A Kiss

The Eldest Prince had no lessons that day. In his previous life, the Crown Prince had studied alongside him, and through winter's bitter cold and summer's scorching heat, their imperial father had never once called off lessons.

He had believed that, stingy as his father was with affection, he still wanted to see his sons amount to something.

In this life, lessons were canceled at the drop of a hat.

He should never have held any hopes for his father. The Crown Prince was the moon among the clouds; they were mud beside the road. Without the Crown Prince, the Qi Emperor could not care less whether they lived or died.

Living was fine, dying was fine too. If one committed a wrong, all were punished. They could attend lessons or not, as they pleased. If he remembered them, he asked after them; if he forgot, they could do whatever the hell they wanted.

Qi Chengyou's face darkened. He simply could not understand how his father viewed sons like them.

Qi Chengyou had slept deeply the night before, and only when he opened the door did he learn it had rained. He normally woke between seven and nine, but today someone had had to wake him.

Years of political infighting told him something was wrong.

"Who burned incense in my room?"

The newly arrived young eunuch answered fearfully, "Your Highness, there was a thunderstorm last night. Consort Xian feared you might be frightened, so she had someone light calming incense."

His mother would never harm him.

The Eldest Prince said nothing more.

After breakfast, he went to pay his respects to his mother. Consort Xian said,

"The Crown Prince suffered a fright yesterday, and an imperial physician was summoned."

The Eldest Prince's heart tightened.

"An imperial physician? How is he now?"

Qi Chengyou rose and immediately headed out. "Mother, I'm going to see him."

Consort Xian silently raised her head. Her son wore his temper on his face and knew nothing of concealment. His former dislike of the Crown Prince had been plain as day; his concern for him now was just as clear.

She tightened her grip on her bodhi beads.

She would not stop Qi Chengyou from liking anyone, but he absolutely could not become a dog trailing behind the Crown Prince!

Consort Xian's expression remained calm, but her fingernails pressed into her flesh until they turned white.

She watched coldly as Qi Chengyou strode outside, until a cry rang out.

"His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived-"

The Eldest Prince hurried forward to greet him. "Crown Prince! I heard you called for an imperial physician yesterday!"

Holding the tabby by its back, the little Crown Prince avoided the Eldest Prince's touch and lifted the cat, which dangled in a long strip, toward Consort Xian.

"Lady Xian, it wants soup dumplings. Could you feed it some?"

The string of bodhi beads snapped.

She looked at the Eldest Prince, then at the Crown Prince, and felt only bitter irony.

The son takes after neither father, the son takes after neither father...

Su Changhe, why does your enemy's son resemble you more?

"Your Highness, do come more often when you have time."

After speaking woodenly, Consort Xian left on her own.

Qi Yuanzuo and the Eldest Prince exchanged bewildered looks.

"System, why do I feel like Consort Xian is acting strange?"

88 was petting a cat too-a data cat.

"She's a hidden man-eating flower. Think about it: how great a debt would the commander of the imperial guards have to owe her to risk everything helping the Eldest Prince rebel?"

Qi Yuanzuo wholeheartedly agreed.

What could make Su Changhuai stake his entire family on rebellion?

Could Su Changhuai and Consort Xian have once been lovers?

Or were the Su family and Consort Xian's birth family closely bound together?

That was not right either. To put it kindly, Consort Xian's birth family was distinguished but poor; to put it bluntly, it was in decline. The Eldest Prince had no support from his maternal relatives, much less close ties to Su Changhuai, who held such an important post.

Then there had to be a secret between Consort Xian and the commander of the imperial guards!

Even heroes could not clear the hurdle of a beauty's charms?

He would find time to ask around.

The original novel had revolved around its male and female leads. This palace brood consisted of a muddleheaded monarch and cannon fodder who fought until they lost the realm.

Many things had received little attention. Knowing everything as though he had a god's-eye view was wishful thinking.

The original novel had begun as a farming story about the female lead, turned into a tale of infighting in the male lead's inner household, and ended with their property confiscated and a rebellion built from scratch.

All he knew was that the Transmigrated Woman was currently selling fruit in some forgotten corner to support her family.

The book had never specified the location.

The Eldest Prince nudged him.

"Why are you spacing out? What are you thinking about? I just asked how you were feeling. Why didn't you answer?"

The Eldest Prince had a short fuse, something that had never changed from birth to death. Normally, he was merely arrogant; when anxious, he sounded like he was interrogating people. No one could stand him.

When Qi Yuanzuo did not want to answer someone else, he simply pretended not to hear. If he dared do that to the Eldest Prince, the other boy would turn into a roaring lioness of Hedong.

He wanted to use the simplest possible method to skip over all those questions.

Looking at the Eldest Prince's dumpling-round face, he held the docile cat in one arm and pointed at the ground with his other hand.

"Squat down."

The Eldest Prince looked suspicious. "Just because you tell me to squat, I have to squat?"

His mouth said that, but his knees obediently bent.

Now that they were at the same height, Qi Yuanzuo planted a smacking kiss on him.

Then he turned and left, cradling the cat.

The Eldest Prince's eyes widened, and he stood frozen like a stone.

The Fat Eunuch bared fierce teeth in jealousy, while the scales in Bolao's heart collapsed all at once.

On the one hand, he told himself these were merely the Crown Prince's tactics.

On the other, he thought, Why won't His Highness use tactics like that on me?!

The Eldest Prince rose, dizzy and dazed, forgetting what year it was.

The Crown Prince was full of tactics. He had experienced them many times.

The Crown Prince's tactics were so formidable that whenever he raised a hand before the assembled court, the Eldest Prince and his third, fourth, fifth, and sixth brothers instinctively covered their faces.

They had been slapped into that habit.

The Crown Prince liked to hit people in the face. All of Great Qi knew it. He made sure everyone knew whom he had hit, and left them no choice but to take it.

The brothers were too wild. The Crown Prince always liked to restrain them with lofty principles, laying down several rules they could not break.

Pay for any stall you wrecked; if you took bribes, do not take money meant to relieve a national disaster; if you framed someone, do not drag the women of his household into it...

Self-righteous, always making himself their master!

In the early days, the Crown Prince had shone too brightly, crushing them beneath a weight of despair, crushing them until they truly accepted beatings, punishments, and scoldings whenever they did wrong.

He was the Crown Prince, and he was also the elder brother of all the princes.

Everyone had considered it only natural. Even he, however furious he became, had still copied stack after stack of the Crown Prince's Rules and endured slap after slap.

Getting slapped was routine.

But getting kissed-what was that about?

Though his body was a child's, his mind was an adult's.

What might look to a child like slightly uninhibited affection became, in his eyes, a sign that someone was corrupting the little Crown Prince.

The Eldest Prince's mad-bull temper surged up, and he charged straight over to the little Crown Prince.

"You... first you tell me, which shameless bastard taught you that?!"

"Was it Xi Ming?!"

"You're still little. You can't do that to just anyone, understand?" By this point, Qi Chengyou's tone had softened beyond belief.

He even suspected the little Crown Prince had seen their father kissing one of his consorts.

He paced anxiously, then charged straight toward the Hall of Bright Virtue.

He had to ask that biased old man just what he had been teaching Qi Yuanzuo!

The Eldest Prince embellished the story, darkly speculating that Xi Ming had taught the little Crown Prince something improper behind their backs. The Qi Emperor took it immensely seriously.

That day, the entire palace shook over Qi Yuanzuo's unwitting gesture.

For the first time, the Qi Emperor formed a united front with his eldest son and began teaching Qi Yuanzuo lessons about life.

Qi Yuanzuo lay flat, his eyes lifeless, staring blankly like a salted fish.

"88, I've had enough of this conservative feudal society!"

88 had gone bald with worry. He smoked with world-weary resignation and joined the ranks dispensing life lessons.

"Whatever you do, don't take their feelings seriously. Their liking you and caring about you now is all fake, understand? Experience tells me nothing good comes of taking it seriously!"

Qi Yuanzuo closed his eyes. Not listening, not listening, a turtle's chanting scriptures.

The Qi Emperor and the Eldest Prince sipped their tea and sighed in unison.

So the Crown Prince was this rebellious?

The Qi Emperor slapped the table. "After the Double Ninth Banquet, I'm finding Zuo'er a Grand Tutor!"

Author's note: Does everyone find my writing boring and long-winded? (Nervously fretting)