“Which of you gossiped before Imperial Father, claiming that this prince was pushed into the water by Third Imperial Brother?” Ye Jingchen asked in a seemingly casual tone as he walked up to a cluster of blooming peonies.
The only things he already knew about were the incident of falling into the water, so that was the only way he could start getting familiar with the people around him and his environment.
The four palace maids and four eunuchs following behind him; upon hearing his question, two palace maids and two eunuchs immediately knelt.
The path beneath their feet was paved with pebbles, yet they knelt without the slightest hesitation; the sound of their knees hitting the stones made Ye Jingchen inwardly gasp.
Ye Jingchen naturally disliked this feudal custom of kneeling at the drop of a hat, but given the overall environment he was in, he couldn’t say anything and could only force himself to get used to it.
“This servant deserves death!” came the unified, terrified voices.
Ye Jingchen wasn’t asking to punish anyone, of course.
For one thing, these palace attendants only said such things to escape blame… it was only human nature.
For another, they had been by the original owner’s side and knew his temperament well; even if they hadn’t spoken, the original owner would have said it himself.
Moreover, the original owner’s identity was inherently opposed to that of the other Imperial Princes in the palace. Their lives and fortunes had long been tied to the original owner’s, so they would naturally make the choice most beneficial to the original owner and themselves.
“Although Third Imperial Brother is not born of the same mother as this prince, he is still Imperial Father’s child and this prince’s own brother. This prince does not wish to hear such remarks in the future that could harm the relationship between this prince and his imperial younger brothers!” Ye Jingchen warned.
Even though he didn’t want to study, he was glad that the original owner was still just a child when he transmigrated over. Since he was still so young, those imperial younger brothers who would later stir Dayuan into a bloody storm would only be younger than him now; he still had a chance to teach them.
But before teaching them, he had to first change the mindset of the people in his own palace, to stop them from treating all Imperial Princes as enemies.
Speaking such words while wearing the shell of a child would normally have been strange, but Ye Jingchen was born noble and his temperament was capricious and unpredictable; the palace attendants dared not question him and could only answer nervously, “Yes.”
Led by the palace attendants, Ye Jingchen wandered around the Eastern Palace. With his short legs and the Eastern Palace’s large size, after half an hour of walking he hadn’t even finished touring one garden, but he was already tired.
Delicate and frail, and having just fallen into the water, his physical condition was exceptionally poor. Ye Jingchen had no choice but to head back.
Returning to the bedchamber, he dismissed all the palace attendants on the excuse of needing to rest, then lay on the bed pondering his current situation and what to do next.
In the novel, the original owner’s younger brothers were not easy characters, but none of them were the novel’s male lead; the real male lead was someone else entirely.
The male lead, Xie Chang’an, was the sole surviving heir of the Duke of Zhenguo.
The Duke of Zhenguo had outstanding military achievements; the Xie Family Army under his command was the strongest army in Dayuan, invincible, steadfastly guarding Dayuan’s peace.
But…
When the birds are gone, the bow is put away; when the cunning hare is dead, the hounds are boiled.
Loyal ministers and good generals have rarely had a good ending throughout history.
The Emperor, fearing that the Duke of Zhenguo’s achievements might overshadow his own, meddled in a battle between Dayuan and the Northern Barbarians, causing all the Xie family men to die on the battlefield, leaving only a widow and orphan.
Xie Chang’an was born prematurely and had been weak and sickly since childhood, in very poor health. He could not go to the battlefield, let alone command the world-feared Xie Family Army. Thus, he escaped disaster and was kept in the capital by the Emperor as a mascot to placate the military.
The Emperor outwardly showed extreme favor to the orphan of the Xie family, even surpassing that shown to the Crown Prince, but the emperor’s feigned partiality was poison to Xie Chang’an, who had no means of self-protection. He faced danger again and again; if not for the protagonist’s halo, he would have died a hundred times over.
Yet it was precisely because he escaped every crisis that the Emperor grew wary of him and wanted to eradicate the root of trouble once and for all.
Although Xie Chang’an was frail and often ill, he was unmatched in strategy. He had always doubted the war in which his family had died on the battlefield; under the Emperor’s very nose, he lay low and hid in the shadows, vowing to uncover the truth and avenge his family.
After confirming that the Emperor had orchestrated his family’s death and that the Emperor could no longer tolerate him, Xie Chang’an began his path of revenge.
He sowed discord among the Emperor’s sons, formed alliances and pitted them against each other, making them fight among themselves. The Crown Prince’s deposition was his doing.
Ye Jingchen did not know the content of the novel after that, but by the chapter where the deposed Crown Prince died, Xie Chang’an had already secretly regained control of the Xie Family Army.
With an invincible army and his unmatched strategy, replacing the Ye clan was only a matter of time.
While reading the novel, Ye Jingchen had actually admired the male lead’s beast-like instincts and his infallible, decisive character… that was why he had stayed up late to read. But once the male lead became his enemy, that admiration turned entirely into fear.
He was very self-aware. Having been a salted fish for thirty years in the modern world, even if he suddenly turned over, he was still just a salted fish. His brain capacity was limited; there was no way he could outwit the male lead.
However, the male lead in the book seemed to be younger than him, still just a little kid a few years old, with zero threat value. If he nipped the villain in the bud right from the start…
Stop!
Sinful!
How could he have such malicious thoughts?
Ye Jingchen expelled the absurd idea from his mind.
Although he was now living in an era of supreme imperial power where human life was treated as nothing, he had been taught the core socialist values for thirty years, born and raised under the red flag, with a solid background and respect for life. How could he be so easily assimilated by this cannibalistic age?
Besides, Xie Chang’an was still just a child now, and the Xie family were all great heroes who defended the country. If he laid a hand on Xie Chang’an, wouldn’t he become a thorough villain?
Villains never come to a good end, anytime, anywhere; karma may be slow, but it never misses!
He just didn’t know whether Xie Chang’an’s family had already died on the battlefield.
If they were still alive, then he still had a chance to change their fate.
That way, he and Xie Chang’an would have no deep hatred, and they wouldn’t be forced into a hostile situation.
Information!
Again, information!
How could he discreetly and without arousing suspicion figure out his current situation and the progress of the novel’s plot?
The amnesia trope, though cliché, was useful.
If he had pretended to have amnesia when he woke up, it would have been much easier to get whatever information he wanted now.
Unfortunately, he had already missed the best opportunity to pretend to have amnesia.
Ye Jingchen racked his brains and finally extracted a bit of useful information from the novel’s plot.
In this novel, both the royal family and powerful noble families liked to keep death warriors, also called shadows or dark guards.
As the Crown Prince, Ye Jingchen, besides having 800 Eastern Palace guards openly protecting his safety, also had over a dozen dark guards secretly guarding him in the shadows. The leader of these dark guards was responsible for close personal protection, never leaving his side.
So, although this empty bedchamber appeared to have only him on the surface, in reality there was another person lurking in the shadows, watching him constantly. The moment he was in danger, they would instantly appear and eliminate the source of danger.