He is Shen Yushu, a tyrant infamous for murdering his brother and usurping the throne. Everyone fears and loathes him, seeing him as a fiend. Only Xie Wuyou is his sole salvation, the child he rescued from a mass grave amid a mountain of corpses. For ten years, he spoils the boy, raises him, and personally secures him a marquisate, indulging him until he can do whatever he pleases. Even before the entire court, Xie Wuyou dares to tug at the imperial robe and act coy. He never addresses the emperor with a formal title, calling him “Big Brother” again and again in a sweet, cloying voice.
That “Big Brother” is the only warmth in Shen Yushu’s cold imperial power, the one selfish affection left behind all his sins. He shields Xie Wuyou from every open and hidden attack, placing the finest things in the world before him until his indulgence becomes a scandal known throughout the court.
Until a carefully planned palace banquet leaves them both poisoned, with only one antidote. Everyone assumes that Shen Yushu, ruthless as he is, will take it himself. After all, emperors are heartless.
But no one knows how, deep in the night, the blood-coughing emperor gently coaxes the boy he has spoiled and feeds him the only chance to live. “Be good, Wuyou. Eat this and it won’t hurt anymore.” He watches his beloved fall into a deep sleep, his eyes filled with a resolve to give up everything.
The next morning, Xie Wuyou wakes to find his Big Brother lying on the dragon bed in his imperial robes, his face serene and his life already gone. On the emperor’s desk, the ink on the edict is still wet. It gives him the entire empire, every inch of its vast territory.
At that moment, Xie Wuyou, spoiled so thoroughly that he never knew what it meant to lose something, feels his world collapse completely. He lifts Shen Yushu’s cooling body, draws his blade, and spills blood across the dragon bed. Then he leans close to his ear and leaves one last tearful whisper:
“Big Brother… this time, let me come find you.”
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