Qi Junzhuo hadn't died—he had been rescued by the wandering Shen Nian.
Shen Nian went wherever there was war. He roamed freely, but his heart always ached for the common people.
At the time, Qi Junzhuo had been ready to die. His most trusted third brother had pushed him off a cliff—no matter how he turned it over in his mind, he couldn't make sense of it. If his third brother had feared him that much, then what did it matter if he died?
But after all those years together, Qi Junzhuo still couldn’t believe his third brother would really do something like that to him.
Shen Nian had also experienced the death of his own heart. He didn't know how to persuade someone to keep living.
In the end, Shen Nian said, "If you're going to die, at least die knowing the truth."
Qi Junzhuo took those words to heart. For years, the emperor had been making a great show of searching for the missing Qi Junzhuo. Everyone spoke of brotherly devotion—but Qi Junzhuo knew the emperor only wanted to find him and kill him.
By comparison, Shen Nian drew far less attention.
He had disguised himself when he returned to the capital, and Shen Nian smuggled Qi Junzhuo in. After all, several years had passed. To the outside world, he was more likely dead than alive.
When Qi Junzhuo returned, he circled his own mansion. One look told him that people were watching it—members of the Lin family, and people from the palace.
Before long, Qi Junzhuo received a letter, asking to meet with him and Shen Nian.
The handwriting in the letter was delicate, clearly a woman's.
After discussing it with Shen Nian, Qi Junzhuo decided to attend the meeting, with Shen Nian hiding in the shadows.
The meeting place was outside a temple. There, Qi Junzhuo met an unexpected person—Yue shi, Lin Xiao's wife. From Yue shi's lips, Qi Junzhuo learned the whole truth.
Lin Xiao and Lin En had schemed together, and with the Empress Dowager's backing, Lin En's throne had been secured.
But they had overlooked Yue shi. Her one wish had been for Fuhua to marry into the Lin family and call her "mother." Instead, Lin En became emperor, while the real Lin En of the Lin family died of illness.
Lin En had been around Fuhua often enough that some small habits were hard to hide. For fear that Fuhua might discover something, Lin En even wanted to have her killed. In the end, he thought of Yue shi. With the Empress Dowager's disapproval, he had the palace servants forcibly send Fuhua to a temple, on the pretext that she was "overcome with grief." There she would spend the rest of her days, with only the Buddha's lamp for company.
When Yue shi learned of this, she nearly went mad. Lin Xiao was the one who talked her down.
Lin Xiao said, "At least in the temple she can stay alive. You can visit her when you go to offer incense. If you make a scene, Fuhua will only end up dead. Besides, in a couple of years, the Empress Dowager will find some reason to bring her out of the temple."
There was always something to hope for.
Yue shi had visited Fuhua in the temple. There she was—still young and beautiful, but completely unaware of the truth, living out her days like a heart already turned to ash.
When Yue shi returned from the temple, she went to the palace to see the Empress Dowager and thanked her for sparing Fuhua's life. At that moment, her heart was bleeding.
Yue shi kept her composure. She knew Lin Xiao better than anyone.
In front of Lin Xiao, she acted as though for Fuhua's sake she could swallow every humiliation—even enduring the later appearance of Lin Jiu.
She watched everything Lin Xiao did.
Lin Xiao had people watching Qi Junzhuo's mansion—and so did she. She couldn't touch Lin En, couldn't touch Lin Xiao, couldn't touch the Empress Dowager. But she thought that somewhere in this world, there must be someone who could avenge the true emperor who had been replaced.
On this matter, she worked harder than Lin Xiao. She had no other hope left—only this faint, elusive thread to cling to.
And in the end, that elusive hope arrived.
When Qi Junzhuo learned that Qi Junmu was dead and that the man sitting on the throne was actually Lin En, he nearly went mad with rage.
Yue shi said she had no solid proof—only that she knew Qi Junmu had a mole on his shoulder, and the current emperor did not. If Qi Junzhuo could find a chance to see the emperor in person, he could verify it himself.
Qi Junzhuo naturally knew that Qi Junmu had a mole on his shoulder. He had to investigate Yue shi's claim.
But there were too many people in the capital who knew his face—he couldn't risk it.
In the end, Shen Nian stepped forward. He appeared in the capital and then left again, a very brief visit. Perhaps some people remembered him, but few in the palace did.
Shen Nian slipped into the imperial palace without trouble, saw the emperor, and stole a glimpse—there was no mole on the emperor's shoulder.
Once confirmed, he and Qi Junzhuo fled the capital as fast as they could.
At the time, Qi Junzhuo had looked back at the capital and said, "One day, I will return."
Lin En was not a good emperor. The Lin family stood for the wealthy nobles and powerful clans, and they bled the people dry with heavy taxes. With disasters striking across the land, several princes took advantage of the chaos to plunder. The common people suffered the most. Many had no choice but to sell their children just to put food on the table.
The emperor valued civil officials over military ones and paid little heed to border affairs. Lin Xiao, ever afraid that border generals might grow too powerful, constantly found ways to suppress them.
That winter, the North Frontier lacked winter clothing, and many soldiers died not in battle, but from the cold.
That was when Qi Junzhuo and Shen Nian decided to rebel.
The war lasted five years, and many lives were lost. In the end, Qi Junzhuo and Shen Nian led the North Frontier Army into the capital.
Lin En burned himself to death. Before he died, he had Wen Wan executed so that the two of them would die together.
The Empress Dowager, however, survived—she tried to bargain for her life with Wen Wan's child. Qi Junzhuo forced her to reveal where Qi Junmu's remains were buried, and then he had them all killed.
Qi Junmu's bones had been buried in a desolate corner of the cold palace. When Qi Junzhuo dug them up, he fell to his knees and wept bitterly.
Shen Nian looked at the white bones and thought only that Qi Junmu had been a pitiful emperor, pitiful to the very end.
While Qi Junzhuo was cleaning up the mess in the palace, Shen Nian quietly slipped out of the capital. Before leaving, he visited the imperial tombs, paid his respects to Emperor Jing and Qi Junmu, and then to his own father—and after that, he was never seen again.
In Wen Wan's dream, that was how it all happened.
She felt the dream was too real. She still remembered the pain and cramping that wracked her whole body when she was forced to drink the poisoned wine. But when she woke, none of it had happened. She and Lin En had never done anything—they were completely innocent of each other.
She thought that Qi Junmu had once held her in his palms like a treasure, and now loathed her—perhaps because he had learned of her past with Lin En.
Wen Wan thought of Lin En now as someone from a very long time ago, so distant.
In the dream, for Lin En's sake, she had ruined Qi Junmu's entire life—and her own as well.
Now she wanted to make amends to Qi Junmu, but she had no way to reach him. Now that she finally stood before him, her heart felt as though it were being crushed in a fist—the pain was unbearable.
She bent over, weeping, while the man who once would have frowned at the slightest furrow of her brow now stood there, looking at her coldly.
Wen Wan looked at Qi Junmu through her tears. She thought of that dream and wanted to tell him everything—but in the end, her lips moved, and no words came.
Qi Junmu gazed calmly at Wen Wan, watching the struggle, regret, and helplessness in her eyes—and felt nothing at all.
He had come only because recently, the people he'd set to watch Wen Wan reported that she'd gone mad, sometimes muttering strange things in her nightmares. He'd come to see what it was about—but now that he was actually here, he suddenly felt it wasn't worth it.
Whether Wen Wan was mad or not—what did it have to do with him?
The one he held in his heart and spoke on his lips was Shen Nian—no one else.
At the thought of Shen Nian, the corners of Qi Junmu's mouth softened slightly. He turned and walked away.
Behind him, Wen Wan's voice came, hoarse and broken: "I regret it." Her words were heavy with sorrow, tangled with pain, pleading, and grief.
Qi Junmu said, "That has nothing to do with me. I have someone I love now, and I'm doing very well."
With that, he walked out of the cold palace without looking back — and never returned.
That night, Wen Wan killed herself in the cold palace.
When Qi Junmu heard the news, his expression was perfectly calm. He reached out and ruffled Shen Nian's slightly tousled hair.
Shen Nian mumbled something to Qi Junmu, and Qi Junmu just smiled back at him. The two of them ended up playfully scuffling.
And so life went on, quiet and steady, with a simple happiness held right in their hands.
Qi Junmu was more than content with this life. He felt that being able to be with Shen Nian in this second life was fate, plain and simple.
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