ability to execute my orders. All I had to do was reach there safely.

     At the thought of the long journey ahead, my hand clenched, trapping a fistful of hair as I brushed absentmindedly. The teeth of the small wooden comb poked sharply into my fist and I hissed in pain, flinging my hand away. With a loud clack, the comb slipped out of my fingers and dropped to the ground. As I bent down to pick it up, a knock on the door resounded in the small bedroom.

     A feminine voice spoke up. “Empress, do you require your humble servant’s assistance?”

     The comb back in my hands, I called out, “Come in.”

     Han Ge stepped into the room with her head bowed. I motioned her to come closer and held out the comb in my hand. “Help me with my hair.”

      “Yes, empress.” Accepting the wooden object with two hands, she set to the task. One hand behind the long hair strands, she dragged the comb down gently until it reached the very tips.

      I watched her perform her job methodically, noticing her hesitance in dealing with small tangles that cropped up. Her hands were rough, her ability at doing such feminine tasks rusty. Only years of working the fields could have taken that away. My curiosity piqued, I asked, “How long have you been in Tufan territory?”

      “It’s been about… 7 years, Empress.”

      In the dim light shed by the oil lamp, my eyes traced the wrinkles forming on her forehead. She could not be more than thirty years of age, yet the days of working under the searing sun had clearly taken its toll on her youth. Though her looks could be considered as leaning towards the masculine side, she still possessed some amount of natural beauty. Surely her prospects in life would not require her to resort to being a spy so far behind enemy lines.

      “I’m curious, Han Ge. How were you forced into this profession?” I eyed her through the small, dusty mirror. “Obviously you didn’t choose it.”

      She paused, the comb half-way down the length of my back. “I was…” Correcting herself, her voice fell by an octave. “..am a criminal, Empress. Minister He Wen… saw potential in me and trained me.”

      The revelation stoked my curiosity rather than fear. “What were you charged for?”

      Her gaze lowered. “Fraud, Empress.” So soft were her words that I had to strain to hear.

      “What did you do?” I pressed.

      Han Ge’s lips pursed into a thin line. She hesitated as she struggled for the words. “My father… came from a line of famous generals. But he fell into disgrace when he directly went against his commander’s orders and massacred a hundred prisoners. Poverty hit us hard and he tried everything he could think of to regain our family honor.”

      She paused and inhaled sharply before continuing. “When I was of age, he decided to match make me with the eldest son of a wealthy family. Not knowing that my family no longer held the same status as before, they agreed. After I became soulmates with their son, and my father reaped the rewards offered by the soulmate system… we took off.”

      Her words were calm and measured, yet the bitterness that laced her tone was immediately evident to me. A ruthless father who cared not about his daughter’s happiness or wellbeing had sealed her fate. But the final element that clinched the deal had been the soulmate system that I myself had personally put into place.

      My brows creased as a small wrinkle in Han Ge’s story nagged at me. I rubbed my forehead lightly with two fingers. “If you had not met that family’s son before… how were you able to obtain a soulmate mark? You could not possibly have fallen in love with him in that short time, did you?”

      Her eyes widened quizzically as she frowned. “Empress… didn’t know-”

      She cut herself off, opting not to test the waters, but getting straight to the facts. “There is a loophole in how the soulmate mark is bestowed, Empress.”