Chapter 65

65 ZERO TO FIVE, THE PROGRESS

Bai Chen recognized the voice as Ma Qiao. He had wondered why the servant had suddenly disappeared after preparing a bath for him, but now he knew that the man was outside Jing Pavilion.

Ma Qiao had just announced the arrival of the Crown Prince, and Bai Chen panicked and turned to Zhu Ge who was still sitting beside him. He wasn’t sure if the Crown Prince knew that Zhu Ge was a prostitute from the Red Pavilion, but he still thought that it would not be a good idea for the Crown Prince to meet the man now.

Moreover, Zhu Ge insisted on wearing red clothes even after he had hired the man as his servant, and that would probably be criticized by the Crown Prince.

Thus, he made a firm decision before saying, “I’ll go see the Crown Prince first. You wait for me here and don’t go anywhere.”

Bai Chen had gotten up from the chair and was about to leave, but his thin wrist was grabbed by Zhu Ge suddenly.

“Why don’t you let me see the Crown Prince as well? I’m your servant, so I should be by your side all the time, right?”

Bai Chen had always known that Zhu Ge was a shameless person, but he still gritted his teeth when he heard Zhu Ge’s question. The man didn’t even understand the current situation, and he could easily tell that he would be by his side when he met the Crown Prince.

“Look at your clothes and tell me what’s wrong with them,” Bai Chen replied.

Obeying the Prince’s orders, Zhu Ge looked down at his clothes as he tried to find something that wasn’t right.

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.....

He was wearing a new set of clothes, and it was still clean without any dirt, so he looked confused as he looked at the Prince standing in front of him. “What’s with my clothes?” He innocently asked back instead of giving the Prince an answer, and the Prince was not surprised by the question.

For some reason, Bai Chen guessed that Zhu Ge could be quite insensitive at times, and he didn’t even notice that his entire outfit was wrong.

“Stay here and wait for me to come back, okay?” Not wanting to trouble himself by answering Zhu Ge’s question, Bai Chen immediately pulled Zhu Ge’s hand from his wrist before walking toward the door.

Zhu Ge blinked innocently as he left, but he didn’t care and continued walking to the door. It wasn’t that he wasn’t nervous about meeting the Crown Prince, but he knew that he couldn’t hide in the pavilion forever.

He also wanted to know the reason behind the Crown Prince’s arrival in his humble pavilion, and that was why he immediately opened the door to take a look at the older man. And indeed, he could immediately see Bai Renshu’s figure after he opened the door.

The white-haired man was not alone at the door as Ma Qiao was also there and looked nervous as he kept glancing at Bai Chen. Bai Chen still remembered that his servant was afraid of the Crown Prince, so it was no wonder that the servant looked like he was going to pee his pants right now.

“Greetings, Your Highness,” Bai Chen formally greeted the Crown Prince as actors in historical dramas usually did. His knowledge of this world was limited, so he could only rely on his knowledge of the dramas he had watched in his previous life.

Bai Chen had greeted the older man, but the man did not return his greeting. He even thought that he made a mistake with his greeting, but maybe that wasn’t the case as Ma Qiao didn’t look panicked after hearing his greeting.

“I had let you borrow the key to Wenxue Pavilion yesterday, and I was expecting that you would return the key to me as any civilized person would. But I think my expectations of you are too high because you wouldn’t know how to act like a civilized person.”

Maybe it wasn’t an inappropriate greeting, but maybe it was just the Crown Prince being too cold and arrogant. Even after Bai Chen greeted him, the man’s face remained cold, and he even looked at the younger man with disdain.

If Bai Chen hadn’t read a book about the history of the royal family in the Dong Lang Empire, he might have felt hurt by the Crown Prince’s cold treatment of him, but he had read the book yesterday, and now he could understand why the older man treated him like that.

‘Perhaps in his eyes, I’m only the son of a prostitute who has ruined his happy family,’ Bai Chen thought to himself as he continued to stare at the older man. ‘I wonder if I would act like this too if I were in his position.’

Bai Chen wasn’t the smartest person on Earth, but he was rather sensitive when it came to people’s feelings, and he tried to understand the Crown Prince’s feelings as he smiled at the older man.

“My apologies, Your Highness,” he then humbly apologized. “I was planning on returning the keys today, but I didn’t expect you to visit my palace so soon.”

It was indeed still early, and even if Bai Chen had plans to return Bai Renshu’s keys today, he was thinking of going to the Crown Prince’s palace later this afternoon. Who would have thought that an older man would come to his palace so soon?

“I came here to get the keys because I was afraid you would lose them when you were too busy playing with your hare.”

“...” Hearing another insult from the older man, Bai Chen fell silent.

It wasn’t that he didn’t expect such humiliation from the man, but his heart still hurt because of it. As of now, he still didn’t know the reason behind Bai Chen’s bad habits. Being gay was one thing, but playing with male prostitutes was another.

‘Wait. Did the real Bai Chen in this world choose to play with prostitutes because his mother was also a prostitute?’ Bai Chen wondered in his heart, and his suspicions were confirmed when he suddenly received a notification from the system.

{DING!

PROGRESS OF THE MISSION ‘FIND THE REAL CULPRIT BEHIND THE DEATH OF BAI CHEN’S MOTHER’

0% => 5%}

Bai Chen was taken aback. The system never showed such progress for other missions, but he suddenly saw the progress of the mission related to Bai Chen’s mother.

He was indeed taken aback by that, but now he could confirm that his suspicions were correct. ‘The real Bai Chen in this world chose to play with male prostitutes because his mother was also a prostitute, but what does that have to do with her mother’s death?’ He wondered inwardly, but instead of getting an answer to his question, he could hear Bai Renshu speak to him once again.

“I wonder why you didn’t invite me to enter your pavilion, Bai Chen,” the Crown Prince’s voice greeted his ears, and Bai Chen focused his attention on the older man again.

He was dumbfounded when he heard the man continue speaking, “Is it because you hid someone in your pavilion? Why don’t you let me meet one of your hares? Who knows if I will be attracted to him?”