In the seventeenth year of Jiawen.
Yu Mountain City was covered in goose-feather snow, while the underfloor heating in the warm pavilion burned fiercely.
An eight-year-old boy lay sprawled over a red sandalwood desk, watching his father write the four characters "Serve the Son of Heaven, defend the nation" on Red Plum Stationery with a Cinnabar Brush.
The couplet, its ink not yet dry, shimmered with fine golden light beneath the roasting heat of the charcoal brazier.
"Father, when I grow up, I want to be just like you—go into battle, slay our enemies, and serve the Son of Heaven to defend the nation!"
The little boy raised his head and said earnestly to his father.
"Hahahaha! Good! As expected of a son of my Qi family!"
His father's hearty laughter rang through the study, and the gilded waist badge signifying a Level 15 military official clinked crisply at his waist.
The calamity began around the second watch of the night.
When the boy was jolted awake by a sudden burst of barking, the thick stench of blood seeped through the cracks in the door, while the clash of iron armor rang out from the courtyard.
Shouts of fury, screams of agony, and the sounds of explosive force erupted one after another.
Before long, the boy was carried away by the family's guards. The last scene he saw was his father—the invincible man in his heart—sent flying by a single slash and smashing through the pavilion in the courtyard!
"Qi Shou has colluded with the enemy! We have received orders to arrest the entire Qi family. Anyone who resists will be killed without mercy—"
A booming voice resounded throughout the entire Qi residence.
His father had colluded with the enemy?
How could the father who had still been writing "Serve