The Crown Prince Wants a Fight

The Palace of Nurturing Origin.

As the Qi Emperor emerged, a frenzy of weeping and laughter erupted inside, accompanied by the crash of tables, chairs, and jade ornaments hitting the floor.

Even now, the Qi Emperor had merely replaced everyone serving in the Palace of Nurturing Origin, rather than imprisoning the Empress Dowager.

Was it because he did not want to?

It was because he could not.

The Empress Dowager held a military tally that could mobilize the Garrison City Army stationed thirty li outside Chang'an. The general commanding that army was her younger brother.

In Great Qi, each region had its own military tally, divided into left and right halves. One half was kept at court, while the other remained in the sovereign's hands.

When bandit trouble broke out during the Late Emperor's reign, he did not trust Chang Gui, so he sent him far away to Annam and recalled Sima Shu, the Empress Dowager's younger brother, from his command there to Chang'an.

Transferring him would have been fine. So long as the emperor kept the tally himself, it would not have been a major issue. But the Late Emperor had something wrong with his head: he gave the Empress Dowager his half of the tally for mobilizing Chang'an's Garrison City Army.

Once something had been given away, could it really be taken back?

The Empress Dowager courted death every day. Sima Shu knew his sister's temperament, too, and feared the Qi Emperor might kill his mother in a fit of rage. Holding command of the Garrison City Army, he dared not leave, and the Empress Dowager would not let him leave either.

This had become a thorn in the Qi Emperor's heart.

A memorial arrived every day to inquire after his well-being. Ostensibly, it asked whether His Majesty was well; in truth, it asked whether the Empress Dowager was well.

Beyond those daily memorials, secret letters were surely passing between them.

What the Qi Emperor feared was that the Empress Dowager's tally was no longer in the Imperial Palace at all, but had already been handed to Sima Shu. All it would take was an agreed signal, and he would lead his troops straight to the palace.

Thirty li, a hundred thousand soldiers! At a gallop, they could arrive in less than an hour!

Given enough time, the Qi Emperor naturally would not fear those hundred thousand soldiers. But time was precisely what he lacked most.

Great Qi held its Spring Examination once every three years. Next year would bring the first since his accession. The talents selected would have clean backgrounds, belong to no faction, and have taken no side. He could mold them into his own trusted men.

He had originally planned to select talented men after the Spring Examination, gradually replace the Empress Dowager's people, and achieve a smooth transfer of power. If all went well, he could bring her down in one stroke next year.

Now that she had caused this uproar, he had no choice but to prepare for the worst.

The Empress Dowager's pregnancy was a scandal, enough to shake her dignity and authority. Thus, the Qi Emperor not only had no intention of concealing it for her-he intended to proclaim it far and wide!

He would see how Sima Shu responded!

Once he had weighed the advantages and dangers, the Qi Emperor no longer grew angry, no matter how wildly the Empress Dowager raved.

His "indifference" and "magnanimity" enraged her.

"Why should he get away with it?! I want to see him weep rivers of tears!"

The Empress Dowager screamed herself hoarse, her whole body weak.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Physicians in the Hall of Nurturing Origin silently held bowl after bowl of medicine to protect her pregnancy.

His Majesty had ordered them to make the Empress Dowager drink it.

If she lost her child, they would lose their lives.

The matron attending the Empress Dowager wore a sorrowful expression.

"Your Majesty, please rest..."

Lying on her couch, the Empress Dowager suddenly seized the shattered bronze mirror beside her and stared at the beauty reflected there, now filled with obsession, fury, hatred, and loathing.

She touched her face, tears streaming in a daze.

"I'm only thirty-eight. If not for the Great Ancestor, would Qi Shou-that pig with his fat head, enormous ears, and body full of greasy flesh-have been worthy of me?!"

Remembering her misery, the Empress Dowager sobbed. She had already resigned herself to her fate. She had thought this was all her life would ever be.

She would bear a son to rely on for the latter half of her life. As for the husband whose very sight made her want to vomit, he could go and die!

And so she had desperately taken concubines for the Late Emperor, so long as he did not come to her at night.

Every time they shared a bed, she felt hatred and humiliation. He was so fat she could not bring herself to put her mouth on him.

Pregnant at fourteen, she had vomited until she could eat nothing. She became frighteningly thin, with only her belly swelling large, and cried in terror every day.

After ten months of torment, she was finally freed. The moment she gave birth, she prayed with all her heart that her son would not be as ugly as Qi Shou.

Heaven heard her wish. The Qi Emperor was born fair, tender, and clean, without a trace of fat.

The Empress Dowager had been overjoyed, believing she had finally endured the worst and had something to look forward to. Yet she had only been allowed one glance!

The son she had borne through untold hardships and desperate struggles was carried away by someone else!

The despair of having her own flesh and blood brutally torn from her heart drove her to weep and rage. She wanted to take a knife and fight the Great Ancestor to the death!

The Great Ancestor kept insisting that the Imperial Grandson was too exalted to be raised by a woman, and forbade mother and son from seeing each other for five years!

At their first meeting, she had knelt humbly on the ground and glimpsed him from afar.

"Grandfather, who is that woman?"

Those words pierced her until she was covered in wounds!

Disgusting! Utterly disgusting!

The hatred in the Empress Dowager's heart drove her mad. She wanted revenge on the Great Ancestor! Revenge on the Late Emperor!

But the Great Ancestor did not even remember that she existed. While the Late Emperor lived, she had been Empress, yet possessed neither the phoenix seal nor authority over the palace. Her hatred accumulated until it turned her into someone else. She flattered the Late Emperor and gathered power, but just when she finally gained a little real authority, he died.

With her vengeance reduced to nothing, she turned her hatred on the Qi Emperor.

She was determined to make his life miserable!

The imperial family had made half her life a misery, so she would torment them until they never knew peace again!

Even after her death, she wanted the Qi Emperor to hate her whenever he thought of her.

She wanted him to hate her just as she hated the Great Ancestor and the Late Emperor!

The Empress Dowager clenched the broken bronze mirror until it cut into her flesh, laughing chillingly.

"Send word to the Hall of Inherited Blessing. I miss the Crown Prince..."

Qi Yuanzuo's afternoon lessons lasted two hours. By the time they ended, the sun was sinking in the west.

The Eldest Prince escorted the little Crown Prince back to the Hall of Inherited Blessing. The moment the little Crown Prince entered, he shouted at the top of his lungs,

"Is Father still here?"

Fat Eunuch hurried over with mincing steps, his smile fawning and obsequious. Before he even spoke, the little Crown Prince knew the answer from his expression alone.

"Your Highness, you're back. His Majesty has already left."

The little Crown Prince's voice brightened as he urged,

"Fat Eunuch, I want ten strong people. Hurry."

Sensing something was amiss, the Eldest Prince asked, "What do you need ten people for?"

With his hands behind his back, the little Crown Prince declared with perfect confidence, "I'm going to fight."

The Eldest Prince remembered their previous life. After the sixth prince was bullied by the Xiongnu Envoy Delegation, the Crown Prince had summoned his brothers that very night.

"Come on! We're going out to brawl!"

His bearing today was cast from the same mold as that memory.

The Eldest Prince himself was the sort who never minded trouble getting bigger, so the thought of dissuading him never even crossed his mind.

"Who are you fighting?"

The little Crown Prince answered calmly, "Zhaoyi Wei."

Jiang Liang, who had been silent all afternoon, felt her heart jump and could not help looking up.

Bolao secretly ground his teeth.

The Eldest Prince did not remember this person at all.

"Did she provoke you?"

The little Crown Prince said, "She hit one of my people."

The Crown Prince was actually very easy to talk to. So long as no one crossed his bottom line, he remained pleasant and reasonable. For a time, his brothers had even thought him spineless, a false gentleman.

Then they violated the Crown Prince's Rules and ended up with swollen faces and battered backsides. After that, no one called him good-tempered again.

Fat Eunuch had already found ten people.

There were both men and women, and every one of them looked born for a brawl.

The little Crown Prince nodded in satisfaction.

"Let's go."

The Eldest Prince followed eagerly.

This was the Crown Prince's first fight. He absolutely had to see who had earned such an honor.

The Crown Prince was not a well-behaved soul at heart.

Whether it was ganging up on the Xiongnu Envoy Delegation, making someone else keep songstresses for him, or openly wrecking a marriage during an incognito visit to Jiangnan, none of those were things a law-abiding man would do.

The Crown Prince in his memories had been full of spirit, basking in boundless glory.

The little Crown Prince's stern face and bold, spirited bearing imperceptibly overlapped with his image from their previous life.

The Eldest Prince could not take his eyes off him. He truly could not understand why the Crown Prince Consort, already married to the Crown Prince, had been blind enough to fall for San'er instead.

Author's note: There's still one update left. I'll make it up tomorrow morning.