The Price Of Truth.

A'fen was a different creature from the terrified girl Yi Cheng had witnessed last night. She was smiling and chatting with her father as the blended with the crowd of officials heading towards the court hall exit. Yi Cheng followed them at a distance, guilt and anger churning in his heart. Guilt for his complicity, anger for his cousin's folly.

Had the court and the public known of A' Xue's role in the heinous attack on A'fen, they would not have blamed her alone. Her father would have been condemned for raising such a wicked daughter, and scorn would have been heaped upon Yi Cheng's imperial mother for her kinship with the Ding family.

And then there was Yi Cheng's imperial father, who had always harbored a distrust for the Ding family. He would have blamed them of dragging the imperial family name through the mud, marring its reputation in the eyes of the people. The coldness and aloofness he showed towards Yi Cheng's imperial mother would have turned into a harsh frost.

"Your imperial father must never hear the truth of your cousin's involvement," Yi Cheng's remembered his imperial mother's plea. "You must do as your uncle says," she had insisted, "Everyone must believe those men acted of their own."

He had complied, playing his part in his uncle's plan to the end. It had not unfolded as seamlessly as his uncle had anticipated, costing him a portion of his military power. But it had spared Yi Cheng's imperial mother from the public's criticism and contempt, and from further indifference from his imperial father.

Still, a sharp pang lingered in Yi Cheng's heart, the dread of A'fen finding out the truth and his role in hiding it. Would she ever forgive him? Would she understand that he had not denied her justice to shield his guilty cousin, but rather to protect his imperial mother.