The dark clouds cover the sky as if it were a thick cloak, concealing the faint light that still existed in the stars and abandoning the night to the impenetrable darkness of the abyss. The icy wind dominates impetuously and seems to penetrate the bones of the unlucky ones it touches, announcing that it will soon snow.

Lan Xiu walks under the shadows that hang over humanity to deliver the report of her espionage mission. She enters a room lit only by orange flames, where leader Zhu is alone, waiting for her. Unconcerned that there is no one else in the room, she removes her mask and kneels before Zhu Huang.

They both greet each other politely and she begins to tell the history of everything that happened in detail.

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The young emperor's marriage, which has been arranged since his birth, to the beautiful daughter of the empire's marshal, will take place in advance as a strategy to put an end to the regents interfering in Liu Han's rule. The advance was also due to Jun Long's request, which the emperor heard because he had been lonely since the death of his only close relative.

Realising that this wedding is taking place among a web of countless political interests, Zhu Huang doesn't want to miss out on any information and sends Lan Xiu to spy on the ceremony.

No Zhu was invited, because no one wants to be accompanied to their wedding by people who are planning to murder him, which forces her to use a false identity. Zhu Zanjin kidnaps a bride's friend's maid, and Lan Xiu takes her place.

The spy is careful to hide her face so that people don't notice any differences between her and the maid, but she doesn't want to dress differently from the way the maid would normally dress to avoid the strangeness of the people who know her.

Lan Xiu enters the noble damsel presence quietly, avoiding interaction, but when necessary, she doesn't utter a word to avoid people noticing the difference in her voice.

The woman she serves is slow to get ready, like most young women, even though she is over thirty, but this fact is ignored only to make reality fit her fantasies. Lan Xiu skilfully helps her with cosmetics and make-up until the noblewoman is pleased with her appearance.

Lan Xiu helps her onto the splendid carriage. She lifts the edges of the noblewoman's hanfu and the two enter the vehicle. The road is boring, nothing interesting happens and the spy remains quiet, meditating on how she will act later in her mission.

The palace is not far away. After a fleeting moment travelling through the streets of the empire, the grandiose royal dwelling emerges from the horizon. The stunning building glistens in the sun and stands out because of its immense size compared to the tiny humans.

Countless guests enter in the greatest pomp, feeling important for having been invited to a royal wedding, as if a party of mere humans could grant any significance to their lives that consist of seeking their own honours.

The reception has strict and bureaucratic security, which takes far too long to get through, but Lan Xiu is able to fool the royal military. Upon entering, she carefully observes the atmosphere, which is no more than an ordinary party, and decides to pay attention to the most important figures for her mission.

From a distance, the emperor and his fiancée appear to be nothing more than a cute teenage couple. The girl is quiet and delicate, and Liu Han looks around restlessly as he shies away from social interaction.

Lan Xiu's gaze is drawn to Jun Long, who is most favoured by the marriage. She insists on him, paying attention to every detail, and it's unnecessary to worry about being noticed watching him too much, because countless onlookers don't take their eyes off him.

The marshal, for the first time, appears to be loving. He's smiling, happy, and it's not as if his joy comes from the realisation of an evil plan. Jun Long is proud of his daughter, who has grown up and found a good husband. Although she stubbornly finds something strange about the marshal, there is nothing suspicious in Lan Xiu's eyes.

Later, the noble lady, a close friend of the bride, approaches the girl. Lan Xiu accompanies the woman and nothing new is revealed, an ordinary conversation between friends takes place, where the bride only chatters about her beloved.

Lan Xiu's main focus remains Jun Long. How could someone as favoured by this wedding as him not have planned anything? There are no clues, no evidence, only suspicions, which the more they are explored, the more the certainty that the marshal is innocent is established in the spy's mind.

Certain that she won't find out anything more about the marshal, her focus shifts to the emperor, who is acting suspiciously. What's bothering him? Liu Han avoids showing anxiety and restlessness, he's good at it and hardly anyone other than Lan Xiu would pick up on his emotions.

From time to time, the emperor leaves the party, disappearing to who knows where, and in one of these disappearances, Lan Xiu has the opportunity to follow him. She doesn't move until she's sure that no one will notice her absence and disguises herself in the crowd, moving carefully and making sure not to attract the attention of any guards.

Liu Han has gone off to deal with the trivialities of the work of a governor of an empire. Lan Xiu feels a little sorry that he has to be absent from his own wedding party due to royal duties. Several other times he goes out, and every time she manages to accompany him, the emperor's situation is the same, work and more work. She concludes that the reason for the emperor's strange behaviour is simply to worry about his government.

In addition to this information, Lan Xiu collects other observations on trivial matters that have a chance of gaining some relevance and delivers them indiscriminately, with the most precise details of everything she has achieved on her mission, to Zhu Huang.

The Zhu leader thanks her politely, and after finishing her report entirely through speech and without any written information, she leaves his presence, because Zhu Huang still has work that, for unknown reasons, he prefers to do at dawn. Many people theorise the most fantastic reasons why he wanders the night like a mythical being, but dawn is a time when he prefers to work because it's quiet.