Money, money, money! My money!
Why did the capital allow gambling on the Little New Year’s Eve? Why had he never heard of such a rule in Jiangnan?
After Chu Zhaohuai finished lamenting bitterly over the matter, he belatedly realized what Ji Yi had meant earlier. His eyes narrowed slightly.
Identifying someone based on their gambling skills?
He had never once imagined that he would expose himself over such a trivial detail.
Unable to determine whether Ji Yi was setting a trap for him, Chu Zhaohuai cautiously said, “Couldn’t it be that I devoted myself to practicing for several months and my gambling skills simply improved dramatically?”
Ji Yi had long anticipated that he would stubbornly refuse to admit it. He immediately brought out his ultimate weapon.
“Then do you dare take off your eye veil?”
Chu Zhaohuai: “……”
He really did not dare.
He was afraid that if the heir once again had someone hold him down and remove his eye veil, he would lose both his dignity and his face completely. Pretending to remain calm, Chu Zhaohuai asked, “Then why didn’t you tell the Prince yesterday?”
Ji Yi’s face flushed. Almost as though he had been angered out of embarrassment, he snapped, “That’s none of your business! It’s not too late for this heir to expose you now.”
Chu Zhaohuai gave an “Oh,” and immediately understood.
This little heir had probably still remembered the favor from last night, when Chu Zhaohuai had pleaded on his behalf and spoken up for him. Otherwise, he would have already been making a great fuss and spilling all of Chu Zhaohuai’s secrets to Ji Xun.
Not knowing what exactly Chu Zhaohuai had thought of, he once again weakly sat back down and continued eating his Fengxian oranges. “All right, then. Sit here and wait for a while. The Prince should be back at the residence very soon.”
Ji Yi froze.
Why was this person not panicking? Why was he not crying and begging him to keep the matter secret?
His father was no benevolent man. If he discovered that the Prince’s Consort had been replaced by someone else, he might very well kill someone in a fit of rage.
Ji Yi frowned. “You don’t want to argue your case or anything?”
“Argue what?” Chu Zhaohuai’s fingers were slender and long as he leisurely peeled away the white pith clinging to the Fengxian orange. While boldly pretending to be composed, he casually fabricated an explanation. “There is clearly something unusual about my identity and even you were able to notice it. The Prince spends every day and night with me, so how could he possibly have failed to notice something amiss?”
Ji Yi frowned. “My father…”
Ever since he was young, Ji Xun had suffered from an ailment that made it difficult for him to remember people’s faces. After sustaining severe injuries and developing his madness, even his memories had become muddled. Naturally, it was perfectly normal for him not to recognize a “Chu Zhaojiang.”
However, his father’s thoughts had always been impossible to decipher. What if he had actually discovered Chu Zhaohuai’s identity long ago but had deliberately kept it to himself? Could there be some other plan behind it?
Seeing Ji Yi fall deep into thought, Chu Zhaohuai quietly let out a breath.
There was no need to explain things too thoroughly. The rest could be left for the heir to imagine himself.
At precisely that moment, Liang Fang, who had remained silent all this while, suddenly spoke.
“The Prince knowing about it is one matter but whether the heir reports it is another.”
Ji Yi raised his head and looked at him. “What?”
Chu Zhaohuai’s eyes darkened.
“Even if the Prince has eyes and ears everywhere and knows everything under the heavens, that does not conflict with the heir reporting that this gentleman’s identity is suspicious.” Liang Fang’s constitution was weak and even speaking a sentence required him to pause and catch his breath yet every word he uttered struck directly at the heart of the matter.
The thoughts that Chu Zhaohuai had muddled with just a few words suddenly became much clearer. Ji Yi glared at Chu Zhaohuai.
“Good thing I nearly let you fool me.”
Chu Zhaohuai: “……”
Chu Zhaohuai tilted his head and stared at Liang Fang.
Liang Fang’s expression remained gentle and mild and he returned the gaze with impeccable courtesy.
For someone who had been able to survive in the capital for so many years as a “hostage,” he naturally could not be as harmless and innocent as he appeared on the surface.
Ji Yi was still fuming. “Don’t even think about fooling me again! I already let you off for one day last night because you spoke up for me. Today, no matter what, I absolutely cannot…”
Before he could finish, Chu Zhaohuai interrupted him.
“How long has Liang Shizi been poisoned?”
Liang Fang froze.
Ji Yi was also stunned for a moment. Looking at him strangely, he asked, “What nonsense are you talking about? When has Liang Fang ever been poisoned?”
“I checked his pulse. He really has been poisoned with a chronic toxin,” Chu Zhaohuai said. “The excessive sleepiness is merely the symptom on the surface. If it isn’t treated in time, then as the days pass, I’m afraid his vitality will eventually be exhausted. By then, even an immortal physician wouldn’t be able to save him.”
Ji Yi’s face went pale. He shot to his feet, just about to roar in anger but his weakened legs failed to support him. With another loud “thump,” he dropped to his knees.
Both knees firmly on the ground, the heir’s imposing presence did not diminish in the slightest. He glared furiously and shouted, “Nonsense meant to deceive people! Liang Fang is the heir of the Prince of Wuchang and has lived for years in the separate residence bestowed upon him by His Majesty. How could he possibly…”
As though he had suddenly thought of something, his voice abruptly cut off.
The heir’s expression changed in an instant.
Chu Zhaohuai could not be bothered with the intrigues and power struggles of the capital. He simply got straight to the point. “I’ll cure the poison in Liang Shizi’s body and in exchange, the heir will conceal my identity for half a month.”
Ji Yi was still sitting there in a daze.
Liang Fang reached out and helped Ji Yi to his feet. Dressed in a snow white cloak, he sat there holding a small hand warmer and remained silent from beginning to end.
The moment Ji Yi saw him like this, he immediately understood something. “You… you already knew?”
“Mm.” Seeing how frightened his face had become, Liang Fang spoke helplessly. “Before the New Year, my father secretly sent someone to the capital to check on me. The physician he brought along said that I had been poisoned and that there was no cure.”
Ji Yi was both furious and anxious. He abruptly shot to his feet again and demanded while still kneeling, “Then why didn’t you ever tell me?!”
Liang Fang said calmly, “There would have been no use telling the heir. Life and death are simply matters of fate.”
“You!”
Ji Yi struggled to use the chair for support before sitting back down. He grabbed Chu Zhaohuai’s hand, the one that had been busy peeling oranges and decided to treat a dying horse as though it were still worth saving. “The… then, then, then can you really cure him?”
Chu Zhaohuai skillfully put on the air of a worldly master. “It will be as easy as lifting a hand.”
“What else do you want?” Ji Yi asked solemnly. “As long as you want it, I’ll give you anything.”
Chu Zhaohuai instantly descended from his lofty pedestal and tactfully said, “The gambling stakes I won last night…”
Ji Yi immediately replied, “I’ll return all of them to you.”
Chu Zhaohuai was so delighted that the corners of his lips nearly reached the back of his head. Fortunately, the eye veil covered his face, sparing him the embarrassment of revealing such an exaggerated expression.
Liang Fang, however, was not convinced. “A’Yi, don’t believe him. The physician said that this poison has been mixed into food day after day for the past five or six years. The poison has already spread throughout the internal organs, making it extremely difficult to completely remove.”
Ji Yi said, “We have to try.”
Liang Fang was helpless.
This man did not even know the true details of Chu Zhaohuai’s identity or background yet with nothing more than a few words, he was already claiming that he could cure such a strange poison. Only someone as simple minded as Ji Yi would be so easily deceived.
Ji Yi took a deep breath and stared heavily at Chu Zhaohuai. “If you can cure Liang Fang’s poison, then this heir will consider himself to owe you his life. If you ever need anything in the future, you may command me as you please but if you are lying to me…”
Chu Zhaohuai finished his sentence for him. “Then tell your father and have him tear me into pieces.”
Ji Yi said, “Fine.”
Liang Fang frowned. “A’Yi…”
A’Yi ignored him. He peeled an orange for Chu Zhaohuai and handed it over. “How are you going to cure him?”
Chu Zhaohuai took the orange into his mouth and swallowed it in one bite. He patted his hands clean, had someone bring him paper and a brush and wrote out the prescription in one smooth burst.
At the very end, he casually scribbled a signature.
Realizing what he had done, he hurriedly crossed out the two characters, blew lightly on the still wet ink and handed the prescription to Ji Yi. “Have him take this according to the prescription for three days first. After that, I’ll use acupuncture to draw the poison out.”
Ji Yi held the prescription up and looked it over.
All the medicines listed were ordinary, everyday medicinal ingredients. There was nothing particularly unusual that he could make sense of.
The heir carefully examined the final two characters that had been crossed out. “Bai… mm, ji? Is this ‘ji’? Should Bai Ji be added to the prescription?”
Chu Zhaohuai coughed. “No, no, don’t add it.”
In the short time it had taken them to speak, Liang Fang had already leaned against the chair and fallen into a hazy sleep, the sickly pallor on his face impossible to conceal.
Ji Yi carefully observed Liang Fang’s complexion and discovered that his lips really were paler than those of ordinary people, with even a faint hint of purple that was difficult to notice.
It really did look like a symptom of poisoning.
“There’s one medicinal ingredient in this prescription that’s very difficult to find.” Chu Zhaohuai walked into the four poster bed inside the sleeping chamber and opened his battered little cabinet to search through his medicines. “Take these for now and make do with them for three days, this isn’t free, though. We have to settle the price. Five taels of silver.”
Ji Yi followed him inside to collect the medicine. Only then did he belatedly notice the enormous “room within a room,” and his astonishment was so great that his jaw nearly hit the floor.
This four poster bed…
A few years ago, on his birthday, he had once cautiously asked his father for one. Ji Xun had said that this sort of thing was too troublesome to obtain and had casually stuffed a residence into his hands instead, dismissing the matter.
And now he had so easily given one to an outsider?!
The interior of the four poster bed was exquisitely arranged, with every detail showing the care that had gone into it. Only Chu Zhaohuai’s small, dusty cabinet sat in the corner. It was old and worn yet the patterns carved across its surface were distinctive, with four hand carved characters on top,
“Live a long life.”
Ji Yi endured it once, then endured it again but in the end he still could not hold back. He tentatively asked, “You and my father… could the rumors actually be true?”
Chu Zhaohuai was rummaging through the little cabinet for medicine. Without looking up, he casually asked, “What rumors?”
“It’s just…” Ji Yi was thin skinned and saying the rumors circulating outside aloud made him feel somewhat embarrassed. After preparing himself mentally for quite some time, he finally spoke in a voice as faint as the buzzing of a mosquito. “The entire capital has been talking about it since early this morning. They say my father has been treating you with the utmost care and that you’re so overwhelmed with gratitude that you offered yourself to him in return, wishing nothing more than to bear children for the Jing Prince’s residence and help his family flourish.”
Chu Zhaohuai: “……”
Chu Zhaohuai stood there in a daze for quite some time before finally lifting his head from the little cabinet. “Huh? Th.. this has already spread throughout the entire capital?”
“Everyone knows.”
Chu Zhaohuai was startled.
Three taels of silver had actually been enough to make those two work that hard, day and night without stopping?
If he had known that those two were so incredibly capable of spreading rumors, he would never have haggled with them over the price.
After handing the medicine to Ji Yi, Chu Zhaohuai noticed that he was still staring at him with those clear, innocent eyes. He gave an awkward cough and, forcing himself to say it, stammered, “I… it’s probably true.”
Ji Yi sucked in a sharp breath and looked at his “little mother” with an extremely complicated expression.
Chu Zhaohuai felt his scalp go numb under that gaze. He hurriedly pushed him outside and brushed him off. “All right, all right, I’m deeply and hopelessly in love with your father, completely devoted to him, very, very deeply in love, all right? Now go and help Liang Fang back. Don’t let him catch a chill…”
The moment he stepped out of the four poster bed, Chu Zhaohuai’s voice abruptly came to a halt.
Ji Xun was sitting there with his legs crossed, his eyes lowered as he leisurely toyed with six small copper coins. They jingled softly against one another.
No one knew how long he had been there.
Nor how much he had heard.
Seeing the two of them come out one after the other, Ji Xun raised his eyes slightly, a trace of a smile curling at the corners of his eyes. “What were you talking about?”
Chu Zhaohuai: “……”
The moment Ji Yi saw Ji Xun, he instinctively became nervous. He bowed awkwardly and called out, “Father.”
Chu Zhaohuai’s entire face had turned bright red. He also felt somewhat guilty after being caught spreading rumors about Ji Xun right to his face. Forcing himself to remain calm, he pretended that nothing had happened. “The Prince is back.”
Ji Xun lazily responded, “Mm.”
Chu Zhaohuai was afraid that he would start making sarcastic remarks again, so he hurriedly changed the subject. “Did the Prince get his salary docked again?”
Ji Yi’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Was that even something one could ask?!
“Three months were deducted and I also took on another assignment.” Ji Xun was not angry at all. Instead, he spoke in a mild and gentle tone. “But Wangfei need not worry. Although this prince has no salary, the Jing Prince’s household fortune is more than enough for Wangfei to help the family flourish and produce heirs.”
Chu Zhaohuai: “……”
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Cressilia
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Substitute BrideChapter 2 · Chu ZhaojiangChapter 3 · Very safeChapter 4 · He is the prince’s manChapter 5 · It was really hard to refuse their kind invitation.Chapter 6 · Thankfully it was just poisoning.Chapter 7 · Haha, I spit on “golden and jade hall”!Chapter 8 · Are you not satisfied with the homecoming gift?Chapter 9 · You must keep your identity hidden.Chapter 10 · I like whole fish banquetChapter 11 · BankruptChapter 12 · Add some funChapter 13 · FightChapter 14 · Three taels of silverChapter 15 · Go back to restChapter 16 · They’re all spendthrifts.Chapter 17 · Enough for branches and leavesChapter 18 · Rumors can kill peopleChapter 19 · I want to get closer to the prince.Chapter 20 · Why not move in and share a room?Chapter 21 · Ha, I’m not stupid.Chapter 22 Part 1 · Liang Fang’s prescriptionChapter 22 Part 2 · Liang Fang’s prescriptionChapter 23 · Be more cautious and vigilantChapter 24 Part 1 · Don’t touch meChapter 24 Part 2 · Don’t touch meChapter 25 Part 1 · Golden NeedleChapter 25 Part 2 · Golden NeedleChapter 26 · To avoid suspicionChapter 27 · Committing numerous evil deedsChapter 28 Part 1 · May I receive the worst possible fortuneChapter 28 Part 2 · May I receive the worst possible fortuneChapter 29 · I really didn’t mean to kill youChapter 30 · Protect the prince!Chapter 31 · The bird that fell into the trapChapter 32 · Embracing someone on the couchChapter 33 · The miracle doctor is going home!Chapter 34 · I shouldn’t have wanted to hurt himChapter 35 · A bout of madnessChapter 36 · NightmareChapter 37 Part 1 · SpecialChapter 37 Part 2 · SpecialChapter 38 · Being hunted downChapter 39 · Cause and Bitter FruitChapter 40 · Is he honest and kind?Chapter 41 · I am flattered and overwhelmed.Chapter 42 · No, I want to buy.Chapter 43 Part 1 · When the city gate catches fireChapter 43 Part 2 · When the city gate catches fireChapter 44 · It’s the face of a notorious thiefChapter 45 · Are you trying to comfort me?Chapter 46 · Thank you, Your Highness!Chapter 47 · Thank you, Your Highness!Chapter 48 · It’s delicious!Chapter 49 · SeducingChapter 50 · By imperial decreeChapter 51 Part 1 · Potent MedicineChapter 51 Part 2 · Potent MedicineChapter 52 · Wasn’t it impotence?Chapter 53 · I’m not busy todayChapter 54 Part 1 · Break his legs directlyChapter 54 Part 2 · Break his legs directlyChapter 55 · I really didn’t mean to mess with youChapter 56 · Don’t play the victim when you’re having a medical episodeChapter 57 · Let’s do it one more time!Chapter 58 Part 1 · I’ve got you!Chapter 58 Part 2 · I’ve got you!Chapter 59 · A doctor’s dutyChapter 60 Part 1 · Are you at peace with yourself?Chapter 60 Part 2 · Are you at peace with yourself?