Third Prince: I’ll offer more!
The knife didn’t penetrate deeply, yet the blood flowed abundantly.
The pain woke Lu Zhang, and he tried to pull out the dagger from his back, but it was awkward.
Seeing the shards of a porcelain bottle on the ground, and the blood-stained sleeve of the Third Prince, Lu Zhang’s face darkened, as he stared at his son like he had never seen the Third Prince before.
Originally wailing, the Third Prince suddenly felt something was wrong and looked up to meet Lu Zhang’s terrifying gaze.
“…Uh!”
The Third Prince’s crying abruptly halted, followed by unstoppable hiccups.
He retreated in a panic, his face turning red as if he was about to pass out.
Mo Li’s expression slightly changed, he grabbed the Third Prince’s hand and pressed on the acupoint inside the wrist with internal energy, which stopped the hiccups and the prince started to gasp for air.
“Doctor?” Meng Qi sharply noticed something odd in Mo Li’s expression.
This Third Prince couldn’t be sick too, could he?
Master Meng fell into deep thought; he had sneaked into the palace with Mo Li ostensibly to stir up trouble and deal with Ancestor Qingwu, so why had it turned into diagnosing the Qi Dynasty princes one by one?
This wasn’t right!
Meng Qi was extremely conflicted, Mo Li hadn’t thought of this, and he let go of the Third Prince’s hand. He was about to say something, but seeing the face smeared with snot and tears, Mo Li silently swallowed his words.
However, the Third Prince’s eyes lit up, he repeatedly rubbed his wrist and asked stutteringly, “Are you, are you a doctor? How did you do this, the Imperial Physician has seen it before, but it was never this quick…”
“Enough! Is this the time for seeing a doctor?” the Second Prince glared at his brother.
The Third Prince showed a flicker of annoyance in his eyes, then lowered his head and stepped back, as if he wished he could shrink into the wall.
Meng Qi, seeing Mo Li silent, sighed in relief.
—It seems it’s not a serious illness; no need for the doctor to be bothered.
Lu Zhang, having faced life and death on the battlefield in his early years, didn’t feel blood froth in his throat when breathing, the wound wasn’t deep and hadn’t reached vital organs.
The wound was painful but not numb, indicating the knife wasn’t poisoned.
Lu Zhang almost sneered; he knew the third was useless, daring to commit regicide but lacking the courage to do more?
“Very well, you both want the throne, but there is only one.” Lu Zhang said with a hoarse voice.
In Lu Zhang’s view, even if the second and third didn’t turn into enemies and fight on the spot, at least they would be wary and reveal their cards in this struggle for the throne.
But outside the palace was deadly silent, no ambush, no ministers bought by the princes, not even an assassin rushing over to finish him off.
Lu Zhang almost doubted he was in a nightmare, but the pain from the wound on his back occasionally reminded him this was real, that he had lost his rationality to anger and was ambushed by his two sons.
—Both sons wanted to kill him!
“Do you think by killing me, killing your Emperor Father, you can rule the world?” Lu Zhang laughed intermittently, looking disdainfully at his incompetent sons, mocking, “Chu Emperor Yuan did not hesitate to kill many meritorious officials to crush the deeply rooted powers in the court, passing the realm to Chu Emperor Ling; Chu Emperor Ling’s stability relied on his father, Qi Emperor stood by military power, what do you have? Just the empty status of a prince!”
The Second Prince was furious, he growled, “I have nothing! Why do I have nothing? Hahaha… Even calling myself ‘this prince’ is a joke!”
The princes of the Qi Dynasty were not granted their titles.
Normally, princes are titled after their coming-of-age ceremony, so it’s customary for princes to refer to themselves as ‘this prince,’ not overstepping bounds.
Even the Third Prince raised his head, muttering, “A prince should stay in the outer court, should study with the sages of the time, learn riding and archery, military strategies with brave and skilled generals, a prince should be granted lands and titles upon his coming-of-age…”
The Second Prince despised this brother for his lack of ambition, raising his voice, “What have I used all these years? Moldy cloth and a bunch of junk from the inner treasury! What have I eaten? Lukewarm, soaked in warm water, mushy food. The concubines I married, my future children, they all have to stay in cramped, dim palaces with me, enduring what I’ve endured for twenty years! What empty status of a prince? We’re clearly dogs, dogs you kick and throw things at when you’re unhappy!”
“Silence!”
The word “dog” triggered uncontrollable anger in Lu Zhang.
These were insults he had heard too often in his early years, both to his face and behind his back.
Lackey, hound, minion… these were stains he could never rid himself of, even at the height of his power. He was inevitably subjected to overt and covert curses, even becoming the subject of songs spread in the streets and tales boldly recounted in teahouses with a change of dynasty or name.
Only as an emperor could these actions be written off as enduring hardships, taking on a different complexion.
“I am the sovereign of this nation, your father! Without me, do you think you would have food and warmth? Could you complain about not having delicate possessions? You would be country bumpkins, too poor to own a single intact piece of clothing! Children of military households on the border, drafted into the army at fifteen, training day and night in the wind and snow! Sons of minor officials in the capital, unable to afford even a servant, counting coins daily, fearful of offending the powerful!”
With every word from Lu Zhang, the Third Prince trembled.
“You!”
Lu Zhang pointed at the Third Prince, saying with loathing: “Your maternal family has some standing, your grandfather was a fifth-rank official, yet you are foolish to the extreme, following your elder brother in regicide? Your mother entered the palace as a concubine, his mother was merely a concubine bought for fifty silver pieces, a daughter from a declining official family without a grain in the pot…”
The Second Prince, evidently used to hearing such words from Lu Zhang, charged in a rage and threw a punch at Lu Zhang.
Injured and bleeding, Lu Zhang was slow to react. The Second Prince, like a wild tiger, managed to land a heavy punch on Lu Zhang’s left cheek, which swelled visibly.
“Presumptuous…”
Lu Zhang was both shocked and angry, but the Second Prince, uninterested in stopping, raised his fist again.
This time it wasn’t so easy. The Second Prince paid the price with a bruised eye socket and losing half a tooth, yet managed to land several more punches on Lu Zhang.
The Third Prince seemed eager to join.
“Enough.” Mo Li used his internal force to pull the Second Prince away.
The Second Prince felt a strong force dragging him up; he struggled in mid-air, flailing, eventually managing to kick Lu Zhang.
“I gave you money,” the Second Prince said angrily.
Meng Qi, arms crossed, said leisurely: “I only agreed to bring you here to beat up the emperor, not to kill him.”
“Why?”
The disappointed voice came not from the Second Prince, but from the Third Prince.
“Do you want more money? How about a hundred silver pieces?” the Third Prince asked.
Previously, the Third Prince had been skeptical about Meng Qi’s identity, but now, hearing it from Lu Zhang himself, he looked as if he had found a treasure, his eyes rolling.
“You actually want to add money, weren’t you the one who didn’t want to spend a penny, you miser?” the Second Prince mocked his brother.
“What do you know?” the Third Prince glanced at Meng Qi covertly, lowering his voice, “Do you still want to live? If the emperor dies, who will be blamed? You?”
The Second Prince realized then, so the money was for the reputation of the former dynasty’s imperial teacher.
It would be the former imperial teacher who killed the emperor, not related to them, the princes?!
“Cough, let me remind you,” Meng Qi scoffed, looking at them casually, “You’re daydreaming!”
The Third Prince narrowed his eyes, showing a cunning look, about to speak but Mo Li interrupted him.
“The money you gave is partly for your expenses after leaving the palace.”
“Why would I leave the palace?” the Third Prince asked in surprise.
Meng Qi, rubbing his fingers, said coldly: “Because Lu Zhang will not die, and if you don’t leave, are you looking forward to being placed under house arrest or being sentenced to death?”
The two princes simultaneously declared, “I can kill him right now!”
“No.” Meng Qi raised a finger, watching their expressions change with amusement, and slowly said, “It seems to be the Crown Prince’s intention that Lu Zhang must not die, unless there is a successor to the throne that can command general support.”
“Of course, let the eldest brother ascend to the throne.” The two of them spoke in unison again.
“Oh, so you have no aspirations for the throne yourselves?” Meng Qi probed.
The Second Prince and the Third Prince both snorted coldly at the same time, their mutual disdain was evident.
Mo Li: “…”
So, these two princes were set on patricide and regicide, only to push the Crown Prince onto the throne, while they would show themselves in a good light in front of their elder brother, vying for the position of the heir apparent.
“What does that make you, the Imperial Younger Brother?” Mo Li genuinely didn’t understand these titles.
The Chen dynasty had an Imperial Grandson, and the Tang dynasty even had a princess who wished to be an Imperial Granddaughter, so could an Imperial Younger Brother be plausible in terms of rituals?
Lu Zhang, clutching his buzzing head, heard his timid son loudly declare, “If five hundred silver pieces are not enough, I will have the eldest brother give you five hundred gold pieces!”
Meng Qi paused, pondering, “Five hundred gold pieces for the emperor’s head, sounds not bad?”
Mo Li looked at him disapprovingly; if they weren’t planning on killing anyone, they shouldn’t continue to tease the two princes.
Lu Zhang, furious and shocked, grabbed a jade paperweight and threw it at the Third Prince.
Mo Li deflected the paperweight, and the Third Prince, overly nervous, started hiccupping non-stop again.
Once he started, he couldn’t stop.
Meng Qi had seen many people hiccup, but the Third Prince was unique, hiccupping as if he couldn’t breathe, red-faced, with his body stiffening and twitching; truly unparalleled.
“What kind of illness is this?”
“…No illness.” Mo Li said dully.
But to Meng Qi, the Third Prince didn’t seem like he was without illness.
Normal people don’t hiccup so severely and twitch!
“If you really want to talk about an illness, it’s a mental one!” Mo Li had just taken his pulse and saw that the Third Prince had no hidden diseases, actually healthier than his two brothers.
“Mental illness, how so?”
“It’s triggered by nervousness.”
Even a divine doctor is powerless.
Author’s note:
Just a gentle note, Lu Zhang’s reaction to the word “dog” does not imply the author is a cat person.
—In fact, she neither keeps cats nor dogs but is open to the idea of having them virtually.
Actually, compared to cats and dogs, the author might prefer giant octopuses (×)
——————
The Third Prince, timid as a mouse
Meng Qi: What did you say? Looking down on mice?!
Third Prince: I’ll offer more!
The knife didn’t penetrate deeply, yet the blood flowed abundantly.
The pain woke Lu Zhang, and he tried to pull out the dagger from his back, but it was awkward.
Seeing the shards of a porcelain bottle on the ground, and the blood-stained sleeve of the Third Prince, Lu Zhang’s face darkened, as he stared at his son like he had never seen the Third Prince before.
Originally wailing, the Third Prince suddenly felt something was wrong and looked up to meet Lu Zhang’s terrifying gaze.
“…Uh!”
The Third Prince’s crying abruptly halted, followed by unstoppable hiccups.
He retreated in a panic, his face turning red as if he was about to pass out.
Mo Li’s expression slightly changed, he grabbed the Third Prince’s hand and pressed on the acupoint inside the wrist with internal energy, which stopped the hiccups and the prince started to gasp for air.
“Doctor?” Meng Qi sharply noticed something odd in Mo Li’s expression.
This Third Prince couldn’t be sick too, could he?
Master Meng fell into deep thought; he had sneaked into the palace with Mo Li ostensibly to stir up trouble and deal with Ancestor Qingwu, so why had it turned into diagnosing the Qi Dynasty princes one by one?
This wasn’t right!
Meng Qi was extremely conflicted, Mo Li hadn’t thought of this, and he let go of the Third Prince’s hand. He was about to say something, but seeing the face smeared with snot and tears, Mo Li silently swallowed his words.
However, the Third Prince’s eyes lit up, he repeatedly rubbed his wrist and asked stutteringly, “Are you, are you a doctor? How did you do this, the Imperial Physician has seen it before, but it was never this quick…”
“Enough! Is this the time for seeing a doctor?” the Second Prince glared at his brother.
The Third Prince showed a flicker of annoyance in his eyes, then lowered his head and stepped back, as if he wished he could shrink into the wall.
Meng Qi, seeing Mo Li silent, sighed in relief.
—It seems it’s not a serious illness; no need for the doctor to be bothered.
Lu Zhang, having faced life and death on the battlefield in his early years, didn’t feel blood froth in his throat when breathing, the wound wasn’t deep and hadn’t reached vital organs.
The wound was painful but not numb, indicating the knife wasn’t poisoned.
Lu Zhang almost sneered; he knew the third was useless, daring to commit regicide but lacking the courage to do more?
“Very well, you both want the throne, but there is only one.” Lu Zhang said with a hoarse voice.
In Lu Zhang’s view, even if the second and third didn’t turn into enemies and fight on the spot, at least they would be wary and reveal their cards in this struggle for the throne.
But outside the palace was deadly silent, no ambush, no ministers bought by the princes, not even an assassin rushing over to finish him off.
Lu Zhang almost doubted he was in a nightmare, but the pain from the wound on his back occasionally reminded him this was real, that he had lost his rationality to anger and was ambushed by his two sons.
—Both sons wanted to kill him!
“Do you think by killing me, killing your Emperor Father, you can rule the world?” Lu Zhang laughed intermittently, looking disdainfully at his incompetent sons, mocking, “Chu Emperor Yuan did not hesitate to kill many meritorious officials to crush the deeply rooted powers in the court, passing the realm to Chu Emperor Ling; Chu Emperor Ling’s stability relied on his father, Qi Emperor stood by military power, what do you have? Just the empty status of a prince!”
The Second Prince was furious, he growled, “I have nothing! Why do I have nothing? Hahaha… Even calling myself ‘this prince’ is a joke!”
The princes of the Qi Dynasty were not granted their titles.
Normally, princes are titled after their coming-of-age ceremony, so it’s customary for princes to refer to themselves as ‘this prince,’ not overstepping bounds.
Even the Third Prince raised his head, muttering, “A prince should stay in the outer court, should study with the sages of the time, learn riding and archery, military strategies with brave and skilled generals, a prince should be granted lands and titles upon his coming-of-age…”
The Second Prince despised this brother for his lack of ambition, raising his voice, “What have I used all these years? Moldy cloth and a bunch of junk from the inner treasury! What have I eaten? Lukewarm, soaked in warm water, mushy food. The concubines I married, my future children, they all have to stay in cramped, dim palaces with me, enduring what I’ve endured for twenty years! What empty status of a prince? We’re clearly dogs, dogs you kick and throw things at when you’re unhappy!”
“Silence!”
The word “dog” triggered uncontrollable anger in Lu Zhang.
These were insults he had heard too often in his early years, both to his face and behind his back.
Lackey, hound, minion… these were stains he could never rid himself of, even at the height of his power. He was inevitably subjected to overt and covert curses, even becoming the subject of songs spread in the streets and tales boldly recounted in teahouses with a change of dynasty or name.
Only as an emperor could these actions be written off as enduring hardships, taking on a different complexion.
“I am the sovereign of this nation, your father! Without me, do you think you would have food and warmth? Could you complain about not having delicate possessions? You would be country bumpkins, too poor to own a single intact piece of clothing! Children of military households on the border, drafted into the army at fifteen, training day and night in the wind and snow! Sons of minor officials in the capital, unable to afford even a servant, counting coins daily, fearful of offending the powerful!”
With every word from Lu Zhang, the Third Prince trembled.
“You!”
Lu Zhang pointed at the Third Prince, saying with loathing: “Your maternal family has some standing, your grandfather was a fifth-rank official, yet you are foolish to the extreme, following your elder brother in regicide? Your mother entered the palace as a concubine, his mother was merely a concubine bought for fifty silver pieces, a daughter from a declining official family without a grain in the pot…”
The Second Prince, evidently used to hearing such words from Lu Zhang, charged in a rage and threw a punch at Lu Zhang.
Injured and bleeding, Lu Zhang was slow to react. The Second Prince, like a wild tiger, managed to land a heavy punch on Lu Zhang’s left cheek, which swelled visibly.
“Presumptuous…”
Lu Zhang was both shocked and angry, but the Second Prince, uninterested in stopping, raised his fist again.
This time it wasn’t so easy. The Second Prince paid the price with a bruised eye socket and losing half a tooth, yet managed to land several more punches on Lu Zhang.
The Third Prince seemed eager to join.
“Enough.” Mo Li used his internal force to pull the Second Prince away.
The Second Prince felt a strong force dragging him up; he struggled in mid-air, flailing, eventually managing to kick Lu Zhang.
“I gave you money,” the Second Prince said angrily.
Meng Qi, arms crossed, said leisurely: “I only agreed to bring you here to beat up the emperor, not to kill him.”
“Why?”
The disappointed voice came not from the Second Prince, but from the Third Prince.
“Do you want more money? How about a hundred silver pieces?” the Third Prince asked.
Previously, the Third Prince had been skeptical about Meng Qi’s identity, but now, hearing it from Lu Zhang himself, he looked as if he had found a treasure, his eyes rolling.
“You actually want to add money, weren’t you the one who didn’t want to spend a penny, you miser?” the Second Prince mocked his brother.
“What do you know?” the Third Prince glanced at Meng Qi covertly, lowering his voice, “Do you still want to live? If the emperor dies, who will be blamed? You?”
The Second Prince realized then, so the money was for the reputation of the former dynasty’s imperial teacher.
It would be the former imperial teacher who killed the emperor, not related to them, the princes?!
“Cough, let me remind you,” Meng Qi scoffed, looking at them casually, “You’re daydreaming!”
The Third Prince narrowed his eyes, showing a cunning look, about to speak but Mo Li interrupted him.
“The money you gave is partly for your expenses after leaving the palace.”
“Why would I leave the palace?” the Third Prince asked in surprise.
Meng Qi, rubbing his fingers, said coldly: “Because Lu Zhang will not die, and if you don’t leave, are you looking forward to being placed under house arrest or being sentenced to death?”
The two princes simultaneously declared, “I can kill him right now!”
“No.” Meng Qi raised a finger, watching their expressions change with amusement, and slowly said, “It seems to be the Crown Prince’s intention that Lu Zhang must not die, unless there is a successor to the throne that can command general support.”
“Of course, let the eldest brother ascend to the throne.” The two of them spoke in unison again.
“Oh, so you have no aspirations for the throne yourselves?” Meng Qi probed.
The Second Prince and the Third Prince both snorted coldly at the same time, their mutual disdain was evident.
Mo Li: “…”
So, these two princes were set on patricide and regicide, only to push the Crown Prince onto the throne, while they would show themselves in a good light in front of their elder brother, vying for the position of the heir apparent.
“What does that make you, the Imperial Younger Brother?” Mo Li genuinely didn’t understand these titles.
The Chen dynasty had an Imperial Grandson, and the Tang dynasty even had a princess who wished to be an Imperial Granddaughter, so could an Imperial Younger Brother be plausible in terms of rituals?
Lu Zhang, clutching his buzzing head, heard his timid son loudly declare, “If five hundred silver pieces are not enough, I will have the eldest brother give you five hundred gold pieces!”
Meng Qi paused, pondering, “Five hundred gold pieces for the emperor’s head, sounds not bad?”
Mo Li looked at him disapprovingly; if they weren’t planning on killing anyone, they shouldn’t continue to tease the two princes.
Lu Zhang, furious and shocked, grabbed a jade paperweight and threw it at the Third Prince.
Mo Li deflected the paperweight, and the Third Prince, overly nervous, started hiccupping non-stop again.
Once he started, he couldn’t stop.
Meng Qi had seen many people hiccup, but the Third Prince was unique, hiccupping as if he couldn’t breathe, red-faced, with his body stiffening and twitching; truly unparalleled.
“What kind of illness is this?”
“…No illness.” Mo Li said dully.
But to Meng Qi, the Third Prince didn’t seem like he was without illness.
Normal people don’t hiccup so severely and twitch!
“If you really want to talk about an illness, it’s a mental one!” Mo Li had just taken his pulse and saw that the Third Prince had no hidden diseases, actually healthier than his two brothers.
“Mental illness, how so?”
“It’s triggered by nervousness.”
Even a divine doctor is powerless.
Author’s note:
Just a gentle note, Lu Zhang’s reaction to the word “dog” does not imply the author is a cat person.
—In fact, she neither keeps cats nor dogs but is open to the idea of having them virtually.
Actually, compared to cats and dogs, the author might prefer giant octopuses (×)
——————
The Third Prince, timid as a mouse
Meng Qi: What did you say? Looking down on mice?!
