Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I stood there, dazed and soul-crushed, for a long time after hearing the news.

The little palace maid who delivered the message looked at me with a face full of worry.

“Sister Lin Zhi, please don’t be too sad.”

I touched my face; there were no tears. Yet, the sharp, stinging pain in my heart was overflowing like a disaster.

Song Duhe was the nephew of the late Empress Song.

After the Crown Prince was framed for rebellion and shot dead, the Song Family was executed to the last soul, and Empress Song took her own life.

Only Song Duhe managed to escape. He fled to Jiangnan with an old servant, living under an assumed name just to survive.

He had worked so hard to return to the Capital, all to gain a foothold in the imperial court and clear the Song Family’s name.

But someone had exposed his identity on the day of the palace examinations.

He was thrown into the Imperial Prison and subjected to endless torture.

But I never believed he would kill himself by running into a wall. That wasn’t the Song Duhe I knew. The Song Duhe I knew was a man so ruthless that even if both his legs were broken, he would have crawled back home on his belly.

He might have been beaten to death, executed, poisoned, or beheaded, but he would never have died such a pathetic death.

Yet, for as long as I had been in the palace, that was all I heard. Everyone said Song Duhe had the audacity to demand that His Majesty launch a full investigation into the deposed Crown Prince’s case during the court session. This had enraged His Majesty, leading to his imprisonment in the Imperial Prison, where he couldn’t endure the torture and ended his life by striking a wall.

This was the most suspicious point of all.

“Do you know anything else? If you have more information, I will reward you handsomely.”

The little maid shook her head with a troubled expression.

I thanked her softly and gave her a reward.

She sighed and left, telling me to offer my condolences to the deceased.

In truth, I wasn’t grieving. I was anxious, furious-a fire burned in my chest with no way to vent.

I was lost in thought when a cold, arrogant voice suddenly jolted me awake.

“You’ve been asking around for so long; haven’t you given up yet? He’s dead. The dead don’t come back to life. If you want to make things easier for yourself, you’d best forget him and go back to being the Second Miss Lin.”

I looked up at the speaker-Zhao Pu, the nephew of Consort Zhao. He was the villain who had exposed Song Duhe’s identity during the palace examinations, Song Duhe’s natural-born enemy.

Song Duhe was the nephew of the late Empress Song, while Zhao Pu was the nephew of Consort Zhao.

Empress Song and Emperor Zhengde had been childhood sweethearts. At the consort selection banquet, Emperor Zhengde had personally handed the jade ruyi to Empress Song. They had married as they wished and lived in harmony for many years. Her son was titled the Crown Prince the moment he was born.

Everything changed when Consort Zhao entered the palace and gave birth to the Third Prince.

By then, Empress Song’s beauty had begun to fade, while Consort Zhao was in her prime. Emperor Zhengde’s heart strayed, becoming more infatuated with the vibrant Consort Zhao, and friction grew between him and Empress Song.

Not long after, war broke out on the borders. Empress Song’s father, Old General Song, adopted a strategy of closing the city gates and refusing to engage, waiting for the enemy to exhaust their supplies.

When no reports of victory arrived for a long time, Emperor Zhengde grew restless. He issued several imperial edicts urging battle, but Old General Song set them aside. The Emperor came to believe that Old General Song was intentionally delaying the military campaign because Empress Song had been neglected.

Coincidentally, someone memorialized the throne accusing the Crown Prince of treason. To make matters worse, a voodoo doll carved with the Emperor’s birth date was discovered in the Crown Prince’s manor.

In a fit of rage, the Emperor sent men to arrest the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince, being a filial son, did not flee. At that time, he still trusted his father and did not believe his own imperial father would truly kill him.

Unfortunately, as soon as he stepped out of the Eastern Palace, he was struck down by a hidden arrow. Wounded, the Crown Prince tried to flee toward the main palace, but every step of the way was blocked by assassins.

The Crown Prince knew it was an enemy trap designed to force him to flee the Capital, creating the illusion of his escape.

But the guards by his side grew fewer and fewer. Finally, with no other choice, he was forced to flee outside the Capital to plan his next move.

Emperor Zhengde was furious. On the pretext that the Crown Prince had defied imperial edicts and staged a rebellion, he used thunderous means to seize the Song Family’s assets and issued a warrant for the Crown Prince’s arrest. An urgent message was sent at top speed to have Old General Song beheaded at the front lines.

Not long after, the men sent to capture the Crown Prince returned with his severed head.

Empress Song’s father and brothers had died tragic deaths, her entire clan had been exterminated, and her son had been decapitated. In utter despair, she hanged herself in Kunning Palace, leaving behind only her seven-year-old daughter-Fifth Princess Chu Ning.

Of the Old General Song’s household, Song Duhe was the only one who survived.

Back then, he was still a carefree young master who spent his days following his cousin, the Crown Prince, and singing his praises.

While the Crown Prince was responsible for dazzling everyone with his talents, Song Duhe was responsible for bragging to others: “My brother, the Crown Prince, is truly a dragon among men.”

That was the happiest time of his life. Unfortunately, time did not stand still in that moment.

Rivers flow east and time flies like an arrow; it is never subject to human will.

Song Duhe had crawled out through a dog hole to secretly buy beggar’s chicken. By the time he crawled back through the hole clutching the chicken, he found the entire Song Family residence awash in a river of blood.

An old servant covered his mouth and quickly smuggled him away from the Song Family, fleeing toward Jiangnan.

The old servant told him what had happened to the Song Family, but the man’s knowledge was limited. Many details were only uncovered by Song Duhe himself after he returned to the Capital, silently visiting places and gathering evidence.

The two of them, old and young, settled in Jiangnan, living under assumed names and keeping to themselves.

The old servant learned the craft of making tofu, and his tofu pudding was unparalleled. He relied on this trade to support Song Duhe.

Song Duhe, meanwhile, transformed from a pampered young master into a restrained youth carrying a blood-deep grudge.

In the past, he actually hated studying. He had driven away several tutors invited by his family with his antics.

He had only cared about cockfighting and dog racing, idling away his time with a group of fellow playboys.

At that time, the Song Family was at its peak. Not wanting to draw too much attention, they let him play as he pleased, as long as he didn’t do anything wicked or treat human life like grass.

But in Jiangnan, he would secretly crouch beneath the walls of the academy just to listen to the teachers’ lectures.

Over time, the teacher realized he had no money but was eager to learn, so he proactively opened the doors wider to let his voice carry further.

In return, Song Duhe would sweep the academy clean and tend to the vegetable patches so the teacher would have fresh greens to eat.

He also practiced martial arts. He worked as an assistant to a master at a martial arts hall. Even when he was pushed to the ground, he didn’t care. Every day, he brought tofu pudding and volunteered for chores, rushing to do the dirty and exhausting work that others avoided.

Once, the martial arts master needed to write a letter and originally intended to ask the shopkeeper next door to do it for him.

Song Duhe offered to write it himself. As soon as he set brush to paper, his excellent calligraphy stunned everyone.

Afterward, the people at the martial arts hall clamored for him to write letters for them, and he finally gained a foothold there.

He was the most hardworking student at both the academy and the martial arts hall.

Others would sometimes advise him that he was young and should take care of his health instead of pushing himself so hard.

No one knew that for every day he delayed his return to the Capital, the bloodstains of the Song Family at the Duke’s Mansion grew a shade darker.

He was desperate to go back to clear their names and wash away those stains.

He truly could not wait, and he dared not waste a single moment.

He only hated his past self for being so ignorant-how could he have lived so complacently, just waiting to eat and die?

Years later, the old servant passed away. Song Duhe buried him, and after paying his respects, he packed up the tofu stall and sold it for some silver. Then, traveling through the wind and sleeping in the wild, he made his way to the Capital.

Not long after settling down in the Capital, he rescued me.