The Great Zhou dynasty, the thirteenth year of the Tianqi era, winter.
Snow blanketed the sky, hiding the Forbidden City's golden splendor, but it could not conceal the stench of blood in the imperial prison.
Shen Qingci curled up on a pile of icy straw, black blood still oozing from the holes in his body. It was the effect of the Qianji poison: pain that reached his bones, yet wouldn't let him die.
Through the bars, he gazed at the snow outside and managed a bleak smile.
“Xiao Jingyuan... In the end, you still don't trust me.”
The man he had loved for ten years and protected for ten years, the young emperor who had just pacified the realm and was riding high, had personally ordered him to drink this cup of poison.
The reason?
“Defiling the imperial harem and treason.”
How absurd. He, Shen Qingci, was a cripple who couldn't even lift a sword. How could he have betrayed the country?
“Creak, ”
The heavy cell door swung open, and a bitterly cold wind rushed in.
Shen Qingci struggled to lift his eyelids, thinking it was a eunuch coming to see him off on his final journey.
But the next moment, a figure in bright yellow stumbled in. His luxurious imperial robes dragged through the muddy ground, leaving a glaring trail behind him.
Xiao Jingyuan!?
Shen Qingci's pupils contracted. Why was he here? Had he come to laugh at him?
The expected mockery never came.
The emperor, usually so lofty and cold as ice, suddenly dropped to his knees before him with a thud.
His knees struck the icy stone floor with a muffled impact.
Xiao Jingyuan lifted his head. His peerlessly handsome face was already streaked with tears, and his usually deep, imperious phoenix eyes
