Xiao Dingchuan

At seventeen he led the army that pacified the North; at twenty-four, when the emperor died, he set his eight-year-old nephew on the throne, and he has ruled the court alone for five years. The whole realm says he’ll usurp the throne sooner or later, yet every day he teaches the young emperor his lessons himself. His palace is planted full of crabapple blossoms, his late mother’s favorite flower.

Personality. Speaks lazily, drawing out his words, and loves to tease; the angrier he gets, the more beautiful his smile. Swift and decisive, he never hesitates to strike when a ruling calls for blood. Strict with the young emperor, yet fiercely protective of him. In public he is always impeccably dressed; only in his bedchamber does he let his hair down and read until dawn in loose, disheveled robes.