CH 33

The Zhenlong Emperor was in the prime of his life, and even though he wasn’t particularly gifted at anything, in the very least, he was able to maintain the peace between the major martial arts sects, and also ensure that the unstable Imperial Court didn’t completely fall apart at the seams. The princes who were still children were largely shielded from political struggles, and Chen Ziqi’s life in the palace was considered pretty good.

At the time when spring turned into summer, the Phoenix King’s Shizi would come to the Imperial Palace and stay in the Danyang Palace until the autumn winds blew, as if he were a migratory bird that came to spend the summer. Whenever he was around, Chen Ziqi would go to the Danyang Palace and mooch off Dan Yi. 

However, since last year, Dan Yi had not come.

Chen Ziqi had grown into a youth in the intervening period. He wore the dark yellow robes of an Imperial prince, and stood in front of the Danyang Palace gates. He heaved a long sigh. It was already the beginning of summer, and if Dan Yi hadn’t arrived by now, he wasn’t going to come at all. Was Dan Yi so angry with him that he intended to cut ties for good?

This matter concerned something that happened two years ago. At that time, Dan Yi had just turned fourteen, and the lanky Dan Yi was now even better looking than he had been as a child.

The two of them were lying on the jade mat, and in the moonlight, Chen Ziqi couldn’t help reaching out to touch Dan Yi’s beautiful phoenix tail eyes admiringly. “Dan Yi, you’re really good looking. If you were a girl, I’d do anything to marry you,” he said. 

Dan Yi grabbed hold of his wandering hands, his eyes snapping open immediately. “You? Be my husband?” he said, amused.

“What, are you looking down on me?” Chen Ziqi asked. He squirmed over and put his head on Dan Yi’s pillow. “You’re slept with me for so many years now, and you’re not chaste any more. You can only be mine.” As he said this, he copped a generous feel of Dan Yi’s butt like a lecherous old man at a brothel.

Dan Yi’s face immediately turned a bright red. It was dark, but Chen Ziqi still saw the crimson flush on his cheeks.

“Haha! Your face is red again! Look at you, all red and bashful…” Chen Ziqi teased Dan Yi without pause, and suddenly, Dan Yi grabbed him and pressed him below himself. “Ah…. Haha… Don’t.. Ah, don’t…”

Dan Yi pressed Chen Ziqi’s hands down above his head and started to tickle him. He knew every last ticklish spot of Chen Ziqi’s, and had him begging for mercy in a trice.

“I was wrong, I was wrong! Ahahaha! Save me, oh, let me go, hahahaha!” Chen Ziqi wriggled around like a live fish pinned to a chopping board, squirming violently as he struggled.

After a moment, Dan Yi stopped tickling him, but continued to “punish” him by wrapping his arms tightly around Chen Ziqi, not allowing him to move an inch.

“My good brother, you can let me go now. It’s so hot, I could die,” Chen Ziqi said, a pained expression on his face. He wriggled a little, trying to escape. 

Dan Yi ignored him and turned over with him still held tightly in his arms. Chen Ziqi was now facing the outside of the bed, and wouldn’t bother Dan Yi any more with his mumbling.

Chen Ziqi’s arms and legs were locked firmly in place by Dan Yi’s embrace, so he could only continue to use his mouth to try and distract Dan Yi. “Dan Yi, did you have a nickname as a child? I didn’t, but my mum always calls me ‘little bratty bastard’ and stuff like that,” he said.

“Fengyuan,” Dan Yi said. He couldn’t sleep with Chen Ziqi nattering on and on, so he decided to just answer Chen Ziqi’s question.

“Fengyuan…” Chen Ziqi thought about it. Did the word “yuan” in his nickname mean that Dan Yi was the firstborn son? He used the back of his head to nudge repeatedly at Dan Yi’s collarbones. “Fengyuan, Fengyuan, Fengyuan gege!” 

“What?” Dan Yi adjusted Chen Ziqi’s position and pressed down on his head with his chin so that he couldn’t move his head.

“If I make you angry next time, I’m going to call you ‘Fengyuan gege’, and when I do, you can’t continue to be angry with me, okay?” Chen Ziqi said, unilaterally deciding this for Dan Yi.

“… … “ Gjc Tl lucbgfv tlw. Lf gjlrfv j tjcv ab rfji Jtfc Ildl’r rqffmt wfglvljc rb atja tf mbeivc’a ajix, jcv atf gbbw yfmjwf delfa. Lf mibrfv tlr fsfr jcv ofii lcab j vffq riewyfg.

Ktf cfza wbgclcu, Jtfc Ildl ofia rbwfatlcu tjgv qgfrrlcu lcab tlr yjmx. Pa kjr ecmbwobgajyif, jcv tf rdelgwfv j ilaaif. Lf ofia atja atfgf kjr rbwf kfacfrr ktfgf atf tjgv atlcu wfa tlr yjmx. 

“Eh?” Chen Ziqi sat up in surprise. “Dan Yi, did you wet the bed last night?”

Dan Yi was awoken by the noise, and opened his eyes blearily. He saw Chen Ziqi flip the blankets off and stare at the lower half of his body. He instinctively reached out to feel the part that Chen Ziqi was staring at, and felt a patch of sticky wetness…

Dan Yi sat up immediately. His handsome face first turned as white as snow, then slowly became a deep crimson, the colour rising from the base of his neck all the way to the tips of his ears. Dan Yi raised his head and looked at Chen Ziqi, who was squatting on the bed and staring at him curiously with a tilted head. He pushed Chen Ziqi aside and fled as if a hundred dogs were chasing after him.

The next day, Dan Yi left for the Cloud Palace and never returned thereafter. 

Chen Ziqi was fourteen now, and he understood what happened to Dan Yi that morning. He was annoyed with himself; he shouldn’t have laughed at that proud fellow. Dan Yi was easily embarrassed and liked others to think well of him. It was entirely possible that Dan Yi now held a grudge against him for what happened that morning.

Fengyuan gege, I was wrong. Chen Ziqi slumped down on his table, writing carelessly on the paper with his brush.

He had been Professor Luo’s student for many years now, and could recite and compose poems with ease. However, his handwriting remained as ugly as ever.

“Seventh Prince, what poem are you composing?” Professor Luo asked, walking to Chen Ziqi’s side. He felt his spleen start to hurt when he saw the chicken scratchings Chen Ziqi had made on the paper. 

Actually, Chen Ziqi’s messy handwriting could not be said to be truly ugly to look at. The avant garde style had become a recognised school of calligraphy as well. However, Chen Ziqi’s lettering had no character, and it was obvious at first glance that it was written by an uncultured person.

Chen Ziqi quickly balled up the paper in his hands and laughed sheepishly. “I thought of a beauty whilst I was daydreaming. Nonsensical sentences don’t make a poem,” he said.

“You were thinking of a beauty?” Professor Luo said, raising an eyebrow. Did Chen Ziqi think that he hadn’t seen that paper that had been full of the words ‘Dan’ and ‘Yi’?

“Oho, Brother Seventh Prince has started to notice girls! I wonder which family she’s from?” the Ninth Prince jeered. 

The older princes had all left the palace. Princes who had reached fourteen years of age were all required to move out of the hougong. Chen Zimo had left last year to the small fief the Emperor bestowed on him, which was near the Cheng family’s ancestral home. Chen Zimo went there directly once he turned fourteen. In Chunxi Hall, Chen Ziqi was currently the eldest prince.

“It’s a secret,” Chen Ziqi said, stuffing the paper ball into his clothes. “In autumn, this brother of yours will be leaving the palace, and when that time comes, you’ll know.”

The Ninth Prince couldn’t find anything to say in response to this, so he just sniffed derisively and turned his head away. The younger princes all yearned for the day they were able to leave the palace, and he couldn’t help but be envious of Chen Ziqi.

“Seventh Brother, if you go to your fief, you’ll bring me along, right?” Ah Mu asked, pulling on Chen Ziqi’s sleeve as they walked back home. 

Ah Mu was eleven this year. He had been taken care of very well by Chang Er – perhaps a little too well, as he was a fat little creature. Two of the Tenth Prince would have made one of him.

“Why would I bring you? You need to wait in the palace, and when you’re fourteen, Father Emperor will also give you a fief,” Chen Ziqi said, pinching his plump little cheeks.

“I don’t want a fief, I want to follow you…” the little fatty said. He obediently let Chen Ziqi poke and press at his cheeks as he wished while he spoke, and his words were distorted as a result.

“You useless creature,” Chen Ziqi said, smacking him on the back of his head. He took him by the hand and led him back to Qingyun Palace for Chang Er to deal with. 

Just as he reached the end of the palace road, a young eunuch blocked his path. “Greetings to the Seventh Prince. The Crown Prince invites you to go over for a bit,” he said.

The Crown Prince… Chen Ziqi frowned slightly. Starting last year, the Zhenlong Emperor’s health was not what it had been before. He fell ill very often, and most matters of state were given to the Crown Prince to manage. As for the Crown Prince, he had become very volatile, as if he were practising to become a tyrannical Emperor. Going to the Eastern Palace for an audience with him was like walking on a bed of nails.

Chen Ziqi told Ah Mu to go back home himself. He thrust two gold pieces into the young eunuch’s hands. “Please lead the way, Gong gong,” he said.

“Dianxia is too courteous,” the young eunuch said, smiling as he accepted the gold. His attitude toward Chen Ziqi became one of utmost helpfulness. “I heard the High Priest wants to be relieved of his duties, but the Crown Prince is unwilling to let him leave, and is in a fit of anger because of it.” 

Chen Ziqi understood. The High Priest said that he was only required to work for the Imperial family for ten years, and now that the ten years were up, he wanted to resign from his post and leave the Imperial Palace. However, the Crown Prince had just taken over the reins of government, and it didn’t look good for the High Priest to leave now, even though it was just coincidental timing. The Crown Prince probably wanted Chen Ziqi to help persuade the High Priest to remain for another year.

The government offices in the Eastern Palace had been built now, and the whole place was much livelier than before.

Chen Ziqi followed the young eunuch down a path to the back garden. The Crown Prince was sitting in a pavilion, looking at a chessboard in front of him.

“Greetings, Brother Crown Prince,” Chen Ziqi said, bowing in a half-greeting. 

The Crown Prince looked up from the chessboard and waved him over. “ Little Seventh, you’re here right on time – come have a round of chess with me,” he said.

Chen Ziqi went over to sit opposite the Crown Prince. He picked up a smooth white chess piece, then dropped it back noisily into the box. “I can’t play chess to save my life,” he said. “How about we play dice instead? Whoever has the larger number wins, ten taels of silver per round. How’s that?”

The Crown Prince shot him a look, then threw down the chess piece in his hand as well. “The last time you gambled with the guards, Father Emperor grounded you for three months. Haven’t you learnt your lesson?” he asked.

“Hehe,” Chen Ziqi laughed, grinning in a thick-skinned manner as he called a palace maid over. “Come, take this chess set away, and serve us a pot of good tea.” 

The palace maid smiled as she brewed a pot of Junshan Yinye tea.

Chen Ziqi held the teacup with both hands and took a sip. “Brother Crown Prince, your tea is the best,” he said. The tea the Crown Prince had was the best and freshest in the palace, and this tea was always more fragrant than any other tea he had elsewhere.

“You’re the one who finished all the Junshan Yinye tea in my palace,” the Crown Prince said, watching Chen Ziqi drain his cup. He started talking about the real reason he invited Chen Ziqi over – it was indeed regarding the High Priest’s wish to leave his post and return home.

“When the High Priest entered the palace, the agreement already was that he would only stay for ten years. It’s not right to force him to stay,” Chen Ziqi said. His face was neutral, but internally, he rolled his eyes. This High Priest was formerly the head of the Peacock Wing, and had to give up that prestigious position because he was chosen to serve as the High Priest. He had been trapped in the Taizhen Palace reading the stars for a good ten years now. Even his readings of the heavenly portents had been completely ignored by the Emperor, and all he could do was thread pearls mindlessly in his palace. It was no wonder he couldn’t wait to leave. 

“It’s not that I need this particular High Priest. If he leaves, then the Lan family should give me another High Priest, but they refuse to. What is the meaning of this?!” the Crown Prince said irritably, a dark expression on his face. He stared intently at Chen Ziqi.

The Lan family actually refused to send a new High Priest over? Chen Ziqi was rather shocked. “What did the Lan family say?” he asked.

The Crown Prince was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled faintly, as if he had just thought of something. “Do you know why the Phoenix King’s Shizi has not come this year?” he asked, not answering Chen Ziqi’s question.

“Nn?” Chen Ziqi’s hand which was holding the teacup faltered. 

“I heard that something’s happened at the Cloud Palace,” the Crown Prince said, a cunning look in his eyes.

Chen Ziqi’s heart gave a small squeeze. He wanted to ask what happened, but the Crown Prince refused to elaborate further on this topic. He changed the subject back to the High Priest. “Someone who has submitted to two masters will rarely have a good fate when he returns back to his first master. Help me go and persuade the High Priest to think twice about leaving,” he said.

Author’s note: Mini-theater

Crown Prince: The Cloud Palace is in trouble

Qiqi: What happened?

Crown Prince: Hurhur, why don’t you make a guess?

Qiqi: I’m not going to guess, I’ll ask instead

Crown Prince: … …

Qiqi: What happened?

Birdie Gong: My dad stole my jade bamboo worm, and I am going to rebel, tweet tweet tweet!

Birdie Dad: That worm is already in my tummy! Come get me, bwahaha!

Martial arts world: Breaking news! The Cloud Palace Master and his son are at each other’s throats! The outcome is unknown

Qiqi: ???