Most fathers cannot resist their children’s soft, adorable coaxing, especially when the child used to be somewhat afraid of him and not very close to him.
The Emperor looked at his beloved son, whose face was pale and weak, and felt his heart melt.
The women of the harem and the ministers of the court, taking advantage of the Crown Prince having lost his mother, always slandered him in his presence, saying he was disrespectful to elders above and unkind to brothers below, with a stubborn and unruly nature and no ambition. All slander!
How could a child born to a woman as gentle, refined, knowledgeable, and reasonable as Luo Wan be bad?
“Someone, convey my decree: tell the Noble Consort she need not kneel any longer!” The Emperor gave the order, and immediately a eunuch trotted out.
“Thank you, Imperial Father!” Ye Jingchen said happily.
He only hoped the Noble Consort had not knelt for too long.
“Although you have awakened, you still need to have the imperial physicians give you a thorough examination. Don’t let any hidden ailments remain.” The Emperor looked at Ye Jingchen’s pale face, with the word “heartache” written all over his face.
An emperor with such favoritism… no wonder he raised the original deposed Crown Prince to be so lawless and reckless. That was why, under the schemes of the other Imperial Princes and their maternal clans, he repeatedly courted death, eventually exhausting all the father-son affection between him and the Emperor and being deposed from the position of Crown Prince.
But even so, later the Emperor still wanted to forgive him, so he had to die.
Ye Jingchen had not yet read the subsequent plot of that novel, but he imagined that after learning of the deposed Crown Prince’s death, the Emperor would be grief-stricken.
Under the Emperor’s watchful gaze, the remaining two imperial physicians came forward tremblingly to take Ye Jingchen’s pulse. Their diagnoses were similar to Physician Zhang’s. Only then did the Emperor feel relieved. He gave detailed instructions and bestowed many precious tonics before leaving with his attendants.
After the Emperor left, four palace maids, including the young girl, who had more beads and ornaments in their hair, came forward to help Ye Jingchen change clothes and wash up. Throughout the process, Ye Jingchen felt like a puppet on strings, letting them manipulate him, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
In the past, when reading books or watching TV, he had fantasized about how enjoyable it would be if he were of noble birth, surrounded by a group of beauties attending to him. But when this day actually came, Ye Jingchen not only didn’t find it enjoyable, but felt various discomforts.
Having lived as a solitary individual in modern society for so many years, he was long accustomed to living alone. Between people, there should be a safe social distance, and crossing it would feel uncomfortable.
But it could also be that his body was still too small, yet he had an adult soul inside. Surrounded by beauties, he truly had the desire but lacked the ability?
While he was washing up, the meal outside had already been prepared, all easily digestible porridge and soup. The palace maid served him, tasting each dish first. Even the seemingly simple plain congee melted in the mouth; besides the fragrance of rice, there was the umami of mushrooms, and a hint of sweetness in the aftertaste.
Even a bowl of plain congee had so much thought put into it; the rest went without saying. Having lived for thirty years, Ye Jingchen was eating such delicious food for the first time. Annoyed that the palace maid was feeding him too slowly, he grabbed the spoon and wolfed it down.
“Your Highness, you mustn’t…” After he had finished a small bowl of porridge and a bowl of soup, the leading palace maid stopped him.
“Your Highness has been unconscious for a day and only consumed some ginseng soup. Your spleen and stomach are weak; you shouldn’t eat too much.”
Ye Jingchen looked at the remaining two small bowls of porridge and two bowls of soup on the table, which he had only tasted a spoonful of, and fell silent.
If he wasn’t allowed to eat, why set out so much? For him to admire?
What a waste!
Wasting food is shameful!
“Distribute the rest as rewards, don’t waste it.” Ye Jingchen ordered.
In the palace, leftover meals from the master were usually bestowed upon the palace attendants. There was a fixed procedure, and soon people filed in to clear the meal.
A palace maid brought a tea cup for Ye Jingchen to rinse his mouth.
“His Majesty dotes on Your Highness and specially permits Your Highness to have three days off, no need to go to Wenyuan Pavilion for study. What does Your Highness wish to do now?” the palace maid asked softly.
Study?
Ye Jingchen looked at his own chubby little hands and belatedly realized that he had transmigrated into a child, and a Crown Prince at that. Under the imperial system, the Crown Prince stood above all except the Emperor. While his status was noble, the responsibilities he bore were also great.
Fortunately, the young Crown Prince did not need to handle state affairs, but he needed to study.
To become a qualified heir to the nation, the things he needed to learn were not comparable to the modern nine-year compulsory education.
Ye Jingchen immediately felt as if the sky were falling.
Any academic underachiever who has endured nine years of compulsory education and gone through the brutal middle school and college entrance exams would never want to study again!
Studying was so exhausting; in history, there were Imperial Princes whose bodies were ruined by reading!
Having just experienced sudden death, Ye Jingchen was absolutely not going to let himself get exhausted again!
But the most important thing at the moment was not studying; it was that he had transmigrated into the little Crown Prince but had not inherited his memories. All his current understanding of the little Crown Prince came from that novel, and an unfinished one at that.
But the little Crown Prince was just cannon fodder. The novel focused more on the open and covert struggles between him and the several Imperial Princes after he grew up, with almost no detailed descriptions of the Crown Prince and the Eastern Palace. He was completely in the dark now… he didn’t even know the names of the palace maids and attendants around him, let alone anything else. Like this, he would eventually expose himself!
The first step to adapting to his identity was to start by familiarizing himself with his surroundings.
“I ate a bit too much just now. You all come with me for a walk to help digestion.” Ye Jingchen said, patting his stomach.
As the Crown Prince, the heir to the Dayuan Dynasty, even such a small matter as eating too much was enough to throw the palace maids and attendants into a flurry. Those around him first knelt to confess their fault, then said they would go summon the imperial physicians.
Ye Jingchen quickly and exasperatedly stopped them, saying that just taking a walk would be fine.
“If His Majesty finds out that you have indigestion, he will definitely be very worried about you!”
And he will definitely think that they failed to take good care of you and will punish them!
“Your Highness, you don’t know how much His Majesty dotes on you. Ever since you fell into the water and lost consciousness, he has been guarding you in the Eastern Palace, staying the whole night. He only left in the morning to attend the morning court! And as soon as he heard you had awakened, he immediately set aside state affairs to come see you!”
“His Majesty’s love for you is even deeper than the love of ordinary commoner parents for their children…”
During the walk, several palace maids kept chattering incessantly in his ear.
Ye Jingchen remained silent, but the more he listened, the heavier his heart became.
An emperor’s affection was like a double-edged sword. The Emperor doted on the Crown Prince blindly, unwilling to be strict with him, not only making him lawless and reckless but also foolish and ignorant, which led to the later tragedy.
Now, he had become this favored Crown Prince.
He knew part of the plot and had the Emperor’s favor. In fact, as long as he didn’t court death, treated the Emperor well, and guarded against his six younger Imperial Princes, it might not be impossible to change the outcome… but…
Could he really bear the burden of a nation?
Ye Jingchen was very confused.