As the year-end approaches in Bianzhou City, the frost is deep, chilling to the bone.

The sky has not yet broken dawn, the surroundings are shrouded in darkness, and everything is silent.

In a room in the back courtyard of the Prefectural Magistrate Mansion.

Xie Wanqing’s eyes are tightly shut, still in deep sleep, but her brows are furrowed, as if caught in a nightmare.

Indeed, she is caught in a nightmare.

Since that dream where she saw Erqing being beaten to death, causing her to vomit blood from anger, she has only briefly dreamt of Lu Ziyuan’s bedpost, where her old clothes hung and he appeared with empty, lifeless eyes.

And now, after many years, the long-absent dream returns once more.

This time, Xie Wanqing has no corporeal form, light and airy.

Because she is already dead.

She witnesses what happens after her death.

The images are blurry, not continuous.

First, the backyard of the Lu family is in chaos.

She sees Lu Ziyuan holding her corpse tightly, and from the exertion, blood stains seep through the clothes, making people realize he is actually wounded, and it seems he is seriously injured.

The wound tears open, but he completely ignores it, his demeanor distorted to the point of losing human form.

Not even the ladies of the Lu family can get close.

For two days and nights, he sits on the bed, holding the person in his arms, muttering to himself, until an old injury causes him to faint once more, yet his grip does not loosen.

The scene shifts, and thousands of soldiers break into the Imperial Palace.

With his greatest vulnerability gone, the star of war has no scruples left, like a demon descending upon the world, leaving the Imperial Palace awash in blood.

Fratricide, patricide, ascending to the throne.

Even his status as a legitimate prince was never made known to the public.

In the eyes of the people, he is nothing more than a traitor and villain.

But none of this matters to him.

What matters is when the girl in the ice coffin will wake up.

He is driven to madness, unwilling to accept that she is gone, reacting with violence even at the mention of the word ’death’.

Numerous mystics and sages enter the palace.

Numerous mystics and sages die.

Day after day, winter goes and spring comes.

The effect of the ice coffin diminishes, and as summer approaches, the stench of the corpse becomes ever more pronounced.

The world is abuzz, declaring the Emperor mad.

The Xie family kneels at the palace gates, begging to let their beloved daughter rest in peace.

In this dream, Xie Wanqing cannot leave Lu Ziyuan’s side, so this is her first time seeing her parents and elder brother after her demise.

Seeing her aged and haggard father and mother, she feels guilt and heartbreak.

Logically, she should blame Lu Ziyuan.

Everything is his fault.

But seeing the man who tormented himself to such a wretched state in his twenties, his temples grey, living like the walking dead, she can’t even muster resentment.

Only powerlessness.

Just powerlessness.

It turns out, he meant every word.

He punished everyone who had hurt her, himself included.

On the second day of the Xie family kneeling at the palace gate, Lu Ziyuan relented.

Xie Wanqing breathes a long sigh of relief.

She can only follow Lu Ziyuan, and Lu Ziyuan insists on guarding her body every day.

Seeing her own corpse covered in stains is truly frightening.

She thinks that once her body is laid to rest in the Imperial Mausoleum, he ought to return to normal.

But he doesn’t.

The scene shifts again.

Yellow sand flies, the sky is still filled with blood.

This time, the drums resound noisily.

The sounds of hoofbeats, clashing swords, and the soldiers’ cries rising higher and higher echo to the heavens.

Ruined walls and white bones are everywhere.

This is the Northern Border Battlefield.

The Great Khan’s soldiers are massacring the city. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Each swing of the blade is accompanied by constant curses from the slaughtered Jin people, blood spraying into the air, swept up by the fierce winds, flying and slowly descending.

As if it were raining blood.