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

On the studio's big screen, the extremely jarring portrait of Emperor Yongzheng in Western attire was magnified to the extreme.

The middle-aged man in the painting wears a powdered Western-style curly wig, a European aristocratic suit with a ruffled collar, and is incongruously clutching a trident in his hand. His eyes exude a pretentious air of utter despair.

"Family members! Look closely! This isn't some modern internet prank with AI face-swapping; this is a genuine courtly pleasure painting commissioned by the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty!"

Judy slapped her thigh, laughing so hard she almost fell over, and pointed at the trident on the screen.

"This guy can be called the first generation of cosplay maniac in the Qing Dynasty! He not only cosplayed Western assassins, but also lamas, Taoist priests, and tiger-slaying heroes! But that's nothing compared to how badly he was vilified by the common people in unofficial histories. He's second to none in the entire ancient imperial circle!"

A red laser pointer frantically drew circles on Yongzheng's gaunt face.

"We just talked about Shunzhi fleeing to Mount Wutai and Kangxi acting like a deadbeat in the streets, but those were just playful remarks about his personality. But when it came to Yongzheng, the common people completely threw the entire Qing Dynasty's legitimacy into the cesspool and crushed it with a single, simple misspelling!"

Zhu Dijun suddenly turned around and wrote five large characters heavily on the whiteboard: "[Pass the throne to the fourteenth son]".

"The most classic historical joke from the Qing Dynasty, bar none!"

Judy Jun slammed his pointer heavily onto the whiteboard.

"In his later years, Emperor Kangxi's nine sons vied for the throne, with the fourth son, Yinzhen, ultimately succeeding him. What did the common people say about him? They said that Emperor Kangxi originally wrote in his will, 'The throne will be passed to the fourteenth son,' but the fourth son, Yinzhen, bribed a eunuch to add a horizontal stroke and a small hook to the character '十' (ten), thus changing it into the character '于' (yu)!"

He demonstrated on the whiteboard, changing "十" to "于".

"The throne was passed to the fourteenth son, then instantly changed to the fourth! Just with a single stroke of the pen, the Qing dynasty changed hands!"

The live stream chat instantly erupted into a frenzy of joy.

"I've heard this joke since I was a kid! I actually believed it when I was a kid!"

"A single stroke could rule the world! The succession to the throne in the Qing Dynasty was like a joke!"

"The Fourteenth Prince is crying in the toilet, he can't even write a single traditional Chinese character!"

The parallel universe of the Qin Dynasty.

Inside Xianyang Palace. Ying Zheng stared at the two carelessly altered characters on the ceiling, his brows furrowing into a deep knot.

"Absolutely absurd!"

Ying Zheng let out a cold snort of utter contempt, "The Qin Dynasty's imperial edict was written in Small Seal script and stamped with the Imperial Seal, a symbol of divine mandate. Did these later Manchu barbarians write their wills on mere bamboo slips in the marketplace? A mere stroke of the pen was enough to usurp the throne; the Qing court was utterly a farce!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared coldly at the Chinese characters on the sky, then suddenly let out a laugh that shook the entire hall.

"These people from later generations have such sharp tongues!"

Old Zhu pointed to the character "于" and turned to Zhu Biao, saying,

"The traditional Chinese character for '于' is written as '于'! If the Qing Dynasty's edict really changed it that way, then it's blatantly taking advantage of those Buryat wild boars who are uneducated and don't know Chinese characters!"

Zhu Yuanzhang slammed his hand on the imperial desk.

"The common people use these flawed, vulgar rumors to ridicule the Manchu emperors not because they are stupid, but because they don't truly regard the Manchus as legitimate! They are using their writings to mock the Qing Dynasty—you uncultured barbarians, do you even deserve to rule the world!"

On the sky, Zhu Dijun took a big gulp of water, completely confirming Old Zhu's guess.

"Families who understand history know that Qing Dynasty edicts were written in both Manchu and Chinese, and the traditional Chinese character for 'yu' could never have been changed from 'shi' (十). But did ordinary people care? Absolutely not!"

Zhu Dijun lowered his voice, revealing a ruthless intent to expose the truth.

"The common people want to use these cheapest and most absurd jokes to disgust the rulers of the Qing Dynasty! You, Yongzheng, always boast that you rightfully ascended the throne, right? We're spreading rumors in the streets that you're a thief who changed characters to usurp the throne! This kind of public opinion can drive the person sitting on the dragon throne crazy!"

The scene on the big screen suddenly changed to a mountain of memorials piled up, with Yongzheng's figure pressed down under them.

"And so, Yongzheng went mad."

Zhu Dijun spread his hands,

"To prove he hadn't usurped the throne, this Qing emperor began an extraordinary, vengeful work ethic! He slept only four hours a day, reviewing tens of thousands of words of memorials. He eventually worked himself to death at his desk. Why? Because he was guilty! He feared that if he stopped, the whole world would gossip behind his back, accusing him of illegitimate access to the throne!"

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian looked at the Emperor Yongzheng frantically reviewing memorials on the sky, and his lips twitched violently.

He would review memorials until midnight every day, wearing his clothes until they were worn out, only to have Li Zicheng breach the city's walls in the end. And this barbarian emperor's diligence was, in fact, a cover-up for his guilty conscience as a usurper!

"Barbarians...even their diligence in governance reeks of the despicable thievery."

Zhu Youjian clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Suddenly, the background music in the studio changed to an extremely cheerful tune, and the montage on the screen began to fly everywhere.

"With so many memorials to review every day, how could Emperor Yongzheng have a good temper? Absolutely not!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the keyboard, and several original Qing Dynasty imperial edicts with vermilion annotations were displayed on the screen in extremely exaggerated font.

"Family members, in the lens of official history, the emperor's decrees should be cold and formal phrases like 'Understood' or 'Granted.' But with Emperor Yongzheng, due to severe sleep deprivation and mania, he completely let loose and transformed into the Qing Dynasty's number one sharp-tongued comedian!"

Zhu Dijun pointed to the first memorial with his pointer and read it aloud with great expression:

"When an official reported the weather, Emperor Yongzheng wrote directly on it: 'Are you crazy? You idiot! You bother me with such trivial matters!'"

Amidst laughter from the audience, the coach swung his pointer at the second memorial.

"A minister wrote a bunch of sycophantic nonsense, and Yongzheng wrote with a flourish: 'That's just the kind of man I am! That's just my nature! That's just the kind of emperor I am! If you ministers do not betray me, I will not betray you either!'"

Zhu Dijun chuckled.

"This isn't an emperor approving a memorial; it's like a domineering CEO from an online novel! And what's even more outrageous is how he treats General Nian Gengyao!"

The most famous imperial edict appeared on the screen: "I really don't know how to pamper you."

"Having just won a battle, Emperor Yongzheng was so excited that he wrote this extremely nauseating declaration on a memorial. And what happened? Less than a year later, he turned on him ruthlessly, imposing ninety-two major charges on Nian Gengyao, driving him to suicide!"

Zhu Dijun's eyes turned cold.

"Serving a ruler is like serving a tiger. Working under this manic emperor, one second he'll call you 'sweetie,' and the next he'll take your life!"

A parallel Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin looked at the crude and explicit criticisms on the sky and shook his head in disgust.

"His language is vulgar and crude, utterly lacking the demeanor of an emperor. He treats matters of state and military affairs like a street brawl, and his important ministers like child's playthings. How can such a capricious person be worthy of being called a wise ruler?"

"If Wei Zheng saw this memorial, he would probably smash his head against a pillar in the Taiji Hall. No, he should grovel. After all, he was the Lü Bu of the early Tang Dynasty, a servant of six masters (his first master was Yuan Baozang, his second master was Li Mi, his third master was Li Yuan, his fourth master was Dou Jiande, his fifth master was Li Jiancheng, and his sixth master was Li Shimin)."

The studio lights suddenly went out, and the scene was instantly enveloped in a chilling, blood-red glow.

"But family members, do you really think that the common people's criticisms of Emperor Yongzheng are limited to his alteration of imperial edicts and his violent temper?"

Zhu Dijun's voice was extremely low, carrying a chilling, sinister quality.

"When an illegitimate and extremely suspicious tyrant seizes the power of life and death over the entire nation, the deepest fears of the people ultimately give rise to the most terrifying and bloody urban legends in Qing Dynasty history!"

On the big screen, a bizarrely shaped, round metal flying object with sharp serrated edges severed the neck of a cartoon character on the screen with a piercing whistling sound.

The animation effect of gushing blood filled the entire screen.

Zhu Dijun turned around and uttered three words, one after another—"Blood! Drop! Zipper!"

The chat in the entire live stream froze instantly, followed by a screen full of "Holy crap!" comments.

"Emperor Yongzheng established the infamous secret service, the Sticky Rod Office. In unofficial historical accounts, this agency was directly distorted into a killing machine wielding the legendary hidden weapon, the 'Flying Guillotine'!"

Zhu Dijun picked up a prop that resembled a birdcage, pulled hard on the rope at the top, and a ring of gleaming blades popped out from below.

"That's it! Legend has it that whenever Emperor Yongzheng disliked someone, he would give the order, and his agents would throw the 'Flying Guillotine' like a flying saucer. It would cover your head, and with a click, the mechanism would retract, tearing your head off, leaving only a blood-spurting cavity behind!"

He strode to the front of the podium, his eyes extremely cold.

"Family members, do you really think this is just a fantasy from a martial arts novel? No! This is the most desperate manifestation of the common people's despair towards the oppressive and terrifying rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty!"

Zhu Dijun slammed his hand on the table.

"The literary inquisition of the Qing Dynasty reached its peak during the Yongzheng reign! Write a poem wrong, and you're killed! Discuss a word about politics, and you're killed! Even if you write a complaint in your diary at home, if someone reports it, your entire family will be executed! The guillotine can take a person's head as easily as taking something out of a bag, symbolizing the extreme tyranny of the Qing emperors who arbitrarily deprived Han people of their right to life without trial!"

The parallel Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty.

Ji Gang, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, knelt on the ground, staring at the blood-dripping guillotine projectiles on the sky, his throat bobbing. When it came to establishing a secret police regime, the Embroidered Uniform Guard was the ancestor, but the methods of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had indeed left a shadow in the hearts of the people that was even deeper than the imperial prison.

Zhu Di stared at the screen expressionlessly.

"To suppress the world with fear is to prevent the people from speaking, which is more difficult than preventing a river from overflowing."

Zhu Di said coldly,

"Only when one is extremely guilty will one turn the sword against a scholar's pen. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty, sitting on the dragon throne, never had a good night's sleep."

On the backdrop, Judy Jun tossed the birdcage prop aside, and the studio lights returned to normal.

"To protect themselves from the flying guillotine, unofficial historical accounts even claim that during the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, ministers wore thick iron collars around their necks to save their lives when they went to court! While the Emperor was speaking, the ministers below would stiffen their necks, looking like a bunch of armored turtles!"

Judy Jun laughed mockingly.

"This is Emperor Yongzheng. He's portrayed as a reform-minded and enlightened ruler in official Qing dynasty history, but in the hearts of the common people, he's a tyrannical tyrant who altered the imperial edict to usurp the throne, a workaholic with a guilty conscience, and a ruthless killer who resorts to terrifying hidden weapons!"

He casually picked up the blackboard eraser and wiped all the words off the whiteboard.

"Yongzheng worked himself to death. Then, the Qing Dynasty welcomed the longest-reigning, most resilient, and most aesthetically disastrous emperor in their history."

Zhu Dijun placed his hands on the podium, his eyes revealing an excited anticipation of unleashing a massacre.

"This next gentleman liked to stamp over fifty unique red seals on a masterpiece painting, and he liked to smear seventeen or eighteen different colors together on a piece of porcelain! He was the biggest spendthrift in the Qing Dynasty and the ultimate nightmare of the Chinese antique world!"

On the screen, a name, which was covered by a dense array of red seals, slowly emerged.