By the time Qi Yuanzuo woke again, it was already night.
[Host? Did you know your brother has been reborn?]
Qi Yuanzuo: "...?"
His sleep-fogged brain grew even foggier under that barrage of information.
Several bronze lamps glittered gold in their yellow light, illuminating the tall, dark figure beside his bed.
A large, warm hand clasped his outer hand, warming it until his palm grew sweaty.
Had he been keeping watch all this time?
Three years of memories flashed past. Right, his imperial father truly loved him at this point. Saying he had raised him through every piss and shit was no exaggeration.
In the book, the Qi Emperor grew muddleheaded in his later years, and half a lifetime of affection between father and son wore away under repeated tests and suppression.
After being deposed and reinstated three times, Qi Yuanzuo went mad, and the Qi Emperor lost his spirit, too.
But his arrival was the biggest bug of all. The plot had already veered off course, so they might not necessarily reach the same end as in the book.
"Father?"
The Qi Emperor stirred at his voice, the black statue coming to life. The fat eunuch raised a bronze lamp and set it by the bed.
"You're awake, Zuo'er. Does it hurt?"
The Qi Emperor's softened voice, soothing caresses, and careful words all spoke of how much he cared.
Qi Yuanzuo said, "Hungry..."
The burning hunger in his stomach made him beg for food.
The Qi Emperor hurriedly ordered rice porridge brought over, cooked until soft and mushy for easy digestion.
The fat eunuch personally helped him sit half-reclined. Qi Yuanzuo eagerly ate a couple of mouthfuls. Aside from being bland, it had no faults.
Rubbing his newly rounded belly, he lay limp as a salted fish, eyes narrowed in satisfaction, while still remembering to survey his surroundings.
The hall was full of kneeling people, not one of whom he recognized. Like statues at prayer, they faced his bed with their heads bowed low, utterly silent.
The atmosphere was solemn and oppressive.
Qi Yuanzuo tugged at the emperor's sleeve. "Father, let them leave."
"I only want you here with me."
Before his injury, his youngest son had been mischievous and clever. Since when had he needed permission to order a few servants around? Now he had wilted pitifully like a sensitive plant. The Qi Emperor could barely contain his heartache, let alone refuse him anything.
Qi Yuanzuo resembled the empress, fair and tender, with a round head and round little face. His features looked as though they had been drawn on the skin of a glutinous rice ball with a pink filling, rosy beneath the white. Add the bond formed by raising him personally, and how could the Qi Emperor not love him?
The deeper his love, the deeper his hatred—hatred for the Empress Dowager, hatred for the Elder Princess.
"Zuo'er, do you remember how you got to the front hall?"
Qi Yuanzuo patted the inner side of the bed. The dark circles beneath his old man's eyes were turning him into a giant panda.
The Qi Emperor misunderstood. He took off his shoes and socks, lay down inside, and curled an arm around his son.
"Sleep a little longer?"
Qi Yuanzuo took the opportunity to close his eyes. "There was no one in the Hall of Inherited Blessing. I thought it was strange, and I was worried about you, so I went to the front hall to look."
Even the knife in his hand could be explained as self-defense out of fear.
If he said he had gone to hack off the old geezer's manhood, the man might burn him as a monster.
The Qi Emperor gently patted his back and said nothing more, but his eyes grew colder and darker.
He had thrown the Hall of Inherited Blessing's servants into prison for interrogation, and every last one had swallowed poison and killed themselves. Did their master's identity really need spelling out?
The Empress Dowager...
She had become a thorn in his heart. Leave it in, and the flesh would rot and ooze pus, sickening him; pull it out, and he would still sicken himself.
The Qi Emperor had ascended the throne at twenty and was now twenty-four. The late emperor had been a foolish ruler who, in just three years on the throne, had created the mess of emperor and empress ruling jointly, leaving him a divided government.
He had now wrested back half the power at court, while the Empress Dowager still held the other half.
They were mother and son by blood, yet now they were more like enemies than enemies themselves.
Very softly, he asked, "Zuo'er, if Father... severely punished your aunt, would you think I was cold-blooded and heartless?"
Qi Yuanzuo opened his eyes.
He knew the Qi Emperor was struggling. The Elder Princess had to die.
One rebellion had nearly killed the emperor and gravely wounded the crown prince. Without killing her, he could not establish his authority, quell his imperial wrath, or win the people's hearts!
Yet he feared bearing the name of a kinslayer. This was like opening a floodgate: after killing the Elder Princess, he would next confront the Empress Dowager. Once that gate opened, could the Qi Emperor stay his blade above her head?
The Qi Emperor would think of that, and so would others.
In the book, the emperor had not been injured in this rebellion, and the crown prince had been safe as well, so the Qi Emperor had not killed the Elder Princess.
Now that Qi Yuanzuo had recovered his memories, everything differed from the book. Its plot could no longer serve as a reference for the future.
He clasped the Qi Emperor's hand. "Father, you once told me that if a gentleman repays resentment with kindness, what can he use to repay kindness?"
"You are the emperor. The emperor is never wrong."
The Qi Emperor's heart trembled. He could not help reaching toward his little son's wound.
"Does it hurt?"
Qi Yuanzuo said, "...Yes."
It hurt like hell!
If he had not been worried about his image, he would have rolled all over the bed, howling!
Breathing hurt, speaking hurt, moving hurt, and staying still hurt, too. He would have to endure this pain for another ten days or half a month, until the wound inside healed.
The Qi Emperor felt both heartache and pride. His crown prince was gifted and intelligent, able to bear pain others could not. At three, he could already say, "If you repay resentment with kindness, what can you use to repay kindness?" He would surely become an enlightened ruler!
Great Qi's next sovereign had nearly died young. If he hesitated any longer, would he deserve to be a father or an emperor?
Kill her!
That day, father and son shared a bed. When Qi Yuanzuo woke in the night needing to pee, the Qi Emperor woke as well, pulled down his trousers, and prepared to hold him up to urinate, his practiced movements enough to send anyone's heart rate soaring.
Qi Yuanzuo froze for a long moment before remembering that, yes, this had happened before.
The Qi Emperor liked doing everything himself, especially caring for his son. But that had been when he was around one. He was three now!
"Father-!"
Qi Yuanzuo wriggled like a fish.
The Qi Emperor started. "Don't move! You'll reopen the wound!"
Qi Yuanzuo would rather reopen his wound than accept being held up to pee!
"I'm already three!"
The Qi Emperor was displeased. "So what if you're three? Even at thirty, you'll still be my son. You're injured and can't get out of bed. Either I do it, or a servant does."
Qi Yuanzuo was falling apart. He had injured his upper half, not his lower half. At most, he needed someone to undo his trousers.
Under Qi Yuanzuo's fierce protests, the Qi Emperor could only hand his son over to a servant.
Qi Yuanzuo gathered up his little heart, nearly cracked apart by the fright.
So the first signs of the Qi Emperor's controlling tendencies had already appeared at this point.
They would grow even worse in the future.
What color underclothes the crown prince wore that day, how many times he bedded the Crown Prince Consort and his concubines, what he ate, what he used—everything had to be reported to the emperor's desk.
The Qi Emperor doted on the crown prince. He could give him the Dragon Carriage, ceremonial retinue, dragon robes, and even the dragon throne.
But the more he spoiled him early on, the greater his fury later when Qi Yuanzuo discovered the surveillance and resisted.
One refused to have his daily life monitored forever; the other refused to let go.
The moment the crown prince resisted, the emperor thought his grown son harbored ulterior motives.
Once suspicion arose and others slipped into the cracks, their bond could never be made whole again.
The Qi Emperor summoned an imperial physician to redress and bandage the wound. Angry with both his son and himself, he wore a thunderous expression.
Helpless, Qi Yuanzuo returned to bed and glanced at him a few times before lying flat to sleep, his gaze complicated. His wound lay toward the outer side, so if he lay on his side, he could only face the old geezer.
He needed time to think about how to get along with his excessively controlling old father in the future.
Before long, the little child beside him was breathing steadily. The Qi Emperor chuckled and scolded him.
"Ungrateful little thing."
He should consider how many people under heaven ever got to enjoy being waited on by the emperor.
And he claimed he was grown up. Even the table legs in his bedchamber were taller than him.
The next day, Qi Yuanzuo was alone in the spacious bed.
He yawned and, eyes half-closed, lazily resumed yesterday's conversation with the system in his mind.
"Qi Chengyou has been reborn?"
88 said, "Correct. The moment your memories awakened, the world came alive. The worldline is only a reference now. You may encounter more reborn people in the future."
Qi Yuanzuo clicked his tongue softly. "If Father is reborn too, I might as well slit my throat and be done with it."
88 assured him, "That won't happen."
After thinking for a long while, Qi Yuanzuo said resentfully, "Were you always this useless? I was living perfectly well as a second-generation heir in my last life, and you kidnapped me here. Don't I get any compensation?"
88 immediately opened the System Shop, revealing card after card.
Things like "Bountiful Harvest," "Summon Wind and Rain," "Scatter Beans, Raise Soldiers," and "Ride the Wind Away."
They were all immortal arts!
Qi Yuanzuo was astonished.
"You do have some good stuff!"
88 looked melancholy. "What good is it? It can't win back my son's heart."
Qi Yuanzuo asked curiously, "You really have a son? Systems can have children?"
88 said, "Bullshit. How could systems have children? My hosts are my children! I have three sons! You're the fourth, but you aren't my son yet."
"Can I choose one?"
88 ruthlessly closed the System Shop. "That was a simulation for you to look at. My data has already been wiped. 88 has no inheritance to leave you."
Qi Yuanzuo did not care in the slightest about its presumptuous claim of parenthood. He asked, "Did you treat your previous sons like this, too?"
88 said proudly, "My sons naturally got the best. They could use everything!"
Qi Yuanzuo: "..."
His heart had gone cold. It would never warm again.
"With a cheat that huge, your sons still grew estranged from you? Surely they should have put you on an altar!"
88 said with world-weary resignation, "Maybe because I used to be a system for women transmigrating into men."
Qi Yuanzuo silently gave it a thumbs-up.
So the others had all been its own flesh and blood, and he alone had been picked up off the street.
Still, this gave him an idea. The baby who cried got the milk. If he remained a good little boy, he would follow the book's path once the Qi Emperor's controlling tendencies flared up.
He might as well be an unfilial son!
Before you continue