Half a month had passed since Lin Xiao’s rescue, and he had almost fully recovered by now. He could walk around without needing to be supported and had even started to help Long Yinlian pick up herbs in the mountain.

He also frequently went down to the nearby village to sell some of their spoils and exchange them for some fresh ingredients. Of course, he had also asked around if there were any noble families that were searching for their lost son, but so far, there had not even single news. This continued for about a year and in the end, Lin Xiao simply gave up trying to find out about his origins. In his mind, if his family did not come looking for him, then he must have been abandoned already.

On the other hand, the state within the Imperial Palace was tumultuous, to say the least. Qin Yijun had turned the Imperial Court upside down. He dismissed a huge majority of the corrupt officials after awarding them with ruthless punishments for their ‘meritorious deeds’. He also replaced the ministers that he declared ‘could no longer contribute to the betterment of the country’. Of course, this was after he had got concrete evidence of all the bad things they had done. Unfortunately, he could not uproot each and every single one of them because some of them were too sly to be caught that way.

Afterwards, the search for new officials took place. The Imperial Palace invited all scholars throughout the Empire of Qin to take part in the Imperial Examinations. The news of the Imperial Examinations spread through far and wide, and before long, the guest houses within the Imperial City were fully booked. Everywhere one went, there would always be a group or two of those scholars in the vicinity. The third month after the news was released, the registration for the Imperial Examinations was closed.

Due to the huge number of participants, the Imperial Examinations had to take place on three different days. The Imperial Scholars of Tiantang Xueyuan had to come up with three different papers in order to avoid any possibility of cheating to occur.

A week after the registration was closed, the examinations finally took place. There were a lot of outstanding scholars that participated and there were also those children from noble families. So, in order to avoid any cases of biased evaluation, Qin Yijun personally oversaw the marking of each paper. Because of this, the results that should have come out in a day or two were delayed. This made all participants nervous.

Time continued to pass by and the anxiety within each scholar’s heart grew. Then, on the noon of the third day after the examination, the officials in charge finally posted the list of participants that passed the exam on the announcement board outside the Imperial Palace.

Those who got through were overjoyed while the others could only leave in disappointment. Qin Yijun did not bother to waste any more time and ordered the ministers to cultivate the selected scholars into upstanding officials. After this event, it took several more months until the Imperial Palace had finally regained a sense of normalcy.

Qin Yijun was currently taking a walk through Yuexing Palace. He walked quietly, appreciating the beauty within the palace. At the same time, his heart was filled with loneliness. For almost a decade, Li Fangming always accompanied him whenever he simply wanted to relax. But now, Li Fangming was no longer by his side. He had always believed that they would be together for a lifetime but he still lost him. 

“You promised to stay by my side,” Qin Yijun murmured in a soft voice.

Turning his head, his eyes landed on one of the trees planted in the courtyard. He slowly approached the tree and touched the bark. There were several marks on the tree bark, and they were all made by Li Fangming. He remembered how Li Fangming would always climb the tree to check on the nest that belonged to the bird he saved long ago. Though it died a few years ago, its children seem to love staying in the old nest. Even when they already made a nest of their own, they would still fly over to this particular nest on this tree whenever they see Li Fangming and Qin Yijun around.

Even now, they still flew over and they would always look down as if waiting for Li Fangming to climb up and play with them. Qin Yijun looked up and saw them, and he could not help but give out a sad smile. “At least, Zhen is not the only one who misses him. Still… are you two not falcons? Isn’t it about time for you to find mates?”

The two falcons stared at Qin Yijun before one of them glided down from the tree and perched itself over on Qin Yijun’s shoulder. Then, it nuzzled its beak lightly against Qin Yijun’s cheek. 

“Are you trying to comfort Zhen?” As he said this, Qin Yijun stroked the underneath of the falcon’s beak with his finger.

Just then, a shadow guard came over and knelt before the Emperor. 

“Reporting to the Emperor, we still could not find the remains of Xinglan Wang… We have also asked around, but there are no reported sightings of him anywhere. We did find someone who looked like Li Fangming—”

“Where?!” Qin Yijun quickly asked, his voice brimming with hopefulness.

“Around a small village near the Wujin Senlin. The villager called their village the Senlin Village.”

“Why have you not brought him to Zhen yet?” Qin Yijun was now anxious. He really hoped that the man in question is Li Fangming but the shadow guard’s next answer crushed his hope.

“Answering to the Emperor… When we approached him, he thought that we were… thieves…” The shadow guard answered with much hesitation. “He referred to himself as Lin Xiao, and when we asked about his origins, he simply stated that he had been abandoned by his family, and that he is currently living in seclusion in the mountains with his benefactor. He didn’t look like he was lying, and when we tailed him, we found that he lived in a cave with a visually impaired hermit.”

“Did you mention to him that Zhen was looking for him?”

“This slave has mentioned it. But he only told this slave that we’ve got the wrong person. He said that if he was someone who was favoured by the Emperor, then his family wouldn’t have abandoned him in the first place…”

Hearing this, Qin Yijun closed his eyes and tried to calm his heart. “You’re dismissed. Tell the rest to return. There is no need to look any more,” Qin Yijun said with a heavy heart. 

“His remains were not found, so he should still be alive. Zhen believes that he will return to Zhen’s side one day…” 

Although he said this, it seemed as though he himself doubted it. The shadow guards also understood this, but they didn’t comment on it. They are just slaves who had pledged their lives and loyalty to the Emperor. It is not their place to question or advise the Emperor.

The falcon that was still perched on the tree suddenly spread out its wings and flew away. At first, Qin Yijun thought it went back to its own nest but then, he saw it flew over Yuexing Palace’s wall for the first time. 

“See? Your sibling already left. Probably went to look for a mate. You should go too,” Qin Yijun told the falcon that was on his shoulder. The bird just stared at Qin Yijun but didn’t attempt to move away. 

“Alright, stay if you want.”

After that, Qin Yijun decided to leave and return to the Imperial Study to work. Just before he stepped out of Yuexing Palace gate, the falcon on his shoulder flew away, going deeper into the foliage in the gardens. This was how the falcon usually acts, not wanting to leave the courtyard at all.

Qin Yijun looked up at the sky, towards the distance where the other falcon had long disappeared to. “At the very least, you have a chance to find your happiness while Zhen can only live with regrets…”

A/N: I know I said I can't cope posting on several platforms but since arc 1 is almost finished, I think I can handle posting them here until the end of arc 1 XD