Ch 71 - Ruthless Crown Prince x Foolish Prince: He Can Do It Too
Zhou Yunfang won the polo match in one fell swoop, and his performance could even have been described as brilliant, and his aunt, Prince Lanās Lateral Concubine, smiled brightly.
Prince Lanās Lateral Concubine had been affected by the cold in her early years and found it hard to conceive, and her relationship with her younger sister had been very close, so she was very fond of her sisterās child. After her sister fell ill and died, she raised her nephew as her own son, and brought him to the capital so he could study and have a better future.
Now that Zhou Yunfang had come out on top before all these nobles, she was more than happy.
āThis child is not bad, letās choose him to be this Oneās study companion.ā
The light-as-a-feather voice came from one of the seats in the pavilion, and Prince Lanās family, who sat on a neighbouring pavilion, froze in the spot as if struck by lightning.
When Prince Lanās Lateral Concubine was clearly able to make out who the voice came from, she went from joy to sorrow, and she almost wept.
āP-Princeā¦ Fangāer is young and impetuous, his talents are dull, how could he be His Highness the Crown Princeās study companionā¦?ā
The beautiful woman trembled as she spoke, her eyes full of pleas.
The Crown Princeās study companion! Who didnāt know that the Crown Prince was a living target right now? It was no secret that His Majesty was already clearly dissatisfied with him, it was just that he hadnāt found an excuse to depose him yet.
Even if the Governor of State Affairsā power was deeply-rooted in court, who could tell what the future would hold?
Moreover, the Crown Prince had an unreasonable temper and was not an enlightened master, Prince Lanās Lateral Concubine feared her nephew would accidentally bump into the Crown Prince while entering the palace, which would inevitably end in a beating or a scolding, maybe he would even lose his life!
Prince Lan stroked his beard and let out a sigh, looking anxious as he spoke: āThis Prince will go talk to the Crown Prince.ā
Heād long since walked away from the heart of politics, but if his nephew became the Crown Princeās study companion, they would inevitably have a relationship with the Crown Princeās faction, and who knew what the Emperorās attitude would be then?
What Prince Lan said was pretty much of the same opinion. Zhou Yunfang was young, he had no outstanding skills or talents, moreover, his temper was frank and outspoken, and had vaguely conveyed that he didnāt want to be pulled into the power struggle.
Faced with his uncle Prince Lanās arguments, Lin Sui listened calmly, waiting until he finished speaking and nodding as though he were thinking deeply.
āI understand Second Uncleās thoughts, but Second Uncle has watched me grow up and knows what kind of temper I have. I usually wonāt change my mind after deciding on something, and Iāve taken a liking to him, so I donāt care what kind of person he is.ā
Prince Lanās beard trembled, and he understood that this meant he wouldnāt be able to change his mind.
Most of those in positions of power were like this, they heard othersā words and said they understood, but didnāt actually plan on changing their decisions and really didnāt care if they had to force others, they only wanted to see their desired results.
King Qing looked on happily, but he was also a little curious on the inside, just what about Zhou Yunfang had caught the Crown Princeās eye? Prince Lan had long since been an idle prince, so it didnāt seem necessary for the Crown Prince to rope him in.
Everyone had their own thoughts as they walked towards the outside of the riding field.
Zhou Yunfang found out heād been personally appointed by the Crown Prince as his study companion, and hadnāt come back to his senses as he followed next to his aunt.
He had a carefree and seemingly brutally frank character, but had become a person who was meticulous when he needed to under his uncle and auntās guidance.
He didnāt have too much of an idea of what the power struggle between the imperial factions was like, he was just surprised about his sudden rise into the sky, and was a little flustered by his uncle and auntās worries, so he looked towards the Crown Prince with curiosity.
The Crown Prince was just over sixteen years old, and stood out from amongst the crowd with both his appearance and bearing, one could see he wasnāt ordinary with a single glance.
Within this curiosity, he suddenly sensed a trace of danger.
This was a martial artistās intuition, the eyes on him were like those of a ravenous wolf stalking him from deep within a mountain, making his whole body feel uncomfortable.
Zhou Yunfang immediately looked towards the sight he sensed, but the feeling quickly disappeared.
āAunt, who is that by His Highness the Crown Princeās side?ā
āThat is the Fifth Highness.ā
Zhou Yunfang made an āohā sound, maybe heād been wrong, everyone in the capital had heard about the Fifth Princeās stupidity, and that kind of gaze could not have come from him at all.
Zhou Yunfang scratched his head, and didnāt think about it again.
Lin Sui was in a rather good mood after getting the talent heād been waiting for, and could also faintly sense the unconcealed resentment from a certain puppy beside him, but he didnāt intend on coaxing him.
Provoking him a bit was not necessarily a good thing, but maybe something unexpected would happen.
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After the start of winter, the weather got increasingly cold.
In the Imperial Flower Garden, the winter hat plants[1]Ā were blooming, their red clusters looking particularly gorgeous in the grey, misty winter days.
āThe Fifth Prince is sick?ā
Lin Sui was reading documents, and the tip of his brush stopped as he heard this.
In total, Yan Qin hadnāt come to the Eastern Palace for three or four days already, Lin Sui had thought he had his own things to do, so he hadnāt expected that heād actually fallen ill.
Fu Shu spoke: āThat is what Bao Su said, she already asked Imperial Physician Zhang to go take a look at him, he said heād been affected by wind-chill and prescribed a few suitable doses of medicine, but there didnāt seem to be an improvement.ā
Lin Sui finished writing his remarks with red ink, then spoke indifferently with his eyes fixed on the characters: āGo take a look, if the illness is truly serious, find a doctor to go see him.ā
Fu Shu accepted the order and left. Lin Sui placed his brush down, not in the mood to keep reading any more, and thought about the plot the System had given him, but couldnāt find any clues.
Speaking of, the System had been quiet for very long.
Lin Sui had initially thought that the System was really stupid, but later found that the System also had intelligence. The System clearly understood it couldnāt hold him back, and could only use the threat of punishment against him.
But the System also knew that he was naturally rebellious, and that he wouldnāt change what he wanted to do because of being punished, sometimes he would even deliberately provoke it due to being in a bad mood from said punishment, so the System practically didnāt use this method any more.
It completely dropped its frontal attack, he didnāt know if it was still holding back some evil tricks or if it thought that it could still complete its mission like this, so he didnāt investigate.
About quarter of an hour later, Fu Shu returned.
āWhen this servant went to see, the Zhongyu Palace maids said that Bao Su had gone to request to see the Emperor. The Fifth Prince has been getting weaker these past few days and startles awake every night, saying he sees Noble Consort Shu in his dreams, and during the day he calls out Noble Consort Shuās name in a daze, scaring all the people of the Zhongyu Palace. Bao Su went to request that His Majesty allow the Fifth Prince to return to Noble Consort Shuās family home so that he could recuperate in Lord[2]Ā Peiās residence.ā
When Lin Sui heard this, he understood. Yan Qin was pretending to be sick, he wanted to get out of the palace.
In the palace, Yan Qin couldnāt free himself from his disguise in one day, and he was like a bird with broken wings and bound feet, so it was difficult for him to reach his full potential.
āNo need to worry, then.ā
Fu Shu nodded, and left the study.
Lin Sui spread out a piece of paper, and casually traced a few lines on it.
He may as well go out to see the outside world, he could only grow the more he saw.
Lin Suiās sight fell on the paper, and he finished sketching the lines. To an outsider, this would seem like some strange lines in some unknown shape, but if someone in the know were to carefully examine it, they would find that it was a map of the Yan Province.
The Yan Province had a particular geographical location, a large river ran through it, so every time it was flooded, it brought about disaster.
There would be a spring flood next year, and unprecedented heavy rains would make the flood season even more violent. The flood would burst a dike, and break through to countless homes and farmlands, causing disastrous losses in the region.
Innumerable victims would rush into the surrounding provinces, but the disaster wouldnāt be the most awful thing, the terrible thing would be the disease and plague that came after the catastrophe.
This flood could have been prevented originally, but because of the Emperorās mediocrity and the fighting between every faction, the people below would play tricks to deceive others.
The Zhang Province had Xue Dingchun to bring about light, but the voices of good officials in the Yan Province were weak, and it was difficult for them to shake up the entire system.
There were mines in the Yan Province, and the region was more complex than the Zhang Province. It had bandits and despots deeply rooted with one another, and officials were either powerless so they simply turned a blind eye, or they exhausted all of their power but were only able to do extremely small things. Most drifted with the waves and followed the crowd blindly, mixing up with the black water and becoming part of it.
In the original story, Yan Qin thought of an extremely effective way to treat the victims and stop the plague, but he didnāt appear in person, instead he imparted all this to two of his retainers, which let them enter into the heart of power and allowed him to obtain more power.
Lin Sui tossed the paper into the brazier and watched as it was swallowed up by the flames.
He wasnāt planning on acting according to Yan Qinās methods, seeing as he was a prophet, there was no need for him to try to remedy things after the disaster.
But even if he moved fast, there was no way for him to ascend the throne and settle all the obstacles before next yearās spring flood, however, he had other ways.
His ways were very simple, very crude, and very villainous.
It would be fine as long as all those obstacles were dead.
A radiant light flickered past Lin Suiās eyes, and the corners of his mouth hooked into a smile.
That smile carried viciousness and a bloody scent, if Yan Qin were here, heād surely think that his previous assessment had been right.
Lin Sui was bound to be a tyrant when he ascended the throne.
This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.
Bao Su requested a meeting, and quickly got an answer.
As Lin Sui had expected, the Emperor agreed.
No one in the palace had any objections to stop him, after all, everyone thought he was an unthreatening existence.
Sometimes, one just had to bank on others underestimating their enemy, and Yan Qin quickly left the palace.
When he was leaving the palace, Yan Qin lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and turned back to look at the solemn and majestic palace doors.
He had to learn more things and had to make quick progress, there were truly too many eyes and ears inside the palace, and there were truly too few opportunities for him to reach his potential.
Even though he felt a little reluctant to leave his big brother the Crown Princeās side, he would still return.
His big brother the Crown Prince had taken a liking to that Zhou Yunfang, wasnāt it just because he saw he could ride a horse and do martial arts? He could do it too.
But his big brother the Crown Prince also had study companions by his side, not just study companions, but also all kinds of subordinates.
There were too many people in his big brother the Crown Princeās eyes, he simply wouldnāt be remembered.
So what if they were blood-related brothers?
Yan Qin put down the curtain, his eyes turning cold.
Yeah, so what if they were brothers.
This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.
A timely snow foretold of a prosperous year, and in the blink of an eye it would be another year.
Nothing major happened at the beginning of spring so, apart for the fixed holidays, it was the Crown Princeās birthday which was quite lively.
The Crown Princeās birthday was on February seventh, and the Crown Prince would be seventeen years old after today.
Lin Sui woke up on the day of his birthday and found a snow falcon outside of his room.
There was a bamboo tube tied to the snow falconās legs, and there was a slip of paper inside the bamboo tube.
āāA congratulations gift for the Crown Princeās birthday.
The characters were flowing and elegant, with a bit of sharpness, but it hadnāt been signed, so they didnāt know who sent the gift.
Fu Shu said: āWhen this servant woke up early in the morning, it was inside the courtyard.ā
āLetās keep it, this One quite likes it.ā
The falconās body was white as snow, its beak was curved and its eyes were sharp, and when it spread its wings it was both fierce and beautiful, it was quite delightful.
Lin Sui could generally guess who it had been. He waved his hand, and the falcon landed on his shoulder with human-like understanding.
The snow falcon had been excellently trained, the strength of its claws had been well-controlled when it landed, which showed that the person who trained it had put a lot of thought into it.
Lin Sui stroked its head, thinking about that pitiful little puppy that used to sleep curled up by his legs.
ā ā ā ā The author has something to say: [The story is set in ancient times, donāt support the illegal rearing of wild animals in the modern day!]
Little theatre, Pei Mansion
Lord Pei: What books does the Fifth Highness want me to find? Essays on current affairs, comprehensive histories, or rare lost books?
Yan Qin: Folk remedies for growing taller.
Fam, does that make sense?
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā
[1]Ā I had never heard of this flower before but its chinese name is āå¬ē“
winter redā and its common english name is the chinese or mandarin hat plant.
[2]Ā Yan Qinās grandfather is being addressed as āč£“å¤§äŗŗ Pei Darenā with ādarenā being a respectful form of address towards nobles or superiors, which doesnāt really have a direct translation in english (it literally means smth like āgreat personā).Ā ā¤“