Mu Jue blinked his eyelashes in confusion and surprise. The soft, thick lashes brushed lightly against Lu Shiting’s finger.
The Ninth Prince wanted Lu Shiting to help him take the throne?
But the Crown Prince was his full-blooded older brother. If he wanted the throne, the Crown Prince would have to be deposed.
Throughout history, deposed Crown Princes rarely met a good end.
Moreover, whenever the Ninth Prince saw him at the study hall, he never missed a chance to mock the rumors between Mu Jue and the Chief. His words were always full of contempt. How could he agree to Lu Shiting’s demands so easily?
“The Ninth Prince wants to join the struggle for the throne?”
“Naturally. I am also the son of the Emperor and Empress. Just because I was born a few years later, why must I give the throne to my brother?”
The Ninth Prince seemed agitated; Mu Jue could hear his voice cracking.
“Lately, the Crown Prince has been trying to suppress the Eastern Depot. He also went against your wishes regarding Northern Di, Chief. I imagine you wouldn’t want to see him inherit the throne either, would you?”
“I am not like the Crown Prince. I won’t say one thing and do another. Whatever you want me to do, Chief, I will—”
Lu Shiting did not answer. He interrupted with a lazy tone, like a spectator at a play waiting for the best part to begin.
“Your Highness, the Little Khan of Northern Di has arrived.”
The Ninth Prince stood up almost instantly and hurried out of the room.
Outside, the Little Khan’s rough and broken Central Plains speech rang out: “Bring out the good wine and food! Where is the pretty boy you prepared for me?”
A servant replied, “He is waiting in the side room, Little Khan. He is eighteen this year—a bit old, perhaps, but he has unparalleled beauty. He’s much more handsome than the top boys from the Red Sleeve Pavilion or the Scented House. You will surely like him.”
The “boy of unparalleled beauty” was currently held in Chief Lu’s arms. Lu Shiting wrapped him in a brocade quilt, covering even his face, and picked him up horizontally.
His hold was steady.
“The antidote is at the Eastern Depot. I must trouble Your Highness to come with me.”
More than half an hour had passed, and the drug’s effect was growing stronger. A moment ago, Mu Jue was still focused enough to listen to the Ninth Prince and pinch his palm for self-control, but now the “little wolf cub” was becoming restless.
One of his hands gripped the fabric of Lu Shiting’s chest. His head, hidden beneath the quilt, began to rub and nudge gently against him.
Mu Jue was too hot. The tight quilt and the body heat radiating from Lu Shiting only made it worse.
He tried to stick his hand out to find some coolness, but Lu Shiting held him so tightly he could hardly move.
Lu Shiting looked down and heard the dissatisfied low whimper from the wolf cub in his arms. Such a clear voice could actually sound so alluring.
He gave a soft “tch,” walked over to the table to set him down, and took a brown pill from his sleeve to put into the young man’s mouth.
The young man’s lips were dry, but his eyes were wet.
Mu Jue swallowed the pill. It felt like a heavy snowfall; the burning heat in his chest faded slightly.
Lu Shiting picked him up again. “Listen closely.”
Listen closely?
Mu Jue was dazed for a moment. As Lu Shiting carried him out of the room, he heard the angry voice of the Northern Di Little Khan downstairs.
“You dare play me?! Where is this beautiful boy you spoke of?!”
“This… I… I don’t know how the person on the bed turned into two pillows! He must have run away! I’ll go look for him right now! Please calm down, Little Khan, please calm down—”
Mu Jue struggled to peek his eyes out of the quilt.
The Northern Di Little Khan was standing right in front of the room where Mu Jue had been drinking with the Ninth Prince—the room where he had been drugged and knocked out.
He was the “pretty boy” intended to be gifted to the Little Khan.
The Little Khan left, cursing and flicking his sleeves. Once he was gone, the Ninth Prince stepped out from the neighboring room, his face so dark it looked like it could drip ink.
As they walked past him, the Ninth Prince asked in a hoarse voice:
“Chief Lu, what about Sixth Brother?”
“How would I know where the Sixth Prince went?”
“Chief Lu!” The Ninth Prince chased after him. “You know about the Little Khan. This was all the Crown Prince’s idea; I had no choice. If you’re worried about Sixth Brother’s safety, I promise to find him and bring him to you unharmed. Just please don’t let the Crown Prince know I met with you today—”
Lu Shiting paused. His narrow eyes turned cold as frost as he looked at a carriage parked outside Xiao Yun Restaurant.
“You are too late,” he smiled faintly. “It seems the Crown Prince has been having people watch this restaurant all along.”
The carriage bore the markings of the Eastern Palace. The color drained from the Ninth Prince’s face.
The curtain of the carriage was lifted, revealing the Crown Prince’s gentle face. He looked at the Ninth Prince with a gaze that seemed like looking at a stranger.
Mu Jue buried his face deep in the quilt, shrinking into Lu Shiting’s arms.
The Ninth Prince wasn’t the only one who drugged him; the Crown Prince knew too. In fact, the entire plan was likely ordered by the Crown Prince.
If even full-blooded brothers could plot and suspect each other like this for the throne, how could he, an outsider, ever be seen as family by the Crown Prince?
Lu Shiting boarded his own carriage. Ignoring the two noble princes, he pulled back the quilt covering the “little wolf cub.”
The young man was still clutching his clothes. The drug had mostly worn off, though the flush on his cheeks hadn’t faded. His dark eyes were misty, and the red mole near his eye looked vivid and beautiful.
Lu Shiting squinted at him. “Aren’t you going to let go?”
Mu Jue snapped back to reality and immediately released his grip. He moved to the side and sat properly on the cushions.
“Today… thank you, Chief Lu, for saving me.”
If he had really been taken by the Little Khan, he didn’t know why the Crown Prince and Ninth Prince arranged it, but for such a disgrace to the royal family, he would never have been forgiven.
“Didn’t you say the antidote was at the Eastern Depot?”
Then what was the pill he just ate?
Lu Shiting straightened his robes. “Is Your Highness not going to ask about today’s events?”
“…I have mostly guessed it.”
It was simply that the Crown Prince and the Ninth Prince wanted to gift him to the Little Khan. The Ninth Prince acted close to the Crown Prince on the surface but was secretly plotting to take the throne. He wanted to use the moment Mu Jue was insulted by the Little Khan to gain Lu Shiting’s support.
His thoughts drifted a bit.
Did the Ninth Prince really believe those rumors about me and Lu Shiting?
Did he arrange this whole scene just to get Lu Shiting’s support—thinking that if Lu Shiting knew he had been touched by the Little Khan, the Chief would grow disgusted with him?
He secretly observed the sharp, cold profile of the man beside him.
Such a person did not look like someone who would indulge in the passions of the bedroom.
“As for why they arranged this, and how you got the information… if you wanted me to know, you would tell me.”
Since he didn’t tell him, it meant there was no point in asking.
A flicker of emotion appeared in Lu Shiting’s eyes, but it was only a small ripple that quickly vanished.
“Those things, Your Highness will find out very soon.”
Lu Shiting did not take him back to the palace. The carriage stopped in a secluded alley where Cao Yi was waiting with Xia Ming.
Mu Jue stepped down, and Xia Ming rushed forward in tears to check on him.
“I am returning to the Eastern Depot. Your Highness should return to the palace yourself. Today’s matter ends here.”
Mu Jue nodded. “I understand.”
Even if he hadn’t escaped unharmed, he couldn’t exactly go to the Emperor and complain that the Ninth Prince drugged him under the Crown Prince’s orders.
The Emperor saw him as a bastard of questionable blood; he would never believe him. He would likely have Mu Jue beaten to death without a hearing and claim he died of a sudden illness.
Since the Crown Prince and Ninth Prince dared to arrange this, they knew he had no family backing and no foundation. They certainly would have had a scapegoat ready.
Mu Jue slowly closed his eyes. His skin was burning, but his heart felt like it was sinking into a cold, dark sea.
He had avoided thinking about these things because he never had any desire for the throne.
He only wanted to survive until he was of age and then leave the palace to heal his mother. Whether he was a prince or a commoner didn’t matter.
But he had no choice at all.