Far away in the north, a man clad in soft white brocade robe reclined on the wide bed with his slightly pale lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes shut. Beside him, an old man with a long white beard held the hand of the resting man and took his pulse with a focus between his eyebrows. After he finished checking, his face appeared somber as his eyes turned to look at the gorgeously dressed woman standing at the side with a worried expression.

“Doctor Hu, how is the situation with Wei’er?” asked the woman with concern laced in her voice. 

Hearing her, the old doctor appeared a little hesitant before replying, “Replying to Her Majesty, His Highness has caught cold but due to the recent fatigue, he has gotten a bit weak. This one will write some prescriptions, and after taking the medicine and nourishing tonics, there should not be any problem.”

The woman gave a sigh of relief after hearing it and turned to look at the man lying on the bed, “Wei’er, Mother has told you not to overexert your body. Although it is only cold, you cannot be careless,” saying she looked at Fan Li Wei with a warm gaze and added, “Regarding the matters at the court, Bengong will ask your brother to help you take care of it until you’ve recovered. You just have to focus on resting your body so that you can get well soon and help your father in handling the court affairs.”

Fan Li Wei’s eyes opened partly to look at the woman sitting on the side of his bed as she gently held hand with motherly affection. A trace of coldness flashed in his eyes before disappearing when he gave a small smile and said, “This unfilial son has made Mother worried again. Please tell Elder Brother that son will have to trouble him with the matter of flood that Father Emperor has asked this son to oversee.”

A satisfied smile appeared on her face at the mention of handing over the management task of the flood. After that, she didn’t bother staying any longer and instructed the servants to serve him properly before making her way out of the door in a graceful manner.

As soon as the door was closed, Fan Li Wei languidly opened his sharp eyes which had no trace of earlier haziness and wiped the power on lips with the wet towel passed by Wei Min. Soon the natural rosy colour appeared on his lips. His body had no sign of weakness as he flipped the blanket and stood up from the bed in a swift motion.

The room was filled with all kinds of expensive tonics and nourishing pills. Without even bothering to glance at them, he coldly spat, “Throw them away!”

Wei Min did not waste a minute before collecting them and dumping them in the trash. At first, he had felt his heart ache at the sight of these expensive medicines and tonics being thrown away as if they were orange peels. But after knowing what was contained within those small bottles, he couldn’t wait to hurl them away himself.

After taking care of them, he opened the windows to let out the bitter smell of medicine filling the room and let the fresh air in while saying, “It seems Her Majesty can’t wait any longer for Your Highness to succumb to the poison.”

Fan Li Wei sat on the wide chair and looked through the parchments which were inconspicuously lying under the table and said, “She won’t let me die so soon,” after all, he still had many uses for the crown prince. The Empress won’t let such a useful pawn go to waste by killing him.

After the death of Fan Li Wei’s mother not too long ago, the Emperor had started to take notice of this sickly son of his who he had always deemed to be worthless compared to his other sons. His years of neglect and indifference towards this son had made him somewhat guilty at this time. In order to make some compensation, he had decided to let Fan Li Wei handle the matter of flood in the Bei river which was the river at the border between Fan and Xin kingdom.

Fan Li Wei had accepted the order and ‘unintentionally’ revealed the solution of the Bei river flood with the crown prince. Originally, this matter was a hot potato which no prince wanted to take as there was no possible solution to it. However, after hearing Fan Li Wei’s solution which no one had thought about, the crown prince had been vying to get the authority from his hand so that he himself could solve this problem and shine in front of the Emperor.

Thinking about how he was played in the act of mother and son who had played him like a fool in the past life, Fan Li Wei couldn’t help giving self-deprecating laugh. He had truly thought that the Empress treated him like her own son after his Mother abandoned him to run after the Emperor and even going as far as poisoning him. For him, the crown prince was the elder brother that he respected and he was willing to even lay his life for him had the need arisen.

But at last, it was all his wishful thinking. He had ultimately died in their hands.

“But...Your Highness, after giving such an opportunity to the Crown Prince, won’t his position be more stable as the next successor? What if he actually succeeds in this task of flood management?” asked Wei Min with concern. Bei river is at the border of the two kingdoms and with floods occurring each year, it has been a matter of great inconvenience for both the kingdoms as none of the kingdoms can unilaterally act without the cooperation with the other in the water beyond their territory. Fan kingdom can minimize the damage towards its own land but it was not a permanent solution and would cost them a lot of resources every year. So whoever can solve this matter would make a big name in the imperial court.

In his last life, Fan Li Wei had foolishly followed the crown prince to help him solve the issue. However, the crown prince had not only made the matter worse, he had put all the blame on Fan Li Wei’s head and implicated him in the death of hundreds of flood victims. The Emperor was so enraged with Fan Li Wei that he had directly stripped him of the title of Prince and never let him appear in the imperial court again.

Leaning against the chair, Fan Li Wei’s eyes opened and he opened his mouth to say, “If only he can solve instead of making it worse,” which he would not have a chance to do in this life, he thought to himself.

During his stay in the Xin kingdom, Fan Li Wei had already made a deal with the Xin Emperor with regards to the Bei river. Now it was just a matter of time before everything fell into its piece.

Right at this time, a small knock was heard from the window. Wei Min hurriedly went to the open window where a man passed him small chit of paper before immediately disappearing afterwards.

Fan Li Wei seemed to be waiting for it as he had already taken it from Wei Min’s hand before the other could even react.

Upon reading the message inside, Fan Li Wei’s face immediately became cold and his eyes had hidden darkness underneath.

Seeing his Master’s countenance, Wei Min glanced at the message and his back instantly straightened his back with alarm.

The letter that was supposed to be for Madame Lu was intercepted by Prime Minister Lu? Although he was Fan Li Wei's most trusted aide, he could not understand what the other was trying to achieve with this. 

After Fan Li Wei had found the charcoal stick and heard from the third princess that it belonged to Bai Yu Yan, he had investigated this matter to confirm it after they had already arrived at the Fan kingdom, even going as far as to steal some of her discarded drawings from her shop without anyone’s notice.

After comparing the two drawing styles, there was no need for further investigation. 

Wei Min had never seen his Master so impatient as he was while finding the person who had sent them the drawing of the mountain lily during their stay in the Xin. He had thought it might be because it was the inverse scale of Fan Li Wei and the matter of his poisoning was not known to anyone else apart from him, his mother, and Wei Min. So he thought that his Master would take this chance to eliminate whoever knew about this matter.

However, contrary to his expectation, Fan Li Wei’s eyes had a surge of rolling emotions but his lips had a gentle smile, making it hard for others to understand what he was thinking.

But after knowing that Prime Minister Lu has received the letter instead of Bai Yu Yan, Wei Min silently closed his eyes. He didn’t dare imagine what would happen next.