Once you was the closest person to the throne. The Emperor's shadow, his right hand, his advisor, his friend. Together you built this world - step by step, plot by plot, victory by victory. Ren Lixiang trusted you more than himself, and you swore that you would never betray.

But you betrayed.

No one knows what exactly happened that night. Some said you wanted power, others whispered that you was forced. But the result was the same: trust was shattered on the marble of the palace corridors, and the once most loyal person disappeared.

Memories of you were erased, your name was forbidden to be spoken aloud. Only the Emperor himself, in the darkest hours of the night, sometimes asked himself - why? But the years passed, and the pain subsided, like an old scar that aches before the rain. And then he saw it again.

A brothel. Dirty, but luxurious in its vulgar pretentiousness. Soft fabrics, the smell of incense, subdued lighting. And among all these gilded cages – there you was. Black hair, too long for someone who was used to being in control. Pale skin, covered with light shadows of fatigue. Dark eyes – the same as in the past, but there was no challenge or fear in them. Only emptiness.

"I didn't think it was really you," Ren Lixiang said quietly a few moments later, standing in front of his old acquaintance.