I was to be executed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Empress Ma smashed Zhu Yuanzhang's jade seal.

"Hey girl...hey girl! Don't scare us..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice began to tremble.

He held her in his arms and gently rocked her.

Just like back then, in that dilapidated thatched hut outside Haozhou City, he held her, who was running a high fever and on the verge of death.

"Wake up...look at us..."

"We were wrong...we were really wrong..."

"Sister, we're not going to be emperors anymore, we're giving up! Open your eyes and look at me!"

Finally, he could no longer hold back his tears.

Large, hot tears slid down from the corners of his wrinkled eyes, dripping onto Empress Ma's cold, magnificent phoenix robe.

It blurred into a dark stain.

"We shouldn't have doubted you...we shouldn't have attacked Mu Ying...we shouldn't have killed so many people..."

"I'm a bastard! I'm not human! I'm the worst kind of man in the world!"

He confessed incoherently.

He tore all his pride, dignity, and pretense to shreds, threw them on the ground, and crushed them under his feet.

All he wanted was to get a glance from her, just one look.

Even if it's a look filled with hatred.

However, no.

The person in my arms remained so quiet.

The silence frightened him.

Zhu Yuanzhang's body began to tremble violently.

A fact he desperately tried to suppress and deny, like a merciless, icy hand, gripped his heart and tightened its grip.

Do not……

No...

She was just asleep.

She was just too tired.

Yes, she must be too tired.

As if trying to convince himself, Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out the hand that once held the power of life and death over the entire nation, but which was now trembling uncontrollably, and slowly reached towards Empress Ma's nose.

No.

There was nothing there.

That familiar, gentle, warm scent was gone.

There was only one place, deathly silent and cold.

Zhu Yuanzhang's hand froze in place.

Time, at this moment, was stretched infinitely.

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

"No--!"

A scream that was not human, extremely shrill, and filled with endless pain and despair, suddenly burst out from Zhu Yuanzhang's throat!

The sound was like the final howl of a dying lone wolf in the snowy night.

The entire Fengtian Hall trembled violently at that roar.

"puff--!"

With that roar, Zhu Yuanzhang abruptly lowered his head.

A mouthful of bright red, scalding hot blood, his heart's blood, gushed out of his mouth!

The blood was like a flamboyant, desperate red plum blossom.

It drew a poignant arc in the air.

Then, all of it was sprinkled onto Empress Ma's bright yellow phoenix robe, embroidered with a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix.

That bright red and that vivid yellow intertwined.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was completely unaware of anything unusual about his body.

He didn't even wipe the blood that kept flowing from the corner of his mouth.

He just stared blankly at the woman in his arms, whose clothes were stained red with his blood.

There was no madness, no violence, no regret in his eyes.

All that remained was a boundless, deathly silence.

With that mouthful of blood spurting out.

His soul, too, was taken away along with it.

He reached out to wipe the bloodstains from her clothes.

But his hands were stained with his own blood.

The more you rub, the larger the red stain becomes.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was so soft, like a wisp of smoke.

"I...I've gotten you dirty..."

His head drooped limply.

His forehead gently pressed against Empress Ma's cold forehead, which was also stained with blood.

"Girl..."

"We...we were really wrong..."

His voice grew softer and softer.

Finally, it vanished completely into that heartbreaking, deathly silence.

Inside the Fengtian Hall, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone was so shocked by the horrific scene before them that they were speechless.

An emperor who had just been all-powerful and influential could be so vulnerable and utterly helpless after losing the woman he loved most in his life.

Zhu Biao, holding Zhu Yuanzhang's arm, was in tears and sobbing uncontrollably.

"Father... Father, please take care of your health..."

He could feel his father's body trembling incessantly, his life force draining away along with the blood from the corner of his mouth.

Xu Da, Lan Yu, and other military generals, these tough and unyielding men, all had tears welling up in their eyes at this moment.

They hated Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion, his cold-bloodedness, and his ruthlessness.

But when they saw that the man who had once led them out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood to create a bright and clear world was now like a lonely old man who had lost everything and was left only with pain, holding his wife's corpse, spitting blood and dying.

At this moment, the hatred in their hearts was replaced by a more complex and profound sorrow.

Between them and Zhu Yuanzhang, there was a distinction between ruler and subject, and a deep-seated grudge.

But between them and Empress Ma, there was the purest camaraderie, the bond between brothers and sisters.

Back then, when they followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world, which one of them hadn't received favors from Empress Ma?

If anyone's pay was insufficient, she would use her own savings to make up the difference.

If someone's letter couldn't be delivered home, she would personally send someone to deliver it back to their hometown.

If anyone was wounded on the battlefield, she would treat them like a younger sister, preparing medicine and soup for them, and showing them warmth and care.

In the hearts of these rough men who crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Empress Ma was not the high and mighty "Mother of the Nation."

She is, for all of them, their little sister.

A family member who is always gentle, always kind, and always silently supports them from behind.

But now, that loved one is gone.

And just like that, she died silently in the arms of the man she had once devoted everything to supporting.

She died in the Fengtian Hall, which should have been the place of her life's glory.

How absurd!

How tragic!

Even Lan Yu, this fearless and reckless man, had tears welling up in his tiger-like eyes at this moment.

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's distraught appearance, he moved his lips, wanting to curse, but couldn't utter a single word.

In the end, he could only slam his fist hard against the golden dragon pillar beside him!

"Bang!"

A muffled thud.

The solid pillar trembled slightly as he smashed it.

His fists were already covered in blood.

"Damn it!"

Lan Yu gritted her teeth and squeezed out those three words.

No one knows who he was actually cursing with those three words.

Is it that cold-blooded and ruthless Zhu Yuanzhang?

Still this damn world?

Or perhaps, it's that powerless self?

It was in this oppressive and suffocating sadness that we found ourselves in this place.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been silent all along, suddenly moved again.

He slowly raised his head.

He ignored his crying son beside him, and also ignored his brothers with their complicated expressions.

His gaze remained fixed solely on the face of the woman in his arms.

"Girl..."

His voice was still so hoarse and so soft.

"Are you cold?"

As he spoke, he wrapped Empress Ma even tighter with his blood-stained dragon robe.

In this way, we can retain the last vestiges of warmth that are fading away from her.

"We were wrong...we were really wrong..."

He started repeating that sentence again.

Like a fool who can only say this one sentence.

"I shouldn't be emperor... What's so good about being emperor?"

"Every day, I have to worry about this and be wary of that... I can't even get a good night's sleep..."

"Look, now that we've become emperor, we've also... ruined you..."

His voice was filled with endless regret.

"How about... we quit?"

He spoke as if he were negotiating with a living person, his tone filled with cautiousness and ingratiation.

"Let's give this throne to Biao'er... to Mu Ying... to anyone..."

"We don't want anything anymore..."

"We'll take you away...we'll go back to Haozhou...back to Huangjue Temple..."

His eyes began to become unfocused.

His thoughts had already drifted back to decades ago.

That era, a time of war and turmoil.

"Let's go back to being beggars... let's beg for food and support you..."

"Or... let's become monks... let's go to a temple and chant sutras to bless you..."

"If only... if only you could wake up... and look at me..."

"Girl...don't scare me..."

As he spoke, his voice began to tremble with emotion, almost as if he were crying.

This emperor, who had just been transformed by suspicion and lust for power, at this moment, reverted to the Zhu Chongba of yesteryear—a man who had nothing yet was willing to give everything for the woman he loved.

He held her body, kneeling on the cold gold bricks, like a child abandoned by the whole world.

Just then.

Something cold landed on his cheek.

Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly taken aback.

He slowly raised his head and looked out at the tall and empty gate of the Fengtian Hall.

I don't know when.

Outside, there were originally just fine snowflakes.

It has already turned into a sky full of heavy, fluffy snow.

The white snowflakes, under the dim yellow sky, fluttered and fell silently.

The entire world was holding the grandest and saddest funeral for this virtuous empress who had lived a virtuous life.

A cold wind, carrying snowflakes, howled in from outside the palace gates.

The wind ruffled Zhu Yuanzhang's white hair and stirred his blood-stained dragon robe.

The wind also caused the hem of the woman's clothes in his arms to flutter.

Zhu Yuanzhang just knelt there.

He let the cold snowflakes fall, one by one, onto him and onto his wife, whose body was already stiff.

Soon, a thin layer of white residue accumulated on their hair and shoulders.

They looked like a couple, embracing each other, walking together until their hair turned white.

Only one is still alive.

One of them has already gone to sleep forever.

Inside the main hall, the crying gradually subsided.

Everyone was shocked by the tragic scene before them.

They looked at the lonely emperor kneeling in the wind and snow.

My heart was filled with mixed feelings.

Pitiful?

hateful?

Or is it just pathetic?

No one can say for sure.

In this desolate silence, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, which had lost all their luster, suddenly twitched.

He remembered something.

His gaze abruptly shifted from Empress Ma's face.

Then, after passing through layers of people, they stared intently at one person.

Zhu Muying.

In his eyes, there was only Zhu Muying.

His face held a hope that Zhu Muying had never seen before, a hope that was almost frantic.

That's the expression on a drowning person's face when they grab onto the last straw.

"My son... my son..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice trembled and became hoarse.

As he moved, he spoke in a voice that was almost like a murmur.

"They...they all say...you are the reincarnation of the Martial Saint..."

"You...you are not an ordinary person..."

Martial Saint?

"You...you must have a way...right?"

Zhu Yuanzhang finally moved in front of Zhu Muying.

He raised his head, his aged face stained with blood and tears, looking up at his son, who was too young.

His eyes were filled with a humble, pleading look.

"My son...please save your mother..."

"You'll definitely find a way to save your mother, won't you?"

"Father! You...you mustn't do this!"

Zhu Biao, who was standing to the side, could no longer bear to watch.

He knelt down, grabbed Zhu Yuanzhang's arm, and cried as he pleaded with him.

"Mother...she's gone...you...you should let her rest in peace..."

"roll!"

"Your mother isn't dead! Your mother is a fairy descended from heaven! How could she die!"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly swung his arm.

That immense force, from who-knows-where, directly flung Zhu Biao aside.

"What do you know!"

With red eyes, Zhu Yuanzhang roared at Zhu Biao.

"Your brother isn't human! He's a Martial Saint! He can bring the dead back to life!"

"He can definitely save your mother!"

After saying that, he ignored Zhu Biao, who was staring in disbelief.

He turned his head and looked at Zhu Muying again.

Then, he made a move that terrified everyone present.

He was holding Empress Ma's body.

Facing Zhu Muying.

He suddenly knelt down!

Slowly, he bent his noble head, a head that he had never bowed to anyone in his entire life.

"Bang!"

A dull, teeth-grinding impact.

Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead slammed heavily against the cold, hard gold brick.

"My son..."

"I... I'm kowtowing to you..."

"Please...please save your mother..."

"Bang!"

Another sound.

Please...

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

one more time.

The dull, desperate sound of kowtowing echoed repeatedly in the deathly silent Fengtian Hall.

Each strike was like a heavy hammer blow, slamming into everyone's hearts.

Zhu Biao was stunned.

Xu Da was dumbfounded.

Lan Yu was stunned.

All the civil and military officials in the court were dumbfounded.

What did they see?

They saw it: the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

That was the Hongwu Emperor, a man of absolute authority, ruthless and merciless, who treated human life as worthless.

At this moment, she knelt in utter humility before her own son.

He kowtowed repeatedly, one kowtow after another.

All for a hope that is simply impossible to achieve.

This scene completely overturned everyone's understanding.

It also completely shattered the idol in their hearts called "Imperial Power".

"Father...no...no!"

Zhu Biao cried out and rushed forward, trying to hug Zhu Yuanzhang and stop him from engaging in this almost self-harming behavior.

But he failed.

Zhu Yuanzhang was a mad, machine-like figure.

But over and over again, he repeated the action of kowtowing.

soon.

Blood flowed down his forehead.

It slid down his aged cheek.

His tears mingled with his.

It dripped onto the cold, gold brick.

It also dripped onto the face of the woman in his arms, the woman who would never wake up again.

"Please... save her..."

"Save her..."

The humble, hoarse pleading voices were accompanied by the dull, desperate sounds of kowtowing.

"Please, please! Save the girl!"

Blood streamed down Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead, staining his dragon robe red!