The Emperor’s Bedchamber
Layer upon layer of pale-yellow gauze curtains drifted gently in the breeze. An openwork incense burner carved with auspicious beasts sent wisps of fragrant smoke into the air. A dark-ink landscape-and-birds-and-flowers screen blocked the view, and in the innermost part of the room lay the most honored person in the entire country.
The area outside the hall was already surrounded by men dressed in black. They were elite fighters who had been painstakingly trained over the course of several years. Each one could easily take on ten ordinary opponents.
When Ying Qingzhu arrived, his red robes were stained with blood. Blood ran down his green-steel sword drop by drop, forming a trail of blood across the ground; a straight, unwavering path, like blazing flames.
“Is he inside?” he asked.
“Yes!” one of the black-clad men replied. “Master, the Seventh Prince has already been captured. He has been bound and is waiting for your orders.”
Ying Qingzhu said, “Well done.”
With that, he pushed open the palace doors and entered.
The black-clad men were about to follow, but he ordered,
“All of you wait outside for me.”
Ying Qingzhu had originally thought that he would be very agitated.
Yet now, he felt nothing but calm.
It was not the kind of calm he had once forced himself to maintain as part of his disguise, deliberately suppressing every emotion until his heart became still.
This time, the calm was genuine.
There was truly not the slightest ripple in his heart.
At this moment, he was actually more concerned about Yu Zhi than he was about the person inside.
Even so, he continued walking inside step by step, as though he had merely come to pay his respects to someone today.
“Imperial Father.”
The Emperor had truly had a miserable time over the past two days.
That Zhaoyi had knocked him unconscious by striking him with a vase. He had not received timely medical treatment, and the wound had merely been treated with some traditional ointment, which at least stopped the bleeding and kept him alive.
But what good was staying alive?
The Seventh Prince was afraid that the moment the Emperor woke up, he would settle accounts with him. So, whenever the Emperor regained consciousness, the Seventh Prince would simply have someone give him a bowl of medicine to put him back to sleep.
Out of every twenty-four hours, the Emperor was awake for no more than one hour.
And during that one hour, he still had to deal with his injured eye and face, as well as the reality that he had been held hostage and imprisoned by his own son.
There was not a single person he could call for help.
The Seventh Prince was too frightened to come see him. So the Emperor could not even reprimand him or punish him.
He could not even see him.
In these short two days, the Emperor had experienced a kind of confinement he had never known before.
Compared with the turbulent undercurrents among the court officials and their battles of words, this made him feel even more powerless and furious.
He had even thought about killing the Seventh Prince.
That was the son he himself had supported and raised up, the son in whom he had placed such high hopes.
Yet he was trapped inside his sleeping quarters and could do nothing about anything.
All he could do was hope that someone in the palace would notice something was wrong and rescue him from this desperate situation!
If no one from the palace came, there was still the New Year’s Eve banquet in two days.
The Emperor had to attend.
If no one could see him by then, the court officials would surely realize that something was wrong.
They would definitely be able to save him!
Yet no matter what, he had never imagined that the person who would come to save him today would actually be the Heir of Prince Ying’s Wife!
He stared with his one unharmed eye, wondering whether his head had been hit so badly that something had gone wrong with his mind.
Otherwise, how could he possibly have seen the Heir of Prince Ying’s Wife?
And he was even carrying a sword, looking as though he had just slaughtered his way through an entire battlefield, with the aura of bloodshed still clinging to him.
Wasn’t this person originally from Yangliu House?
Why could he use a sword as well?
Could it be that all of this was actually Prince Ying’s scheme?
Was even the Heir of Prince Ying pretending?
Had Prince Ying already raised his troops and secretly coordinated with people inside the capital to enter the city?
In just a few moments, countless possibilities flashed through the Emperor’s mind.
In the end, he closed his eyes for a moment and made his decision.
“Heir of Prince Ying’s Wife, you saved Me. I can give you anything you want. Even if you want the Heir of Prince Ying to inherit his position as Prince Ying. I can issue an imperial decree granting it!”²
Of course, that was on the condition that she got him out of here.
He did not want to stay here any longer!
He was the Emperor, the most exalted person under Heaven!
Ying Qingzhu did not answer for a long time.
Instead, the Emperor could no longer hold back. He looked at him and called,
“Heir of Prince Ying’s Wife?!”
Ying Qingzhu stopped walking and stood beside the bed, looking down at the Emperor, whose body was so weakened by the effects of the medicine that he could not even sit up.
“Imperial Father, I merely changed my clothes, and you no longer recognize me.”
“I’m very hurt.”
Hearing that voice, the Emperor suddenly widened his eyes.
The movement was so forceful that even the injured eye wrapped in bandages began to throb painfully!
But he could not care about that.
He used every bit of strength in his body to turn his head and try to sit up so that he could look at Ying Qingzhu.
His pale hand gripped the side of the bed tightly, almost hard enough to leave marks in the wood!
His terrifying eye, like that of an evil ghost, remained fixed on Ying Qingzhu, as though he wanted to see straight through him and uncover the truth.
It was clearly the appearance of the Heir of Prince Ying’s Wife, yet the voice was that of a man!
Who was this person?!
Why was he calling him Imperial Father?!
It was as though a huge boulder had been thrown into the deep lake of the Emperor’s heart. His emotions surged violently, and his thoughts became a chaotic mess!
Seeing this, Ying Qingzhu changed his voice again.
“Would Imperial Father understand more clearly if I put it this way?”
That was the voice of the Fourth Princess!
The Emperor finally understood.
His body instantly went limp, and he collapsed heavily back onto the bed. Everything seemed to mock how pathetic and powerless his struggle just now had been.
“You— you… the Empress…”
“Mother merely wanted Her son to ask Imperial Father something. When all your power has fallen into someone else’s hands and you have become a prisoner despite your honored status, do you… have the courage to take your own life?”
Ying Qingzhu’s voice was calm as he spoke each word slowly and clearly.
This had been his ultimate purpose for more than a decade.
From the moment he stood before the Emperor with such absolute dominance and finally asked that question, his mission was complete. The debt of gratitude he owed had been repaid.
As for what answer the Emperor would give or whether he could even give an answer at all, that had nothing to do with him anymore.
Sure enough, after struggling for a long while, the Emperor finally could not utter a single word. He could only stare at Ying Qingzhu, his eyes filled with what seemed to be countless complicated emotions. Yet in the end, he still could not bring himself to say anything.
Ying Qingzhu sighed softly.
“Forget it. Sooner or later, you will go to the underworld and reunite with Mother anyway. Why not tell her the answer yourself when the time comes?”
The Emperor’s heart tightened. He felt that Ying Qingzhu was implying that he would kill him. He was both frightened and resentful.
It was true that he had failed the Empress. But the Empress had deceived him as well. So why did he have to be treated as though he were some unforgivable sinner? Clearly… clearly…
“You helped her hate Me? Is that why you intend to humiliate Me in this manner? Does My current situation have anything to do with you? Ying Qingzhu, who do you think you are?! I am your biological father! Even if I have done something wrong, it is not your place to question Me!” the Emperor roared angrily.
Ying Qingzhu was not angered by his words. Instead, he looked at the Emperor in surprise.
“Imperial Father thinks I am questioning you? No. I am merely conveying Mother’s words. As for resenting you, that is even more baseless. I do not resent you, Imperial Father.”
The Emperor did not believe him.
“You don’t resent Me? If you truly don’t, then how could you have brought Me to this state?!”
Ying Qingzhu looked at him as though he could not understand what was so difficult to grasp.
“Imperial Father has become confused? It was Zhaoyi who injured you. It was the Seventh Prince who brought her into the palace. The Third Prince was the one who sent her to the Seventh Prince and then used the Seventh Prince’s hand to get her into the palace. I have never interfered.”
He had not interfered, which meant that he had neither pushed things forward nor stopped them.
The Emperor had never imagined that the woman’s origins would be so complicated. What he understood even less was how this son, who had disguised himself as a woman for so many years, could possess such extraordinary abilities.
Not only did he know so many sources of information, but he had also managed to break through the forces of both the Seventh and Third Princes and reach the Emperor himself.
The Emperor was both gratified and wary of such ability.
If he were in good health, he would never show Ying Qingzhu any mercy. But now, he could barely protect himself. For the sake of his own life, he had no choice but to curry favor with this daughter… this son!
As for everything else, including his resentment, those were matters to be dealt with after he was safe.
But how could he bring himself to put aside his dignity in front of his own son, especially a son who had truly witnessed his cruelty and disgrace?!
Fortunately, Ying Qingzhu had no intention of making things difficult for him.
He clapped his hands.
Someone immediately brought in the Seventh Prince.
The Seventh Prince was shoved forward and rolled all the way to the Emperor’s bedside. The ropes binding him prevented him from moving. After he struggled to turn himself around, he came face-to-face with the Emperor’s murderous gaze.
“Ah—!”
He scrambled away on all fours and hid in the corner, trembling all over.
“F-Father… It has nothing to do with me! That woman was found by Third Brother! The poppy was also something they planted! They were the ones who injured you! It really has nothing to do with me!”
The Seventh Prince’s confidence had been completely crushed today.
He had originally thought victory was already within his grasp and that his great undertaking was just within reach. Who could have expected that the Third Prince’s men would storm into the palace, resulting in both sides fighting until they suffered heavy losses, only for a group of unfamiliar black-clad men to swoop in and take the fruits of their labor in the end?
Afterward, he had been tied up and thrown into a side hall. Someone had even come and told him everything that had happened during this period. It turned out that his Third Brother had been scheming against him the entire time. From beginning to end, he had been paving the way for someone else and serving as a stepping stone for others!
He did not know who the master behind the black-clad men was, but he had come to hate the Third Prince thoroughly.
Now that he had seen the Emperor, his first reaction was also to distance himself from all responsibility and push everything onto the Third Prince.
After all, wasn’t this originally something the Third Prince had done?
The Emperor’s mind was still clear enough. He knew that the Third Prince might indeed have had a hand in some of the other matters, but if the Seventh Prince had not harbored those ambitions himself, then no amount of persuasion or manipulation could have made him do it.
The reason the Emperor was trapped here in the first place was also because of the Seventh Prince.
“Imperial Father, rest assured. I will help you wipe out everyone who harmed you and those who intended to force their way into the palace and commit treason. Before long, I will let the three of you father and sons reunite,” Ying Qingzhu said slowly.
He was saying that he would not spare the Third Prince either.
“Today, I ask Imperial Father to issue an imperial decree ordering me to capture the rebels.”
The Emperor let out a mocking, cold laugh.
“Now that you intend to do whatever you please, do you still need My decree?”
“Imperial Father is worrying too much. You are still the Emperor.”
Still the Emperor.
Whether he would remain so in the future was another matter.
Ying Qingzhu did not want his reputation to become too tarnished and drag Yu Zhi down with him, so he continued to show his father the proper respect on the surface.
The Emperor also knew that he had already lost completely, with no possibility of making a comeback. Ying Qingzhu still needed him to establish a good reputation under legitimate grounds, so he probably would not kill him. Instead, he would likely keep him well-fed and cared for.
After all, this was the Son of Heaven’s imperial palace. Surely it could afford to keep one ‘pet’, couldn’t it?
Even if that pet had nothing left, no power, no security, and no dignity, at least its life had been spared.
If it had been any of his other sons, the Emperor feared they would have made him ‘die of illness’ long ago. But Ying Qingzhu’s identity was special. He needed the Emperor himself to publicly establish Ying Qingzhu’s legitimacy and personally help build a good reputation for him.
Therefore, from the standpoint of his own interests, Ying Qingzhu was also his best choice.
After all, even if he dealt with all of his sons, he could never return to the imperial court. Great Chu could not have an Emperor who was physically disabled.
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Someone, prepare the imperial decree!”
Only after saying this did he suddenly remember that all of his attendants had been taken under control.
Ying Qingzhu glanced at the black-clad man and nodded.
The man went out. Not long afterward, the people who had previously served the Emperor were brought inside. Although they looked somewhat disheveled, none of them had been harmed.
The Chief Eunuch Ping’an, in particular, threw himself beside the Emperor’s bed and burst into tears!
He was genuinely crying.
When one Emperor falls, his officials fall with him. Ping’an had served the Emperor for decades. He had genuine feelings for him, but he also knew that his entire future was tied to the Emperor. If there was anyone who most desperately did not want anything to happen to the Emperor, it was undoubtedly Ping’an.
The Emperor was somewhat moved by the sight.
“Ping’an, prepare the imperial decree.”
He issued two imperial edicts.
The first stated that the late Empress had suffered a difficult labor before her death and that the newborn imperial prince had been physically weak. To protect the prince’s life, she and the Emperor had no choice but to agree that the prince would be raised as a princess.
Now that the prince had grown up, his status as the Emperor’s legitimate eldest son was to be restored. His position among the imperial children would be rearranged accordingly: the Fourth Princess would become the Third Prince, the existing princes would each move back one place in birth order, and the princesses would each move forward by one place.
This imperial edict almost completely resolved the issue of Ying Qingzhu’s identity.
It was not that the late Empress and Ying Qingzhu had deceived the Emperor. Rather, the late Empress and the Emperor had made the arrangement together from the beginning. Therefore, there could be no accusation that they had deceived the sovereign.
Since the Emperor himself had agreed to it, there could be no accusation of misconduct within the imperial palace either.
And Ying Qingzhu went from a pitiful little prince accused of deceiving and defying the sovereign to the Emperor and Empress’s beloved legitimate eldest son.
This imperial decree was merely a story designed to deceive outsiders and give Ying Qingzhu a proper and legitimate identity. And yet, that was exactly what happened: once the decree was announced, no one who heard it dared not believe it.
However, when some people remembered how the Emperor had bypassed the Fourth Princess and directly arranged marriages for the Fifth and Sixth Princesses, they began to think about it carefully, and found themselves actually believing some of the nonsense in the decree.
Otherwise, why had the Emperor not arranged a marriage for the Fourth Princess at the time?
There was supposed to be an order of seniority. And forget the excuse that she had been physically weak, even a frail princess would have had countless people willing to marry her.
Besides, judging from the situation now, her supposed poor health had most likely been nothing more than a disguise to deceive everyone.
Seen this way, it had to have been the Emperor’s own careful scheme!
Later, when Yu Zhi heard about it, he laughed.
It had actually worked by accident.
The second imperial decree ordered the current Third Prince, Ying Qingzhu, to arrest the followers and supporters of the former Third Prince, now the Fourth Prince and the Eighth Prince, and to deal with their attempted rebellion.
The two masterminds were imprisoned in the Imperial Clan Court.
Not long afterward, their family members were imprisoned there as well.
The Eighth Prince was relatively fortunate. He was not yet married. His residence contained only two women who were not even formally ranked as secondary consorts, merely concubine, along with the other palace maids and eunuchs who served him. They were all imprisoned together, while he occupied his own cell alone.
The Fourth Prince, however, was not so fortunate.
Imprisoned with him was the Fourth Prince’s Consort, Rong Yunchang.
She was still heavily pregnant, which made her treatment among all these people relatively favorable.
“Your Highness!” Rong Yunchang cried anxiously.
“Chang’er!”
The Fourth Prince pulled her into his arms, and the two of them both tried to calm the unease in their hearts.
“Your Highness, you…”
Rong Yunchang wanted to ask, Did you fail? Was the one who succeeded the Seventh Prince?
But she was afraid that bringing up the painful part of what had happened would only make him even more upset, so she could not bring herself to ask.
The Fourth Prince tightened his arms around her, almost squeezing the breath out of her. Fortunately, when he felt her stomach, he immediately loosened his grip somewhat.
The Fourth Prince’s eyes were bloodshot, and his gaze was vicious.
He had never imagined that he would actually lose.
Not only had he lost to an older brother who had disguised himself as a woman for years, he had also lost to a man famous for being a spoiled wastrel!
Prince Ying’s Heir, Yu Zhi!
He was clearly nothing more than a wastrel, yet he had such deeply hidden strength. He had played the Fourth Prince like a fool from beginning to end!
That final sentence, “You lost”, had practically become a nightmare. It kept circling through his mind, replaying itself over and over without a moment’s rest.
In Rong Yunchang’s previous life, the Fourth Prince had ultimately failed for the same reason: someone had betrayed him, and the person he loved most had been taken hostage, forcing him to take his own life.
Strictly speaking, he had not truly lost in the conventional sense.
Or rather, he had only lost because of his love for Rong Yunchang. He had not been defeated in terms of ability.
That was why he had remained calm and composed, maintaining his unyielding spirit right up until his death.
But this time was different.
Whether it was the imperial throne or his own strength, he had lost completely.
The sense of defeat gnawed away at both his body and mind.
Seeing his pained and dejected appearance, Rong Yunchang felt both sorrow and hatred in her heart.
So the hidden oriole had been the Fourth Princess.
She had thought of so many possibilities, yet she had never imagined that it would be a princess.
So she was the Wife of the Prince Ying’s Heir after all.
And that Heir had actually joined forces with her.
But… but this was clearly not how things had happened in her previous life!
In her previous life, Prince Ying should have raised his troops in rebellion several months ago.
And the Heir should have been arrested and thrown into prison. After confirming that Prince Ying did not care about this son at all, the Emperor had disposed of him without the slightest hesitation.
That Heir had been a complete good-for-nothing wastrel. There was absolutely no way he could have possessed the strength to defeat His Highness.
But why had such a drastic change occurred in this life?
Thinking about herself, Rong Yunchang’s eyes widened slightly.
Could it be… that Heir was also a reborn person?!
Yu Zhi had no idea that he had already been mistaken for someone who had been reborn.
At this moment, he was in a side room of Zichen Hall within the palace.
After Ying Qingzhu held up the imperial decree and publicly announced it before the officials and their families, and after everyone acknowledged and accepted it, these people were allowed to leave the palace.
Ying Qingzhu then began dealing with the matter of the two princes plotting rebellion.
For two days in a row, he had been so busy that his feet barely touched the ground, and he had hardly had any time to see Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi did not return to his residence. Instead, Ying Qingzhu kept him in the palace.
However, they still had almost no time to see each other.
Every night, Ying Qingzhu would only come to Yu Zhi’s bed in the middle of the night and sleep beside him for four hours. Before Yu Zhi woke up, Ying Qingzhu would already be gone.
Seeing how hard he was working, Yu Zhi wanted to help, but Ying Qingzhu believed that the forces within the palace had not yet been completely investigated and cleared out, and he was unwilling to let Yu Zhi take the risk.
“Are you planning to keep me locked up, Your Highness?” Yu Zhi asked with a smile.
A flicker passed through Ying Qingzhu’s eyes.
“If it can keep you safe and sound, what would be wrong with that?”
Everyone had witnessed what happened that day.
They had watched Ying Qingzhu transform from the Heir of Prince Ying’s, to the Fourth Princess, and then to the Third Prince. Naturally, they had begun to wonder about his relationship with Yu Zhi.
Some believed that the two of them had joined forces.
Others believed that they had feelings for each other.
But regardless of which was true, one thing was beyond doubt: Yu Zhi was his person.
If someone wanted to use Yu Zhi to take revenge on Ying Qingzhu, there would be no way for him to guard against every possibility.
Yu Zhi gave him a helpless smile.
“I thought seeing my abilities would make you feel much more at ease.”
But in Ying Qingzhu’s heart, no matter how capable Yu Zhi was, he was still a patient who needed to recover and take care of his health.
“Once things have settled down, I’ll ask the imperial physicians to examine you. There are plenty of rare medicines and precious medicinal ingredients stored in the palace. Whatever you need, I can give you.”
“Good.”
The curve of Yu Zhi’s lips did not change.
Some things were better left to take their natural course.
After all, no matter what happened, the two of them would always be together.
Ying Qingzhu smiled.
“But, Your Highness, you’re keeping me in the palace now. So what exactly am I? Am I merely the visiting Prince Ying’s Heir, or am I someone else to you?”
Yu Zhi had decided to claim a proper title for himself.
When Ying Qingzhu was Ying Feng, the two of them had been Heir and Heir’s Wife.
Now that Ying Qingzhu was a prince, naturally, they should have a different relationship as well.
Ying Qingzhu thought for a moment.
“You can be my ‘friend’, someone with whom I can sit by the candle and talk through the night, or sleep side by side with, or you can be my lover, someone who sleeps and eats with me. You may choose.”
Yu Zhi could not help laughing.
Looking at his beloved, who had now returned to his princely attire and was showing his true, unmasked appearance, Yu Zhi reached out and gently caressed his handsome face.
“Your Highness is beautiful, and my heart delights in you. I willingly share with Your Highness the joy of sharing a peach1分桃之- “the joy of sharing a peach.” This is a classical allusion to the story of Mizi Xia and the Duke Ling of Wei. Mizi Xia once shared a peach he had already bitten from with the Duke, and the act was described as a sign of affection. It became a euphemistic reference to male same-sex love.”
Compared with the vague title of “friend,” he still preferred the direct and unmistakable title of “lover.”
“Your Highness will probably have no shortage of officials impeaching you in the future,” he said with a smile.
Ying Qingzhu pressed his lips together.
“What is there to fear?”
“You and I were formally married. We bowed to Heaven and Earth, and we entered the bridal chamber. We are, in every sense, a real and legitimate married couple.”
“Heaven and Earth themselves recognized us. Could those people possibly have greater authority than Heaven and Earth?”
Besides, the marriage had originally been personally bestowed by the Emperor. Who would dare say there was anything improper about it?
“You have only just taken your position, and you have no one in the court yet. At a time like this, the easiest way to stabilize your position at court would be to take a wife and accept concubines,” Yu Zhi said slowly.
The hand Ying Qingzhu was holding suddenly tightened, the force almost enough to crush his bones.
Ying Qingzhu stared at him with eyes burning with restrained fury, his voice dark and threatening.
“Are you saying you want me to do that as well?”
Yu Zhi smiled. His tone was gentle and mild, but his words were utterly ruthless.
“No. I’m saying that if you dare do that, I’ll break your legs.”
As for how many legs, did that even need to be said?
Yet Ying Qingzhu was not angry when he heard this. Instead, his eyes filled with delight.
“I agree.”
After the two of them ate together, they took an afternoon nap.
However, when Yu Zhi woke up, the person beside him was already gone.
He got up, intending to go outside for a walk, but just as he stepped down from the bed, an attendant came to deliver a message.
“Your Highness, the Emperor requests your presence.”
The Emperor?
Everyone in the world knew that Ying Qingzhu was still only an imperial prince. Although he was now the de facto master of the palace, he was neither Crown Prince nor Emperor. Therefore, the “Your Majesty” mentioned by this eunuch could only refer to the Emperor whom Ying Qingzhu had arranged to recuperate in the Hall of Longevity.
The Emperor had been harmed by treacherous villains, leaving him blind in one eye and suffering a head injury. After being examined and treated by the imperial physicians, he was told that he needed complete rest and had remained in Hall of Longevity ever since, unable to take even a single step outside his bedchamber
“See me?”
Yu Zhi wore wide ceremonial sleeves and a jade belt, his bearing elegant and strikingly handsome. No one around him dared look at him for too long. After all, in this palace… and indeed throughout the entire capital, who did not know about his relationship with the Third Prince?
The eunuch had already assumed that he was going to be refused and that he would have no choice but to return and accept his punishment. Yet he heard Yu Zhi give a light laugh.
“If that is the case, then lead the way.”
There had been no changes to the Emperor’s bedchamber. The same people were still serving him, and the furnishings had not been altered either. Everything that should be there was still there.
Yet even so, none of this could change the fact that the Emperor was being confined here under house arrest.
The Emperor sat on the bed. The wounds on his head and around his eye had already been treated by the imperial physicians, and someone had carefully changed his dressings and tended to him. He looked completely different from the miserable state he had been in just a few days ago.
“Before this, I never imagined that I would one day be confined here like a useless cripple,” he said with a mocking laugh.
Over the past few days, the Emperor had gradually accepted reality. He had no choice but to accept it.
Naturally, he still had enough forces at his disposal to fight to the bitter end. But what would he gain by doing so?
In any case, he could no longer remain Emperor. Since that was the case, it hardly mattered whom he handed the throne to.
At least it would not be those two rebellious, treacherous sons!
“Just as I never imagined that I would one day have to face you as your father-in-law.”
The Emperor let out a cold laugh.
“Heir of Prince Ying, you are truly audacious!”
How dare he conceal this from him and secretly collude with Ying Qingzhu!
How dare he use the Emperor’s own hand to marry his son!
How dare he rely on his looks to win favor and throw the realm into chaos!
How dare he join hands with Prince Ying and… covet the imperial throne of the Ying family!
“I ask you: Have you joined forces with Prince Ying from within and without, intending to seize the imperial power of the Ying family?!”
The Emperor forced himself to sit upright. As he looked at Yu Zhi, his gaze seemed to contain cold, razor-sharp blades. Even now, the might of the Dragon Throne remained undiminished.
Being sternly questioned by the ruler of the realm, Yu Zhi did not change expression in the slightest. He found it amusing, and so he actually laughed.
“Your Majesty, if I say I had nothing to do with it, would you believe me?”
The Emperor fell silent.
Naturally, he did not believe him.
So the answer was meaningless.
“Yu Zhi, do you truly think that my good son will keep you in his heart forever? Once he becomes Emperor, what kind of beauty, man or woman, could he possibly lack? He will cast you aside without mercy. Can you guarantee that you will not harbor resentment?”
And if he did harbor resentment, could he guarantee that he would not use Prince Ying to cause trouble?
The Emperor had disliked Prince Ying his entire life. He certainly did not want the realm he had spent his life protecting to fall into Prince Ying’s hands after his death. If that happened, he would be so furious that he would have to rise from his grave in rage.
Yu Zhi answered directly, “I cannot guarantee it.”
The Emperor froze for a moment before becoming furious.
“How dare you!”
Yu Zhi smiled. Standing was uncomfortable, so he simply sat down on a stool.
“Did Your Majesty not know that already?”
Indeed.
Ever since the Emperor had learned that this man had actually dared to help Ying Qingzhu carry out all those things, his entire impression of Yu Zhi had changed.
That seemingly useless wastrel was all an act. This man’s thoughts ran deep.
In the Emperor’s eyes, his own son might not even be able to outmaneuver him.
He could allow Ying Qingzhu to ascend the throne. After all, no matter what, Ying Qingzhu was his own son and carried his blood.
But he could not allow someone like Yu Zhi, an unstable factor, to bring ruin to his realm.
“I believe Your Majesty has misunderstood,” Yu Zhi said. “If you truly want me to remain peaceful and cause no trouble, you should advise the Third Prince to conduct himself properly and not change his heart, rather than threaten me. Don’t you agree?”
The Emperor was so enraged that his blood surged violently through his body!
From the sound of this man’s words, was he planning to prevent Ying Qingzhu from having anything to do with anyone else?
Then in the future, would Ying Qingzhu still be able to marry, take concubines, select consorts, and have children?
The Emperor’s eyes suddenly widened.
Could it be that this man… was actually that old fox Prince Ying’s scheme?
Had Prince Ying deliberately sent him to seduce the Crown Prince and ensure that the imperial line would have no descendants?!
So enraged that he had lost his head, the Emperor even forgot that Ying Qingzhu was not his only son. He already had several grandsons as well, so there was no possibility of the imperial line becoming extinct.
Yu Zhi returned from Hall of Longevity in a relaxed mood. Going there and back could even count as taking a walk and getting some exercise.
When he reached the palace entrance, he saw a guard who often accompanied Ying Qingzhu standing outside. Knowing at once that Ying Qingzhu was inside, he quickened his pace.
The moment he entered, he saw a figure sitting beside the desk by the window, holding a book and apparently reading.
Yet the page had not been turned for quite some time.
Yu Zhi walked over and sat down beside him.
“Why are you so free today?”
“I’ve already dealt with almost everything. I’m only waiting to issue the final order,” Ying Qingzhu replied.
His eyes, however, did not look at Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi noticed that something was wrong and asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Are you tired? Lie down. I’ll give you a massage.”
With that, he took Ying Qingzhu’s hand and tried to pull the book away, intending to take him to bed.
But Ying Qingzhu suddenly grabbed his arm, and the two of them fell onto the bed together.
Ying Qingzhu stared fixedly at him with a pair of sharp, intimidating eyes. His expression was complicated, part warning, part stubbornness, part accusation. The look alone made Yu Zhi frown.
Yet Yu Zhi still did not miss the unease and vulnerability that flashed across Ying Qingzhu’s eyes for an instant.
Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, Ying Qingzhu spoke in a seemingly calm voice.
“Yu Zhi, did you ‘fall in love with me at first sight’ because of my identity?”
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![The Return of The Lord God[quick wear]](https://i2.wp.com/knoxt.space/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/007S8ZIlly1ghl04hyuxyj30hs0owwgu.jpg?resize=85,105 "The Return of The Lord God[quick wear]")
notyetdead On BF Chapter 33