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Not far from Concubine Yun’s Liuli Palace was Concubine Xue’s Linyue Tower. Unlike the elegant style of Liuli Palace, Linyue Tower was the most luxurious place in the whole imperial palace, glowing like gold when you looked at it from a distance.
Concubine Xue was lying on the couch, and the two palace maids were massaging her feet carefully. She was a few years older than Concubine Yun, and there were already a few crow’s feet in the corners of her eyes, but she was born wealthy and those wrinkles did not detract from her aura of nobility. She looked like a divine concubine, a big red peony flower, bright in colour and full of heavenly fragrance, the real flower symbolising wealth in the world.
“Really stupid?” The Third Prince standing by her side asked in a low voice.
He was slowly painting a landscape in front of him, never raising his head, his expression very calm.
Emperor Qingyuan Fu Qingyan was a good-looking man and the concubines in the harem didn’t look worse, so all the princes were also good-looking. Fu Rongye inherited the deep facial features of Concubine Xue, gorgeous in women and outstanding in men.
He was four years older than Fu Zhiyu, and now he was twenty years old. He could do many things, including placing spies in other palaces.
It didn’t go well in Liuli Palace. Concubine Yun was extremely vigilant. Her close palace maids had been following her since before entering the palace. Fu Rongye took a lot of effort but could only arrange a single eunuch on the periphery.
But it was better than nothing; especially after Concubine Yun returned to the palace, every movement there was very important.
“Really. Rumours are that even his handwriting has changed and is nowhere as good as it was before. The current Ninth Prince can no longer afford the name of ‘a great talent’.”
“Did he really peel the pine nuts for that woman Yuan Wanyun all afternoon?” Concubine Xue propped up her face and interjected again, asking the undercover eunuch, “What was Yuan Wanyun’s expression?”
Yuan Wanyun was the real name of Concubine Yun.
The eunuch thought hard for a while and said, “Concubine Yun looked… very happy? She was smiling all the time.”
“She thinks everything her son does is good. Fu Zhiyu is her treasure,” Concubine Xue sneered, “It’s like this on the surface, but behind the scene one can only imagine how she cries.”
The eunuch hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, I see Concubine Yun’s eyes are all red, and the redness isn’t going away.”
Concubine Xue was even more happy after hearing this. She covered her mouth and smiled a few times, saying, “Serves her right!”
The Third Prince, however, frowned, put down the brush in his hand and asked again: “What about Fu Zhiyu?”
“The Ninth Prince, he…” The eunuch searched his mind and came up with a little description, “doesn’t say much, lost some weight and is quieter than before. The rest is fine. They all say that the Ninth Prince is stupid, but this slave doesn’t think he is stupid. It’s just that no matter what he does, he takes his time, as if there is nothing that can make him anxious.”
“Stupidity is not just idiocy of children with crooked mouths and skewed eyes. If the brain of a person like Fu Zhiyu is damaged, even if he just reacts a little slower, for him, it is stupidity,” Fu Rongye said. “Go back and keep watching. If there is anything, come back to report.”
The eunuch bowed and withdrew.
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“Why didn’t Ye’er smile when he heard this,” Concubine Xue turned to look at her son, “This is a great thing.”
Fu Rongye glanced at his mother concubine and didn’t say anything. He just lowered his head and finished the last stroke of his painting. He picked up the paper and dried the ink on it.
This was a well-drawn landscape, with green hills and the red sun rising, but Fu Rongye glanced at it and threw it into the paper basket on the side.
Concubine Xue couldn’t understand it. How could he throw away the landscape that he had worked so hard on all morning? She motioned to the maid to pick it up and show it to her.
“Isn’t this good?” Concubine Xue took a closer look, “Who angered you again?”
“It’s not as good as the one that Fu Zhiyu painted when he was thirteen years old. When Father Emperor saw it, he praised it several times. It’s still hanging in Father Emperor’s study,” Fu Rongye said, “Throw it away.”
When he said this, Concubine Xue also became angry and asked the maid to put the painting aside, saying, “Why do you mention this?”
Fu Rongye didn’t answer, but turned to the person by his side and said, “Bring the Eighth Prince in.”
Eighth Prince Fu Rongli had been ordered by the emperor to retreat and study during the great ceremony without going out, but the great ceremony had been over for a long time and the Eighth Prince was still honestly in seclusion.
Fu Rongli, who was brought in, saw Fu Rongye at first glance, and his whole body trembled.
He was really afraid of his biological brother, born to the same father and the same mother, more afraid than of the emperor.
All the palace staff went out under Fu Rongye’s instructions, leaving only the three of them.
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Concubine Xue sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. She beckoned her youngest son to come over, stretched out her hand and touched Fu Rongli’s face, saying in distress: “Look at our Li’er. He has been studying so hard and lost weight. Mother Concubine will make the kitchen stew a pot of nourishing soup later…”
“Nourishing soup?” Fu Rongye sneered, “Is he worthy of drinking it?”
Concubine Xue became a little angry and said, “Ye’er! Why are you talking like this? Li’er is your own brother!”
Fu Rongye didn’t care what Concubine Xue said and had just four words for Fu Rongli: “Come here, kneel down.”
Fu Rongli didn’t dare to resist and immediately knelt down.
“Do you know what you did wrong?”
Concubine Xue also stood up, her voice raised a little: “Li’er didn’t do anything wrong! He was successful both times, and the final result is excellent. Now that His Majesty hasn’t found out, it can be considered seamless. He solved this concubine’s hatred of many years. His only omission was that he didn’t discuss it with you and me before, but compared to the result, what does it matter? Will there be such a good opportunity to strike in the future?”
Fu Rongye’s eyes were gloomy as he asked, “Do you also think that things are just like Mother Concubine says?  You seamlessly harmed your rival since childhood, very clever, right?”
Fu Rongli, full of desire to survive, shook his head frantically.
Fu Rongye walked up to him, pinched his chin and forced him to look up: “The first time you did it, you didn’t tell me. The second time you did it, you still didn’t tell me. It wasn’t until Father Emperor realised that something was wrong and started to investigate that you panicked and confessed to me. I could only wrap it up for you in a hurry, but do you know? It was just one step away, just one step away! One moment I cleaned up the traces you left in the Imperial Hospital, and the next moment Father Emperor’s people were there. If I was one step late, you would be found out. What should Mother Concubine, I and the entire Xue family do then?
I have come this far, cautious all the time, for fear that if I make a mistake, I will fall from a high place to the abyss. You are capable, so much bolder than me, just because of a moment of jealousy!”
Fu Rongli looked his brother straight in the eye, and now his body was not shaking. Then he lowered his head and said in a muffled voice, “I know I was wrong, please punish me, Brother.”
Concubine Xue looked at the whip that Fu Rongye turned to take from the shelf and had a bad feeling in her heart.
“Li’er already knows that he is wrong, it is fine to punish him, but isn’t this a bit too harsh?”
“It’s not too harsh,” Fu Rongli said at this moment, “Please punish me, Brother.”
Fu Rongye used all his strength for twenty lashes with a barbed whip. Fu Rongli’s upper body was bloodied and bruised, but he didn’t utter a word.
When the whipping was finished, he struggled and said with the last bit of consciousness, “Fu… Fu Zhiyu is cunning, I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it, he won’t be so easy…”
Before he finished speaking, he fainted.
“Wipe away the tears,” Fu Rongye said to Concubine Xue without looking at her, his face gloomy, “I have already called Dr. Hu. He won’t die. If he didn’t suffer this time, he would easily forget.
Fu Zhiyu… I will check it again. There’s no hurry, let’s talk about it when the storm passes.”
No matter what the outside world did or thought, Fu Zhiyu slept peacefully for a night. Instead of waiting for the “mutation” that the Lord God mentioned, he waited for an uninvited guest.
“I’ve come to see Xiao Jiu,” he heard the man’s voice as soon as he woke up, only to feel goose bumps rise all over his body uncontrollably, as if he was having a nightmare, “…It’s fine, Xiao Jiu is recovering from a serious illness, it’s better for him to sleep a little longer. I’ll wait here, no need to bother him.”
It was the Crown Prince, Fu Lingxiao.
Fu Zhiyu was instantly awake.