The Minzhou Revenue Department Head got a real shock, and he stumbled a few steps backward.
Lou Jing looked coldly at the three boys. They were about thirteen or fourteen years old, and their slender bodies were all clothed in sheer, gauzy material that didn’t leave very much to the imagination. They dared – how dare they sully his Yuanlang’s eyes with these “gifts”? It was too much! “Lord Revenue Head, don’t you think your gift is rather disgraceful?” he asked, his voice like cold steel.
The Revenue Head stared blankly at him, then looked from Lou Jing’s face to the three youths repeatedly. His chest tightened; they all hadn’t gotten a good look at their Wang ye’s boy toy, and now that they were put right next to each other, it was clear how lacking they were in comparison to Lou Jing.
If these nubile youths could be said to be the twinkling stars in the sky, then Lou Jing was to them like the bright, full moon was to the stars. Even though he was standing there with a cold, angry expression on his face, his beauty far outshone those youths.
Xiao Chengjun felt his temples throb, and he rubbed at them wearily. “Zhuoyu…” he began.
“Give them to me. I’ll deal with them. Wang ye’s eyes absolutely must not be sullied!” Lou Jing said, his expression fierce as he raised his sword to strike. He was really mad with anger now. He had originally thought that he would suffer in silence if Chengjun took in a consort or two for the sake of producing descendants – he wasn’t so wilful as to insist that the Imperial bloodline be broken for him, but what were these creatures?!
“Ah!” the three boys screamed. They were stark white now with fear, and they stumbled backwards in a panic, their limbs tangling together.
The treasure sword Scarlet Cloud advanced forward mercilessly. The boys were so scared that they started sobbing out loud and pulling at each other’s clothes. The bells on their ankles got torn off in the commotion and rang noisily as they rolled away. It was total chaos.
“Wang ye, um… this…” the Revenue Head was trembling with fear now as he quickly dodged behind Min Wang to hide.
Xiao Chengjun frowned deeply and was about to say something when the Scarlet Cloud flashed toward them.
The Revenue Head saw his life flash before his eyes as that incomparably sharp sword moved toward his head. He was screaming inwardly, telling himself to move, to flee, but his feet refused to obey, and he could only stare in wide-eyed horror as the sword fell upon him, ready to slice him open…
A temporary, pin-drop silence fell over the room. The Revenue Head’s black official’s hat was cleaved into two and fell to the ground with a soft thud. The Revenue Head was overwrought with fear now, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed onto the floor in a dead faint.
“Wang ye!” Lu Tao shouted as he charged in with the guards. He took in the chaotic scene, as well as the Crown Prince Consort, who was standing in the middle of this frenzied storm, looking as if he was about to go beserk and kill everyone in the room.
Xiao Chengjun walked over and held Lou Jing’s shoulders. “Why are you in such a temper?” he asked. As he spoke, he shot Lu Tao a look, and a group of guards immediately set to work, dragging the four unconscious people out of the room. They worked very efficiently, and once they were done, they left, thoughtfully closing the door behind them.
The treasure sword in Lou Jing’s hands fell to the floor with a clang. He buried his face in Xiao Chengjun’s shoulders. “You’re mine! You can only be mine…” Lou Jing whined pitifully. His voice no longer had the cold steel of earlier.
Giving one’s heart to a future Emperor was like a cat showing its soft, vulnerable belly. If that future Emperor wasn’t completely faithful to him, he would be covered in wounds at the very end.
Wljb Jtfcupec mbeiv tfjg atja Obe Alcu kjr gfjiis tega atlr alwf, jcv tlr tfjga jmtfv qjlcoeiis. Lf gfjmtfv bea ab teu tlw aluta. “P vbc’a kjca jcsbcf batfg atjc sbe,” tf rjlv.
“Yk… la tegar…” Obe Alcu mbeivc’a tfiq ugecalcu lc qjlc ktfc Wljb Jtfcupec’r tjcv abemtfv atf kbecv bc tlr yjmx.
Xiao Chengjun pulled back instinctively on hearing him cry out. He’d actually forgotten that Lou Jing was still nursing an injury, and this exertion might have caused the wound to split open again. It would be very bad if that happened. He made Lou Jing sit on the daybed, then opened his robes to check on the injury. Blood was already seeping out of the wound – as expected, Lou Jing’s injury had torn open again!
Xiao Chengjun felt a mixture of heartache and frustration on seeing this. He brought the medicinal ointment over and applied it on his wound personally. “You just had to make a fuss this time. Now your wound has reopened, and you’re the one who has to suffer,” Xiao Chengjun sighed.
Lou Jing was lying prone on his husband’s thighs and hugging his warm, toned waist. He didn’t say anything in reply, as if he was still in a temper.
Xiao Chengjun patted his head in resignation. “Stop messing around. The one who should be angry is me, really,” he said. Thankfully, the wound hadn’t opened completely, and had only started bleeding a little. After applying the ointment, Xiao Chengjun shifted Lou Jing’s head off his legs and prepared to go off to deal with this mess.
“You’re not to leave!” Lou Jing whined, pulling at Xiao Chengjun’s sleeve. “You haven’t compensated me yet!”
“I’m not the one at fault here,” Xiao Chengjun said, frowning. He was also very annoyed himself; his subordinates were all idiots who didn’t do the work they were supposed to do and instead tried all sorts of crooked means to win his favour. Today had presented a prime opportunity to give them a good rap across the knuckles, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
“You terrible, unfaithful man!” Lou Jing wailed, clutching a pillow and rolling around, refusing to let go of this issue.
Xiao Chengjun couldn’t help laughing out loud. He tousled Lou Jing’s hair. “Then what do you want?” he asked.
“When you come back at night, I want compensation!” Lou Jing said, reaching into his outer robes which were piled on the floor and taking out his tiny notebook to record Xiao Chengjun’s compensation due to him this round.
Xiao Chengjun shook his head helplessly. He knew that Lou Jing was fine now, so he got up and went to the main hall. He summoned all the Heads of Department and their Assistant Heads for an urgent meeting.
Minzhou was but a prefecture, and even though there were many matters to deal with, the six Heads of Department had much less to do in a vassal fief than the Ministers who headed the Six Ministries in the Imperial Court. The matters they dealt with were also much easier, so they didn’t require as much manpower as the actual Six Ministries. The government office was located just outside the Min Wang residence, and the six Heads of Department could be summoned at any time.
“Earlier, the Head of the Revenue Department tried to make a gift of three youths to me,” Xiao Chengjun said, looking solemnly at the gathered officials.
Some of the gathered officials looked shocked, and others had a knowing look on their faces. Some of them couldn’t help stealing a look at Min Wang’s face. Xiao Chengjun took in all their reactions, and his expression became cold. “I’ve said this before. I just want all of you to do your work properly. Did you really think that you can use crooked means to gain my favour?” he asked icily.
These threatening words made all the six Heads of Department kneel in unison. “Wang ye, please abate your anger,” they said.
“Effective today, Li Yao is removed as the Head of the Revenue Department and is demoted to the Assistant Head. Fan Jie is hereby promoted to the Head of the Revenue Department,” Xiao Chengjun said decisively. He didn’t wait to see what the officials’ reactions would be and simply flicked his sleeves and left.
Fan Jie stared blankly into space. He didn’t come to until someone clapped him on the back.
“Stammering Fan, you really have all the luck,” everyone said jealously. He’d been promoted consecutively in the last few days, and this was no mean feat even when one took into consideration that promotions in vassal fiefs were not as difficult to obtain as those in the Imperial Court. Everyone was green with envy.
[Panlong Palace, the Imperial Palace]
The Chunde Emperor swallowed an Immortality Pill and finally felt like he could breathe better.
A submission seeking to impeach the Third Prince lay open on his desk.
Huai Zhong glanced furtively at the contents of that submission as he poured more tea into the Emperor’s cup, then stood respectfully with his hands folded in front of him. “Your Majesty, don’t spoil your health with anger. Lord Tao has said that you should remain calm after taking the Immortality Pill,” he said.
“Hmph! These two are just waiting for Zhen to die an early death!” the Chunde Emperor said, throwing the submission onto the floor with force. This was the Imperial Censor’s submission, and in it, he denounced the Third Prince for trying to rope the nobility into his faction and selecting a Crown Prince Consort as if it was a done deal that he would be made the Crown Prince.
Huai Zhong didn’t dare to reply. He wasn’t Shen Lian, and he did not willingly involve himself in the affairs of the Imperial Court. At present, Shen Lian was still in Qingzhou, and the Chunde Emperor was unhappy because he had no one to discuss official matters with.
“Reporting to the Emperor, Chen Guifei requests an audience,” one of the guards said out of the blue.
In the past, when the Empress had been in charge of the six palaces of the hougong, he did not allow the Imperial concubines to go to the Panlong Palace without his permission. There were no less than five checkpoints that the concubines would have to pass through in order to get to the Emperor, and even the most powerful concubine, Chen Guifei, couldn’t go to Panlong Palace on a mere whim. Now that Chen Guifei was the owner of the Phoenix Seal and held sway over the six palaces, she came and went as she pleased, and the checkpoints only served to stop the rest of the concubines from coming to see the Emperor. She herself could visit the Emperor at any time.
Chen Guifei held a pot of medicinal wine in her hands, and she felt a sense of pride as she heard the Emperor’s voice say that she was permitted to enter. These few days when the Empress had temporarily stopped managing the affairs of the six palaces had been the best days she’d ever had, and she definitely wanted to make sure that person would never be in control ever again.
The Chunde Emperor looked at Chen Guifei. Her fancy, dangling hairpins tinkled and swayed as she walked coquettishly over to him, and the Emperor felt a sudden sense of irritation. Why was this woman coming to disturb him again?
At the beginning, when he had been able to see her once every two days, he’d found it fresh and exciting, and he thought fondly of her every now and then. However, in the past few days, they’d met every single day. Even when he didn’t request for her to spend the night with him, she would find some reason to visit him in the Panlong Palace. The Chunde Emperor was getting tired of her; even her agelessly beautiful face now started to look ugly to him.
“What is it now?” the Chunde Emperor asked irritably.
“I saw Duo’er today. That child is so pure and innocent. He got fooled by some people to go for drinks and drank a bit too much. He’s got a headache even now, so Chenqie gave him some medicinal wine to drink. He felt better after that, and I thought to bring some of the wine for your Majesty as well,” Chen Guifei said, smiling as she set down the pot in her hand on the table.
Chen Guifei had said all this smoothly, as if these were all small household affairs. In one masterful stroke, she had painted the Third Prince’s getting drunk as having been misled by someone into doing so, which also insinuated that some members of the nobility were trying to curry favour with him. The implication in all this was that the Third Prince never had the intention to seek people to join his faction; he was the one who was being dragged around instead.
The Chunde Emperor looked coldly at Chen Guifei. He had been young once, too. He was very clear on what princes of that age got up to. It took two hands to clap at the end of the day, and the two hands in this particular situation were called “deliberate solicitation of support” and “intentional currying of favour”. “It seems to me that you think I’m very easy to fool,” he said threateningly.
Chen Guifei paled in fright and knelt down immediately. “Your Majesty, I have never dared to think that. Chenqie has been wronged,” she said.
“Hmph! You really think that I’m a fool who knows nothing?” the Chunde Emperor said, getting to his feet and looking down at Chen Guifei. “Zhen isn’t dead yet! But that good son of yours is anxiously roping noblemen into his faction – he really thinks he’s already the Crown Prince!”
“Your Majesty, Duo’er has never had such thoughts! I raised the Third Prince personally instead of letting him be raised by the Empress because I never planned on making him the Crown Prince. We have been wronged, your Majesty!” Chen Guifei said, her face as white as sheet now. She knew full well how suspicious the Chunde Emperor was. The moment his suspicions were aroused, it was very difficult to allay them. That was exactly what had happened with Xiao Chengjun.
The situation in the Imperial Court had been stirred up nicely by Zhao Xi, and it became chaotic very shortly after. The officials who had been in favour of the Third Prince had started to defect, and even though the Minister of the Right Chen Shichang was about to go up in flames, he didn’t dare to make any big movements.
The Chen family was related to the Third Prince through his mother, Chem Guifei. They all couldn’t speak up for the Third Prince, because that would only cause the Emperor to be even more suspicious, so they could only try to give balanced comments.
The Minister of the Left’s side didn’t have any such concerns. They first let the Imperial Censor test waters with the Chunde Emperor, and when they saw that the Emperor did not chastise him for saying bad things about the Third Prince, they knew that it was safe to proceed, and started to point out the Third Prince’s faults in earnest.
These waves rocking the Imperial Court didn’t even make so much as a ripple in the Southeast, where the Min Wang residence was.
Lou Jing flipped through his little notebook, popping lychees into his mouth one by one and waiting for his husband Min Wang to give him the compensation he was due.
Xiao Chengjun stepped out of the bathtub, then hesitated for a moment. He looked at the little string of golden bells in his hand and sighed in resignation. He grit his teeth, then tied the bells on his ankle to make his Consort happy.
“Ting-a-ling-a-ling…” Sweet tinkles sounded from behind the screen, as if they were ghostly bells that could trap unwary souls. They succeeded in attracting Lou Jing, who immediately sat up and looked intently at the direction of the screen.
The outstandingly handsome Min Wang Dianxia was presently wrapped in a snow-white robe, which hugged his skin in a few places where it had been made wet by the water vapour, showing off his slender, gorgeous body. A little string of golden bells was tied at his fair-skinned ankle, and they rang delicately with every step he took.
Lou Jing couldn’t take his eyes off Xiao Chengjun. The latter’s face was serious as usual, but his body was incredibly alluring right now. Lou Jing felt like all the blood in his body was rising to his head, and his nose suddenly felt hot. Something warm started leaking out of his nostrils.
The Minzhou Revenue Department Head got a real shock, and he stumbled a few steps backward.
Lou Jing looked coldly at the three boys. They were about thirteen or fourteen years old, and their slender bodies were all clothed in sheer, gauzy material that didn’t leave very much to the imagination. They dared – how dare they sully his Yuanlang’s eyes with these “gifts”? It was too much! “Lord Revenue Head, don’t you think your gift is rather disgraceful?” he asked, his voice like cold steel.
The Revenue Head stared blankly at him, then looked from Lou Jing’s face to the three youths repeatedly. His chest tightened; they all hadn’t gotten a good look at their Wang ye’s boy toy, and now that they were put right next to each other, it was clear how lacking they were in comparison to Lou Jing.
If these nubile youths could be said to be the twinkling stars in the sky, then Lou Jing was to them like the bright, full moon was to the stars. Even though he was standing there with a cold, angry expression on his face, his beauty far outshone those youths.
Xiao Chengjun felt his temples throb, and he rubbed at them wearily. “Zhuoyu…” he began.
“Give them to me. I’ll deal with them. Wang ye’s eyes absolutely must not be sullied!” Lou Jing said, his expression fierce as he raised his sword to strike. He was really mad with anger now. He had originally thought that he would suffer in silence if Chengjun took in a consort or two for the sake of producing descendants – he wasn’t so wilful as to insist that the Imperial bloodline be broken for him, but what were these creatures?!
“Ah!” the three boys screamed. They were stark white now with fear, and they stumbled backwards in a panic, their limbs tangling together.
The treasure sword Scarlet Cloud advanced forward mercilessly. The boys were so scared that they started sobbing out loud and pulling at each other’s clothes. The bells on their ankles got torn off in the commotion and rang noisily as they rolled away. It was total chaos.
“Wang ye, um… this…” the Revenue Head was trembling with fear now as he quickly dodged behind Min Wang to hide.
Xiao Chengjun frowned deeply and was about to say something when the Scarlet Cloud flashed toward them.
The Revenue Head saw his life flash before his eyes as that incomparably sharp sword moved toward his head. He was screaming inwardly, telling himself to move, to flee, but his feet refused to obey, and he could only stare in wide-eyed horror as the sword fell upon him, ready to slice him open…
A temporary, pin-drop silence fell over the room. The Revenue Head’s black official’s hat was cleaved into two and fell to the ground with a soft thud. The Revenue Head was overwrought with fear now, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed onto the floor in a dead faint.
“Wang ye!” Lu Tao shouted as he charged in with the guards. He took in the chaotic scene, as well as the Crown Prince Consort, who was standing in the middle of this frenzied storm, looking as if he was about to go beserk and kill everyone in the room.
Xiao Chengjun walked over and held Lou Jing’s shoulders. “Why are you in such a temper?” he asked. As he spoke, he shot Lu Tao a look, and a group of guards immediately set to work, dragging the four unconscious people out of the room. They worked very efficiently, and once they were done, they left, thoughtfully closing the door behind them.
The treasure sword in Lou Jing’s hands fell to the floor with a clang. He buried his face in Xiao Chengjun’s shoulders. “You’re mine! You can only be mine…” Lou Jing whined pitifully. His voice no longer had the cold steel of earlier.
Giving one’s heart to a future Emperor was like a cat showing its soft, vulnerable belly. If that future Emperor wasn’t completely faithful to him, he would be covered in wounds at the very end.
Wljb Jtfcupec mbeiv tfjg atja Obe Alcu kjr gfjiis tega atlr alwf, jcv tlr tfjga jmtfv qjlcoeiis. Lf gfjmtfv bea ab teu tlw aluta. “P vbc’a kjca jcsbcf batfg atjc sbe,” tf rjlv.
“Yk… la tegar…” Obe Alcu mbeivc’a tfiq ugecalcu lc qjlc ktfc Wljb Jtfcupec’r tjcv abemtfv atf kbecv bc tlr yjmx.
Xiao Chengjun pulled back instinctively on hearing him cry out. He’d actually forgotten that Lou Jing was still nursing an injury, and this exertion might have caused the wound to split open again. It would be very bad if that happened. He made Lou Jing sit on the daybed, then opened his robes to check on the injury. Blood was already seeping out of the wound – as expected, Lou Jing’s injury had torn open again!
Xiao Chengjun felt a mixture of heartache and frustration on seeing this. He brought the medicinal ointment over and applied it on his wound personally. “You just had to make a fuss this time. Now your wound has reopened, and you’re the one who has to suffer,” Xiao Chengjun sighed.
Lou Jing was lying prone on his husband’s thighs and hugging his warm, toned waist. He didn’t say anything in reply, as if he was still in a temper.
Xiao Chengjun patted his head in resignation. “Stop messing around. The one who should be angry is me, really,” he said. Thankfully, the wound hadn’t opened completely, and had only started bleeding a little. After applying the ointment, Xiao Chengjun shifted Lou Jing’s head off his legs and prepared to go off to deal with this mess.
“You’re not to leave!” Lou Jing whined, pulling at Xiao Chengjun’s sleeve. “You haven’t compensated me yet!”
“I’m not the one at fault here,” Xiao Chengjun said, frowning. He was also very annoyed himself; his subordinates were all idiots who didn’t do the work they were supposed to do and instead tried all sorts of crooked means to win his favour. Today had presented a prime opportunity to give them a good rap across the knuckles, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
“You terrible, unfaithful man!” Lou Jing wailed, clutching a pillow and rolling around, refusing to let go of this issue.
Xiao Chengjun couldn’t help laughing out loud. He tousled Lou Jing’s hair. “Then what do you want?” he asked.
“When you come back at night, I want compensation!” Lou Jing said, reaching into his outer robes which were piled on the floor and taking out his tiny notebook to record Xiao Chengjun’s compensation due to him this round.
Xiao Chengjun shook his head helplessly. He knew that Lou Jing was fine now, so he got up and went to the main hall. He summoned all the Heads of Department and their Assistant Heads for an urgent meeting.
Minzhou was but a prefecture, and even though there were many matters to deal with, the six Heads of Department had much less to do in a vassal fief than the Ministers who headed the Six Ministries in the Imperial Court. The matters they dealt with were also much easier, so they didn’t require as much manpower as the actual Six Ministries. The government office was located just outside the Min Wang residence, and the six Heads of Department could be summoned at any time.
“Earlier, the Head of the Revenue Department tried to make a gift of three youths to me,” Xiao Chengjun said, looking solemnly at the gathered officials.
Some of the gathered officials looked shocked, and others had a knowing look on their faces. Some of them couldn’t help stealing a look at Min Wang’s face. Xiao Chengjun took in all their reactions, and his expression became cold. “I’ve said this before. I just want all of you to do your work properly. Did you really think that you can use crooked means to gain my favour?” he asked icily.
These threatening words made all the six Heads of Department kneel in unison. “Wang ye, please abate your anger,” they said.
“Effective today, Li Yao is removed as the Head of the Revenue Department and is demoted to the Assistant Head. Fan Jie is hereby promoted to the Head of the Revenue Department,” Xiao Chengjun said decisively. He didn’t wait to see what the officials’ reactions would be and simply flicked his sleeves and left.
Fan Jie stared blankly into space. He didn’t come to until someone clapped him on the back.
“Stammering Fan, you really have all the luck,” everyone said jealously. He’d been promoted consecutively in the last few days, and this was no mean feat even when one took into consideration that promotions in vassal fiefs were not as difficult to obtain as those in the Imperial Court. Everyone was green with envy.
[Panlong Palace, the Imperial Palace]
The Chunde Emperor swallowed an Immortality Pill and finally felt like he could breathe better.
A submission seeking to impeach the Third Prince lay open on his desk.
Huai Zhong glanced furtively at the contents of that submission as he poured more tea into the Emperor’s cup, then stood respectfully with his hands folded in front of him. “Your Majesty, don’t spoil your health with anger. Lord Tao has said that you should remain calm after taking the Immortality Pill,” he said.
“Hmph! These two are just waiting for Zhen to die an early death!” the Chunde Emperor said, throwing the submission onto the floor with force. This was the Imperial Censor’s submission, and in it, he denounced the Third Prince for trying to rope the nobility into his faction and selecting a Crown Prince Consort as if it was a done deal that he would be made the Crown Prince.
Huai Zhong didn’t dare to reply. He wasn’t Shen Lian, and he did not willingly involve himself in the affairs of the Imperial Court. At present, Shen Lian was still in Qingzhou, and the Chunde Emperor was unhappy because he had no one to discuss official matters with.
“Reporting to the Emperor, Chen Guifei requests an audience,” one of the guards said out of the blue.
In the past, when the Empress had been in charge of the six palaces of the hougong, he did not allow the Imperial concubines to go to the Panlong Palace without his permission. There were no less than five checkpoints that the concubines would have to pass through in order to get to the Emperor, and even the most powerful concubine, Chen Guifei, couldn’t go to Panlong Palace on a mere whim. Now that Chen Guifei was the owner of the Phoenix Seal and held sway over the six palaces, she came and went as she pleased, and the checkpoints only served to stop the rest of the concubines from coming to see the Emperor. She herself could visit the Emperor at any time.
Chen Guifei held a pot of medicinal wine in her hands, and she felt a sense of pride as she heard the Emperor’s voice say that she was permitted to enter. These few days when the Empress had temporarily stopped managing the affairs of the six palaces had been the best days she’d ever had, and she definitely wanted to make sure that person would never be in control ever again.
The Chunde Emperor looked at Chen Guifei. Her fancy, dangling hairpins tinkled and swayed as she walked coquettishly over to him, and the Emperor felt a sudden sense of irritation. Why was this woman coming to disturb him again?
At the beginning, when he had been able to see her once every two days, he’d found it fresh and exciting, and he thought fondly of her every now and then. However, in the past few days, they’d met every single day. Even when he didn’t request for her to spend the night with him, she would find some reason to visit him in the Panlong Palace. The Chunde Emperor was getting tired of her; even her agelessly beautiful face now started to look ugly to him.
“What is it now?” the Chunde Emperor asked irritably.
“I saw Duo’er today. That child is so pure and innocent. He got fooled by some people to go for drinks and drank a bit too much. He’s got a headache even now, so Chenqie gave him some medicinal wine to drink. He felt better after that, and I thought to bring some of the wine for your Majesty as well,” Chen Guifei said, smiling as she set down the pot in her hand on the table.
Chen Guifei had said all this smoothly, as if these were all small household affairs. In one masterful stroke, she had painted the Third Prince’s getting drunk as having been misled by someone into doing so, which also insinuated that some members of the nobility were trying to curry favour with him. The implication in all this was that the Third Prince never had the intention to seek people to join his faction; he was the one who was being dragged around instead.
The Chunde Emperor looked coldly at Chen Guifei. He had been young once, too. He was very clear on what princes of that age got up to. It took two hands to clap at the end of the day, and the two hands in this particular situation were called “deliberate solicitation of support” and “intentional currying of favour”. “It seems to me that you think I’m very easy to fool,” he said threateningly.
Chen Guifei paled in fright and knelt down immediately. “Your Majesty, I have never dared to think that. Chenqie has been wronged,” she said.
“Hmph! You really think that I’m a fool who knows nothing?” the Chunde Emperor said, getting to his feet and looking down at Chen Guifei. “Zhen isn’t dead yet! But that good son of yours is anxiously roping noblemen into his faction – he really thinks he’s already the Crown Prince!”
“Your Majesty, Duo’er has never had such thoughts! I raised the Third Prince personally instead of letting him be raised by the Empress because I never planned on making him the Crown Prince. We have been wronged, your Majesty!” Chen Guifei said, her face as white as sheet now. She knew full well how suspicious the Chunde Emperor was. The moment his suspicions were aroused, it was very difficult to allay them. That was exactly what had happened with Xiao Chengjun.
The situation in the Imperial Court had been stirred up nicely by Zhao Xi, and it became chaotic very shortly after. The officials who had been in favour of the Third Prince had started to defect, and even though the Minister of the Right Chen Shichang was about to go up in flames, he didn’t dare to make any big movements.
The Chen family was related to the Third Prince through his mother, Chem Guifei. They all couldn’t speak up for the Third Prince, because that would only cause the Emperor to be even more suspicious, so they could only try to give balanced comments.
The Minister of the Left’s side didn’t have any such concerns. They first let the Imperial Censor test waters with the Chunde Emperor, and when they saw that the Emperor did not chastise him for saying bad things about the Third Prince, they knew that it was safe to proceed, and started to point out the Third Prince’s faults in earnest.
These waves rocking the Imperial Court didn’t even make so much as a ripple in the Southeast, where the Min Wang residence was.
Lou Jing flipped through his little notebook, popping lychees into his mouth one by one and waiting for his husband Min Wang to give him the compensation he was due.
Xiao Chengjun stepped out of the bathtub, then hesitated for a moment. He looked at the little string of golden bells in his hand and sighed in resignation. He grit his teeth, then tied the bells on his ankle to make his Consort happy.
“Ting-a-ling-a-ling…” Sweet tinkles sounded from behind the screen, as if they were ghostly bells that could trap unwary souls. They succeeded in attracting Lou Jing, who immediately sat up and looked intently at the direction of the screen.
The outstandingly handsome Min Wang Dianxia was presently wrapped in a snow-white robe, which hugged his skin in a few places where it had been made wet by the water vapour, showing off his slender, gorgeous body. A little string of golden bells was tied at his fair-skinned ankle, and they rang delicately with every step he took.
Lou Jing couldn’t take his eyes off Xiao Chengjun. The latter’s face was serious as usual, but his body was incredibly alluring right now. Lou Jing felt like all the blood in his body was rising to his head, and his nose suddenly felt hot. Something warm started leaking out of his nostrils.
