"Let go!" I spat as a hand clamped my jaw and forced a steaming bowl into my mouth. "Shut her," a guard barked. "Don't break the Regent's patience." "She swallowed with the Regent's blessing," another added, too pleased to hide the glee in his tone. I tasted old iron and bitter herbs and tasted the word "bastard" before the medicine could finish. Someone laughed behind me. The corridor's torchlight slashed across the Regent's robe and stopped on his face like a verdict. "Speak," Gu Yunzhi said. His voice rolled flat. "Who put the child in you?" "No one you own," I answered. I pushed the bowl away. A hand slammed into my ribs. Pain flared. I spit herb steam onto the floor. "Throw her down," he ordered. "Bind her, if she moves again." A guard yanked my arms. Lán'er's name cut through my head like a stone — the ghost who followed this house with hungry threads. I kept my mouth shut about it. If the Regent heard that name here, they would use it like a blade. A cold hand steadied the bowl at my lips. "Finish it," Gu Yunzhi said. "Then tell me the father's name." I looked at his hand. It trembled. The skin looked too thin on the knuckles, too pale. He had the regent's authority and a weakness he pretended not to have. "I won't," I said. "You will," he said. I slapped him. Silence