Nursery

Inside the quiet chamber.

Zhou Beichen stood by the door, his calves threatening to cramp and his throat dry. The courage he'd had to curse "Yellow Weasel" and call him a "bastard" in his head vanished without a trace the moment he faced the Lord of Humanity himself.

The Emperor merely sat there, without deliberately radiating any pressure. Yet the immense gulf in the essence of their lives and psychic power made Zhou Beichen feel like a mortal gazing up at the stars, instinctively aware of his own insignificance and restraint.

He barely dared breathe, his mind racing through countless possibilities. Why had the Emperor kept him behind alone? To hold him accountable? To question how he had corrupted Lorgar? Or to simply erase him, this variable, outright?

Just as Zhou Beichen's inner drama was reaching a fever pitch and cold sweat was about to break out, the Emperor sitting opposite him actually curled the corner of his lips. On that face so perfect it seemed beyond mortal existence, a face that always looked as though it wore a sacred mask, a clear smile appeared.

It was not the sort of smile imbued with divine majesty that made people want to kneel in worship. It was... teasing, even somewhat roguish—a very human smile. It held none of the dignity expected of the Lord of Humanity. Instead, it was like he had just seen an amusing old acquaintance.

"Relax, my old friend," the Emperor said. His voice no longer carried that grand resonance that rang directly within the soul, but instead had an oddly familiar, almost affectionate tone. "Don't be so tense. Just like before."

Old friend? Like before? Zhou Beichen's mind buzzed as he completely froze. He racked his brain, turning over every memory from both his lives, yet he could not find a single moment where he and the Emperor of Mankind had ever called each other brothers. What was this? Mistaken identity? Or some advanced hypnosis or psychic attack?

Just as his CPU was about to burn out, he watched the Emperor's face ripple like water and blur. The contours of his features subtly shifted and reassembled. Within only a breath or two, that perfect, sacred face vanished, replaced by one Zhou Beichen knew so well it was engraved into his bones!

Slightly long, greasy hair. Unshaven stubble. Black-framed glasses. Behind those lenses were a pair of small eyes that always carried a hint of sleep deprivation and calculation. His lips wore their habitual cheap grin—wasn't this Huang Pizi, his best card-game buddy and worst damn opponent at that crappy tabletop club in his old world, the guy who always mooched meals off him for several days every month?!

"Huang Pizi?! I'll fuck your ancestors!!!" Zhou Beichen's eyes instantly turned red. The restraint and fear from before were replaced by towering fury. "You asshole!! When you couldn't pay rent, wasn't I the one who bought you Longjiang pork trotter rice for an entire month?! And then you turned around and sent me to this godforsaken place?! I'm gonna kill you!!"

His extreme rage temporarily made him forget the vast difference in power between them. With a howl, like a wild dog whose food had been stolen, he lunged at "Huang Pizi," baring his teeth and claws. Only one thought remained in his mind—strangle this ungrateful bastard to death!

Yet after taking only two steps, he felt an invisible, intangible force envelop him. It was as soft as silk and as unbreakable as a wall, gently pressing him back into his chair and leaving him unable to move. No matter how he struggled, it was like being trapped in sticky glue.

"Relax, relax, old friend." The Emperor wearing Huang Pizi's face grinned even more obnoxiously. He picked up a steaming cup of tea that had somehow appeared beside him and slowly took a sip. "Look, didn't you do a pretty good job with the task I gave you? That kid Lorgar is lively and well now, independent-minded and capable. He even built an Earthly Heaven that looks quite respectable. He's far better than that foolish boy who only knew how to pray in the original story. Outstanding performance!"

"Task? Task my ass!" Zhou Beichen was pinned to the chair by psychic power and could only rage helplessly. "I was tricked into coming here by you! Now! Immediately! Right this second! Send me back!"

"Go back?" The Emperor raised an eyebrow, set down his teacup, and smiled meaningfully. "You can't. Besides, I know you can't bear to leave your precious eldest son, Lorgar."

"Bullshit!" Zhou Beichen sounded like someone had stepped on his tail, his voice abruptly shooting up several octaves. Though he could not move, he craned his neck and retorted with all his might. "Who can't bear to leave that stubborn kid?! My favorite Primarch is Fugen! Fugenris! Perfect! Elegant! The faction I play in HH is the Emperor's Children!"

He shouted loudly, but his eyes flickered and his tone betrayed obvious guilt. After all, having spent more than two years with Lorgar day and night, watching him grow from a bewildered asset into a leader who could stand on his own, it would have been a lie to say he felt nothing.

The Emperor did not expose him. He merely watched with a smile until Zhou Beichen ran out of breath from shouting and glared at him while panting.

"All right, enough reminiscing." The Emperor's expression grew slightly more serious, though no matter how serious he looked with that face, it still seemed somewhat ridiculous. "I came today mainly to remind you of something, old friend. You know that your arrival here has changed many things."

"So what?" Zhou Beichen snorted irritably. "You mean you know how the future story goes? Then why don't you correct it yourself? If you just stopped acting like such a bastard in front of Horus, stopped being so condescending, and acted a little more like a normal father who knows how to praise his sons, half the tragedy of the Warhammer Universe could be avoided! Do you know this damn place is fundamentally driven by one giant daddy-issues complex? If you'd just bend down a little, every one of your sons could become your best Primarch and greatest pride!"

The Emperor fell silent. The obnoxious grin faded from his face, replaced by a deep calm tinged with helplessness.

"I can't do it, old friend." He slowly shook his head. "That is why I chose you."

"What do you mean?"

"After I... sat upon the Golden Throne," the Emperor said in a low voice, carrying a weariness that spanned eternity, "my soul suffered unimaginable damage and strain at that moment. It... shattered. It became countless fragments, drifting and traveling through endless multiverses. Until one fragment arrived in your world—the place I later came to understand as the Narrator Plane. I realized the truth. I, the Emperor of Mankind, everything I had suffered, struggled through, and chosen, and my sons... were merely characters and plot points within a grand story."

He raised a hand and looked at his palm as though gazing at invisible shackles. "Because of some... fundamental law of the universe, as an existence within the story, even if I know every future development, I simply cannot alter it at its root. I can only watch tragedies unfold, and at most... do everything in my power afterward to make amends, to patch up that broken net. Like watching a great ship destined to strike an iceberg, all I can do is save as many people as possible after it hits."

His gaze returned to Zhou Beichen. It was deep, as though it contained the secrets of countless stars being born and dying. "But you are different. Zhou Beichen, you are a soul from the Narrator Plane. Your essence is that of a reader, a player, part of a creator. You are not completely bound by the underlying narrative laws of our world. You have the ability to truly... change the course of the story."

Zhou Beichen was dumbfounded. The amount of information was too much for him to process at once. He was... a visitor from beyond the fourth wall? Was that why he could spoil the plot and rewrite everything so freely?

"Wait... wait!" He suddenly seized on something important. "Out of so many people, why me? I don't even play the Imperium in Warhammer 40K. I play the Genestealer Cult! And I'm terrible at it too—I always get ground into the dirt by the other side's Space Marines!"

At that, the Emperor revealed that familiar obnoxious grin again. "Maybe because we're close?"

Seeing the murderous look in Zhou Beichen's eyes, he hurriedly added, "All right, actually, it is because of your... family background."

"Family background?"

"Your father started from nothing. Born without privilege, he relied on his own hard work and wisdom to give you a stable, even privileged childhood. Your mother was gentle yet steadfast and supported your choices and dreams unconditionally. They had money, but they knew how to educate a child. They were not cruel simply because they were wealthy, and they gave you a healthy personality and relatively sound values." The Emperor looked at him, his tone carrying a trace of... envy? "In my observations, human souls like yours, with such a normal and healthy family of origin, are truly rare in the endless sea of universes. Especially among those who could intersect with this fragment of mine."

Zhou Beichen was stunned. He had not expected that to be the reason.

"What about you?" he asked instinctively. "Didn't you have parents?"

The Emperor gave a bitter smile, one filled with ancient loneliness. "You're right. I really didn't."

His gaze became distant, as though it had pierced through time and returned to humanity's infancy. "I was born on Earth in the Old Era. The first generation of human psykers—those beings called shamans—foresaw psychic storms and the threat of the Warp. They committed collective suicide, gathering and fusing their souls and life essence to create... a tool. A tool meant to guide and protect human civilization."

"I walked every corner of the earth, witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties, and learned every piece of knowledge known to mankind, from physics to philosophy, from art to war. But honestly, my friend," his voice carried profound sorrow, "the one thing I could never do... was love people, especially a specific person."

"What I protected was humanity as an overall concept, the continuation of civilization. Billions of living beings were surging rivers and shining stars in my eyes. But when it came down to a single wave, a single star... it was difficult for me to invest that kind of intense, exclusive emotion a father feels for his son. Nothing could truly stay by my side for long, and no one could comfort me through the Long Night or offer me ordinary encouragement. The only one who could be called my close friend was Malcador..." He paused, seemingly recalling that gaunt old man. "Do you think old Malcador looks like the kind of person who would pat your shoulder and say, 'It's all right. You've already done very well'?"

Zhou Beichen imagined Malcador's stiff, stern face and instinctively shook his head.

"So it is not that I didn't want to. I truly... did not know how." The Emperor's tone held a trace of helplessness and candor. "I lacked the instinct and experience of loving and being loved... that are nurtured by normal family relationships."

"So you launched the 'Where Are We Going, Dad?' plan? You found an 'expensive godfather' in the narrative universe for all those unfortunate sons of yours who lacked love?" Zhou Beichen could not help mocking him.

"You could put it that way." The Emperor actually nodded, then looked at him with interest. "So, how do you think you've performed so far?"

Zhou Beichen puffed out his chest, about to boast a little.

The Emperor cut him off directly. "Terribly."

"Hey!" Zhou Beichen nearly jumped out of his psychic restraints.

"When you first arrived here, you didn't even know this was the Warhammer Universe!" the Emperor scolded. "I had to urgently carve an inscription into the shell of Lorgar's life pod with psychic power so that you would at least know his name! Only then did you realize this was the Warhammer world! And you know that the name Lorgar Aurelian was not given by me. The Colchisians who found him named him according to local legend. It means 'Raincaller'!"

Zhou Beichen opened his mouth, recalling the line of writing on the metal pod when he had first found Lorgar. It had seemed naturally formed and meant "Lorgar." So this bastard had been behind it!

"And you should be grateful that this is 30K, not 40K!" the Emperor continued. "I also had to devote quite a bit of psychic power to secretly shielding you from the Warp's gazes and whispers! Do you think the four Chaos Gods are harmless? Your ideas about work points and equivalent exchange would have drawn Tzeentch's or Slaanesh's attention the moment they emerged in the Warp-active era of 40K. Then you would not even know how you died! Why do you think that once Chaos corruption is discovered in the era of 40K, people casually resort to Exterminatus? Because it is like cosmic-scale AIDS. Once it touches you, whether you saw it, came into contact with it, or became infected by it, everything from soul to flesh must be completely purged! When you first started stirring things up, if I hadn't shielded you, you would have died without ever knowing why!"

A chill ran down Zhou Beichen's back. He had known Chaos was dangerous, but he had not realized there was another layer to it. His peaceful farming and development on Colchis had only been possible because this "Yellow Weasel" had secretly been acting as his bodyguard?

"Then... then what should I do now?" His momentum weakened.

"It's all right, old friend." The Emperor's tone softened. "Before, I was giving you time to adapt. Now, you can act more freely. Follow your own ideas. Transform this world, influence Lorgar, and face every challenge. I've got everything covered."

Hearing those words, Zhou Beichen inexplicably felt more at ease. This guy had tricked him into coming here, but at least for now, it seemed he was on his side... right?

"However, there is one more matter I came to discuss with you." The Emperor abruptly changed the subject.

"What is it?"

"You saw Magnus the Red, didn't you?"

"Magnus the Red?" Zhou Beichen froze for a moment, then understood. "Magnus? Yeah, I saw him. What about him?"

"I don't plan to bring Lorgar back to Terra so soon," the Emperor said. "The Great Crusade is still ongoing, and I have some work left unfinished. There are other places that need my attention as well. So before I am done, you will need to help me look after him for a while."

Zhou Beichen's eyes widened instantly, and even his voice changed pitch:

"Fuck! Yellow Weasel! Are you really treating this place like a nursery?! Lorgar wasn't enough, and now you want to add Magnus too?!!"