The Shit-stirrer

Within a few days, a Lady Yin arrived in the palace, and a child moved into a side hall of the Hall of Inherited Blessing.

When the Eldest Prince learned of this, he solemnly warned the little crown prince.

"That Lady Yin is no good. You're not allowed to get close to her, understand?"

Qi Yuanzuo widened his eyes. "But Lady Yin is very gentle."

The Eldest Prince snorted. "She has a Buddha's face and a serpent's heart. She'll sell you off one day, and you'll still help her count the money."

He pinched the little crown prince's cheeks. "She eats children just like you, one per mouthful!"

If Qi Yuanzuo had not been close to Consort Yin, given their imperial father's temperament, the fifth prince would have been snuffed out at the root.

And the fifth prince was no good either.

He seemed an honest fellow in everyday life, yet once drunk, he liked wearing women's clothes, even painting his brows and lips. This was his sore spot, and the Eldest Prince often gossiped with San'er about whether the thing in the fifth prince's trousers worked.

The Eldest Prince spoke ill of people behind their backs without bothering to hide it. The child beside him offered an awkward reminder.

"A gentleman does not gossip about others' faults..."

In the later stages of the struggle for the throne, the Eldest Prince had cast off all restraint. Reborn, he reined himself in somewhat before his imperial father and mother, but his attitude toward everyone else was-I'm number one under heaven. What sort of measly scallion are you?

Clearly, he had not noticed this stunted scallion from the Yin Family just now.

He lifted his chin. "Why does the Hall of Inherited Blessing let just anyone in? Doesn't Father love you most?"

Qi Yuanzuo answered obediently, "He's the Grand Commandant's grandson, the son of Lady Yin's elder brother."

The Eldest Prince asked, "What's his name?"

"Yin... Yin Shouzhi."

The Eldest Prince's expression turned subtle. Yin Shouzhi!

A clear stream running through the Yin Household's murky waters.

Grand Commandant Yin was a shortsighted fence-sitter. The Yin Household backed the Fifth Prince, but Yin Shouzhi, as the crown prince's study companion, was his diehard loyalist.

To make it easier to leap back and forth between sides, Grand Commandant Yin allowed Yin Shouzhi to serve the crown prince.

While Yin Shouzhi lived, the Yin Household could shit on the crown prince's head, and he would not hold it against them.

After the fifth prince had Yin Shouzhi killed, the crown prince unleashed a massacre. The Yin Household was slaughtered from top to bottom, leaving only two or three survivors from Yin Shouzhi's Line.

Thinking it over, Qi Yuanzuo's life bore an uncanny resemblance to Yin Shouzhi's. Both died young; both were cherished like precious treasures as children, only to be abandoned by everyone as adults. At least Yin Shouzhi had a grave and descendants. Qi Yuanzuo did not even have a grave.

At that thought, the Eldest Prince glared at him. Perhaps Yin Shouzhi's rotten fate had dragged Qi Yuanzuo down with him.

He stroked the little crown prince's head and earnestly advised him.

"That stunted winter melon is no good either. Stay well away from him too."

"Come on. Your big brother will read to you."

Qi Yuanzuo obediently followed.

The steady, clear voice spread through the room, like a gentle autumn breeze brushing leaves.

The cozy little stove warmed him all over.

Qi Yuanzuo sprawled with his belly exposed and drifted into dreams on the sound.

Every so often, he smacked his lips and murmured to the system.

-I want strawberries.

88 conjured a basket of strawberries from data, picked one up, and popped it into its own mouth.

-Strawberries are delicious.

Back in the Hall of Bright Virtue, Qi Yuanzuo had already guessed how matters would unfold. He was not surprised to hear of the eldest princess's death.

On the night the eldest princess died, the Qi Emperor entered the rear palace and stayed with Lady Yin.

How did Qi Yuanzuo know this so clearly?

Because the next day, the Empress Dowager summoned Lady Yin, Yin Shouzhi, and Qi Yuanzuo. When he arrived, Lady Yin was kneeling on the floor, picking out sesame seeds.

A few black sesame seeds had been mixed into a basin of black beans and mung beans. Lady Yin held a pair of needles finer than pores to pick out the sesame.

Who knew how long she had been at it? Her hands were trembling slightly, and the shallow layer of sesame in the large bowl beside her did not even cover its bottom. Just looking at it filled one with despair.

Even Nanny Rong would have had to bow to the Empress Dowager as her master.

Bolao knew this summons boded ill. The moment Fat Eunuch heard it, he had sent Simiao to the Hall of Bright Virtue to fetch His Majesty. Now he was on full alert.

"Your grandson pays his respects, Grandmother."

The Empress Dowager sat above them, turning her prayer beads, her gaze lowered like a bodhisattva's, but without a trace of compassion.

"Rise, Crown Prince."

"Thank you, Grandmother."

The sight of the crown prince disgusted the Empress Dowager. Looking at him was like seeing the emperor as a child.

The moment the Qi Emperor was born, the Late Emperor had carried him away and given him to the Great Ancestor to raise. She had lain sleepless in her lonely bed, weeping night after night. When she saw him again, the little boy was all smiles and laughter, treasured as gold and jade, while she knelt on the floor to pay her respects to the grandfather and grandson on the dragon throne.

The Great Ancestor praised her. "You have a fine womb. You've borne me a fine grandson."

At that moment, she lost her dignity as a human being, and the tenderness of a mother's heart.

The crown prince's experience resembled the Qi Emperor's, while her own resembled that of the dead empress.

The Empress Dowager had ascended a pure lotus throne, and her heart had swollen without limit. She regarded the little child at her feet as an ant. Turning her prayer beads, aloof from worldly affairs, she condescended to ask him:

"Do you miss your mother?"

Qi Yuanzuo froze.

"Yes."

The Empress Dowager gave a mocking smile. This was the imperial family: demons of power and desire from birth.

"You're lying. You've never even seen her. What is there for you to miss?"

Qi Yuanzuo raised his face. The plump flesh on his cheeks gleamed more lustrously than pearls, nurtured by the Qi Emperor himself. He earnestly argued with the Empress Dowager.

"I wonder what Mother looked like, and whether she feels cold. I'm grown up now. I understand everything. I know Mother died because of me."

"Would she like me as I am now?"

"Father says grown-ups like plump children best. I eat properly every day and have grown nice and round. Mother would definitely like me!"

"I like her too. I'll miss her all my life."

These were Qi Yuanzuo's true feelings. He could never forget the person who had given him a second life.

The Empress Dowager remained unmoved. The entire Palace of Nurturing Origin was hard as stone, filled with hateful bodhisattvas whom no chisel of affection could pierce.

She pointed at Lady Yin, kneeling on the floor. "She resembles your mother. Go closer and look at her."

Qi Yuanzuo did not move. "She isn't Mother."

The Empress Dowager continued, "She is praying for blessings for your mother. What do you think, Crown Prince?"

Fat Eunuch was frantic inside.

Even an adult would struggle to find an answer to that question.

The little crown prince moved. He bent down to look at Lady Yin as she knelt picking out sesame seeds. A warm little figure filled Consort Yin's vision, his clear eyes distinguishing good from evil as he earnestly studied her suffering and humiliation.

Consort Yin's knees hurt as if needles were stabbing them. Her back had long since been soaked in cold sweat, her clothes sticking clammy against her skin, every gust of air chilling her to the bone.

Under that pure gaze, her breathing hitched into sobs. Pleading filled her eyes, and a sliver of agonizing hope rose in her heart.

She wanted the crown prince to save her, to take her away. She did not want to stay in the Palace of Nurturing Origin, or even in the imperial palace.

To everyone else, the little crown prince seemed transfixed. He stared unblinkingly at Consort Yin for several breaths. When he straightened, the expression on his face had changed.

Fat Eunuch stood behind the little crown prince and could not see clearly, but Bolao's position was perfect. Almost entranced, he watched the larva tear away its soft disguise to reveal hard armor and a shell of steel, calmly taking up its weapons.

He asked quietly:

"Grandmother, why are you making Lady Yin kneel and pick out sesame seeds?"

The Empress Dowager answered maliciously, "She is praying for blessings for your mother."

Qi Yuanzuo kicked the basin over, scattering black beans, mung beans, and sesame seeds across the floor.

The old nanny beside the Empress Dowager barked, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, do you intend to disrespect the Empress Dowager?!"

"I am the crown prince! This is a family matter between Grandmother and me. What right does a dog borrowing its master's power have to interrupt?"

Qi Yuanzuo's sharp tongue shot through the Empress Dowager like an arrow.

"Grandmother, you're making Lady Yin pick out sesame seeds to pray for Mother. Did Mother tell you to?"

"Could Mother have visited your dreams at night to ask for this? She didn't come to me, or Father, or Maternal Grandfather, but came to you alone. Why?"

"Are you the King of Hell, Grandmother, or the Judge of the Underworld?"

"There are people among the common folk with faces thick enough to meddle everywhere, hearts swollen with malice, and nasty mouths. When their petty little hearts are unhappy, they amuse themselves at someone else's expense, then turn around and dump a basin of shit on somebody else's head."

"The common folk call people like that shit-stirrers. Have you ever met one, Grandmother?"

The Empress Dowager's face darkened with every sentence, and the prayer beads in her hand shook like beans in a sieve.

The servants of the Palace of Nurturing Origin were as silent as chickens.

Consort Yin stared dazedly at the little figure shielding her, tears falling like rain.

I like him. I want to have a child...

Qi Yuanzuo gazed innocently at the trembling Empress Dowager. "Did I say something that upset you, Grandmother?"

"When the watermelons ripen in summer, shall your grandson pick out watermelons to pray for blessings for you?"

"Picking sesame seeds shows so little sincerity. Watermelons are big!"

The Empress Dowager shot to her feet, pointing at the crown prince, her chest heaving. Every scrap of that compassionate bodhisattva facade was torn away and flung aside as she shrieked like a shrew.

"You vile beast! Say that to me again!"

Qi Yuanzuo was unafraid. "Which part do you mean, Grandmother?"

"The bit about shit-stirrers among the common folk? I heard it from the palace servants. Apparently, people like that are also called blabbermouth hags."

"You smell lovely, Grandmother. Of course you couldn't be a shit-stirrer."

"Aaaaah!!" The Empress Dowager roared in fury, seized the incense burner from the table, and hurled it at Qi Yuanzuo.

Fat Eunuch's eyes tightened in terror. "Your Highness, watch out!"

Just as Fat Eunuch rushed forward to shield him, someone moved faster and swept the little crown prince away.

It was Bolao.

The Qi Emperor arrived just in time to see this, and his heart leaped into his throat.

"Zuo'er!"

Qi Yuanzuo's eyes lit up, and he flew to him like a young wild goose returning to the woods.

Father and son clung to each other and wailed.

"Father!"

"Zuo'er!"

Everyone: "..."