Chu Jin took a light breath, saying resentfully, "Jiang Zhen, you really are something else..."

This guy had truly learned to be bad.

He expressionlessly calmed himself for a moment, then got up and sat back down under the tree. The cool breeze blew, and he finally quieted down.

Shen Mengzhi held up the Liuli Lamp and heard him ask, "Actually, I've always wanted to know, why did you come to Heshan Academy back then?"

Scions of prestigious families like Qi Yu and Song Sifan were mostly sent by their families to study. But for someone like Shen Mengzhi, with no one to rely on, what was the reason?

The smile on Shen Mengzhi's lips faded slightly. He lowered his gaze to the fluttering fireflies in the Liuli Lamp, his eyes quiet, but his thoughts suddenly flew far away.

Actually, he could have been sent by his family to study in grand style, just like Qi Yu.

Actually, he should have been the proper second young master of the Shen Family, able to associate with the young masters of noble families in Xiangjing, dressed in fine clothes on spirited horses, living freely and gallantly, admiring all the city's blossoms in a single day.

Actually, he should have taken the longsword from his father and older brother's hands, gone to the battlefield to slay enemies, high-spirited and proud, becoming the young general celebrated by the world.

All of this should have come naturally, but in the year he was born, the former king of Yanling, Xiao Yang, died of illness in Yugao City.

The former king had not appointed a crown prince before his death, and the court was thrown into chaos. The first prince, Xiao Ting, and the second prince, Xiao Jiu, went to war over the throne, resulting in both sides suffering heavy losses; the fourth prince, Xiao Wen, was assassinated and died abruptly on his way back to the capital. The powers in the court also gradually split, and everyone feared for their own safety.

Only the fifth prince, Xiao Zhuo, turned a deaf ear, focusing solely on arranging the former king's funeral.

Just as everyone was fighting to the death, the former king's last edict was discovered under circumstances no one could have predicted.

With this single edict, the fifth prince, Xiao Zhuo, logically became the crown prince and ascended the throne. Unlike the gentle former king, this new king was a man extremely skilled at forbearance. He continued to treat the former court's key ministers as his teachers, acting like an obedient student, submissive and respectful.

For a period of time, even Shen Ke was almost deceived by his appearance.

When Madam Shen became pregnant with this child, it was precisely when the former king was critically ill. By the time they survived this turmoil and Yanling had a new dynasty, she was already a full seven months along.

When the new king ascended the throne, he was supposed to ask the Court Astronomer to interpret the celestial phenomena and perform divination through astrology.

No one knew the stellar phenomenon divined that day, only that the next day, the newly enthroned monarch, contrary to his usual behavior, hosted a banquet in the palace for the Shen Manor's family. He was especially solicitous toward the soon-to-be-born second son of the Shen Family.

At seven months, the pregnancy was already showing. Xiao Zhuo looked at Madam Shen and said in a joking tone, "If Minister Shen has a daughter this time, he can't go teaching her fighting skills like General Shen, can he? She must be held in the palm of your hand, treasured dearly."

Madam Shen's smile remained gentle and appropriate. She carefully protected her abdomen, but the fingers hidden under her sleeves curled up uneasily.

"And if it's a young master like General Shen," the smiling monarch bent down, looking at the unborn child with an intimate expression, and lowered his voice, "...then that would truly be a heavenly blessing for my Yanling."

After returning to the manor that night, Madam Shen suffered abdominal pain and bleeding. Even though the baby was saved by a hair's breadth, her health weakened day by day.

Shen Ke stayed by her bedside, tightly clasping his beloved's hand. His back was ramrod straight, but he did not utter a single word.

The Shen Family has produced one general; it cannot produce a second. In the eyes of a monarch, there has never been room for an overly powerful minister.

Thus, in the bitter cold of that winter, the pregnant Madam Shen gave birth to the Shen Family's second son. The grand Shen Manor, from top to bottom, posted no red decorations but instead hung white mourning cloth. The servants and maids were all dressed in plain mourning attire. In the world of ice and snow, everything was draped in silver, and as far as the eye could see, there was only a vast expanse of cold white.

Everyone knew that the much-anticipated second young master of the Shen Manor had died at birth.

But no one knew that the infant who was supposed to be dead was secretly raised in the inner courtyard of the Shen Manor, hidden for more than ten years.

Shen Ke wanted his son to escape the Shen Family's destiny, but little did he know, he would personally push him onto another, more absurd path. But under the chilling imperial might, saving a person's life required paying an equivalent price.

How could it be so simple to deceive the entire world?

In Shen Mengzhi's twelfth year in the Shen Manor, he made a nearly fatal mistake.

Yanling was in turmoil at that time. Grand Marshal Shen and his eldest son, Shen Yunyan, had been fighting abroad and returned triumphantly after quelling a rebellion. The news spread like wildfire, becoming known to every household. The ten-li long street was filled with common people holding flowers to welcome the army. The cheers from outside the high walls of the Shen Manor made his heart itch with curiosity, so he dodged the steward's gaze and secretly slipped out of the house with Qi Yu, disguised as a servant boy, and mingled with the crowd welcoming them back.

When the city gates opened, he heard thunderous cheers by his ear, the rumbling of iron-clad cavalry, and the shouts of the crowd. His heart surging with emotion, he couldn't help but also softly call out for his father and brother.

But the speaker may be unintentional, while the listener attaches meaning. As if to punish him for this impulse, he could never have imagined that the person standing next to him that day would be a gatekeeper from the Lou Family. After that gatekeeper returned, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. The next day, he reported the matter to the current Supervisor of Attendants, Lou Ya.

Lou Ya already held a grudge against the Grand Marshal's faction and secretly entered the palace that very day to report the matter to Xiao Zhuo.

The crime of deceiving the sovereign is punishable by death. His one careless sentence could drag the Shen Manor into a point of no return.

At this life-or-death moment, Jiang Qi, who was a Supervisor in the manor at the time, found Shen Ke.

He said, "Lord Shen, my second son, who suffers from a terminal illness, has received the manor's care for many years. But because of his illness, he does not have long to live, and even I am helpless. I have received your grace and have no way to repay it. If it is possible, let him go in the second young master's place."

No one knew what Shen Ke and Jiang Qi said afterward, only that on that night, the dignified Grand Marshal, who had never bowed even in the face of death on the battlefield, half-knelt on the cold stone slab, tears streaming down his aged face, like a stalk of bamboo broken by the wind and frost.

Later, the Supervisor's son was sent into the palace, absolving the Shen Manor of its crime. The tattling gatekeeper took hush money from the Shen Manor and, bowing and scraping, changed his story. And so, the report presented to Xiao Zhuo contained only a few sentences mentioning an unknown servant boy from the Shen Manor who, because he had grown up there, had acknowledged Shen Ke and Shen Yunyan as his adoptive father and brother.

No one cared about such an insignificant character. So Xiao Zhuo waved his hand, and the matter was dropped, but the Supervisor's son never returned.

After the storm subsided, Jiang Qi also left the Shen Manor and returned to his hometown of Yuya. For secretly leaving the manor and inviting a fatal disaster, Shen Mengzhi received three lashes from Shen Ke in front of the ancestral hall, knelt for a day and a night, and subsequently fell gravely ill for seven days.

Shen Ke had never laid a heavy hand on his younger son. When the long whip struck, his hand was trembling.

Shen Mengzhi knelt on the ground. Even with his hands covered in blood, his spine remained perfectly straight. Beads of blood trickled down his arms and dripped onto the hard stone slab, a patch of vivid red that stung his eyes.

He gritted his teeth and endured the three lashes, but still stubbornly looked into Shen Ke's eyes, moving his lips. His voice was hoarse from the pain. "Father, I've always wanted to ask you a question."

"If you had strangled me in my swaddling clothes back then, would we not have to be in such pain right now?"

The long whip in Shen Ke's hand suddenly fell to the ground.

He closed his eyes, a deep exhaustion etched between his brows, and murmured, "There's no turning back... You, me, Jiang Qi, and this entire world—none of us can turn back!"

Shen Mengzhi held his head high, refusing to lower it.

He heard Shen Ke's voice slowly rise, each word seemingly carved into his flesh and blood—

"From this day forward, you are no longer a person of my Shen Family."

"From now on, your surname is Jiang and your given name is Zhen. Your father is Jiang Qi, and your older brother is Jiang Huan."

"You will live on in this world in Jiang Zhen's place... And never come back."

Shen Ke stripped him of the name he had borne for over a decade, crushed all his self-righteous assumptions, and used a bloody truth to tell him: because of your selfish desire, an innocent person died in vain.

The Shen Manor could no longer shelter him.

So he shed his brocade robes for simple cloth, concealed his name, and came to Heshan Academy.

Several years passed in a flash.

The events at the Shen Manor had happened many years ago, and the scars on his hands had already faded.

"I was once ignorant and made a mistake." Shen Mengzhi spoke with a natural expression. "My father and brother were furious and disowned me. I had nowhere to go, but luckily, a teacher took a liking to me and brought me back to the academy."

He was concise, his tone light, making it sound not like the truth, but like a story he had made up on the spot.

"..." Chu Jin was speechless. "Senior Brother, you're teasing a child."

In fact, if one were to summarize it, that was indeed what had happened. He had just omitted the reasons behind it, so to an outsider, it sounded exceptionally absurd.

Seeing his disbelief, Shen Mengzhi smiled faintly. "Yes, I was lying to you."

"Actually, there's nothing much to say." He switched to the excuse he had been using for years. "It's just that my writing was appreciated by a teacher, so he took me in as his disciple."

Chu Jin frowned. "That simple?"

Shen Mengzhi said, "That simple. Why would you think I'd be any different?"

Hearing this, Chu Jin said without hesitation, "A gut feeling."

Shen Mengzhi was slightly taken aback. After a long moment, he chuckled, "Then I've disappointed you."

After a pause, he asked, "What about you? Why did you come to Yanling?"

"That's a boring story," Chu Jin said. "Let me tell you something else."

Shen Mengzhi relaxed his shoulders and leaned lightly against the tree trunk, listening as he began to speak slowly. "Ever since I was young, there have been many people watching me. I don't know whose spies they were. Perhaps they belonged to my ambitious royal uncle, or perhaps to my equally ambitious brothers."

"No matter what you do, they will be watching you. Reading, eating, sleeping... they follow you like a shadow, like a sticky plaster you can't get rid of. Every move is under their watch, and with the slightest misstep, a few more memorials will appear on my royal father's desk the next day. Saying my virtue doesn't match my position, that I am unworthy of the title of Heir."

Shen Mengzhi listened quietly.

Chu Jin smiled. "I was very unhappy at first, but they stuck around and I couldn't drive them away. Slowly, I felt like I got used to it."

But in reality, that was just his delusion.

Only when the Young Master coldly grabbed him by the collar, forcing him to his knees to get a clear look at the bloody, severed head on the floor, did he awaken as if from a dream.

"This is the guy you so readily trusted." The Young Master sneered. "You treated Chu Rong's spy as a friend, baring your heart and soul for so long. And the result?"

Chu Jin's expression was numb. He reached out and wiped the blood from the head, again and again, until the features were completely obscured. Unwilling to give up, he used his sleeve to wipe it, until finally, a face all too familiar was revealed.

The Young Master viciously grabbed his hair, forcing him to meet the dead man's unblinking eyes. "Do you see clearly now!"

He was silent for a long time. When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse. "I see clearly."

Was it fake?

But that person had clearly shown concern when treating his wounds, had clearly helped him escape the Young Master's punishment, had clearly spoken the word "friend" with such certainty.

Was it real?

But his severed head was right here, his eyes filled with despair.

...He was beginning to lose his ability to tell the difference.

He only remembered the Young Master's voice, drifting near and far, wavering by his ear.

"The price of trusting someone you shouldn't is death."

"If he didn't die, you would have."

As Chu Jin's thoughts drifted, he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder.

He looked down and saw that Shen Mengzhi had leaned over unconsciously, his head resting on his shoulder, seemingly fast asleep.

It made sense. He hadn't slept well these past few nights; he should have been exhausted long ago.

Chu Jin focused on his tranquil sleeping face, pushing all other thoughts from his mind. After a long while, he reached out and gently touched his lips.

He chuckled softly and murmured, "I'll wait for you for another half a month."

After half a month, I'll come to collect the debt.