Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

The studio's cold blue lights suddenly shifted to an oppressively stark white. In the center of the whiteboard, Zhu Dijun, with a blood-red marker, wrote three large characters: "[Xu Shen is dead]!"

"Family members! In the last chapter, we shifted our focus to the border regions and the Jiangnan region. Now, let's turn our attention back to that terrifying night in the Forbidden City in the twenty-first year of the Jiajing Emperor's reign!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed his pointer and slammed it heavily onto the screen. "We talked about the Renyin Palace Coup earlier. The palace maid Yang Jinying strangled Jiajing with a silk rope until he was a purple eggplant! When Empress Fang led people in to untie the rope, Jiajing was already dead! His pulse was so weak it was almost undetectable, his eyes were rolling back, and he had one foot in the grave!"

A portrait of a royal physician covered in sweat was displayed on the public screen.

"The entire Imperial Physician's entourage was urgently summoned to the palace, kneeling before Jiajing's bedside, all trembling with fear! Who dared to prescribe medicine?! This is the Emperor! If he dies after you take the medicine, that's a capital offense punishable by the extermination of nine generations of his family! All the physicians were adopting a 'better to sacrifice my friend than myself' mentality, and just pretended to be dead!"

Zhu Dijun's fingers flew across the keyboard, and a yellowed, old prescription suddenly filled the entire large screen.

"Just when these quack doctors were at their wits' end and everyone was on edge, Xu Shen, then the head of the Imperial Medical Academy, stepped forward!"

Judy Jun turned around abruptly, his voice booming like thunder.

"He knew full well that this was an ultimate gamble, risking his life and the heads of his entire family! He gritted his teeth and prescribed a formula that was considered extremely potent and dangerous at the time! Rhubarb, peach kernel, safflower! All were extremely powerful blood-activating and stasis-removing herbs!"

An extremely tense timeline unfolds at the bottom of the screen.

"Chen Shi! That is, between seven and nine in the morning! Xu Shen personally pried open Jiajing's mouth and forcibly poured this potent medicine down his throat!"

"What followed was an extremely silent wait of more than six hours!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly against the podium, getting close to the camera.

"From Chenshi (7-9 AM) until Weishi (1-3 PM)! Just when everyone thought Jiajing was doomed, the Ming emperor on his bed let out a muffled roar! Then, with a 'whoosh,' he vomited several liters of dark purple blood!"

"Jiajing Emperor is alive! Xu Shen has pulled him back from the brink of death!"

The live stream was instantly flooded with exclamation marks.

"A miracle doctor! This is truly a case of bringing the dead back to life!"

"Xu Shen has great courage to use such potent medicine to cure a fatal disease!"

"Won't this make him rich and powerful? Saving the emperor is even more awesome than winning a national war!"

"A meteoric rise to success? Absolutely!"

Zhu Dijun burst into loud laughter, the sound echoing throughout the studio.

"After Jiajing awoke, his gratitude towards Xu Shen was beyond measure! He promoted him exceptionally, granting him the titles of Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince and Minister of Rites! He bestowed upon him countless gold and silver treasures! The History of Ming clearly states: 'In the Ming Dynasty, among physicians, Xu Shen was the most prominent official!'"

He slapped the whiteboard.

"In the more than two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, only Xu Shen, a royal physician, rose to the rank of Minister of the First Rank! He was the very pinnacle of power, reaching the absolute zenith of authority for a physician in ancient China!"

But the next second, Zhu Dijun's maniacal laughter vanished instantly, and the studio lights dimmed, leaving only a beam of pale green overhead light shining on his cold, hard face.

"But, my family. Immense wealth often doesn't bring a peaceful end, but rather a tragic death sentence."

He grabbed the blackboard eraser and ruthlessly wiped away the imperial edict that represented wealth and glory from the whiteboard.

"In May of the twenty-second year of the Jiajing reign! Less than a year after saving the emperor, Minister Xu, who had just been promoted and was at the peak of his life, suddenly fell ill and died at the age of sixty-six!"

"How is his cause of death recorded in official history?" Judy Jun's finger touched a line of last words on the screen.

Historical records state that Xu Shen, on his deathbed, tearfully told his family: "I am not getting up. During the palace coup, I knew I would be killed if I failed, and this has caused me great anxiety, which no medicine can cure."

"It means that when the emperor was given the medicine, he was under immense pressure. The extreme fear and anxiety damaged his mental state, causing him to develop a heart condition characterized by palpitations. In the end, he literally scared himself to death!"

The entire online audience was filled with sighs and dismay upon hearing this explanation.

"Serving a ruler is like serving a tiger; even if you save someone's life, you might still end up dying of fright."

"Six hours of agonizing life-or-death ordeal—who wouldn't feel depressed in that situation?"

In a parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the last words displayed on the sky and shook his head slightly. "What a loyal and devoted physician, it's a pity he was a bit timid. But he did fulfill his loyalty and righteousness, and his posthumous honors are undiminished."

But at that moment, Judy Jun on the sky let out an extremely piercing, even somewhat crazed, cold laugh.

"Scared to death? Died of shock?"

Judy pulled up a chair and sat down heavily. He casually broke a piece of chalk in half and stared coldly at the camera.

"Family members, I'm about to present an extremely terrifying and outrageous theory. I'll tell you directly: Xu Shen's death wasn't due to fear at all! He was forced to his death! You could even say it was a cover-up, a murder orchestrated to silence him!"

boom!

These words caused an uproar throughout the myriad worlds and timelines.

"Use your brains and think about it!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly stood up, kicked the chair away, and said, "The Renyin Palace Coup happened in October! He didn't die until May of the following year! More than half a year in between! If someone was really scared to death on the spot, could he have survived for half a year and even happily accepted the title of Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince?! This is completely contrary to medical common sense!"

He grabbed a red pen and drew a connecting line on the whiteboard with great force, directly linking Xu Shen's name with the previously mentioned [Xu Jie] and the [Jiangnan civil official group]!

"Let's broaden our perspective! What did I tell you earlier? Who was the mastermind behind the Renyin Palace Coup? It was that group of civil officials from Jiangnan who, because their trade was disrupted and their smuggling profits were threatened, wanted to physically exorcise the emperor!"

Judy Jun's eyes were bloodshot as he roared loudly.

"These old silver-coins meticulously bribed palace maids and laid a trap. With Jiajing on the verge of death, their revenge complete, the civil officials will soon be able to install a new emperor and seize control of the court!"

"And then?! Xu Shen appeared out of nowhere! A bowl of yellow peach kernel soup single-handedly saved the thorn in the side of the civil service!"

He slapped Xu Shen's portrait with a loud bang.

"You, Xu Shen, saved Jiajing, which means you've offended all the civil officials in the land! Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents; you've cut off the civil official group's direct path to changing dynasties and controlling the government! Do you think they'll let you off the hook?!"

"Don't forget, according to the old rules of the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, once an emperor had a crown prince, the emperor could be executed if the crown prince offended the interests of the civil service. At that time, Emperor Jiajing had his second son Zhu Zai Rui, his third son Zhu Zai Ji (who later became Emperor Muzong of Ming, the Longqing Emperor), and his fourth son Zhu Zai Zhen!"

The live stream chat fell silent for a moment, then erupted like a volcano.

"Holy crap!! The logic is complete!!"

"I'm getting goosebumps! This is blocking someone's way!"

["So the 'must be killed' in his last words wasn't because he was afraid the emperor would kill him, but because he was afraid the civil officials would kill him!!"]

A parallel universe set in the early Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houcong, still a prince and recently enthroned, stared intently at the sky, a chill running from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. He had initially thought it was the doctor's fear, but now, listening to the analysis of his descendant Zhu Dijun, he suddenly understood just how deep and dark the waters of the Forbidden City truly were.

"Here I'll repeat an old saying!"

Zhu Dijun's voice was like a boning knife, peeling away the disguise of history layer by layer.

"Better to offend a gentleman than a doctor or a cook! A doctor can save lives, but also take them! A cook can nourish lives, but also harm them!"

The image on the big screen suddenly changed to a rippling lake and a young emperor struggling in the water.

"Family members, do you really think Emperor Jiajing was a fool? He had a good cousin named Zhu Houzhao! How did Emperor Wuzong of Ming, Zhu Houzhao, die?! He just fell into the water, right? The dignified emperor of the Ming Dynasty, after falling into the water, actually dragged on for several months without any improvement. In the end, there were even rumors among the people that he was poisoned to death by the imperial physicians at the instigation of civil officials!"

Inside the Leopard Chamber, Zhu Houzhao, who was holding a wine cup, was deathly pale. His hand trembled, and the wine cup shattered on the ground.

"Your descendant, Zhu Dijun, can you please stop? You keep saying I drowned, how can you possibly save face for me! You're really taking advantage of your ancestors, otherwise I'd give you a couple of punches!"

Having learned a valuable lesson from his cousin's experience, Zhu Houcong understood one thing all too well!

Zhu Dijun frantically typed on the keyboard, and an image of Emperor Jiajing cultivating immortality appeared.

"In this Forbidden City, which is full of enemies, to survive, one must have a trusted imperial physician who is absolutely loyal, possesses superb medical skills, and is not controlled by the civil service!"

"Xu Shen is Jiajing's last trump card! As long as Xu Shen is around, no one can get past him if they want to poison medicine or tamper with food!"

The red lights in the studio were flashing wildly.

"The civil service group understands this all too well! As long as Xu Shen is alive, it will be very difficult for them to perform a second physical ritual to send Jiajing to the afterlife! Even if they do manage to do so, he will be brought back to life! Therefore, Xu Shen must die!"

Zhu Dijun moved closer to the camera, his eyes as cold as ice.

"This kind of forced death doesn't require a knife! Xu Shen was also a member of the officialdom. As the Minister of Rites, he was constantly watched with the most sinister gazes by those civil officials in the court. Weren't dead cats and dogs thrown at his doorstep every day? Did his colleagues constantly imply that he wouldn't live long? Did those charlatans and Taoist priests who concocted elixirs for the emperor threaten him every day?! This invisible political pressure and mental torture were the real deadly poison that made him 'fall ill with fear'!"

"His dying words weren't about expressing the terror of saving lives. He was telling his descendants: This court is too corrupt. I saved the emperor, but I've driven myself to a dead end! Run!"

The barrage of comments exploded.

"Those who know, know; there's no point in pretending not to! The streamer's deduction is absolutely brilliant!"

"To kill someone is to destroy their spirit! A soft knife cutting flesh is more terrifying than a direct beheading!"

["No wonder Jiajing bestowed upon Xu Shen such great honors after his death; he knew Xu Shen had shielded him from disaster!"]

"Family members, if you think this is just my personal conspiracy theory, then..."

Zhu Dijun suddenly turned around and wrote another famous name on the whiteboard in black ink—[Lu Bing].

"Let's see what happens next! In the thirty-ninth year of the Jiajing reign! Lu Bing, the supreme commander of the Ming Dynasty's Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Jiajing Emperor's wet nurse, and the only powerful minister to hold the positions of one of the Three Dukes and one of the Three Ministers, also died suddenly!"

Zhu Dijun lowered his voice, his tone revealing a chilling certainty.

"The imperial physicians were the emperor's last line of defense; the head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was the emperor's final weapon. When the Jiangnan civil official group began its frantic counterattack, the first thing they did was to cut off the emperor's lifeline! First, they forced the imperial physicians to their deaths, then they killed the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

He casually tossed the chalk onto the table.

"This is the dragon-slaying technique of the Ming Dynasty's civil officials. No blood is drawn, but every strike is fatal."

The lights in the live broadcast room went completely dark, leaving only the names "Xu Shen" and "Lu Bing" flashing in a pale green glow on the whiteboard.