In the first month of the tenth year of Jingyuan, there was a heavy snowfall in Zhongjing.
Emperor Xiao Yun fell ill, Prime Minister Lin Qing took over the power, and eight princes with heavy troops guarded all sides - under the calm of the Da Jing Dynasty, undercurrents surged.
This is a story about the "Dragon Chair".
Over the past sixteen years, eight princes took turns sitting on the chair and being lifted off. The king of Liang usurped the throne and was killed in April; the king of Ning was arrogant and his body was exposed for three days; the king of Changsha was Zhongyong and was burned to death by his allies; the king of Cheng was sinister and died in prison in depression; the king of Donghai had the last laugh, but died of fear...
But besides the fighting between the princes, there is another story.
Shen Du, a junior official in Zhongshu Province, came from a poor family and copied files in Zhongshu Province for sixteen years. He saw with his own eyes those names - Lin Qing, Lin Wan, Prince, King Liang, King Ning, King Changsha, King Cheng, King Donghai - appearing one by one on the promotion documents he copied, and one by one in the death files.
He never said an extra word, never took an extra step. His philosophy of survival has only four words: just stay alive.
Sixteen years later, when the last prince died and foreign cavalry broke through the border, Shen Du took his sister A Yuan and crossed the river south in a small boat.
When the boat reached the middle stream, he looked back - there was thick smoke billowing in the direction of Zhongjing, and the dragon chair was still there, waiting for the next person to sit on it.
But he won't go back.
He just remembered his mother's words before she died: "Living is better than anything else."
He is still alive.
The boat is still moving. The river is still flowing.
