Bewilderment (1)

Their goal was to make Thirteenth Young Master look bad. In name, they were standing up for that Snow Maiden from before, but in truth, they were merely using it as an excuse to pull a prank on the lucky Thirteenth Young Master, whose fortune made others green with envy.

Because of this, they felt that activities like quiz contests were best suited to making Thirteenth Young Master lose face. So when Thirteenth Young Master said he wanted to perform a talent, they found a way to steer him into the quiz event instead.

Tiger Girl merely smiled from the side and showed no intention of stopping them. She wanted to watch the show, but her idea of watching the show was entirely the opposite of everyone else's. She was not waiting to see Thirteenth Young Master being put on the spot, but those people who wanted to mess with him.

Do not forget that although Thirteenth Young Master was foolish, his memory was extraordinary. Since childhood, he had devoured books of every kind. In terms of sheer knowledge, if he ranked second among the entire academy's students, then no one could be first.

Few people knew this, however. Aside from Tiger Girl and Ye Lanyu, others at most knew that his alchemy knowledge was formidable, after all, he studied alchemy.

Later, when the random-question challenge began, Thirteenth Young Master took first place by a wide margin over second place, leaving many people stunned beyond belief.

The result made people suspect cheating. Yet after testing, they discovered that the data was absolutely genuine and reliable. This result filled many with shame. Losing to someone else would have been one thing, but losing to the idiot everyone recognized as a fool was something they simply could not accept.

Thus, those who had not yet been eliminated began fighting with twelve parts spirit. In the second round—the final round—they started coming up with questions they believed were obscure and unknown to others.

The rules of this round were that the participants would each pose questions, and whoever could answer the most questions would win.

However, when these people asked their questions, they did so according to their usual habits, asking knowledge-based questions. Therefore, no matter how obscure the questions they raised were, Thirteenth Young Master still had a chance of knowing the answers.

As a result, Thirteenth Young Master answered two questions correctly in this round. The others answered at most two questions, while some could not answer even one. Setting aside the preliminary scores, this alone was enough for Thirteenth Young Master to qualify for the later events.

Of course, to determine the rankings, they continued using another method: among those who had answered the most questions, they would compare whose questions had been answered correctly by the fewest people.

At that moment, everyone made a startling discovery: not a single person had answered Thirteenth Young Master's question correctly. His question was not particularly difficult; anyone could have answered it, yet not one person got it right.

The question went like this: A fool was walking down the road when he saw a Gold Coin and a Silver Coin on the ground. Would this fool take the Gold Coin or the Silver Coin?

Some answered that it was obviously the Gold Coin—even a fool knew to take the Gold Coin. Others answered the Silver Coin, because a fool would not know any better.

"Wrong! Of course he takes both the Gold Coin and the Silver Coin. Even a fool knows to take them both. You're even more foolish than fools!" When Thirteenth Young Master announced the answer, their faces could not have looked any worse. They wanted nothing more than to find a hole in the ground and crawl into it.

It would have been somewhat better if someone else had said that, but being told so by a fool they considered an idiot was simply too much for them to bear.

At that moment, laughter had already erupted among the people below. Though they too had just chosen one between the Gold Coin and the Silver Coin, they had not actually made a choice, so they could laugh with perfect justification.

In fact, similar things had happened several times before, but no one had paid attention. They had thought it was merely a coincidence. Because of that, a group of people who considered themselves clever had been toyed with by little fool Thirteenth Young Master countless times, yet they never learned their lesson and kept coming one after another to court death.

"Young Master, your question just now was a little misleading. Asking it that way makes people think they can only choose one," Tiger Girl said afterward, suppressing a laugh.

"Was it?" Thirteenth Young Master thought for a moment, then continued, "I never said they could only choose one. They could choose more than one. Besides, the answer was obvious without even saying it. I wanted to ask the simplest question possible, but why were they so stupid?"

"..."

...The scorching summer was a season of fickle weather. At any moment, the clear blazing sun could turn into a sky blanketed by dark clouds, followed by thunder and rain.

That day happened to be just such a day. Because the weather changed so suddenly, Thirteenth Young Master could not return home and could only remain in the Imperial Palace. At the time, peals of thunder rolled through the sky, while bolts of lightning tore it apart.

"Ye Lang, stay here tonight. I'll sleep with you," Seventh Princess said with a smile.

"You can stay, but we can't sleep together. We aren't married yet," Thirteenth Young Master said slowly.

"Heehee, what does it matter? We're still young, and we can't do anything anyway. Sleeping together is perfectly normal. Didn't you often sleep with your sister before?" Seventh Princess said with a smile. Naturally, she was only teasing him; she did not truly intend to sleep with Thirteenth Young Master.

"She's my sister," Thirteenth Young Master said.

"What about Tiger Girl?" Seventh Princess asked mischievously. She knew that for a long time in the past, Thirteenth Young Master had shared a bed with Tiger Girl. However, they had both been very young then, so there had been no issue.

"I needed to be with her then. Not anymore. Only when I'm sick does she stay with me," Thirteenth Young Master replied. After they turned ten, they had slept in separate beds, except when Thirteenth Young Master needed looking after, when she would sleep beside him.

Speaking of Tiger Girl, she seemed to be feeling unwell today and was resting at home. Since Thirteenth Young Master had been personally brought over by Seventh Princess, who had promised to take good care of him, Tiger Girl had reluctantly felt at ease enough to let him come to the Imperial Palace to play.

Seventh Princess would also often take Thirteenth Young Master out to play, whether to stroll the streets or tour mountains and waters. Of course, they sometimes went to the Imperial Palace or stayed at the Ye Clan. No matter the situation, Tiger Girl had always been at Thirteenth Young Master's side.

Today was a little unusual, and it was precisely because of this unusual circumstance that an accident occurred today—one that should never have happened, and which would make Tiger Girl afraid to let Thirteenth Young Master leave her side even for half a step in the future.

"Ye Lang, I'm done bathing. Now it's your turn..." Seventh Princess wore a thin nightgown and used a towel to dry her slightly damp, beautiful hair. Her snow-white skin, moistened by water, looked especially alluring. Only her personal maid and Thirteenth Young Master were allowed to see her like this.

She basically never avoided suspicion around Thirteenth Young Master, acting relaxed and natural in front of him.

"Huh, where is he?"

Originally, it was Thirteenth Young Master's turn after she had finished bathing, but she could not find any trace of him.

Xiao Xiao timidly wanted to ask: could I ask for some recommendation votes?