“Your Highness, the Ninth Prince has fainted from the pain.”
Chu Dichi swept a cold gaze over him.
“Carry him back.”
He flicked his sleeve and left.
Outside the Bureau of Punishments, the Shadow Guard, Zhong Feng, hurried forward.
“Master, you still have injuries on your body. Why did you have to personally come all the way to the Bureau of Punishments? What if His Majesty catches you in the act and gets something to use against you……”
The ambushes and assassination attempts they had encountered on the way back to the capital after this victorious campaign were the perfect warning.
The emperor could not tolerate the Prince Regent.
The more military achievements the Prince Regent accumulated, the more wary the emperor became.
If the Prince Regent stopped earning military merit, then despite having only an empty reputation, he would inevitably be impeached and suppressed by the court officials. They would strip him of his power and seize control.
Chu Dichi spoke in a voice cold as ice:
“Since His Majesty cannot tolerate me and keeps coming up with one scheme after another, then I shall repay every one of those schemes upon the son he loves most.”
***
When Chu Li woke up, she was in Zhaolan Palace.
“Has the medicine been prepared yet…… Bring the candied fruit…… Someone…… Hurry and go……”
In her hazy consciousness, Chu Li heard a woman’s gentle voice, warm and soothing like a clear stream flowing softly over the earth.
Her eyes immediately flew open.
“Mother!”
At the bedside.
Consort Wen, who was just over 30, was dressed in magnificent, elegant robes. Every gesture she made carried a graceful dignity and noble bearing.
Chu Li’s eyes immediately grew hot. She threw herself into her mother’s arms with all her strength and began complaining.
“Mother! Imperial Uncle has bullied me again and again and again!”
Consort Wen hurriedly steadied her and scolded:
“You foolish child! You’re still injured! If you get blood on the clothes I just had made, I certainly won’t let you off!”
“……”
Chu Li fell silent for a moment, and about 70-80% of her sanity returned.
She gingerly covered her burning, aching buttocks, then tremblingly crawled back onto the bed. Her eyes were filled with tears, her lower lip tightly bitten, looking as wronged as anyone could possibly be.
“How many times have I told you? If there’s nothing going on, don’t provoke your Imperial Uncle. Even your Imperial Father doesn’t dare provoke him lightly.”
Consort Wen took the bowl of medicine from the palace maid.
“Fortunately, he has a kind heart and didn’t beat you to death.”
“……”
Everyone in Great Chu knew that the Prince Regent was someone one absolutely must not provoke.
Chu Li had known this since she was little.
Eighteen years ago, the former emperor had suddenly died without leaving an imperial edict. The following day, the current emperor ascended the throne as the designated heir.
Yet for many years, there had been constant controversy within the imperial court.
Some court officials believed that the system of succession by the legitimate eldest son meant that the current emperor succeeding to the throne was perfectly reasonable.
Others believed that the former emperor had always favored his youngest son, Chu Dichi. The youngest prince had been exceptionally intelligent and outstanding from childhood. In recent years, he had even accumulated military power, won battle after battle, and gained tremendous popular support.
In their eyes, he was the best candidate for succession.
There was controversy over the imperial throne.
And the Prince Regent was suspected of harboring rebellious intentions.
Chu Li, who only wanted to be a lazy parasite, touched her chest and swore:
From beginning to end, she had never provoked the Prince Regent.
It was him!
Every single time, he was the one deliberately picking a fight with her!
“Mother, if Imperial Uncle truly has rebellious ambitions, then he can simply fight for the throne. Could it really be because Father has favored me since childhood that he wants to kill me…… Mmph!”
Before she could finish, Consort Wen covered her mouth.
This child!
There were ears on the other side of the wall.
How could she dare say such things inside the forbidden depths of the imperial palace? What if someone heard her, seized upon it as evidence, and had her head chopped off?
“From now on, you are forbidden to say such treasonous things again!”
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!”
I know!
Consort Wen released her mouth.
Chu Li’s very next sentence was:
“Mother, I don’t want to disguise myself as a man anymore.”
Consort Wen was so shocked that her bottom slipped off the chair, and she nearly fell to the floor.
“Oh, heavens! Bodhisattva save me! Are you trying to kill me?!”
“If this matter is exposed, it will be the crime of deceiving the emperor. You, me, and even the entire Wen family will all suffer disaster!”
“Li’er, although you are not my biological daughter, if I examine my conscience, Mother has treated you well since you were little. Please, spare my entire clan!”
“……”
Chu Li swallowed hard.
“I know that when you gave birth back then, it was an expedient measure, and you had no choice but to resort to such a desperate plan. But I can’t possibly live like this forever……”
First, once she reached the proper age, if she still refused to marry and have children, her identity would inevitably be exposed.
Second, she was afraid the Prince Regent would eventually kill her.
Third, taking the initiative was better than being exposed passively. At the very least, they would have time to prepare and keep the consequences within the smallest possible limits.
How could Consort Wen not understand her daughter’s predicament?
Sigh.
She let out a long breath.
“It’s all Mother’s fault. Back then, I was young and hot-tempered and got into a momentary rivalry with that wretched Consort Xin.”
However, she quickly began devising a solution for her daughter.
“A princess impersonating a prince is a grave crime of deceiving the emperor. Besides, you were adopted from outside the imperial family and do not even share the imperial bloodline.”
“But if you can accomplish a great deed—one great enough to offset the crime of deceiving the emperor—then there may be a chance that His Majesty will forgive you.”
Chu Li raised her head, her eyes filled with hope.
“Please enlighten me, Mother.”
Consort Wen pondered for a moment before saying:
“Why don’t you go and reclaim the Southern Frontier?”
“?”
The Southern Frontier was vast and filled with various barbarian tribes and practitioners of witchcraft and poison arts. It was a sinister and mysterious land.
In recent years, the Prince Regent had launched four campaigns there and still failed to reclaim the Southern Frontier.
And she wanted a girl who never left the inner chambers and couldn’t even tie up a chicken to go reclaim the territory?
“Mother, do you think I’ve lived too long?”
Consort Wen continued:
“If not, then go unify the continent.”
“??”
Was she really her daughter, or was she some turtle from a wishing pond?
All she could do was open her mouth and spout nonsense.
If Chu Li were capable of unifying the continent, would she still be lying here racking her brains?
“At worst, you could become emperor yourself and issue an imperial decree pardoning yourself.”
“???”
Mother dearest!
I love you, Mother!
She already had eight older brothers, not to mention a Prince Regent watching her like a tiger stalking its prey.
“You want me to fight for the throne and oppose Imperial Uncle and all my imperial brothers? Mother, are you worried that Imperial Uncle won’t be able to kill me?”
Consort Wen slapped one palm against the back of the other with loud smacks, looking utterly exasperated by her daughter’s lack of ambition.
“See? It’s not that Mother doesn’t want to help you. I’ve given you so many solutions, but you’re the one unwilling to do any of them.”
“My dear child, Mother truly cannot help you anymore.”
Chu Li: “……”
Why had everything suddenly gone black before her eyes?
What was covering her vision?
Oh.
It was her future—completely dark after having fallen straight into the abyss.
Knock, knock—
Outside the door, Consort Wen’s trusted palace maid lowered her voice.
“Your Highness, Lord Zhong Feng, who serves beside the Prince Regent, has arrived. He has come to see the Ninth Prince.”
At the words “Prince Regent,” Chu Li immediately felt the burning pain in her buttocks.
“Child, don’t talk back to your Imperial Uncle. When something happens, just endure it and let it pass. Someone as arrogant as your Imperial Uncle would never stoop to bullying a useless person.”
Consort Wen gave her a couple more instructions before leaving first.
“?”
Who are you calling useless?
Soon, Zhong Feng, dressed in a fitted martial outfit with an indifferent expression, entered the palace hall.
“I pay my respects to the Ninth Prince.”
The moment Chu Li saw him, she secretly clenched her teeth.
Why put on that fake polite act?
She knew exactly what kind of person he was.
And she knew exactly what kind of person Chu Dichi was.
She knew them both like the back of her hand!
“What is it?”
Zhong Feng cupped his fists.
“Your subordinate has come under the Prince Regent’s orders to present the Ninth Prince with a beauty.”
Clap, clap!
A round of applause sounded.
From outside the palace hall, a beautiful young woman with a slender figure and a delicate waist like a tender willow walked gracefully inside.
She was dressed neatly in a layer of light gauze that nevertheless faintly revealed her skin, displaying an unmistakably seductive charm.
“The Prince Regent said that Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, has reached the age when a young man begins to wear his hair bound.”
“If you have needs in that regard, you may request His Majesty’s permission, or you may tell him directly. But there is truly no need to commit such a disgraceful act as secretly peeking at someone while they bathe—having the heart of a thief but not the courage of one.”
“!!”
Chu Li’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
What did he just say?
What did he say?!
He was saying that when she peeked at him bathing, she had been coveting his beauty?
If her buttocks hadn’t been injured, she would have jumped three feet into the air from sheer fury.
That damned Chu Dichi!
She was lying helplessly on the bed, unable to move because of her injuries, and he had actually taken advantage of the opportunity to go outside and ruin her reputation!