Turning the Tide to Support the Dragon: Moonlight Above the Throne

Everyone knew that a pretty fool sat upon the dragon throne. Emperor Gu Shouyun spent his days picking fights and acting foolishly, and the powerful ministers were happy to indulge his absurdity. Yun Xi was the only neutral figure at court. When he was being given a hard time, she once handed him a cup of warm tea; when he tore up a memorial, she silently rewrote it for him...

That night at the palace banquet...

Afterward, she tried to draw a clear line between them, but he cornered her in a shadowy spot. His eyes glistened with tears, yet his voice was cool and clear. “They all want me dead. You’re the only one... who comes to me.” He clutched her sleeve and called her by name for the first time. “Teach me how to survive... Then we’ll bring them all down together.”

Perhaps Lord Yun, who seemed so cold, wasn’t cold inside after all. Beneath the moonlight, the neutral party boarded the bandit’s ship. She taught him political strategy, and he soon surpassed his teacher. She gave him a little warmth, and he responded with complete dependence. The courtiers gradually noticed that the young emperor’s gaze had somehow grown deep and still as a pool.

The first time he shielded her from an army’s pointed weapons, Yun Xi finally realized that what she had illuminated with her own hands was never a shadow beneath the moonlight. It was a dragon, quietly opening its eyes within the shadow.