In the narrow iron cage, the little boy's clothes were dirty and messy, but he didn't make a sound as he looked at the people in the distance. His face was expressionless, so cold that he didn't seem like a child.
In the main hall, a woman was being pressed to the ground. She kept begging the man on the main seat, her posture so humble that it seemed like she was going to sink into the dust.
But the man didn't budge.
The eunuch standing at the side came forward with a wine cup.
The woman shook her head in horror. She broke free from the people and ran towards the iron cage.
But before she could reach it, she was pressed to the ground. The eunuch grabbed the woman's chin and poured the liquid in the wine cup into her mouth.
As the woman struggled, the wine soaked her clothes. She was in a sorry state. She reached out to the little boy, her eyes full of despair.
The eunuchs holding her down released her. The woman struggled to crawl to the side of the cage.
She grabbed the cage with a pale face. Blood kept flowing out of the corner of her mouth. She squeezed out a few words with difficulty. "Live … Live."
Qi Yuan suddenly opened his eyes. His chest rose and fell quickly. His gaze swept across the dark main hall. He reached out to touch the warm body beside him. His nervous nerves gradually relaxed.
He leaned over and pulled her into his arms. He urgently searched for her scent, her breath, and everything about her.
Shi Sheng was in a daze from the kiss. She asked in a muffled voice, "What's wrong?"
His response was an even more intense kiss. His actions were a bit rough. Shi Sheng was no longer sleepy and was forced to toss in bed with him until dawn.
Afterwards, Qi Yuan hugged her to sleep. Perhaps because he was tired, he fell into a deep sleep.
He returned to that dream again, but this time, he didn't feel the same as before. He felt a sense of peace.
The woman in his dream fell in front of him. Her eyes were wide open. She died with remaining grievances.
He saw the woman being dragged away and placed in a strange position in the middle. There were a few people dressed as jianghu magicians standing around her. They surrounded the woman and muttered something.
After the eunuchs and palace maids left, the man also left. He glanced over with a cold gaze.
After that, there was a huge fire. An endless fire.
He was curled up in the iron cage. The iron chains on his body became hot as the temperature rose. He heard the sound of his skin cracking.
He didn't remember how he left. He only remembered that when he woke up, he was already outside the palace. The person who saved him claimed to be his shadow guard.
His body was wrapped in bandages, and he could barely walk.
During that period of time, he could only spend it in bed. The person who took care of him did not say much. Every day, she changed his dressing and brought him food like a machine.
She never told him about the outside world.
It wasn't until he got better that someone started teaching him martial arts, studying, and even national affairs.
Just like that, he stayed in that place for five years. Five years later, someone from the palace came to take him back to the palace.
He was very familiar with the palace, but when he entered the palace, he realized that these people no longer called him the Sixth Prince, but the Third Prince.
The Third Prince, who had been praised as a genius since he was young, was the favorite of the Emperor, and was intended to be the Crown Prince.
Perhaps they knew that he wouldn't say much. Even in such a situation, his shadow guards didn't tell him in advance.
It wasn't until he settled down in the palace that he knew that a year ago, the Third Prince was suffering from a chronic illness and was sent away for treatment. The Third Prince had already died. Only then did he have the chance to replace the Third Prince and enter the palace.
But he understood that all of this was arranged by them. His appearance was ruined in that fire, and the Third Prince's appearance was also ruined because of his illness.
There weren't so many coincidences. It was all arranged by them.
"Why did you do this?" For the first time, he took the initiative to ask the person who took care of him.
That person was stunned and slowly knelt down. "Your Highness, you have a blood feud on your shoulders. Your mission is to take revenge."
"Where's the Third Prince?"
"He's dead."
"How did he die?"
"He died of illness." The shadow guard answered as if he had been trained.
He didn't believe it.
Since then, he seemed to have fallen into a huge conspiracy. The people around him gradually increased. He had to follow what they said, imitating the Third Prince's temperament and habits.
If he didn't do it well, it would quickly reach the shadow guards. At night, he would be brainwashed by the shadow guards.
They would talk about how his mother was framed and how the outsiders were killed.
His mother was framed by the Third Prince's mother. The Emperor mistakenly believed the slanderous words of the Taoist priest, saying that his mother was the reincarnation of a fox demon. He would overthrow his dynasty.
What the Emperor could not tolerate the most was this kind of thing happening. That was why there was that big fire. Even his mother's family was not spared. Their entire family was exterminated.
At first, he was very angry, but after hearing more, he wasn't so angry. These people seemed to be deliberately angering him, deliberately planting the seed of hatred in his heart.
They wanted to make him a chess piece, a chess piece that they could manipulate.
There were people watching him everywhere, so he had to be careful. He didn't know what kind of power was behind these people, but he believed that he would find out sooner or later.
Life in the palace was boring, but he was walking on thin ice all day. Every day, he had to deal with those people who were watching him, avoid their surveillance, and build his own power.
He didn't want to be controlled by them.
He had endured for many years, and finally, there was a coup in Xi Qian.
The people outside didn't know what happened, but he knew.
The people who manipulated him launched the coup that day, but they missed the Shan family.
The Shan family was loyal to the royal family. They would be loyal to whoever was the Emperor.
They also missed him. At that time, he had already used them to build his own power.
His mother's death was planned by this group of people. He had found out clearly in the past few years.
The coup failed, and everyone present was killed. The Emperor thought that he had saved the Emperor and pardoned him for the crime of replacing the Third Prince, but he didn't restore his identity as the Sixth Prince.
For the Emperor, the Sixth Prince was dead and had become a thing of the past.
He was still the Third Prince.
After the Xi Qian incident, he still couldn't let down his guard. He knew that those people's power hadn't been completely removed. They were hiding, waiting for an opportunity.
And in the Xi Qian incident, his martial arts were destroyed. From then on, he could only be an ordinary person, or even worse than an ordinary person. Perhaps it was because he was no longer suppressed by martial arts, his inner ruthlessness began to show.
Everyone thought that the Emperor regretted listening to the slanderous words, so when he was critically ill, the next Emperor fell on him.
But he knew that wasn't the case. At that time, the Emperor wanted to kill him, but he used a trick to prevent him from saying the rest.
He only had time to say his name, so the minister next to him wrote his name on the imperial edict.
After ascending the throne, he didn't have to be someone else.
Those who looked on coldly and didn't help him in the past all deserved to die.
And those who were hiding in the dark deserved to die even more.
Qi Yuan hugged the person in his arms tightly. Now that everything was settled, he had the best thing in the world.
He used all the misfortune in this life in exchange for his luckiest girl.
— — Qi Yuan
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