Emperor Qing often summoned him to dine together, putting on a show of fatherly affection for the countless watching eyes in the Capital.
Carrier pigeons flew ceaselessly above the convoy, and every few days, Zhou Cheng received negative emotions from the Crown Prince and the Second Prince.
On the evening of his return to the Capital, a grand banquet was held in the palace.
During the feast, Emperor Qing specifically summoned Count Sinan, Fan Jian, before him and lavishly praised his achievements. Then he brought up Fan Jian's son, Fan Xian, who lived far away in Danzhou, expressing his intention to marry Lin Wan'er to him.
Seated nearby, the Eldest Princess, Li Yunrui, turned deathly pale at those words.
She abruptly rose and swept out of the banquet, citing ill health. The Crown Prince instinctively moved to follow, but after glancing at Emperor Qing, he sheepishly sat back down.
After the banquet, Zhou Cheng did not return to Prince Cheng's Residence. Instead, he went straight to Guangxin Palace.
The moment he entered the hall, he saw wreckage strewn across the floor-overturned tables and chairs, with shards of porcelain scattered everywhere.
Li Yunrui stood in the hall, her chest heaving violently and her eyes brimming with venom.
She saw Zhou Cheng enter.
"Chengcheng, you were right..." Her voice trembled, caught between laughter and tears. "His Majesty really intends to marry Wan'er to that bastard born of that wretched woman!"
Zhou Cheng approached and asked a question whose answer he already knew. "It's been a whole year. Have you still not disposed of him, Aunt?"
"Every man I sent was useless! They couldn't even deal with one little bastard!" Li Yunrui viciously swept a half-toppled vase beside her onto the floor, where it shattered with a piercing crash.
Zhou Cheng stopped two paces away and watched her indulge in another fit of madness.
Li Yunrui closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. When she opened them again, the frenzy in them had subsided a little. She looked Zhou Cheng over and chuckled.
"Chengcheng, you've only just returned to the Capital, yet you came to see your aunt before returning to Prince Cheng's Residence. Surely you didn't come expressly to watch me make a spectacle of myself?"
Zhou Cheng smiled. "Even when you're angry, Aunt, you have a charm all your own. How could that be a spectacle?"
Li Yunrui cast him a sidelong glance. "Such a sweet tongue."
She called in her maids to clean up the mess, then led Zhou Cheng into her bedchamber in the rear hall.
After dismissing the attendants, Li Yunrui poured a cup of tea and took a small sip before speaking.
"Tell me, then. What brought you here in such a hurry? I hope it's good news."
Zhou Cheng did not answer. He simply took the cup she had drunk from as though it were perfectly natural and drained the remaining tea.
"Aunt, did you know I was ambushed by assassins when I left the Capital a year ago?"
Li Yunrui's cup-holding hand paused almost imperceptibly, but her expression remained composed.
"I heard a little about it. Fortunately, Heaven watches over the fortunate, Chengcheng."
Zhou Cheng raised his eyes and stared straight at her. Only when a negative-emotion notification sounded in his ears did he slowly speak.
"The assassin claimed to be Second Brother's retainer. But I knew he belonged to the Crown Prince."
Li Yunrui's smile stiffened slightly, though her voice remained steady. "You must have misunderstood something, Chengcheng. Whether the Second Prince or the Crown Prince, they're your brothers by blood. Why would they attack you? Some villain must have deceived you, sowing discord between brothers."
Zhou Cheng nodded. "You're right, Aunt. Someone was indeed sowing discord. Although the assassin came from the Eastern Palace, someone else laid the trap."
He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice.
"Why don't you guess who that person was, Aunt?"
Li Yunrui turned her head aside.
"I've spent so long shut away in the palace. How could I possibly guess?"
Zhou Cheng suddenly reached out and took the hand clenched beneath her sleeve.
He gently eased her fingers open.
"It's not that you can't guess, Aunt. You don't need to. Weren't you the one who planned that assassination?"
Li Yunrui froze for a moment.
An attempt at a smile appeared on her face. She wanted to tell him that this joke was not remotely funny, but then she saw his eyes-that firm gaze, allowing no room for doubt.
The smile vanished from her face, and they stared at each other without expression.
After a moment, she withdrew her hand.
"Well... well, Chengcheng. Your aunt underestimated you."
She shook her head and laughed. Slowly, her laughter grew utterly unrestrained.
"That's right. I sowed discord. So what? Do you have evidence? Witnesses? I merely said a few words to the Crown Prince. What can you do to me? I'm your aunt, and this is the Capital. What could you possibly do to me?"
Zhou Cheng quietly watched her frenzied arrogance, the sort that made anyone itch to slap her. Suddenly, he smiled too.
"Wrongdoing always comes at a price." He stood, his shadow falling over her. "Even the Eldest Princess is no exception."
Li Yunrui sneered. "A price? What price? Are you going to complain to His Majesty?"
As though she had heard something incredibly funny, she laughed until she shook like a flowering branch in the wind.
Zhou Cheng shook his head.
"Tattling is a child's game. I'm the injured party. I have my own way of collecting my debts."
"You?" Li Yunrui raised an eyebrow, her eyes filled with contempt.
Zhou Cheng said nothing more. He merely smiled.
In the next instant, he appeared behind Li Yunrui like a phantom and clamped a hand around her throat.
Li Yunrui's face flushed red as she struggled for air, yet not a trace of fear rose in her. Still mocking him, she forced out the words.
"I still don't believe you dare kill me."
Zhou Cheng loosened his fingers slightly. His other hand gripped her slender waist, and he lowered his head toward her ear.
"How could I bear to kill you? Aunt, do you remember... what I said here a year ago?"
Chapter 7: Conquest (Please bookmark and keep reading)
How could Li Yunrui remember something from a year ago?
One look at her expression told Zhou Cheng the answer, but he hardly cared.
"It doesn't matter if you've forgotten. After all..."
Before he finished speaking, the fingers resting on Li Yunrui's waist gave a light tug, and the brocade sash embroidered with cloud patterns suddenly fell loose.
The instant her robes parted, even Li Yunrui, who had remained composed with a hand around her throat, caught her breath.
"Li Chengcheng, what are you doing?"
"You know perfectly well."
"Have you gone mad? Given who we are, how dare you behave so outrageously!"
"Heh... who we are?" Zhou Cheng chuckled softly.
Li Yunrui was not Emperor Qing's biological sister, and she had no blood ties to him either.
That was hardly a secret in the Capital.
Naturally, he would not dare cross the true boundary. But beyond that, why should he burden himself with so many scruples?
"I told you I'd make you pay. If you won't give me what's owed, I'll just have to take it myself!"
"How dare you! Get away from me!"
Li Yunrui struggled hard to break free, but the arm around her remained as immovable as an iron hoop.
With a few deft movements, Zhou Cheng's fingers reached the thin ties of her undergarment.
As though she had felt the warmth of his palm, a faint tremor ran through Li Yunrui.
She seized his moving hand with both of hers and lowered her voice, forcing herself to remain composed.
"Li Chengcheng, enough! If you go any further, I'll call for help! Defiling the palace is a grave crime. Even if you're a prince, you won't come to a good end!"
At her words, Zhou Cheng did not stop. Instead, he gave a scornful laugh.
"If something like this becomes public knowledge, I may come to a bad end, but how much better will yours be?
"If I dare do it, then naturally I dare bear the consequences.
"Everyone knows I've never harbored grand ambitions. Even if they strip me of my title, exile me, and reduce me to a commoner, so what?
"But you're different! The power in your hands, control over the Imperial Treasury, the honor of being the Eldest Princess... could you bear to give all that up?"
Li Yunrui's breath caught.
She desperately wanted to turn around and slap him, to declare fiercely that she could give it all up, even to threaten to shatter jade and stone alike so the man behind her would learn what it meant to fear her.
But... she did not dare...
What a madwoman feared most was meeting someone even madder!
She had judged countless people, yet she could not see through Li Chengcheng at all.
Nothing he had done over the years had ever fallen within her expectations.
She feared the unexpected.
She did not dare gamble, nor could she afford to.
Outside the hall, a fierce gust swept in, crushing the lotus pond's stillness inch by inch.
An hour later.
Perfectly at ease and fully dressed, Zhou Cheng slipped on his shoes, walked straight to the tea table, and sat down. He poured himself a cup of tea that had long since gone cold.
After a long time, Li Yunrui's eyes slowly regained their focus, and at last some awareness returned.
She instinctively raised her hand and pulled a length of sheer fabric over herself.
By the time Zhou Cheng set down the empty teapot, Li Yunrui had fully regained her senses.
Enduring the discomfort throughout her body, she tried to cast aside her tangled emotions. Her thoughts raced as she began weighing the advantages and disadvantages of her present situation.
She took several deep breaths, tightened the covering around herself, and glanced at the man beside the tea table. Still shaken, she forced herself to remain calm.
"Ch-Chengcheng, you and I are one now. From this point on, we rise together and fall together."
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