The black curtain of the night sky began to fade, gradually tinged with a hazy white as the hours passed.
Xie Mingyuan let out a long, low sigh. "The time is almost here."
He looked at the man before him, who appeared exactly as he had thirty years ago. His eyes held neither sorrow nor joy. The hatred buried deep in his heart had lasted far too long—so long that even now, with his great vengeance on the verge of completion, he could no longer feel the stirrings of grief or delight. The years he had spent living as a hollow, numb shell had made him like a walking corpse, unable to distinguish between dreams and reality. Even this moment felt possessed by a sense of dreamlike unreality.
He had finally achieved his revenge, and he could finally die.
Xie Changlin said, "Tianshu, you have lost to me."
Ye Zhao’s expression remained placid. "Yes, you won. In the end, I am no god. I have lost many times before; this is but one more defeat. What of it?"
The scene fell into a profound silence. No one dared to interject in the conversation between the two.
Xie Changlin seemed slightly surprised. "I thought you cared deeply about winning and losing. After all, you were once such a proud man, one who liked to keep everything within his grasp."
"That was in the past."
Even knowing the magnitude of the disaster about to strike, Ye Zhao seemed to have accepted his fate, appearing almost indifferent.
But this was not the reaction Xie Changlin wanted to see. His face gradually darkened. "You have changed a great deal compared to the past."
Ye Zhao smiled, offering no elaborate explanation, only a soft sentence: "Then you may consider me to have gone mad as well."
"Do you no longer care for those foolish commoners?" Xie Changlin asked.
"And what can I do?" Ye Zhao countered.
"They sing your praises, they worship you, they regard you as a god!" Xie Changlin’s tone inadvertently carried a hint of agitation.
"But I... am not a god, after all." The faint words drifted into everyone's ears on the wind.
Xie Changlin’s eyes began to redden. Only now did he truly look like a man consumed by a deep, bitter vendetta.
His expression turned fierce, and he snarled, "If you don't care now, then why did you stand forth back then? If not for you, how could my Xie family have been destroyed, its people scattered and dead!"
Regarding this matter, Ye Zhao had no defense to offer.
"Indeed. So, let the blame rest upon me."
Silence reigned on all sides. Some unconsciously held their breath.
"What are you doing? Admitting fault?!"
Xie Changlin’s eyes widened in disbelief, his sockets tight and stinging. Yet he continued to stare at Ye Zhao without blinking, his gaze chillingly cold. He squeezed a sentence out of his throat with great difficulty, emphasizing every word: "How ridiculous! Even you can feel that you were wrong?"
Ye Zhao understood Xie Changlin’s psychology to some extent. What meaning was there for a killer to admit his faults many years later?
It was nothing more than a useless hypocrisy.
Therefore, he was not apologizing or repenting to him; he simply owed the man a statement of fact.
"The greatest mistake of my life was craving life when I should have died. If not for that one decision back then, how could so many things have followed? I simply brought trouble upon myself."
Ye Zhao smiled, seemingly in self-mockery.
Then he continued, "It is well that everything ends. Xie Changlin, I am the one who owes you."
"Let me bear all the karmic debts and consequences alone. In truth, that is how it should have been."
Xie Changlin stared fixedly at Ye Zhao. The eyes of everyone present were also focused on him, yet he seemed to feel nothing at all, his demeanor as tranquil as a Buddhist monk, like a dying man who had cast aside all worldly concerns.
What was this...
What was this supposed to be!
Xie Changlin’s teeth chattered with hatred. He wanted even less for Ye Zhao to find peace. At this moment, he became even more certain of his previous plan.
He let out a low chuckle, which escalated into a loud, manic laugh.
"Tianshu, oh Tianshu, you say you don't care about the lives of the commoners? I don't believe you!"
Could a man who was once so devoted to his country and people that he was nearly a saint suddenly say one day that he didn't care about the world or the lives of others? Was that possible?!
He pulled a long cylinder from his sleeve and tossed it down the steps. The round cylinder rolled slowly until it stopped at Ye Zhao’s feet.
"Before dawn, use the firework as a signal. If the plan fails, my men outside the palace will ignite the gunpowder, and the entire city will cease to exist. But there is another way—make them believe I have succeeded. That way, you will still have a chance to save the people."
Xie Changlin spoke with apparent kindness, yet the weight in Ye Zhao’s heart did not lighten in the slightest, for he knew the man would not be so benevolent.
Sure enough, he continued, "However, if they live, you will never see Pei Shian again."
Ye Zhao’s gaze sharpened instantly. He pressed his lips thin, his piercing eyes stabbing toward Xie Changlin.
"It was you?! You were the one who took him!"
Wei Xiyang looked at Xie Changlin with a complex gaze full of suppressed emotion, then quickly looked away as if he could no longer bear the sight.
"It was I. Aside from Tianshu, he was the first person to suspect me. It was both surprising and yet not so surprising."
Wei Xiyang did not speak, nor did he look at him. He stood in place with clenched fists, his face a mask of internal struggle.
From the very beginning, Xie Mingyuan was not Xie Mingyuan. Everything about him was a lie.
Wei Xiyang looked up at that familiar face. "All these years, you were just playing a double game with us? Our friendship... was it all fake?"
Xie Changlin was silent for two seconds before saying, "Of course. I never forgot who I was. I am Xie Lang... And you, as Tianshu’s left and right hands, if we are to truly settle the score, are you not also accomplices in the destruction of my Xie family?"
Wei Xiyang closed his eyes, his aura collapsing. He seemed to age a dozen years in an instant. He murmured, "I thought... you wouldn't do this..."
If it was Xie Mingyuan who had acted, it explained why Pei Shian could vanish so cleanly overnight—because he would never have been on guard against him.
Xie Changlin looked away, turning back to Ye Zhao. "It is time to decide, Tianshu. You don't have much time left."
"Pei Shian is hidden in a place where no one can find him. He is safe for now, but his life is in your hands. Whether he lives or dies depends on your choice."
How will you choose, Tianshu?
Will you choose the man who has been devoted to you for so many years, or will you choose the common people of this capital?
A bizarre smile played on Xie Changlin’s face. Seeing Ye Zhao’s expression slowly grow heavy, his eyes filled with excitement.
"Why did you choose him to threaten me? I have no romantic feelings for him, and he has also let go of that past sentiment."
"The one you hate is me, and the one you want to kill is me. Why involve him in the end?"
"You were friends who associated for years. I have only had brief interactions with all of you."
Ye Zhao’s tone wasn't agitated, nor did it carry other emotions, but the more he spoke, the wider Xie Changlin’s smile became.
When Ye Zhao stopped speaking, Xie Changlin could no longer contain himself and burst into loud laughter. "Hahaha, ridiculous, truly ridiculous!"
He pointed a finger at Ye Zhao standing below the stone steps and laughed, "Since when did you start caring about the feelings of others? Hahahaha..."
Xie Changlin laughed wantonly. He had never felt as gratified as he did today.
After he finished laughing, he looked at the sky and calmed his breathing. "Dawn is coming. Since you don't care about the lives of those irrelevant people, then wait. Wait for the arrival of the next day."
He looked up toward the horizon as if wishing to witness it personally, focusing his attention, refusing to look away for even a second.
Ye Zhao looked at Xie Changlin, turned his stiff neck, and lowered his head. His gaze fell upon the bamboo tube on the ground.
After a long, long time, Wei Yang felt the person beside him move.
The black cylinder was gripped in his hand. Ye Zhao looked down at the object in his palm, saying nothing. His silence was terrifying, and no emotion could be discerned on his expressionless face.
...
The sky began to turn white. When the first ray of dawn appeared on the horizon, a brilliant firework suddenly exploded in the sky above the Imperial Palace of Wei.
In the capital, those who had just risen and stepped out of their doors looked at the exploding firework in the sky and remarked curiously, "Strange, who would set off fireworks so early in the morning?"
Inside the palace, Ye Zhao lowered his arm. The empty cylinder fell from his hand and rolled onto the ground. He looked at his empty left hand as if dazed, his face devoid of joy or sorrow, his eyes appearing more like he had fallen into a stupor.
Amidst Xie Changlin’s triumphant and manic laughter, Wei Xiyang clenched his fists. He glanced at Ye Zhao, then shifted his gaze to Xie Changlin, gritting his teeth as he snarled, "Xie! Chang! Lin!"
Only at this moment did he accept the fact that the person before him was no longer the Xie Mingyuan he had known in the past. How could he!
How could he!
"He regarded you as his closest friend! He regarded you as his closest friend!!"
"Xie Changlin!!!"
Wei Xiyang’s voice trembled. "You... how could you... how could you do such a thing!"
"Hahahaha..." Xie Changlin laughed, raising a hand to wipe the moisture from the corner of his eye. "What is there that I cannot do? I have killed my kin and my friends; I have destroyed thousands of my own clansmen!"
"What is there that I cannot do!!!"
The man who usually never showed even a hint of losing his composure now seemed completely possessed, his expression manic, his former calm and steady demeanor gone.
"Tell me! What else am I incapable of!"
"Wei Xiyang, you were merely lucky to escape tonight. Keeping you alive still serves a purpose for me, but Pei Shian—his existence would only hinder my plans."
"Thus, how could I allow him to remain in this world..."
As the cold words fell, Wei Xiyang’s legs went weak, and he nearly lost his footing. For a moment, he felt the person before him was terrifyingly foreign. Memories of the three of them together flooded back like a tide, but in those memories, Xie Mingyuan’s face underwent a cataclysmic change, becoming hideous, terrifying, and unrecognizable.
Seeing Wei Xiyang so devastated, Xie Changlin continued, "Furthermore, I am not the only one who abandoned him. You, all of you! And him!"
He pointed at everyone, then looked at Ye Zhao. "All of you share my guilt!"
"Tianshu, do you feel hatred now?"
Xie Changlin wore a morbid smile. He walked slowly down from the high platform. Ye Zhao slowly raised his head.
"How is it? Does the taste of hatred feel good?"
"Do you want to kill me?"
"But I will not give you the chance." Xie Changlin stood directly in front of Ye Zhao. As he spoke, before everyone's eyes, his seemingly thin and weak arm raised a dagger and swept it across his own throat.
Blood slowly seeped from the wound, gushing out more and more, like a fountain competing to erupt.
"Father!!!"
From the distance, someone cried out in grief.
Xie Yusong caught Xie Changlin’s falling body, appearing panicked and helpless, his voice failing him.
"Fa... Father..."
"Ch... Ch..." Xie Changlin looked at Xie Yusong before him, his mouth wide open, but the words he managed were: "If this debt is not repaid... how... could I leave an heir?"
Xie Yusong froze, stunned. Before he could react, the man in his arms mouthed something toward Ye Zhao, revealed an extremely eerie smile, and then fell silent.
"Father?"
Xie Yusong called out questioningly. He cautiously raised his hand, intending to close Xie Changlin’s eyes with their dilated pupils, but his outstretched hand paused in mid-air and began to tremble violently.
In the next moment, a mournful wail rang out, startling everyone present back to their senses from this sudden turn of events. "Father!"
Xie Changlin’s final words were like an eternal riddle; no one could ever be certain of Xie Yusong’s identity again.
Perhaps this was his final protection for Xie Yusong, or perhaps it was the last true word he left in this world.
Who could say for sure...
The Forbidden Army from outside the city poured in, and in less than fifteen minutes, they were spread throughout the capital, searching for the remnants of Xie Changlin’s faction.
Ye Zhao walked through the crowd and turned to walk out of the palace gates alone. Behind him were the dense ranks of Xie Changlin’s followers who had all fallen dead, as well as the Emperor of Wei and others who remained standing.
Watching Ye Zhao depart alone, Wei Yang called out softly, "Ye Zhao?"
"Ye Zhao?" he called again, but the figure ahead did not pause for even a moment.
Straining his voice, he finally shouted, "Lord Tianshu, where are you going?"
But there was still no response from the man ahead.
Pursing his lips, Wei Yang looked up at his Imperial Father. His gaze kept drifting toward the figure walking further away, his desire to follow and his hesitation to step forward clearly displayed.
"Go, Little Fourth. Accompany Lord Tianshu for a while on my behalf," the Emperor of Wei said softly. The people around them were all silent.
From the moment that firework blossomed in the sky, at the start of this new day, they had lost one of the two great pillars of the State of Wei. The old Prime Minister Pei and Duke Mingde had perished on the same day...
Wei Xiyang, a man who had not shed a tear in half a lifetime, now looked profoundly sorrowful. His eyes were red, yet he still gritted his teeth, refusing to let the tears fall.
Such was his stubborn and unyielding nature.
Wei Yang trotted to catch up, reaching out to grab Ye Zhao’s hand. But his hand was still too small to grasp the other’s entire palm, so he only held onto two of the man's fingers, gripping them tightly.
Ye Zhao felt his movement and only looked down at him once. Then, he continued walking forward, allowing Wei Yang to lead him by the fingers of his left hand.
"Where are you going?" Wei Yang asked, looking up as they walked.
Ye Zhao did not speak, only burying his head and walking forward in silence. His pace was neither fast nor slow. Wei Yang kept up with him, his heart full of murmurs, occasionally looking up to ask a question.
"Why aren't you talking?"
"Where are you going?"
"Should I call you Ye Zhao, or Lord Tianshu?"
...
The figures of the two grew more distant. A scene from thirty years ago suddenly flashed before the Emperor’s eyes. It seemed back then, there was also such a person who, after the court session, had led him like this, walking down the Dragon Steps one by one, passing through gate after gate, traversing the paths of this palace every day.
As the two figures disappeared, a very soft sigh fell. The Emperor looked back at the scene of devastation, and the softness and sorrow in his heart gradually receded.
"Guards! Escort the Crown Prince and Prince Rong to the Eastern Palace. They are not to leave for the rest of their lives without a pardon!"
The Crown Prince and Prince Rong were imprisoned together in the Eastern Palace, confined within the very halls they had fought so desperately to master.
As for Xie Yusong, the Emperor took no action against him. Regarding Xie Changlin’s death, the explanation given to the public outside the palace was: The Crown Prince and Prince Rong rebelled last night, and Duke Mingde unfortunately perished in the chaos.
This preserved his good reputation among the people and fulfilled his desire to no longer serve the imperial family.
After all, he was the one who had accompanied the Emperor as he grew to adulthood...
In the room where he was left alone, the Emperor stared into the void before him, lost in thought.
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 火药 | Gunpowder | Mentioned as a "new" invention by Xie Changlin in this context. |
| 谢琅 | Xie Lang | Xie Changlin's original name/identity within the Xie clan. |
| 荣王 | Prince Rong | One of the princes involved in the rebellion. |
| 东宫 | Eastern Palace | The residence of the Crown Prince, now used as a prison. |
| 明德公 | Duke Mingde | The posthumous/official title for Xie Mingyuan/Xie Changlin. |
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