In his chaotic and bewildered thoughts, all things swayed like seaweed in water. Everything around him was a sticky, viscous gray-white, and within that gray-white world, many things floated, forming continuous black shadows and light before his eyes—sometimes round, sometimes flat, their original shapes indiscernible.

Only one thing remained vivid, floating constantly before his eyes—bright red, tiny, impossible to brush away as it circled around him. He reached out to touch it, but always pulled back at the last moment as if it would burn him. The thing emitted fragmented moans that sounded like weeping, though he couldn’t tell whose crying it was. Perhaps… he was the one crying?

An endless, eternal tunnel of darkness… impossible to escape.

Like being trapped underwater, walking heavily in silence, his legs aching. Suddenly he heard a woman’s voice, low and gentle, like a melodious tune played on strings at midnight—not startling him from deep sleep but making him want to sink into even deeper, sweeter, joyful slumber.

He turned back in confusion, suddenly feeling the binding, sinking sensation throughout his body loosen. He couldn’t help but smile slightly—a smile that would never appear during daylight hours.

Xiao Baozi let out a low gasp of amazement.

This uncle looked so beautiful when he smiled…

Xiao Jue couldn’t hear that soft exclamation. He only heard that moving female voice ask him quietly: “Where are you?”

Where am I? Xiao Jue felt confused himself. After thinking, he answered: “In the sea…”

“What kind of sea…”

“Heavy… bright red… sticky…”

“Are you often in the sea…”

“Sometimes…”

“Why are you in the sea…”

“I don’t know… is it because of sin?…”

The voice seemed to pause for a moment, then continued with the same gentleness.

“What kind of sin…”

He stopped, his gaze alternating between darkness and light.

The voice didn’t urge him, seeming to wait quietly, as if it could wait like this for thousands of years.

But in his trance, he felt somewhat panicked, afraid that this moment of silence would become eternal silence, that he would never again hear this voice that inexplicably brought him peace, that pulled him from the sticky deep sea’s infinite depression and allowed him to breathe.

Just like that day—some past events, once missed, could never be retrieved…

So he spoke softly.

“…I can’t see… it’s not far from me… ahead… floating… I can’t catch it…”

“What is it?”

“…I don’t know…”

His pupils dilated slightly, and in them was an expression of terror.

Terror he was unwilling to face…

“Have you seen a woman? She sleeps underground, and there’s also a baby… her eyes…”

“Ahhh!!!”

Xiao Jue suddenly clutched his head and screamed frantically.

Excruciating pain.

Overwhelming, crushing pain.

Those black shadows suddenly became like tsunami hurricanes, sweeping and rolling in massive sheets, crashing and battering against the embankments of his spirit in great chunks, wave after wave without end. Heaven and earth were destroyed, submerged, covered inch by inch, and when those turbid black waves rolled over, they made thunderous sounds that echoed continuously in his mind—infinitely dizzying, worse than lingchi torture.

He clutched his head and collapsed, trembling with pain.

Qin Chang Ge had been immersed in the hopeful atmosphere of finally uncovering secrets with that last question, but was caught off guard when he suddenly screamed right beside her ear. For a moment, she was stunned into rare bewilderment.

Xiao Baozi suddenly jumped up with extreme agility, using all his strength to deliver a childish but unhesitating hand chop to the back of Xiao Jue’s neck with a crisp “Hey!”

Xiao Jue collapsed immediately.

Qin Chang Ge was stunned again.

She stared blankly at Xiao Jue on the ground, then shifted her dazed gaze to her son, then back to Xiao Jue, still dazed.

Uh…

Young Master Xiao Rong.

You… you knocked down the current Son of Heaven.

You, a four-year-old child, very boldly knocked down the founding emperor who conquered the world through military force and was skilled in battle.

Most importantly.

Just now, it seemed… you knocked down your father…

Could this be called great unfilial behavior, rebellion, regicide, and patricide?

Xiao Rong didn’t care about all that. He clapped his hands and said with a grin: “Uncle Rong said that for crazy people, the best method is to make them quiet immediately.”

Fine, fine, Rong Xiaotian.

You people are truly extraordinary.

Not wanting to deal with her son anymore, Qin Chang Ge quickly checked Xiao Jue’s pulse and found it weak and floating, but fortunately he wasn’t seriously injured. That he could be knocked down by a four-year-old was partly because Rong Rong had been taught by Rong Xiaotian—though his strength was weak, his strike placement was precise. On the other hand, Xiao Jue’s mental state had been approaching collapse at the time, and his physical strength had dropped to its weakest critical point, which allowed their son to take advantage and create this painfully embarrassing historical first.

But now wasn’t the time to study what kind of miracle Rong Rong had accomplished. The current problem was: His Majesty the Emperor had screamed, His Majesty the Emperor had been knocked unconscious, the palace guards were rushing over, and they—this pair of perpetrators—were extremely suspiciously present right beside His Majesty the Emperor with no time to escape.

Hurried footsteps.

Mixed with cries of “Your Majesty!”

The sound of someone requesting forgiveness before breaking into Xiao Jue’s bedroom, then discovering it was empty with alarmed voices.

The sound of people searching toward the kitchen.

Qin Chang Ge sighed helplessly.

There was no choice but to sacrifice her son’s innocent young soul and her former husband’s perfect appearance.

She smiled and beckoned to her son.

“Rong Rong, come here.”

“What for?” Young Master Xiao was listening intently to the sounds, constantly glancing at the ceiling, using his short legs to measure the room’s dimensions, calculating his chances of climbing up there, and his chances of climbing up there while carrying his mother.

One sentence from his troublesome mother made him turn around abruptly.

“Come help me undress this person.”

Ahhhhhhh… please no.

Qin Chang Ge looked innocently at her son and sighed, “Rong Rong, staying alive is important. Without our heads, how can we eat osmanthus candy?”

That’s true…

Young Master Xiao rolled up his sleeves and began righteously undressing his father.

While sweating profusely as he undressed him, he asked very earnestly: “Strip him naked? Strip him naked?”