Mingde walked into the Imperial Study, where the Qianwan Emperor was looking up at a screen hanging on the inner wall.

It was a huge, three-zhang long snow silk screen. The previous emperor had once personally splashed ink while drunk, sketching out the vast and beautiful landscape of the Celestial Dynasty. From the Central Plains basin to the southern frontier, from the northeastern snow mountains to the western borderlands, the long scroll was vividly depicted, allowing future emperors to take in everything at a glance.

Mingde closed the door behind him and quietly walked over to look together. The Qianwan Emperor glanced at him, pointed to the upper right corner of the screen, and said, "Look, this is where you are going."

Mingde lowered his head, "Your subject is overwhelmed with fear."

"This is Shanjian Pass, an ancient perilous path. The army of Xiwan spared no expense in breaking through here, directly inserting into the hinterland of the Northern Frontier... Wherever they went, the flames of war raged for 30,000 miles, plagues ran rampant, and not a blade of grass grew."

"Mingde," The Qianwan Emperor asked indifferently, "do you know what I mean?"

Mingde bowed, "Your subject thanks Your Majesty for your concern."

"You may be assassinated by the secret assassins under Zhuo Yu, you may contract the plague, you may die from severe corpse poisoning, or you may simply pass away from a weak illness due to the unbearable fatigue of travel..."

"What's wrong with the Imperial Palace? You think that by going out, you'll escape from me? That you'll be free from now on, right?"

The Qianwan Emperor grabbed Mingde's shoulders. He was taller than Mingde, but he didn't bend down. Mingde heard the creaking sound coming from his shoulder bones, making him feel like his entire body was about to be lifted up.

"Mingde," The Qianwan Emperor said in a low voice, "rather than letting you die outside, I'd rather take you with me into the imperial tomb when I die."

The Qianwan Emperor only felt a gust of wind sweep past his eyes, followed by a crisp slap, and a burning pain on his face.

This slap almost stunned him. By the time he reacted, Mingde had already elegantly withdrawn his hand, stepped back half a step, slightly raised his head, and looked at him very coldly, "So you know that after you die, I'll have nowhere to live?"

The Qianwan Emperor was almost frozen in place.

"Every day you think about how to kill your own son, how to depose your own wife, you can strangle your first wife, exterminate people's clans, poison your biological father's tea, imprison your nominal empress dowager... You can do this to those closest to you, family and friends. What is my relationship with you? One day when you get tired and bored, casually tossing me aside, do you know how many people will immediately pounce to put me to death?"

Mingde's voice was very calm, calm to the point of almost being cruel.

At that moment, there was actually no anger in the Qianwan Emperor's heart, only confusion. He looked at Mingde as if he couldn't understand what he was saying at all.

"When you're alive, I have to fight those people in the court to the death. In the harem there are the Honored Consort, the Virtuous Consort, and a bunch of messy women. In the court there are Zhao Mengshan, Wang Chongjun, and all kinds of difficulties and pettiness from the Ding family. Because of you, I have no choice but to hide in the Shangguan family for so many years, living a life that is neither human nor ghost... To this point, you actually say you love me?"

Since Li Ji was born, grew up, became the crown prince, and ascended the throne, no one had ever spoken to him like this.

The last person who dared to speak to him like this was already dead, and the next had not yet been born. The excessive shock and confusion made him forget his anger. He even felt that all of this was unreal, absurd and unbelievable.

In his bewilderment, everything became unclear. The many things Mingde said failed to leave any impression in his mind, only that sentence "You actually say you love me" echoed in his mind for a long time.

...Did I say I love you? Li Ji recalled in a daze.

No. Never. This sentence was too straightforward, like exposing the softest, most unguarded belly of a fierce beast, allowing anyone to strike a fatal blow.

Mingde retreated another half step. He forcibly suppressed his emotions, although his voice couldn't help but tighten a little.

"I've had enough, Li Ji. I want a day, when you get tired of me and abandon me, that I can still stand in front of these court officials and the people of the world with a righteous identity! I can't bear to be bullied by anyone after being abandoned by you one day! I've had enough of this kind of life, where any official, any consort, any madam can show off in front of me. I won't tolerate it anymore in the future!"

He didn't know that his current appearance was like a child shouting at an adult that he had grown up and would be independent. The Qianwan Emperor looked at him a little helplessly, with a gaze that even carried a hint of timidity, which further indulged Mingde's irritability.

Shangguan Mingde was originally an irritable and even violent person, his temper had never been good.

"If it weren't for you, I would have moved out of the Shangguan family long ago! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be like this now, dragging a half-dead body every day to plan for the second half of my life! Do you think I really want to go to that plague-ridden battlefield to establish so-called military merit to establish myself?"

The Qianwan Emperor reached out to grab him in a fluster, but Mingde struggled fiercely, as if he were some dirty thing carrying poison, avoiding him in horror and disgust.

"But..." The Qianwan Emperor shook his head with difficulty, "if you don't want to go to the Northern Frontier, I also have ways..."

"Then let me stay in the palace. As long as you like me for a day, I'll live for a day. The day you don't like me anymore, just like with the previous emperor and Empress Mingrui, a cup of poisoned wine and a three-foot white silk to send me on my way?"

The Qianwan Emperor wanted to walk towards him, but Mingde suddenly turned around with big strides and left with a sweep of his sleeves. He tried hard to pull the door bolt, but the exquisite door lock of the Imperial Study was stuck and didn't open for a while. The Qianwan Emperor rushed over in a few steps and grabbed him.

"Mingde, Mingde," he asked in a low and urgent voice, "how do you know... how do you know... that I love you?"

A sweet secret held anxiously in the heart, afraid of being exposed, yet also longing to be discovered. That hidden and uneasy feeling is something even the lofty Emperor cannot avoid.

He knows I love him... How did he find out? Did I reveal it at some point? Did he realize it? At what moment did he realize that I like him? To what extent did he realize it? Did he actually discover that I cherish him like a treasure?

A hint of fearful anticipation secretly sprouts from the mind, silently warning this Emperor who reigns supreme over heaven and earth: even if he knows, could he possibly... misunderstand?

The Qianwan Emperor truly did not know what to do. He had learned a lot when he was still a prince born of a concubine, when he worried day and night in the Eastern Palace about being deposed by his own biological father, when the tutor secretly invited by his mother sternly taught him how to protect himself and rise to power... He indeed learned a lot, but none of the education he received taught him how to love someone.

Moreover, to love a bad-tempered, sly, willful little one.

He could write grand and flawless imperial edicts, but he did not know how to properly speak to this furious, bristling little creature. His usual approach was: if you listen and behave, then you can get what you want. Beyond this approach, he had no idea what other ways there were to express his love.

Outside the tall palace window frames, the sound of swallows flapping their wings softly carried through the treetops. A sliver of light sprinkled on the precious foreign carpet, silently reflecting between the two of them. That dim light outlined Mingde's silent profile, making it appear exceptionally tranquil.

As if a very long time had passed, long enough for time itself to stop, Mingde's voice seemed to carry a hint of hesitation, as if something hard was stuck in his throat, making one want to cry.

"Li Ji... I believe you love me, but I also believe that you once loved your father the Emperor, your Empress mother, your first wife, your firstborn son..."

"I don't want to end up like them. At least one day when you no longer love me, I don't want to be killed by you..."

"...Maybe one day when I have military achievements and standing, I will return. Then I will try to trust you a bit more..."

Perhaps by that time, things between us will be different?

Li Ji knelt on the carpet, his head lowered, able to see the exquisite dark patterns.

He heard Mingde's departing footsteps, as if the door to the imperial study opened and closed. He remained in that position, sitting for a very long time without moving an inch.

The twilight gradually closed in, the afterglow dimming. The imperial study slowly became pitch black. That darkness flowed, engulfing people, as if one could never break free from it.