Mingde didn't know how far he had walked. The wound on his waist kept bleeding, losing so much blood that it seemed to take away all the warmth from his body.

He passed through the long stone path in the imperial garden, through the majestic palace gates of Zhengtai Palace in the wind and rain. The guards outside the palace looked at this young man walking in the rain, exchanged glances, and crossed their halberds with a clang: "Halt!"

Mingde looked at them blankly, then raised his hand and lightly grabbed the crossed halberd tips, then suddenly exerted force to pull them out and throw them far away. With a loud clang, he continued walking forward holding his wound as if nothing had happened.

The guards were utterly shocked and shouted, "Come quickly! Sound the alarm!"

A squad of guards rushed out from the sentry post and blocked the way ahead, slowly closing in while maintaining a wary circle. The alarm sounded piercingly through the sky, yet Mingde seemed not to see any of this, only staggering forward aimlessly in a daze.

"Halt!"

"Halt!"

"Who goes there?!"

...

Many sharp things like blades and halberds thrust fiercely and mercilessly towards him, just like this vast and hopeless world, never leaving him a bit of aspiration or hope.

Sharp, keen, unyielding... even his hands desperately trying to resist seemed feeble and powerless. Those people and things, as if harboring the greatest hatred for him, viciously tore apart his last bit of yearning for this world.

- Why do you hate me so much?

- Why do you all wish I were dead?

I just want to live on without disturbing anyone, without strife with the world...

Mingde walked forward in a daze, not knowing himself where he could go. It seemed some icy barbs had pierced into his muscles. He looked down in a trance, pulled out the halberd tip with his hand, and threw it far away.

The guards watched this madman in horror. Some mustered the courage to shout and pounce again. Mingde swayed, blood instantly gushing out, then he toppled to the ground.

"Seize him!"

"Quick! Tie him up with rope!"

"Go report to the commander at once!"

Many clamorous voices sounded by his ears, distant and unreal, like a chaotic dream gradually fading into immense silence. Icy rain slowly flowed down his face, from his gently closed eyelashes, past his pale cheeks, bit by bit seeping into the damp soil.

The mists of March, a family south of the Yangtze, hazy and unreal yearnings, shattering bit by bit, each tiny fragment deeply piercing the softest part of his heart, ruthlessly tearing it apart with flesh and blood.

Mingde vaguely felt himself being dragged up, many people surrounding him shouting fiercely. He closed his eyes, gradually about to fall into a dream from which he would never wake.

"Release him!"

The guard commander looked up, legs weakening as he hurriedly knelt down: "This subject greets Your Majesty!"

The imperial yellow insignia didn't even have time to catch up as the Qianwan Emperor rushed over and scooped up Mingde in his arms. Zhang Kuo trotted after him, slipping and falling in the mud halfway, then scrambling up to follow: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Be careful, Your Majesty!"

Before Mingde could open his eyes, he was tightly embraced. The Qianwan Emperor held him and stood up, pressing his hand tightly over his bleeding wound, striding towards the imperial palanquin.

The guard commander knelt down: "Your Majesty, this..."

Zhang Kuo swept a glance over the kneeling guards and asked softly, "Your Majesty, shall we punish them?"

"...No need," the Qianwan Emperor's voice came low. "...To him, these don't count as real injuries..."

What standing did he have to blame these guards who knew nothing?

Any emperor could self-righteously order dragging out and killing those who harmed his favored consort. But he couldn't. He had completely lost even this most basic qualification.

When they returned to Qingzhen Palace, the rain had stopped. The Qianwan Emperor stepped on the puddles on the stone path, carrying Mingde into the inner chamber. The warm fragrant incense assailed them, making one even drowsier.

"Don't sleep," said the Qianwan Emperor. "I have something to tell you."

Mingde turned his head away, not looking at him.

The Qianwan Emperor took out a golden box from a hidden compartment in the desk. Inside was an imperial edict scroll. The imperial yellow brocade, finely embroidered with gold threads, was so splendid under the palace lantern light that it was hard to look at directly.

Mingde lay on the couch as the Qianwan Emperor knelt by the footstool and asked, "Won't you take a look?"

Mingde said nothing.

The Qianwan Emperor reached out to pick up the edict and slowly unfurled it. His deep voice echoed in the great hall: "...The eldest imperial grandson Mingxiu, born of Favored Consort Zui, is intelligent beyond his years, benevolent and filial, and possesses the talent to govern the country. After my passing, this child shall be enthroned as emperor, with his father the former crown prince as regent, conferred the title of Supervising State King..."

Mingde slowly turned his head. The Qianwan Emperor looked at him and said softly, "My final edict."

"...Mingde, I never deposed the crown prince, not because he is qualified, but out of consideration for you... But the crown prince is truly not fit to take the throne. Letting him ascend would be harming him."

Mingde stared at the Qianwan Emperor without moving.

"Ascending the imperial position doesn't guarantee keeping the country forever. If one day you are gone, what will the crown prince do? On this throne, everyone has their eye on him, people with ulterior motives scheme against him, Prince Dongyang considers him a thorn in his side..."

"He is just a mediocre and weak emperor. How will he live?"

"Mingde, I didn't tell you yesterday that Princess Qinghe is pregnant. This is the eldest son of the Crown Prince. Although he is not born to the principal wife, her status is not low. If she gives birth to a boy, he can still be named the Heir Apparent... You'd better pray that she gives birth to a boy who is smart, clever, and a little stronger than his father..."

"This is all I can do for you. In the future, we can only stay together and live day by day until we die..."

Li Ji knelt down, hugged Mingde, and pressed his face tightly against the tender skin of his neck.

There was even a hint of laughter in his voice: "If I die before you, then congratulations, you will be free..."

_

On the eighth day of the second month, an auspicious day for marriage, the Crown Prince held his grand wedding and took Lady Xia as his principal wife.

Late at night on the wedding day, the palace lanterns were hung high in Kunning Hall. The Empress Dowager sat on a pear blossom hardwood chair, her face ashen.

"Your Majesty, since you have decided to take a wife for the Crown Prince, you should know that the principal wife of the Crown Prince should be betrothed with the Phoenix Pearl. Throughout history, this Phoenix Pearl has always been personally handed to the Crown Princess by the Empress Dowager or the Empress. You are now asking me for this Phoenix Pearl, but if the Crown Princess comes to pay respects to me tomorrow morning after the wedding night and I can't present this pearl to her, how will the whole world view her as the Crown Princess!"

The Qianwan Emperor sat at the table with his legs crossed, seemingly not taking it to heart at all.

"How she is viewed is of course the Empress Dowager's business. With the numerous pearls and jades at the Empress Dowager's side, can't you find one or two similar pearls to replace it?"

The Empress Dowager trembled with anger. "The meaning is different! Only the woman wearing the Phoenix Pearl is the destined Mother of the Nation in our dynasty!"

"Oh, I see."

The Qianwan Emperor put down his feet and leaned over the table to look at the Empress Dowager, smiling faintly. "I am the Emperor of this world. Who becomes the Mother of the Nation is for me to decide with a single word, isn't it?"

The Empress Dowager suddenly stood up. "Your Majesty! You are going against the natural order!"

"So what?"

"Your Majesty, don't think that I don't know who you want to give this Phoenix Pearl to!"

The Qianwan Emperor didn't back down at all, but looked straight at the Empress Dowager. "Who do you say I'm giving it to?"

"Two years!" The Empress Dowager snorted through her nose, her hands shaking. "For two whole years, you have favored the bastard child stolen by Empress Mingrui, a little plaything even younger than your son. If he were not male, you could have made him the Empress!"

The smile on the Qianwan Emperor's face slowly faded.

"Just because I don't say it doesn't mean I can't see it! It's a pity that no matter how much favor and glory you bestow, it can't make up for the fact that you strangled his mother to death with a white silk cord eighteen years ago! Li Ji, oh Li Ji, you have suppressed the previous Emperor and me at every turn in your life, but no matter how much you suppress, your mother can never be the Mother of the Nation, and the person you love most can never be the Empress! This is fate! This is your fate of not being born a true dragon emperor!"

The Empress Dowager's sharp shrieks echoed for a long time in the luxurious yet cold palace.

The white-haired palace maids knelt on the ground, trembling. The palace candles as thick as a child's arm burned, making a slight crackling sound, illuminating the jade and warm orchid beams as if it were daylight.

The Qianwan Emperor stood up, his face dark and uncertain in the candlelight, but his tone was light and emotionless.

"Whether he can be the Empress or not is simply a matter of me telling him to be and he must be, or me not telling him to be and he doesn't have to be."

The Empress Dowager's face was so pale that there was no sign of life.

"Empress Dowager," the Qianwan Emperor said softly, "I do not investigate the matter of your beloved son, Prince Dongyang, colluding with assassins from Xiwan, but that does not mean I do not know about it."

The Qianwan Emperor passed through the tall palace with flickering candlelight and slowly disappeared into the night in the direction of the blood-red carpet. The Empress Dowager looked at his back, and a chill gradually rose from her spine, enveloping her.

That day when Prince Dongyang Jinyuan came to see her, he dismissed the people around him and then said in a low voice, "Mother, your son will definitely not let down Father Emperor and your expectations. Your son will definitely make you a true and rightful Empress Dowager!"

At that time, she was only feeling vicissitudes in her joy. The throne had already brushed past Prince Dongyang. What could be done now? But she didn't want to dampen her son's enthusiasm and only said, "Child, just you thinking this way is Mother's greatest happiness..."

Little did she know that the thought of deciding her son's life and death had actually flashed through the Qianwan Emperor's mind. Perhaps in just a fleeting moment, her son's head would fall to the ground!

The Empress Dowager sat dejectedly in the jade chair.

Mingde slept very restlessly on the dragon bed in the warm spring-like bedchamber of Qingzhen Palace, feeling hot one moment and cold the next. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he felt someone gently lift his hand and put a cool bracelet around his wrist.

Mingde opened his eyes slightly. "...What are you doing?"

The Qianwan Emperor pinched his wrist. "Do you like it?"

Mingde used the energy of a blink to glance at his wrist, vaguely seeing a thin gold bracelet inlaid with two fiery red beads the size of soybeans. Mingde was too lazy to look more closely. He pulled his hand back, tucked it under the covers, and said brazenly, "This subject thanks the Emperor for his great favor." Immediately after, he fell into dreamland.

The Qianwan Emperor, who had been thanked for his favor, stood up with a cold smile and said in a low voice, "...The Empress is so heartless."

He had gone to great lengths to obtain the Phoenix Pearl, just to satisfy a long-hidden regret in his heart. Yes, the Empress Dowager was absolutely right. He, Li Ji, had sat in the Eastern Palace by stepping on the fresh blood of countless people, and then ascended to the throne by stepping on the shoulders of countless people. From a prince born of a concubine to an emperor with absolute power, he seemed to have no regrets, but in fact, there had always been a thorn stuck in his heart that he could neither remove nor ignore. In those years, his mother, the imperial concubine, did not receive the emperor's favor. Despite being the mother of the crown prince, she could not be crowned as empress. When Li Ji ascended the throne, he wanted to posthumously confer the title, but it happened to coincide with a great disaster. The court officials remonstrated, saying it would violate the will of heaven. Later, Empress Mingrui had an affair, and now this empress was also displeasing in every way. After eagerly awaiting the arrival of this peerless beauty, he still could not make her empress.

It was simply a twist of fate, simply the will of heaven.

The Qianwan Emperor sat on the bed and embraced Mingde, slowly removing the thin, gauzy clothing. On the boy's slender back, from his shoulder blades to his lower back, a huge phoenix tattoo covered his entire spine, so lifelike under the flickering lamplight that it seemed about to take flight.

It was said to be an inheritance from his biological father's family, quite mysterious, something he was born with. If not for this, Empress Mingrui's affair would not have been so easily discovered.

The Qianwan Emperor lowered his head to kiss the back of Mingde's neck, reaching one hand around to the boy's front to grasp his hand. The phoenix pearl pressed hard against his palm, like a reassuring support and promise.

Mingde let out a soft sound from his throat: "...This subject boldly asks Your Majesty to show mercy."

The Qianwan Emperor laughed: "You should sleep."

In this embrace, he held Mingde, eyes open, listening to the clear sound of water dripping from the jade bamboo, all the way until the moon reached its zenith, all the way until the eastern sky turned white.

The boy's soft hair was right under his nose, thick and silky, scattered there. The Qianwan Emperor suddenly recalled that poem: "One combing, combed until old age; two combings, white hair to the eyebrows..."

One combing, combed until old age;

two combings, white hair to the eyebrows.

Three combings, grandchildren all around;

four combings, meeting noble people.

Five combings, in-laws in harmony;

Six combings, husband and wife respect each other;

Seven combings, the seventh fairy sister descends to earth;

Eight combings, strolling beyond the lotus path;

Nine combings, nine sons, each one thriving;

Ten combings, husband and wife until white-haired.

—Ten combings, husband and wife until white-haired...

The eastern sky turned white, a red sun slowly rising. The Qianwan Emperor did not change his position the entire night, just maintaining this posture, remaining motionless as he passed his wedding night.