Chapter 20
“729, what’s the meaning of this?” Lin JunYi stared fixedly at Yu Xian but the other person didn’t look up at all, completely focused on the protagonist shou.
729 was just as shocked as he was and didn’t reply for a few seconds.
“Is it Xie Xian? Did he transmigrate too?”
“No, it’s impossible. If there was another transmigrator, I would be able to detect them immediately. General Yu Xian is definitely a native of this world.”
So it was possible for there to be other transmigrators. Lin JunYi didn’t have time to pay attention to his information right now however and filed it away for future reference. “Then what’s going on?”
“.... perhaps it’s a coincidence? Just someone that looks the same?”
Lin JunYi stared suspiciously at General Yu’s face.
It wasn’t that there weren’t any differences to Xie Xian. For one Yu Xian looked younger than when he’d first met Xie Xian. Right now the famed Young General Yu was only twenty-two years old. And although Xie Xian had been well built thanks to his regular exercise regime, it couldn’t be compared to Yu Xian who was someone that slept next to their sword and had been fighting wars alongside his father and uncles since he was a teenager.
Was it really just a coincidence?
How well did Lin JunYi know Xie Xian? Every single part of his face and body had been deeply ingrained into his memories. And the way his heart leapt when he saw Yu Xian… was it really possible that it was just a look alike? Could his heart be fooled so easily?
Looking at Yu Xian’s stupid in love expression while gazing at Ruan Xi made Lin JunYi’s teeth ache. But before he could make any decisions, a cry came from outside.
“The Emperor is here!”
Lin JunYi sank onto his knees along with the rest of the congregation. The Emperor, a tall, middle aged man who had a large frame that might have looked heroic in his youth but now appeared quite paunchy and rotund, soon appeared in the door of the Hall of Prosperity and slowly made his way to his golden throne.
Then, as soon as the Emperor gave them instructions to rise, Lin JunYi rose to his feet gracefully.
An eunuch beside the Emperor filled his cup and the Emperor lifted it towards Lin JunYi. He said tenderly, his cloudy, wrinkled eyes filled with fatherly affection, “My beloved imperial son, today is your seventeenth birthday. Your father Emperor wishes you a long life filled with joy and success.”
Below the throne, the officials and noblemen all echoed the sentiment, raising their glasses to toast to him.
“Thank you father, thank you all.” Lin JunYi lifted his own cup in response. “But I only wish that health and fortune favors Father Emperor, for as long as Father is alive, Yi’er knows that he will live well.”
When the Emperor heard this a flicker of surprise and joy passed through his eyes. In his memory the Ninth Prince was always short-tempered and moody. He very rarely said anything sweet or pleasant. But owing to his weak constitution, the Emperor had always overlooked it. Remembering it now and seeing Lin JunYi drink his toast, he asked quietly and privately in concern, “Yi-er, how do you feel? You shouldn’t drink too much.”
It was true. Just this one half-glass made Lin JunYi’s head dizzy and the entire room began to spin.
This body’s illness is no joke. If it was his real body, he would be able to drink three full jugs without blinking an eye. With such a weak and useless constitution, it was no wonder that the original was always irritable. Lin JunYi half closed his eyes and smiled at the Emperor. “Father Emperor, it’s okay. Just this once. Yi'er… is very happy tonight because Father Emperor has come to celebrate for me.”
The Emperor’s heart softened into a pool of water. He motioned the eunuch behind him and whispered to him. Then he removed a gorgeous red waist jade which was hanging from his own robes and handed it to the eunuch.
The eunuch waved his hands and a number of maidservants came bearing gifts. They included things like silks, jewels and fragrant teas. There were even a few exotic gadgets from foreign lands. It was clear that the Emperor spared no expense when it came to the Ninth Prince’s birthday gifts. But all of that paled in comparison to the red jade that the Emperor had decided to give him at the last minute.
All the courtiers exchange shocked glances. After all, this was one of the twin jades that belonged to the Emperor and denoted his power. Traditionally one was usually given to the Crown Prince once he reached age. However the Emperor had given to Song Yi. Everyone knew the reason. What did it mean!? Did the Emperor mean to name the Ninth Prince as his heir!? Why? Just because he was unusually sweet and said a few nice things?!
The officials all looked at each other and couldn’t help having a lot of different thoughts. The Emperor said a few more things and waved the party to continue.
“Host, host!” 729’s warning voice sounded in his head. “The drugged wine!”
Goddammit, how could he have forgotten!
But it really wasn’t Lin JunYi’s fault. After all he had just arrived in the world and the plot was something thought of by the original and not him. And right now there was such a huge jumble of foreign thoughts in his head, he hadn’t paid enough attention to this event.
Lin JunYi got up and rushed over but it was too late. As he approached the table that Ruan Xi and Yu Xian were sitting at, he saw his personal eunuch Xiao-Bao pour the drugged wine into Ruan Xi’s cup.
Ruan Xi reached out his hand to take it but a voice stopped him. “Minister Ruan.”
Looking up, the protagonist shou smiled gently. “Your Highness, happy birthday.” Getting up quickly he bowed respectfully and Yu Xian followed. Lin JunYi waved his hands and sat down opposite them. The party was quite casual and while the performances were happening in the middle of the hall, the guests were free to mingle amongst themselves.
As they resumed their seats, Yu Xian stared at Lin JunYi suspiciously. He’d heard Ruan Xi mention that he had been growing closer to the Ninth Prince and that the other person wasn’t as bad as the rumors made him out to be. Although Yu Xian’s nature was simple, he had good instincts and was unconvinced. After all, Song Yi’s name was legendary in the Imperial City - and not in a good way.
“Your Highness, I’ve finished The Travels of Tang Ci that you lent me, it is indeed fascinating. His description of the beauty of the south-east regions was very vivid. But even more fascinating to me was the passages dedicated to customs there, for example that shu children are held to the same value and standards as di children. What does the Ninth Prince think?” {Shu children are the children born to concubines, rather than the official wife.}
Lin JunYi laughed. “Why not? After all, the children of the Emperor’s concubines can become the Emperor and hold up the heavens. So why shouldn’t other households be the same?”
Both Ruan Xi and Yu Xian stared at him in surprise. This statement… was he referring to the fact that he thought it was most likely that one of his brothers would likely be the next Emperor rather than himself? After all, Lin JunYi was the son of the previous, deceased Empress and not the son of a concubine.
Ruan Xi asked carefully, “Your Highness… thinks it is just?”
Lin JunYi shook his shoulders. “In the end when we reach the Hall of King Yama for judgement, isn’t it our contributions to the world that decide our fate in the next life? How one is born doesn’t come into it.”
This comment was both careless and yet at the same time carefully thought out. It was indeed Lin JunYi’s true opinion. Although he was born into wealth and luxury, he never looked down on others because they weren’t. It was what they made of their lives - and how much of a challenge they presented him - that fascinated him. Not who their parents were and so of course he didn’t care in the slightest if their parents were married or not.
But it was also a deliberate comment. At once both Ruan Xi and Yu Xian understood that death was something that was high on the mind of the Crown Prince, and that he had contemplated his own death keenly. Not only that but he knew one of his healthy brothers would one day obtain everything he had and that he would go, as empty-handed as a pauper, to meet King Yama.
“As for how I am judged,” Lin JunYi spoke with a little bit of helplessness, and also a little bit of mysteriousness. “Only the ghost officials of the Underworld will know.”
Suddenly those listening to him immediately felt that he had been misjudged, that behind the unpleasant rumors there was some kind of story that they didn’t know.
A more wily person probably wouldn’t have been fooled. But Ruan Xi’s current setting was that he was ‘optimistic and trusting’, and Yu Xian’s was ‘straightforward and coarse’. So they were easily fooled.
Yu Xian slightly relaxed his vigilance against Lin JunYi and looked at him more closely. It was the first time he’d ever come in such close contact with the Ninth Prince. Right now, due to various political reasons, his father had left him in court and he was in charge of the imperial guardsmen. Thus he often attended the court assemblies, although he himself was not at all involved in politics. However the Ninth Prince rarely ever put in an appearance because he was always too “ill”. On the rare occasions he did come, he sat in a special chair the Emperor afforded him and just looked bored out of his mind.
But now, he realized keenly for the first time… how beautiful the Ninth Prince was.
Previously he’d always thought that there was no one in the world that could match Ruan Xi for looks. He’d travelled to all the corners of the Empire and never seen anyone half as good looking. But now, unexpectedly, he realized that the Ninth Prince’s face was every bit as dazzling, albeit in a completely different manner.
Ruan Xi was like a gorgeous pool glittering under sunlight and ruffled by cool breeze, warm and pleasant. You wanted to love him, spoil him and treasure him. Even harming a single hair on his head seemed to be too cruel.
But the Ninth Prince was completely different. His beauty was sharp and cutting, dangerous and sensual. He was the ocean raging in a storm. It was magnetic and fascinating but going too close made you feel like you might be ruined…
Yu Xian stared fixedly at the small teardrop mole beneath Lin JunYi’s left eye. His throat felt dry and his stomach flip-flopped. Suddenly he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
To relieve his feelings he reached out and grabbed the glass of wine on the table. Lin JunYi’s eyes widened but before he could grab it and dash it on the ground, Yu Xian downed it. The speed of his reflexes wasn’t something that Lin JunYi could keep up with.
Lin JunYi stared at him in dismay. According to social customs, they should have waited for him to take a drink before drinking themselves. Hence he hadn’t moved quickly to discard the wine but had been looking for an opportunity to do it naturally. Also in the original plotline there hadn’t been any scene where the second male lead drank the protagonist shou’s wine?
But this was his own carelessness. After all, his very presence was designed to derail the plotline.
729 wailed in his mind, “Host, what are you going to do?!”
Right now, Lin JunYi felt a bit conflicted. He said, testing it out in his mind, “Should I push the two of them into a room together?”
729 was shocked. “Host, you want to try the tactic from the first world again? Let the second male lead and the protagonist shou get together?”
Lin JunYi tried to think about it rationally. “It’s quite simple, right? If the Ninth Prince never created the misunderstanding between them then Ruan Xi and Yu Xian would have naturally ended up together right?”
And right now the situation was different to the first world. Xie Xian and Chen Heng had been unhappy together so Lin JunYi thought nothing of seducing Xie Xian in order to shake things up a little bit. But Ruan Xi and Yu Xian were very much in love with each other right now…
Lin JunYi said quietly to 729, “Are you sure he’s not Xie Xian?”
729 confirmed it. “I checked with the main system just before and the main system denied it.”
Lin JunYi made his decision.
*
Thanks for reading :)
