Chapter 28
Back at Shouning Palace…
The Fourth Prince took a white piece and placed it down gently, smirking sheepishly as he said, “You’re so done for.”
“That’s it. You’re right. I’m done.”
Ruirui, who was sitting across him, pushed the chessboard away.
She lost every single game.
“Sis, you’re the eldest princess and, therefore, no going back on your word.”
Hmph~ “Father is testing his seven sons now at Taihe Hall. Why are you here playing chess with me instead of over there being tested with them?”
Ruirui brought this up immediately.
Their father was currently furious and troubled because all of the princes were performing way below expectations.
Yet, the only one who was amounting to something was instead being shunned.
“Sis, be reasonable, will you? You were the one who came to Shouning Palace asking for games of chess. Besides, what do father’s tests with the other brothers have to do with me? I have never been seen as one of them to begin with.”
“How could that not have anything to do with you? That bunch could gang up on you, and you could beat them all soundly. If you’re not going there, I’m going to talk to father then,” Ruirui said.
She started to get up.
“Go and talk to father about me, and I’ll go and talk to Noble Lady Zhen about you.”
“What about me?”
“How old are you now? Shouldn’t you be getting married?” The Fourth Prince said this in a rather grown-up tone.
“None of your business.”
Ruirui threw a light punch at Liu An and added, “Liu An, seriously though. None of those hacks are anywhere near you. Great Xia would be a h*ll of a lot more stable if you were to become the crown prince. Your sis here would feel a lot more secure even if I were to get married.”
“Sis, are you thinking that none of the garbage from the big families in the capital city can be a match for you, because you’re so good at just about everything? That’s fine. Talented people come from all over the world. You’re the eldest princess, and you should get to choose who you’ll marry.”
3
“Liu An, stop changing the subject.”
“You’re old now, sis. Delay much longer and you’ll miss the best age for marrying.”
The Fourth Prince continued jabbing at her.
“You’ve gotten tired of living.”
Ruirui threw a palm attack at Liu An.
Liu An leapt backward and easily dodged the attack from her fluffy hand.
The siblings chased each other around in the palace.
The air was cheerful in the Shouning Palace.
Concubine Jing sat on a chair and watched the siblings laugh as they played tag with each other, as she ate from a bowl of fruit.
“Beating on your little brother is something you can only do when the little brother is still young!”
Li Mu added his opinion. His words seemed to have a deeper meaning.
“I’ll kill you!”
Ruirui chased down her brother even harder after hearing what Li Mu had said.
“Stop it, Eunuch Li! Sis is misunderstanding what you’re getting at.”
“Misunderstanding me?”
Li Mu was dumbfounded.
He then looked at how ferocious she looked.
It seemed as if she had really misunderstood him.
What he’d meant was that if she were to not beat up her little brother when he was young, she wouldn’t get to do so when her little brother grew older.
Yet, the way it had sounded to the sister was that if she were to not beat up her little brother when he was young, she wouldn’t get to do so because she had to get married.
Talking about marriage was one surefire way of pissing her off.
Liu An was the pitiful one taking all the heat instead.
Whack~ Whack~
Ruirui took An Mu’s broom and continued chasing after Liu An.
“My, my, what a show indeed.”
A lowly servant like An Mu wouldn’t have been able to speak in other palaces.
Only in a palace like Shouning Palace, which was so harmonious…
The siblings were only able to completely ditch the rules expected of them in this palace.
Ruirui would have acted more obedient in the other palaces.
Liu An, the Fourth Prince, would have been reduced to an invisible being, who wouldn’t even dare to cough, let alone jump about like he was doing at the moment.
They played for a little while longer.
Ruirui was unable to catch up to Liu An and headed back to her palace, fuming.
Shouning Palace was all quiet again.
Back in the hall…
Liu An was reading books.
“Grandma, are these books really things that the ninth uncle brought from outside?” Liu An asked with a doubtful tone.
This uncle was practically confined at the lord’s residence and had literally no power.
He was wondering how someone like that, who didn’t even have manuals to train with, had been able to send some to the palace.
He was especially wondering about Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”, as there was no way Liu An’s father would have let his uncle even touch it.
“Indeed, your uncle was afraid that I’d be bored here, and since he was unable to come and see me, he had someone else bring the books and toys over instead.”
“Grandma, were these things brought over by Eunuch Li?”
1
“Of course. He was the only one who was in contact with your ninth uncle.”
“I see…”
Liu An lowered his head and pondered.
He realized that only Eunuch Li had touched the books before any of them did.
He thought that he seemed to have stumbled upon a huge secret.
“Grandma, did Eunuch Li usually read these books?”
“He hasn’t read any of them.”
“He knows how to read, right? Why wasn’t he been reading them then? These books are good.”
“When would he have time to read? He’s busy all day long, and when he finally finds some time, he has to act as a liaison between me and your ninth uncle.”
Liu An nodded.
He then turned around and asked, “An Mu, you like strategies, don’t you? Here, you can have this.”
Liu An acted like he owned the place when he was in Shouning Palace.
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
An Mu took the book with joy.
He then found that the prince had actually given him two books.
One of them was “The 36 Stratagems”.
An Mu bowed even lower than usual.
The prince had taught him how to read as well as how to excel in martial arts. Now he’d even given him the book he’d wanted to read the most.
2
An Mu had nothing but gratitude for the Fourth Prince.
“I need your help with something?”
“What would that be?”
“Tell me about Eunuch Li.”
…
In an alley in the palace, Li Mu straightened his emerald robes, as he hauled a bag of flour toward Shouning Palace.
The eunuchs wearing green and blue robes all lowered their heads and walked quickly as they passed him.
“Why does an emerald-robed eunuch like him do all that work himself? And, furthermore, it doesn’t look easy at all,” a blue-robed eunuch asked cautiously.
“That is a eunuch from Shouning Palace, which was once a “cold” palace. At that time, he was the only eunuch working there. The previous emperor passed away and the mistress of the palace was promoted. But the “cold” palace is still a “cold” palace, so he’s still doing all the hard work.”
“Man, life in a “cold” palace must indeed be hard.”
“Now you know, eh? If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s wearing emerald robes now, he probably wouldn’t even be able to walk outside the palace.”
Li Mu went about his business without caring about what the others thought about him.
Everything he bought from outside was food.
A stove had been built in Shouning Palace.
Concubine Jing liked cooking something up when she was in the mood.
She then asked Li Mu to take the food outside.
In the past, when Liu Yu had still been in the lord’s residence, Li Mu would make sure Lord Yu got those cakes.
However, Liu Yu hadn’t been in the capital city for the past ten years.
Li Mu had been giving the cakes to poor children in the slums for the past decade.
1
He’d also taught them some martial arts.
Many children had managed to become warriors without resources, which enabled them to get jobs.
Li Mu poured the contents from the bag into a container when he returned to Shouning Palace.
“Good day, Eunuch Li!”
Liu An appeared just as Li Mu took his broom out in the compound.
Liu An then bowed to him.
“Huh?”
Li Mu was dumbfounded.
Why is the kid acting so proper today?
Whatever.
Kids are rambunctious, and you never know what they’ll want from you.
Best to just pretend that I saw nothing.
“Eunuch Li, I heard that my father is selecting a husband for my sister. Guess where that husband will be from?”
“Clan Zhao. Where else?” Li Mu answered after thinking for a bit.
He was puzzled why the kid had asked such a question.
“You really are something, Eunuch Li. You’ve guessed right indeed. However, my sister is unwilling to marry the seventh son of Clan Zhao.”
“She’s thinking that the seventh son is a good-for-nothing?”
“Do you have any other thoughts about that seventh son of Clan Zhao then?” Liu An asked.
He was able to tell that something was different from the way Li Mu answered.
“The seventh son from Clan Zhao is really a piece of work.”
Li Mu was not about to continue from there.
His cover would be blown if he were to say more.
Liu An then asked how did he know so much, and Li Mu simply answered that he’d heard stories.
If he were to continue, he would run out of excuses.
There was also the thing about knowing said seventh son.
He had been traveling all over the capital city and had checked in at Clan Zhao’s estate many times.
He’d discovered that the seventh son was anything but simple by chance.
Putting it simply, the man looked like a playboy on the outside, yet he was hiding something really powerful.
The man was rather like Liu An in certain ways.
However, the Fourth Prince was only keeping a low profile, while the other man was pretending to be something else.
Li Mu didn’t know what to make of such cunning at such a young age.
Clan Zhao might just be a huge challenge for the new emperor in the future.