In a snowstorm, in a lonely, empty side hall, the deposed Crown Prince Ye Jingchen was short of clothes and bedding. Lying on a wooden plank bed, he shivered from the cold and could not fall asleep.
His heart was filled with regret. He missed the gold-thread charcoal that burned all day in the Eastern Palace, the light and soft silk quilts, and the fluffy, warm black fox fur cloak. If he could see his Imperial Father again, he would definitely break down in tears and beg for forgiveness.
He wanted to return to the Eastern Palace, warm as spring and built of gold and jade, but he did not know that he would never get that chance again.
In the dark of night, assassins arrived silently like ghosts.
With the sharpest blade in hand, they struck in one swift motion, and his head was severed from his body.
The deposed Crown Prince did not even have time to call for help before his breath was gone, leaving only a pair of unbelieving eyes that would never close again.
…
When he saw those lines, Ye Jingchen tossed his phone onto the pillow.
He did not sympathize with the novel’s arrogant, mediocre, narrow-minded, and short-sighted deposed Crown Prince. He simply felt unlucky seeing a character with the same name as his die.
As a corporate wage slave working from eight in the morning to eight at night, half of his time was devoted to work. Only when the night was deep and quiet did he truly belong to himself. As a seasoned bookworm, Ye Jingchen could not fall asleep unless he read a little before bed. The novel he was following had just reached its most exciting part today, and before he knew it he was fully immersed in it, right until one section came to an end.
He reached for his phone to check the time and found it was already three in the morning. Thinking that he still had to get up early for work tomorrow, Ye Jingchen let out a wail, quickly lay flat, crossed his hands over his abdomen, closed his eyes, and drifted off peacefully.
As his consciousness gradually grew hazy, Ye Jingchen only felt a stabbing pain in his chest. The pain was so intense that his body seemed to have turned to stone, unable to move. He could not draw a breath, and then Ye Jingchen lost consciousness.
…
“Your Highness!”
“Your Highness, wake up!”
“Please wake up quickly!”
A voice that sounded like someone was summoning a soul kept ringing in his ears, male and female voices mixed together, high and sharp, making Ye Jingchen’s head throb.
“What’s wrong with you? It’s early in the morning. Can’t you let people sleep properly?!” he shouted angrily as he sat up in bed. Ye Jingchen struggled to open his eyes, which were crusted shut, and froze.
What met his eyes was layer upon layer of curtains, beaded screens and jade ornaments, all-wood retro-style furniture, and a crowd of men and women in ancient court uniforms kneeling on the floor.
Who was he?
Where was he?
Was he still asleep?
He must not have woken up yet!
Ye Jingchen decisively closed his eyes, leaned back, and fell onto the bed.
And to be fair, the bedding and pillows in this dream were really soft, and his body felt very light.
“His Highness is awake!!!”
“His Highness fainted again!!!”
“Imperial Physician! Summon the imperial physicians quickly!”
“Go fetch His Majesty!”
…
Another round of frantic shouting and chaos.
“It’s all a dream! All a dream! Nightmare, be gone! Don’t delay my sleep! I still have to get up soon and work like an ox and a horse!” Ye Jingchen muttered to himself.
Unfortunately, there was no way he was getting that sleep back.
Because besides those soul-summoning, mourning-like voices, a pair of hands suddenly reached out and gently shook his body.
The force was not great, but it was annoying enough.
“This is never-ending!” Ye Jingchen had always had a bit of morning temper. Having his good sleep disturbed, anger rose in his heart. He grabbed the hand shaking him, intending to teach the other person a lesson, but when he caught it, he felt that something was off.
When he sat up and opened his eyes to see his own short, tender, chubby little hand, he was completely stunned.
After one night’s sleep, how had he shrunk?
Looking around at the old-fashioned surroundings and the old-fashioned people, as a veteran reader of online fiction for ten years, Ye Jingchen felt that he might not have shrunk at all. He had probably transmigrated.
His mind, which had been as muddled as paste, finally cleared up a little. He remembered the dull pain that had made it hard to breathe just before he fell asleep, and only then did he realize that he might already be dead, and in the most embarrassing way for a modern young person… sudden death from staying up too late. The kind that makes social news and becomes a textbook cautionary tale, a joke for hundreds of millions, or even more, for a while.
Ye Jingchen covered his face with his hand and mourned for his dead self for three seconds.
“Your Highness, you’re finally awake. You scared this servant to death!”
The closest person to the bed was a young girl in a light green gauze dress. Although she looked delicate and youthful, her features were already fully formed, exquisite and elegant, much like the noble young ladies raised deep in the inner chambers of period dramas.
At that moment, tears filled her eyes, and she looked as though she were crying for joy.
In his previous life, having lived for thirty years, Ye Jingchen had rarely seen a beauty in real life with both appearance and temperament like this, let alone one who was now staring at him so intently.
Unfortunately, he had just gone through death and rebirth, walked through the gates of hell, and suddenly found himself in an unfamiliar environment occupying the body of an unfamiliar child. His mind was in total chaos, and he really was in no mood to admire a beauty.
His adult soul barely managed to keep the expression on his face under control as he calmly observed his surroundings and the people in the room.
In ancient times, the hierarchy was strict; only the Empress and Imperial Princes and Princesses could be addressed as “Your Highness.” The room he was in was definitely over a hundred square meters, and every piece of furniture in it was exquisite and luxurious, filled with an air of class and money.
As for the people kneeling in the room, there were dozens of them. The women all had the same hairstyles, hair ornaments, and outfits of the same color and style, while the men were dressed the same way. Their identities were probably palace maids and eunuchs.
While he was guessing, he saw eunuchs at the doorway leading three men in another style of dress into the room.
“The imperial physicians are here!”
“Physician Zhang, Physician Li, Physician Zhong, His Highness is awake. Come and take His Highness’s pulse quickly!” said the little maid closest to Ye Jingchen excitedly.
Ye Jingchen silently noted that those wearing this kind of clothing were imperial physicians.
In the palace, imperial physicians were equivalent to chief physicians at a top-tier tertiary hospital in modern times. Ordinary people could hardly even get an appointment, let alone have them treat an illness.
The three physicians were led by the oldest, Physician Zhang. After entering, they first knelt and kowtowed. The little maid hurriedly stepped aside and invited the physicians forward.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, please extend your hand. This old subject will take your pulse,” the old physician said respectfully.
Oh wow…
The original body was not only an Imperial Prince, but also the most honored Crown Prince among Imperial Princes.
Ye Jingchen quickly extended his chubby little hand and held it out to the old physician, staring at him with bright eyes.
The legendary miraculous Chinese pulse-taking technique… just by taking the pulse, one could know a person’s physical condition. The examination results were even more accurate than being scanned over and over for hours in a hospital by all kinds of advanced equipment, and there was no need to wait ten days or half a month. The result came immediately!
He saw the old physician place three fingers on Ye Jingchen’s wrist, pressing down lightly from time to time. The whole process lasted about three to five minutes, and then the old physician withdrew his hand.
After pondering for a moment, the old physician said, “Although Your Highness choked on water and fainted after falling into the water, fortunately he was rescued in time. His body is unharmed. Now that he has awakened, he only needs to drink some ginger soup to ward off the cold.”
Having just transmigrated into this body, Ye Jingchen knew nothing other than his identity. Following the principle of saying more and making more mistakes, he only said, “Thank you, Physician Zhang.”
His babyish voice sounded a little horrifying to Ye Jingchen.
But the physicians, maids, and eunuchs who heard those two words of thanks coming from the Crown Prince’s mouth were even more horrified. The three physicians who had been standing immediately knelt down again in panic.
As a modern person, he had been raised on the ideas of freedom, civilization, harmony, and democracy. Being made to kneel over and over again felt extremely awkward, so Ye Jingchen waved his hand. “All of you, get up!”
Looking at the three leading physicians, masters of medicine all three of them, with only one old physician actually being used, it felt like a waste.
“Since you’ve come all this way, could I trouble Physician Li and Physician Zhong to take my pulse as well?” Ye Jingchen asked politely.
Anyone who has experienced sudden death values their life the most!
(Although the baby is very cute and the protagonist looks harmless, he is not really harmless! Raising a child + court intrigue. Novel transmigration and rebirth schemes cause trouble together. Read for fun, please don’t use your brain! Please don’t nitpick!)