"Your Majesty!"
As Wei Mingxiu stared at Zhou Ye in a daze, everyone in the Imperial Academy had already dropped to their knees before Emperor Chaoyang, Wei Zhao, who stood behind Zhou Ye. Seeing the emperor's grim expression, they trembled, nearly prostrating themselves on the ground, too afraid to look up.
"Chengye, what exactly happened here? Did you really intend to murder Mingxiu, as Minister Zhou said?"
Though Wei Zhao asked the question, his gaze fell on the hand Zhou Ye had used to restrain Wei Chengye.
Zhou Ye frowned slightly.
He had said those words just now to deliberately expose Wei Chengye's intention to kill Wei Mingxiu.
He wanted to see how Wei Zhao, who had heard the truth and witnessed the facts alongside him, would handle the matter between his two sons.
Only then could he assess Wei Mingxiu's current situation and determine how to help him in the future, so that he could become his white moonlight.
Now it was obvious.
Wei Zhao intended to protect Wei Chengye.
After all, even a fool could tell from the way he had asked that he was plainly giving Wei Chengye a chance to explain himself and escape blame.
As for the places Wei Chengye and Wei Mingxiu held in Wei Zhao's heart,
it was clear who mattered more.
For a moment, Zhou Ye's thoughts raced. Having grasped the intricacies of the situation, he tactfully released Wei Chengye's wrist.
But without drawing attention to it, he snatched the twin-flower silver hairpin back and tucked it into his sleeve.
By now, Wei Chengye was in no position to worry about the hairpin.
He turned over and knelt on the ground, his voice full of fear and grievance.
"Father Emperor, I've been wronged!" he said.
"I only wanted to borrow Sixth Brother's hairpin to play with it, but I never expected that to make him angry."
"He lunged straight at me and raised his hand to strike me. If my attendants hadn't stopped him, I might have come to a terrible end. How could I have been the one trying to harm Mingxiu, as General Zhou said?"
Listening from the side, Zhou Ye narrowed his eyes.
His Highness the Third Prince had perfected the art of turning the blame on his victim at such a young age.
If Zhou Ye hadn't seen everything himself, he might really have been taken in by Wei Chengye's story.
"You're lying." Wei Mingxiu's expression was ugly. "I wasn't trying to hurt you. I just wanted back the hairpin my mother left me."
"I'm not lying!" Wei Chengye spoke forcefully, pointing at the circle of palace maids, eunuchs, and young princes and princesses around him.
"They all saw it! You were the one who tackled me first!"
"You were the one who attacked first!"
"I..."
Wei Mingxiu tried to say more.
But Wei Zhao cut him off and turned to Wei Chengye's attendants. "Tell me, what happened?"
The palace maids and eunuchs pressed their foreheads to the ground. "We saw it, Your Majesty. His Highness the Sixth Prince attacked first! We went forward to stop him, and in the shoving, the hairpin might have nearly stabbed His Highness the Sixth Prince in the eye. It wasn't at all as General Zhou said-we weren't deliberately trying to murder His Highness!"
"You! You were clearly punching and kicking His Highness the Sixth Prince just now!" The young eunuch who had been shoved and had his head split open while defending Wei Mingxiu couldn't hold back. "I saw it all! And His Highness the Third Prince insulted His Highness the Sixth Prince's birth mother first, then snatched his... against his wishes."
Smack-
Eunuch Li, who stood beside Wei Zhao, suddenly slapped the young eunuch's face to one side.
Blood spattered onto the ground.
Wei Mingxiu's pupils trembled. "Xiao Wu!"
Li Dehai's expression was cold. "His Majesty wasn't asking you. What gives a servant like you the right to speak out of turn?"
With that, he gestured to the guards who had accompanied Wei Zhao. "Quickly, drag this ill-mannered servant out and behead him."
Xiao Wu immediately collapsed to the ground.
"Your Majesty, spare me! Eunuch Li, spare me!"
"Father Emperor!!!"
Wei Mingxiu was shocked by the turn of events.
He dropped to his knees beside Wei Zhao with a thud and looked up at the man who had never shown him the slightest warmth.
He pleaded humbly, "Please don't kill Xiao Wu! He didn't mean to! He only entered the palace recently and still doesn't know the rules, so he spoke out of turn. He..."
"He doesn't know the rules, but don't you?"
Wei Zhao clearly had no desire to hear his explanation. As soon as he opened his mouth, he turned the blame on Wei Mingxiu, just as Wei Chengye had done. "You are Chengye's younger brother, yet you showed your elder brother no respect and attacked him over a mere hairpin. You made a spectacle of yourselves before the entire Imperial Academy and General Zhou, disgracing the imperial family!"
"And now you have the nerve to plead for him before me?"
[Oh my god!! I'm so mad (งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง⁼³₌₃! This damned emperor's favoritism knows no bounds!! No wonder the villain killed him in the end! If it were me, I'd do him in too!]
Hearing Wei Zhao's words, even the little system hidden in Zhou Ye's consciousness couldn't sit still.
It clamored for Zhou Ye to help Wei Mingxiu.
[Be good, darling. Calm down, don't rush. Let's watch a little longer.]
Zhou Ye remained calm, observing Wei Mingxiu's reaction.
After all, this was his first meeting with the young villain.
He needed to get a sense of his personality.
And the best way to see a person's true temperament was to watch how he behaved under stress.
His gaze fell on Wei Mingxiu's youthful face.
Zhou Ye noticed that the remaining hope and familial affection for Wei Zhao in Wei Mingxiu's dark eyes had completely turned to despair.
In the past, Wei Zhao had never visited Wei Mingxiu in his mother's courtyard, and had allowed the others in the palace to persecute and bully mother and son.
Wei Mingxiu had still made excuses for his father emperor in his heart.
He had thought Wei Zhao was occupied with affairs of state and had no time to attend to the affairs of the harem.
But now, he finally understood.
In Wei Zhao's eyes, he really was just a lowborn wretch, as Wei Chengye had said.
An accident.
He wasn't worth so much as half of Wei Chengye's finger.
Even if General Zhou hadn't intervened just now and his eyes had really been gouged out,
Wei Zhao probably wouldn't have blamed Wei Chengye in the slightest...
So Wei Zhao wasn't his father emperor.
He was an executioner through and through, one who could easily take his life and the lives of those dear to him!
At that thought, the young boy could bear it no longer.
He rose.
His frail body stood straight as green bamboo as he shielded Xiao Wu and looked up at Wei Zhao, speaking as though ready to face death.
His voice was steeped in coldness and hatred.
"Since Father Emperor twists the truth, cannot tell right from wrong, and insists on executing Xiao Wu, then execute me as well! At least I can go to the underworld and keep my poor mother company-the mother you trapped in the depths of this palace until she died!"
"How dare you! Are you accusing me of cruelty and injustice?" Wei Zhao had never expected such an attitude from Wei Mingxiu.
He had four sons and three daughters.
Of all their mothers, Wei Mingxiu's had held the lowest status and was the most disliked by the empress dowager.
That was why he had deliberately kept Wei Mingxiu and his mother in the palace: to anger that old woman.
After the courtesan singer and the empress dowager had both died, he had treated Wei Mingxiu as though he didn't exist.
Now this lowly, abandoned son was so tactless as to make him, the supreme emperor, lose face in public.
How could he not be angry?
There was no fear in Wei Mingxiu's eyes as he said coldly, "I'm only telling the truth!"
"Do you really think I wouldn't dare touch you?!" Fury surged in Wei Zhao's fierce eyes. He immediately snatched the sword from a guard beside him and thrust it at Wei Mingxiu!
But Wei Mingxiu gave a derisive laugh and closed his eyes.
Even a tiger would not devour its own cubs. If Wei Zhao killed him today,
his name would be cursed.
Then his death would at least be revenge on this coldhearted man for his mother.
But the pain never came.
Wei Mingxiu heard cries of alarm around him.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the sword meant to pierce his body was now held firmly in someone's hand.
The fingers and palm of that hand had been cut open, and blood seeped out, staining the blade.
Zhou Ye was there, half-kneeling on the ground in front of him, shielding him.
He spoke to Wei Zhao.
"I beg your pardon for my presumption, Your Majesty, but I implore you to quell your anger."