Ye Jinghe will never forget the scene when he was four years old, in a side hall of Changchun Palace, where a person walked towards him in the light.

At that moment, he found redemption in his life.

He kept calling that person "brother" because he didn't know what the brother's real name was.

He never asked because the secret concerned his brother's life and death, and he didn't want to put his brother in any danger just to satisfy his own curiosity.

When they first met in the Imperial Garden, he keenly sensed that his brother was different from the Ye Jingchen who used to bully him.

The person used to look at him with a haughty gaze, as if he were a stinking rat in a sewer.

But his brother's eyes were filled with pity and heartache when he looked at him. When he spoke to him, there was not a trace of disgust in his tone. Instead, it was as gentle as the tone that he had heard that woman (Consort Shu) used to coax her precious son.

However, he couldn't be sure at the time because that person was standing right there. He couldn't be sure if Ye Jingchen had really changed or if he was just putting on an act for that person.

People in the palace all have two faces, and although he is only four years old, he has seen them too many times.

He didn't take the little incident in the Imperial Garden to heart, nor did he take the deaths of the two palace maids to heart.

He was always hungry and cold, and was often used as a punching bag by those bullies who preyed on the weak. How could he have the time to care about other people's lives?

However, the woman soon found out about what happened in the Imperial Garden. She called him over and reprimanded him, asking why he had gone to the Imperial Garden to disturb the Emperor, and whether he had done it on purpose.

He ignored her scolding, only thinking that after he finished being scolded, he would go to the room of the two palace maids who had been beaten to death to see if he could find anything to eat or use. However, he was stimulated by the fragrance on the woman's body and went crazy on the spot, losing consciousness.

When he regained consciousness, he had already been ordered by that woman to be locked up in a side hall.

Since the birth of that woman's son, she has never cared about him, letting him be bullied by the palace servants in Changchun Palace. Now that he is imprisoned, naturally no one cares about his life or death.

This time, he doesn't know how long he will be locked up, or whether they will remember to bring him some food. He only ate some flower petals in the Imperial Garden, and he is still hungry.

Fortunately, someone brought him a bowl of leftover rice that night, cursing and swearing, probably because he was frightened by the deaths of the two palace maids during the day.

With that bowl of leftover rice, he wouldn't have to wake up hungry in the middle of the night. And now that he was being locked up on that woman's orders, no palace servants would bully him, so he could finally get a good night's sleep.

In the morning, he was awakened by the noise outside the door. He got out of bed and peered through the crack in the door, only to see Ye Jingchen again.

He brought a large group of people, looking menacing, as if they were there to cause trouble.

He was engrossed in reading when the door was suddenly pushed open. If he hadn't reacted quickly, he would have been hit by the door.

The door opened, and the light shone on his face, so bright it was blinding.

He covered his eyes in discomfort, and through the slits, he saw someone walk in through the light from outside the door and reach out to hug him.

His embrace was warm, and the tone of his voice was gentle.

The emperor wasn't there, so there was no possibility of continuing the charade. The moment Ye Jinghe was embraced by this person, he began to feel that he wasn't the same Ye Jingchen he used to be.

So when this person wanted to take him back to the Eastern Palace, he behaved very obediently.

On his way to the East Palace, he tested this person once more.

He deliberately made this person carry him while walking, and wouldn't let other palace servants carry him. Faced with his unreasonable demands, this person actually indulged him. Even though he was exhausted and panting, he insisted on carrying him back to the East Palace.

He became increasingly certain that this person was not Ye Jingchen.

After arriving at the East Palace, he continued to test him several times. Even when he deliberately acted crazy and bit him, the man did not get angry. Instead, he comforted him first.

His suspicions were finally confirmed.

At the time, he didn't know that the hardships of his life had completely ended from that day onward.

From the moment he arrived at the Eastern Palace, every day with his brother around, he lived in a paradise.

His brother took care of him personally, feeding him, bathing him, singing to him to sleep, and teaching him to speak. He compared the two and realized that his brother treated him better than the woman he had secretly met (Consort Shu) treated her precious son.

The elder brother found a royal physician to treat him, caught the person who poisoned him as quickly as possible, and finally found out the mastermind behind it all.

Ironically, the poison was administered to him by the very woman who gave birth to him, solely to cripple him, gain custody of him, and then use his status as a prince to live a comfortable life.

In the end, this woman was sent to the cold palace.

Perhaps it was because he had the same blood as that woman flowing in his veins. He was very resilient as a child, and so was that woman; she was able to survive even in a place like the Cold Palace.

After her brother went to the northern frontier, the woman sent him a message through someone, luring him to the Cold Palace, where she staged a scene of deep mother-son affection, deceiving him into believing that she had been rescued from the Cold Palace.

She blamed everything on her brother, saying that he deliberately framed her and sowed discord between her and her son in order to completely control her as a prince.

If he hadn't clearly remembered what happened when he was a child, he might have actually been suspicious because of the woman's tearful appearance.

He thought, "Isn't it good to live a life of quiet desperation in the cold palace? Why do they have to come here and jump around in front of me, courting death?"

Is wealth and status really that important?

He was actually quite curious about how that woman managed to survive in the cold palace for so long, so he looked into it.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that the elder brother had instructed the palace servants guarding the Cold Palace not to mistreat the woman, which allowed her to survive for so many years.

He understood his brother's good intentions. His brother had given that woman a chance out of consideration for him, but she showed no gratitude whatsoever, so he felt she didn't deserve to live.

Not long after, several palace servants imprisoned in the Cold Palace suddenly went mad and beat one of them to death.

It's perfectly normal for someone to die in the cold palace; it wouldn't cause any stir.

Since his brother had let him make the choice, he certainly wouldn't leave anyone who was hostile to his brother alive, even if that person was the one who gave birth to him.

He made this decision without the slightest hesitation.

Because although this woman gave birth to him, she only schemed against and used him, and never showed him any sincerity from beginning to end.

Perhaps there was a hint of it in places he didn't know about, or at times he didn't know, but he never experienced it.

He was neglected by his father and mother from a young age, but he was never lacking in love because his brother's love made up for all his deficiencies.

No one could compare to his brother's importance in his heart; his so-called mother was not even worth a single hair on his brother's head.