Since that day, I have never been to his residence again.
Until his father suspected him of murdering his brother, but there was no evidence to prove his innocence, he was exiled to the frontier.
Not long after, I heard that my beloved disciple, Emperor Zhu Xiaoba, was also seriously ill. On that day, I had a rare moment of leisure and went to a teahouse near the palace with Ranmo to enjoy the tea.
With my keen hearing, I heard my beloved disciple Zhu Xiaoba, on his deathbed, weakly calling my name—Master Ahua—from inside the high walls and deep palace.
Ranmo, however, began to advise me: "After all, he is a child you raised. You should go and see him off."
"I won't go!" You banished me from the palace back then, how could you expect anything good from calling me now?
I coldly refused, then calmly picked up a cup of tea and leisurely sipped it.
Perhaps it was because of the Dragon Emperor, but his voice calling me was especially clear in my ears, which ruined my good mood for drinking tea.
I slammed the teacup down on the table with a loud "bang!": "Are you trying to summon a ghost?"
In the end, I found a secluded spot outside the palace walls and leaped over them into the palace.
They sneaked into Zhu Xiaoba's palace.
When he saw that it was me, Zhu Xiaoba, who had been a valiant soldier all his life, was now lying on the bed looking like a sickly old man, but he called out to me in a pitiful voice like a child: "Master Ahua, I knew you would come."
I walked up to his bedside and said irritably, "You really are the emperor. You were the one who said you would take care of me in my old age and see me off when I died, but you were also the one who turned your back on me and banished me from the palace. What are you calling me for now?"
It was only after inquiring that it was learned that all the princes in their respective fiefdoms, especially Prince Yan Zhu Silang, rushed back to the capital with urgent mail upon hearing the news of his father's serious illness, just to see his father one last time.
Zhu Xiaoba's insecure grandson, fearing that he might change his mind and pass the throne to the Prince of Yan during his serious illness, falsely claimed that Zhu Xiaoba had decreed that after his illness and death, none of the princes and princes in the country were allowed to return to the capital to visit him, and those who disobeyed would be severely punished.
All the vassal kings who came to see their fathers could only stay outside the city, unable to stay by their bedside to fulfill their filial duties.
People say that the imperial family is the most ruthless. Even the most powerful emperor, second only to the emperor, would not want his child to be by his bedside when he is seriously ill and on his deathbed.
He said he regretted that he shouldn't have passed on the hard-won empire to his narrow-minded, short-sighted, and ungrateful grandson because of his momentary emotions.
"So... what brings you here?" I asked directly.
“I know that Master Ahua has a way to move freely in and out of the palace, so he must have a way to bring Prince Yan to me. I want to see him one more time.”
Ha, I twitched my lips. I knew he wasn't looking for anything good.
But this was the first time I saw his once sharp, eagle-like eyes now looking at me with pleading eyes.
What happened on Zhu Silang's wedding night is still fresh in my memory and has left me with a lot of psychological trauma.
To this day, I still can't face Zhu Silang with Zhou Lang's face.
But I'm already here, and I'm about to die.
I can only put aside my personal grudges for the time being.
However, when I delivered the message to Zhu Silang, he stood outside the palace walls and hesitated to enter the palace to pay his respects.
Meanwhile, Zhu Xiaoba kept muttering about Zhu Silang: "Has the Prince of Yan arrived yet...?"
"Has the Prince of Yan arrived yet...?"
I've been talking about it for so long...
Enraged, I, along with Ranmo, without thinking twice, drugged Zhu Silang and tied him up to Zhu Xiaoba's bedside.
However, Zhu Xiaoba unexpectedly drafted an imperial edict to pass the throne to Zhu Silang.
Zhu Silang, however, was still angry with his father, the emperor, who had ordered Ake's death and falsely accused him of murdering his elder brother, exiling him to the frontier.
After Zhu Silang woke up, he threw the imperial edict of succession into the stove next to him and burned it to ashes right in front of Zhu Xiaoba.
He stubbornly refused, saying, "From beginning to end, I have never thought of ascending the throne. I only want to be a free and unfettered prince exiled to the frontier. Since Father has already passed the throne to his nephew Xiaowen, please do not change your mind."
In the end, Zhu Xiaoba was rejected by Zhu Silang and died of grief...
Zhu Silang hated me even more for taking it upon himself to tie him up and take him to the palace.
He nearly killed me on the spot with his longsword.
But in the critical moment, he was still blocked by Ranmo, and was forced back to his own fiefdom by fear and intimidation.
However, Zhu Silang's generous abdication brought him an even greater calamity.
After Zhu Xiaoba's death, the first thing the Crown Prince did after ascending the throne was to abolish the fiefdoms of the princes in the various regions.
Furthermore, Zhu Silang's beloved elder brothers were either imprisoned or stripped of their princely titles by his good nephew on trumped-up charges and exiled to the frontier.
He watched helplessly as his once close brother was suppressed one by one by his weak and indecisive nephew, a fate that transcended the boundaries between humans and ghosts.
Ultimately, Zhu Silang was forced to overthrow his nephew, who disregarded familial ties, from the throne.
He ascended to the position of emperor, which he hated most—second only to the emperor.
After he ascended the throne, he vented all his anger on me.
They ordered me to be arrested and suppressed throughout the country.
It leaves me with nowhere to go.
They chased me so much that I had to flee from place to place.
They don't even have the chance to have a full meal.
I'd rather go hungry than eat properly, let alone drink alcohol; that's a luxury I can only dream of.
This truly proves Wen Heng's words: there is no place for me within the Six Realms.
However, this continued for several decades, because these officers and soldiers never had the chance to capture me.
Over time, those official duties became something to be done perfunctorily.
Occasionally, I would shamelessly disturb his peace, just to catch a glimpse of his face.
But I have never left the capital city where Zhu Silang is located.
But later, in order to avoid my harassment, this kid actually went through a huge project to move the palace to the north.
He fled, I chased.
Nobody will have an easy time.
In the end, to avoid me, this kid abandoned the perfectly good palace and, whenever a war broke out in a neighboring country on the border, he actually led a group of soldiers to fight it himself.
Ranmo and I followed his troops like ghosts.
Even when he was old and his beauty had faded, he still insisted on personally leading troops into battle on the frontier.
His method was indeed very effective; he spent his days mingling with that horde of soldiers.
It took me ages to find his location.
Day after day, year after year.
It wasn't until he was so old that he could barely walk that he decided to withdraw his troops and return to the capital...
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