NOVEL WEB Chapter 270: No One Sleeps
The night was still.
I was wrapped in warmth, the kind of warmth I had fought too long to believe I could have. Mingyu's arm lay across my waist, steady and unyielding even in sleep. Yaozu was behind me, pressed close enough that I could feel the rise and fall of his chest against my back. Shadow sprawled across the threshold like a piece of the darkness itself, his slow breath the only sound in the chamber besides ours.
For the first time in weeks, I allowed myself to sink into the silence. Lin Wei was settled in his own palace, with enough guards, eunuchs, and maids to put my mind at ease. I had walked his courtyard myself earlier, checked the locks, counted the men who bowed their heads when I passed.
He was safe.
My son was safe.
That was the only reason I let myself sleep.
The pounding came like a hammer against the wooden doors.
Three strikes—hesitant at first, then frantic.
Mingyu stirred, his hand tightening reflexively around me. Yaozu was already awake, moving silently as a knife, reaching for his boots before his eyes were fully open. Shadow's head lifted, lips peeling back in a low growl that rumbled through the floor.
Another pounding. This time a voice, high and thin with fear:
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
I sat up, the silk sliding down my shoulders. The chamber was still dim, the braziers burned low, but I could see the fear written on the eunuch's face when the doors opened. He collapsed to his knees the moment he was admitted, his forehead striking the polished wood hard enough to echo.
"The Young Lord," he gasped, his body trembling. "The Young Lord is gone."
For a breath, the words didn't make sense in my own head.
Mingyu froze where he stood, half between the bed and the door. Yaozu's head snapped up from where he stood by the door after having let the eunuch in. His eyes were as sharp as blades, every muscle already coiled to act. Shadow lunged to his feet, claws clicking against the stone.
I didn't scream. I didn't demand answers. I simply rose, my bare feet cool against the floor, and the eunuch's voice quavered as though the sight of me frightened him more than the words he carried.
"Gone?" I repeated. My voice was calm—too calm. "What do you mean… gone?"
The eunuch shook. "The guards… they—he was in his chambers, asleep as always. When the night patrol came, the door was barred from the outside, and— and— the maids— they were—"
His words tangled together in his panic. I didn't need to hear the rest.
The room was cold, but not from the night.
"No one sleeps," I said, my voice as sharp as winter. "Not until he is returned."
The words cracked through the air like a lash. The eunuch collapsed lower, his forehead striking the stone again and again like the more he made himself bleed, the less angry I would be.
The joke was on him.
I was ready to skin everyone alive inside the palace if it meant having Lin Wei back and unharmed. Him hitting his head was doing nothing but pissing me off even more.
Mingyu's jaw tightened. Yaozu straightened, waiting for orders.
I gave them.
"Yaozu. Lock down the inner gates. No one enters, no one leaves. Interrogate every guard on duty. Tear apart their stories and their flesh until only the truth is left. I want the names of who faltered."
"Yes, Your Majesty," he grunted, already gone from the chamber, Shadow was at his side, the hellhound's growl fading down the corridor like a promise.
"Mingyu," I continued, turning to meet his eyes. He had already dressed in silence, his robe knotted with precise force. He didn't argue, didn't tell me to rest. He knew better.
"Summon the Ministers of Law and War," I said. "Quietly. Wake the Shadow Guard. We will not announce this yet. Let the court think the palace is still sleeping. The guilty are bolder when they think the world hasn't noticed."
His lips curved, not in amusement but in something harder. "Agreed."
"And the eunuchs, the maids," I went on, my voice steady though I could feel the storm pounding in my chest. "Account for every last one in his palace. If a single servant is missing, I want their name before dawn."
The eunuch at the door whimpered, his body trembling against the stone. I didn't spare him another glance. He would either deliver or he would break. Either way, he was of no use to me in this moment.
I drew in a slow breath, letting the fury settle cold in my stomach instead of spilling hot through my hands. Whoever had dared touch my son had made one mistake too many.
Mingyu crossed to me, his hand brushing the edge of my sleeve. His eyes searched mine, but he didn't ask the question he wanted to ask. He knew the answer already.
"Do not think," I told him softly, "that I will rest until he is found."
"I would not ask you to," he replied, his voice low. "But you must let me fight beside you."
I didn't answer. I didn't need to. My silence was its own agreement.
The brazier cracked, a sudden pop of flame in the silence. It sounded like a bone breaking.
The palace was already stirring. I could hear it through the walls—the soft rush of feet as runners carried orders, the clatter of weapons being drawn from racks, the sharp snap of commands as the Shadow Guard began to weave through the corridors like threads in a net.
"No one sleeps," I repeated, quieter this time, but the words carried just as far.
The eunuch's breath hitched. Mingyu's mouth curved into something that might have been pride if it hadn't been so full of steel.
Lin Wei was gone. My son had been taken from within walls I had thought safe. But walls were nothing to me. I had grown up without them, lived without them, and I would burn them down if that was what it took.
Whoever thought they could hide him from me had never learned the first rule of survival.
The Witch always took back what belonged to her.