Isolated town in northern border region

Xiao Lie spoke, his voice very soft.

"For fame? Or for the throne?"

Why deceive yourself?

The Chu Emperor remained silent.

That silence was longer than any before; Xiao Lie had ripped away the last fig leaf in his heart.

"Because once I sat down, I didn't want to get down."

His voice was very low.

"When I sat in that chair, I realized for the first time that everyone had to listen to me."

"I no longer need to be mindful of anyone's feelings, nor do I need to follow behind anyone picking up leaves."

"My words are law!"

"What your father could do, I can do too!"

"I could do even better!"

He gave a bitter laugh, a laugh full of self-mockery.

"But I... am incompetent!"

"On one hand, we have to guard against the growing power of aristocratic families, and on the other hand, we have to leave behind the old ministers promoted by your father..."

"In the end, the entire Great Chu court descended into chaos... even the northern frontier... was lost..."

"The longer I sit here, the more afraid I become; the more afraid I become, the less I dare to get down; and the less I dare to get down, the more I want to get rid of you!"

"As you grow up day by day, it's like I've returned to my childhood, seeing my former elder brother..."

"But your very existence is a reminder to me... a reminder of how incompetent I am!"

Xiao Lie pushed the teapot over.

"So, that's why you let me live to adulthood, yet you secretly wish for me to go to my death in the northern frontier?"

The Chu Emperor nodded with a wry smile.

Xiao Lie picked up his teacup and took a sip.

"Let's settle our score with tea instead of wine."

"You were kept in the dark when the Emperor was poisoned... You ascended to the throne, but spared this website's life. We're even now."

Emperor Chu was taken aback upon hearing this, looked into Xiao Lie's eyes, and sighed deeply.

"Lie'er...you and my brother, the Emperor, are so alike!"

"You two, father and son, are more like wandering knights of the martial world than emperors or princes!"

Xiao Lie looked at Xiao Mu's kind smile and didn't frown at all.

"Lie'er?"

"You really dare to act like a senior, huh!"

Xiao Lie jumped onto the stone table, kicked Emperor Chu in the face, and then pounced on him, giving him a thorough beating.

"Pretend! I'll teach you to pretend!"

"You've managed to ruin all five prefectures of the Northern Frontier, and you still have the nerve to mention your father?"

"I've gone to the northern frontier, and you've completely ignored me!"

"Do you know how much suffering the people of the five northern prefectures could have been spared if you had decisively sent troops when Cangzhou was liberated?!"

"You still have the nerve to laugh!?"

Xiao Lie pinned the Chu Emperor to the ground and punched and kicked him until he felt satisfied.

The Chu Emperor groaned on the ground, unable to get up for a long time.

In the end, Xiao Lie picked him up and threw him back in front of the stone table.

"My debts are settled!"

"You owe me an explanation for Xiao Yu's life!"

The Chu Emperor swayed slightly, as if he had been bumped.

"I...I sent him a packet of 'Heart Source Inducer,' claiming it was a sleeping potion, and asked him to poison him."

"I thought he would do as I said."

"He never disobeyed my orders before!"

"I never expected him to drink it himself."

His voice began to tremble.

"Yu'er has more backbone than I do!"

Xiao Lie looked at him.

"His last words before he died were, 'I do not wish to be born into royalty in my next life.'"

The Emperor of Chu's tears finally fell silently.

"When he was a child, his favorite food was osmanthus cake from the imperial kitchen. Every time he came to the imperial study, he would ask for a piece."

"I only give him one piece each time, and he thinks I'm stingy, but he still comes to ask for more next time."

"I remember the last time he came to ask for osmanthus cake, he was already thirteen years old, and he was still sitting on the doorstep eating it just like when he was a child."

"Back then, I still thought he would never grow up."

"Later, some scheming individuals instigated him to target you, and I not only did not stop them, but became increasingly lenient with them..."

His voice grew softer and softer.

"I drove him to his death."

Xiao Lie took out a piece of white silk and a pen from his pocket. The white silk was embroidered with dark patterns on the edges, and it was taken from Xiao Yu's mourning hall.

He drew his Taiping sword and, pressing down on the Chu Emperor's hand, cut a gash in his palm.

When blood gushed out, the Chu Emperor did not pull his hand away.

Xiao Lie dipped the brush in the blood of the Chu Emperor and placed it in his hand.

"Write! Write about how you drove Xiao Yu to her death!"

"Write about how you turned your son into a pawn! Write about how you sat in that chair for so long that you forgot you even had a son!"

"Use your blood to write a self-reproach edict! Proclaim it to the world!"

The Chu Emperor held the pen, and blood dripped from between his fingers onto the white silk, spreading into several dark red flowers.

His pen tip hovered above the white silk, yet hesitated to fall.

Xiao Lie held the Taiping Blade to his neck.

"Write!"

suddenly!

The Emperor of Chu suddenly sneered and threw down his pen.

He suddenly stood up and slammed his neck against the blade.

Xiao Lie flicked his wrist, turning the blade to the side, the tip of the knife leaving a thin, long bloody mark on the side of his neck.

The roar of the Chu Emperor exploded in the twilight.

"If a ruler commands his subject to die, and the subject does not, he is considered disloyal! If a father commands his son to die, and the son does not, he is considered unfilial!"

"I am not a wise ruler! But I will never be a tyrant who will be remembered for his infamy!"

"The northern frontier has been recovered! The people are better off! This is all thanks to you, Xiao Lie, but that was during my reign!"

"You want me to write an edict of self-reproach? To leave me infamous for eternity?"

"dream!"

He gripped the blade of the Taiping sword with both hands and pressed the edge against his neck.

"Xiao Lie! Do you want me to be infamous for eternity?"

"I will use this life to make you a regicide and a nephew who killed his uncle!"

"You'll never be able to erase this stain for the rest of your life!"

Xiao Lie looked at him, at those bloodshot eyes, at that trembling face that still tried to put on a resolute expression.

He smiled.

The Xiao Mu before me is nothing but an empty shell, hollowed out by power.

Xiao Lie loosened the hilt of his sword and took a step back.

The Chu Emperor hadn't expected him to actually let go. He staggered, and after the blade left a shallow bloodstain on his neck, he was hurriedly thrown to the ground.

He slumped to the ground, panting, blood dripping from his fingers into the cracks of the blue bricks, like an old dog.

Xiao Lie bent down and picked up the Taiping Dao, then slapped his pale face with the blade as if he were slapping him.

"Coward!"

"Do you think I care about such a trivial matter as a stain on my reputation?"

"I'm not killing you because I'm still a human being!"

"Besides, you're just a piece of trash, posing no threat to me whatsoever... Otherwise, what harm would it do to chop you up with one stroke?"

He sheathed his sword and left the white silk and brush on the stone table.

"Three days!"

"Within three days, the edict of self-reproach was written and proclaimed to the world."

"Doing it yourself gives you the respectability of admitting your mistakes and correcting them..."

"If you're not dignified, I'll make you dignified!"

He turned and walked out of the pavilion and out of the Imperial Garden. The moonlight cast his shadow on the blue bricks, and the shadow was long and straight.

He took a dozen steps, then suddenly stopped. Without turning around, his voice drifted away at a moderate volume.

"That ugly stone with the character '牧' carved on it was destroyed in the fire at the Eastern Palace."

"Uncle, you keep saying you have a deep brotherly bond with Father, yet that seal was hidden inside a pair of worn-out boots!"

The Chu Emperor sat in the pavilion, looking at the blank white silk, at his still bleeding hand, and at the departing figure.

"when?"

"When did I lose that seal?"

"How could I have lost it!"

No one answered the Chu Emperor's question, but the question did not need an answer.

But when Xiao Mu placed his hand on the jade seal, that ugly seal probably already disappeared from his mind.