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Ch74 - Entrapment
The Third Prince watched as Zhao Xi felled one person after another with drink. He was in a drunken haze himself as his eyes swept over the room, and his brows slowly came together.
Zhao Xi held a winecup as he walked over to Xiao Chengduo. “Dianxia, you’ve had too much to drink. Shall I take you out for some fresh air?” he asked.
Luo Pei had somehow fallen into Xiao Chengduo’s arms, and he shoved him aside before standing up groggily and following Zhao Xi to the restaurant’s open-air pavilion.
Summer nights weren’t cool and refreshing at all. Xiao Chengduo leaned on the railing around the pavilion, but he didn’t feel any more awake; the wind was too hot and humid to be pleasant.
“Say, Dianxia, if Chen pushed you down right now, would anyone know?” Zhao Xi said, smiling merrily as he sidled closer to Xiao Chengduo and pointed at a small, dark alley below them.
Xiao Chengduo bent his head to look. A cold shiver ran down his back as he realised what Zhao Xi had just said. He looked warily at Zhao Xi now. “There are so many people watching us tonight. Do you really think you can get away with it?” he asked.
“I’m just joking,” Zhao Xi said, pursing his lips. He had just confirmed that this Third Prince wasn’t particularly courageous. “I’ll be frank. I made it a point to come today because I wanted to meet you. I heard that Dianxia wants to make me your male wife?”
The Third Prince froze, then looked around. Nobody had overheard them. He heaved a sigh of relief.
“Chen is aware of the situation in the Imperial Court. It’s only a matter of time before Dianxia succeeds in his plans. You don’t need the help of my Zhao family at all, and I personally am not willing to give up a bright future for this marriage,” Zhao Xi said, blinking innocently at Xiao Chengduo. He inched closer and spoke in a low voice. “I can help you obtain your heart’s desire. Dianxia, in exchange, can you promise Chen a life of wealth and luxury?”
Xiao Chengduo frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Helping him to obtain his heart’s desire – didn’t that mean getting the position of Crown Prince? There was no way he would admit casually to such a thing, especially not in front of the Chen family’s long-standing enemy, the Zhao family.
“Dianxia, don’t you want to get Lou Jing?” Zhao Xi asked. His smile became more cunning as he looked at Xiao Chengduo. In his heart, he whispered a silent apology to Lou Jing. “Big Lou, don’t come after me for this – I’m just using you for a bit, and not really betraying you…”
Lou Jing? One of Xiao Chengduo’s eyelids twitched. Right now, the position of Crown Prince was in the bag, and the only thing he couldn’t get was Lou Jing himself. His interest was immediately piqued. “What exactly are you offering?” he asked.
Zhao Xi smiled lightly, then went even closer to Xiao Chengduo and whispered into his ear.
The people in the room were all drunk as lords. Some were dead to world, and others were mumbling incoherently to themselves in a drunken stupor. Meanwhile, the second gongzi of the Luo family actually hadn’t drunk very much and had only pretended to be drunk so that he could fall into the Third Prince’s arms. The moment he had been shoved aside, his eyes had flown open, and he’d seen Zhao Xi and the Third Prince sneak out in a most suspicious manner, so he decided to follow them silently.
Luo Pei leaned on the windowsill and looked out. The first thing he saw was the two of them huddled close together and talking in what seemed to be an intimate manner. He couldn’t help gasping in surprise, and he quickly pressed his hands against his mouth.
The candles lit the room that Luo Pei was in brightly, but the pavilion that Zhao Xi and the Third Prince was in was very dark. Zhao Xi clearly saw that Luo Pei was at the window. He had deliberately made everyone drunk other than his second gongzi of the Luo family. As Zhao Xi looked at the Third Prince, who was nodding vigorously at his suggestion, a sinister smile spread across his face.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The next day, news spread in the Capital that the Third Prince had gone drinking with many of the young noblemen in the Capital the previous night, and the purpose of his doing so was to pick his Consort. It was also rumoured that one of the previous Crown Prince Consort candidates was among these noblemen – the Guangcheng Bo’s second son.
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“Lao ye, the Ninth Young Master is at work,” the butler said, wiping the sweat off his face. Last night, the Ninth Young Master had gone out drinking and hadn’t returned until the wee hours of morning, and it had been him who secretly opened the back door for Zhao Xi to come in. Had the Minister of the Left discovered this?
Zhao Duan flicked his sleeves dismissively, then went back to the Shangshu’s office.
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“Second Uncle, you and Min Wang Dianxia already had some plans, didn’t you? I’m just giving you a little push,” Zhao Xi said disconsolately, rubbing at the ear that Zhao Duan had pulled.
“Your actions are just alerting the enemy before we’re ready to attack!” Zhao Duan scolded angrily.
“No, it won’t. The Third Prince won’t suspect that it’s me that spread those rumours,” Zhao Xi said, smiling wickedly. After he’d seen Luo Pei yesterday night, he’d quietly told Xiao Chengduo of the same and asked him to turn around to look. Xiao Chengduo knew that Luo Pei had been eavesdropping on them, and moreover, he and Zhao Xi had an “understanding”. There was no way Xiao Chengduo would think that Zhao Xi was the one who was spreading those rumours.
There was no use crying over spilt milk at this point. Zhao Duan sighed deeply, then told Zhao Xi not to do anything on his own again before returning to the Shangshu’s office.
The next day, the Imperial Censor submitted a petition against the Third Prince, saying that he coveted the throne and had in fact met secretly with his potential Consort candidates.
The Chunde Emperor was very displeased when he heard this and ordered people to investigate this matter thoroughly.
The investigations revealed that the Third Prince had indeed met with many young noblemen in the Drunken Fairy, and that everyone had drunk to excess. Xiao Chengduo had even behaved intimately with the Luo family’s second son.
“You stupid, foolish creature! You have no achievements to your name, but you really know how to discredit yourself, don’t you?” Chen Guifei shouted angrily. When she first heard this news, she’d nearly had apoplexy on the spot. Choosing a Crown Prince Consort for her son had been a secret scheme of hers to make the Zhao family bow down to her and do her bidding. This was not something that could be bandied about publicly – it would touch every raw nerve the Chunde Emperor had!
“Mother, this is all the Luo family’s doing. They want to forge a connection with me, and that’s why they deliberately spread these rumours!” Xiao Chengduo said. He was also furious, and all the good feelings he had toward Luo Pei had vanished in an instant.
Chen Guifei frowned when she heard this. “How do you know it’s not that young fellow of the Zhao family who’s behind this?” she asked.
“He wouldn’t do this,” Xiao Chengduo said confidently. “He and I have an understanding that as long as I give him a high-ranking official position and a handsome salary, the Zhao family won’t oppose my becoming the Crown Prince.” The Zhao family didn’t have any Imperial concubines in the family; their family had only produced Court officials in the last three generations, and they had no personal interest in the person who ascended the throne. They would serve whoever the Emperor was. So long as Xiao Chengduo managed to become the Crown Prince, the Zhao family would also become an official under him, and there was no need for them to resort to such shady tactics to bring him down.
“I don’t care whether Zhao Xi really did it or not. Why don’t we…” Chen Guifei said, her eyes flashing coldly as she spoke.
“Absolutely not! If we say this was started by the Luo family, then we can say that they did it because they were trying to climb the social ladder, and that they wronged me in the process. If we pin this on the Zhao family, then things won’t be that easy to explain away!” Xiao Chengduo said, rejecting his mother’s suggestion to frame Zhao Xi right away. He knew full well that Zhao Xi wasn’t interested in marrying him at all, and the moment Chen Guifei pinned this on Zhao Xi, the Emperor might actually pass an edict to make Zhao Xi his Consort so as to cover up this ugly affair. If that happened, he would never be able to get Lou Jing! He was still eagerly waiting for that plan of Zhao Xi’s to come to fruition!
“What you said makes sense,” Chen Guifei said. She was calm now, and the most important thing was to get the Third Prince out of this mess. She called a palace maid over, filled a teapot with medicinal wine, then went to the Panlong Palace to meet with the Chunde Emperor.
[The Min Wang Residence, Rong City]
The Southeastern parts of the Empire had a warm climate for most of the year, and one of the important features of the Min Wang residence was its huge ice cellar, which ensured that Min Wang Dianxia would not be in want of ice at any time of the year.
Lou Jing lay prone on the bed hugging Xiao Chengjun’s waist. A basin of ice was placed to one side, and Le Xian was fanning the ice, sending cold air toward the couple reclining on the bamboo bed.
Xiao Chengjun was reading a letter in his hand, and every now and then, he picked up a peeled lychee resting on a bed of ice and fed it to Lou Jing. “The Capital has been very lively of late, and it’s all thanks to that Ninth “Young Miss” of the Zhao family,” Xiao Chengjun said.
“Cough cough!” Lou Jing choked on hearing Xiao Chengjun refer to Zhao Xi as the Ninth Young Miss.
Xiao Chengjun smiled faintly at him. “It’s time,” he said simply. He instructed An Shun to bring paper and brush over, and he started writing a reply to Zhao Duan.
Originally, Zhao Duan had been quite ambiguous about his loyalties and had only agreed to help Xiao Chengjun out in secret. On Xiao Chengjun’s part, he had not insisted on a public showing of loyalty, but as things stood now, the Zhao family was being forced to show their cards.
Lou Jing sat up and draped himself over Xiao Chengjun’s back, watching him write the letter.
At this moment, a servant came to the door to report that the Head of the Revenue Department wished to have an audience.
Xiao Chengjun raised his eyebrows, and instructed the servant to get the Revenue Department Head to wait for a while. He continued writing the letter at the same, unhurried pace, and when he finished, he handed it to Lu Tao to pass to the Zhao family’s messenger. “Did your brother send any news?” he asked Lu Tao.
Lu Tao’s older brother was the Military Councillor in Jiangzhou, and he had tasked the latter with keeping an eye on the Jiangzhou Prefectural Governor.
“Replying to Dianxia’s question, the Jiangzhou Prefectural Governor had recently opened the Imperial grain stores and settled the refugees properly. However, the farm estates of the four northern counties are badly damaged, and they had no summer harvest to speak of at all. Lu Xin requisitioned half of the Jianzhou Army Camp’s grain, and will be distributing this in winter, when he anticipates famine will be widespread.”
Lou Jing frowned. “So, that means that he’s not intending to give the Nansi Prefectural Troops their usual share of grain?” he said.
Xiao Chengjun nodded at Lu Tao, indicating that he could leave. He stroked Lou Jing’s hair. “The Qingzhou river canals aren’t fully built yet, and Shen Lian is afraid that the Imperial Commissioners will find this out, so he will absolutely refuse to allow the refugees to go back there. It’s a good thing that Lu Xin has taken responsibility for these refugees. If there isn’t enough grain for your army, I’ll fill your stores personally,” he said.
Xiao Chengjun’s perspective was that of an Emperor’s. All the money in the Empire was the same to him, regardless of where it was disbursed to. So long as the citizens’ suffering could be alleviated, it was money well spent.
“Absolutely not! If it wasn’t for his obsession with trying to catch the mountain bandits on his own, he would have settled the refugee issue a long time ago! Now that it’s come to this, he should be using his own silver to fix the problem, not pushing the problem to my army!” Lou Jing said, annoyed. “I’ll deal with this myself. I will definitely make that fellow give me the grain he owes even if he has to pawn everything he owns down to his underwear to do so!”
Xiao Chengjun shook his head helplessly, but didn’t say any more. He asked An Shun to call the Revenue Department Head in.
The Revenue Department Head hadn’t dared to speak for a few days because of his foolish blunder earlier. He had racked his brains trying to think of a way to get back on Min Wang Dianxia’s good side so that he could whitewash his past errors.
The room that Min Wang was presently in had high ceilings, and the interior was pleasantly cool. Min Wang was sitting on the daybed, cuddling his boy toy in his arms…
The Revenue Department Head froze on seeing them together. The Rong City officials had clearly seen Min Wang Dianxia bring a man back with him when he returned from the beach. The fellow was stunningly beautiful, and it was very clear that Min Wang favoured him greatly. Min Wang spent all his time with this boy toy – in fact, the only time he wasn’t with this boy toy was when he was discussing official business with his staff in the mornings.
“What is it?” Xiao Chengjun asked distractedly, picking up a lychee and feeding it to Lou Jing. They both had had enough of sneaking around secretively in the Capital, and now that they were far from the Emperor’s prying eyes, they just flaunted their relationship openly.
“Chen has something to discuss…” the Revenue Department Head said, shooting a meaningful look at the boy toy in Xiao Chengjun’s arms. It was very clear that he wanted Lou Jing to leave.
Lou Jing got the hint. He raised an eyebrow, then spoke up in a most obedient manner. “Dianxia, in that case, I’ll take my leave,” he said. He didn’t wait for Xiao Chengjun to reply, and simply left respectfully, slipping behind the screen in a flash. He then sat down and continued to eat lychees from his hiding place.
The Revenue Department Head didn’t know that there was no exit behind the screen, only a chair used when Xiao Chengjun was changing clothes. He relaxed, then spoke up. “Chen has discussed this issue with the Rites Department Head. We’ve picked a few beauties from the nine counties of Minzhou, and I specially came today to make a gift of them to Wang ye,” he said.
A vein pulsed at Xiao Chengjun’s temple, and his face darkened.
However, that Revenue Department Head simply did not know how to read Xiao Chengjun’s mood, and he continued speaking happily. “This time, I’m sure that Wang ye will be satisfied with my gift,” he said. Just as he finished speaking, three youths were led in by a servant. They were dressed in thin, sheer clothing, and they wore little bells at their ankles which tinkled prettily as they walked.
Xiao Chengjun’s face was as black as the bottom of a cooking pot now. Meanwhile, Lou Jing, who was still behind the screen at this time, stood up, turned gracefully and picked up the Scarlet Cloud hanging on the wall behind him. He then aimed a solid kick at the screen in front of him and sent it crashing down.
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Beansprout: Wow ancient air conditioning! I didn’t know that was how the ancients did it (assuming this is actually based on history, which I’m not 100% about).