"What, you no longer wish to accompany me?"
The man's handsome face was shadowed with the pallor of approaching death. His gaze turned cool as he looked at the stunning woman kneeling before the Dragon Bed.
Among three thousand beauties in the harem, she alone had held his favor.
"Your Majesty, this humble concubine is willing," the woman replied, pressing her forehead to the ground in a deep kowtow that she maintained without rising.
A look of relief crossed the man's face. Summoning his last strength, he pulled her into his embrace and murmured with infinite regret and unwillingness: "A'fu, don't blame me. If there's a next life, I'll make you my empress."
...
Xiao Yintang let out a sharp cry and jerked upright in bed, his eyes flying open. Cold sweat covered his forehead, and his hands trembled slightly from fear.
"Crown Prince, what's wrong?"
A concubine sleeping beside him startled awake and hurriedly knelt up, watching him with fearful eyes.
Since the incident with Cao Shi, the Crown Prince's temperament had grown increasingly dark and unpredictable. The Crown Princess's illness still hadn't improved—she rarely showed herself these days. Rumors said the Eastern Palace was haunted—sometimes in the dead of night, terrifying wails would emerge from the room Cao Shi had occupied. No eunuch or maid dared approach, and everyone already walked on eggshells. Then half a month ago, the imperial uncle had gotten into trouble, causing the Crown Prince to receive another imperial reprimand. In private, his temper had become even more volatile.
Xiao Yintang turned sharply to look at the half-naked woman beside him, his eyes flashing with disgust as he spat out a curt, "Get out."
The concubine reacted as if granted amnesty. Without even properly dressing, she grabbed her clothes to cover her chest and hastily scrambled off the bed, fleeing the room.
It was only the fourth watch—the deepest hour of night.
Xiao Yintang slowly lay back down and closed his eyes, but sleep eluded him completely.
His mind replayed a scene from the previous day.
Yesterday, when the imperial court suspended activities for a day of mourning after the death of Madam Pan, mother of the imperial clansman Prince Heyang, Xiao Yintang had gone to pay respects. There, he'd spotted the female relatives of Duke Wei's Mansion from afar.
Among them was Zhen—the woman from his dreams.
Ever since returning from Quanzhou last year, Xiao Yintang had periodically dreamed of the Zhen family's daughter.
The dreams were strange. At first, they were just fragmented, disjointed scenes. He often dreamed of intimate moments with her—enamored with her body and charmed by her gentle innocence.
This wasn't particularly surprising. When he'd forced her into his carriage to leave the city that day, he'd already felt drawn to the Zhen family's daughter. Thoughts by day bred dreams by night.
But gradually, as the dreams recurred, he began dimly realizing he seemed to be experiencing another life in these dreams—one parallel to reality yet different.
In this world, she had married Pei You'an, the only man Xiao Yintang feared.
But in the dreams, she had first married Pei Xiuzhi, then been taken by Xiao Yintang himself, becoming his exclusive possession until his ascension to the throne. Just two years later, after being fatally wounded during a reckless campaign against the northern tribes, on his deathbed he couldn't bear to part with her and made her follow him in death.
Everything ended abruptly there.
This dream, like an alternate life, had been vague before. He'd tried to grasp it clearly, but it remained shrouded in mist.
Yet tonight, after waking from the dream once more, he finally grasped everything with perfect clarity.From the moment Pei You'an was brought to Wuding by Xiao Lie as a young boy, seeds of discord had been sown in Xiao Yintang's heart.
Even then, he knew he could never stand shoulder to shoulder with this slightly older Pei, as his father had hoped.
At that time, there was no direct conflict between them. His hostility toward Pei You'an stemmed purely from human nature.
Xiao Yintang was talented and, as the sole son of the prince's household, the object of boundless affection—a combination that fostered extreme arrogance in his character.
He could not tolerate being overshadowed by others.
And Pei You'an's arrival shattered this equilibrium.
The reputation of a "young minister of exceptional ability" that the world bestowed upon him was no exaggeration. After recovering from his injuries in Wuding, he quickly demonstrated remarkable administrative talent. Later, his military prowess shone unmistakably like the stars in the sky during the Wuding uprising and the campaigns against the Northern Barbarians.
Though Xiao Yintang was also outstanding, he could never surpass Pei You'an. Beside him, Xiao Yintang was destined to pale in comparison.
By the time Xiao Yintang ascended the throne, Pei You'an had been dead for several years, yet his fame endured. In Suyeh City, the temple built in his honor never lacked for incense, and on his birthday, people from all directions would come to offer prayers, bowing before his statue to make their wishes.
In the hearts of the people, the deceased Pei You'an had been deified, becoming an idol who could safeguard their peace.
After his coronation, Xiao Yintang's insistence on personally leading the campaign against the barbarians, despite his ministers' protests, was largely driven by the deep-seated frustration of having been overshadowed for so long.
He was desperate to prove to his court and the world that he, Xiao Yintang, was no less capable than Pei You'an—only that he had lacked the opportunity before.
Beyond jealousy and a sense of unrecognized talent, the extraordinary attention and affection Xiao Lie lavished on this outsider also fueled Xiao Yintang's resentment.
He even felt that if Pei You'an had been his father's other son, Xiao Lie would have unhesitatingly cast him aside and elevated Pei You'an to the position of Heir Apparent.
Thus, the seeds of envy took root and grew within him day by day.
Xiao Yintang endured.
Then, one day, an unexpected event occurred.
It was the second year of Xiao Lie's reign. Pei You'an, then at the pinnacle of his power as the most esteemed official, unexpectedly requested to leave the capital and take up the post of Military Commissioner to guard the frontier when the barbarians invaded. Years passed, and he never returned.
This move shocked the entire court, including Xiao Yintang. Though reports of Pei You'an's exploits in pacifying the north continued to reach the capital, pricking Xiao Yintang's heart like needles, he managed to suppress his emotions—until one day, his mother, Zhou Shi, revealed a shocking secret.
Zhou Shi told him that it might have been this very secret that compelled Pei You'an to leave the capital, and the emperor to let him go.
She warned Xiao Yintang not to assume that Pei You'an's departure meant he could rest easy. This was a dangerous hidden threat. Should the emperor ever change his mind, his position as Crown Prince would be in grave peril.Xiao Yintang finally awoke as if from a dream.
Years of suspicion and jealousy drowned his heart in that moment.
He made a decision.
He knew that Pei You'an's health had been declining in recent years since his departure beyond the frontier, often requiring medication.
Xiao Yintang secretly plotted, exhausting all schemes. Half a year later, he finally managed to bribe a servant in the Military Commissioner's residence who had access to the kitchen, instructing them to stealthily add a colorless, odorless poison to Pei You'an's medicine.
It was a winter night beyond the Great Wall, where white grass and yellow sands stretched endlessly, and snow fell upon the Ji Gate. After the bowl of medicine was delivered to Pei You'an's study, unlike his usual habit of drinking it immediately before burying himself in official documents, he set down his brush and sat quietly by the candlelight for a long while.
The charcoal fire in the brazier died out, and the cold gradually seeped into the room.
The servant, who had been spying from outside, later recounted that Pei You'an's expression was calm, as if lost in thought.
Years of toiling over documents and the toll on his spirit had left him somewhat gaunt, his pallor as white as the Underwear he wore that night, bleak as snow.
He sat in silence for a long time, until the medicine turned cold, devoid of any warmth.
Finally, his gaze settled on the bowl. After staring at it for what seemed an eternity—just as the servant grew terrified, thinking he had been discovered—Pei You'an picked up the bowl and drank it all in one go.
That very night, Pei You'an's old illness flared up violently. He vomited blood profusely. When his subordinates rushed to his side in tears, he remained composed, even jesting with them until dawn, when he passed away quietly.
Xiao Yintang never knew whether Pei You'an had glimpsed something that made him choose death willingly or if he had truly ingested the poison by mistake, ultimately succumbing to its effects.
It didn’t matter. What mattered was that in the world of his dream, he had emerged as the ultimate victor.
The year after Pei You'an's death, sensing the emperor's growing suspicion, Xiao Yintang orchestrated a meticulous palace coup to avoid further complications. He ascended the throne smoothly, becoming the new emperor of Great Wei.
The only miscalculation in his dream had been his personal campaign after ascending the throne. That fatal decision led to his premature death, leaving him with endless regret!
Xiao Yintang opened his eyes again, leaped from his bed, and strode to the window. With a forceful push, he flung open the heavy shutters of his chamber and exhaled deeply into the boundless dark sky, feeling all his previous melancholy dissipate.
Earlier that day, his father-in-law had privately advised him that all he needed to do now was exercise patience—to remain steady amid the chaos.
As long as the emperor had no other sons and he himself maintained a low profile, the title of Crown Prince would never slip from his grasp.
He was right. Xiao Yintang knew this was not the time for rash action.
Yet this dream, so vivid it felt real, had not only invigorated his spirit but also nourished his ambition like fertile soil. It filled him with a sense of strategic mastery and the exhilarating feeling of holding all the cards.
More than being a Crown Prince constrained by others, he craved the supreme dominance he had experienced in his dream—the early taste of standing atop the world.
He would indeed bide his time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike without fail.
Once he ascended the throne as he desired, he would never repeat the same mistakes.In his dreams, Zhen was within reach—alive, she was his; dead, she would still be his ghost.
But in this reality, she was so far away, as distant as their chance encounter today, where he could only gaze at her but never hold her.
Yet he knew she would be his again, sooner or later. It was fate.
Just like in the dream of a lifetime, where he was the true Son of Heaven ordained by destiny, and in the end, he claimed everything.
This lifetime would be no different.
Of this, he was utterly certain.
OpenNovel