Ye Jingchen looked at the information that had been specially marked out.
On the day of the drowning, the original body had gone to the Imperial Garden and approached the water because his senior palace maid, Fangcao, said that someone had seen a very beautiful koi in the garden pond.
Children are naturally curious, so he had brought people along to take a look.
As for the “someone” Fangcao mentioned, it was Bizhu, a second-rank palace maid from the Eastern Palace, and Bizhu was someone Consort De had planted there.
In the Eastern Palace, Consort De had planted the most palace attendants. Besides Bizhu, there was a eunuch named Xiao Li. He had been one of the eunuchs who accompanied the original body to the Imperial Garden that day, and he had been by the original body’s side before the drowning.
The Noble Consort’s affection for the Third Imperial Prince was well known throughout the palace. Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for the Third Imperial Prince, just a small child, to be alone by the water. That was highly suspicious.
But this was an internal matter of Weiyang Palace, so Ye Jingchen was not in a position to interfere.
From his own perspective, these two palace attendants in the Eastern Palace were indeed very suspicious. They had both a plausible motive and the opportunity to stage an accident or coincidence.
Yesterday, he’d been talking nonsense; originally, he only wanted to use Chenxi to get information on all the palace attendants in the Eastern Palace. He had never expected such a happy accident, with such a gain.
“Go interrogate these two in secret,” Ye Jingchen said, circling the two names with his brush.
Interrogation was exactly what those dark guards were good at.
Chenxi glanced at the two names and vanished.
Ye Jingchen only felt his vision blur, and the person was gone.
He couldn’t yet tell what other abilities Chenxi had, but that lightness skill was definitely superb, already perfected to the extreme.
Every man has a wuxia dream in his heart, and Ye Jingchen was no exception.
He especially envied Chenxi’s ghostlike skill. These few times Chenxi had appeared and disappeared, Ye Jingchen had watched closely, but he had not found the slightest trace.
He really wanted such superb skill too. If he asked Chenxi to teach him, he wondered whether Chenxi would be willing.
After Chenxi left, Ye Jingchen continued reading the information and firmly memorized the names of several people who might often appear before him.
After a while, the bedchamber door was gently pushed open a crack, and a palace maid’s quiet voice called to him from the doorway.
That voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz; if his desk had not been so close to the hall door, he would not have heard it at all.
Ye Jingchen set aside the stack of papers and called out a name.
“Fangfei!”
She was the leader of the Eastern Palace’s first-rank palace maids, an old servant left to the original body by the former Empress, and absolutely loyal to the original body.
Soon, a little maid pushed open the hall door and came in. She was also a familiar face: the big-hearted young girl who had knelt closest to him when he had first arrived here and had persistently shaken him awake.
Seeing Ye Jingchen sitting at the desk, Fangfei was somewhat surprised. “Since Your Highness is already awake, shall I have the meal brought in?”
He had burned with fever all night and eaten nothing at all, only drinking quite a lot of water. After passing it out, Ye Jingchen was indeed a little hungry.
With delicious food in front of him, this time Ye Jingchen kept himself under control and did not dare to eat too much.
If he overate every time, not only would it be bad for his body, it would also stretch his stomach. The palace food was so nourishing that it would be very easy to eat himself into a fat little ball.
As Crown Prince, there were also requirements for physique and appearance.
When the palace maid combed his hair, he had seen what this body looked like in the bronze mirror. He was already a little chubby.
The original body’s features were plain, not ugly, but not especially cute either. Still, a person’s face reflects the heart; at such a young age, with such crooked intentions, the face looked rather bad.
With a table full of dishes, Ye Jingchen only took three bites of each one. If he found something especially delicious, he would have two more bites. Even so, by the time he had sampled every dish, he was already seventy to eighty percent full.
After eating, he continued exploring the Eastern Palace. Yesterday, he had only strolled around the garden near the bedchamber. Today, he made a circuit around the cluster of small palaces within the Eastern Palace, and by the end he was panting hard.
He had not been a child for many years, and he could not tell whether children’s bodies were naturally weak or whether the original body’s was especially weak.
The Emperor had originally granted him three days off because of the incident of his falling into the water, but because he had suddenly developed a high fever last night, the leave had been extended indefinitely. The Emperor meant for him to wait until his body had fully recovered before returning to lessons.
Fangfei had told him this when he was near Wenhua Hall.
The message had been passed along by the Emperor’s people after he had driven all the palace attendants out of the bedchamber and stayed alone.
He tested the waters and learned that the original body studied separately from the other Imperial Princes, attending classes alone in Wenhua Hall. The Emperor had also assigned him the most top-tier, luxurious teaching lineup.
The Crown Prince’s Grand Preceptor, Grand Mentor, Grand Guardian, Junior Preceptor, Junior Mentor, and Junior Guardian… three dukes and three orphans in full, plus six tutors and several lecturers.
Not counting the irregular lecturers, he had, in name and in reality, as many as twelve teachers.
The Grand Preceptor was the current Prime Minister; the Grand Mentor was the male lead’s grandfather, the Duke of Zhenguo; the Grand Guardian was the commander of the Imperial Guard; the Junior Preceptor was the Minister of Rites; the Junior Mentor was the Minister of War; and the Junior Guardian was the Marquis of Wu’an.
As for the six tutors, they were all jinshi graduates and jinshi-background scholars who had passed the imperial examinations after the Emperor took the throne.
The little maids had excitedly and brightly told him all this, wanting to show him how much the Emperor valued him, the Crown Prince, but Ye Jingchen only felt his vision go dark and his future turn bleak.
So many big shots staring at him studying all by himself… just thinking about it was suffocating.
No, this pain could not be borne by him alone!
Since he was going to study anyway, where his younger brothers studied made no difference. And which teacher could compare with his teachers in learning and power?
If he studied together with his younger brothers, the teachers’ attention would inevitably be split. Then the eyes falling on him would be fewer, and even if only by a little, that would still be good.
And besides his imperial younger brothers, he could also find a few study companions too. There were plenty of noble families willing to send their children into the palace to study with the Crown Prince and Imperial Princes. The more people there were, the livelier and more fun it would be!
With more than a decade of experience raising children, Ye Jingchen indicated that he was already starting to look forward to it.
After his walk, back in the bedchamber, Ye Jingchen began driving people away again.
As a veteran shut-in, he really was not used to sharing a room with too many people. Even having Chenxi around was already his limit, and that was only because he could not sense Chenxi’s presence at all.
“Your Highness, your status is noble. It is not safe to be alone. Why not let us a few accompany you?” Fangfei suggested softly.
“If this prince is not safe even in his own bedchamber, then where in the world is there a safe place?” Ye Jingchen asked back with a stern face.
Familiar with the little tyrant’s temper, Fangfei did not dare say more and settled for the next best thing. “Then we servants will stand guard outside the hall.”
Ye Jingchen waved his hand impatiently.
The palace attendants filed out one after another and gently closed the hall door.
Ye Jingchen sat down on the bed. He was far from the hall door here, so even if the palace attendants stood at the doorway, they would not hear the conversation inside. “Chenxi, what did you find out?”
The elusive Chenxi appeared in front of him on cue and said briefly, “They confessed. They really were acting under Consort De’s orders.”