Giving him a taste of his own medicine

Physician Liu hurried over with his medicine chest, sweat pouring down his forehead from running. The young attendant beside him was also panting.

After paying his respects to the emperor, Consort Xue, and the Crown Prince, he saw the dying kitten in the Crown Prince's arms. Physician Liu said, "Please lay him flat, Your Highness."

The Crown Prince did as instructed. His movements were not exactly gentle, but neither were they rough.

After examining him, Physician Liu frowned. He could find no injuries other than the burns.

But if there were no other wounds, why was this little kitten so weak?

Physician Liu gently pressed a patch of skin, and the kitten immediately let out a moan of pain.

As though realizing something, he immediately parted the kitten's fur with gentle fingers and took a closer look.

There was a tiny red dot, so small that it would have been impossible to spot without careful inspection. There seemed to be more elsewhere, too.

After checking only a few spots, he understood.

The tiny red dots on the kitten's body had been made with silver needles. It was a vicious method of torture.

It concealed the kitten's injuries while allowing the perpetrator to watch him slowly die without a shred of guilt.

Physician Liu had a healer's compassion for humans and animals alike. Looking at the pitiful kitten, he could not help sighing. "Alas, the external injuries can be treated, but these internal injuries... I fear there is little hope."

He shifted his hand slightly, exposing the wounds for everyone to see. "These little red marks were made by needles."

At those words, the Crown Prince's gaze changed slightly. The Eleventh Prince and Consort Xue pressed their lips tight. The Eleventh Prince bitterly regretted what he had done, but what had already happened could not be changed. No amount of remorse would help him now.

"Brother, I'm sorry! I'll never do it again! I'll never do it again!"

He wailed, tears and snot streaming down his face.

Even the emperor had never seen such a method before. His expression darkened.

Little Eleven's arrogant, domineering temperament resembled his own so closely that he usually favored him over the other princes.

He had never expected that indulgence to twist the boy's character like this.

"You... how could you do such a thing at your age? Such vicious methods disgrace the imperial family!"

The emperor gave his sleeve a sharp flick. At last, a trace of anger entered his eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Consort Xue dropped to her knees with a thud, her face pale. "I failed to teach him properly. This is my fault. Eleven is still a child. If you must punish someone, please punish me."

His beloved consort had knelt so abruptly that the emperor's budding anger dissolved at the sight. "What are you doing, my beloved? If you say you failed to teach him properly, does that not mean I failed him as well?"

"Get up. The physician said your knees are in poor condition. You mustn't kneel for too long."

Watching this farce, the Crown Prince's lips curved into something like a mocking smile. "Father, you said children must be taught properly from an early age, lest they grow up to betray their country and its people."

The emperor froze, unsure what expression to make.

The Crown Prince seized the Eleventh Prince by the collar with one hand and lifted him off the floor. "Why not leave him to me for a lesson? I will make certain he knows his place and behaves properly."

The Eleventh Prince screamed, "Father! Mother! I know I was wrong! Please don't hand me over to my brother!"

"I really know I was wrong!"

He kicked desperately, suddenly feeling just like that little beast, utterly at someone else's mercy.

Terror, fear, panic-all his emotions erupted at once. He sobbed uncontrollably, but no matter how much he cried, the hand gripping his collar showed no intention of letting go.

The emperor chose to turn a blind eye. "Xuan Zhen, Eleven is still young, after all. He is not yet mature. If you must discipline him, be measured and do not be too harsh. Do you understand?"

That single sentence decided the Eleventh Prince's fate. Consort Xue parted her lips, but ultimately said nothing.

Realizing he had been handed over to the Crown Prince just like that, the Eleventh Prince went numb. He even forgot to wail. He hung in the Crown Prince's grip with vacant eyes and a blank expression, only his tears sliding silently down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor.

The kitten's treatment continued late into the night. He developed a high fever, his little nose and the skin on his body turning a deep pink.

The Crown Prince's gaze was heavy, his lowered eyes half closed. He softly called, "Yangyang," trying to wake the kitten, who was in too much pain to open his eyes.

Unexpectedly, Shen Yangge really did wake up.

-What kind of hell is this? It hurts so fucking much I want to bite someone!

-That damned little psychopath.

System 615 was delighted. [Host, you're finally awake.]

What the hell was this thing again...?

System 615 was bewildered. Had the fever muddled its host's mind?

Then it panicked!

[Host, I'm your death-seeking System 615! Don't you remember?]

-I was messing with you, and you actually believed it.

System 615: ...

Yes, that settled it. Its host was still exactly the same as ever.

-How am I not dead? Didn't that little psychopath say he was going to skin me and gouge out my eyes?

Shen Yangge blearily opened his eyes. A cold, mercurial face was reflected in his azure-blue gaze.

-Have I been tortured into hallucinating?

-Why is it that bigger psychopath, the fucking Crown Prince?

The Crown Prince gently squeezed his ear. "It's me. Where does it hurt?"

-Everywhere! My whole body hurts!

-Huh? This isn't a hallucination? I'm back from that little psychopath's place?

Shen Yangge's eyes widened in disbelief. How had he gotten back?

He did not believe the little psychopath would have let him go. That meant... the Crown Prince had noticed he was missing, sent people to search for him, and found him at the little psychopath's place.

For now, that was the only explanation that made sense.

Shen Yangge meowed a few times.

"You're safe now."

The Crown Prince withdrew the hand rubbing the kitten's ear, then tapped lightly on the table. Several guards brought in a child under escort.

Shen Yangge recognized the child at a glance.

The Eleventh Prince, Chu Hengchuan.

"Mmph, mmph."

He was bound from head to toe, a rag stuffed into his mouth. His eyes were swollen and red from crying, and his hair was a mess. He looked worlds apart from the pampered, precious boy who had tortured Shen Yangge.

Shen Yangge felt a secret thrill of satisfaction and silently quipped, What goes around comes around. Who ever escapes heaven's reckoning?

Then he heard the Crown Prince give a terse order. "Do it."

While he was still wondering what that meant, several palace maids stepped forward, each holding a silver needle. Ignoring the Eleventh Prince's despairing, anguished gaze, they drove the needles straight into his flesh.

The sight made Shen Yangge's heart pound with fear.

Although he had wanted to kill the little psychopath when he was being stabbed himself, actually seeing the boy stabbed like this still made him break out in a cold sweat.

It was his first time seeing the deranged Crown Prince torture someone. Even though the prince was not doing it himself, Shen Yangge still felt his scalp prickle.

The little psychopath's hands and legs were stabbed until they were red and swollen, yet every needle avoided his vital points, as though the aim was to make him wish he were dead rather than kill him outright.

The fur on Shen Yangge's body stood on end uncontrollably.