The boy was covered in thick, foul-smelling blood from head to toe, but the middle-aged man didn’t mind; he just sighed and put away the box in his hand.

"Sleep, child, just treat this as a nightmare. When you wake up, it will all be better."

The middle-aged man’s voice was gentle. He lightly patted the boy’s shoulder with his broad palm but was afraid that if he applied too much force, he might hurt the boy’s fragile body.

The boy obediently closed his eyes. In his drowsiness, he heard the middle-aged man ask, "What’s your name?"

"Yuan..." the boy mumbled in his sleep and soon drifted off again.

"Yuan." The middle-aged man repeated the name, silently keeping it in his heart.

This was the most peaceful sleep Yuan had since he could remember.

No need to return to that dark and eerie dungeon, no need to see that man in the Dragon Robe, and no need to worry that upon waking, he’d see his brother lying on the ground, unsure of life or death...

Beside them, one of Dingyuan Marquis’s subordinates advised:

"Marquis, we can’t keep this child. Even if he’s not from Wei Country, he’s related to the Wei Army. It’s said that Gu Technique is rampant in Wei Country and they like to groom Death Warriors. This child might be a spy, and keeping him will bring endless trouble..."

"His eyes are clean. I believe he is a good and kind child. Such a child deserves more care."

From then on, the child who crawled out of a pile of corpses became Gu Yuan, the adopted son of Dingyuan Marquis, and the son of the Marquis’s personal soldier, Wei Zheng, named Wei Chengyuan.

Perhaps the old Marquis had long guessed his identity. Otherwise, among so many personal soldiers, why let him take the surname "Wei" from his father?

Wei Junzhuo was a rising military talent in Wei Country those years. He had a younger brother and an older sister, and although few knew, it wasn’t exactly a secret.

The old Marquis gave him a name with the same generational character "Cheng" as Gu Chengzhao, Gu Chengye, and Gu Chengluan, truly treating him as an adopted son and giving him a warm home.

After the old Marquis brought him back, Yuan became reclusive and only grew close to the old Marquis. However, he harbored a deep Inner Strength within him and often hurt himself when he lost control during martial training.

It was the old Marquis who practiced martial arts with him time and again. And while stationed at the barracks, Chengluan also treated him like a younger brother and took care of him. Later, it was also the old Marquis who, to help him let go of the past, sent him back to the Capital City to protect Madam Zhou and Gu Chengzhao’s newborn baby.

It wasn’t until he witnessed a new life being born and saw Gu Lan’s adorable smile that he finally let go of those unbearable memories.

After the upheaval in Yunzhou, because he blamed himself for not protecting the old Marquis, he took the Heart Closing Pill and lost his memory again, being found by Qian Ruohua—

Wei Chengyuan remembered everything from those years and finally understood why seeing Wei Junzhuo stirred feelings of heartache within him. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He truly felt sorry for Wei Junzhuo because everything he had gone through, Wei Junzhuo must have endured even more in his childhood.

Wei Chengyuan came back to his senses, looked at the stern and handsome Wei Junzhuo in front of him, and seriously asked:

"Brother, after I left, did the Emperor make you take those medicines again?"

He had just regained his memory, and for a moment, still referred to the man who tormented them as "the Emperor."

Wei Junzhuo’s eyes reddened, and upon hearing this, a teardrop as large as a bean rolled down uncontrollably. He tried to maintain his composure, pursing his thin lips into a straight line.

His younger brother was once so little, yet in moments of lost consciousness and emotion, he had fought to take those medicines made by Yuan Zhen for him. The boy’s screams still echoed in his ears, tearing at Wei Junzhuo’s heart.

As a brother, not only did he fail to protect him, but he also became an accomplice to evil...

Perhaps at that time, deep down, he felt a profound disgust for everything around him and thus deliberately ignored Yuan, which led to Yuan getting lost on the battlefield.

After doing so, he received punishment from Yuan Zhen. To someone deeply affected by Gu Technique, who had lost human emotions, it was merely physical pain, yet he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, he caused his sister to search for Yuan all those years. Seventeen years ago, the Martial Virtue Bureau found a clue, saying that Dingyuan Marquis in Yan Country had an adopted son resembling Yuan in age and appearance, and his sister even went to the Capital City of Yan Country herself to find Yuan.

She didn’t find Yuan, but she did fall in love with that young Marquis of Yan Country.