“Zhao Weixu, great-grandson of the Eighth Virtuous Prince. His entire family is to be executed. As he is still young, spare his life. Brand his face and make him a slave, and strip him of his noble status!”
That day, in the Golden Throne Hall, the shameful character “Thief” was branded onto Zhao Weixu’s face.
From then on, Great Song lost a spirited royal prodigy and gained a tattooed scoundrel who haunted brothels and threw public tantrums in the street.
“Zhao Weixu! You’re a descendant of the esteemed Eighth Virtuous Prince, yet you went and snatched the beggars’ leader’s begging bowl? Have you no shame?!”
“Shame? The word ‘Thief’ is written right on my face. What do I need shame for? Pay up. If you don’t, I’ll sleep right outside the Censor-in-Chief’s house tonight!”
Everyone thought he was finished. They avoided him and humiliated him at every turn.
Until, in the dead of night, the Imperial Guard squad assigned to watch him was skinned alive and hung from the city gate.
The court was enraged, and the whole realm was stunned.
Yet Zhao Weixu was living it up by the Qinhuai River, one arm around the slender waist of Jiangnan’s greatest heroine. “My lord, I’m just a worthless nobody with a branded face. What does this have to do with me?”
If Great Song means to wipe out my entire family, then I’ll topple this empire and become the one and only supreme ruler of the realm!
