In the sixth year of Shengyuan, Imperial Preceptor Han Xingluo angered Emperor Li Rongshang by urging him to reduce taxes in Jianghuai. He was imprisoned in a side hall of the Ziwei Palace. That night, the young emperor gripped his chin and looked straight through his eyes as he murmured, “Those eyes really do look just like his.”
Only then did Han Xingluo learn that he bore a striking resemblance to the emperor’s unattainable white moonlight, the lifesaving benefactor of years ago. They looked seven-tenths alike.
Nine years earlier, the late emperor had died at a royal lodge, and the princes had rebelled. Fourteen-year-old Crown Prince Li Rongshang was trapped inside a city under siege by the rebels. At the time, the young Han Xingluo was traveling in the northern frontier. Risking his life, he infiltrated the enemy city disguised as a witch doctor and hid the gravely wounded crown prince in a secret chamber. For seven days and seven nights, he stayed by his side without rest, until reinforcements arrived. Before they parted, the boy took off the cold jade pendant at his waist as a token and said, “If Your Highness survives, it will be a blessing for all under heaven.”
But after the crown prince ascended the throne, he sent people to search for his benefactor. A woman entered the palace carrying the jade pendant and claimed she was the one who had saved his life.
As Han Xingluo recalled all this in prison, he finally understood: the person he had loved for nine years had long since forgotten him, while the young emperor he had risked his life to protect was treating him as someone else’s substitute, humiliating him night after night.
But he still knew clearly: he loved the boy from the besieged city all those years ago, not the tyrannical emperor before him.
When the white moonlight finally returns and the truth is about to come to light, in this entanglement disguised as imprisonment, who is truly the one being held captive?
He is a prisoner beneath the steps, yet watches himself sink with clear eyes.
He is a ruler on the throne, yet foolishly gives his heart to the wrong person.
When they look back a hundred years from now, will anyone beneath the royal steps still remember the boy who once risked everything for him?
This should be written by AI. I have read 37 chapters so far, and there are too many identical repetitive content and repeated paragraphs.