Chuland, Chancellor Gregory Hayes' Estate
Gregory Gu Jr. sat in the chair, his face ashen. Two guards stood beside him, their expressions blank as they watched him.
Before him sat a wheelchair, its cold surface gleaming under the light.
Gregory Gu Jr. stared at the wheelchair, his eyes clouded with gloom. He was the illustrious Imperial Grand Tutor, wielding power over Chuland, yet who would have thought he’d be brought down by illness!
Starting five years ago, Gregory Gu Jr.'s health began to deteriorate—especially his legs, which gradually lost the ability to walk, until he could only move around in a wheelchair.
First, he suffered the blow of being crippled, and then, misfortune struck again—he was left paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. For someone as proud as Gregory Gu Jr., it was a devastating blow.
Once the dashing and elegant Imperial Grand Tutor, Gregory Gu Jr. had, in just a few years, become a gloomy-eyed, bearded man—practically an old geezer.
Gregory Gu Jr. glared at the wheelchair, his eyes practically wishing they could burn a hole right through it!
He didn’t want the wheelchair—he wanted his own legs!
Unfortunately, fate had other plans.
With no other choice, Gregory Gu Jr. could only use his arms to awkwardly drag himself onto the wheelchair.
The two guards at his sides watched Gregory Gu Jr. struggle, their eyes glinting with sarcasm, but they didn’t bother to help.
Gregory Gu Jr. seemed used to the guards’ indifference. To be precise, ever since he became paralyzed, he hadn’t left the Chancellor’s Estate even once.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to leave; rather, after losing his mobility, his grip on power weakened, and even the people in his own estate stopped obeying his orders.
Whenever Gregory Gu Jr. tried to leave the Chancellor’s Estate, the staff would come up with countless excuses to stop him, refusing to let him out the door.
Brilliant as he was, Gregory Gu Jr. naturally realized he was now trapped—effectively under house arrest!
Yet there was one thing Gregory Gu Jr. could never figure out.
He didn’t know how things had gotten so bad for him, or why, overnight, everything seemed to slip out of his control.
To this day, Gregory Gu Jr. still had no idea who was behind his house arrest!
Was it the Emperor, or one of the princes?
"I demand to leave!" Gregory Gu Jr. roared at the gates of the Chancellor’s Estate, as if stepping outside would instantly restore him to his former glory.
But while Gregory Gu Jr. fumed, the guards remained expressionless, unmoved by his outburst. They repeated mechanically, "Sir Gregory, your health is poor. It’s best if you don’t go out."
"I want to go out! I want to go out! I want to attend court, I want to see the Emperor!" Gregory Gu Jr. slammed his hands on the wheelchair, shouting until his voice was hoarse.
The two guards looked at Gregory Gu Jr. as if he were a fool, thinking to themselves, 'Attend court? See the Emperor? Your Emperor of Chuland has been dead for years. Outside, it’s all Qin now—the world has completely changed.'
If it weren’t for His Majesty King Alexander’s desire to keep Gregory Gu Jr. alive—feeling death would be too easy for him—he wouldn’t be kept here like some caged animal under house arrest.
Dying in agony, stripped of all his pride and fighting spirit—that was the greatest punishment for a man like Gregory Gu Jr.
"I'll leave myself!" Seeing no one respond to his shouting, Gregory Gu Jr. gripped the wheelchair and tried to wheel himself toward the gate.
But he’d barely moved before a guard grabbed the wheelchair and pulled him back. "Sir Chancellor, you should rest now. Someone, bring the medicine!"
No sooner had the guard spoken than someone emerged with a bowl of medicine. Gregory Gu Jr. saw it and panicked, flailing his arms and shouting, "Take it away, take it away! I’m not sick—I don’t need medicine!"