Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

Opium pipes!

When those four words, uttered in the trembling voices of the archaeologists, resounded through the heavens, the whole world seemed to be muted.

Time stood still at this moment.

All eyes were fixed on the ugly and evil object that had been dug out of the mud from the emperor's coffin.

It was already rusty, yet it still seemed to exude that nauseating, cloyingly sweet, poisonous fragrance.

That aroma marked the beginning of a century-long nightmare for a nation.

After a brief period of silence, the modern live-streaming room erupted with unprecedented anger and mockery!

"Holy crap!!!!!!!!! What did I just see? An opium pipe?! In Emperor Daoguang's coffin?!"

"This is insane! This world is crazy! An opium pipe was dug out of the coffin of the emperor who banned opium?!"

"Hahaha! What a joke! This is the Daoguang Emperor who orchestrated the burning of opium at Humen? He was a drug addict himself!"

"No smoking in public, but puffing away in private? This acting deserves an Oscar!"

"Disgrace! This is the real disgrace! The supreme ruler of a country, an emperor who proclaimed to the world that he would ban opium, is rotten to the core!"

Beneath the celestial canopy, all realms and timelines were plunged into chaos.

The Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang jumped to his feet, trembling with rage. He pointed at the opium pipe in the sky and began to curse:

"Beast! Absolutely a beast!"

"As the emperor, a paragon of the nation! How dare he associate with such filth! How can he face his ancestors?!"

He could not tolerate such extreme hypocrisy and depravity. An emperor could be incompetent and cruel, but he could never be this shameless!

Zhu Di's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

"Father, this scoundrel claims to be banning opium, but in reality, he's monopolizing it. He probably wants to seize all the opium in the land for his own use! His shamelessness is unprecedented!"

The Great Tang Dynasty, Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin sighed deeply, his face full of disappointment.

"I misjudged him."

"I thought that as the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he should still have some backbone as a monarch and dare to resist foreign aggression. But I never expected that his inner self had been completely eaten away by termites."

"If the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will also be crooked; when a nation is about to perish, monsters will surely emerge."

At this moment, the most pained and desperate people were none other than the emperors of the Qing Dynasty.

"No...it's not mine..."

Daoguang shook his head frantically, trying to explain, but found his voice to be so pale and powerless.

The opium pipe was dug out of his coffin!

The proof is like a mountain!

He was speechless and unable to defend himself!

Mite Cleansing and Drying in the Four Seasons

"You wretched child! You have utterly disgraced the Aisin Gioro family!"

Enraged, Qian Xiaosi kicked his good son, causing him to stumble.

He felt a burning pain in his face.

Throughout his life, he called himself the "Perfect Old Man" and valued the face of the Qing Dynasty more than anything else. He never imagined that his descendants would be nailed to the pillar of historical shame in such a way!

Just when everyone believed that Emperor Daoguang was a hypocritical "drug addict emperor".

At the scene, Zhu Dijun's voice rang out again.

He looked at the pipe with a cold gaze, but his tone was surprisingly calm.

"Do you all... all think that this pipe belongs to Daoguang?"

His words brought the noise at the scene to a sudden halt.

Everyone looked at him, not understanding what he meant.

Could it be that he's trying to exonerate this emperor?

Ignoring the gazes of the crowd, Zhu Dijun simply spoke slowly to the camera and to the myriad worlds and timelines.

"I know what you're thinking. An emperor who bans smoking, yet has a pipe hidden in his coffin—that's the most dramatic and ironic script ever."

"But history is often more absurd and more... cruel than a script."

He pointed to a detail on the screen.

"Look at the shape and decoration of this pipe."

"It is much smaller and more exquisite than the common pipes on the market. The inlays on the pipe are made of ground mother-of-pearl and coral, which was a typical style of women's luxury at the time."

His voice, like a scalpel, precisely dissected the evidence before him.

"Next, let's review the historical records."

"The Daoguang Emperor was known for his 'frugality,' even to the point of being pathological. He was a staunch advocate of banning opium. He may have been muddle-headed or incompetent, but his hatred for opium was genuine."

"He issued the strictest edicts against smoking on several occasions, and even stripped his own relatives of their titles for smoking opium."

"With such a political image and such a personality, do you think he would be foolish enough to take his crimes to his grave?"

Zhu Dijun's series of rhetorical questions were like buckets of cold water poured over all the feverish minds.

The chat room, which had been buzzing with activity, visibly thinned out.

The angry curses of the ancient emperors gradually subsided.

They all started to think.

Yes... that doesn't make sense!

If Emperor Daoguang was truly a heavy smoker, why did he display such a resolute attitude towards banning opium? What was his motive?

"Then...then this opium pipe..." the old professor from the archaeological team asked in a trembling voice.

Zhu Dijun's gaze shifted to the yellow sealed bag containing the remains of "Consort Tong".

His eyes were filled with pity, but also with a deeper level of contempt.

"Do you still remember Consort Tong, who was my 'roommate'?"

"A woman who was frail and sickly, and died in despair in the deep palace."

"In those days, opium was regarded as a kind of 'longevity drug,' a 'miracle drug' that could relieve pain and dispel sorrow. This was no secret in the imperial harem."

"A concubine, neglected by the emperor and bedridden, secretly turned to opium for solace and physical numbness..."

Zhu Dijun's voice, cold and clear, revealed the final, and most shameful, truth.

"Isn't this quite reasonable?"

"This pipe doesn't belong to Daoguang at all!"

"It belongs to this Consort Tong! It was those corrupt and incompetent officials of the Imperial Household Department who, when stuffing her body into the emperor's coffin like garbage, threw in her personal belongings along with it!"

boom--!!!

This truth is a million times more shocking than the fact that "Emperor Daoguang was a drug addict"!

If Daoguang himself smoked opium, it was merely a matter of his personal moral depravity.

But now, the truth is—

This emperor, who claimed to ban opium from the world, had his own harem and his concubines right under his nose, all of whom were complete opium addicts!

His anti-smoking campaign was nothing but a complete political charade!

What a ridiculous joke that they couldn't even leave the Forbidden City!

This is more than just a slap in the face!

This is like tearing off the Qing Dynasty's underwear in front of the whole world, revealing the rotten and festering flesh inside!

"puff--"

The Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty

Daoguang coughed up another mouthful of blood, his body swaying precariously. The palace maids and eunuchs beside him rushed forward to help him up.

His knees buckled, and he collapsed to his knees with a thud.

He's finished.

His last shred of dignity as an emperor was shattered at this moment!

He is not a hypocritical sinner.

He was a complete, utterly incompetent loser!