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

The alley was deathly silent.

The night wind seemed frozen, and only the firelight from the distant Nangong cast flickering, ghostly shadows on the walls.

Zhu Jianshen curled up on the ground, his small body no longer trembling, but falling into an even more terrifying stiffness.

His eyes stared blankly at the ground, as if his soul had been completely ripped from his body by those few words.

"Royal brother..."

Empress Qian's voice, trembling with a hint of reluctance, broke the suffocating silence.

She leaned against the wall, her face as pale as paper, looking at Judy Jun, who was as cold as a devil.

"You were being too harsh."

"Jian Shen... he can't stand this."

She knew that Zhu Qiyu was telling the truth; her eyes and legs were injured by Consort Zhou, but she also regarded Zhu Jianshen as her own child.

But then I thought about it again.

Yes, he's just a child.

A child who has just escaped from his cage and hasn't even had a chance to breathe a breath of free air.

But his own uncle tore his world apart with the most brutal reality.

Zhu Dijun didn't turn around. He just stared quietly at Zhu Jianshen, who was curled up on the ground, his cold gaze showing no sign of softening.

"Yeah, I can't stand it."

His voice, clear to the point of being cruel, echoed in the quiet alley.

"But we don't have time."

He slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over Empress Qian before finally landing on Zhu Qizhen, who was equally shocked.

"Brother, why are we here?"

"Why am I imprisoned in the West Garden, like a puppet?"

"And why were you imprisoned in Nangong for four years, enduring endless humiliation?"

Zhu Qizhen's lips moved, but he couldn't utter a single word.

"Because we're all too sentimental and too indifferent to the crown!"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose, like an ice pick, piercing into everyone's heart!

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!"

"This 'heavy' feeling isn't about living a life of luxury or being above everyone else! It's about loneliness! It's about suspicion! It's about sacrifice! It's about personally cutting off all weaknesses that could be exploited!"

He pointed at Zhu Jianshen, then at himself and Zhu Qizhen.

"Your Majesty, our failure lies in not truly bearing this 'weight'!"

"Do you think Father Zhu Zhanji wanted to die young? He didn't! But Empress Zhang and Lady Sun, those women chosen by the civil official clique, used an invisible net to trap him to death on the dragon throne! He may not have even known how he died!"

"Do you really think Grandpa Zhu Gaochi was just a frail, sickly fat man? He had a kind heart, but no iron fist! He wanted to be good to the civil officials and be a benevolent ruler, but what happened? He didn't even last a year! History books say he 'worked day and night, and died from overwork,' what a ridiculous joke!"

"From grandfather, to father, and then to us!"

"Our Zhu family emperors, with each generation, lived more resentful lives than the last! With each generation, they died more mysteriously and unjustly!"

Zhu Dijun approached Zhu Qizhen step by step, his eyes burning with a mad flame.

"Now, it's Jian Shen's turn!"

"If I don't tell him what kind of person his birth mother was, and don't kill her beforehand, when he ascends the throne in the future, Sun Ruowei and those civil officials will hold up Zhou's memorial tablet, use the banner of 'maternal clan', and then force him to marry someone else, such as 'Wang,' 'Qian,' or 'Li'!"

"This situation will be like an unsolvable vicious cycle, forever binding the descendants of the Zhu family!"

"Today, I'm going to shatter this cycle with my own hands, right in front of him!"

"Let's teach him a lesson through the death of his birth mother, through our own 'death'!"

"A lesson in imperial rule that neither my father nor my grandfather ever had the chance to learn!"

Every word is piercing to the heart!

Zhu Qizhen's body swayed violently.

He looked at the crazed Judy Jun and his distraught son on the ground. The seven years of humiliation, imprisonment, and despair in his mind collided violently with the "truth" that Judy Jun spoke of!

He got it.

I understand completely now.

Qi Yu isn't crazy, he's just... more clear-headed than everyone else.

Sober as if he had died once.

silence.

A long silence.

Zhu Qizhen slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

He didn't look at Zhu Dijun again, but instead took heavy steps and walked up to Zhu Jianshen.

He crouched down, reaching out his trembling hand to touch his son's cheek, but then stopped in mid-air.

Looking at his son, who was covered in wounds, the last trace of hesitation in his eyes turned into an iron-willed resolve.

"Profound insight."

His voice was no longer gentle, but carried an unprecedented hoarseness and heaviness.

"Your uncle is right."

Zhu Jianshen's empty eyes finally showed a flicker of emotion. He slowly raised his head and looked at his father.

"Your father and your uncle are going to follow Cao Mao's example and do something that will almost certainly lead to their death."

"Just as your uncle said, you... have to grow up."

Zhu Qizhen's gaze passed over his son's shoulder and looked at the night sky illuminated by the firelight, where his prison had once been.

"If...if your uncle and I were to meet with misfortune."

"If your mother... Little Money, is also unfortunate."

His voice paused, each word seeming to be squeezed out from his throat.

"You must live."

"Forget us, forget the hatred, first secure your throne. Then, use the method your uncle taught you to take back everything that belongs to the emperor, one by one."

"You must live... better than your father, better than your grandfather, better than everyone else."

After he finished speaking, he could no longer control himself and hugged Zhu Jianshen tightly in his arms.

This hug is both a farewell and a passing on of the torch.

He poured all of a father's final tenderness and an emperor's realization of defeat into this child.

"Waaah..."

Zhu Jianshen's stiff body finally broke down completely in his father's arms, letting out a suppressed sob.

Empress Qian, who was standing to the side, was already in tears. She covered her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud.

Beyond the celestial canopy, a live broadcast studio in the 21st century.

When Zhu Qizhen said, "You must live on."

When that belated, incredibly heavy embrace appeared.

A soothing yet melancholic piano piece, "Beside You," unexpectedly resounded in the ears of all the audience members.

The clear sound of the piano seemed to possess a kind of magic, instantly shattering everyone's last psychological defenses.

Quietly, they said they were breaking up again.

There is no dependency, but too much dependency.

In the lonely center of the square

Whose dialogue chases my emptiness?

If you love, then love; don't be afraid of not having been here.

I hate, that's all. I never even considered it.

It's because I'm afraid of thinking about someone too deeply.

If you love, then love; don't be afraid of not having been here.

I hate, that's all. I never even considered it.

The places I've been are familiar with their former appearance.

I thought I had forgotten how much I missed you.

And as the sun sets, I hope you return to today.

I remember holding your face

Quietly looking into your eyes between my hands.

Like autumn leaves gently caressing the whole world

我想在你的身边

I forgot how long the road was.

I want to watch the seasons change with you.

"I...I'm a grown man, and I'm crying...I really can't hold it in..."

"'May you live better than everyone else'...that's the heaviest blessing in the world!"

["Zhu Qizhen, that good-for-nothing, finally acted like a man! He finally understood! He wasn't saying goodbye, he was entrusting his son to the future! He entrusted a broken empire and a broken son to the future!"]

"Jun-ge is a devil, but he's the devil who forged emperors! Zhu Qizhen is a loving father, but he's also a loving father who sent his sons to the battlefield! This family... has it so tough!"

["Who composed this background music 'Beside You'?! Come out and take your punishment! I'm dying of fright!!"]

Hongwu reign.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the sky, his eyes welling up with tears. Empress Ma, who was beside him, quietly turned her head away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Jungpachi..."

"We saw it."

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice sounded somewhat muffled.

"Even if someone from the Zhu family is useless, they still have the blood of the Zhu family flowing in their veins!"

The Yongle reign.

Zhu Di watched this scene in silence, his hands gripping the armrests of the dragon throne, veins bulging.

He thought of his sons, and of his grandson Zhu Zhanji, on whom he had placed great hopes.

He suddenly realized that he had given them too much.

So much so that they forgot that beneath the crown lay mountains of knives and seas of fire.

The Chenghua reign.

On the dragon throne, Zhu Jianshen, now an adult, looked at himself in the sky, curled up in his father's arms and crying, and at his father who was telling him to "live on."

His body began to tremble uncontrollably.

That cold, fearful, and desperate night, buried deep in his memory, resurfaced clearly once again.

He covered his face, and tears silently streamed down his face through his fingers.

Similarly, Zhu Qizhen in both the orthodox and Tian Shun timelines knew that his descendant Zhu Dijun was using some kind of AI technology to create a simulation that was trying to kill him. Even though it was fake, he couldn't help but shed tears.

Similarly, Zhu Qiyu, during the Jingtai reign, stared blankly at the sky, repeating the phrase, "If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight," before saying with a bitter expression:

"I am no match for my descendants, Zhu Dijun. Go forth and show me a different future."

In the alley.

Zhu Qizhen released his son, then turned around and gave Empress Qian a deep hug.

No words were spoken.

Everything is understood without words.

Finally, he stood up and resolutely walked towards Judy Jun.

His eyes were no longer filled with confusion.

"Qi Yu".

"Let's go."