After court ended that day, he was walking along the vermillion walls and green stone path in front of the Qianqing Gate when a civil official approached him. The man lowered his voice, his expression extremely cautious: “Lord Regent Prince, this humble official has heard that Your Highness enjoys fine wine. A few days ago, I acquired a jar of extraordinary vintage. If it pleases Your Highness, I could have someone deliver it to your residence right away?”

He glanced at the man, vaguely recalling him as a Vice Minister from the Ministry of Revenue, known for being reliable and prudent in his affairs.

Having long grown accustomed to such flattery and favor-seeking, he responded with casual indifference, lifting the corner of his mouth in a smile: “Very well.”

Unsurprisingly, he watched as the slightly plump middle-aged official momentarily appeared dazed before hastily agreeing.

His smile deepening, he finally descended the steps at a leisurely pace.

Behind him, all the officials deliberately slowed their pace, waiting for the Regent Prince to walk first.

Having grown accustomed to his unrestrained ways in Chu territory, he hadn’t worn court robes to the morning assembly. Instead, he wore silver-white garments embroidered with kui dragons, his waist bound with a golden sash, his appearance as striking as a celestial immortal descending from the heavens – clear as the wind and pure as the moon.

He was the current Regent Prince, wielding great authority. Even the Deyou Emperor, who was recuperating in the temporary palace, had entrusted the great responsibility of governing to him. He was merely one step away from that dragon throne.

This was why so many court officials rushed to curry favor with him, fearing that one day the Deyou Emperor might actually pass the throne to him on a whim, or that he might simply take advantage of the Crown Prince’s young age to usurp power. They wanted to ensure they would maintain their current positions by aligning themselves with him early.

He had always been indolent by nature. At the bottom of the long steps waited an ornately decorated palanquin. He bent down to enter it, ordering the servants to lower the gauze curtains, shutting out everything from the outside world.

Being able to ride in a palanquin within the forbidden palace as an outside official was, naturally, another of his special privileges.

And his privileges came from two sources: his innate bloodline, and the person currently sitting on the dragon throne.

The Deyou Emperor, his royal brother, had ascended to the throne at age twelve. Though physically weak and often ill, he was nevertheless diligent and wise in governance; though gentle and benevolent, he could also wield authority with thunderous force… He had considered usurping the throne before, but he knew better than anyone that no one was more suited for the position than that person.

This was why in the ninth year of Deyou’s reign, when the Deyou Emperor had disappeared into the jianghu, he hadn’t ascended the throne, but instead returned power to the Emperor after his return to court.

Regarding this past event, there were many different opinions throughout the court and beyond. Some said he had been constrained by the two Imperial Guard divisions and the Empress, forcing him to give up the throne that was within his grasp.

Others said he was incompetent, having made a mess of court affairs and was just waiting for the Deyou Emperor to return and clean it up.

If someone were to ask him personally why he did it, he would probably answer lazily: “Too bothersome to manage.”

Indeed, if it wasn’t because it was too bothersome to manage, what other reason could there be to explain it?

After all, he had always appeared to be at odds with the Deyou Emperor, and even on the rare occasions when they attended court together, he showed neither respect nor compliance.

This pair of royal brothers, so different in appearance yet so similar in spirit, had truly confused many minds.

His prince’s residence was adjacent to the Forbidden Palace, but his daily quarters were actually within the Forbidden Palace itself.

The palanquin made a circuit through the outer court before entering the inner palace with complete authority.

Before he could even step down from the palanquin, a figure rushed in through the palace gates. Wearing bright yellow robes, with a face that strongly resembled the Deyou Emperor’s, now matured into a youth’s appearance and filled with joy: “Uncle Qing!”

He had always disliked that face, and made no effort to hide it now, reaching out to pinch the youth’s cheeks: “You were well-behaved today, didn’t cause me any trouble.”

With the Deyou Emperor long absent from court, it had been Crown Prince Xiao Lian sitting beside the dragon throne during the morning assembly, listening to governmental affairs.

When the two of them attended court, typically the Regent Prince would handle memorials with casual ease while the Crown Prince listened quietly. Occasionally, when the Crown Prince had questions about something unclear, he would raise them during the session.

At such times, the Regent Prince would usually let the Crown Prince finish speaking before carefully answering his questions… However, upon returning to the inner palace, he would inevitably find some pretext to pull his nephew aside for some teasing.

Being handled this way by his royal uncle, the Crown Prince seemed quite happy: “Uncle Qing, official business has been light lately, and there’s no morning court for the next two days. Let’s go to the temporary palace to see Father and Mother!”

His hand paused, releasing his nephew’s face, and he smiled saying: “I don’t feel like moving about. You go by yourself.”

“Uncle Qing won’t go again?” Hearing this, the Crown Prince immediately became dejected, “Last time when Uncle Qing didn’t come, Mother asked about you. Father also misses Uncle Qing and asked if you were feeling unwell.”

Hearing this, he immediately snorted coldly: “He should focus on taking care of his own broken body, rather than worrying about me.”

The Crown Prince, who was always best at sweet-talking and pleasing his elders, tugged at his sleeve: “Uncle Qing, please come see Father. Father has been coughing again these past few days, and Mother is very worried.”

He frowned silently for a while before finally saying: “Fine, I’ll go take a look.”

From the capital to the temporary palace in the secondary capital was quite a distance. They changed into casual clothes and rode horses, taking almost an hour to arrive.

After dismounting, dusty from travel, he naturally had to first take a bath in the hot springs and freshen up before appearing before others.

So when he arrived at the front hall, wearing loose white clothes with his black hair cascading over one shoulder, the family was already happily sitting together enjoying snacks.

His narrow phoenix eyes swept across the scene, landing on someone in blue robes sitting to the side, and he couldn’t help but let out a cold snort, his gaze sharp as a knife.

The person he glared at seemed oblivious, instead smiling and waving to him: “Qianqing, you’ve come.”

The only one who dared to call him by name was naturally his royal brother, the current Deyou Emperor, but he showed no respect at all, instead turning to sit on the other side, right next to a woman in red robes.

Smiling gently at her, his world-renowned beautiful face full of tender affection: “Cangcang, I’ve come to see you. Did you miss me?”

“Miss you? Of course, I missed you!” Completely disregarding her husband and children nearby, the Empress in red robes embraced him, holding his hand, “Qianqing, come eat some grapes. They just arrived from Turpan, they’re so sweet!”

So his smile that could captivate anyone, male or female, young or old, wasn’t as attractive as grapes… His lips twitched almost imperceptibly, and finally, the devastatingly handsome Regent Prince smiled and used his slender jade-like fingers to pick up a crystal-clear grape, bringing it to the Empress’s lips: “Cangcang, you should eat it.”

Opening her mouth without looking, the Empress bit down on the grape then thought of some new playful idea and turned to throw herself into the Deyou Emperor’s embrace, speaking unclearly with the grape still in her mouth: “Brother Xiao… let me feed you…”

While this headache-inducing situation was occurring on one side, on the other, Crown Prince Xiao Lian and Second Prince Xiao Yan had somehow started pinching each other, their hands hidden under the table, trading blows back and forth with finger strikes and palm movements, fighting with great enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Princess Pixie sat to the side, eating grapes while resting her chin in her hand, coldly observing the scene.

At times like these, the Regent Prince would silently think to himself, if this was the happiness they had gained after enduring such hardships… then perhaps it wasn’t that appealing after all.

After the commotion had gone on for a while, the Deyou Emperor, who was still being embraced around the waist by the Empress, smiled and said: “Lian’er, take Yan’er and Xiao Xie to the training ground by the lake, and give Yan’er some guidance.”

Finding a legitimate reason to have a proper fight with his brother, the Crown Prince quickly agreed and led his siblings away.

He looked over lazily, knowing the Emperor was sending the children away. Sure enough, the Deyou Emperor soon smiled again: “Cangcang, Qianqing and I need to discuss some matters in the study. Would you help us prepare some tea?”

The Empress agreed and kissed the Deyou Emperor once before getting up to leave.

Rising and once again extending his hand toward him, the Deyou Emperor was still smiling: “Qianqing, I apologize for troubling you.”

He let out a light snort, standing up but not taking the offered hand: “You’re quite good at putting on an act.”

Despite his words, he still followed the Deyou Emperor to the study.

Although no longer attending court to handle government affairs, most official business and memorials still passed through the Deyou Emperor’s review, so the study contained many documents and memorials, with an open terrain map on the desk.

Smiling at him, the Deyou Emperor picked up a memorial from the desk: “The Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Works has impeached Vice Minister of Revenue Si Yuan. What are your thoughts, Qianqing?”

Thinking of the middle-aged official who had offered to send him fine wine after morning court, he only pondered briefly: “If Si Yuan has indeed committed wrongdoing, punish him according to the law.”

The Deyou Emperor lowered his eyes and smiled: “Qianqing, do you believe I have arranged spies to watch you?”

To have just spoken with him in front of Qianqing Palace this morning, and then be tested with a memorial by the Deyou Emperor in the afternoon – how could there be such a coincidence?

He gave a cold laugh: “Isn’t that exactly the case?”

“The escort guards have indeed been at your side because the Regent Prince’s safety cannot be neglected,” said the Deyou Emperor with a smile, putting down the memorial, “Qianqing, from today forward, both Imperial Guard divisions will be under your command. They will no longer report any matters to me.”

He was stunned. The two Imperial Guard divisions were the Emperor’s most trusted forces and his two sharpest blades. Even when the Deyou Emperor’s whereabouts were unknown years ago, the Imperial Guards had not obeyed his orders. Even now, after years of serving as regent, he had never before had the opportunity to control the two divisions.

Narrowing his phoenix eyes lined with light eyebrows, the words left his mouth: “Entrusting even the Imperial Guards to me – my royal brother truly isn’t afraid I’ll seize power?”

Looking up at him with a smile, the Deyou Emperor wasn’t angered at all by his words, still speaking gently: “Qianqing, you know very well that if you wanted the throne, you would only need to say the word…”

Before he could finish speaking, the Deyou Emperor’s brows suddenly furrowed, his body swaying slightly as he raised a hand to support himself against the nearby desk.

Startled suddenly, before his mind could fully process what was happening, he had already extended his arms, embracing and supporting the figure in blue robes: “Brother Huan!”

Closing his eyes and letting most of his body weight rest in his brother’s arms, the Deyou Emperor coughed lightly, and after a moment shook his head: “It’s nothing, just occasional dizziness. Don’t tell Cangcang.”

The innate cold poison and successive injuries from his early years had already destroyed this body’s health. Even though several years had passed since his major illness in the eighteenth year of Deyou’s reign, they both knew such a frail body couldn’t endure for many more years, yet they maintained a tacit silence and avoidance of the subject.

Light flickered in his phoenix eyes lined with pale eyebrows, and he smiled, his voice carrying an unusual trace of anger: “So you’re entrusting your children to me again?”

“Qianqing…” A slightly cool hand suddenly covered the back of his own, gently gripping his hand. The Deyou Emperor wore his usual smile, “I want to ask you to watch over this empire for me.”

As the image of a youth’s face, so similar to today’s Lian’er, appeared before his eyes, he opened his mouth but ultimately couldn’t refuse, showing a hint of powerless irritation: “You always think everything will go according to your wishes!”

“How could that be…” Knowing he had already agreed, the Deyou Emperor’s pale face showed a gratified smile, along with a hint of playfulness, “I still want to ride horses with Little Qing at the hunting grounds, but he won’t accompany me anymore.”

Hearing that long-unused “Little Qing,” he felt a hint of bashfulness in his heart and put on a stern face: “Keep talking nonsense, and I’ll let go.”

The Deyou Emperor gave a low laugh and stopped speaking.

At this moment, the Empress returned, carrying a tray with two tea cups. Seeing the two of them, she made a fuss: “Brother Xiao, Qianqing… you two are embracing!”

He looked down and saw that his arm was indeed around the Deyou Emperor’s waist, truly in an embracing position. He wanted to let go but feared the Emperor was still dizzy, so he could only force out a cold breath: “An occasional embrace won’t hurt!”

The Deyou Emperor had recovered somewhat and lightly laughed while holding his shoulder to stand up by himself, saying to the Empress: “Cangcang, come put down the tea.”

Not one to easily miss an opportunity to tease the Regent Prince, the Empress kept clicking her tongue: “Qianqing, I know you love your royal brother, but you can’t just keep holding him like this…”

Knowing that bantering with the Empress rarely ended well, he simply snorted coldly and remained silent.

However, as the Deyou Emperor was about to turn away, he said in a low voice: “If it’s horse riding, then horse riding it is, it’s nothing special.”

The Empress didn’t know the context of these words, but the Deyou Emperor smiled, his deep black pupils full of joy: “Then Qianqing… it’s a promise.”

The next day happened to be clear and pleasant, with crisp autumn air. The Deyou Emperor did take the two princes and him to the Hailuo hunting grounds for recreation.

The Crown Prince and Second Prince certainly wouldn’t stay idle. Finally having a chance to visit the hunting grounds, they each brought their personal guards and elite soldiers to hunt game, secretly competing with each other.

Though long plagued by illness, the Deyou Emperor still looked tall and handsome in his hunting clothes. Unable to gallop anymore, he let his fine horse walk with small steps through the grassland of the pasture.

The Regent Prince rode his horse beside him, not speaking.

After they had walked together for a while, the Deyou Emperor watched a line of autumn geese in the distant sky, a smile appearing on his lips: “Little Qing, we’ve finally returned.”

Looking at the familiar hills and trees beside them, he also smiled slightly: “It’s not too late.”

Yes, everything was still early… It had only been twenty-seven years since they had last parted in these hunting grounds, saying they would meet again.

That was when the Regent Prince was only nine years old. He wasn’t yet the noble Prince of Great Wu, but merely the son of an unfavored prince and a lowly dancing girl.

That year, the Deyou Emperor, who was then the Crown Prince, was only eleven years old.

In the deep palace where human nature was fickle, he bore an overly bewitching face that made everyone keep their distance and fear him.

In this cold world, there was only one youth who consistently smiled at him with gentleness, like all elder brothers who cherish their younger siblings.

They would sneak to the Imperial Lake to fish together, get scolded by their tutor for being playful, and hide together among the artificial mountains to avoid the guards searching for them.

Their last meeting as youths was right here in these Hailuo hunting grounds. That day was his first time participating in the autumn hunt, his first time personally killing game.

Excited, he had brought back the wild rabbit he had caught and given it to the youth who was too weak to participate in the hunt, holding his hand and saying: “Brother Huan, next year I’ll definitely hunt a deer to help strengthen your body!”

The youth had smiled and said: “Alright when I’m better next year, we can ride horses together in the hunting grounds.”

At nine years old, he had smiled, his eyes slightly narrowed, that devastating beauty he would later deliberately use as an adult still like uncut jade then, unconsciously radiating natural pure beauty.

But after that hunt, before he could visit that youth in the palace again, his father received an imperial edict conferring him a princedom.

Once a prince received his territory, he had to leave the capital immediately, without a moment’s delay.

On the day of their hurried departure from the capital, he, who had always been obedient, struggled unprecedentedly. Even though he was young, he knew it would be years before he might see the other again. He cried and shouted, wanting to enter the palace to say goodbye, but was still blocked by the guards escorting them from the capital and put into the carriage.

This parting lasted a full ten years. In ten years, wild geese came and went, crab apple blossoms withered and bloomed again. In ten years, his thoughts grew deeper year by year, as he conquered the world step by step.

When he returned to the forbidden city ten years later, it was as a usurper with ulterior motives.

The rebellion at the end of the eighth year of Deyou’s reign was too hasty and chaotic. Though their gazes crossed several times, neither mentioned their friendship from their youth.

Yet at the critical moment, he had unhesitatingly pushed that girl in red robes into his arms, and he had unhesitatingly accepted her, risking his life to get her out of the forbidden palace.

Thereafter followed ten years of accompanying each other, never too close, yet never too distant.

Returning from the hunting grounds to the temporary palace, while the Crown Prince wanted to stay another day, he returned to the capital first.

Though government affairs were complex and tedious, the forbidden palace needed someone to stand there.

When he reached the inner palace, it was already deep night. After dispersing the harem in the ninth year of Deyou’s reign, and with the Emperor and Empress moving to the temporary palace, the forbidden palace had grown increasingly desolate.

He walked between the empty halls, darkness all around, the autumn chill cutting to the bone.

Is it lonely at the top? Standing at the empire’s peak of power, he finally understood that loneliness that could be confided to no one, that desolation that could find no relief.

Yet at this moment, he still had to stand here, looking down upon the empire’s mountains, waters, and cities, listening to the joys and sorrows of the common people… just as that man had done for so many years before.

This was the duty of their Xiao clan’s descendants, which could neither be defied nor abandoned.

He thought, perhaps after many years when he could finally lay down these responsibilities when he could finally let go of that smiling woman in red robes, and that youth in his memories who smiled at him and took his hand.

He would return to Chu territory, go back there to spend his boundless years that belonged only to him, to see Chu’s thousand miles of clear rivers and autumn skies spanning as far as the eye could see.