Omg, @kuku bless you for that lovely rundown, it’s so thorough and well written!!!
I’ll add, from the perspective of someone who can’t read this in the original Mandarin but who DOES have an amateur hobby in the history of pharaonic Egypt, and VERY SPECIFICALLY the Amarna period, which is what a lot of this story is inspired by, because the manhua is obviously written by someone similar to me in that respect and who seems to be writing with a bit of a presupposition that readers are also familiar:
For some time prior to the birth and acension to the throne of a Pharoh by the name of Akenaton (hah!), husband of the famously gorgeous Nefertiti (made famous by her bust, you know the one, I promise) and father of the even more famous Tutenkamun, the priests of Ra (if I’m recalling correctly but possibly also either Osiris or Horus) had been consolidating power and weakening the position of the royal family for personal gain to the point where we might infer from things like the swiftness with which Tutenkamun sided with them upon taking the throne that they could order the pharaoh to do things. Akenaton took EXTREMELY drastic and ultimately futile measures to attempt to put a stop to this. Broadly, this is the position our pharaoh here finds himself in. In between Akenaton and Tutenkamun was also another Pharoah, Smenkhkare, whose identity beyond his name is unknown, as names were changed upon ascension. He was most likely a co-regent but is even speculated to have been Nefertiti herself – that little bit of history is, I would assume, what the bother is inspired by.
Ah, I see the comment kind of looks like a wall of text so I’ll add the TL;DR that’s at the end of my original comment to here:
For those confused about what’s happening in this manhua, here’s the short version of the summary:
The king is likely the rumoured “second princess” Mimi who disappeared around the time the king ascended the throne. This chapter all but confirms the king’s brother gave the king his identity and throne, so he’s actually not the younger brother.
He’s going to go against the king now (which he already did by sending the scroll with the feather to the religious leaders) because he seems to value religion more than the king, and when he hurt the king by mentioning what is likely the king’s mom being also religious, the king also hurt him by yelling at him not to mention her.
Because of this, the king’s brother became underhanded and commented on how Zhang Li (the main character) maybe isn’t that loyal to the king after all—maybe he’s just loyal to their specific appearance, meaning the king isn’t special. He still wants Zhang Li to be brought over, but now it’s outright suggested it’s because he knows it’ll hurt the king since the two seemed to get along well.
And despite the king’s preparations for executing his plan to probably replace all the religious leaders with his own people, his brother is planning to end things all *tonight*, which means next chapter should be juicy~
So yeah! I hope this is helpful, especially since this story is quite good at conveying its themes in a subtle manner, and it’s too bad the translation has been confusing some people so far. 😛
I’m seeing a lot of people confused over the story so I wanted to briefly summarize what’s happening—and don’t worry, I’ll include a TL;DR at the end:
The current king is acting like a tyrant on purpose in an effort to suppress the religion, mostly because he (and his group of followers/people/friends (the three we see discussing plans in this chapter)) believes that the religion has become too strong. That obviously puts forward that he has a disdain for the superstition associated with religion, especially probably because it makes his ability to rule more difficult.
The main leaders of the religion hate the king for this, because obviously it’s getting more difficult for them to be in power etc and they want to stop him from completely toppling the religion.
So where does the king’s brother come into all this?
Well, the king’s brother is sort of revealing himself as a green tea bitch right now, which is a Chinese (slang) term for “kind and innocent on the surface but hiding a darker side.” Now he might not be doing it on purpose—so it’s not *that* similar to green tea bitches, because he clearly shows himself to care for his brother.
Last chapter, he saw his brother to try and persuade him to “not destroy all the gods” because in his eyes, the religion is very important to the nation and maybe he himself believes in the gods. He even reached out and brought up a specific woman who “also believed in the gods when she was alive,” and the king responded by slapping his cup to the ground.
The king snaps, “Don’t mention her! My mother was a pious woman, but look what happened to her! Did her god(s) save her!?”
This implies multiple things:
1) the woman the brother brought up *is* the king’s mom (unless the king just responded to this random (probably important) woman’s name by referring to his mom, which is less likely).
2) the king and his brother have different mothers, since the brother called her “furen” (madame/lady).
3) the king hates the religion because it failed his mom, among other things.
4) the king has a tragic backstory involving his mom.
The brother is hurt by the king’s outburst, even outright saying, “…Gege (Elder Brother), this is my favourite cup. You sent it to me.” This carries the underlying metaphor that his own trust in the king, his brother, was shattered.
The metaphor is emphasized when the brother looks up and we can see bags under his eyes, representing his hurt, and he thinks to himself: “Once something is shattered, it cannot be glued back together.” He sees the king is turned away from him (not looking at him—which implies he feels bad but also implies he’s angry and has “turned his back on his brother”). The brother’s gaze darkens in sadness and he thus thinks, “Forceful/Difficult people also…” OR “People who’ve left [one’s] heart also…” (the term used in the original Chinese is 离心, which could be translated in these two ways).
That is when we see him suddenly switch faces.
He immediately says, “[What] Gege’s choice [i]s…I now understand,” and also asks with a sort of false smile, “When will Gege call the guard over? He and I will definitely get along really well.” This is sort of a challenge, since he initially said he wanted to request Zhang Li (our main character) to be transferred to his palace, and he mentioned how envious he was of Zhang Li’s loyalty to the king.
The king responded that with Zhang Li’s archery skills, it’d be a pity if he didn’t patrol the city, which implies he’s hesitating to give him up. But later he agrees, saying the brother can have him for a bit as long as he returns him in one piece, and his brother brightens, saying he will because he and the king are family.
Obviously now the brother’s mood toward the king is shifting because the king “failed his test” (his request that he not try and destroy the religion), so he’s becoming less nice. We can see this when he suddenly says Zhang Li seems [too/extra] special to the king.
The king responds that he knows; his brother doesn’t need to worry because someone else already warned him about this.
This was probably not the right answer to give, because his brother is already feeling his trust be broken by the king, and hearing that, he says, “Is that so? It seems Gege has other people by his side who can take care of him, so I don’t need to say anything.” Now he begins attempting to sow seeds of doubt in the king about Zhang Li, and we no longer see his face anymore either, which is a symbolic way of showing his turn and sudden coldness: “But the last time we met [for the first time], that little guard was so enthusiastic. He kept staring at me, which made me feel a little embarrassed.
“When I heard the rumours, I’d assumed he was loyal only to Gege; I didn’t expect him to be so interested in me.
“Could it stem from the fact that Gege and I look so similar?
“I’m not sure… I[’m afraid to] assume he is loyal to *this specific appearance*~ So who exactly is the person he sees (who exactly is he gazing/looking at)?”
The tilde implies he’s saying the second-last line in a singsongy voice, obviously—which is a taunting tone, and the emphasis on “this specific appearance” suggests “he’s not loyal to you specifically. He’d be loyal to me too. He just likes our appearance,” which evidently challenges the notion that Zhang Li has any feelings for the king or that the king is special to Zhang Li, which would mean the king is getting too close to him when there’s no point.
This is where the last chapter ends.
This chapter begins with the king deciding to add more guards to his brother’s palace, and when the redhead wonders why (because it’s unlikely the religious group will try to enter the palace), the king says it’s not because of them, but because of his brother, who’s acting off.
Meanwhile, Kaba is again waxing poetry about the brother, who he thinks is a girl. He’d heard of a second princess (a sister) named Mimi who ranks below the eldest prince (?) yet is older than the current king (she is his jiejie, or elder sister). Thus, Kaba concludes, the brother must be Mimi because this princess disappeared as soon as our titular [“tyrant”] king became king.
Zhang Li concludes for Kaba that the “princess” once lived with the common folk before she was taken into the palace with her identity being hidden after the king ascended the throne and she was put under house arrest—which the brother seems to be, since he always stays in his palace.
Zhang Li acknowledges this is a logical conclusion, but he’s bothered by the fact Mimi should be the king’s real name, since he responded to it instinctively when called. That’s when his eyes widen as he thinks, “It can’t be that…the ‘second princess’ is actually—” He doesn’t finish his thought here for suspense, but we can assume he’s wondering if the king is actually this mysterious “second princess,” which could imply any number of other conclusions or plot threads!
Meanwhile, the religious folk who hate the king are trying to go through the royal family’s records to figure out who the blue feather belongs to. It hasn’t been outright confirmed yet, but it was implied a few chapters ago that the brother sent them something along with the blue feather (he wears multiple feathers) as a hint or some sort of vague encouragement/promise of help. He obviously sympathizes with the religion that the king hates, and this suggests even before the king failed his “test” to leave the religion alone more, the brother was already sort of planning on betraying the king. Or at least maybe he assumed if the king promised to back down, he could help the religious people without having to worry.
Back to the king and his people, they discuss their plans. The redhead muses at the end that the era of the religion ruling this nation is finally coming to an end, and the king tells his best agent to “retrieve his net” (earlier they’d discussed their plans as a sort of net, and his best agent says he has people prepared to replace all the religious heads. As the redhead notes, even if citizens notice these replacements acting weird, it’d be fine since they know the king and the religion often butt heads).
We cut to panels of everyone spending their night in different ways, which is a good way to build up to what appears to be an oncoming storm. Especially since we end with…
The brother has taken out all his guards—and maybe servants—and he laments, “Gege, I surrendered *my identity* and *my throne* to you. Yet you’ve let me down so much.”
The emphasis on “my identity” and “my throne” are in the original Chinese, by the way.
Obviously this is a huge reveal because this means the brother is *not* the didi (younger brother). He’s actually the original eldest prince and should have been king, but he probably couldn’t ascend the throne—maybe because of health reasons or because he had faith in the current king.
And note: “identity” here can also mean “status,” so either way the king (Mimi) took over the royal duties that originally belonged to his brother. Alternate translations for “surrendered” include: “I gave [these things] to you” or “I let you have [these things]” or “I gave way for you to take over [these things].” All of this suggests maybe he willingly stepped down—so now we’re left to wonder how willing he was, whether they planned this together or not, and whether the king was willing to take over etc. I’m actually assuming he willingly gave the role away since the brother did seem to believe in and care for the king—or at least he valued the concept of family—and the king took over out of guilt (earlier, he said the reason the brother is stuck in this palace is because he’s “neglected” or “failed to take care of” him, implying guilt).
Anyway, the brother thus concludes with: “I won’t continue being your shadow anymore. Tonight…let’s just bring things to an end.”
And I’ll leave a note here too, because the “bring things to an end” term used here does mean to end things, but it comes with negative connotations—specifically it can also mean *to break off [a relationship]*. This evidently suggests the brother is planning to cut all ties with the king and go completely against him, which…
Well. Looks like next chapter we’re in for a treat—in terms of getting some intense action and conflict, which is always fun in a story. 👀
*TL;DR:* The king is likely the rumoured “second princess” Mimi who disappeared around the time the king ascended the throne. This chapter all but confirms the king’s brother gave the king his identity and throne, so he’s actually not the younger brother.
He’s going to go against the king now (which he already did by sending the scroll with the feather to the religious leaders) because he seems to value religion more than the king, and when he hurt the king by mentioning what is likely the king’s mom being also religious, the king also hurt him by yelling at him not to mention her.
Because of this, the king’s brother became underhanded and commented on how Zhang Li (the main character) maybe isn’t that loyal to the king after all—maybe he’s just loyal to their specific appearance, meaning the king isn’t special. He still wants Zhang Li to be brought over, but now it’s outright suggested it’s because he knows it’ll hurt the king since the two seemed to get along well.
And despite the king’s preparations for executing his plan to probably replace all the religious leaders with his own people, his brother is planning to end things all *tonight*, which means next chapter should be juicy~
So yeah! That was long, but I hope it was helpful, especially since this story is quite good at conveying its themes in a subtle manner, and it’s too bad the translation has been confusing some people so far. 😛
Okay quick review: the current king is actually the youngest prince he replaced hos weak brother on the throne instead according to their agreement. Now the older brother is actually angry and plans to rebel
Megha bhagat
Why no more chapter is being added… Author please add more….
1Evi1C@T
Kuku88, thanks for explaining the book to us.
Enygma
@kuku88 – Awesome summary, thank you!! I was following the plot but your breakdown really enhanced the subtleties that were lost in translation!! 🙌
MissEve
Omg, @kuku bless you for that lovely rundown, it’s so thorough and well written!!!
I’ll add, from the perspective of someone who can’t read this in the original Mandarin but who DOES have an amateur hobby in the history of pharaonic Egypt, and VERY SPECIFICALLY the Amarna period, which is what a lot of this story is inspired by, because the manhua is obviously written by someone similar to me in that respect and who seems to be writing with a bit of a presupposition that readers are also familiar:
For some time prior to the birth and acension to the throne of a Pharoh by the name of Akenaton (hah!), husband of the famously gorgeous Nefertiti (made famous by her bust, you know the one, I promise) and father of the even more famous Tutenkamun, the priests of Ra (if I’m recalling correctly but possibly also either Osiris or Horus) had been consolidating power and weakening the position of the royal family for personal gain to the point where we might infer from things like the swiftness with which Tutenkamun sided with them upon taking the throne that they could order the pharaoh to do things. Akenaton took EXTREMELY drastic and ultimately futile measures to attempt to put a stop to this. Broadly, this is the position our pharaoh here finds himself in. In between Akenaton and Tutenkamun was also another Pharoah, Smenkhkare, whose identity beyond his name is unknown, as names were changed upon ascension. He was most likely a co-regent but is even speculated to have been Nefertiti herself – that little bit of history is, I would assume, what the bother is inspired by.
kuku88
Ah, I see the comment kind of looks like a wall of text so I’ll add the TL;DR that’s at the end of my original comment to here:
For those confused about what’s happening in this manhua, here’s the short version of the summary:
The king is likely the rumoured “second princess” Mimi who disappeared around the time the king ascended the throne. This chapter all but confirms the king’s brother gave the king his identity and throne, so he’s actually not the younger brother.
He’s going to go against the king now (which he already did by sending the scroll with the feather to the religious leaders) because he seems to value religion more than the king, and when he hurt the king by mentioning what is likely the king’s mom being also religious, the king also hurt him by yelling at him not to mention her.
Because of this, the king’s brother became underhanded and commented on how Zhang Li (the main character) maybe isn’t that loyal to the king after all—maybe he’s just loyal to their specific appearance, meaning the king isn’t special. He still wants Zhang Li to be brought over, but now it’s outright suggested it’s because he knows it’ll hurt the king since the two seemed to get along well.
And despite the king’s preparations for executing his plan to probably replace all the religious leaders with his own people, his brother is planning to end things all *tonight*, which means next chapter should be juicy~
So yeah! I hope this is helpful, especially since this story is quite good at conveying its themes in a subtle manner, and it’s too bad the translation has been confusing some people so far. 😛
kuku88
I’m seeing a lot of people confused over the story so I wanted to briefly summarize what’s happening—and don’t worry, I’ll include a TL;DR at the end:
The current king is acting like a tyrant on purpose in an effort to suppress the religion, mostly because he (and his group of followers/people/friends (the three we see discussing plans in this chapter)) believes that the religion has become too strong. That obviously puts forward that he has a disdain for the superstition associated with religion, especially probably because it makes his ability to rule more difficult.
The main leaders of the religion hate the king for this, because obviously it’s getting more difficult for them to be in power etc and they want to stop him from completely toppling the religion.
So where does the king’s brother come into all this?
Well, the king’s brother is sort of revealing himself as a green tea bitch right now, which is a Chinese (slang) term for “kind and innocent on the surface but hiding a darker side.” Now he might not be doing it on purpose—so it’s not *that* similar to green tea bitches, because he clearly shows himself to care for his brother.
Last chapter, he saw his brother to try and persuade him to “not destroy all the gods” because in his eyes, the religion is very important to the nation and maybe he himself believes in the gods. He even reached out and brought up a specific woman who “also believed in the gods when she was alive,” and the king responded by slapping his cup to the ground.
The king snaps, “Don’t mention her! My mother was a pious woman, but look what happened to her! Did her god(s) save her!?”
This implies multiple things:
1) the woman the brother brought up *is* the king’s mom (unless the king just responded to this random (probably important) woman’s name by referring to his mom, which is less likely).
2) the king and his brother have different mothers, since the brother called her “furen” (madame/lady).
3) the king hates the religion because it failed his mom, among other things.
4) the king has a tragic backstory involving his mom.
The brother is hurt by the king’s outburst, even outright saying, “…Gege (Elder Brother), this is my favourite cup. You sent it to me.” This carries the underlying metaphor that his own trust in the king, his brother, was shattered.
The metaphor is emphasized when the brother looks up and we can see bags under his eyes, representing his hurt, and he thinks to himself: “Once something is shattered, it cannot be glued back together.” He sees the king is turned away from him (not looking at him—which implies he feels bad but also implies he’s angry and has “turned his back on his brother”). The brother’s gaze darkens in sadness and he thus thinks, “Forceful/Difficult people also…” OR “People who’ve left [one’s] heart also…” (the term used in the original Chinese is 离心, which could be translated in these two ways).
That is when we see him suddenly switch faces.
He immediately says, “[What] Gege’s choice [i]s…I now understand,” and also asks with a sort of false smile, “When will Gege call the guard over? He and I will definitely get along really well.” This is sort of a challenge, since he initially said he wanted to request Zhang Li (our main character) to be transferred to his palace, and he mentioned how envious he was of Zhang Li’s loyalty to the king.
The king responded that with Zhang Li’s archery skills, it’d be a pity if he didn’t patrol the city, which implies he’s hesitating to give him up. But later he agrees, saying the brother can have him for a bit as long as he returns him in one piece, and his brother brightens, saying he will because he and the king are family.
Obviously now the brother’s mood toward the king is shifting because the king “failed his test” (his request that he not try and destroy the religion), so he’s becoming less nice. We can see this when he suddenly says Zhang Li seems [too/extra] special to the king.
The king responds that he knows; his brother doesn’t need to worry because someone else already warned him about this.
This was probably not the right answer to give, because his brother is already feeling his trust be broken by the king, and hearing that, he says, “Is that so? It seems Gege has other people by his side who can take care of him, so I don’t need to say anything.” Now he begins attempting to sow seeds of doubt in the king about Zhang Li, and we no longer see his face anymore either, which is a symbolic way of showing his turn and sudden coldness: “But the last time we met [for the first time], that little guard was so enthusiastic. He kept staring at me, which made me feel a little embarrassed.
“When I heard the rumours, I’d assumed he was loyal only to Gege; I didn’t expect him to be so interested in me.
“Could it stem from the fact that Gege and I look so similar?
“I’m not sure… I[’m afraid to] assume he is loyal to *this specific appearance*~ So who exactly is the person he sees (who exactly is he gazing/looking at)?”
The tilde implies he’s saying the second-last line in a singsongy voice, obviously—which is a taunting tone, and the emphasis on “this specific appearance” suggests “he’s not loyal to you specifically. He’d be loyal to me too. He just likes our appearance,” which evidently challenges the notion that Zhang Li has any feelings for the king or that the king is special to Zhang Li, which would mean the king is getting too close to him when there’s no point.
This is where the last chapter ends.
This chapter begins with the king deciding to add more guards to his brother’s palace, and when the redhead wonders why (because it’s unlikely the religious group will try to enter the palace), the king says it’s not because of them, but because of his brother, who’s acting off.
Meanwhile, Kaba is again waxing poetry about the brother, who he thinks is a girl. He’d heard of a second princess (a sister) named Mimi who ranks below the eldest prince (?) yet is older than the current king (she is his jiejie, or elder sister). Thus, Kaba concludes, the brother must be Mimi because this princess disappeared as soon as our titular [“tyrant”] king became king.
Zhang Li concludes for Kaba that the “princess” once lived with the common folk before she was taken into the palace with her identity being hidden after the king ascended the throne and she was put under house arrest—which the brother seems to be, since he always stays in his palace.
Zhang Li acknowledges this is a logical conclusion, but he’s bothered by the fact Mimi should be the king’s real name, since he responded to it instinctively when called. That’s when his eyes widen as he thinks, “It can’t be that…the ‘second princess’ is actually—” He doesn’t finish his thought here for suspense, but we can assume he’s wondering if the king is actually this mysterious “second princess,” which could imply any number of other conclusions or plot threads!
Meanwhile, the religious folk who hate the king are trying to go through the royal family’s records to figure out who the blue feather belongs to. It hasn’t been outright confirmed yet, but it was implied a few chapters ago that the brother sent them something along with the blue feather (he wears multiple feathers) as a hint or some sort of vague encouragement/promise of help. He obviously sympathizes with the religion that the king hates, and this suggests even before the king failed his “test” to leave the religion alone more, the brother was already sort of planning on betraying the king. Or at least maybe he assumed if the king promised to back down, he could help the religious people without having to worry.
Back to the king and his people, they discuss their plans. The redhead muses at the end that the era of the religion ruling this nation is finally coming to an end, and the king tells his best agent to “retrieve his net” (earlier they’d discussed their plans as a sort of net, and his best agent says he has people prepared to replace all the religious heads. As the redhead notes, even if citizens notice these replacements acting weird, it’d be fine since they know the king and the religion often butt heads).
We cut to panels of everyone spending their night in different ways, which is a good way to build up to what appears to be an oncoming storm. Especially since we end with…
The brother has taken out all his guards—and maybe servants—and he laments, “Gege, I surrendered *my identity* and *my throne* to you. Yet you’ve let me down so much.”
The emphasis on “my identity” and “my throne” are in the original Chinese, by the way.
Obviously this is a huge reveal because this means the brother is *not* the didi (younger brother). He’s actually the original eldest prince and should have been king, but he probably couldn’t ascend the throne—maybe because of health reasons or because he had faith in the current king.
And note: “identity” here can also mean “status,” so either way the king (Mimi) took over the royal duties that originally belonged to his brother. Alternate translations for “surrendered” include: “I gave [these things] to you” or “I let you have [these things]” or “I gave way for you to take over [these things].” All of this suggests maybe he willingly stepped down—so now we’re left to wonder how willing he was, whether they planned this together or not, and whether the king was willing to take over etc. I’m actually assuming he willingly gave the role away since the brother did seem to believe in and care for the king—or at least he valued the concept of family—and the king took over out of guilt (earlier, he said the reason the brother is stuck in this palace is because he’s “neglected” or “failed to take care of” him, implying guilt).
Anyway, the brother thus concludes with: “I won’t continue being your shadow anymore. Tonight…let’s just bring things to an end.”
And I’ll leave a note here too, because the “bring things to an end” term used here does mean to end things, but it comes with negative connotations—specifically it can also mean *to break off [a relationship]*. This evidently suggests the brother is planning to cut all ties with the king and go completely against him, which…
Well. Looks like next chapter we’re in for a treat—in terms of getting some intense action and conflict, which is always fun in a story. 👀
*TL;DR:* The king is likely the rumoured “second princess” Mimi who disappeared around the time the king ascended the throne. This chapter all but confirms the king’s brother gave the king his identity and throne, so he’s actually not the younger brother.
He’s going to go against the king now (which he already did by sending the scroll with the feather to the religious leaders) because he seems to value religion more than the king, and when he hurt the king by mentioning what is likely the king’s mom being also religious, the king also hurt him by yelling at him not to mention her.
Because of this, the king’s brother became underhanded and commented on how Zhang Li (the main character) maybe isn’t that loyal to the king after all—maybe he’s just loyal to their specific appearance, meaning the king isn’t special. He still wants Zhang Li to be brought over, but now it’s outright suggested it’s because he knows it’ll hurt the king since the two seemed to get along well.
And despite the king’s preparations for executing his plan to probably replace all the religious leaders with his own people, his brother is planning to end things all *tonight*, which means next chapter should be juicy~
So yeah! That was long, but I hope it was helpful, especially since this story is quite good at conveying its themes in a subtle manner, and it’s too bad the translation has been confusing some people so far. 😛
A hot person
Wow, seems like im not the only one who doesnt understand the story lol
thatblshippergirl
Okay quick review: the current king is actually the youngest prince he replaced hos weak brother on the throne instead according to their agreement. Now the older brother is actually angry and plans to rebel
Thatblshippergirl
Hegu92
I really don’t understood this story 😂 the english translation is really really difficult to understand.
Lisbaees
Babes it’s okay I lowkey don’t and do at the same time.
rabbit.wwx
I’m feel like I find this story interesting, but I don’t understand anything…
Depressed chan
I genuinely don’t understand this story.
Is it just me?