#A toxic story about a once-proud child of heaven ground into the dirt, and three madmen tangled up with each other over and over.
*
From a prince as radiant as the moon to an emperor adored by his people, Lu Wangting had been the center of everyone's attention for twenty-three years.
He could have ruled with diligence and left his name in the history books.
But during a campaign he led in person, he was ambushed, shot in the back, and fell into a coma.
When he woke, everything had changed.
The Emperor Wende of Great Zhou, aged twenty-three, was dead.
At the side of Qi Min, emperor of Great Qi, who had recently been locked in a bitter struggle with Great Zhou, there was now a prisoner.
Sometimes Lu Wangting was Qi Min's attendant, sometimes his favored concubine, and sometimes he was treated worse than the lowliest slave.
Qi Min told him that Great Zhou would not last much longer. If Lu Wangting did not obey, Great Qi's cavalry would surely crush its way into the capital and chop his younger brother, who had only just been put on the throne, into minced meat.
For his younger brother's sake, Lu Wangting forced himself to endure and placate Qi Min.
Until Lu Xiuning personally led an envoy to Eastern Qi to negotiate.
Behind a screen, Qi Min kept Lu Wangting pinned to the imperial throne.
Gripping his face, Qi Min made him hear for himself how the younger brother he had protected and cherished for over twenty years slandered him.
Lu Xiuning said with cool indifference that Lu Wangting was unworthy of being his elder brother, and deserved to die.
*
That night, Qi Min's madness grew worse. He gripped Lu Wangting by the throat and asked him question after strange question.
Lu Wangting could only say he did not know, and Qi Min kissed him even more frantically.
Only Qi Min knew how much panic those chaotic kisses held.
How could his moon have forgotten him?
*
Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the entire palace celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival. No one remembered the birthday of the prince whose maternal uncle had rebelled.
Only Lu Wangting would take Lu Xiuning's hand and stay by his side until midnight, year after year.
When they were sixteen, the two slipped out of the palace to float lanterns on the river and make wishes.
Lu Xiuning badly wanted to know what Lu Wangting had wished for.
Sure enough, his virtuous and selfless elder brother, the Crown Prince, had wished only for peace throughout the land and safety for their country.
Lu Xiuning knocked Lu Wangting's lantern over.
Why couldn't Lu Wangting think only of him?
He carefully plotted an assassination attempt. He only wanted to hide his elder brother away.
But his brother was lost.
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1. Everyone is pure.
2. This is toxic, toxic, toxic. Both love interests are completely unhinged and love the protagonist to an extreme degree.
3. Written purely for my own enjoyment. No writing advice needed.
Theme: Perseverance through adversity.
