“Chen’er, my Chen’er!”
Tears streaming down her face, the empress threw herself over the head, cradling it in her arms. Glaring hatefully at Wen Zheng, she shouted: “You killed my Chen’er! I swear I’ll make you pay with your life one day!”
Wen Zheng snorted. “Your precious son wasn’t killed by me. If you want justice, take it up with my royal father.”
The emperor stared in disbelief at Wen Chen’s head, then at Wen Zheng, still clueless as to what had happened.
Wen Zheng casually wiped the blood from his sword. “Royal Father, I only captured my third brother and disguised his face to look like the General. It was you who insisted on wiping out the General—giving no quarter to loyal men. That’s what led us here today.”
Hearing this, the emperor felt dizzy and coughed up another mouthful of blood.
“Chen’er was your own blood and kin. He never even had serious conflict with you. Why push him to death?”
Wen Zheng sneered. “No serious conflict? I tolerated him again and again! Over the years, how many times did he trip me up, in secret and in public? I held back each time, for the sake of brotherhood. After all, as your sons, competition is inevitable. That he coveted my position as crown prince wasn’t surprising.”
At this, Wen Zheng’s gaze sharpened. He swung his sword, slashing the redwood table before him to pieces. The emperor and empress, seated beside it, paled in fright.
“I hadn’t wanted to press him this far. If anyone’s to blame, it’s him.”
“That day, I was protecting the entire Yongning Marquis Household and trying to get them to safety, but we were ambushed repeatedly along the way. After investigating, I found that most of the attackers were sent by my dear third brother. Since he made the first move against me—why should I hold back?”
Wen Zheng looked down at the two people on the ground. They were now pale with fear, stripped of their usual arrogance. It was satisfying—yet a faint sadness rose in his heart.
He sighed. “But don’t think for a moment that the Third Prince was a good person. All these years, you cycled through concubines endlessly. Guess who kept supplying them? It was him. Those women hollowed out your health. He thought that if he could just get rid of me and quietly let you die from exhaustion, the throne would fall into his lap. What a joke.”
The emperor raised his head. His lips trembled, voice lacking strength: “Wen Zheng, you killed your own brother, and now you defame him even in death. You will be punished for this!”
Wen Zheng rubbed his temple. “You know the truth. You just don’t want to admit it.”
Then he placed a blank imperial edict and the jade seal in front of the emperor. Calmly, he said, “Enough. At this point, just write the abdication edict. That way you can keep your life. If not—well, I can’t promise what I’ll do next.”
The emperor took the brush with shaking hands, started to write—then abruptly shoved the edict away and cursed, “You ungrateful, disloyal wretch! I won’t write it! Without my edict, even if you seize the throne, you’ll be scorned by all. If your claim to the throne is illegitimate, how many people will truly follow you?”
Wen Zheng tried to suppress his growing impatience. “Royal Father, you still don’t get it. To the people, it doesn’t matter who sits on the throne. It’s not about bloodline—it’s about capability and virtue. Whoever brings peace and prosperity will win the people’s hearts.”
The emperor roared, “Nonsense! I’ve ruled for decades—how could a brat like you know better than me?”
Wen Zheng sneered. “Believe what you want. But the moment you die, it won’t take the people more than a few months to forget you.”
Glancing at the sky, Wen Zheng’s unease grew stronger. He no longer wanted to waste time.
“If you won’t write it, fine. Once I kill you, as the crown prince, I’ll still inherit the throne.”
With that, he waved his hand. The General’s men surrounded the emperor.
Finally, the emperor panicked. Arrogant for decades, he never imagined he’d one day die by the very blade he had raised.
Just then, a bloodied eunuch burst into the hall, panicked and trembling, and knelt before Wen Zheng.
“Your Highness, something terrible has happened! There’s a force outside the city gate. Their leader… he says he wants to see you—personally!”
As he spoke, the eunuch pulled a scrap of cloth from his robes and handed it to Wen Zheng.
“He said, as long as you look at this—you’ll come.”
Wen Zheng took it. The moment he saw the pattern on it, he was shaken to the core.
Because that scrap came from the very garment Ah Heng had worn the day she was buried.
The man outside the city—was undoubtedly Shen Zhengyu.
“Let’s go. We’re meeting him now!”
The General raised his sword to the emperor’s neck. “What about this dog of an emperor?”
Wen Zheng glanced back and made his decision. “Bring him and the empress too—to the city gates.”
This was the day he and Shen Zhengyu—twins by fate—would destroy each other.
How could their father not be there to witness it with his own eyes?
Before long, they arrived at the city gate. As expected, Shen Zhengyu sat on horseback, calm and composed, waiting for them to arrive.
When Wen Zheng arrived, he teased, “Dear older brother, you’ve finally come.”
At that moment, General Zhenbei looked at Shen Zhengyu in shock, his eyes shifting between him and Wen Zheng repeatedly.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, this… Why do you and he look so alike?”
Wen Zheng sneered coldly, “Because he’s my full-blooded younger brother. Of course we resemble each other.”
Now the surrounding soldiers all turned to stare in astonishment.
They had long heard rumors that this year’s top scholar looked nearly identical to the Crown Prince. Back then they thought it was just hearsay—now seeing it with their own eyes, it was as if they were carved from the same mold.
The General hesitated and said, “But… when did the imperial family gain such a person? We knew nothing of this…”
Wen Zheng looked at Shen Zhengyu, their eyes locking, sparks practically flying from the intensity of their gaze.
After a moment, Wen Zheng raised an eyebrow and even explained, as if kindly: “Imperial twins are considered inauspicious. Our royal father feared others would seize on it as a weakness, so he heartlessly sent one of us away. And now, here we are, forced into fratricide—thanks to him.”
Just then, the Emperor caught sight of Shen Zhengyu, and a glimmer of hope lit his eyes. He said eagerly, “Yu’er, good child, have you come today to save your father?”
At this point, his hands and feet were bound by the General. Unable to move, he twisted his body as best he could, eyes brimming with tears: “If you save me today, I’ll give you the position of Crown Prince—as a way to make up for all these years of neglect.”
Unexpectedly, Shen Zhengyu laughed coldly, “Royal Father, have you still not understood the situation? Today I’m fighting Wen Zheng not for the title of Crown Prince—but for the throne itself.”
“Also, this place is no longer your stage. You no longer have a voice here.”
With that, he waved a hand, and someone behind him rolled something forward, fully covered by a black cloth so no one could see what it was.
Then he tore the cloth off—revealing a woman beneath.
Gasps echoed all around.
At the sight of her face, Wen Zheng completely lost control, roaring, “Ah Heng! You’re still alive—I knew it, I knew you hadn’t died!”
After more than a month apart, Quan Heng laid eyes on Wen Zheng again. What caught her attention first was his head of stark white hair.
Though he was only just over twenty, his hair was completely white. She didn’t know how long he’d gone without rest—his eyes were sunken with dark circles, his lips dry and cracked.
She couldn’t imagine how much pain he’d endured while she was gone.
Just one look from afar, and her tears overflowed.
“Ah Zheng… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you last time…”
Watching the two of them gaze at each other with such sorrow and tenderness, Shen Zhengyu felt both pained and agitated. Remembering his purpose here, he suddenly grabbed Quan Heng and threatened, “Wen Zheng, I’ll ask you just once—do you want the throne, or do you want the woman?”
“If you choose her, give the throne to me. I’ll spare your lives. But you must leave the capital and never return.”
Wen Zheng sneered, “I don’t believe a single word out of your mouth. If you really become emperor, I bet you’ll have us killed before we even get past the city gates.”
Shen Zhengyu raised an eyebrow and clicked his tongue, sighing, “You’re not wrong. But the current situation is out of your hands. Twenty li outside the city, the army of Dongyang has already arrived. Today, whoever wins the war wins everything.”
At these words, Wen Zheng glared at him, shocked. “Shen Zhengyu! You actually colluded with a foreign nation? That’s treason!”
“What did you promise them to get them to send troops for you?”
Shen Zhengyu smirked and said, “Not much. Just twenty cities.”
Hearing this, the Emperor coughed up a mouthful of blood, shaking with rage. “Yu’er, I thought you’d be better than your brother… I didn’t expect you to be such a beast!”
“You’ve been completely blinded by power. You’re unfit to be crown prince—unfit even to be a citizen of Great Jin!”
In the next moment, Shen Zhengyu grabbed Quan Heng by the collar with one hand, and with the other, drew a sword and pressed it to the Emperor’s neck.
“You’re the tyrant here. What right do you have to judge me?”
His eyes were tinged red, years of grievance flooding to the surface, consumed by bitter hatred.
“The person least fit to be emperor or father in this world—is you!”
Then, without hesitation, he swung the sword—severing the Emperor’s head in one stroke. Blood sprayed instantly.
The Empress, who had been standing beside him and witnessed it all, screamed, “Shen Zhengyu! He was still your father! How could you?! You beast! You absolute beast!”
Shen Zhengyu forced down the urge to kill again, shouting, “I was right! He deserved to die! The shame and suffering I’ve endured for over twenty years—all because of him! His death is justice!”
His face twisted with madness, he looked down at the severed head with a crazed expression. “I’ve imagined a thousand ways to torment him to death, but in the end, I gave him a swift one. He should thank me!”
