The man blocking his path looked almost as though he had been cast from the same mold as the Fourth Prince, differing only in bearing.
On the surface, the Fourth Prince was gentle and courteous, looking every bit the mature, composed young nobleman, while the Fifth Prince always acted flippant and roguish.
The same face, yet two utterly different people.
He looked Xie Huizhou over and snorted. "What tricks did you use to make my brother spend so much time on you lately? You don't look like anything special."
Recently, the Ninth Prince, Xie Huizhou, had risen to prominence both at court and beyond, becoming another formidable rival whose power was steadily growing.
He had some little cleverness, but in the Fifth Prince Xie Shiqing's eyes, he could never compare to the Fourth Prince.
Yet after suffering two setbacks at Xie Huizhou's hands, the Fourth Prince had come to regard him as his greatest rival after the Eighth Prince, watching him and plotting against him every day.
Beneath that refined, cultured exterior, he had become quite unhinged, often muttering that only a brother like this was a worthy opponent, and that he would kill Xie Huizhou with his own hands.
He had repeated it so often that the Fifth Prince's ears were practically growing calluses.
That had forced the Fifth Prince to come and see for himself just what was so extraordinary about this Ninth Son that he could occupy so much of the Fourth Prince's thoughts.
"Good afternoon, Fifth Imperial Brother."
Only then did Xie Huizhou remember that this was the Fifth Prince, Xie Shiqing, a man obsessed with his elder brother who resembled the Fourth Prince but was nowhere near as formidable.
On the surface, he willingly supported the Fourth Prince's bid for the throne, but inwardly, he