Scum Gong Walks the Career Line in the Crematorium

On that day, too many things happened, and even after returning to the Regent King’s mansion with Lin Hanchuan, Gu Shi was still in a daze and took a long time to come back to his senses.

Lin Hanchuan looked at him with amusement and ruffled his hair. “What are you thinking?”

Gu Shi didn’t speak, and his eyes earnestly examined Lin Hanchuan with a complex expression.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Hanchuan felt a little worried that Gu Shi might have been greatly affected today. He touched Gu Shi’s forehead and asked, “Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

Gu Shi averted his gaze. “…Am I really the child of the late emperor?”

Recalling what Lin Hanchuan said at the banquet, all those tales of the late emperor falling in love with a peasant girl, and getting separated during the chaos, there wasn’t a single true word in it. Gu Shi knew that Lin Hanchuan didn’t want others to see through him, so he gave him a legitimate identity, but he still felt somewhat surreal.

Lin Hanchuan laughed. “Of course you are.”

Not only did he have the original text as a basis, but Lin Hanchuan also had someone investigate Gu Shi’s background after finding him, and they did find some clues that confirmed Gu Shi was the late emperor’s child.

After saying that, Lin Hanchuan fell silent for a few seconds and then asked Gu Shi in return, “Didn’t you already know this?”

“I didn’t know,” Gu Shi said with a bewildered look. “How could I have known such a thing?”

“Su Congyu didn’t tell you?”

“No, he didn’t.”

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, and Lin Hanchuan thought about their previous conversations. Somehow, he had a faintly uneasy feeling. He asked, “If you didn’t know, then when you talked about recognizing your ancestry, what did you mean?”

If it weren’t for Gu Shi’s hints, Lin Hanchuan wouldn’t have believed that Gu Shi already knew the truth and secretly caused some trouble for Su Congyu.

Gu Shi fell into a suspicious silence. Now looking back, Lin Hanchuan indeed never explicitly stated their relationship from beginning to end; everything was his own speculations in secret, and he had taken those speculations as facts.

Looking at Gu Shi, a sudden realization struck Lin Hanchuan. “You don’t think that I am your…”

Gu Shi lowered his head, looking like a guilty child, and seemed pitiful.

Lin Hanchuan couldn’t help but find it both funny and exasperating. Though he couldn’t see Gu Shi as a lover due to their significant age difference, there was indeed a bit of a fatherly attitude in his treatment of him. However, he never expected that Gu Shi would have such a wild imagination and genuinely mistake him for his biological father.

Feeling a mix of emotions, he sighed softly. “I’m not that gifted to have such an older child like you.”

Gu Shi quickly glanced at Lin Hanchuan and muttered, “Well, there are people who become fathers at fifteen.”

Helplessly patting Gu Shi’s head, Lin Hanchuan didn’t know what kind of image he held in this child’s heart. He rubbed his temple and comforted himself, “I’m just pampering my child; that’s all.”

Gu Shi wasn’t upset. He smiled mischievously, and all the confusion and bewilderment seemed to dissipate. He had been feeling sad ever since Lin Hanchuan revealed his true identity, for he was more concerned about staying by Lin Hanchuan’s side than becoming any prince or king. He worried that if he were indeed a prince, Lin Hanchuan, as the Regent King, might not treat him as kindly.

Everyone knew that the relationship between the Regent King and the royal family was not harmonious, especially after the Regent King dealt with the mother and grandfather of the young emperor some time ago, sparking even more complicated speculations.

While gathering information outside, Gu Shi criticized the royal family from the perspective of the Regent King. But today, he suddenly became a member of the heartless royal family, making him feel disoriented.

Fortunately, Lin Hanchuan’s attitude towards him remained the same. Gu Shi couldn’t hold back anymore and affectionately leaned against Lin Hanchuan’s shoulder. Previously, he had been hesitant to be too intimate with Lin Hanchuan, and despite their close relationship, there was still a subtle distance between them as if they were elder and younger generations. But today, he let go of whatever was holding him back and didn’t suppress his inner desires.

“If I’m a prince, can I still live in the mansion?” Gu Shi asked, pinching the corner of Lin Hanchuan’s robe that he hadn’t changed yet, pouting.

Lin Hanchuan adjusted his posture subconsciously to make Gu Shi more comfortable. “You are a member of the royal family now and will move to the palace soon.”

Gu Shi pursed his lips and asked again, “Can I not move?”

From Lin Hanchuan’s perspective, he couldn’t see Gu Shi’s facial expressions clearly, but he could hear his subdued voice and felt his sense of urgency. His heart softened, and he said gently, “I will visit you at the palace every day.”

After saying that, Lin Hanchuan paused for a few seconds and continued, “In the future, you will become the emperor, and living in the mansion for now is nothing.”

With the previous misunderstanding, Lin Hanchuan didn’t dare to keep his plans hidden from Gu Shi any longer, afraid that he might come up with some unexpected ideas.

“Emperor?” Gu Shi suddenly straightened his body, looking both terrified and eager. “How can I be an emperor? I don’t know anything, and I don’t understand anything. I can’t even recognize all the characters properly…”

“Don’t be afraid; I’ll be there for you,” Lin Hanchuan looked at Gu Shi, who seemed like a startled cat. “I once assisted Zhao Yuan to become emperor, and I can assist you too.”

Some word seemed to have struck Gu Shi, and he suddenly fell silent. His eyes flashed with a trace of complexity. After a long silence, to Lin Hanchuan’s surprise, he spoke up, “I will be a good emperor, even better than Zhao Yuan… I will protect you.”

Lin Hanchuan was taken aback and then smiled.

—

Emperor Zhao Yuan fell critically ill, his life hanging by a thread. The Imperial Medical Bureau exhausted all means to save him, managing to keep him alive. However, in the process of bringing him back to consciousness, they had to administer potent medicines that could harm his body and deplete his life force.

After a day and night of unconsciousness, Zhao Yuan finally opened his eyes.

Knowing the situation, Lin Hanchuan hurriedly entered the palace and encountered no obstacles, arriving at Zhao Yuan’s sleeping quarters.

Zhao Yuan was prepared for this and looked at Lin Hanchuan. He coughed softly and asked, “Is the Regent King here to visit the sick?”

“Bring the abdication edict,” Lin Hanchuan coldly reminded.

A pale smile appeared on Zhao Yuan’s face. “Regent King, you truly are ruthless. I am gravely ill now, yet you only think of the abdication edict.”

Lin Hanchuan stood aside, his expression indifferent. “You don’t have much time left. If you don’t write the abdication edict now, there will be internal chaos in the Sui Kingdom. While I can forcefully support the next emperor, it won’t be smooth, and anyone with even the slightest connection to the royal family could use the pretext of purging the royal bloodline to attack the capital. Do you want to witness such a scene?”

After speaking, Lin Hanchuan seemingly ignored Zhao Yuan’s unpleasant expression and continued, “You didn’t need to go to such lengths with this poison. If you abdicate, you might live a few more years. The sooner you abdicate, the better.”

These words had become familiar to Zhao Yuan, and they didn’t sting him as much anymore. He lowered his gaze and looked at his emaciated fingers, feeling a sense of emptiness in his heart.

Everything Lin Hanchuan said was true, and Zhao Yuan knew it. But he had been taught since childhood to be a good emperor, to make the Sui Kingdom peaceful and prosperous. Yet he had failed to achieve anything. He was unwilling, but his unwillingness seemed futile now.

After venting his grievances and resentment, Zhao Yuan felt lost and didn’t know what was left for him after he abdicated, shedding the burden of being emperor.

His eyes lost their focus for a long time until Zhao Yuan suddenly spoke in a low voice, “You used to say that my hands were beautiful.”

In the past, Zhao Yuan’s hands were slender and exquisite, with balanced bones, straight and fair. Qi Changfeng used to love holding those hands, praising that they were only suitable for holding a brush and governing the world, not for anything else.

After relinquishing the title of emperor, the person who came to his mind was the one he hated the most.

Lin Hanchuan’s expression remained unchanged as he replied calmly, “You also know that those were things from the past.”

In Qi Changfeng’s memories, these were sweet moments, but unfortunately, from Zhao Yuan’s perspective, they were humiliation and trampling.

After learning the truth, those so-called sweet memories turned into bitter lies, hiding behind a layer of honey.

Zhao Yuan clenched his fists and turned to look at Lin Hanchuan, his eyes filled with determination. “If… if I hadn’t arrested you back then, would everything be different now?”

Even if he were still poisoned and would still settle scores with his mother and grandfather, at least he would have had someone by his side from beginning to end, not ending up with the lonely fate he faced now.

“Yes,” Lin Hanchuan replied without hesitation. If the young emperor had chosen to trust the Regent King, they would have had a different outcome.

Unfortunately, they made missteps and compounded their mistakes, with the young emperor betraying Lin Hanchuan. The Regent King retaliated and then forced him, leading to their entanglement like an unresolved tangle of wool, unable to separate.

After Lin Hanchuan arrived here, he untangled the first knot, and all the subsequent plots no longer existed.

Zhao Yuan felt lost and sighed, “Qi Changfeng, you win. I will sign the abdication edict… I only hope that the next emperor, who is about the same age as I was, won’t betray you again.”

With great effort, Zhao Yuan stood up from the bed. He walked over to the blank imperial decree prepared by Lin Hanchuan and wrote it with trembling hands. His writing was slow, and when he finally put down the brush, his palms were covered in cold sweat.

Gazing at the abdication edict he signed, Zhao Yuan pressed the red jade seal with his own hand. Slowly lying back on the bed, he was weak, and his labored breathing echoed in the silent palace, but no one came to help him.

After lying on the bed for a while, Zhao Yuan couldn’t help but look towards the door and realized that Lin Hanchuan had already left.

TL’s note: I suddenly feel sorry for Zhao Yuan :< I wasn’t informed that there were gonna be scenes like this T~T It kinda hurt, especially in the apocalypse arc, where the original protagonist suffered at the hands of his own father Experimented and such…