Chapter 3

Luo Wei forced himself to sit up. His shoulders were in agony, but the pain was nothing to him, who had endured ten years of torture from others. Luo Wei remembered how when he was thirteen, he was sought out for revenge by the two sons of the Feng Wu(1) Grand General. The two gave him a rough beating. As he tried to escape, the younger of the two, Zhao Jun Yi, shot an arrow through his left shoulder as well. He doesn't blame the Zhao brothers, it was his own fault for tormenting others. It was he, Luo Wei, who harassed the brother in law of the elder Zhao brother on the street. The only reason it happened was because he liked the look of that poor scholar's fiancée. At thirteen, he'd already learned to rob innocent women off the streets.

Luo Wei shook his head, self deprecating. Why was he such a miscreant in his past life? Was it purely because he was born into a powerful family? His father was the Senior Chancellor, his eldest brother was the general in command at Yun Guan(2), second eldest the general of the capital city. His mother was the daughter of a well known military family, all his uncles on his mother's side were generals themselves. And lastly but not least, his aunt on his father's side was the current empress, Luo Zhi Yi. Everyone said that half the power of the Great Zhou Empire lay in the Luo family.

And it was because of this power that his family had been destroyed seven years after. His aunt was removed from the throne, apparently ending her own life in the Cold Palace(3). His father had been stripped of titles, and died on the road to exile in Ling Nan. His eldest brother died in battle, bones trampled to mud by the mounted soldiers of Northern Yan(4). His second eldest brother faced death breaking into the palace to save their father, and used himself in exchange for his crimes by being sent to battle in Northern Yan. Unfortunately, he was poisoned to death in his own tent by someone in the palace while on his way to the battle. Afterwards came the old emperor's thunderous rage. The eldest prince, born of his aunt, was deposed of his position as the crown prince. He was then confined to the Imperial Mausoleum in Xia Chuan along with his mother's other sons, third prince Long Hang, sixth prince Long Hao. And thus the Luo family's properties were confiscated and the lineage exterminated.

"You have to protect your two nephews!" This was his mother's last wish. Luo Wei didn't want to keep digging through his memories, but the recollections rushed forth like water through a broken dam, unable to be stopped. It wasn't until the very last moment that his mother told him that he, Luo Wei, was not officially of the Luo family. His mother was Luo Zhi Qiu's third sister, Luo Zhi Jin, the one who passed away while still in full bloom, at age sixteen. His difficult birth had caused her death. No one knew who his birth father was, and those in the family only knew that their young mistress was kidnapped for three months when she was fifteen. The pregnancy was discovered not long after she returned, and even on her deathbed she would not name the man who forced this upon her. Luo Wei found out then, at the moment of his false mother's death, that he was a bastard whose origins no one had known.

When the new Crown Prince, Long Xuan, saved him, it was because everyone knew Luo Wei loved him, that Luo Wei was Long Xuan's dog. And at that time, Luo Wei thought that no matter what, Long Xuan still had some feelings for him, and that his betrayal of his entire family was not in vain. But he didn't know that Long Xuan saved him only to keep him alive, so that he could live a fate worse than death.

A year later, Wu Xing Emperor died due to sickness, and the Crown Prince Long Xuan succeeded him, his was named the Ping Zhang Emperor. It was at this time that Luo Wei, who'd been imprisoned with his two nephews for an entire year, finally saw Long Xuan again. He was initially full of hope, but didn't imagine that Long Xuan would immediately accuse him of betraying his family and ancestors, ordering all those present to list out his crimes. He was imprisoned in the palace that very day. For a total of three months, the guards in the palace all got their chance to have a piece of the previous young master of the Luo family. Luo Wei wanted to die, but Long Xuan held the lives of his two nephews in his hands, so Luo Wei could only endure the humiliation. Three months later, without a single piece of unmarred skin on his body and his lower half wasted to the point that he couldn't walk any longer, Luo Wei was gifted to the army as a sex slave for the soldiers to let their steam out on. Two years past that, Long Xuan held a memorial for the Luo family, and as the one who betrayed his ancestors, Luo Wei was paraded nude on the streets upon a wooden horse for three days. Further after he was given to a brothel, suffering for another eight years. Luo Wei originally thought he'd be able to trade his shame for the lives of his two nephews, but it never occurred to him that towards the end of his life, he'd hear that his nephews had died four years before in a fire at the old Luo family ruins. It was then that he realized his life was just a joke, without a single shred of meaning. At the very end, he was discarded by the brothel at the temple ruins, died in the snowy wilderness, his corpse exposed to the elements for seven days. This was his final ending.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Feng Wu - A title, much like a regnal name for the Emperor, words were appended onto titles to signify the greatness of the receiver.

2. Yun Guan - A border fort between Great Zhou and Northern Yan.

3. Cold Palace - One of the many palaces in the Forbidden Palace. It's reserved for concubines that have fallen out of favor with the Emperor, to live isolated and often without servants or appropriate amounts of rations.

4. Northern Yan - A state during the Sixteen Kingdoms era of China, however, as before, the author isn't big on making things historically accurate. This Northern Yan is purely fiction.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:

Wow that was a lot. I wonder if I should put content warnings at the beginnings of chapters or if this is par for course in Chinese BL translations. I haven't read a lot of translated ones, but out of all the ones I read in Chinese, this one was probably the most sadistic to the protagonist.

Also some fat-shaming in the next few chapters because Luo Wei was a pudgy little guy when he was a shithead. I'm not sure if the author meant it to be read that way, but knowing how people who are overweight are portrayed in society, it wouldn't surprise me. I hope those who are reading won't take it to heart, and will tread around it lightly.