Unhinged power struggles × forbidden redemption
[One-line premise]
"He gave him the name Zhaoheng: a shackle, and a salvation."
The patient, ambitious Ninth Prince × the gentle-looking, unhinged general (a young man from the fake southern frontier)
[Story summary]
"The capital is a city that devours people, but the moon over the southern frontier... may not be pure either."
Chu Yizhao crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, taking on a new face and identity.
He became a foreign young general from the southern frontier, his body covered in jingling silver bells, his features as gentle as a Central Plains scholar's.
No one knew that the bells housed venomous insects, or that he hid a blade in his sleeve.
Li Chengyi is the current Ninth Prince, restrained and patient, with ambition hidden beneath the surface.
In the southern frontier, he met a young man who seemed unlike anyone from that region. The youth smiled like the bright moon, yet filled him with an inexplicable unease.
He bestowed two characters upon him: "Zhaoheng."
Zhao means truth.
Heng means shackle.
Only later did he understand that those two characters were a prophecy written by fate long ago.
"My senior brother says I'm crazy... So who do you think I learned it from?"
Chu Yizhao's fingertip brushed Li Chengyi's Adam's apple. With a soft laugh, the silver bell's venomous insects slipped silently into the other's bloodstream.
"If I hadn't been ruthless, I would've died at Peach Blossom Mountain."
"If I'd been loyal and righteous, I would've died in the southern frontier."
And yet, one of them found compassion, while the other gave in to delusion.
Power is hard to let go of, and love is hard to refuse.
Fictional dynasty, fictional setting, fictional characters, and original characterizations. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.
No requests to change the plot will be accepted.
A little sweet, a little angsty.
Theme: In the arena of power, some see through the illusion, some scheme so much that they bring about their own ruin, and some make it to the end and win everything, only to be left with nothing
