CH 20

Merchie6-7 minutes 23.09.2022

Every time Pei Zheng spoke with this tone, it meant he was in a bad mood.

Although Qi Changyi is quite slow at other things, he is adept at reading Pei Zheng’s facial expressions.

He supported himself with the side of the desk to stand up while rubbing his butt. His clothes were already half dry, but they still felt cold when the wind blew.

Pei Zheng called out, “Chengfeng.”

The man in black who was standing outside flashed1 into the room, “This subordinate is here.”

“Send the prince back to his bedchamber. I’m2 tired, so I will continue His Highness’s lessons tomorrow.”

After Chengfeng accepted the order, Pei Zheng turned around and was about to leave.

Qi Changyi hurriedly pulled at the black sleeve of the person in front of him, and blurted out, “Pei-gege3, are you angry?”

Pei Zheng’s face was icy; he merely stared in silence back at him.

Qi Changyi thought he had been discovered by Qi Changfeng under the table, and that had made Pei Zheng displeased. He lowered his little head to admit his mistake4, “Pei-gege, don’t be angry, I really didn’t mean to, I tried really hard to endure it, but my tongue still hurts a little…”

The more he spoke the lower he bowed his head. It was almost buried in his chest.

Pei Zheng finally extended his hand to lift the other’s chin, speaking in a merciful tone, “All right, I’m not angry about this anymore. But as for the matter of Your Highness being pushed into the Lotus Pond, I’m still going to be angry about that.”

He thought about it for a little bit, apparently having already made up his mind.

“Chengfeng.”

Chengfeng appeared next to Pei Zheng in the blink of an eye. Pei Zheng lowered his head and gave him some other orders, before Chengfeng walked over to Qi Changyi, supporting him as they left the study.

Upon returning to the bedchamber, Li Yu’s injury still hadn’t healed completely, so it was a little maid who had brought up a bowl of steaming bitter, black medicine.

When Qi Changyi caught a whiff of it, he felt the urge to vomit. However, since he had fallen into the water today, he would have to drink it to ward off the cold.

As he was sitting in bed, wrapped in the blanket and holding the bowl of black concoction, Qi Changyi suddenly thought of the time Pei Zheng had fed him medicine. His face flushed bright red, and the little maid was startled.

“Your Highness, should I5 fetch Imperial Physician Jiang? Your face is all red.”

Qi Changyi touched his cheeks that had suddenly turned hot and stammered out, “N-no, it’s okay, my physique is strong, and I’ll get better after drinking the medicine, please don’t call Imperial Physician Jiang.”

The little maid thought to herself, Even with your small body, Your Highness can still say you have a strong physique.

After finishing the medicine, Qi Changyi groggily laid down and fell asleep.

By the time he opened his eyes, twilight had already fallen, and the outside was already enveloped in hazy darkness.

He hadn’t eaten much all day, and he was a little hungry. Just as he was about to summon a servant, there was a sudden noise from outside.

There was a large group of people standing outside in the palace courtyard. In the past, this place had always been deserted, so a confused Qi Changyi went outside to see what the commotion was about.

A charming figure surrounded by the crowd was suddenly revealed: It was the third princess Qi Yirou. She had actually come to Qi Changyi’s bedroom to make a scene.

She was still resentful from the events of the afternoon; this princess who was cradled in the palm of the sky6 definitely wouldn’t let it go.

After spotting Qi Changyi standing outside the crowd with a pale face, she pointed at him accusingly and shouted, “You fool, you have such a vicious heart! Tell me, where did you hide my Yingying?!”

Everybody in the courtyard sucked a nervous breath. Yingying was a snow-white puppy, the beloved pet of the third princess. The dog usually had five servants that tended to it.

After discovering that Yingying was missing, the third princess was so angry that she immediately ordered for the hands and feet of those five servants to be cut off, and for them to be thrown into prison to await their deaths.

After searching for the dog all over the palace, a servant claimed to have seen Yingying running towards the ninth prince’s residence, and the third princess immediately rushed over with her servants and guards.

Qi Changyi was shocked by the accusation. He had been inside sleeping for a long time and had never seen Yingying. He repeatedly shook his head, “I don’t know, I haven’t seen it.”

Seeing his beautiful appearance, the third princess felt angry and jealous. Even though he was a man, he was born with the same alluring appearance as his vixen of a mother.

She stomped forward angrily, grabbing a handful of Qi Changyi’s inky black hair and pulling it viciously. “You’re lying! You killed Yingying, didn’t you?! I knew you were the same as your mother consort, you evil thing!”

Notes

Whew sorry this was my first translation ever! Please forgive me if it sounds super clunky haha, the raw text of the novel actually has pretty simple language in comparison to other novels. Please let me know if there are any errors.

1: flashed (闪), glittering, literally the flashing of light

2: You may know that a long time ago, everybody had to refer to themselves differently. Pei Zheng, as Prime Minister, uses ‘本相’.

3: 哥哥: endearing term for ‘big brother’. I am not going to translate it to ‘Brother Pei’ because…because.

4: 认错: literally ‘admit mistake’. I don’t know how to word it lol

5: Female servants use ‘奴婢’ to refer to themselves, it roughly translates to ‘this slave’ or ‘this servant’, but it didn’t flow well in the context.

6. Cradled in the palm of the sky (捧在天上). Cradled in one’s palm means to be cherished and favored.