Chapter 2: A bittersweet love story with a happy ending

The palace maid Wu Ying entered the Empress’s sleeping palace and informed the Empress about Lin Xiaoque’s collapse into unconsciousness.

The Empress’s surname was Chu, his given name Cizhao.

Hearing this, he fell silent for a long while.

He gazed at himself in the mirror.
Though already past thirty, his appearance remained captivating.
But his heart had long since grown old.

A strange thought surfaced faintly within him.

He asked Wu Ying,
“What does that Xie Zhichi look like?”

Wu Ying answered,
“A beauty beyond mortal compare.”

The Empress let out a faintly mocking laugh.

“No wonder, then, that one after another…”

He did not continue.

Silently, he stared at his reflection in the mirror.
There were no wrinkles upon his face, yet his heart was covered in cracks.

When the skies finally cleared, the Empress came to visit Lin Xiaoque in his chambers.

Lin Xiaoque lay upon the bed, unconscious and unresponsive.
His complexion was weak and pale, his lips colorless like orange blossoms melting into snow.

The room reeked endlessly of medicinal herbs.

The young eunuch Shan Xiu attended him, holding a bowl of medicine and waiting for it to cool before feeding it to Lin Xiaoque.

The Empress said,
“Give it to me.
I’ll feed him.”

Shan Xiu respectfully presented the medicine bowl.

The medicine was still somewhat hot.
The heat scalded the Empress’s fingertips, yet he gripped the bowl even tighter, as though he wished for the burning liquid to melt through his hands before he would be satisfied.

He and Lin Xiaoque had already grown distant long ago.

He could have chosen not to come.

Yet the endless sound of rain had disturbed him so greatly that he could not calm himself, could not focus on anything.
He had to come personally and see for himself—

what state this Lin Xiaoque, who had bewitched his son’s heart, was in now.

Still the same sickly appearance.

A short-lived ghost who would not live many more years.

Yet after personally witnessing Lin Xiaoque’s frailty, the Empress discovered the cracks within his heart deepening further.

Bottomless.

And hidden within that darkness was something he dared not acknowledge.

The Empress closed his eyes, unwilling to keep looking at him.

Only after the medicine had cooled enough to drink did he slowly reopen them and begin feeding Lin Xiaoque spoonful by spoonful.

Lin Xiaoque coughed dully twice, his brows faintly knitting together as he instinctively resisted the bitter medicine.

The Empress set the bowl aside and drew Lin Xiaoque into his embrace.

Taking out a handkerchief, he gently wiped Lin Xiaoque’s lips.

The medicine was thick.
The handkerchief pristine white.

The medicinal stains dirtied the Empress’s silk cloth, yet he seemed entirely unaware of it.

Shan Xiu stood nearby holding the bowl.

The Empress picked up the medicine spoon and slowly continued feeding Lin Xiaoque.

Resting against the Empress’s body, Lin Xiaoque radiated alarming heat.

The Empress felt the feverish temperature and experienced a dense, prickling panic, as though pierced by countless needles.

“He’s burning up,” the Empress said hesitantly.
“What did the imperial physicians say?”

Shan Xiu answered truthfully:
it was still the same as always.
Lin Xiaoque required careful nursing and would not die, but afterward his body would likely become even weaker.

The Empress’s arms around Lin Xiaoque tightened abruptly.

A moment later, as if trying to conceal his emotions, he said,
“Even weaker?
He’s already like this.
How much weaker can he become?”

Shan Xiu dared not answer.
He only lowered his head further.

Suppressing his emotions, the Empress finished feeding the medicine.
He should have left by now.

Yet he still held Lin Xiaoque in his arms.

Lin Xiaoque drifted hazily in and out of consciousness before slowly waking.

The Empress sensed it and immediately placed him back down, preparing to leave.

Lin Xiaoque slowly opened his eyes.

Seeing the Empress’s back, he recognized him at once.

“Your Majesty…”

His voice was weak.
Had the chamber not been so silent that time itself seemed to evaporate, the Empress suspected he would not even have heard it.

Lin Xiaoque looked toward Shan Xiu, signaling for help sitting up.

Without a word, Shan Xiu stepped forward and carefully helped him rise.

Leaning weakly against the bedrest, Lin Xiaoque could not help coughing twice.

After a brief pause, the Empress still stood with his back turned, neither leaving nor turning around.

“The sickness in here is heavy,” Lin Xiaoque said while looking at the Empress’s back.
“Your Majesty should leave early, lest the illness spread to you.”

Hearing this, the Empress fell silent for a long while.

Then, clutching the stained handkerchief tightly, he departed.

Walking along the palace road, Empress Chu Cizhao lifted his gaze toward the vast sky above the deep palace courtyards.

Though the weather was clear and sunlight flooded the heavens, all he could see were storm clouds.

The storm was not in the sky.

It was within his heart.

Now that Lin Xiaoque had awakened, he inevitably had to ask about Xie Zhichi.

In this novel, he was merely a cannon fodder top obsessively in love with the protagonist bottom, Xie Zhichi.

A short-lived character with little screen time.

To protect its host and prevent him from emotionally empathizing too deeply with the people in the book, System 233 had not explained the full story in detail.
It only briefly outlined Lin Xiaoque’s role.

First:
kneeling in the rain to plead for Xie Zhichi.

Second:
after learning that Xie Zhichi had still been reduced to a palace s*ave, attempting to rescue him from the palace, only to be imprisoned by Xie Zhichi instead.

Third:
being used by Xie Zhichi as a hostage to threaten the Crown Prince, then committing suicide to avoid implicating the Crown Prince.

233 said:
【The first scene—pleading in the rain—has already been completed by the host.
There’s no need to worry for now.
You only need to act again when the second plot point arrives.】

In truth, however, the complete story was far crueler than 233 had revealed.

This was a HE* novel filled with intense abuse and tragic love.

Emperor Xiao Juan had taken a liking to the top scholar Xie Zhichi and used imperial power to force him into submission.

Xie Zhichi refused.

At the palace banquet, he openly mocked the Emperor and was thrown into prison.

Xiao Juan intended to castrate Xie Zhichi and turn him into a lowly s*ave to be trampled beneath countless feet.

He wanted to grind away all of Xie Zhichi’s pride and make him understand:

beneath imperial authority, there were no subjects—

only slaves.

What Xiao Juan desired—

if he could not obtain it,
he would destroy it.

Xie Zhichi was not a noble backed by powerful clans.

He was merely a commoner who climbed step by step through the imperial examinations until he reached the Emperor’s side.

He had dreamed of serving the ruler and protecting the people.
He wanted to use his learning to contribute to Great Ye and do something meaningful for ordinary citizens.

But after arriving in the imperial capital—the heart of Great Ye—his lifelong beliefs began collapsing.

And he himself sank into a mire from which he could not escape.

Xie Zhichi was exceptionally handsome.

A ge’er from the Chancellor’s family took a liking to him.

But Xie Zhichi already had a child bride.

Though they were not formally married, the child bride had worked tirelessly managing the household for many years and had done nothing wrong.

The ge’er endured and retreated again and again, even declaring that the nearly thirty-year-old country spouse could be accepted as a concubine.

That child bride was also a ge’er, ten years older than Xie Zhichi.

During a great drought, he became a starving refugee on the verge of death before being picked up by Xie Zhichi’s father, who even gave him a new name:

Yun Muhe.

A few years later, Xie Zhichi’s father was dying.

At the time, Xie Zhichi was still an infant.
The Xie family had no relatives they could entrust him to.

So, to ensure Xie Zhichi would grow up safely, his father made Yun Muhe his future spouse.

“Muhe,” Xie Zhichi’s father said before dying,
“you must let him live.
No matter what methods you use, raise him well.

“He is your husband-to-be, your future spouse.
If you abandon him, you will know no peace in life and become livestock after death.”

“But if you raise him well, he will repay kindness.
Whether or not he ever becomes successful, he will treat you kindly.

“Muhe, I gave you food to eat.
Now, it is your turn to repay that kindness.”

After saying those words, Xie Zhichi’s father died.

Only twelve years old, Yun Muhe held the infant tightly in his arms, biting back tears.

He buried his benefactor and used every possible method to raise Xie Zhichi to adulthood.

To Xie Zhichi, Yun Muhe was like an older brother and a father.

He felt gratitude and respect for him—

but never romantic love.

Even so, no matter what, he would never betray him.

Thus, the Chancellor’s ge’er’s plans fell through.

He had never expected that after compromising so much, Xie Zhichi would still refuse him and insist on marrying an older countryside spouse.

In fury, he secretly obstructed Xie Zhichi and nearly caused him to miss the palace examination entirely.

Fortunately, Xie Zhichi sensed something wrong.

At the final moment, he barely managed to arrive in time and astonished everyone during the palace examination, ultimately earning first place and becoming the top scholar.

Had the story ended there, it could almost have counted as a satisfying success story.

But after the palace examination ended, before Xie Zhichi had even left the palace grounds, a eunuch from the Emperor’s side arrived.

The eunuch tactfully conveyed the Emperor’s intentions.

It turned out that Xiao Juan had taken a liking to Xie Zhichi the very first time he saw him.

The Emperor wanted Xie Zhichi to serve as his minister during the day—

and his favored consort at night.

The eunuch had come to tell him not to leave.

Tonight, he should remain in the palace.

Overwhelmed by the violent swing between joy and despair, Xie Zhichi nearly lost his footing.

In the end, however, he shook his head.

Ignoring the eunuch’s attempts to stop him, he walked straight out of the palace.

Three days later, during the palace banquet, faced with Xiao Juan’s undisguised gaze, the already isolated and unsupported Xie Zhichi was ordered by the Emperor to compose a poem.

After drinking half a cup of wine, he lifted his brush and wrote a satirical poem mocking the Emperor.

In doing so, he completely offended Xiao Juan and was immediately thrown into prison.

When Xie Zhichi first arrived in Yejing City, Lin Xiaoque had seen him once.

From that moment onward, he secretly gave his heart away and could never stop thinking of him.

After learning that Xie Zhichi would be reduced to a palace s*ave, Prince Lin recklessly knelt in the rain to plead for mercy.

Emperor Xiao Juan spared Xie Zhichi from castration.

But the punishment of becoming a palace s*ave remained unchanged.

Within court politics, Xie Zhichi had first offended the Chancellor’s faction by rejecting the Chancellor’s child.

Then he further offended the Emperor through his satirical poem.

Almost no one spoke in his defense.

Thus, he became a palace s*ave.

The restraints forced upon palace consorts were placed upon Xie Zhichi as well.

And humiliations even palace consorts would never endure were inflicted upon him.

There were countless methods used in brothels to discipline disobedient courtesans.

Within the palace, a special Punishment Pavilion was established solely for Xie Zhichi.

Day after day.
Night after night.

By the end, it was a miracle he had not gone insane.

Yet on the night the Emperor summoned him to bed, Xie Zhichi somehow retained his sanity and attempted to assassinate Xiao Juan.

Enraged, Xiao Juan captured Xie Zhichi’s child bride and threatened Yun Muhe’s life directly before him.

To avoid implicating Xie Zhichi, Yun Muhe threw himself onto Xiao Juan’s sword and slit his own throat.

Xie Zhichi nearly collapsed.

And amid Yun Muhe’s blood, Xiao Juan pinned Xie Zhichi down…

The next day, Xiao Juan’s fury still had not subsided.

He ordered the eunuchs of the Punishment Pavilion beaten.

Unable to direct their hatred toward the Emperor, the eunuchs vented all their resentment upon Xie Zhichi instead.

From that point onward, Xie Zhichi’s life became even more unbearable.

The Emperor wanted him transformed into the lowest, most obedient s*ave imaginable.

Thus, the eunuchs attempted to mold him into a lust-drowned plaything, forcing him to kneel before the Emperor like a dog in heat begging for favor.

Meanwhile, the chronically bedridden Prince Lin remained deceived by everyone around him.

He believed Xie Zhichi had long since been released from the palace, demoted to commoner status, returned home, married his child bride, and begun living an ordinary life.

But after enduring endless humiliation, Xie Zhichi had already darkened completely.

He deliberately allowed Prince Lin to discover the truth and seduced him into helping him escape the palace.

Lin Xiaoque eventually found a way to smuggle Xie Zhichi out.

Only to be imprisoned by Xie Zhichi in return.

Through Xie Zhichi’s manipulation, the Chancellor’s ge’er fell even deeper in love with him and eventually persuaded his father to rebel.

But in the end, Xie Zhichi’s efforts still failed.

Xiao Juan had long wished to eliminate the Chancellor’s faction and merely lacked a proper excuse.

Xie Zhichi’s actions practically handed him the perfect opportunity.

The Chancellor’s entire family was executed by waist-cutting,* their three clans implicated.
Their faction was slaughtered until it completely collapsed, while the remaining allies scattered like monkeys fleeing a fallen tree.

As a result, Emperor Xiao Juan’s authority became even more centralized.

The imperial court had effectively become Xiao Juan’s personal domain.

Driven into a dead end, Xie Zhichi used Prince Lin as leverage to threaten the Crown Prince into killing his own father.

Prince Lin never regretted rescuing Xie Zhichi from the palace.

He only regretted not taking him away sooner.

To avoid implicating the Crown Prince, whom he regarded as a true brother, Prince Lin followed Yun Muhe’s path—

and committed suicide.

The Crown Prince captured Xie Zhichi and prepared to kill him.

But before he could act, the Emperor appeared.

Xiao Juan carried Xie Zhichi away.

After endless struggling and resistance, Xie Zhichi had grown weary.

His mind became unstable, rarely lucid.

At this point, however, Xiao Juan treated him quite well, as though he had genuinely fallen in love.

The harem remained empty.

Only Xie Zhichi alone received his favor.

And amid Xie Zhichi’s broken, half-mad state, the story finally reached its conclusion.

In the darkness, Emperor Xiao Juan stroked Xie Zhichi’s face.

The tenderness in his eyes was deep and impossible to decipher.