Chapter 9

For the next few days, Rong Tang practically lived in the new house on Yong’an Lane.

He initially thought that he would be unconscious for another two or three days after returning from the Li Mansion that day. Therefore, he’d instructed Shuang Shou in advance to follow Su Huaijing and handle all matters related to purchases and house-moving.

But his body gave a lot of face this time. Not only does he not pass out, he also slept until dawn. He feels refreshed upon waking up, like he is reborn again.

Rong Tang is overjoyed. In this case, he can personally oversee Su Huaijing’s house move.

In one instance, he deems that the bedroom is done too delicately. In another instance, he comments that there isn’t enough space in the study. Then he remarks that the morning glory climbing plant in the courtyard has a bad meaning and should be pulled out…

This confounded Shuang Fu and Shuang Shou.

The Young Master isn’t even so particular about his own courtyard!

In the past two months, which person serving in Tanghua Courtyard hasn’t said that the Eldest Young Master is the most compassionate and magnanimous?

It looks like the Duke’s Palace is really going to undergo a sweeping change. The bridegroom hasn’t even entered the palace, yet he’s already stolen the Young Master’s heart.

Shuang Fu and Shuang Shou floundered as they looked at Su Huaijing. It is clear that they are already treating him as another Young Master.

Su Huaijing couldn’t help it, but he couldn’t bear with it anymore. As such, he invited the beauty that toppled with the slightest hint of wind into the study to read storybooks, while he himself went out and told the craftsmen his requirements.

The next day, Rong Tang came back.

On the third day, he came again.

Every day he felt that he would pass out the next day, but each day he didn’t.

Now he has discovered a new hobby, which is to bet with the system on which days he will lose consciousness. The system regained a bit of its previous temper, rolled its eyes at him, and went into standby mode. But Rong Tang was optimistic and continues to make his way to Yong’an Lane every day.

Everyone in the Duke’s Palace courtyard is extremely quiet. They feared that any slightly loud noise will scare their precious and noble Young Master to death. The Wang Fei is busy making the wedding arrangements, so Rong Tang feels bored to death being alone.

He likes to come here; it’s so lively. He is perfectly content to lie in the study, read a book, and listen to the sounds outside.

It was very much like when he was in middle school. During the time he was writing test papers in the classroom, there were workers building high-rises across the street.

Noisy, but realistic.

It has been a long, long time—several lifetimes—since he’s felt such calmness.

Moreover, the tea at Su Huaijing’s tastes better than elsewhere. It is clear, sweet, slightly bitter, and leaves a sweet aftertaste in the mouth. He can often read for an afternoon and finish a mug at the same time.

It’s just that Su Huaijing doesn’t let him drink much. Once he finishes a mug and the tea inside is changed, it no longer has the sweetness. Rong Tang teased him for hiding good things for himself. Su Huaijing smiles back at him: “Tangtang gege knows that everything I have with me now is given by you.”

Rong Tang immediately lost his voice. He discovered that as soon as Su Huaijing said, “Tangtang gege,” he wanted to raise his hands and surrender.

Unfortunately, Su Huaijing also perceived this and repeatedly makes use of it.

How infuriating.

On this day, Rong Tang is resting in the house on Yong’an Lane again, reading a storybook. He’s ordered someone to move a beauty couch into the study a few days ago. Su Huaijing only glanced at him and didn’t object.

Consequently, he is lying on it right now, with a soft, thick wool blanket underneath him and a fluffy, light goose feather quilt covering his body.

Wang Xiuyu’s maternal family is rich, and she also has assets; therefore, she is very willing to spend money on this beloved child of hers. Just this set of bedding alone is worth three years of an ordinary family’s expenses.

Rong Tang lies there, his finger wedged between the book’s pages. He’s became somewhat lost in thought when he sees a certain word in the storybook.

After reminiscing for two minutes, he asks the system: “Sheng Chengli—the male protagonist, has he left the cold palace yet?”

Sheng Chengli is the fifth son of Emperor Renshou. He was born during the years when his father was planning the rebellion. His mother was a mere singing girl from a foreign land on a pleasure boat in Jiangnan, the product of a one-night romance.

As per the author’s settings, this child is actually Emperor Renshou’s lucky star and he is fairly superstitious. Every time a child of his is born, he will ask an astrological master to divine his fortune.

When the male protagonist was born, the Ziwei star was glowing brightly, and a purple aura came from the northern imperial capital to linger over Emperor Renshou’s prince’s residence at that time for a full three days before dissipating.

Because it coincided with Emperor Renshou’s plans for rebellion, the astrologer said that this kind of celestial phenomenon was heaven’s blessing for the family patriarch. The real dragon has appeared in the world. The late emperor has been in power for many years and isn’t recognised by heaven. Therefore, the purple aura has drifted from the north all the way to the prince’s palace, which undoubtedly provided Emperor Renshou with a major—yet false—theoretical backing.

Based on Emperor Renshou’s level of superstition, with such a reason available, the male protagonist ought to be held in the palm of his hand and worshiped by him for the rest of his life. Unless, at a later stage, he feared that the configuration of stars was pointing to the male protagonist instead of him, then it is possible for him to have acted on Sheng Chengli.

However, during that time, there were two concubines in the imperial palace who were pregnant and expecting to give birth at the same time. One was a singer from Jiangnan, and the other was the commander-in-chief’s legitimate daughter, who would subsequently be Concubine Hui of the Xia family.

As such, this star was, of course, pointing to the male protagonist’s younger brother, the Sixth Prince.

In the meantime, the Xia family also carried out some additional tricks and ordered the astrological master to allude to the fact that the Ziwei star was glowing brightly in the northern sky, but at the same time, the Sheep Star was very magnificent in the southern night sky. It implied that there was a young master in the palace whose mother was from the south, who was destined to be evil and would collide with the Ziwei star.

Sheng Chengli had just been born, but since then, his miserable fate for the first half of his life has already been determined by a false destiny chart.

Moreover, Sheng Chengli is only fifteen-years-old now, two years younger than Su Huaijing.

At this time in his first previous life, Rong Tang felt distressed upon witnessing his undernourished and skin-and-bone appearance. He’s thought of every means to help him get out of the cold palace. In his previous life, due to some inexplicable reasons, Rong Tang had just been reborn and felt excessively guilty for the male protagonist. He still believes that his inadequate prudence is what caused the mission to fail. As a result, it led to the little protagonist’s death because he couldn’t escape the storyline of being killed by the villain. Therefore, he braved the risks and sought the Eldest Princess’s Palace directly.

After that instant, Rong Tang no longer felt any guilt towards the male protagonist. Even if he does feel any guilt, it is with regards to Su Huaijing.

Of late, he’s been having some regrets. He suspects that it is because of his indifference and neglect in his previous two lives that Su Huaijing had to experience those resentful storylines.

When the system notices this, it can’t help but release a cyber sigh and reply, [Not yet. Host, have you thought of something?]

Rong Tang says nothing. He frowns and begins reminiscing for a moment.

In the first life, he followed the original plot and helped the male protagonist out of the cold palace because the male protagonist was being bullied by several princes in the palace at that time. Rong Tang secretly taught the male protagonist to act out a scene. It succeeded in getting green tea* to the emperor, which reminded him of the stunning singer whom he’d met on a boat in Jiangnan many years ago.

(*TN: having hidden motives or deceptive behaviour behind a facade of purity.)

This person has passed away, and the so-called conflicting destiny isn’t something to fear when faced with the real dragon emperor. The emperor is gradually aging. After thinking about it, he releases the Fifth Prince from the cold palace and orders the Grand Tutor to educate him.

But how he came to be bullied is very interesting and is closely related to the Second Prince entering court to listen to politics. Because of his outstanding political achievements, the princes who follow him have become increasingly undisciplined in the palace, forming gangs and breaking into the cold palace.

Previously, Rong Tang only focused on rescuing Su Huaijing from Qin Pengxuan. He’s shelved all the other unrelated plots for the time being. Now, when he thinks about it carefully, among the several political achievements made by the Second Prince at that time, one of them was the “Case of the Remnant Rebels”.

Supposedly five years ago, a violent upheaval broke out in the south of Dayu. Hundreds of well-trained rebels advanced northward, killing eight corrupt officials and countless provincial gentry along the way.

The imperial court sent troops to suppress the rebels, but the rebels were very accomplished fighters. All the way, they concealed themselves and managed to flee from the imperial troops many times. It was not until they approached the outskirts of the capital that Earl Wukang led troops and wiped out two hundred and eight rebels. Their heads were hung on the city wall for a full three months.

However, in the original plot, the description of this ‘group of rebels’ is: the adopted son of the Embroidered Guard’s First Squadron’s leader for the late emperor and the homeless orphans he’s adopted.

Five years ago, Earl Wukang killed a total of two hundred and eight people, but in fact, dozens of people escaped, including this adopted son.

In accordance with the original storyline, those dozens of people will all be captured in less than a month and become a bright spot on the Second Prince’s record.

Rong Tang’s head hurts when he thinks of this.

Because—based on his conjecture—the Second Prince’s political achievements have been machinated by Su Huaijing.

In other words, Su Huaijing personally delivered the adopted son of the First Squadron leader, who’d staked his life to protect his imperial father, to the son of Emperor Renshou, who’d snatched the throne from his father.

“So messy…” Rong Tang’s face wrinkled up with annoyance, and he buried his face in the wool blanket beneath his body. He flung away his storybook and sighed in frustration: “It’s so vexing!”

He closes his eyes and contemplates the matter, but fails to notice someone walking into the study. That person bends down to pick up the storybook and chuckles. His tone is lazy and perverse: “What abhorrent storyline did they write that has made our prince so angry?”

Rong Tang is slightly stunned. He raises his head to look up at him.

Su Huaijing is holding the storybook in one hand, eyeing him with his usual smiling expression. The corners of his mouth are slightly raised. Rong Tang is dazed for a moment.

“My Boy is so good-looking.” He says inwardly to the system, “You said that I would marry him as a wife in the future and that we would have a good, simple life. Would he not want to destroy the world anymore?”

The system rolls its eyes and does not reply to his indulgent fantasies. Instead, it gives a ‘friendly’ reminder: [Are you sure you want to let your seventeen-year-old, still-young, wandering-on-the-edge-of-darkness, who-may-become-a-tyrant-at-any-time Boy look at those dirty things you’re looking at? ?]

Rong Tang panicked. His brain short-circuited for a second before he reacted instantly. He straightaway gets up, kneels down, then straightens his body before snatching the storybook back from Su Huaijing’s hand. With lightning speed, he flips the book cover upside down and tucks it under his knees. He threatens fiercely: “Don’t look!”

Su Huaijing’s hand is now empty, and he is slightly taken aback. He blinks slightly several times before turning his suspicious gaze to Rong Tang with a most innocent expression.

As such, Rong Tang’s bravado immediately diminishes. His straight back gradually reduces to an arch, and his voice sounds weak when he speaks: “Anyway, you’re not allowed to look.”

Su Huaijing truly wasn’t curious at first. He just glanced around and found nothing worth getting angry about in the storyline except remembering a few names and scenes. He was just about to mention that if Rong Tang gets tired of reading, he should go out for a walk. Otherwise, it would be bad for the eyes. But as a result, he became interested.

Su Huaijing lowers his fingers and gently touches Rong Tang’s waist tablet which is at his front. From the day he moved, Rong Tang had asked him to wear it to prevent the local impertinent tyrants from coming to antagonise him.

“Why am I not allowed to see it?” Su Huaijing asked.

Rong Tang’s ears turn questionably red, his neck tenses, and he says, “Children aren’t permitted to see things that adults see.”

For a moment, Su Huaijing is stunned. He feels like laughing and is annoyed at the same time.

His face fell, and he was silent for a while, appearing a little hurt. “Tangtang gege minds that I’m young.”

Rong Tang: “…?” Ah this?

Su Huaijing lowered his eyes. “Tangtang gege minds that I’m young and still says he wants to marry me. Apparently, it is to coax me.”

Rong Tang: “??” Ah this-this-this!?

Rong Tang is dumbstruck and gapes, flabbergasted. The system mercilessly laughs at him as it gloats. Rong Tang palely made up for it: “I didn’t…”

Su Huaijing: “It doesn’t matter. It’s alright, to be frank. Originally, Tangtang gege merely saw me as pitiful and wanted to protect me out of kindness. I myself thought too much.”

As he speaks, he raises his hand to settle it on the knot of the waist tablet. He wants to untie it and return it to Rong Tang.

Rong Tang’s scalp tingled. He leans forward, moves to hold the back of Su Huaijing’s hand, and says, “I was wrong.”

He even kneels on the couch. His technique of admitting mistakes can be rated as exemplary.

Su Huaijing came close to being amused by Rong Tang but still lowers his eyes to look straight at him. “Don’t you despise me?”

Rong Tang firmly shakes his head. “I don’t!”

“You truly want to marry me?”

Rong Tang nods resolutely and says, “Truly!”

“You want to protect me for a lifetime?”

Rong Tang hesitates for a split second. He also said this to the eldest princess and didn’t think anything of it at the time. But right now, when Su Huaijing asks about it, he is stupefied.

Moreover, this flash of hesitation is detected by Su Huaijing. His expression becomes cold, and he continues to untie the knot. Rong Tang hurries to say, “I will protect you until I die.”

He can never betray him in this life. It is because of him that he has the strength to live again.

Su Huaijing is bewildered. At that moment, he cannot describe what he is feeling. The hand on top of his is still just as cold. The bone-warming powder he’s been using for so many days has no discernible effect.

He doesn’t like hearing Rong Tang say the word “death”. However, he knows very well that whether it is Rong Tang’s own body or his future plans, this young prince is destined to die.

The most he can do for him is to spare his mother when he massacres Duke Ningxuan’s Palace.

Moreover, in this position, Rong Tang should always be regarded as merely his chess piece. He shouldn’t feel pity for a chess piece.

But he still doesn’t like hearing this man so calmly and collectedly say every now and then, ‘Once I die’, ‘After I leave’, ‘Not many years left to live’.

Terribly vexing.

He is the best doctor in Dayu. Rong Tang mentions this in front of him every day, which is tantamount to medical harassment.

Su Huaijing relaxes his hand. Rong Tang still has a lingering worry, so he tightens the loose knot. Then he slowly retreats before lifting the goose feather quilt and draping it on his body. Seeing that his Boy didn’t appear to kick up a fuss anymore, he deliberately made a serious face and schools him, “Don’t use this to threaten me.”

Su Huaijing’s inexplicable emotion is suppressed in an instant. He smiles softly, then pulls the round stool to the side of the beauty couch and sits down. “Then tell me a story.”

The spring light outside the window is just right, and the returning birds have begun nesting on the new trees in the courtyard. Su Huaijing supports his chin with one hand and lazily raises his index finger: “Tell me from that book you’ve been reading.”