Synopsis
Yan Nianfeng, a collateral member of the Hedong Yan clan, was the son of no more than a seventh-rank military aide in Luzhou. In the spring of the eleventh year of Tianbao, he went alone to Chang'an to seek his fortune. At a polo match by Qujiang, Princess Xianyi glanced at him from afar, and from then on he was swept into a game whose true shape he could not yet see.
Feng Liwan was the daughter of Feng Chaozong, military governor of Shuofang. Raised in military camps, she was dazzling and fierce. She sought out Yan Nianfeng because the Feng family needed a "bridge." Feng Chaozong had returned to the capital to report on his duties, but Li Linfu had blocked three of his memorials, and his three thousand cavalry had been transferred to Weinan. He wanted to see the Crown Prince but had no way to arrange it. Yan Nianfeng was a stranger, clean and unremarkable, with no one watching him.
Yan Nianfeng first made his way into Rui Xiang Pavilion in the Western Market. The proprietress, Jia Xuerou, was the daughter of a former vice minister of Works. Her father had died at Li Linfu's hands, and she held a secret channel linking the eunuchs to the Imperial Guard. Yan Nianfeng delivered a letter for her into the palace. Its recipient was Yuan Siyi, an assistant supervisor of the Directorate of the Palace Attendants, and in return he received a jade cicada. Soon afterward, the Crown Prince secretly summoned him to the Eastern Palace and asked him to work on covert connections at court.
The matter was far more complicated than it seemed. Zheng Jitong, an assistant director of the Court of the Imperial Treasury, gave Yan Nianfeng a worn-thin copper coin, saying it was a keepsake from his late wife, and asked him to give it to his son someday. The next day, someone slipped Cui Miao an identical coin, but with half the character "Ji" added to it. Zheng Jitong was under surveillance. The person watching him was a covert agent disguised as a Daoist priest, carrying Rui Xiang Pavilion's aloeswood incense and visiting Chen Xuanli's residence in Changxing Ward every three days. Chen Xuanli was the commander of the guards at Xingqing Palace. He had served Emperor Xuanzong for forty years, and Li Linfu was trying to win him over. As for Yuan Siyi, twenty years earlier he had delivered poisoned wine to Li Ying, the deposed Crown Prince, on Li Linfu's behalf.
At the Qinzhengwuben Tower, Princess Xianyi told Yan Nianfeng that Li Linfu would not live past this summer. Within three months, the Crown Prince had to obtain the military tallies of the three border commands of Shuofang, Hedong, and Hexi. Otherwise, if An Lushan rebelled, the whole realm would descend into chaos. Yan Nianfeng also discovered that half the network Jia Xuerou had spent years holding onto was a long game laid by Li Linfu, though she knew nothing about it.
Shen Qi, an aide to Feng Chaozong, was the only one who saw the whole picture. He had investigated in secret for half a year, but didn't dare tell Feng Chaozong, afraid he would stake everything on one move. He gave Yan Nianfeng an old scroll that Zheng Jitong had hidden for more than a decade. Two characters had been erased from the back of the scroll: "Palace Attendant." Those two characters pointed to Yuan Siyi.
At dusk in Chang'an, the golden age stood on the verge of breaking. Yan Nianfeng stood in a small courtyard in Pingkang Ward, carrying a copper coin, a jade cicada, and a list handwritten by the Crown Prince. On the paper, he wrote three names: Yuan Siyi, Chen Xuanli, Jia Xuerou. He joined them with lines and wrote one character in the middle: Li. At the end, he added one more name: Shen.
Shen Qi was waiting for someone who could thread these scattered strands together again. Yan Nianfeng was already at the edge of the game board.
Premise: Yan Nianfeng, a collateral member of the Hedong Yan clan, went alone to Chang'an to seek his fortune, only to be drawn into the secret struggle among Li Linfu, the Crown Prince, and the frontier commands. Amid the cracks in a golden age on the verge of collapse, he gradually went from being a pawn to a player.
