My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

Two tables were set up at the main entrance of the Imperial Clan Court. One held Bai Song's forged death certificate, and the other held Lan Yue's current living record. There were no curtains around, so anyone could see. Lan Yue spoke first: "If it weren't for that fake record, I would be dead by now." I asked, "So you want his forgery removed?"

The person who arrived as "Qian Fang" did not sit down. He admitted that he knew the phrase from eleven years ago, "Would you be willing to die once?", but reminded everyone that knowing the old words does not mean that you are the same person from back then. So we only remember "what was said today" and do not write down our identities beforehand. This is exactly what Zhou Qi taught us the earliest—a piece of real paper and a real story can be used by another person.

"That sounds like Miss Bai," Bai Zhi said. "I won't say that." "What would you say?" "The examination is endless." A-Liu shut up, and the man walked to the table. He didn't sit down, but looked at Lan Yue first. Lan Yue also looked at him. "Have you seen her before?" I asked, and Lan Yue shook her head. "I haven't seen her face." "What about her voice?" The man didn't speak again, and Lan Yue waited for a while. "It's similar." "How so?" "Wait." "Eleven years ago." "Someone asked me from behind the screen." "Would you be willing to die once?" "That's what they said." The man finally spoke. "You said you were willing back then." Lan Yue's face turned pale. "It was you."

"No." She paused for a moment, "but don't delete the 'save me' part too."

This is clearer than any single page of principles.

Bai Song did three things back then: faked Liu Yue's death from the plague to help Lan Yue escape capture; borrowed the location of an unknown deceased person to make it harder for that person to find their original name; and left a supplementary page, requesting that the false name be withdrawn after thirty days. The first two things have already happened, but the third thing has not been completed. Zhou Qi, sitting on the other side as "Qian Fang," listened to the whole thing from beginning to end.

The unidentified female corpse written as Liu Yue wasn't fabricated out of thin air. Seven registered bodies were indeed burned at the plague camp that day, along with a woman around twenty-seven years old who remained unclaimed. Bai Song added "Liu Yue" to her name, and had Lan Yue hide in the eighth-floor partition and escape the city in the hearse. Lan Yue survived, but the woman's already ambiguous identity became even harder to uncover. Saving one person and concealing the location of another dead body occurred simultaneously on the same piece of paper.

I asked her, "Eleven years ago, was it you who changed the 30-day period to a postponement?"

"Yes." "Why?" "Wang Song is checking the loose pages. The renaming will expose Lan Yue again." "How long is the postponement?"

"It wasn't written." "That's why it dragged on for eleven years."

She didn't deny it. Her mother asked Lan Yue, "Bai Song saved you, can you forgive that nameless dead man on his behalf?" Lan Yue shook her head: "No."

"Could the nameless deceased speak for you, saying that saving a life doesn't count?" "No, not either."

The clerk then began to write: Bai Song's forgery would not disappear because of the rescue; nor would the result of the rescue be erased because of the forgery. The loss of the unknown deceased's identity would be investigated separately, and Lan Yue herself would not be reverted to a state of death. There were no seven points, no ten points; just clarifying these three matters was enough. Lan Yue looked at her name and asked Bai Zhi, "Then should I still testify for Mr. Bai?"

The inquiry didn't immediately turn into a sentence. First, it recorded "who did what." Bai Song fabricated a death record; Lan Yue knowingly consented to being written as dead, but was unaware that the location of the unidentified female corpse had been borrowed; Zhou Qi later altered the time and seal, making the false records harder to detect; the demand to return the name on the 30th was not fulfilled. Each fact must be separated before discussing responsibility. The onlookers kept asking, "Was Bai Song a good person or a bad person?" I instructed the clerk to leave that column blank, because it didn't even exist.

The hardest thing for Lan Yue to say wasn't defending Bai Song, but actually saying "He's responsible." After she said it, people around her gossiped that she was ungrateful. She didn't change her mind: "It's true that he saved me, and it's true that he used the dead man's position. I won't hate him for the second thing, nor can I speak for that dead man for the first thing." She hid in Jiangbei for eleven years, and in the end, she was more tolerant of the two uncomfortable facts than anyone who wanted to draw conclusions about her.

Bai Songren was already dead, and the accountability document didn't impose a false sentence on the deceased. It established the forgery was true, detailing the purpose of the emergency rescue, the preservation of the original evidence, restrictions on its use, and a deadline for renaming; it also stated that he hadn't used the false identity to obtain money, mobilize troops, or frame others. The fact that the deceased couldn't be punished didn't mean his actions were null and void. The accountability document was made public, and the unfinished obligation to renam him was to be fulfilled by the living officials. This outcome displeased everyone, but at least it didn't replace the actual repayment with a grandiose judgment.

"Prove whatever you can." "He saved me." "Write it down." "I don't know if he's harmed anyone else."

"I also wrote 'I don't know'."

Lan Yue nodded. This was much easier than having to choose between a benefactor and a sinner. She didn't need to delete the nameless deceased person's name to repay the debt, nor did she need to deny that she had actually been saved because of the nameless deceased.

"How long is the deadline?" "Thirty days is too long." "Then how long should it be?" "Determined by the actual risks." "It must be reviewed every thirty days." "The reviewer cannot be only the forger." Qian Fang looked at the paper. "You think having an extra review will prevent it from being replaced?" "It will." "What's the use then?" "To make the cost of replacing someone higher." I said, "And to let future generations know." "Who decides to continue the fake on which day?" Bai Song made the first fake account, and Qian Fang let it live for eleven more years. We can't attribute all eleven years to Bai Song. Nor can we blame it on Bai Song saving Lan Yue.

The fifth page left by Bai Song also proves that he knew the false accounts couldn't be valid indefinitely. The false name couldn't be used to receive silver, inherit property, recommend officials, or mobilize troops, nor could it be used to impersonate someone else; the real name page had to be kept in separate locations and reviewed and returned after thirty days. If the danger persisted, it could be extended, but the reasons and witnesses had to be rewritten. That set of restrictions wasn't perfect, but it shows that he didn't consider "saving lives" as permission to use the false identity indefinitely. What truly stretched the thirty days into eleven years was the later, indefinite "extension."

The procedures for temporary passports also changed accordingly: if there was immediate danger, a false name could be used, residence could be changed, and whereabouts could be concealed; however, the original records must be kept, the scope of knowledge must be clearly stated, and the review period must be specified. When the deadline arrived, it was no longer acceptable to simply write "still dangerous" to continue delaying. After reading the draft, the emperor asked, "If the deadline arrives, will the person still die?"

Halfway through the draft, Ah Liu asked the most practical question: "If someone were really chasing us, how could we have time to write all this?" His mother said they could prioritize saving lives; in an emergency, they could move the person out of danger. Within an hour, they could finalize who made the decision, why, where the real name was stored, and when the review would take place. Power can act first in an emergency, but it cannot remain forever just because there wasn't enough time. Each renewal requires a new signature; the phrase "still in danger" cannot live on for eleven years.

The mother said, "Write again why you died."

After Zhou Qi was detained, the interrogation at the main gate of the Imperial Clan Court did not end. The most difficult part was yet to be written: how would Bai Song be sentenced? How would Lan Yue be judged? Could the emergency evidence be preserved? And what about Zhou Qi's first mistake? Would it be considered that because she later harmed others, she was simply evil from the beginning? The Emperor did not come, and her father was not present. Her mother remained in Yong'an; this account could only be written based on the facts of what happened. It wasn't the final verdict, but merely the first page of responsibility for the case. I let Lan Yue speak first. "How should Mr. Bai record this?" she said. "Forgery." "Save me." "Used the position of an unidentified deceased." "Left a page for renaming."

"Another continuation?" "Sure. The person continuing will use their real name."

The emperor didn't ask any further questions. This wasn't a guarantee that no one would ever forge documents again. It simply meant that "for your own good" could no longer automatically become an indefinite lock. Before the hearing ended, I asked Zhou Qi, "Why didn't you put a separate page for that unknown deceased person back then?" She looked up: "I did." Bai Zhi spread out the old copy she had brought. Sure enough, there was a page with a separate note: One female corpse of unknown identity, not to be considered claimed simply because Liu Yue faked her death.

This page stunned Lan Yue for a long time. She had always thought that her survival was based on the complete disappearance of the deceased; only now did she realize that Zhou Qi had also forced Bai Song to leave another place for the unidentified female corpse to be investigated. Zhou Qi didn't only understand "leaving both sides" later; she had already done it. And it was precisely because she had done it that it was even more difficult for her to explain away the fifth page for eleven years with the simple statement, "I only believe in the rules."

I stared at it for a long time, and Zhou Qi said, "You think all I do is delete people?"

"I thought you would have told me about the good things you've done sooner." "That way you would have believed me first."

She's right.

She did change the accounts, and indeed, she protected a line in certain areas. A person doesn't erase all their past mistakes just because they did one right thing; similarly, one can't change all her past actions to malice simply because she later became Zhou Qi. That's the most troublesome part. Zhou Qi smiled slightly: "Shen An, you're becoming more and more like Bai Song."

"How are they similar?" "They both try to write on a piece of paper in a way that offends neither side." "It's not about offending either side."

I pressed Lan Yue's living page back onto the table.

"Neither side can disappear in place of the other."

She stopped laughing.