Love and Hate in Captivity

He is the shared prisoner of the regent who holds the court in his grasp and the ruthless, vicious head of the Eastern Depot. Yet in the depths of despair, he manages to tame both devils.

At the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet, the moment a zither string snapped, Shen Qichi’s fate was sealed.

The regent, Xiao Jin, made his demand in front of everyone: “I need someone to understand me.”

The Eastern Depot’s chief, Rong Yan, smiled and chimed in: “The Eastern Depot needs a zither player, too.”

And so he became their shared prisoner.

Xiao Jin branded his shoulder with a private seal: “If you die, it’ll be by my hand.”

Rong Yan whispered gently in his ear: “Be good and come back with me. I won’t tell him.”

He escaped three times, and was dragged back three times.

They tried every means they could think of to make him “accept his fate.”

But when he finally did, when he stopped crying, pleading, and begging for mercy, when he lay quietly in their arms like a doll

The violent regent panicked: “What is it you want?”

The sinister chief was afraid: “If you die, the three of us will walk the road to the underworld together.”

He smiled. “I want freedom.”

They said, “All right.”

Then they set the world ablaze, just to give him a clean slate in the martial world.

He was a prisoner, and the master of his cage.

Love was both shackles and the only key.