Chapter 150 -
The tent fell into a deep, heavy silence as Nine updated the timeline on his glowing screen.
[System 009: Correction. The hatred runs even deeper, Host. It started twelve years ago, when both Xiao Chen and Xi Wenzhe were just twelve years old.]
Yueqing’s eyes softened, a sudden ache blooming in her chest. Twelve years old... he was still just a child back then.
[System 009: At that time, the Emperor began feeling immense guilt over your death. Missing you more with each passing day, he tried to reach out to his Third Prince to make amends. But the Empress couldn’t allow a bond to form between father and son. Since Xiao Chen was protected by male lead halo logic and proved impossible to quietly kill, she chose the next best option: she forced the Emperor to send him away to the brutal Northern Border for military training.]
"At twelve?!" Yueqing’s voice dropped, a cold, dangerous fury seeping into her tone. "While the Crown Prince stayed comfortably in the capital eating warm meals, my son was dragged to a freezing battlefield?!"
[System 009: Yes. He was forced to train among common guards and young warriors. And that was where he met twelve-year-old Xi Wenzhe. At the time, Wenzhe’s father was not yet a Duke, but simply a high-ranking general running the northern training grounds and troops. And because Duke Xi’s family is blood-related to the Empress, Wenzhe’s faction was tied to the Crown Prince from the very beginning.]
Nine hovered closer, displaying an old memory-record visual in the air: two young twelve-year-old boys standing back-to-back in the freezing snow, covered in mud and blood, wielding heavy steel swords.
[System 009: But as children, they didn’t care about politics. For four long years, Xiao Chen and Wenzhe were inseparable best friends. They fought side-by-side, survived brutal ambushes, and bled in the cold mud together. The army gave them terrifying nicknames.... Wenzhe was the ’Bloodthirsty Monster,’ and Xiao Chen was the ’Mad Prince.’ They were an unstoppable pair.]
"Then what happened?" Yueqing asked softly, her heart bleeding for the young boy who thought he had finally found a brother.
[System 009: At sixteen, after four years of war, they returned to the imperial court. Xiao Chen genuinely believed Wenzhe was his brother-in-arms, his most trusted ally. But Wenzhe had chosen his side long before they ever stepped back into the capital. The friendship... was a calculated sham from the start.]
Nine’s blue-green glow turned a sharp, angry crimson as he pulled up the darker historical logs.
[System 009: Wenzhe didn’t just side with the Crown Prince; he actively used four years of Xiao Chen’s absolute trust against him. Wenzhe leaked Xiao Chen’s private military layouts to the Empress. He forged letters in Xiao Chen’s handwriting to make it look like the Third Prince was planning a rebellion, and he even planted stolen imperial seals in Xiao Chen’s quarters.]
Yueqing’s hands clenched so tightly into the furs of her bed that her knuckles turned stark white.
"Wenzhe framed him?"
[System 009: Completely. Wenzhe personally stood before the Emperor and gave false testimony against his best friend. To make matters worse, during the investigation, Wenzhe ambushed Xiao Chen’s private guards, the very young boys who had fought beside them at the border and executed them to keep them quiet. Xiao Chen was branded a traitor, stripped of his titles, and banished right back to the freezing northern border for three grueling years.]
A suffocating, icy silence settled over the tent.
The image of Xiao Chen sitting in the teahousem, arrogant, cold, sitting with one leg raised in his red robe, trusting no one, and sneering at Wenzhe’s name.. finally made heartbreaking, infuriating sense.
The boy hadn’t just grown up in the Cold Palace without a mother. When he finally found a friend, that friend used him, murdered his loyal guards, stabbed him in the back, and threw him into exile.
"He returned to the palace to start his revenge," Yueqing whispered, her voice shaking with quiet, deadly rage. "Not for power... but because Wenzhe built his entire career on my son’s ruined youth."
[System 009: Exactly. That is why General Xi and Wenzhe is a villain to Xiao Chen. Wenzhe built his fame, his title, and his standing as the ’general of the empire’ by stepping on the Third Prince’s blood.]
Yueqing sat on her plush bed, her breathing slow and heavy. Every single shred of warmth or duty she felt toward Wenzhe vanished into thin air.
[Wenzhe...] Yueqing thought, her black eyes flashing with a fierce, terrifying light as a cold smile touched her lips.
Nine quickly cleared his throat, adjusting the digital text on the floating screen.
[System 009: After returning at nineteen from winning that brutal war, Xiao Chen spent the next five years building powerful alliances and earning the Emperor’s favor. Right now, he stands so powerful that if anything were to happen to the current Crown Prince, Xiao Chen is fully prepared to step up and take the throne. And that is what terrifies Duke Xi to his core. That is why Duke Xi is desperately trying to find a way to eliminate him once and for all.]
Sue Yueqing sat completely frozen on her plush bed, total speechlessness washing over her.
Her mind raced back to every interaction, every scene, and every piece of plot she had ever known about this world. She had always known this was a story about a villainous family, that Wenzhe was a cold, ruthless man who didn’t hesitate to cut down his enemies. But she had never known this. She had never known the vile, pathetic betrayal that made Wenzhe a villain in the first place.
He had taken a twelve-year-old boy’s trust, fought by his side for four years, and then stabbed him in the back, murdered his young guards, and thrown him to the freezing border just to climb the royal ladder.
A heavy, sickening feeling settled deep in her stomach.
Yueqing looked down at her hands, her breath coming out in a slow, shaky exhale. Wenzhe was her husband in this life. Though her main goal make him hate her and eventually kill her.. recently she had been getting more favorability point than villain points already making her to think that she might just remain in the world longer.
But now? After knowing what he did to her son?
She didn’t even know if she could look at Wenzhe the same way ever again without feeling a wave of absolute disgust.