Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

Shen Yu stuffed all the blood-stained socks into the previous cubicle, which was now empty. He planned to take them all out and throw them away when he had time.

"Your Majesty, His Majesty has not yet discovered my identity, so my situation is still relatively good." At night, Shen Yu lay on his side on the bed. He suddenly spoke without warning, and his voice entered the room through a beaded curtain.

The red candle on Wen Yu's side had not yet gone out. He was still holding those medical books in his hand, propping his forehead with one hand, silently looking at the dense text on the paper.

"Eunuch Li will be here the day after tomorrow, then you can switch with me."

Wen Yu frowned silently. He put down the medical book and after a long while, he hummed in agreement.

The red candles in the room went out, and Wen Yu took off his outer robe, turned his back, and lay down against the wall. He soon turned over again, lifted his eyelids, and looked at the other side of the beaded curtain.

Shen Yu rarely lit candles at night; usually, Wen Yu would trim the wick, leaving Shen Yu in complete darkness. Occasionally, Wen Yu could hear the sound of Shen Yu turning pages in his book. Despite the complete darkness around him, Shen Yu could still calmly read in such an environment.

Wen Yu had absolutely no interest in Shen Yu's red book; he had flipped through a few pages and thought it was all nonsense.

Shen Yu sometimes speaks incoherently, probably influenced by that tattered book.

There was a faint sound of pages turning over Shen Yu's side. Wen Yu stared at the beaded curtain for a while, but he still couldn't see anything. Finally, he turned over and faced the wall to sleep.

He took off the gold mask and placed it aside. Wen Yu pressed his palm against it and felt the rough, hard texture of the mask.

Wen Yu closed his eyes, his fingers lingering on the surface for a moment, unconsciously feeling a stinging pain on the right side of his face.

Xuan Lin...

Wen Yu couldn't remember when he last met the Yue Emperor. After entering Kunning Palace, he rarely even stepped out of the inner palace.

Wen Yu frowned, recalling the past, and finally remembered a clue amidst the dull pain on his face.

Perhaps it was on his wedding day.

That was the second time Xuan Lin had asked him to come down the mountain to help. Wen Yu had already suffered damage to his meridians during his first trip down the mountain due to the war between the Yue and Sheng kingdoms. He had to withdraw from the chaotic world at that time and return to the mountain where he had been cultivating to slowly recover from his injuries.

Despite all difficulties, Xuan Lin went to Chengyuan Mountain again.

The mountain has nine thousand stone steps, overgrown with thorny vines, and is often ravaged by blizzards and thunder. Xuan Lin, who was still a prince at the time, climbed up step by step, and in the freezing cold of winter, he invited Wen Yu down the mountain three times.

His master had told Wen Yu that his fate was fraught with misfortune and that he was destined for disaster. Chengyuan Mountain was his refuge, and if he left, he would surely face great calamity in the future.

Wen Yu has been on the mountain for over a decade. All his fellow disciples entered the world at the age of 18, while he remained idle on the mountain.

When Wen Yu first went down the mountain with Xuan Lin, his tendons were severed, fulfilling his master's words. Now, Xuan Lin asked Wen Yu to go down the mountain again, and after much hesitation, Wen Yu still left Cheng Yuan Mountain.

Xuan Lin possesses the talent to govern the world and is sincere and upright; he should be a wise ruler. Now, in this chaotic and turbulent era, Wen Yu intends to help him ascend the throne and end the chaos in the Yue Kingdom.

However, Wen Yu's meridians were severed, rendering him less skilled than a military general. Moreover, at that time, the Yue state was ruled by powerful relatives of the emperor, and influential ministers manipulated politics, making Xuan Lin merely their puppet.

Sending Wen Yu disguised as a female prime minister into the inner palace was a last resort at the time. This would both conceal their true intentions and allow Wen Yu to infiltrate the Yue Kingdom and strategize with Xuan Lin.

At that time, three or four scholars entered the palace with Wen Yu. They were all his junior brothers who had followed him into the world from Chengyuan Mountain.

After enduring hardship and biding his time for nearly half a year, Wen Yu finally eliminated the powerful Left Chancellor in the year when winter was approaching, and supported Xuan Lin to ascend the throne as emperor.

It was a time when the clouds parted and the moon shone brightly, a time of great success and recognition. Wen Yu, having shed her layers of heavy imperial concubine attire, suddenly heard another imperial decree on her way to the main hall to receive it.

Xuan Lin wanted to make him empress.

Wen Yu stood there, stunned. He almost thought he was hallucinating. The world spun around him, and Xuan Lin stood in front of him, with the same figure and the same face, saying words he could barely understand.

What stunning beauty? What's with making him empress? He's a man!

Wen Yu could barely stand. The broken tendons in his hands and feet throbbed with pain, as if mocking all the hard work he had put in over the years as utterly foolish.

Wen Yu possessed little martial arts skill and concealed his identity after entering the inner palace, rarely contacting Cheng Yuanshan. He was essentially dragged to the Empress's palace by the guards.

The heavy jewelry he had worn for most of the year has now been changed into a more luxurious empress's gown.

Wen Yu struggled until her fingernails cracked, but all her efforts were in vain. Xuan Lin had already ascended the throne and was now the emperor, with the entire Yue Kingdom under his control.

On his wedding day, he drank so much that he was covered in alcohol and staggered as he walked, relying entirely on the help of the maids beside him to keep him going.

When Xuan Lin entered the Empress's palace, he was still holding onto the waist of a palace maid. His eyes were glazed over, and he kept muttering "beauty, beauty."

Wen Yu sat on the edge of the bed, his body ice-cold. He couldn't understand how a person could change so drastically. The person who had climbed nine thousand steps on Chengyuan Mountain to beg him to come down and save the world was the same person who was now utterly dejected.

Wen Yu gripped the phoenix hairpin tightly in his hand. As Xuan Lin lifted the veil from his head, he suddenly stabbed it towards Xuan Lin's heart. If Xuan Lin wasn't a good emperor, Wen Yu wouldn't have bothered to let him live.

This is the emperor he personally pushed to the throne; regardless of merits or demerits, he bears half the blame.

Unfortunately, Xuan Lin still retained some sense and overturned the table next to him to dodge. Wen Yu's skill was ultimately too low; he was injured and was eventually pinned against the wall by Xuan Lin.

"You, you don't think that just because you're the male lead... I won't dare to do anything to you... I'm the emperor, I'm the emperor, you know that?!"

Xuan Lin kept muttering in Wen Yu's ear. His words were incoherent and illogical. Wen Yu's eyes were filled with ruthlessness. He ignored everything and bit Xuan Lin's arm, tearing off a layer of skin from his arm.

Xuan Lin hissed in pain, grabbed Wen Yu by the hair, and threw him to the ground.

"Xuan Lin, a person like you is not worthy of being emperor." Wen Yu spat out the blood from the corner of his mouth. His phoenix crown was askew, his long hair was messy and disheveled, and with the pale powder on his face, he looked like a freak who couldn't tell the difference between male and female.

Xuan Lin was easily provoked when drunk. He grabbed Wen Yu by the neck and violently tore at his clothes: "Wen Yu, what the hell are you pretending for? Who do you think you are? I won't put up with you!"

"Get out!" Wen Yu was extremely disgusted. He struggled and kicked Xuan Lin's body away, pointing the phoenix hairpin in his hand directly at Xuan Lin.

Xuan Lin scoffed: "The people outside the hall are all my men. I don't mind letting them in to keep watch."

Wen Yu's eyes were bloodshot, his gaze contorted like that of a madman. He stared at Xuan Lin and suddenly laughed, "Isn't it just because you're attracted to my face?"