Chapter 29

The protagonist gong, the Sixth Prince Song Ming, had one last ace up his sleeve. This was something that was present in the original storyline. The night that Song Ming had finally mobilized and decided to seize the throne from the ailing Emperor, he had been assisted not only by Young General Yu but also by his own secret shadow guards.

These secret guards were the remnants of a secretive assassin sect, passed down from ancient times. In the ‘modern’ dynastic era of the Wen Dynasty, while there were those with powerful martial arts like Yu Xian and Namboyar, they were mostly ‘tanks’ whose main skill was just brutal attack power. As for being able to slip in and out of places with others none the wiser, mix in with the crowd and even assassinate without sound, only Song Ming’s shadow guards had this ability. His concubine mother had once been the descendant of this sect, and had passed them on to her son to protect him.

So when their assassination attempt on the Emperor failed, Lin JunYi knew it was on purpose. 

They had slipped in soundlessly and slaughtered all hundreds of guards. They had walked up to dragon bed and even killed the unlucky concubine that was in bed with the Emperor at that moment. How was it that just at the moment of their victory, that suddenly they would allow an alarm to be raised, and be killed off?

It was clearly ordered suicide. For the protagonist gong to play his last hand and sacrifice his most loyal men, who should almost have been like family to him, showed the extent of his ruthlessness and his ambition.

Ruan Xi also didn’t disappoint Lin JunYi either. As soon as the furious and terrified Emperor ordered an investigation, Ruan Xi appeared at the earliest opportunity to point his finger in the direction of the Ninth Prince.

He had evidence too. Two of the Ninth Prince’s personal eunuch and maid personally attested to hearing the Ninth Prince give the order to the leader of the shadow guards. Ruan Xi claimed to be present too - his work often meant he crossed paths with the Ninth Prince - and personally overheard some of it. H said that afterwards he was confused and couldn’t make sense of it, hence he hesitated to report it. It was only when he heard about the assassination attempt that everything was linked together in his mind and he understood what it was he had heard.

In the emergency assembly he kowtowed in front of the Emperor, hit his head so hard against the floor that blood appeared, and then rushed to grab the sword of General Yu Xian - who was standing next to him with an expression of shellshock - and attempted to commit suicide to atone for his sins of putting the Emperor in danger.

Yu Xian moved without thinking. As he shattered the sword before Ruan Xi could do anything except for cut his neck shallowly, and the protagonist shou fell sobbing into his arms, he looked up to the front of the assembly where the Ninth Prince was standing in his blood-red robes, staring at him with a queenly and inscrutable expression.

It was then that the Empress leapt into the fray. Song Ming had indeed planned well and was intelligent enough. Knowing the Empress’ ambitions (although not of her poisoning attempts), he had offered to support the Fourteenth Prince. After all, he had a number of ministers and officials under his sway, and right now he was unlikely to regain the favor of the Emperor. They would belong to the Fourteenth Prince and he himself would throw his lot in with his younger brother as long as the Empress help him push the Ninth Prince down the well.

The Empress didn’t trust him fully but she had been suspicious of the Ninth Prince’s changes in behavior. He was becoming too excellent and too healthy and this did not suit her plans at all. So she agreed.

“Your Majesty, this Empress also has something to report! A few days ago this Empress received a secret report from the imperial physician that the Ninth Prince’s illness might be faked! That he is merely using some short acting drugs to make himself look temporarily ill, in order to gain his Majesty’s sympathy and lower your guard! This Empress didn’t dare mention it because it seemed so incredible and beyond belief, but now that such things have happened, this Empress doesn’t dare conceal it any longer!”

Yu Xian held the wailing and struggling Ruan Xi in his arms and even had to shove his fingers into his throat to prevent him from swallowing his own tongue as he was loudly promising to do. He was so shocked he didn’t know what to say or what to even think. His entire head was throbbing and his headache was so bad his entire vision almost blacked out. The entire court was in disarray and chaos.

In the midst of this, Lin JunYi slowly spread his robes in an elegant and unhurried manner and sank down into a kneeling position in front of the stunned Emperor. He said, very simply, “Your Majesty, Yi-er is innocent. Begging you to investigate it thoroughly.”

The Emperor looked down at his favorite son with a complicated expression. He didn’t want to believe it but… even he had noticed that this son had changed a lot of late, almost as though he were an entirely different person. Was it really that he was hiding his true self, waiting for the most opportune moment to seize power?

He looked at Yu Xian. “Put the Ninth Prince under house arrest, pending investigation. Make sure he's treated well. Nothing has been determined yet.”

Yu Xian’s mouth opened and his body shook. Slowly he said, “.... Yes, your Majesty.”

***

Of course there would be proof. The thing that Song Ming and Ruan Xi had in the most abundance was brains. As the days passed, and with 729’s help, Lin JunYi pieced together the basic outline of the supposed ‘Ninth Prince’s plot’.

He was born with a sickly body and his Mother Empress was dead. Initially his mother had been Empress because she was the Emperor’s childhood love. In fact she had no power or prestige in court and the young Ninth Prince had no backing. Also… he was not as intelligent or as talented as his brothers, both older and younger. This could be attested to by all the childhood tutors of the Ninth Prince. There was nothing excellent about him.

Hence he came up with this plan. As long as he was sickly, the Emperor would be indulgent towards him and would excuse his actions. Hence he used a slow acting poison on himself, a bitter meat strategy for power. Originally he planned to carry this on for a long time. But then one day, due to the Sixth Prince’s actions, he had a sudden reversal of fortunes. Suddenly he was popular and beloved by the people. 

And so the Ninth Prince became greedy. Right now if the Emperor was to become gravely sick, perhaps at the brink of death, he would certainly name him as the Crown Prince. But if the years passed and he returned to his wanton ways, he may lose this impetus. So he had to act now! Hence why he tried to assassinate the Emperor at this time.

Every step of the way there were various ‘proofs’, such as items found on the assassins that were traced back to the Ninth Prince. They were things that could be easily explained away on their own but all added together, they seemed irrefutable.

729 was really very worried about him, “Host why are you staying silent? Shouldn’t you do something to defend yourself? Right now the Emperor still loves you very much. If you explained, he might believe you…”

“The person that I need to believe me, is not the Emperor,” Lin JunYi responded. 

729 went quiet. In fact he was a bit confused about this. Earlier it appeared that the second male lead’s feelings for the host ran extremely deep. Even an AI couldn’t mistake something like that. So why was it that the host had been placed under house arrest for nearly two weeks, but the second male lead hadn’t come to see him once?

“Are you confused? Want me to explain?” Lin JunYi’s voice was a little bit mocking. But it was unknown if he was mocking 729 or himself. 

“Yes…”

“He doesn’t know how to face me. Since I’ve already professed my innocence but your beloved protagonist shou has clearly said he personally witnessed my guilt. It’s not the kind of thing that can be explained by a misunderstanding. Hence either I am lying or Ruan Xi is lying.”

“Guess whom Yu Xian will believe more?”

“You! Of course you should believe the person that you love!”

“Have you forgotten my character setting vs the protagonist shou’s character setting? Which one is the one that’s more believable?”

“....” 729 paused. “It’s not you. But… he should still believe you.” Even though it wasn’t logical, he wanted to believe that Yu Xian would do the illogical thing. 

As though he could hear 729’s thoughts, Lin JunYi’s eyes became dark and introspective. His thoughts raced ahead and he thought of many things. He  asked suddenly, “If Yu Xian and Xie Xian are the same person, then are the worlds connected somehow?”

Since he knew 729 didn’t know the answer, he didn’t wait for him to reply. “Since this world is a living, breathing world where the majority of the world is capable of independent thought and actions, why is it only that the people around the protagonist shou have instilled ‘settings’?”

“Why is that in both worlds, the second male lead’s  predestined setting is to love, pine and then die for the protagonist shou? In the last world, Xie Xian died 728 times in a miserable state, didn’t he? Why? What for?”

729 really didn’t know how to answer since it also didn’t know. “I just know that it’s our mission to stop that from happening….”

Lin JunYi sighed. He knew 729 couldn’t help him but he really wanted to voice his thoughts out loud. Right now he would much rather think about these abstract things compared to the problem at hand. His chest was stuffy and, despite the nonchalant face he showed 729, he was also deeply unhappy.

Because he too wanted to believe that Yu Xian would do the illogical thing, out of love.

But unfortunately Lin JunYi was an extremely logical person himself. His cool-headed rationality was part of his personality and couldn’t be erased.

Hence he couldn’t even lie to himself.

At this critical juncture, Yu Xian would definitely choose Ruan Xi.