CH 96.2

Translator – Xiao He Lian

Chapter 96.2

He put down his book and looked like he was listening, “Tell me about it.”

However, Wen Chi didn’t speak but stared vigilantly at Shi Ye’s open book on the table.

Shi Ye caught Wen Chi’s eyes, laughed suddenly, shook his head and pressed the pages of the book with his long fingertips, moving towards Wen Chi and saying innocently, “This is a book I1(Shi Ye used “I”not bengong here) bought for myself, not one of your books.”

Wen Chi noticed that Shi Ye seemed to switch between “Bengong” and “I”when referring to himself in front of him now. 

But that’s not the point.

“What’s wrong with my books? All I read are serious books.” Wen Chi closed the book in embarrassment, then calmed down, took out a white handkerchief from his cuff, opened it and inside was the black pill, “Look at this.”

Shi Ye, like Zuo Zhi, recognized the origin of the pill with just one glance, but he was much calmer than Zuo Zhi, his eyes and expression were shallow, like a lake that could not stirred up any waves and that the pill in front of him was just an ordinary pill. 

But after a moment of silence, Shi Ye still asked, “Where did this thing come from?”

Wen Chi told Shi Ye everything that happened today.

Shi Ye listened quietly. Although his face didn’t change at all, Wen Chi could feel that the breath permeating his body was gradually becoming colder. His eyelashes were very long, but they couldn’t hide the chill in his eyes. 

Wen Chi was frightened by Shi Ye’s sudden change, shrunk his shoulders like a quail, and asked softly after a long time: “Why did the Hua family come to me?”

Shi Ye asked without answering, “Are you afraid of death?”

This question sounded funny but Wen Chi still thought about it seriously for a while, and he answered truthfully: “Although I haven’t encountered anything particularly interesting while I’m alive, I don’t want to die yet.”

Shi Ye raised his hand, paused in mid-air and finally landed on Wen Chi’s head. He stroked Wen Chi’s soft hair and his deep voice contained a rare softness: “I won’t let you die, you will live well.”

Wen Chi raised his eyes and met Shi Ye’s dark eyes, which contained emotions he couldn’t understand.

Then, he suddenly turned his head to avoid Shi Ye’s hand on his head.

Shi Ye just froze for a moment, didn’t say anything and took his hand away calmly.

Wen Chi asked him, “Am I going to die?”

Shi Ye said: “Their target is me and the reason they are following you is because they want to threaten me with you.”

After receiving this answer, Wen Chi was a little speechless. He didn’t know how the Hua family came to this conclusion, but this conclusion was a bit too funny. The Hua family overestimated his weight in Shi Ye’s heart.

Thinking of this, Wen Chi couldn’t help feeling a little sour in his heart. He had no choice but to suppress these emotions as much as possible.

“You said that their target is you…” Wen Chi finally asked out the doubts in his heart, “What do you mean? Isn’t your mother from the Hua family? Aren’t they your family?”

This remark caused Shi Ye to chuckle disdainfully: “Who said I was family with them?”

Wen Chi shuddered.

Shi Ye said very casually: “They sent me back to the palace, intending to train me to be their puppet against the royal family. Unfortunately, not only did I not do what they wanted, but I suppressed them at every turn, and now they know they can’t control me, so they want to kill me.”

Wen Chi scratched his head: “But if something happens to you, the Hua family will suffer a lot.”

Shi Ye shook his head lightly: “If I were gone, the Hua family could at most suffer for a few days before they could make a comeback and train new puppets, but if I were still around, they would always be suppressed by me.”

As he said that, Shi Ye seemed to think of something suddenly and the smile on the corner of his mouth became more and more mocking, “Have you forgotten how the Hua family pushed Hua Yanrong(Shi ye’s mom) to the back seat? As long as this ability of the Hua family still exists, there will always be a day when it will rise again, and I am just a pawn that does more harm than good.”

Wen Chi was too shocked to speak.

Even at this moment, a bold guess slowly emerged in his mind—is the person who overthrew Shi Ye’s tyrannical rule in the original novel really Shi Jin? Could it be that the Hua family was still behind the scenes?

The plot shown in the original novel is just the plot that the author wants readers to see and the characters in the original novel are just paper people fabricated by the author——Wen Chi always thought so before.

It wasn’t until he came to this world that he realized that what he knew about the plot was just the tip of the iceberg. The paper man he thought was actually a living person with thoughts, emotions, and the ability to cry and laugh.

Shi Ye will not become violent for no reason and Shi Jin will not suddenly change from a meek and unaggressive prince to a brave man who overthrows the emperor’s tyrannical rule…

There are different reasons behind all this, but unfortunately Wen Chi, who has read the original novel, knows nothing about it.

*****

Seeing that the end of the year was getting closer and closer, Wen Chi, who had taken an early vacation, was free, but Shi Ye was getting busier.

In the end, Eunuch Zhu was urging Shi Ye to return to the capital as soon as possible with letters every day.

After Shi Ye left, Wen Chi’s life didn’t change at all…  it seemed to have become a little bit boring.

However what Wen Chi didn’t expect was that he and Shi Ye would be separated for nearly two years and he had also lived in Jinzhou for more than two years without knowing it.

There was a lot of gossip from the capital but Wen Chi didn’t know if it was because Zuo Zhi and Liu De deliberately blocking it, none of those gossip reached Wen Chi’s ears.

Occasionally, Wen Chi would hear from Lord Yin that the Emperor was getting sicker and sicker or that the Crown Prince was in a difficult situation after the Emperor’s illness.

Whenever this happened, Wen Chi would remain silent, keeping his head down and silently doing what he was doing.

He thought, even if he is a transmigration who knew the plot, he really can’t help Shi Ye.

Two years later.

It was snowing like goose feathers again in Jinzhou, the snow wrapping the entire state in a silvery white coat.

Even the Governor Zhou was lamenting that he had never seen snow in Jinzhou for so many years which was really adding to things for everyone since they had started dealing with the locust plague and it had been snowing almost every year.

The good thing is that nowadays, the disaster has slowed down a lot, and they have requisitioned a lot of manpower among the people, when they organized the people to set up protected areas, dig rivers and reforestation. Although the money allocated by the court is spent in large amounts, at least the people’s food and clothing problem has been solved for the time being.

Of course, the road to improving people’s livelihood is particularly long and it still requires the concerted efforts of Governor Zhou and several local officials.

As for Lord Yin, Wen Chi and others, they could also leave the matter at hand to the people below and return to the capital together.

The road from Jinzhou to the capital has been covered with thick snow. Although the road has not been closed, it was extremely difficult to walk. The original three-day journey was abruptly dragged to five or six days.

Lord Yin and the others were eager to return home, looking forward to it almost every day, counting the days on their fingers.

Among so many people, only Wen Chi stayed safely in the carriage, not even raising his eyes in the face of everyone’s rambling discussions, his eyes closed like a wooden man.

When Lord Yin saw this, he thought it was funny but at the same time, he also felt that he, who had half of his body buried in the ground, was too unrestrained and it was really wrong for him to be excited with those young men.

On this day, taking advantage of those young men getting out of the carriage and wandering around, Lord Yin glanced at Wen Chi who was sitting in a daze in the corner, coughed and said, “What are your plans after you go back?”

Wen Chi came back to his senses and looked at Lord Yin blankly.

Looking at Wen Chi’s fair cheeks and wide-open almond eyes, Lord Yin couldn’t help but think of his own son. His second son was also Wen Chi’s age, but he was drunk all day long, running around with his friends.

In the past two years, Lord Yin has naturally seen Wen Chi’s performance with his own eyes. He has always remembered the time when he and Wen Chi were attacked on the carriage and Wen Chi ran down to protect him and distract the killers.

Lord Yin thought for a moment and finally said those words that had been hidden in his heart for a long time: “I didn’t know whether to say these words or not, but for the sake of our acquaintance, I still have to tell you that this time, although we have not achieved all our merits, we have at least fulfilled the emperor’s orders. If you are willing, I will make a request to the emperor for you, asking him to look at your merits and hard work over the past two years to give you a divorce and return your freedom.”

As soon as these words came out, Wen Chi’s blank eyes suddenly became clear and his expression became joyful with the naked eye: “Is this possible?”

Originally, Lord Yin was still a little hesitant but he had seen many incidents where his meddling caused a lot of trouble. Besides, the relationship between Wen Chi and His Highness the Crown Prince was not trivial. However, the joy that burst out of Wen Chi’s eyes rushed towards him like a tide, instantly washing away his few hesitations.

Lord Yin narrowed his eyes and smiled, “As long as you’re willing, I can do it.”

Wen Chi sat upright and bowed his hands to Lord Yin gratefully: “I will bear in mind your repeated help, and I will return the favor if I have the opportunity to do so in the future.”

He did want to leave.

At least stay away from the Eastern Palace and Shi Ye.

It took five and a half days for the team to make it back to the capital and they arrived in the evening of the sixth day.

This time the journey was difficult. Even Lord Yin, who often traveled long distances, vomited several times. Wen Chi, who was used to taking airplanes and high-speed trains in modern times, couldn’t stand it even more.

Fortunately, Ruo Fang came to help him in time.

After returning to the capital, the first thing they have to do is to go home and get some rest and gather outside the palace gate early the next morning for an audience.

Wen Chi was so tired that he went to the new Bamboo flute residence, took a simple bath, ate something, lay down on the bed and soon fell asleep.

Wen Chi doesn’t know how long he slept.

Half asleep and half awake, Wen Chi vaguely felt that someone had come in, sitting beside his bed and gently stroking his hair.

Wen Chi really wanted to open his eyes to see who it was, but he was so exhausted that he lost all the strength to open his eyes.