Money, money, money—my money!
Why did the capital allow gambling while Jiangnan had never mentioned such a rule?
After lamenting over his lost opportunity, Chu Zhaohuai belatedly understood what Ji Yi had meant earlier. His eyes narrowed slightly.
He identified me through my gambling skills?
He had never imagined that such a tiny detail would expose him.
Unable to tell whether Ji Yi was setting a trap for him, Chu Zhaohuai said cautiously, “Couldn’t it be that I devoted myself to practicing for a few months and my gambling skills improved dramatically?”
Ji Yi had already expected him to stubbornly deny it, so he immediately used his trump card.
“Then do you dare take off your gauze veil?”
Chu Zhaohuai: “…”
He really didn’t dare.
He was afraid that the Young Heir would have someone hold him down and remove his gauze veil again. If that happened, he would lose both his dignity and his pride.
Chu Zhaohuai pretended to be calm.
“Then why didn’t you tell His Highness yesterday?”
Ji Yi’s face reddened. Almost embarrassed and angry at the same time, he snapped, “That’s none of your business! It’s not too late for me to expose you now.”
“Oh.”
Chu Zhaohuai understood.
This little Young Heir was probably still remembering the favor from last night, when Chu Zhaohuai had spoken up for him. Otherwise, he would have already run to Ji Xun and blurted out everything he knew.
As if he had thought of something, Chu Zhaohuai weakly sat back down and continued eating his candied oranges.
“Fine. Then sit here and wait. His Highness should be back soon.”
Ji Yi froze.
Why wasn’t this person panicking?
Why wasn’t he crying and begging him to keep his identity secret?
His father wasn’t a kind man. If he discovered that the Princess Consort had been replaced, he might kill someone in a fit of rage.
Ji Yi frowned.
“Don’t you want to defend yourself?”
“Defend myself against what?”
Chu Zhaohuai’s fingers were slender and delicate. He leisurely peeled away the white pith from the orange, boldly pretending to be calm as he casually made up an explanation.
“My identity is suspicious enough that even you were able to notice. His Highness spends every day with me, so how could he possibly not have noticed something was wrong?”
Ji Yi frowned.
“My father…”
Ji Xun had suffered from an inability to remember people’s faces since he was young. After sustaining severe injuries and developing that strange condition, even his memories had become unreliable. Naturally, it wasn’t strange that he couldn’t recognize someone named Chu Zhaojiang.
However, his father’s thoughts had always been impossible to predict.
What if he had actually discovered Chu Zhaohuai’s identity long ago but had deliberately kept quiet?
Could he have some other plan?
Seeing Ji Yi sink into thought, Chu Zhaohuai quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
There was no need to explain everything.
The rest could be left for the Young Heir to imagine himself.
Just then, Liang Fang, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke.
“His Highness knowing is one matter, but whether the Young Heir chooses to expose him is another.”
Ji Yi looked up.
“What?”
“Even if His Highness has eyes and ears everywhere and knows everything, that doesn’t prevent the Young Heir from reporting that this gentleman’s identity is suspicious.”
Liang Fang was physically weak. Even speaking required him to pause and catch his breath, yet his words struck directly at the heart of the matter.
The thoughts Ji Yi had been led into by Chu Zhaohuai suddenly became much clearer.
He glared at Chu Zhaohuai.
“Good thing I almost fell for that.”
Chu Zhaohuai: “…”
Chu Zhaohuai tilted his head and looked at Liang Fang.
Liang Fang returned his gaze with a gentle and polite expression.
As someone who had managed to survive for so many years in the capital as a political hostage, he naturally wasn’t as harmless as he appeared.
Ji Yi was still fuming.
“Don’t think you can fool me again! I let you off yesterday because you spoke up for me. But today, no matter what, I absolutely can’t—”
Before he could finish, Chu Zhaohuai interrupted him.
“How long has Young Heir Liang been poisoned?”
Liang Fang froze.
Ji Yi was also stunned.
“What nonsense are you talking about? When was Liang Fang ever poisoned?”
“I checked his pulse. He has indeed been poisoned with a slow-acting toxin,” Chu Zhaohuai said. “The excessive sleepiness is only the outward symptom. If he isn’t treated in time, eventually his body will be completely drained, and even an immortal wouldn’t be able to save him.”
Ji Yi’s face turned pale.
He shot to his feet, about to roar in alarm, but his weak legs immediately gave out.
With another loud thump, he dropped to his knees.
Both knees firmly on the ground, the Young Heir’s imposing manner remained undiminished.
He angrily shouted, “You’re spreading lies! Liang Fang is the Young Heir of Prince Wuchang and has lived for years in a residence personally bestowed by His Majesty. How could he possibly—”
He suddenly seemed to think of something.
His voice abruptly stopped.
His expression changed.
Chu Zhaohuai couldn’t be bothered with the power struggles of the capital. He got straight to the point.
“I’ll cure Young Heir Liang’s poison. In return, the Young Heir will keep my identity secret for half a month.”
Ji Yi remained frozen in place.
Liang Fang reached out and helped Ji Yi to his feet. Wearing a snow-white cloak, he sat quietly with a small hand warmer in his hands, saying nothing.
The moment Ji Yi saw him like that, he understood.
“You… you already knew?”
“Yes.”
Seeing how pale Ji Yi had become, Liang Fang answered helplessly.
“Before the New Year, my father secretly sent someone to the capital to check on me. The physician he brought said I had been poisoned and that there was no cure.”
Ji Yi was both angry and anxious.
He suddenly stood up again and said while still kneeling,
“Then why didn’t you ever tell me?!”
Liang Fang replied calmly,
“There was no point in telling you. Life and death are simply a matter of fate.”
“You!”
Ji Yi struggled to his feet, grabbed the chair, and sat down again.
He grabbed Chu Zhaohuai’s hand while the latter was peeling another orange, deciding to try anything that might work.
“Th-then… can you really cure him?”
Chu Zhaohuai immediately put on the air of a mysterious master.
“It’s as easy as reaching out your hand.”
“What else do you want?” Ji Yi asked solemnly. “Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.”
Chu Zhaohuai immediately descended from his imaginary pedestal.
He tactfully said,
“The gambling stakes I won last night…”
Ji Yi answered without hesitation.
“I’ll return everything to you.”
Chu Zhaohuai was so delighted that the corners of his lips nearly stretched all the way to the back of his head.
Fortunately, the gauze veil covered his face, saving him from making a fool of himself.
Liang Fang, however, wasn’t convinced.
“A-Yi, don’t believe him. The physician said this poison has been mixed into my food day after day for five or six years. It has already spread through my internal organs. It will be extremely difficult to eliminate completely.”
Ji Yi said firmly,
“We still have to try.”
Liang Fang was helpless.
This man didn’t even know Chu Zhaohuai’s true identity. Yet with just a few words, Chu Zhaohuai claimed he could cure a mysterious poison.
Only someone as straightforward as Ji Yi could be fooled so easily.
Ji Yi took a deep breath and stared seriously at Chu Zhaohuai.
“If you can cure Liang Fang’s poison, I’ll consider myself to owe you my life. If you ever need anything, you can order me around as you please.
“But if you’re lying to me…”
Chu Zhaohuai finished for him.
“Then tell your father and have him tear me limb from limb.”
Ji Yi nodded.
“Good.”
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 bit into the orange and swallowed it in one bite.
Then he clapped his hands and had someone bring paper and a brush.
With one smooth motion, he wrote out a prescription.
At the end, he casually added his signature.
The moment he realized what he had done, he hurriedly crossed out the two characters, blew gently on the ink, and handed the paper to Ji Yi.
“Have him take this prescription for three days first. After that, I’ll use acupuncture to draw out the poison.”
Ji Yi looked over the prescription.
They were all ordinary medicinal ingredients. There was nothing particularly unusual about them.
The Young Heir carefully examined the two characters that had been crossed out at the end.
“Bai… hm? Ji? Is this ‘Ji’? Should we add Bai Ji?”
Chu Zhaohuai coughed.
“No, no. Don’t add it.”
By this point, Liang Fang had already leaned back in his chair and fallen into a drowsy sleep.
The sickly pallor on his face was impossible to hide.
Ji Yi carefully examined Liang Fang’s face and noticed that his lips were indeed paler than those of an ordinary person, with a faint hint of purple that was difficult to notice.
It really did look like a symptom of poisoning.
“There is one ingredient in this prescription that’s difficult to find.”
Chu Zhaohuai walked into the canopy bed inside the bedchamber and opened his shabby little cabinet to search for medicine.
“You can take these and make do for three days first. But this isn’t free. We’ll have to settle the bill.”
“Five taels of silver.”
Ji Yi followed him inside to get the medicine.
Only then did he realize what this enormous “room within a room” actually was.
His jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
This canopy bed…
A few years ago, on his birthday, he had cautiously asked his father for one.
Ji Xun had said the thing was too difficult to obtain and simply given him a residence instead.
And now he had casually given one to an outsider?!
The interior of the canopy bed was exquisitely decorated. Every detail had clearly been carefully arranged.
Only Chu Zhaohuai’s dusty little cabinet sat awkwardly in the corner.
It was old, but the carvings on top were unique.
Four words had been carved into it by hand:
“May You Live a Hundred Years.”
Ji Yi tried several times to hold himself back, but he couldn’t help asking tentatively,
“You and my father… could the rumors really be true?”
Chu Zhaohuai was busy searching through the cabinet for medicine.
He answered casually,
“What rumors?”
“It’s…”
Ji Yi was easily embarrassed.
Having to repeat the rumors circulating outside made him feel somewhat ashamed.
He gathered his courage for a long time before finally speaking in a voice as soft as the buzzing of a mosquito.
“Everyone in the capital has been saying it since this morning. They say my father treats you with the utmost tenderness, and that you’re so touched you’ve decided to repay him with your body. You apparently can’t wait to help the Prince Jing residence continue the family line.”
Chu Zhaohuai: “…”
Chu Zhaohuai stared blankly for a long moment before raising his head from the cabinet.
“Huh? I-it’s already spread that far?”
“Everyone knows.”
Chu Zhaohuai was shocked.
Three taels of silver actually got those two people to work that hard, day and night?
If he’d known those two were so talented at spreading rumors, he wouldn’t have bargained with them in the first place.
After handing the medicine to Ji Yi, Chu Zhaohuai noticed that the Young Heir was still staring at him with those clear, innocent eyes.
He coughed awkwardly.
Then, forcing himself to say it, he muttered,
“I-it’s probably true.”
Ji Yi sucked in a sharp breath.
He stared at his “stepmother” with an extremely complicated expression.
Chu Zhaohuai felt his scalp go numb under that gaze.
He hurriedly pushed Ji Yi outside and brushed him off.
“All right, all right. I’m deeply in love with your father. Completely devoted to him. Very, very deeply. Happy now?
“Go help Liang Fang back home first. Don’t let him catch cold…”
The moment they stepped out of the canopy bed, Chu Zhaohuai’s voice suddenly stopped.
Ji Xun was sitting there with his legs crossed.
His eyes were lowered as he leisurely toyed with six small copper coins.
Clink, clink, clink.
No one knew how long he had been there.
Or how much he had heard.
When he saw the two of them emerge one after another, he raised his eyes slightly.
There was a smile at the corners of his eyes.
“What were you talking about?”
Chu Zhaohuai: “…”
The moment Ji Yi saw Ji Xun, he immediately became nervous.
He stammered a greeting.
“Father.”
Chu Zhaohuai’s entire face had turned red.
He felt guilty about spreading rumors about Ji Xun and then being caught red-handed.
Still, he forced himself to remain calm and pretended that nothing had happened.
“Your Highness is back.”
Ji Xun lazily hummed in acknowledgment.
Chu Zhaohuai was terrified that Ji Xun would start making sarcastic remarks again, so he quickly changed the subject.
“Did Your Highness get your salary docked again?”
Ji Yi’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Was that even something you could ask?!
“Three months this time. I also took on another assignment.”
Ji Xun wasn’t angry at all. He spoke gently.
“But don’t worry, Princess Consort. Although I may not have a salary, the Prince Jing residence has enough wealth to let you continue expanding the family line.”
Chu Zhaohuai: “…”