Chapter 67：Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo

Six Princes soon moved out from the dilapidated West Palace to the Zi Chen Palace. The two lived in the main house, on the east side, separated by the middle hall. But a wall was erected to separate the palace into two independent residences to avoid taboo. Li Jin Tian had sent someone to examine their palace, and also rewarded them a lot of precious treasures.

The slave who had taken Six Princes' meals was also put to death, showing the Emperor's care for the Qi Xiujie father and son.

Since then, the attendants in the Zi Chen Palace were always respectful, afraid to treat Qi Xiujie as a criminal. Li Jin Tian pampered Qi Gui Jun and also pardoned his crimes, he even gave him a prince as compensation. Qi Gui Jun was really not a simple character.

Zhou Yun Sheng cultivated a connection with Six Princes while also paying attention to the happenings in the main palace. Li Jin Tian, as described in the data, was miserably in love with Gao Min, even if he was suspicious of him, he still constantly visited him and their child every day, and he never paid any attention to the other concubines.

He couldn't give up on his love, and Gao Min was aware of this, so he acted very boldly. But this could not last forever, even deep feelings will fade away after constant grinding. Especially when one of the partners was strongly perusing, while the other was giving the cold shoulder. Love and hate were two sides of the same coin, their break up was only a matter of time.

As for the search for his mysterious lover, Zhou Yun Sheng was currently living in the palace, constantly under Li Jin Tian's and Gao Min's surveillance, now was not a good time to act.

But when my son reigns over the country, wouldn't finding that person be a piece of cake? Zhou Yun Sheng thought so, so he could only reluctantly press down his desire to search.

One day, he was sitting on his couch reading, when a personal attendant hurriedly walked up to him and whispered, "Lord, Six Princes' head maid urgently wants to see you, she said that Six Princes has done something bad."

"What bad thing has he done?" Zhou Yun Sheng threw away his book, put on his shoes, and walked past the maid into the prince's hall.

The maid quickly caught up, her eyes red, frightened, she stammered, "G-Gui Jun, Six Princes he, he's gone mad! Quickly go and look!"

Mad? How can a good man suddenly go mad? Zhou Yun Sheng recalled how Gao Min had poisoned Qi Xiujie, and that he'd sneaked a lot of fake servants into the palace when Six Princes moved in. Such actions were really unlike the dignified General Gao, and more like an insidious imperial concubine. It seems that Zhou Yun Sheng was too careless, he should've cleaned up those fake servants before they caused any trouble.

Thinking of this, he neared the temple entrance, the maid briskly walked a few steps ahead and pushed the door at the end of the corridor, a strong bloody smell flowed out.

Zhou Yun Sheng stopped at the opened door, surprised to see Li Xudong, holding a long, barbed whip, and three servants kneeling before him. They had been beaten black and red, barely breathing.

"Your Majesty, help! Six Prince is crazy!" One of the servants managed to look up, some of his blisters opened up, he looked extremely miserable.

Six Princes' face was gray, he clutched the whip in his hands, trembling. He'd had enough of these people, they not only took away his meals and his silver, they also always beat and humiliated him, treating him like a dog, as if they felt great enjoyment from bullying their own master when they're supposed to be the servants.

He'd been forcefully pushed onto the ground to lick their shoes, had been drenched in cold water during winter and forced to stand coatless in the cold wind, had been forced to crawl under their crotch one by one while they ridiculed him. He'd wanted to resist, but he also knew that he couldn't resist, as a humble prince with no princess to protect him, his position was even lower than a favored princess' personal attendant.

He couldn't even show his resentment, he could only suffer through the endless hunger, cold and torture. He'd thought that one day, he would not be able to endure it anymore and kill these people, then kill himself.

But in his desperate suffering, Qi Gui Jun appeared, like a ray of sunshine warming his dead heart, like a breath of fresh air stopping him form suffocating. He'd said he would protect him, said that he'd no longer need to suffer. He'd become his strongest hope.

When Qi Gui Jun had said these words, his blood had begun to boil, to burn, the immense joy had almost choked his heart. He felt like he'd finally have a family, so he no longer had to be afraid of anyone. But when he saw that the same attendants who'd bullied him had followed him into the Zi Chen Palace, he finally couldn't restrain his dam of hostility, he'd decided to personally kill them.

He always knew that he was bloodthirsty, in the dead of night he'd stay up to imagine the many ways he'd torture those who bullied him. Some of the torture he came up with was unheard of, they were bloody and cruel, but they always made him tremble with excitement.

He knew how frightening his thoughts were, so he put on a cowardly appearance to hide his true heart. He couldn't let Qi Gui Jun see his ugly thoughts.

But after all, he was just child, tender, so he didn't think that his secret torturing would be seen by the maid and the person he most didn't want to see would witness his horrible actions.

He felt like a prisoner standing under the gallows, waiting for Qi Gui Jun to break his neck.

Zhou Yun Sheng slowly walked in, took the whip from his hand, and suddenly whipped his arm. The sharp barbs bit into his skin, leaving blood stained scars.

The maid in the room quickly looked away, but her face had a strange smile.

Six Princes thought that Qi Gui Jun would denounce him and express disappointment, he didn't expect him to directly flog him without any explanation. Is this the so-called protection, love, and dependency? Am I a tool for you to recover your status? Six Princes clenched his teeth, not willing to let the tears of humiliation and despair fall. No one could ever make him cry, or even hurt his heart, only this person who gave him hope then pushed him into the abyss could easily shake his heart, making him feel real misery.

He'd always looked to Qi Jun with love, but now he felt growing resentment. But strangely, he couldn't imagine himself hurting him the same way he'd dreamt of hurting his bullies.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Zhou Yun Sheng pinched his jaw, forcing him to look up, and snapped.

Six Princes repeatedly clenched and loosened his fist, after a moment of silence, he replied, "I know what I did wrong."

"Why don't you tell me what you did wrong?"

"I shouldn't be so cruel."

"Fool!" Zhou Yun Sheng pinched his jaw hard enough to leave a few shocking finger impressions.

Six Princes finally exposed a look of pain.

Zhou Yun Sheng continued "You are the prince, they are the slaves, you are porcelain, they are rubble, the difference between you is the difference between heaven and earth, how can you compare? When you dispose of them, you just have to weave a few charges and order it. Then someone else will naturally give them death. Why do you have to dirty your own hands and have a brutal reputation? Secondly, you didn't capture the person who saw you, allowing someone else to find out your weakness. Then they tried to use this to weaken our feelings. Don't you think that what you did was very stupid?" After saying this, he coldly glanced at the maid by the door.

Six Princes watched him with wide eyes and tried to digest his words.

Zhou Yun Sheng let go of his jaw, wiped the blood off his hands and coldly commanded, "Come, these four people have disrespected Six Princes, drag them out to death."

Li Jin Tian felt deep guilt for Xiujie, although he no longer loved him romantically, he did his best to compensate for his wrongs. The inside and outside of Zi Chen Palace had more than 100 guards, all under his command.

When his voice faded, the sword wielding guards barged into the room, and the three attendants and the crying maid were dragged away.

"Father." When Six Princes came back to reality, his frozen heart jumped, it beat faster and faster, great joy filled his body. He felt like he was fluttering and floating in the sky. He grabbed Zhou Yun Sheng's hand, as if this could firmly glue him to the ground, as if he was the only person he could rely on.

How could he think Jun Father would hate him, or even abandon him? Father was his family, he would always love him. Father was right, he really was behaving stupidly.

Li Xudong was speechless with joy, he could only pull Zhou Yun Sheng's hand and shout out Jun Father.

"What kind of silly gesture are you doing now? Where did that cruel child go?" Zhou Yun Sheng shook off his hands and asked, "Did you already forget your punishment?"

"Of course I remember." Six Princes hurriedly answered, but if he had a tail, it would probably be waging cheerfully. At this moment, he was like a cute puppy around his owner, the violent wolf from before had disappeared.

To be honest, Zhou Yun Sheng was very satisfied with Six Princes' ruthlessness. To be able to claim the throne in ancient times, don't you need to able to kill at a whim? Li Shimin, Wu Zetian, Zhu Di, Yongzheng … … no one was a philanthropist. Where there's ambition, there's blood, cruelty is a good trait.

Six Princes felt like he'd received the highest reward, he loudly agreed and went to take a bath. He liked Jun Father, and wanted to stay by Jun Father's side all the time, but after doing such a bloody thing, how could he stay by him? Jun Father should live in a bright and magnificent palace, and be treated with proper care, the most meticulous care.

——————

Gao Min walked into the temple, but he did not salute, he just directly questioned, "Six Princes killed four servants, unprovoked, do you know that?"

"Was it really unprovoked? Do you really not know how they treated Six Princes?" Li Jin Tian retorted. If he hadn't deliberately investigated, he wouldn't have known that his own child was so harshly treated. After finding out about Twelve Princes' death, he refused to be negligent again. Or else, all the other princes might be killed off one by one, until only Five Princes was left. Was Gao Min doing this intentionally or unintentionally?

Gao Min's eyes flashed. He didn't answer, but everything was crystal clear.

Li Jin Tian felt disappointed. Before the rebirth, Gao Min's temperament was benevolent and upright, but after the rebirth, Gao Min had turned cold, selfish, and vicious. Except for Five Princes and Gao Jia, he didn't care about anyone else. Who caused him to change like this? In the final analysis, it seems like he himself was the culprit.

Gao Min couldn't say he was unaware with a clear conscience, so he changed the topic, "Have you considered sending me to command the army to siege West Yi yet?"

"Can't you stay with me?"

Gao Min's answer was silence, his eyes overflowed with unwillingness, resentment, and even a glimmer of ambition. He was eager to leave this suffocating palace, to go back into the bloody battlefield, to have great achievements. In the last life, he'd stayed humbly locked up in the palace, this life, he wanted to protect his own interests.

Ambition? Li Jin Tian couldn't convince himself that that glimmer of ambition was an illusion. He smiled wearily and waved his hand, "Go ahead, do what you want to do." I'll let you fly, but one day, I'll break your wings.

Gao Min was overjoyed, he sincerely thanked him and hurriedly left.