I Just Risked My Life with a Coffin Protest, and Now the Old Zhu Wants Me to Put It Down

In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, drought has plagued the land for years, and corpses of the starving lie everywhere.

Lu Changfeng, a seventh-rank censor, diverts imperial funds meant for a prince’s new residence to save a million disaster victims. Zhu Yuanzhang throws him into the death row, sentencing him to be executed at the Meridian Gate!

On the day of his execution, he doesn’t beg for mercy. Instead, he carries a thin wooden coffin into court to make a final protest!

“Civil officials are flayed alive and stuffed with straw for taking a single tael of silver, while princes bleed their fiefs dry and get away with it?”

“Does the Great Ming’s law only execute outsiders, and never members of the Zhu family?!”

“Is this Ming Dynasty your Zhu family’s slaughterhouse, or does the realm belong to all its people?!”

His furious tirade terrifies the officials. Zhu Yuanzhang is so enraged that he vomits blood and orders Lu Changfeng to be cut in half on the spot!

Yet at the court session the next morning,

Lu Changfeng, who should have been separated from his head, stands there completely unharmed. “I didn’t finish my scolding yesterday, so I’ll carry on today!”

The entire court falls silent. Old Zhu’s scalp prickles, and he collapses onto the dragon throne.

He is beheaded, torn apart by chariots, flayed alive... Lu Changfeng dies again and again, only to keep coming back to life.

At last, the Hongwu Emperor, a man who has always been decisive and ruthless, completely breaks down.

Old Zhu grabs Lu Changfeng’s coffin and bursts into tears. “Grandpa Lu, I’m begging you, stop dying! I’ll abolish the fiefs today! I’ll change, all right?!”