Why Is My Cool, Powerful Childhood Friend Getting Crazier by the Day?

[A sunny, warm-hearted prince × a brooding, obsessive minister in power + alternate world + madly in love] In the twenty-eighth year of the Tiansheng era, a great war threw the capital of Sheng into turmoil. The twelve-year-old Third Prince Xiao Ruoyu was forced apart from Xie Yunzhou, his childhood friend who had grown up by his side. When they meet again, one is a down-and-out prince with nowhere else to turn. The other is the Grand Secretary, wielding immense influence in the capital and enjoying the emperor’s favor and trust. Xiao Ruoyu needs help, but runs into a wall at every turn. What he doesn’t know is that his once aloof, noble, and distant childhood friend is meticulously plotting to hunt him down. And that cool, aloof Grand Secretary, so above it all, sniffs a faded blue garment in the dead of night, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “Your Highness, it’s been so long!” Xiao Ruoyu can’t understand why his childhood friend keeps gazing at him with such a brooding look, or why he keeps closing in while also looking out for him at every turn. He understands even less why the usually cool and self-controlled Grand Secretary goes mad when he visits a brothel. After the fit, the Grand Secretary even thinks he’s the one who’s been wronged. All Xiao Ruoyu knows is that his childhood friend has always been sensitive and had a pitiful upbringing. His heart softens, never realizing he has fallen straight into someone’s trap. Content warning: This isn’t just a romance. There’s a plot, and it leans toward an ensemble cast. If that’s not your thing, don’t read.