Chapter 1

The tenth year of Ningde.

"Gold is born in Lishui, jade comes from Kungang. The sword is named Juque, the pearl is called Yeguang. The finest fruits are li and nai, …"

Bai Li Jing used the upright book to cover himself, lowered his head and gave a huge yawn, feeling very sleepy. This was his third year studying the Thousand Character Classic.

Since starting education at four, he repeatedly studied the Thousand Character Classic, Explaining Characters and Analyzing Words, and the Analects for three years; boredom made him drowsy, and he secretly yawned again.

The little child sitting to his left, Bai Li Hu, seeing this, cast a contemptuous glance and sat up straight to listen attentively.

Bai Li Jing, who was three years older, didn't take it amiss at all.

A motherless child is like a weed; if that weed happens to be in the palace, it's truly worse than the weeds of commoners who have a little property.

His situation can be glimpsed from his name alone.

The Bai Li family has ruled the world for over two hundred and sixty years; although now feudal lords carve up the land and war breaks out frequently, this does not prevent the Ningde Emperor from continuing to lie under his ancestors' shade, enjoying peaceful prosperity, immersed in the old dream of prosperity, unwilling to wake.

The Ningde Emperor's sons are all named after beautiful jade, for example Bai Li Jin, Bai Li Heng, and Bai Li Hu.

When the third son was born, the Ningde Emperor was walking down the palace passageway heading to the rear palace when a palace attendant rushed over to report that Lady Wei had died in difficult labor, fortunately the third prince was born safely.

Thinking of the beautiful and graceful Lady Wei, the Ningde Emperor felt a tinge of regret. He sighed sadly and gazed toward the horizon; ill-fated as it was, he happened to see Taibai high in the west, and he immediately furrowed his brow.

Taibai governs weapons; currently, what his Great Jin dynasty fears most is this.

The Ningde Emperor turned around and headed back, not going to the rear palace, leaving only the words: 'Bestow the name Jing upon the Third Prince.'

Jing means peace and stability.

When Bai Li Jing grew up and heard this palace secret, he himself was quite satisfied. Although he wasn't listed with his brothers on the beautiful jade ranking, he was also grateful that the dead old man didn't simply call him Bai Li Taipeace or Bai Li Anping or the like.

Lady Wei died in difficult labor; the third prince, according to the Empress Dowager's edict, was entrusted to the Ningde Emperor's step consort for upbringing.

Empress Cui also treasured him for two years; the son of the Empress Cui of the Bohui Cui clan was a respectable presence in the previous dynasty's rear palace.

Usually the Eldest Prince and the Empress's legitimate son, who vied for attention with flushed faces, also turned much of their gaze toward him. But he was still young then, daily foolishly eating and playing, missing the most vigorous years of his life. Because in the third year, Empress Cui herself became pregnant and safely gave birth to the Fourth Prince Bai Li Hu.

Once the Cui clan had their own prince, this adopted son was no longer noteworthy, and all eyes shifted elsewhere.

At the age of four, when he began his education, the emperor casually appointed him a Grand Tutor with a wave of his hand.

No one knows what mission this old man came with; although the Grand Tutor, who ranked only two levels below the Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, acted as a village private-school teacher, merely making Bai Li Jing repeatedly study the Thousand Character Classic and Explaining Characters and Analyzing Words and other basic literacy courses; last year, after barely managing to study the Analects, he didn't explain the meaning, just had him practice writing, considering it finished once he could read fluently.

Perhaps his sole task was to make the Third Prince literate, so as not to be an eyesore bringing shame to the imperial family.

The unloved, motherless little prince Jing somehow endured over two years in a simple literacy class; no one cared about or checked his homework, and no one cared what he was learning each day. In the end, the endless repetition reached the point where teacher and students yawned at the start of class—whether they taught or not made no difference.

Those characters, after being gone over repeatedly, even a fool could master them—let alone Bai Li Jing, who was quite clever.

The turning point came in the third year, when the Empress's Fourth Prince was to begin his education.

Empress Cui, to coax her lonely, book‑averse darling, arranged for him to study together with his third brother, so at least he'd have a companion.

This time the Grand Tutor was upgraded, replaced by a great scholar from the Bohui Cui clan.

Even so, Bai Li Jing could not muster any joy—not even if a great scholar, or even Confucius himself, came to teach; he would still be endlessly going over the Thousand Character Classic.

Baili Hu also doesn't know whether he truly inherited the Boling Cui clan's scholarly talent, or whether he studied for a period just to crush him and ended up finding enjoyment in it. His performance in class, contrasted with his third brother's fish-eye, shines ever more brightly.

Because of this, Empress Cui now treats her adopted son much more kindly. Know that he still holds the position of the empress's eldest son; after she gave birth to her own imperial son, both the Boling Cui clan and she herself are displeased with him.

These things are clear to a sensitive, clever child's heart.

Baili Jing secretly yawned again, firmly believing that in his situation, anyone would just give up.

After enduring until school let out, he instantly revived, his steps light as he returned via the side gate to the rear hall of Weiyang Palace.

The steward Zhao Ba of his hall came running over with a quick trot, saying, "Your Highness, are you tired? Shall I set out the meal, or would you like to rest first?"

Baili Jing waved his hand: "I'm mentally tired; I need to relax, let's set out the meal after half an hour."

He drove Zhao Ba away, returned to the sleeping chamber, bored and listless, collapsed onto the couch under the east window, listless and as different as night and day from his usual vigorous, disliked self outside.

After lying there a moment, he lifted his head and saw no one around; a flick of his left wrist and a thought, and a splendid light board appeared floating in midair before him, the most striking being the five shining golden characters in the center: 'Capital Prosperity Dream'.

The background is a bustling city nightscape he dare not even imagine in his dreams, with brilliant lights and jeweled towers and jade halls.

Baili Jing stretched out his little hand and poked at the spot below the five characters 'Capital Prosperity Dream' labeled '【Enter your city name】', unsurprisingly, another small black box popped up, bearing the words '【First, own a city!】'.

Alas!

The little child weakly lay back down, wondering where on earth he could possibly get a city?!

This miraculous, moving, flashing picture frame that appeared with a single poke showed up out of nowhere on his fifth birthday; he himself had no idea what it was or how it appeared.

Over the past year or so, he has only figured out one thing: this thing is something nobody else has but him.

He has tested his fourth brother and all the attendants serving him; none of them have it.

Moreover, nobody else can see his 【miraculous picture frame】, but subconsciously he also never takes it out to poke in front of others; poking at empty air in front of people would probably seem pretty strange, right…

He never expected the turning point to come so quickly.

Royal children all mature early; the motherless Prince Jing has an especially clear sense of his own position. With two legitimate imperial sons present, Baili Jing has no thought of the crown prince's position.

Using elimination, counting the possibilities on one hand, this position could never come to him.

Since the age of five, his dream has been to be enfeoffed as a prince and sent to a fief.

After possessing that glowing board, he looks forward to that day even more.

When idle, he idly wonders: if he were to be enfeoffed as a prince, would his fief then be his city?

In the Great Jin, imperial princes are enfeoffed and sent to their fiefs at a young age, with the earliest example being enfeoffment at age five.

By the time of Emperor Ningde, because a favored eldest son who refused to leave was holding things up, everyone together has dragged it to the present.

The eldest son, Baili Jin, is already 14 this year; thanks to having a favored concubine as his birth mother and a powerful maternal clan, he has somehow managed to make the emperor agree to his marriage before allowing him to go to his fief.

Others have designs on the crown prince's position and want to contend for it, only leaving the salted-fish third imperial son to suffer. As a result, whenever he sees his elder brother, he instinctively grits his teeth and silently curses him and his maternal clan in his heart.