The Eldest Prince was six that year, just the age to begin his education. Xi Ming was the Grand Tutor the emperor had chosen for Qi Yuanzuo. He had been waiting to soar straight into the clouds, only for the crown prince's injury to scuttle the whole affair.
Qi Chengyou did not believe Xi Ming felt good about that.
Xi Ming was enjoying the emperor's favor. That he had been allowed into the palace to visit the crown prince under yesterday's circumstances showed how highly the emperor valued him.
Qi Chengyou had visited him yesterday and told him that Father had changed his mind. Sure enough, the old fox's outward show of humility had cracked.
How could teaching the Eldest Prince compare with the glory of teaching the crown prince?
Yet something about the way Xi Ming had looked him over yesterday had made him uncomfortable in a way he could not name.
Today was no different.
That gaze swept over him with some unknown purpose, sizing him up as though appraising an object.
How many years had it been since anyone had looked at him like that?
Irritation began simmering in the Eldest Prince's heart. He wanted to gouge out the bastard's eyes!
Had he looked at Qi Yuanzuo like this in their previous life, too?
Qi Yuanzuo was a hypocrite who feigned benevolence and righteousness, magnanimous on the surface but possessed of quite a temper behind closed doors.
Was this the truth behind the crown prince killing his teacher?
The Qi Emperor had few offspring. At present, he had only two princes, and the crown prince was just three, too young to begin school.
The Eldest Prince was the only pupil in the entire Imperial Study.
Xi Ming stood beside the Eldest Prince, teaching him to recite the Thousand Character Classic.
"When you know your faults, you must correct them; never forget what you have learned."
"Do not speak of another's shortcomings; do not rely arrogantly on your own strengths."
"..."
The Eldest Prince repeated after him while his mind wandered.
Those two lines meant that one should never give up on something one had the ability to accomplish.
Did never giving up the fight for the throne in my previous life count?
One should not discuss other people's faults and shortcomings, nor grow arrogant on the strength of one's own merits or advantages.
The Eldest Prince considered this seriously. He had done everything the Thousand Character Classic forbade, and not a single thing it encouraged.
What was that called? Going against the proper way?
And Qi Yuanzuo? He was nothing but a hypocrite. Why had he been the one to take the throne in the end?
Why had Father favored him so much?
Three depositions and three restorations still hadn't finished him off! Even after he rebelled twice, Father had still wanted to leave him the throne!
Fuck!
He could have let that go. He could still comfort himself that he had lost not to the crown prince, but to the old emperor's favoritism.
But after he died in his previous life, his soul had lingered in the palace, and he had seen Qi Yuanzuo conceal his crimes of incest and poisoning his younger brother so that he could be buried in the imperial mausoleum.
The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth princes had all reunited in the imperial mausoleum. Only Qi Yuanzuo had died miserably outside it.
Death by a thousand cuts, his bones ground down and his ashes scattered.
Did he care about those few extra crimes?
Did he care about being buried in the imperial mausoleum?!
That hypocritical act, that lying little bastard! Even after he was dead, Qi Yuanzuo was still sickening him!
Even the way Qi Yuanzuo died sickened him! Fuck!
His body mechanically repeated the text while his soul threw tantrums all over the heavens.
Xi Ming was observing the Eldest Prince as well.
He was earnest and quick-witted, with above-average looks, but his frame was not slender enough, and his skin could not compare with the crown prince's.
Remembering the crown prince's frail, pallid appearance in bed, he could not help licking his lips, a little regret stirring in his heart.
Heaven knew how delighted he had been when he learned he would be teaching the crown prince.
That was a treasure held aloft by the most exalted person in the realm, with fine silks spread beneath his feet and eastern pearls used as marbles. Wherever he went, attendants crowded ahead and behind him.
His food and drink gathered the finest things under heaven. His feet rarely even touched the ground, and he had been nurtured until he was soft and tender as custard. And that was not even counting the fact that the crown prince would one day ascend to the highest seat!
He would have tamed the future emperor. The mere thought made his heart itch unbearably.
Unfortunately, something had gone wrong along the way.
Still, a child raised by the imperial family was bound to be better than the wild weeds outside.
Dividing his attention, he surveyed their surroundings. The eunuchs waited outside the study with their backs turned, and the guards stood far away.
He would only touch him, nothing more. Children this age were blank sheets of paper, there for him to draw whatever lines he pleased.
Confucian teachings were the easiest tool to use, slowly corroding their thoughts and dismantling their defenses. He liked the process of nurturing fruit until it ripened, then grew rotten.
So what if he was discovered? He hadn't done anything.
These children could not even explain themselves clearly when they complained.
All sorts of imaginings filled Xi Ming's mind. Inwardly smug, he remained perfectly solemn on the surface.
As he thought, he could not help reaching out.
A sudden warmth touched his hand, startling the Eldest Prince. He saw that old Xi had stopped at some point and taken his hand, leading him over to grind ink.
Perhaps it was his imagination, but the man's little finger seemed to be lightly scratching the back of his hand.
His breath brushed right beside the prince's ear. It stank.
"Your Highness is clever. Memorizing the Thousand Character Classic will surely pose no difficulty. Allow this humble subject to teach you how to hold a brush."
The Eldest Prince's gaze fell on the man's unusually long little fingernail. A wave of revulsion made him shudder.
He looked up at Xi Ming in startled suspicion, staring straight into those eyes that betrayed something depraved.
An ordinary child would have been at an age when he did not know a damn thing. What could he have noticed?
But who was the Eldest Prince?
In his previous life, he had lasted more than twenty years in the struggle for the succession, and had been the third-to-last to die!
Xi Ming's little designs were nothing in his eyes.
He might have been fine if he had not looked, but once he did, fury surged from his heart into his head.
How was the way this dung beetle looked at him any different from his own gaze when he committed incest?!
No wonder it had felt both familiar and wrong.
Eyes wide, the Eldest Prince sprang away as though dodging a pile of shit.
Fuck his mother!
While Xi Ming was still staring in bewilderment, he snatched the inkstone from the desk and smashed it at his head and face, swift, vicious, and precise!
One blow from the inkstone broke Xi Ming's nose. The sharp, aching pain flooded his eyes with tears. As he covered his nose and stumbled back, the Eldest Prince picked up a stool and slammed it repeatedly into his lower body.
Walk by the river often enough, and how could your shoes stay dry!
To think he had once taken a fancy to Little Aunt, and now someone had taken a fancy to him?!
That little bastard Qi Yuanzuo and his crow's mouth! If he could return to his previous life, he would clamp a hand over his mouth and make him swallow that "birds of a feather flock together" curse!
The Eldest Prince was like a crazed leopard. If he could not cripple him, he would beat him to death!
Xi Ming covered his head and scurried like a rat, circling through the jumble of desks and stools as he shouted,
"Someone! Someone help! The Eldest Prince has gone mad!"
Hearing the commotion, the eunuchs outside the Imperial Study hurried in. They did not know what had happened and dared not restrain the Eldest Prince, so they could only shield the Junior Tutor.
"Your Highness! Calm down, Your Highness!"
After all that uproar, the two were brought to the Imperial Writing Room.
The Qi Emperor had spent that day's court session wrangling with the Empress Dowager over the rebellion and was already irritated. Nothing about either of them looked right to him.
"Speak. What happened?!"
"A pupil struck his teacher in the Imperial Study! Qi Chengyou! What remarkable abilities you have!"
Xi Ming retreated to advance, shuffling forward several paces on his knees as he wept bitterly:
"Your Majesty! This humble subject does not know what he did wrong to provoke such fury in the Eldest Prince! My being beaten is a minor matter, but the Eldest Prince's reputation is a grave one. Please calm your anger, Your Majesty!"
The Qi Emperor's expression softened slightly. "Minister Xi, I will certainly see justice done for you."
Qi Chengyou suddenly shouted angrily, "Father! This bastard touched my hand and breathed into my ear! He was trying to seduce me!"
The Qi Emperor sprayed out a mouthful of water and stared, utterly dumbfounded.
Qi Chengyou felt the fire was not hot enough yet, so he piled on more fuel.
"Father! He even said my skin wasn't as fair as my little brother's! He said looking at my little brother made his heart itch!"
The Qi Emperor slammed the desk in fury.
"Shut your mouth!!!"
Before you continue