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Mu Jue lived in a desolate, remote palace for over a decade. In the eyes of his father, the Emperor, he was a “bastard” who defiled the royal bloodline; to his brothers, he was merely a toy for their cruel amusement.
Guarding his mentally unstable mother, his only wish was to reach his coming-of-age ceremony, leave the palace, and settle in his own fiefdom.
No one understood why Lu Shiting, the all-powerful Director of the Eastern Depot who dominated the imperial court suddenly began to protect him. The other princes were both envious and contemptuous: “The Director must have taken a liking to that face of his.”
Suddenly, Mu Jue had warm clothes and exquisite food. Even the palace servants treated him with newfound respect.
Only Mu Jue knew the truth. When Lu Shiting held him, his thumb slowly grazing over Mu Jue’s earlobes and the corners of his mouth, the Director’s eyes remained cold as ice. Lu Shiting hadn’t “taken a liking” to anything; he merely left Mu Jue in a state of unbearable, shameful agitation.
It wasn’t until enemy hooves thundered at the border and Mu Jue, gravely ill, was sent to the Northern frontiers as a hostage that he realized the truth: this was a path to death Lu Shiting had orchestrated for him long ago.
He died in the spring, having endured every torment, his body withered to a skeleton.
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Rebirth
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in that cold, secluded palace at the age of fourteen.
Everyone whispered that the Sixth Prince had only gained power by selling himself to a powerful eunuch. During a tour of the Jiangnan region, Mu Jue stepped on Director Lu’s back to board the carriage. In front of the crowd, he gave a low-voiced command:
“Lu Shiting, get in the carriage and serve me.”
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The Aftermath
Later, the Emperor discovered that the secrets of Mu Jue’s birth were not what they seemed. Stricken with guilt, he sought to make amends. Mu Jue watched coldly as the Emperor, in his obsession with immortality, suffered a stroke from alchemical pills and lay pathetic and ruined upon the Dragon Throne.
The brothers who had bullied him in his past life became hostages themselves, living in agony in enemy lands.
Mu Jue donned the bright yellow imperial robes and turned to face the man embracing him from behind. The man whose phoenix eyes were now swirling with dark, intense emotions.
“Director Lu, what is the penalty for breaking into the Emperor’s bedchamber at night?”
