Chapter One: Inviting a God Is Easy, Sending One Away Is Hard

Great Yong Dynasty, the fifth year of the Zhongxing era.

Heaven’s Prison, Cell No. 2 of the Heaven section.

Outside the cell, Vice Minister of Justice Zhang Youzhen signaled the jailers to unlock the iron door.

“Sixth Prince, the three-court joint trial has concluded. The verdict on the Duke of Liang’s rebellion is settled.”

“His Majesty, in his wisdom, has cleared Your Highness’s name. You may return home.”

Zhang Youzhen glanced at the frail figure inside the cell, a mocking sneer curling at his lips.

Since the founding of the Great Yong Dynasty, Heaven’s Prison had been reserved for the gravest of crimes—a place where death was the rule and mockery had never entered. Who could have imagined that the first real joke would come from the imperial family itself, and that it would fall upon the most infamous weakling prince in all of Jinyong City?

“Where am I?”

Gao Changsheng slowly awakened from his stupor.

The scene before him was a world apart from his memories.

Last night, he had been out drinking skewers with his university roommates, drinking until the world spun around him. How had he ended up in a prison cell?

Could he have done something outrageous while drunk?

Though he had been single for twenty-two years, always longing for a more intimate experience with a woman, surely he hadn’t simply grabbed a stranger off the street in his drunken haze!

Drinking leads only to trouble, he chastised himself.

“It seems the Sixth Prince has been in shock lately and needs to rest at home for a while.”

“You two, escort the Sixth Prince out of prison!”

Zhang Youzhen chuckled softly.

Two jailers stepped forward toward Gao Changsheng.

“Sixth Prince—does he mean me?”

Gao Changsheng froze, but in the next instant, a torrent of information flooded his mind.

Pain.

A searing pain snapped him into full awareness.

He was now the sixth son of Emperor Gao Huan of the Great Yong Dynasty. His mother, Consort Xiao Zhaojun, had died five years prior. As neither the eldest nor the crown prince, and with a mother from an unremarkable family, he had long been neglected by the emperor.

Now, at twenty-two, Gao Changsheng had yet to be granted a princely title; he’d only been given a residence and lived as a carefree prince in name alone.

But fate is fickle.

A month prior, Duke of Liang, Dong Hao, suddenly launched a rebellion on the northern frontier, though it was swiftly suppressed. The families left behind in Jinyong City were implicated—especially Dong Hao’s eldest son, Dong Yu, who had frequent dealings with Gao Changsheng.

On the night of the rebellion, Gao Changsheng had been drinking and listening to music with Dong Hao in a brothel when the imperial guards stormed in and arrested them both.

Thus, Gao Changsheng became the first royal in the Gao family’s history to be caught consorting in a brothel, and the greatest laughingstock Jinyong City had ever seen.

Yet what concerned him most was the outcome of the Duke of Liang’s case.

When the joint trial concluded, all those close to Dong Hao were executed. Dong Yu, Dong Hao, and their entire family were beheaded together on the execution ground.

Rumor among the jailers was that thirty thousand people were executed in a single day beneath Jinyong City’s walls, and more than a hundred thousand over three days.

Such was the ruthless decisiveness of Emperor Gao Huan.

If even meritorious officials like the Duke of Liang could see their entire clans eradicated, what hope did a neglected prince like Gao Changsheng have? Who could say the emperor would show him mercy?

The following days, Gao Changsheng spent in abject terror—until he literally died of fright.

“Pathetic—utterly pathetic!” he muttered.

“If only you’d held on a few more hours, the good news would have arrived!”

Because of the Sixth Prince’s death, Gao Changsheng now occupied his body.

One could only say that his predecessor’s timing couldn’t have been better.

“Oh, there’s one more imperial order,” Zhang Youzhen announced. “His Majesty commands the Sixth Prince to attend court today. So please, return home quickly, change into clean clothes, and proceed to the Hall of Supreme Harmony!”

Damn it, why didn’t you say so earlier!

Gao Changsheng shot Zhang Youzhen a venomous glare, shook off the jailer’s supporting hand, and strode out the door.

As he passed Zhang Youzhen, another wave of information surfaced in his mind.

The Ministry of Justice was under the control of Crown Prince Gao Changling.

Zhang Youzhen was one of the Crown Prince’s men.

So that’s why the old fox looked at him with such disdain and deliberately delayed his release.

Originally, the Sixth Prince’s association with the Duke of Liang’s son had led the Crown Prince to suspect he was trying to win over the Duke. Even though the Duke had fallen, the impression of the Sixth Prince’s ambition had already taken root in the Crown Prince’s mind.

If this suspicion was true, then he was in grave danger.

Struggles for the throne and factional infighting were as old as dynasties themselves.

Eliminating all potential threats was the only way to secure the path to the throne.

If the Crown Prince believed Gao Changsheng was a threat—even a minute one—he would never let him go.

In Jinyong City, danger lurked at every corner; one misstep could mean utter ruin.

“I can’t just wait for death—I have to do something!”

Gao Changsheng took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He scoured his memories for anything useful—any card he might play against the Crown Prince.

But no matter how hard he tried, he came up empty.

The original Sixth Prince was, in truth, a good-for-nothing wastrel.

He spent his days in debauchery, never doing anything worthwhile, and when it came to mischief, he never missed a beat.

“Useless to the core!” Gao Changsheng fumed.

A prince with royal blood, and not a hint of ambition—if he’d been born to a common family, he’d be lucky to survive childhood.

“Achoo!” Gao Changsheng sneezed, nearly stumbling.

Zhang Youzhen, startled, hurried to steady him.

“Sorry to trouble you, Vice Minister. Heaven’s Prison is cold and damp—I may have caught a chill,” Gao Changsheng said, feigning helplessness. “But Father has summoned me to court in haste—what am I to do?”

Catching cold was out of the question; Heaven’s Prison was thirty li from the prince’s residence. He couldn’t be expected to walk all that way.

“Your Highness is ill?” Zhang Youzhen’s expression turned anxious. “I have a sedan chair waiting outside—I’ll have them take you home at once!”

He may have looked down on Gao Changsheng, but as the emperor’s messenger, he dared not be careless.

To be clear, it wasn’t Gao Changsheng he feared—it was Emperor Gao Huan.

“A sedan chair? That’s wonderful—then I’ll trouble you, Vice Minister.”

Gao Changsheng smirked inwardly, allowing Zhang Youzhen to help him out of the prison.

He settled into Zhang Youzhen’s own sedan chair, relegating its owner to trailing behind like a servant—which was rather humiliating.

He’d better run!

“Time is short. If I’m late to court, the blame won’t fall on me!” Gao Changsheng announced, shifting the burden squarely onto Zhang Youzhen’s shoulders.

Zhang Youzhen was incensed—what business was it of the Vice Minister of Justice if the Sixth Prince was late?

But with Gao Changsheng in his sedan chair, any tardiness could be pinned on Zhang Youzhen for failing to deliver him in time.

“Easy to invite a god, hard to send one away! How did I end up so unlucky?” Zhang Youzhen muttered, running all the way with tears in his eyes.