Xiao Mei was a young emperor renowned throughout the world.
He had personally led his armies to war, conquered Mount Helan, and slain the enemy commander with his own hands, winning years of peace for the borderlands. He had also ventured alone into an enemy camp to capture bandits, just to keep innocent civilians from getting hurt.
People praised his courage and generosity, but no one knew what he was really like.
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Palace servants who made mistakes had their hands and feet cut off before being thrown into a deep well. Servants who betrayed him were bound to scorching stone pillars and roasted over a raging fire. Concubines who had affairs with guards had their flesh carved away, slice by slice, with blades as fine as willow leaves... There was nothing he wouldn't do.
Everyone in the palace lived in fear, believing him to be a vengeful spirit reborn.
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A handsome, otherworldly young man named Xie Luan had recently joined the court as the top scholar. Xiao Mei took a liking to him at first sight. Imprisonment, drugs, threats, coercion... But the young man would rather die than submit.
Xiao Mei lost patience.
He ordered his men to drag Xie Luan away, castrate him, dress him in eunuch's robes, and lock him in a golden cage, breaking his proud spirit.
Not long afterward, Xiao Mei was poisoned and fell into a coma that lasted ten whole years.
When he awoke, his old enemy had become regent, radiant and imperious in court. His spineless childhood friend, who had once lived at his mercy, had become a powerful court official, with the final say in everything and a far-reaching reputation. His concubines and favored servants had all been sent out of the palace, and his shameful private tastes had long since been exposed.
He was no longer the young emperor people had once revered, but a cruel tyrant reviled by all.
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His former allies had been uprooted, and everything he'd built in his youth was gone. Now, he was nothing but a hound without teeth or claws.
The little eunuch who had once cowered at his feet, had his backbone crushed by him, and been reduced to a caged plaything now stood at the heart of the court, wielding power over the whole realm.
Everyone called him...
The Ninth Thousand Years.
The day after waking from his coma, Xiao Mei donned his imperial robes for the first time in ten years and ascended the throne. Dragging his ailing body, he staggered up the white jade steps.
Thousands knelt before him. Only Xie Luan stood tall, his phoenix eyes slightly raised, a cold, peculiar smile on his lips.
He remembered how, the previous night, Xie Luan had been pinned to the cold desk in the imperial study. His slender, pale legs had been forced high in the air, his sobs broken apart by each thrust, and the twelve strings of beads on his crown, which he had yet to remove, had swayed even more wildly than they did now.
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If you had asked Xie Luan how much he hated Xiao Mei ten years ago, he would have said he wanted to devour his flesh and marrow.
But ten years later, he would say that he was willing to give up the whole world to keep Xiao Mei locked by his side for all eternity, with iron chains, in a cage, and with a boundless tenderness and ardent love he had never shown before.
[Reader's Guide]
★ Initially innocent, later gloomy and beautiful powerful eunuch top x ruthless emperor bottom
★ Non-consensual love, both are forced
Theme: Love must be built on equality
