The Emperor and Ji Wushuang both stared at Ye Jingchen in shock.
Ye Jingyu was also very shocked.
“Imperial Father, you should stay with the Noble Consort. I want to have a private word with Third Imperial Brother.” Ye Jingchen took Ye Jingyu’s hand and led the way into Weiyang Palace.
“Fangfei, Fangcao, follow!”
“Suzhi, follow them. Don’t let them go to dangerous places,” Ji Wushuang quickly said.
The Emperor had originally wanted to lash out at Ji Wushuang for neglecting the Crown Prince, but Ye Jingchen’s move had stunned him so much that he forgot to be angry.
Seeing that Ye Jingchen had already pulled Ye Jingyu away, the Emperor withdrew his hand, clasped his hands behind his back, coughed lightly, and said in a deep voice, “Then I’ll go sit in your palace for a while.”
Ji Wushuang snapped out of it and quickly invited the Emperor inside.
In the bedchamber, the Emperor and the Noble Consort sat opposite each other drinking tea in awkward silence. Outside the bedchamber, Ye Jingchen took Ye Jingyu to a spacious octagonal pavilion and ordered the palace attendants from the Eastern Palace and Weiyang Palace to keep watch at a distance.
The benefit of an open view was that even from far away, one could see what was happening in the pavilion, and there was no danger around the pavilion, so the people from Weiyang Palace, though unwilling, still stood farther off.
After all, the Crown Prince had come today with the Emperor, and the Emperor was still in Weiyang Palace. If they disobeyed the Crown Prince and he reported it to the Emperor, even the Noble Consort wouldn’t be able to protect them.
But even if they couldn’t hear what the Crown Prince and the Third Imperial Prince were saying, they kept their eyes fixed on the pavilion. Once the Crown Prince tried to bully their little master, they would rush in immediately to protect him.
Inside the pavilion, Ye Jingchen reluctantly let go of the little dough-like hand. He secretly decided that once he got familiar with Old Third, he would definitely pinch his little fleshy paws. If he could pinch his face, even better!
Ye Jingchen, who had already become an uncle in the modern world, said to himself that little kids were really cute, with soft, tender skin, fun to pinch and play with!
Children’s instincts were the sharpest. Ye Jingyu acutely noticed that although his cheap brother’s gaze was no longer as disgusting as before, it was still dangerous.
He subconsciously stepped away from the other.
“Cough… Third Imperial Brother, I think you and your mother have some misunderstandings about me. How could I possibly harm you when you are my own brother?” Ye Jingchen coughed lightly and spoke in a softened voice.
If it weren’t for the fact that he was also a child now, his expression combined with this tone would really seem like a weird uncle luring a little kid.
“You tried to push me into the water that day!” Ye Jingyu exposed him without mercy.
His baby voice melted Ye Jingchen’s heart.
Perhaps because he had raised a child since childhood and had resumed that role in recent years, Ye Jingchen found it hard to resist the temptation of children.
“I really only wanted to scare you from behind. You see, it’s so dangerous by the water. How could you stand alone by the water? What if you fell in?” Ye Jingchen tried to put on a sincere expression.
Ye Jingyu sneered disdainfully, “So the Crown Prince demonstrated it himself?”
Being looked down upon by a six-year-old milk baby…
“I swear, I really didn’t mean to harm you. If I’m lying, may I be struck by lightning!” Ye Jingchen raised his right hand and vowed solemnly.
After all, it wasn’t him who wanted to harm the little milk baby, but the original body.
In this era, people were still superstitious. Of course, Ye Jingyu was still a little kid who didn’t understand such things, but his intuition told him that the Crown Prince was telling the truth.
Could it be that he really had misunderstood the Crown Prince?
But that day, when he heard a noise and turned around, the Crown Prince was indeed maintaining a pushing motion and his face was terrifying.
Ye Jingyu’s little head was confused for a moment.
“If you want to convict me, you need evidence. The fact is that you didn’t fall into the water, but I did. If I really meant to harm you, the water’s edge was full of my people that day. How could you have come out unscathed?” Ye Jingchen asked back confidently.
Ye Jingyu was stumped.
He began to doubt himself again. Could it really be that he had misunderstood the Crown Prince?
“You and your mother misunderstood me, and your mother even went to Imperial Father and bit back. I didn’t hold it against you. When Imperial Father punished your mother, I even pleaded for her. Today I brought Imperial Father to see you and gave you a big gift. Your mother wanted to give me a closed-door snub, and I didn’t argue with her. Look how magnanimous I am, while you mother and son are so petty!” Ye Jingchen placed himself on a moral high ground, lecturing Ye Jingyu with a superior and self-righteous tone.
No matter how smart a six-year-old child was, his brain’s development was limited, and Ye Jingyu was successfully confused by Ye Jingchen’s speech.
His mother had been calling the Crown Prince ‘little wretch’ all this time, and he too thought the Crown Prince was bad. Could it be that they were actually the bad ones?
Ye Jingyu frowned deeply, falling into the biggest self-doubt of his life.
“Although you are very bad, and your mother is also very bad, but…” Ye Jingchen pressed his advantage, saying generously, “Since you are my own brother and so cute this time, I’ll let it go!”
After saying that, he still couldn’t resist, stretching out his evil claws and gently pinching Ye Jingyu’s soft, steamed bun-like little face.
The feel was as good as he had imagined.
“What are you doing?!” Ye Jingyu yelled, covering his face, stepping back several times in alarm.
“Your Highness, are you alright!” The Weiyang Palace palace attendants led by Suzhi, who were guarding outside the pavilion, saw that their young master seemed to have been bullied, and immediately rushed into the pavilion. The people from the Eastern Palace, worried that the Crown Prince would be bullied, also flooded in.
“Your Highness, did the Crown Prince bully you again?” Suzhi asked.
That single character ‘again’ was very telling.
“How dare you, you slander the Crown Prince!” That was Fangfei, blindly defending the Crown Prince’s authority.
“Jingyu, little brother, did I bully you?” Ye Jingchen asked with a smile at the corner of his mouth, unhurriedly.
Ye Jingyu didn’t answer.
He wasn’t sure if his cheap brother had bullied him just now.
If he said no, the cheap brother had pinched his face. But if he said yes, the cheap brother only pinched his face lightly, without pain. It was just his overreaction.
It was because the previous cheap brother had done too many bad things, giving him a stress reaction.
Ye Jingchen let out a long sigh and said helplessly, “Alright, I admit I did bully Jingyu little brother just now. But it’s not my fault. It’s because Jingyu little brother is too cute, especially his steamed bun face… white, soft, and tender, looking very pinchable. I couldn’t help it, so I pinched it.”
Following Ye Jingchen’s triple-stacked adjectives, the palace attendants couldn’t help but look at Ye Jingyu’s face, and they found that indeed, just as the Crown Prince said, it was white, soft, and tender…
What to do?
Their hands also seemed to be getting itchy!
Having never expected to be praised like that by his cheap brother, Ye Jingyu’s face turned red. He stomped his feet uncomfortably, but when he noticed the increasingly eager and dangerous gazes of the palace attendants, his face turned from red to blue.
“I hate you!” He shouted at Ye Jingchen, then covered his face and ran away.
This cheap brother was really too annoying, even more annoying than before!