CH 21

Chapter 21: Bet

The bright yellow crown prince’s clothes were embroidered with exquisite four-clawed coiled dragon patterns with multicoloured silk threads. It looked very luxurious. Crown Prince Yun Xuan walked over slowly with a warm smile on his face, feeling like a warm breeze. He was only just at the coming age of 20 years but he had been the crown prince for a long time so his expression was more mature and confident than the other princes.

Yun Ke bowed respectfully but he sighed a little inwardly.

The crown prince was born from the former empress so he had been designated the crown prince as soon as he had been born. It was a pity that the former empress died of illness shortly after giving birth to him. The current crown prince had been raised by the current empress. As for himself? His mother had just been a little palace maid and she died after giving birth to him. He had been fostered under the Virtuous Consort’s name since he had been a child. Nominally, he and Yun Yi were brothers but in truth, he was a pawn used by the Virtuous Consort to pave the way for her son. In his previous life, he had not been reconciled so he consolidated power with every step. In this life, he still followed this path, gaining Yun Yi’s trust little by little and waiting for an opportunity. However, in his heart, the suppressed anger and unwillingness of the previous life was gone.

Perhaps it was because he had already risen to that position once, so he was a little more accepting of everything.

Yun Ke felt that in this life, he was like a passerby watching from the sidelines. Although he would still follow the same road again and ascend the throne to become the ruler of the world once more, he was less prideful with more maturity and calmness. He was just playing his role conscientiously as everything that had happened was already under his control. It was a bit boring to live like this, but he had to live like this. If he did not win the battle of the princes, he would die.

After bowing with Yun Yi, he said lightly, “Younger brother and Fifth Brother were just talking about a little girl, it is not worth bothering the Crown Prince with.” He did not want to even speak Gu Yu Qi’s name in front of others. In his previous life, he had watched her burn to death in front of him. In this life, she was just following her old path like him.

For a woman who would become his concubine sooner or later, he naturally did not want others to pay too much attention to her. However, Gu Yu Qi in his previous life was as conspicuously bright as a myriad of stars surrounding the moon and Yun Ke could not deny this. What was different from the previous life was that Gu Yu Qi in this life seemed to be famous at an earlier time.

He had not been crowned emperor nor married in the palace when he had already heard Gu Yu Qi’s great name and how smart she was to be able to discuss Taoism with the then scholar Chen Han Lin. It was also said how well she knew etiquette and even the Empress’ personal nanny was full of praise for her.

“Oh?” The crown prince was rather interested, “Could it be that our Seventh Younger Brother has also begun to fall in love? Let’s talk about it, which family’s daughter did you take a liking to? If it’s appropriate, I’ll talk to my mother the Empress and have her direct her towards you.”

“Crown Prince, please don’t joke,” Yun Ke’s eyelids trembled and he bowed slightly. “If Royal Aunt hears it, it would not be good. It would offend the family’s daughter.”

“How could it be offensive?” A gentle voice came over and the people in front of the door all looked over. From the depths of the blossom forest came a luxuriously-dressed woman, surrounded by palace maids and chamberlains in front and behind her. She was around 40 years old but was so well-maintained that she only looked 30. With a face like a pink peach, high eyebrows, and a filigree nine-winged phoenix hairpin inlaid with pearl on her head, she was noble with the slight majestic dignity of the imperial family.

“Greetings, Royal Aunt.” The three of them bowed in unison. The crown prince took the initiative to walk over and hold the hand of the noble woman. She was the hostess, Princess Ping Hu.

“There’s no need for formalities. This isn’t the palace.” Princess Ping Hu’s life was ill-fated. She had been married a few times but nothing came out of them, so looking at the three nephews in front of her who were symbols of young men with good conduct, she liked them from the bottom of her heart. As she got older, she was more and more afraid of living alone in the princess’ residence, so she always liked to host parties and invite the nephews and nieces from the palace to make it lively. She was amiable and the princes and princes all liked this aunt who had no pretences and always thought about them.

“Today, I’ve invited so many noble ladies and called the few of you to come, just to let you take a look first. If there are good ones, pick them first,” Princess Ping Hu spoke with a lowered voice. Then she winked at her three nephews, “Don’t let them be taken by others first.”

The crown prince and Yun Yi both laughed, and even the corner of Yun Ke’s mouth hooked up slightly.

“Xiao Qi, are you born unable to laugh?” Princess Ping Hu patted Yun Ke on the shoulder and spoke with a little dissatisfaction, “Is this not a painstaking effort by Royal Aunt?”

“Royal Aunt is always thinking about her nephews, so us nephews are naturally happy,” Yun Ke said while cupping his hands together in front of his chest.

“This kid, being methodical in speech and action wherever you go. I really don’t know how your consort mother taught you,” Princess Ping Hu said with a smile. “Look at your Fifth Brother, he smiles wherever he goes and everyone likes him.”

“It’s nephew’s fault,” Yun Ke said with a lowered head. He had also been like this in his previous life, serving to contrast Yun Yi everywhere he went. The Virtuous Consort would not allow him to stand out from Yun Yi. His smile was a lot nicer than Yun Yi’s, but he could not smile and could only follow behind Yun Yi like a shadow. Rather than saying that he was Yun Yi’s younger brother, it was more like he was Yun Yi’s sidekick. Even his marriage in the past life had to make way for Yun Yi. In his previous life, he had really been unwilling, but in this life, he just smiled lightly in his heart because Yun Yi was already a dead person in his eyes. Was there any meaning in fighting with the dead?

Princess Ping Hu’s intentions were good, but of all the many noble girls in the warm pavilion, there were only a few who were truly qualified to marry into the imperial family. It would not be his turn to choose until only everyone had chosen; then it would be his turn.

Thinking of this Yun Ke turned his face slightly and looked at Yun Yi.

In his previous life, one of them married the daughter of Duke Zhen Guo as the crown princess. As the daughter of the Duke, she was from a noble family and had a strong background which was very beneficial to the crown prince. Yun Yi had married Zhang Wan Yi, who was supposed to marry him, as his main concubine. And he himself had married the second daughter of the Mu Rong family, the Minister of War, as his main concubine. Unfortunately, Princess Mu Rong had a bad life and died in childbirth, leaving him a son.

When he had ascended to the throne later, the widowed Zhang Wan Yi had been admitted into the palace and named the Gracious Consort. Since she had been remarried, there was a lot of opposition in the imperial court towards her being the empress. He had originally thought that she was already by his side, so he would wait ten years and wait for the empress’ position to sit empty for a long time so that those old men would view it more lightly, and then designate Zhang Wan Yi as the empress. Yet, who would have known that as time passed, more stories about that position were created. In the beginning, he found it very annoying, but over time, he began to like it and also used the emptiness of that position to clear out many people with bad intentions.

After Gu Yu Qi died, he had pretty much cleaned up the imperial court but he had lost interest in making Zhang Wan Yi his empress.

Each time Zhang Wan Yi acted coquettishly with him, saying that she wanted to be the empress, Gu Yu Qi’s figure always appeared in front of his eyes.

Damn Gu Yu Qi!

Yun Ke realised that his thoughts had been taken away by that woman and his heart froze. His hand under his embroidered robe clenched tightly and he tore his thoughts away from Gu Yu Qi.

“By the way, which girl were you talking about?” Princess Ping Hu asked curiously, “Tell your aunt too?”

“Don’t tease us, Aunt. It is disrespectful for me to discuss that girl with my brother behind her back,” Yun Yi cupped his hands and said.

Yun Ke sneered at the bottom of his heart. Hypocrite, now he knew it was impolite to talk about people behind their backs, but what about just then?

The more Yun Yi said that, the more Princess Ping Hu and even Crown Prince Yun Xuan were interested. “Fifth Brother, don’t beat around the bush. Just say who it is,” the crown prince said with a smile.

“That’s right, what is there to hide?” Princess Ping Hu nudged her nephew with her elbow. She smiled and said, “Originally, aunt’s heart was all for finding a wife for you all. There is nothing disrespectful about it.”

“Nephew and Seventh Brother were talking about the direct daughter of the Ding Yuan Marquis. We heard that she is a prodigy and we heard her recite a poem just now. Although there was nothing fancy about the words, it was profound and lived up to what Chen Han Lin said. Seeing her light movements, she should also have learned martial arts. Seventh Brother said that even if she had studied it, it would be nothing more than showy moves. Nephew was just arguing with Seventh Brother,” Yun Yi smiled and repeated what had happened just now.

Princess Ping Hu’s eyes lit up, “If what you said is true, then doesn’t that mean the daughter of the Ding Yuan Marquis is skilled in both literary and martial arts? What does she look like?”

“She’s still young, but she’s a real beauty,” Yun Yi said with a smile. “Would it be rude to the young miss to say this?”

“Pedantic!” Princess Ping Hu became interested, “In a while, I want to see this young miss of the Marquis’ family as well. I also heard some things about her and heard that she came from Jiangnan. There are beauties from that place. That’s right, it will be the winter hunting event in a few days. When the time comes, I’ll invite her to participate and we can test her out. I wonder if she will fight? Let’s gamble. I’ll be the banker and we’ll bet whether she is good at both literary and martial arts?”

Originally, Yun Yi had already made Yun Ke unhappy by talking about Gu Yu Qi, but now that Princess Ping Hu took Gu Yu Qi as a bet, he felt even more unhappy. It was just that he still had to rely on Yun Yi right now and could not make him lose face in front of Princess Ping Hu. He could only lower his eyes slightly and suppress the unpleasantness that surged up in his heart. 

“This feels good,” the crown prince applauded and smiled. “It’s just, if Emperor Father finds out, will he blame us?”

“We don’t talk about it. How will he find out?” As soon as Princess Ping Hu’s interest was piqued, she could not stop it! She was always bored by herself, but now she had found something fun so how could she easily give it up? She was the emperor’s sister and had been spoiled since she was a child. She had also been kind to the emperor back then so naturally, whatever she said goes.

Although the crown prince was worried, seeing his aunt happy, he followed through with the gamble, “Although the Ding Yuan Marquis was born in the military, he had been at the border for so many years. I heard this young miss of the Marquis’ family had only come to the capital recently so she would not have had the chance to learn martial arts. I bet that she would not be able to do martial arts.” After he finished speaking, he took off a beautiful piece of jade hanging from his waist and handed it to Princess Ping Hu, “If I lose, then aunt can give this jade pendant to the winner.”

“Alright,” Yun Yi did not want to be outdone. He touched his waist and realised that the jade pendant hanging on his waist was not as good as the crown prince’s one, so he somewhat felt like he could not bring it out. He racked his brains and then said, “Younger brother has a residence in the suburbs of the capital, so just take that as my stake.”

“To exchange a residence for the Crown Prince’s piece of jade, are you not heartbroken?” Princess Ping Hu was really happy now, “I’ll say it first, no matter if you win or lose, I’ll take 30%.” After she finished speaking, her beautiful eyes swept towards Yun Ke, “What is Xiao Qi betting on?”

“Don’t tease me Aunt. It’s not like Aunt doesn’t know nephew is poor,” he said, “It’s alright for elder brothers to bet. Nephew will just watch.”

“You’re good for nothing!” Princess Ping Hu raised her hand and knocked Yun Ke’s head, “I’ll supply your bet, just say what you want to bet.”

Yun Ke became increasingly unhappy in his heart, but his face remained calm, “Then just bet that she can do martial arts.”