(Historical danmei + political intrigue + third-person narration + innocent on the outside, ruthless underneath)
I am the emperor, and also the “foolish ruler” Shen Yi has carefully trained to his liking.
At my coronation, he tore up the ministers' congratulatory memorials in front of everyone, pinched my chin, and sneered, “Your Majesty, do you deserve to sit on this throne?”
I lowered my eyes and smiled obsequiously, timidly saying, “You speak the truth, Imperial Uncle.”
And so, everyone came to know me as a “foolish ruler.”
I got drunk beside the koi pond, played with memorials using my vermilion brush, and turned the imperial bed into a bed of debauchery. Everyone said that the young Emperor Xiao Jingyan was the prettiest canary at Shen Yi's side.
But they didn't know.
Every secret report in the dead of night, every act of killing by someone else's hand, was a move I quietly made beneath the cover of my “foolishness.” I watched him crush my enemies, as though admiring a blade clearing the way for me.
Until that night, when he gripped my throat, his breath searing hot.
“Little thing, have you finished pretending?”
The timidity vanished from my eyes. I pressed a cold dagger to his heart and curled my lips into a smile. “Imperial Uncle, are you done playing? Now it's my turn.”
The court fell into chaos, and beacons of war blazed along the border.
When the true arrow came flying, the man who held all power under heaven shielded me with his body and held me tight in his arms. Blood soaked his dark robes. He ran his fingers over my face and smiled like a madman. “Your Majesty, this life of mine is yours... The price is that you'll never escape my grasp for the rest of your life.”
This throne is my prison, and my hunting ground.
