I became the tyrant's only belief.

Chapter 501 The Morally Depraved Emperor

Startled by the inner voice, Xiao Jingfan dropped the memorial and hurried to the side hall, where he saw Chu Liuzheng clinging to the wall, still in shock, as if he could walk through the wall at any moment.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he pulled the person into his arms, and when he pulled Chu Liuzheng's hand, he found that both hands were ice cold.

"A head." Chu Liuzheng gripped his clothes tightly and pointed towards the table with one hand. "The head of Pingxuan, sent by City Lord Jiang."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jingfan was somewhat surprised.

Although he hadn't read Chu Liuzheng's letter to Jiang Yao, Chu Liuzheng's inner thoughts had already revealed most of its contents, so he knew that Jiang Yao had gone to Xixia to find Pingxuan. What surprised him was that Jiang Yao would actually kill someone and send the head over.

He settled the person in his arms on the long couch, ordered someone to bring a cup of sweet water, and then went to the table to look at the contents of the square box.

Zhou Yuande opened the lid, and a beautiful head with its eyes open immediately appeared in front of the two of them. It was indeed Pingxuan.

Raising an eyebrow, Xiao Jingfan called Chen Xing over and asked her to examine the human head in the box.

Seeing the three people in the hall so calm, Chu Liuzheng almost thought that putting a human head in a box and sending it away was perfectly normal. She took a couple of sips of water to calm herself down, the image of the human head kept flashing before her eyes, especially the open eyes, which sent chills down her spine.

She quickly took out the letter from her sleeve to read, trying to distract herself.

[Damn it, the letter had warned me the box contained human heads! Why didn't I read the letter first?]

[Oh~ the long box contains the forged will created by Yin Lanci, which was found by Young Master Cang.]

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jingfan glanced at the long box, bent down, picked it up, and opened it.

A golden scroll lay quietly in the box, its silk gleaming with a lustrous sheen, clearly well-preserved.

Seeing this, Chu Liuzheng mustered his courage and leaned closer, "Can I see?"

She tried hard to keep her eyes off the object of her eye so as not to make eye contact with the beautiful head that Chen Xing was holding.

Xiao Jingfan stepped aside to block her view, holding the box in one hand and pulling her back with the other, until they sat on the couch. He took out the imperial edict from the box and unfolded it.

Chu Liuzheng immediately leaned over and rested her head on his arm to look at him.

[It's exactly as written in the system; it really is a will.]

“It looks just like my father’s handwriting.” Staring at the words on the will, Xiao Jingfan’s eyes flickered, and his voice was filled with nostalgia. “The first word I wrote was taught to me by my father.”

[The tyrant is missing his father. Come to think of it, after all these years in the palace, I still don't know what Emperor Rende looks like.]

Hearing her thoughts, Xiao Jingfan glanced at her and said, "I'll take you somewhere."

Chu Liuzheng asked in confusion, "Where are we going?"

*
The door opened, and sunlight streamed in at an angle, causing dust motes to dance in the light.

Chu Liuzheng followed the emperor into the room, looked around, and sighed inwardly.

So this little study in the Hall of Mental Cultivation is filled with things left behind by the late emperor. They don't seem as valuable as the things in the tyrant's private treasury.

Chu Liuzheng wandered around the small study with his hands behind his back.

"Come here." Xiao Jingfan stood in front of a large mahogany box and beckoned to her.

A thin layer of dust had accumulated on the lid of the box, and as it was opened, the dust flew up and was somewhat choking. Chu Liuzheng covered his mouth and nose, waved his hand in front of his eyes, and watched as the emperor bent down and took a scroll of painting out of the box.

Xiao Jingfan pulled her to the desk and unfurled the scroll. The two figures in the painting, one large and one small, slowly came into view.

"This was painted by an artist when I was six years old, when my father and I were playing chess in the Imperial Garden." Xiao Jingfan gently stroked the face of the person in the painting with his slender fingers, a faint smile in his eyes, as if the scene was right before his eyes.

[As expected, naturally beautiful girls are never ugly as children. The tyrant was so cute as a child, with chubby cheeks, much more endearing than he is now.]

[So this is what the late emperor looked like? His features resemble the tyrant's, and he was quite handsome... Wait, why does this face look so familiar?]

Staring at the face of the person in the painting, Chu Liuzheng frowned in thought. Suddenly, a large face popped into his mind.

[Holy crap! Isn't that the ghost from my dream? It suddenly popped out of the colorful light, blood dripping from its mouth. It scared me so much I didn't dare dream for days.] Xiao Jingfan: ???

This woman has never met her father, the emperor, so why would she dream about him?
To confirm, Chu Liuzheng offered to look at the other portraits.

The two took the scrolls out of the box and laid them out one by one.

Sometimes the painting depicts one person, sometimes two, and sometimes more than one. Chu Liuzheng saw Prince Rui, Prince Xiao, Prince Cheng, and Prince Li from his childhood in the painting.

The late emperor treated all his sons fairly; he even painted portraits of them all.

She tilted her head and looked at each painting one by one, becoming more and more certain that the people in the paintings were the same people she had seen in her dream.

[Strange, I've never even met the late emperor, why would I dream about him?]

*
Perhaps it was because he had been thinking about it during the day that he dreamed about it at night. That night, Chu Liuzheng slept very soundly, his consciousness gradually sinking down until it finally merged into a light.

The familiar main hall, the familiar flowing light, the familiar... no, the somewhat familiar big face.

Chu Liuzheng stared blankly as the large face strained with all its might to try and escape the vortex of light, panting heavily but making no progress whatsoever.

She couldn't help but ask, "Um... do you need any help?"

"No need," Big Face replied firmly, continuing his efforts. With a "pop," Big Face successfully pulled himself out.

[Holy crap! A sphinx?!]

Chu Liuzheng was so shocked that his eyes widened and he took several steps back, his eyes following the tail as it swayed back and forth.

Big Face seemed a little embarrassed, hid his tail behind him, and coughed twice, "Points are limited, this skin is on sale, you'll have to make do."

Chu Liuzheng: "..."

[Points? Skins? Is this some kind of dress-up game? Is this guy really Emperor Rende?]

"I've been waiting for so long, and you've finally come in. Why did you run away as soon as you saw me last time?" Big Face complained, raising his paw to point at himself. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Xiao Qi's dad, and also your father-in-law."

Chu Liuzheng: "..."

[Frog Fun! This guy is a real scoundrel!]

[How did the shameless emperor turn into a sphinx? And he even appeared in my dream?!]

[A dream? Right, this is my dream, so this person is just my imagination?]

Oh my god, I actually imagined the tyrant as a sphinx! If the tyrant knew, he'd bite me!

"Ahem." Emperor Rende cleared his throat. "I can hear what you're thinking. I'm not something you imagined. What you see now is my soul, or you could say my spirit."

Chu Liuzheng: ?

Chu Liuzheng: !!!

Can you hear my heart?

"Yes, I heard it perfectly." Emperor Rende nodded, his squatting posture resembling that of a laborer dressed as a lion mascot. "I don't have much time, so please listen to me first."

"Okay." Chu Liuzheng, who was slightly shocked, felt that he needed to calm down.

She sat cross-legged, trying to accept that Emperor Rende had transformed into a sphinx and could hear her own thoughts, while listening to the sphinx opposite her speak.

Emperor Rende said, "The system you are bound to comes from me."

"What?" Chu Liuzheng's eyes widened. "You're the bastard who struck me with lightning?"

(End of this chapter)