You two really are devoted to each other

"Who?"

Hearing the Imperial Preceptor Zhang Lanhe ask him for someone, the Eighth Prince froze for a moment, wondering if he had misheard. "Who might you want, Imperial Preceptor? One of my guards or palace maids? Or perhaps a eunuch?"

Unless he was mistaken, the Imperial Preceptor's eyes were filled with murderous intent and jealousy toward him.

What the hell!

Never in his life had the Eighth Prince expected to hear the Imperial Preceptor ask him for someone. That look clearly said he would kill him if he refused.

He looked as though the Eighth Prince was stealing his longtime wife, leaving him feeling thoroughly cuckolded.

He was innocent! Not a single person under him had ever said they had an ambiguous relationship with the Imperial Preceptor.

Though he was a habitual lecher, he was not brainless. He knew perfectly well whom he could and could not covet.

Then the Eighth Prince reconsidered. If it's one of those people, the Imperial Preceptor can take them. I'll even have him owe me a favor.

Zhang Lanhe still did not know that person's name or true appearance. After a moment's thought, he said succinctly, "Your Shadow Guards."

As long as he could look through all the Shadow Guards, he would soon find that cunning little fox and drag him straight back to the National Preceptor's Residence.

It remained to be seen whether the Eighth Prince was so unwaveringly devoted to him that he would rather offend Zhang Lanhe than hand him over.

The Eighth Prince's expression changed instantly.

Who asked for someone's Shadow Guards right off the bat? They were a hidden trump card, never made public. The usual public stance was to tacitly deny having any.

Wasn't asking for his Shadow Guards simply an attempt to probe his hidden strength?

Besides, demanding them just like that-he was the Eighth Prince, after all. This was trampling his dignity into the dirt.

He could not readily hand over the deathsworn he had painstakingly trained. If the old emperor learned of his cowardice, he would surely be deeply disappointed in him, and he would never have a chance at that seat again.

Could his Shadow Guards have been noticed when someone secretly stirred up trouble earlier?

The Eighth Prince, Xie Tingchun, steeled himself and stood firm for once, politely refusing the Imperial Preceptor's unreasonable request. "Imperial Preceptor, I have no Shadow Guards of the sort you seek. You have the wrong person. If you want some other beauty, I can find a way to deliver one personally to the National Preceptor's Residence."

He absolutely could not expose his trump card so easily, so the Eighth Prince simply pretended he had no Shadow Guards at all.

He suspected the Imperial Preceptor had disliked him from the outset and was deliberately targeting him now.

Everyone the Imperial Preceptor had killed at the hunting grounds belonged to the Eighth Prince. It was also possible he suspected the prince of arranging an assassination against him.

"You two really are devoted to each other." Zhang Lanhe's gentle voice gradually darkened, the words sounding rather as though they were coming through gritted teeth.

Just as that little fox had said, the Eighth Prince could not bear to hand him over.

The thought that those two might be inseparably close made him feel awful.

"Then I wish Your Eighth Highness well in explaining yourself before His Majesty."

"?"

Quite a few high-ranking officials and nobles had been injured, and before long, the news was everywhere.

When the old emperor learned of it, he issued an edict summoning the Eighth Prince to the palace.

After receiving the old emperor's summons, the Eighth Prince steeled himself and left early for the imperial palace to explain how the bandits had trespassed on the hunting grounds and still escaped unscathed.

The old emperor had grown wary of him.

As the Eighth Prince left, the Imperial Preceptor Zhang Lanhe gave him a long look, then snorted coldly and ordered his spies to follow.

"Get more people to watch the Eighth Prince. When you see the person I want, bring him back! Mind you, don't hurt him."

If he could not bear to hand him over, Zhang Lanhe would make his retaliation so unbearable that the Eighth Prince would come to his door to apologize in person.

He would also let that little fox see for himself that he meant nothing to the Eighth Prince, who would still sacrifice him at any moment when faced with a threat.

Only under Zhang Lanhe's wing could he live however he pleased.

Zhang Lanhe wanted to see that face wear a shocked, shattered expression. It would certainly be interesting.

In short, the Eighth Prince's bad luck was about to begin.

Meanwhile, Xie Huizhou was glad to be free of trouble after the Eighth Prince left, enjoying flower-and-fruit tea as he waited for his close friends to return from hunting.

Ideally, they would hunt a deer, so they could have venison that evening.

The hunt proceeded as scheduled, and people at the hunting grounds began returning one after another, carrying their game.

Among those returning were some of the men Xie Huizhou had clubbed unconscious and fed laxatives to earlier. By the time someone finally found and brought them back, they were in a sorry state, and everyone burst into laughter at the sight of them.

"Whose sons are these? They'd have been better off dying at the assassins' hands. At least that would have been more dignified."

"What's wrong with them? I thought they were beggars. To think these people get to associate with us."

"They stink!"

"They're filthy. What a disgrace to their families. They have no breeding whatsoever."

"The Eighth Prince's men really are something else."

"Shut up! You'd better hope we don't find out which of you attacked us from behind, or don't blame us for showing no mercy!"

After so long living in pampered luxury, this was the first time in their lives they had been humiliated in public, and they could not help shouting curses.

Everyone present came from families of similar standing, so who cared about them? Those who usually clashed with them laughed even louder.

Earlier, they had gleefully disparaged Xie Huizhou both openly and covertly, yet when it was their turn to be mocked, they could not stand it.

These foul-mouthed men felt that whoever had beaten and humiliated them was among the crowd. Perhaps it had been the very people mocking them, who only wanted to see them disgrace themselves.

"I'll complain to His Eighth Highness later!"

But the Eighth Prince could barely fend for himself now and naturally would not come forward to stand up for them, so their threats came to nothing.

As the mockery grew louder, they flushed red and hurried away, unable to bear the embarrassment. Many of the original novel's scenes in which they plotted against the protagonist and were put in their place were simply erased by the butterfly effect.

With so much of the plot changed at once, Xie Huizhou felt that something unseen had undergone an enormous change.

Xie Huizhou thought little of it. "Their romance is still progressing pretty clearly. I don't think it's a big problem."

Ideally, the butterfly effect would erase his death ending. If he could change that, he would not even need to run away.

I don't have any mission for transmigrating into this novel. All the better if the storyline falls apart.

Soon, it was time for the hunters to present their game to their sweethearts. At every Spring Hunt, this also served as a way to select the beauties of Capital City.

In the original novel, Fang Yuanke had given Zhou Yanqing a deer, while others who had fallen in love with him at first sight scrambled to give him gifts too, making him a beauty in every sense of the word.

What a spectacle it had been.

Xie Huizhou had been despised for his arrogance and for allowing others to cause trouble, and had stayed alone in his tent, consumed by dark jealousy of others.

Xie Huizhou eagerly stood a short distance away, ready to enjoy the protagonist's sweet romantic moments.

But-

The people carrying their game lit up when they saw him come out, and all charged toward him!

"Ninth Prince, please, you must accept my game!"

"His game is too small. My wild boar is better!"

Xie Huizhou looked at the mountain of game piled before him, then at their eager expressions, a rare look of bewilderment appearing in his eyes.

"Huh? These are all for me?"