Ze Tian Ji

Eunuch Lin gazed at that figure seated at the highest point, concealed behind his guards, and said, ”Your Majesty, I also deeply respect you, even found myself liking you more and more. Alas, you are still the son of that woman, so the more I respect you, the less I respect myself. The more I like you, the less I like myself. So please forgive this old minister for today’s offense.”

These words were rather difficult to understand. Only Mo Yu understood them, because she was a woman, and she let out a scornful laugh.

Eunuch Lin ignored her laughter and took a step forward.

The guards nervously began to unsheathe their blades.

The Prince of Louyang, his face pale and brow dripping with sweat, constantly muttered, ”What do I do? What do I do?”

But he still did not put his hands down. He was abnormally determined, protecting that person behind him like an old mother hen protecting its chick.

Mo Yu was somewhat annoyed at his muttering, but her heart went soft when she saw how nervous he was. She softly said, ”When things get messy, take His Majesty and escape.”

The Prince of Louyang froze, then turned to her and asked, ”To that place you mentioned that night?”

Mo Yu replied, ”Goodness, you’re stupid. I had you memorize it twenty times. Do you still not remember?”

The Prince of Louyang suddenly began to cry. ”I did memorize it, but I don’t want to leave you here.”

The Imperial Design had been broken, and the two Divine Domain experts that were the Prince of Xiang and Cao Yunping could appear at any time. The emperor had to leave beforehand through the secret tunnel.

Mo Yu needed to remain to stop Eunuch Lin as well as attract the attention of others. How she would end up could be easily imagined.

Mo Yu and the Prince of Louyang were conversing in a rather soft tone. Besides them, only that person behind them could hear it.

Yet at this moment, an assessment of their conversation suddenly came from outside the hall.

”True love can only exist because it is true, because it is sincere, without the slightest artifice or falsehood. You truly are a student personally taught by Imperial Mother. Grand Lady Mo, I truly admire you.”

The Prince of Xiang walked into the hall.

He said with nostalgia, ”Back then, when I thought about you growing up together with Little Liu, I wrote a letter to Imperial Mother requesting for the two of you to be engaged. Alas, Imperial Mother did not agree.”

Cao Yunping appeared behind him, his hands behind him as he looked around the hall, occasionally saying ’not bad’. He was like some old retired official from the Ministry of Revenue admiring the sweet potato fields.

The Prince of Xiang no longer reminisced on the past. ”Eunuch Lin is correct. Even if we completely lose on the outside, what does it matter? It’s fine as long as we win here. As long as I can sit on that chair, even Mount Li or the Li Palace will all have to respect me, so what do I have to worry about?”

Mo Yu replied, ”Your Highness, to sit firmly on this chair has never been a simple task.”

”Have none of you noticed how thin I’ve gotten in the last ten years?”

The Prince of Xiang’s hands rested on his waist, kneading the fat bulging from his belt as he bitterly smiled.

His smile faded as he turned his gaze to that highest seat. ”I have no regrets about my gradually loosening belt. Your Majesty… brother, why not let me sit on that chair?”

……

……

”In…… truth…… I…… never…… wanted… to… sit… on this chair.”

A voice echoed through the quiet hall.

The first two words were spoken with great difficulty, like the speaker was a baby just learning to speak.

In the following words, the speaker’s pronunciation greatly improved. Though certainly not smooth or coherent, the words no longer sounded strange, just extremely slow and punctuated by pauses.

The reason for this was that this person had not spoken for many, many years.

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1. This is a line from the poem ’青玉案·元夕’ by the Southern Song Dynasty poet Xin Qiji.↩

2. ’Thick’ and ’black’ refer to a philosophical treatise published by Li Zongwu in 1911. ’Thick’ here refers to a thick face, meaning shamelessness. ’Black’ refers to a black heart, meaning ruthlessness.