CH 25

Pei Zheng suddenly tore open the white underrobe, and the whip marks covering Qi Changyi’s body made most people inhale sharply.

“It’s this kind of pain that will help Your Highness remember,” Pei Zheng said hatefully, but his movements slowed down a little bit. “Be more attentive in the future. You don’t even know how to respond to these kinds of people.”

Qi Changyi’s body was dripping with sweat. He bit his seductive red lips tightly as his whole body trembled with pain.

He really couldn’t learn the complicated ins and outs of dealing with the world; if he could, who would have dared to bully him so many times? There had never been anyone by his side to teach him.

Pei Zheng dipped his fingertips into the cold ointment and smeared it onto a wound. Although it was prepared with the finest medicinal herbs, there would still be a burning pain when it came into contact with raw flesh.

Qi Changyi couldn’t help but whine softly a few times. Pei Zheng raised his eyes and glanced at him inexplicably. He immediately bit his lip again, swallowing the pain back into his throat.

Those already torn red lips had been bitten again; blood flowed out and covered them in a layer of coquettish scarlet, making them look even more alluring.

Pei Zheng was still applying the ointment with one hand. With the other, he reached out and pried open Qi Changyi’s clenched lips. His slender fingers stuffed their way between his teeth, pressing against that soft, warm tongue.

“Don’t bite.”

Qi Changyi’s teeth didn’t dare to exert any force.

“Shout when it hurts, there’s no one else here.”

Pei Zheng said this as he smeared ointment over the last whip mark, and Qi Changyi groaned, “Nn1…”

Finally, every wound had been covered by the ointment, and the blood had stopped flowing. The medicine not only sped up the coagulation and healing processes, but also ensured that there wouldn’t be a single scar.

There was a knock at the door. It was Jiang Yubai, carrying a bowl of freshly stewed medicinal soup and a clean white robe.

He kept his head lowered as he walked forward, not even looking at the little prince on the bed. He placed the medicine bowl and robe in Pei Zheng’s hands, before turning to walk out.

As soon as Jiang Yubai had walked to the door and opened it, he collided with Cheng Feng who had reached out to knock.

Cheng Feng was stunned for a moment, but he collected himself quickly and swiftly hid his bloodstained hand behind his back.

But he wasn’t faster than the sharp-eyed Jiang Yubai.

“Bodyguard Feng, I advise that you don’t go in right now.”

Jiang Yubai walked out with a swagger, speaking with a frivolous tone.

Cheng Feng frowned, before finally closing the door and standing outside to keep watch.

Pei Zheng handed the medicine bowl to Qi Changyi, raised his eyes and commanded, “Drink up.”

Qi Changyi’s face wrinkled. This concoction smelled even more bitter than the last one, he really didn’t want to be drinking any more of this. He lifted the bowl gingerly, slowly bringing it to his mouth.

“Your Highness is not willing to drink it yourself, could it that you want me to feed you?”

When Qi Changyi thought back to the last time Pei Zheng fed him medicine, his ears turned red. He immediately gulped down the bowl with a bitter look on his face.

“Too bitter.”

He stuck out his tongue and fanned it with his hands, as if to blow the bitterness away.

Pei Zheng’s hand felt around and grabbed something, and he stuffed it into Qi Changyi’s open mouth. A sweet taste covered his tongue, diluting the bitterness somewhat, and the corners of his frown curved upwards slightly.

“So sweet, it’s a candied fruit!”

A small piece of candied fruit was enough for him to forget the pain for a little bit and reveal a beautiful smile.

“It’s just a common snack. It’s so easy to please Your Highness.” Pei Zheng tossed the white robes onto the bed and said to Qi Changyi, “Put on your clothes and go back to your palace yourself.”

The bloody-sweet taste in Qi Changyi’s mouth had not yet dissipated, and he really had no way of changing clothes by himself. If he exerted just a little bit of force, the wounds on his body could burst open at any time.

But Pei Zheng merely stood beside him with a cold expression, showing no intention to help him.

Qi Changyi sat up carefully. He raised his arms cautiously, before there was a sudden heart-piercing pain on his chest. He looked down and sure enough, a wound had split open, and blood was leaking out of it.

Pei Zheng also saw the blood, so he quickly dipped his finger back into the ointment and stepped forward, holding the back of Qi Changyi’s head with one hand while smearing ointment with the other.

Realizing that Qi Changyi was unable to dress himself due to his injuries, Pei Zheng grabbed the white robe and gently wrapped it around the little man like a blanket.

Only his little head peaked out, and his entire body shifted nervously; he resembled a silkworm cocoon.

“Don’t move. If the wound opens again, I’ll throw you.”

Qi Changyi immediately ceased his shuffling. He shrank further into the robe and blinked his eyes.

Pei Zheng picked up the little white bundle, before walking out of the room with long strides.

Cheng Feng heard the approaching footsteps. He pushed open the door on cue and whispered something into Pei Zheng’s ear.

Pei Zheng nodded, his eyes shadowy. “You can deal with the rest of it.”

He turned to leave, but suddenly stopped and looked back at Cheng Feng. “Have Imperial Physician Jiang take a look at your hand first.”

As soon as Qi Changyi had returned to his bedroom, he was surrounded by teary maids and eunuchs. They all saw the little prince had been fine when he left, but had now returned to them bearing terrible wounds.

Li Yu’s butt injury still hadn’t recovered fully, so he limped to Pei Zheng, knelt to the ground and kowtowed.

“Thank you, Lord Pei, thank you, Lord Pei. If it wasn’t for your intervention, His Highness would have been killed by the third princess.”

Several other servants knelt down as well, their voices a chorus of “Thank you, Lord Pei.”.

Pei Zheng only spoke lightly, “‘You may rise.”

Placing Qi Changyi back on the bed, Pei Zheng turned around and said, “His Majesty has placed His Highness under a three-day house arrest. Don’t let him go out until he’s fully recovered, what could go wrong…”

Pei Zheng squinted his eyes. “You were the ones who entered the Office of Careful Punishment.”

The kneeling servants all nodded quickly.

After Pei Zheng left, a little head stuck out of the motionless white cocoon on the bed. After seeing all the servants still kneeling on the ground, he urgently called out in a small voice, “You all, quickly get up.”

Li Yu hurriedly ordered the servants to take care of Qi Changyi: cleaning the bloodstains, changing his clothing, and preparing a meal for him.

Qi Changyi hardly had an appetite. After eating a bite, he fell into a deep sleep.

It was the afternoon of the next day when he finally woke up. After a whole night of recovery, Qi Changyi felt that the pain from his injuries had finally lessened.

However, during his three-day house arrest, he would have to copy “The Thousand Poems”2 ten times. Li Yu prepared the brush and ink for him. Qi Changyi sat down at the desk and began to copy diligently.

He wrote every brushstroke with care. Sunlight scattered onto the desk through the window’s paper screen, and his body was also bathed in it, which seemed to make him shine with an immortal aura.

Li Yu looked at the prince’s small figure and sighed inwardly. If His Highness was more intelligent than others and possessed great talent, what would his life be like?

He would certainly have surpassed the fourth prince.

The peace and quiet of the hall was suddenly interrupted when a junior eunuch rushed in, speaking hurriedly. “Your Highness, Eunuch Li! I heard that the third princess was confined to her palace by His Majesty for three months, and that she was also punished to copy scriptures and kneel at the ancestral hall*! This is the first time His Majesty has ever punished the third princess!

Qi Changyi paused mid-brushstroke and looked up. “Really?”

The junior eunuch could not mask his joy. “Really! And I heard that the third princess’s beloved pet Yingying was found; it had fallen into the Lotus Pond and drowned!”

Notes

Jesus lord I’ve discovered some terrible mistakes T-T. I’ve accidently translated ‘皇上’ as ‘Emperor’ instead of ‘your Majesty’. Please don’t throw me into the Office of Careful Punishment (this name is so long, I might just change it too). Also, I’m going to separate Cheng Feng’s name like this now, because…because that’s his name. So I’ll be going through and changing those…

I’m sorry to be drip-feeding the story like this, but I’m too impatient to wait until I’ve got a ton of chapters done T-T please bear with me

1: 恩: the pinyin for it is ‘en’, but I feel like people misinterpret the sound a lot and it sounds weird af to them; I think the sound is closer to ‘nn’.

2: 千家诗: I’m pretty sure that this is what Fenghe Ju’o meant, it’s a collection of poems from the Tang and Song dynasties.