Nanrong Xian turned pale, but after taking two steps, a smile suddenly hung back on his face. “Does Ah Chen really think I would still listen to this command?”
Ever since he had left Nanrong Chen’s bedchamber in a fit of anger years ago, no matter what methods he employed, Nanrong Chen had never thrown a temper tantrum at him again, nor had he ever told him to get lost again.
He had clearly promised to stay with him forever, yet he treated the palace maids and attendants with more affection than him, treating him like a fool to be deceived.
Thinking of this, he looked even more displeased at the dagger in the little attendant’s hand. “Meddling with the property of the Son of Heaven, is this how the Chief Astrologer sets the rules for the Bureau of Astronomy?”
The little attendant had never witnessed such a scene, and his legs turned to jelly as he collapsed onto the floor. He had long heard that Prince Su acted in an eccentric and ruthless manner, and any passing dog that provoked this prince would surely be stripped of a layer of skin. He stammered, “Your Highness… it has nothing to do with Lord Chief Astrologer…”
Nanrong Chen reached out to comfort the little attendant who was nearly frightened out of his wits. “Is Imperial Elder Brother going to pick on a child?”
Prince Su was notorious throughout the capital for his ruthless methods, but in his early childhood, he had felt that Nanrong Xian was unrestrained, carefree, and valued emotional ties and loyalty.
Back when he had just started his formal education, studying and practicing martial arts at the Imperial Academy along with the other princes and nobles, the timing was unfortunate. It happened to coincide with a rift between the late emperor and the Empress Dowager, with intentions to depose the Empress.
The other princes naturally would not let go of such an opportunity to kick a man while he was down, and taking advantage of the break after class, they cornered him in a secluded corner of the imperial garden.
“Give up on that pipe dream. How could His Imperial Father ever make the son of a deposed empress the crown prince?”
“I heard our third younger brother was born in Yezhou; he might just be some bastard child, right? Hahahaha!”
“Looking just like a little girl, is he going to cry?”
At the time, Nanrong Chen was merely five years old. Coupled with the fact that he had always been frail and excessively fair-skinned, there was not only a substantial gap in physical build compared to that group of people, but his imposing aura was also weak to the extreme.
He knew that going head-to-head would not yield any benefits, so he beckoned to the leader. “A while ago, when I woke up in the Hall of Diligent Government, I happened to overhear Imperial Father mentioning something about the crown prince to Grand Secretary Zhou. Does Imperial Elder Brother want to hear about it?”
Unsurprisingly, while saying, “Don’t bother trying any tricks, or you’ll be crying from the beating and you’ll have brought it upon yourself,” that person walked closer to him.
Ever since he could remember, the late emperor had treated him exceptionally well, almost no different from an ordinary father and son among the common folk. Even the Hall of Diligent Government was open for him to enter and exit freely, so hearing a sentence or two between the late emperor and Zhou Yanzhi was not entirely impossible.
At the time, he was merely a child, knowing only that becoming crown prince meant leaving the Empress to live alone in the East Palace, which he found deeply repulsive, but making those people desperately want to be the crown prince was quite enough.
As that person leaned his ear closer, Nanrong Chen gripped the plum blossom branch in his hand, stood on tiptoe, and used all his strength to stab it into the man’s neck.
The Empress Dowager loved plum blossoms, and he had deliberately sharpened the tail end of the plum branch, hoping the flowers would last a few days longer when placed in a vase, never expecting it to be wasted like this before even returning to the palace.
That group naturally would not let the matter rest. They shoved him back a couple of steps and grabbed his collar to continue cursing him.
Before making a move, he had already prepared himself to take a beating, which reckoned as not a major loss. “The snowy path is slippery, Imperial Elder Brother brought it upon himself.”
Yet at the time, his heart was still unyieldingly fearful; even a minor bump could cause him to shed tears from pain, let alone being thrashed by these people.
He held his fists tight in anticipation for a long while, but instead of fists, he waited for a voice. “This heir was just on his way to pay respects to His Majesty; such an interesting spectacle can be recounted to him.”
What they specifically said afterward, Nanrong Chen could no longer clearly recall, remembering only that the heir of that day was passionate and flamboyant, willing to offend several princes for the sake of someone he had never met before.
He even helped him avoid a beating.
At the time, Nanrong Xian, who was still the heir, was relatively normal. He brushed some snow from a tree, rubbed it into Nanrong Chen’s palms, and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe away the blood, joking, “Quite interesting, from now on this heir will protect you.”
For a period after that, the two of them were inseparable. He gradually realized that Nanrong Xian was eccentric and rude to others, showing an especially picky attitude toward the palace maids and attendants around him.
Yet he also felt that since Nanrong Xian had been unloved by his father and mother since childhood, having a poor temper was excusable.
Such bitterness was something he back then considered himself unable to endure. There was once when Nanrong Xian was lashed with a whip by the previous Prince Su, and after receiving a hasty application of medicine, he was thrown into the ancestral hall to kneel as punishment, kneeling until he fainted cold away and ran a fever for two days and nights.
The previous Princess Su never once stepped out of the secluded ancestral hall to look at her son, and the only family guarding beside Nanrong Xian was Nanrong Chen.
In his heart, he secretly made a vow to protect this older brother well.
Yet while protecting him, Nanrong Xian arranged for someone to shoot an arrow at him, an arrow steeped in virulent poison that pierced his arm and nearly cost him half his life.
By that time, the Empress Dowager had already reconciled with the late emperor as before, and the late emperor, who had doted on him for a long time, flew into a rage and ordered a thorough investigation, which ultimately ended with the beheading of a squad of guards and an imperial guards lieutenant.
The Empress Dowager held his hand and earnestly told him to be cautious of Prince Su, perhaps fearing he would not believe her, and laid out various pieces of evidence before him.
“Chen’er, Nanrong Xian is already an imperial prince under Consort Shen’s name, he probably regards you as an enemy long ago.”
Back then, he failed to restrain his temper, and carrying his injuries, he confronted Nanrong Xian face-to-face, receiving not a single word of denial, but only a neurotic, “Ah Chen, I said you are not allowed to lie to me. You lied to me first, and now you still doubt me. I can only find a way to make you obediently listen.”
Hearing this, Nanrong Chen clenched his robe tightly, the wound on his arm tearing open anew, probably turning his eyes red with pain as well, and sternly ordered Nanrong Xian to get lost.
Ever since then, Nanrong Xian provoked and threatened him time and again, repeatedly striking at the people around him and using every method to pull him down from the position of the East Palace.
And later on, Nanrong Xian was dispatched to his fiefdom under a pretext, returning after lurking for several years to personally lead troops to surround and attack him in Shangjing.
“This prince does not have that kind of idle time.” Nanrong Xian stepped forward, pulled Nanrong Chen’s hand away from the little attendant, muttered a curse under his breath about a dog-like thing bewitching the monarch, and instead grasped that slender wrist in his palm.
“Return to the palace with me.”
Nanrong Chen did not wish to return to the palace, exerting his strength to break free. However, having just woken from severe injuries, his vitality was damaged, and the meager strength he exerted completely rebounded onto himself, causing a sharp sting at the unhealed wound in his heart. “Nanrong Xian, are you ever going to finish? Let go.”
Hearing this, Nanrong Xian’s heart tightened inexplicably, and seeing Nanrong Chen furrow his brows, he hurriedly released his grip. “Is the wound still hurting? How are you looking after His Majesty, why aren’t you going to summon the imperial physician?”
The little attendant felt as if granted a pardon, clutching the dagger already concealed within his sleeve and hurriedly fleeing.
The pattering footsteps sounded and then faded into the distance. Nanrong Chen watched Nanrong Xian’s full expression of worry, finding it novel; even this older brother of his could suppress his temperament to act out brotherly affection.
Yet, after all, technique has its specialties, and Nanrong Xian was not cut out for playacting, revealing his true colors after acting for merely a few breaths. “This position was chosen by His Majesty himself, suffering a bit of pain is only serving him right, when does it fall to this prince to worry?”
“When His Majesty abdicated the throne during morning court and then committed suicide,” Nanrong Xian stumbled slightly before continuing, “it was under the coercion of Prince Xiang. This prince merely hopes His Majesty will return to the palace as soon as possible to handle this matter, lest Prince Xiang monopolize power and throw the court into chaos.”
So he was looking for him to return to split power. Nanrong Chen smoothed the injury at his heart, glanced toward the shabby chair near the window, and spoke leisurely, “Imperial Elder Brother…”
The moment he called out those words, he watched Nanrong Xian pull two layers of soft cushions from the couch with a thoroughly reluctant expression, carefully and properly spreading them over the chair.
Nanrong Chen seated himself with a clear conscience, resting one half of his face on his hand with his arm propped on the armrest. “Us was not coerced by anyone. Abdicating to Prince Xiang was merely because Us felt he was more useful, well, at least more useful than Imperial Elder Brother.”
Seeing Nanrong Xian’s complexion darken, he shifted his tone. “Yet later on, Us felt that Imperial Elder Brother still treated Us with true sincerity.”
This was the truth; at least Nanrong Xian was not part of the protagonist group, and presumably had not been shortchanged on being utilized. According to the system’s words, he was merely a cannon fodder tool character.
Nanrong Xian never hid his hatred toward him either; thus, was he not truly the person in the entire court who treated him with the greatest sincerity?
[Rule-breaking comment: Poor Nanrong Xian is thoroughly manipulated.]
[First, the cat is tsundere; second, even if the sky falls, this older brother’s stubborn mouth is there to prop it up.]
The rule-breaking comments grew increasingly incomprehensible. Nanrong Chen attributed this to the scholars of another world rambling idly with nothing better to do, paying them no further mind.
Nanrong Xian’s breath went up and then came down, stiffly steering the conversation away. “Prince Xiang somehow managed to procure provisions this time around, I fear he harbors hidden motives regarding the expedition against Yuezhi. I advise His Majesty to be on guard.”
Letting it be so he wouldn’t have to clean up the mess later.
The hand Nanrong Chen left idle habitually rubbed against the fabric of his clothes. What Nanrong Chengyu relied upon naturally was the halo of the protagonist mentioned by the system.
As for why he wanted to assist him in dispatching troops to Yuezhi, it was mostly to intertwine the matter of his sudden abdication with the procurement of provisions, thereby creating a false impression that the abdication had been prearranged between himself and Nanrong Chengyu.
In this manner, he could demonstrate loyalty to him through the procurement of provisions, while also letting the court officials know that he held deep trust in Nanrong Chengyu.
Such a course of action contained numerous loopholes, yet it could not stop Grand Secretary Zhou and the old foxes under the Empress Dowager from already firmly believing that Nanrong Chengyu was fit to be an enlightened monarch.
Through a twist of fate, he had once again become Nanrong Chengyu’s tool character.
Since that was the case, this tyrant plotline would begin with Nanrong Chengyu.
If they were going to dispatch troops to Yuezhi, that Prince of Shule would make an interesting choice of military commander.