Nine years after miraculously clawing his way out of an imperial burial mound as a child, Hayes lives quietly as an ordinary river trader, unaware of his true bloodline. The court long believed the young crown prince deceased, executing thousands of guards in the emperor's uncontrollable grief.
While sharing wine beside the water with an eccentric elder, Hayes casually mentions his childhood escape from a gilded mausoleum. Overcome with tears, the visitor reveals himself as Emperor Hongwu, begging his long-lost grandson to claim the imperial throne while Hayes struggles to believe the astounding revelation.
