Chapter 3: The Mad Crown Prince
“The curfew drum has sounded, and the time for the night watch has arrived. All citizens in every district, return home quickly. Violators will be severely punished!”
Bang!
The drumbeats were muffled; Shangjing City was under curfew.
The north wind, mixed with fine snow, swirled in the sky, whistling mournfully. It was already the beginning of spring, and after another night of snowfall, the entire Capital City had grown cold.
Xue Sui looked at the gilded black lacquer characters “You Huang Ju” on the tall, imposing lintel. She wrapped her clothes tighter and knocked on the door again.
“Who is it?”
The corner gate opened a crack, and a plump head peeked out from within. He saw Xue Sui’s pale face under the eaves lamp and her simple, old jacket and skirt, and clearly froze for a moment.
“What beggar is this? Disturbing the peace so late at night. Go, go! Go beg somewhere else!”
Xue Sui smiled faintly.
“Please inform him, the Corpse Keeper from the Old Mausoleum Swamp requests an audience with the Crown Prince.”
The man’s expression changed drastically.
You Huang Ju was the Crown Prince’s villa, a colossal secret.
The Corpse Keeper from the Old Mausoleum Swamp was terrifying enough, especially in the middle of the night.
He glanced back at the guards in the shadows and gave them a look.
Without a word, two guards twisted Xue Sui’s hands behind her back and dragged her inside.
Xue Sui did not struggle.
You Huang Ju had five courtyards. The Torture Chamber was located in the eastern cross-courtyard to the north, with stone steps leading up, and the wind whistling through the corridors was extremely cold.
“Get in!” Someone pushed her hard from behind.
Xue Sui stumbled forward two steps and fell into the stone room.
The light was dim, and the strong smell of blood filled her nostrils. Someone must have committed a crime, as continuous wails could be heard from the room next door.
A giant press, monstrous and terrifying, and a red-hot branding iron that dried the residual blood. Leather whips, daggers, charcoal, iron chains—the cold glint of the torture instruments seemed to tear at her childhood scars…
Her dormant memories were awakened—
Her breathing tightened slightly.
“No need to interrogate. Throw her into the ten thousand snake pit!”
A clear, cold voice came from behind.
Xue Sui instinctively turned her head.
Only then did she notice a heavy hidden door in the Torture Chamber.
The door parted from both sides, and a young man stood tall.
His hair was tied with a jade hairpin, impeccably neat. Beneath a dark green robe, he wore a black casual outfit, with hidden gold threads embroidered with dragon patterns on the hem. He arrived like a pine tree or a crane in the clouds.
He seemed displeased with his subordinates’ actions. He calmly surveyed the scene, sat on the only high-backed chair in the Torture Chamber, and gestured with his finger.
“Kill her!”
This was not the first time Xue Sui had seen Li Zhao.
At the foot of Lao Jun Mountain, the Crown Prince encountered bandits. She had personally witnessed Li Zhao move like a ghost among the bandits, using a thin blade to slit the throats of over a dozen men…
She also saw him calmly wipe away the blood, pick up a trembling puppy from a carriage that had been smashed and overturned, and gently bandage its wounds.
At the Lantern Festival, the Qingming Festival ancestral rites, and the New Year’s Eve stroll, he was either by the Emperor’s side, watching the citizens below the city walls cheer for His Majesty, or he would pass by in his carriage on the Imperial City’s main street, receiving the worship of the masses.
Xue Sui, squeezed among the countless people, had seen him many times…
Never this close.
He was exceptionally handsome, exceptionally cold, and exceptionally young. Stripped of his magnificent robes and the honor of the Crown Prince, his eyes held a rare, sharp madness, unfathomable…
The Crown Prince was the Crown Prince, unlike any other man in the world.
Two guards with swords dragged Xue Sui towards the corner.
There was a snake pit, eight feet square. Tens of thousands of vipers were confined below by a layer of iron mesh. Their colorful patterns writhed, and it was unclear how long they had been starved. Some were killing each other, while others flicked their tongues and desperately climbed, emitting a hissing cacophony…
The cold wind blew, lifting the hem of Xue Sui’s clothes.
She turned to look at Li Zhao.
“I can assist Your Highness and become someone of the Eastern Palace.”
Li Zhao chuckled, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Xue Sui said, “The Xue family will send me to Prince Duan’s Mansion to serve Prince Duan.”
As she spoke, she slowly removed the blue headscarf from her head, revealing her exquisite, jade-like beauty to Li Zhao’s casual gaze. Her expression was peaceful and serene, so pale as if veiled by an impenetrable light gauze.
“I will enter the game myself and act as an inside informant for the Crown Prince. Is this not a good move?”
Li Zhao remained silent, lightly dusting his sleeves twice with his fingers.
Xue Sui lowered her eyes to look at his hands. They were lean and long-fingered, with exceptionally distinct knuckles, giving a sense of subtle, oppressive tension.
She hadn’t felt this way in a long time, and her brow furrowed unintentionally.
“His Majesty dotes on Consort Xiao, and by extension, her son is also favored. If not for our dynasty’s ancestral law of primogeniture over seniority, the master of the Eastern Palace today would likely have already changed.”
Since the Emperor fell ill last year, the conflict between the Eastern Palace and Prince Duan’s Mansion, between Empress Xie and Consort Xiao, had intensified. The rivalry between the two was no longer a secret…
But this was not something the Crown Prince wanted to hear.
The surrounding attendants were all sweating with anxiety.
Li Zhao, however, smiled. “Interesting!”
The ten thousand snake pit was right before her eyes, the snakes writhing densely, subtly stirring the humid air…
Xue Sui did not retreat. She crouched down and voluntarily reached her hand towards the iron mesh, her eyes holding a gentle smile, as if caressing a beloved pet from afar…
“Who in this world is more capable than the bedmate of Prince Duan? I presume Your Highness would not bear to kill me.”
Li Zhao watched her peculiar actions.
“You are not afraid of snakes?”
Xue Sui looked up. “What is there to fear about snakes? They are all just trying to survive, just like me.”
Li Zhao: “The Xue family supports Prince Duan, why do you choose me?”
Xue Sui: “The Crown Prince is second only to one, above ten thousand others. He is the best backing in the world.”
Li Zhao sneered. “If Prince Duan achieves his great ambition, your Xue family will also bask in glory.”
Xue Sui gazed at him steadily. “Whom the Xue family chooses, I abandon. Whom the Xue family opposes, I seek refuge with. The Xue family’s prosperity is not as important as my own.”
Li Zhao stared at her as she slowly approached, gazing at her with a half-smile, his expression growing even colder.
“Are you begging me?”
Xue Sui: “If Your Highness refuses, you will be the one at a disadvantage.”
Li Zhao’s slender fingers paused.
The light behind him blurred his handsome face.
“How can I trust you?”
Xue Sui silently stood up, facing him, her lips pursed slightly. Like a soft, harmless young lady, she stared at him and reached for her collar.
Li Zhao’s pupils darkened slightly, revealing disdain.
Xue Sui, however, did not hesitate. She acted decisively, like a hungry sheep that had stumbled into a wolf pack, and in front of the wolves and their king, she forcefully pulled open her coarse hemp garment.
She was exceptionally beautiful, but unfortunately, her jade-like skin was marred.
On her skin, like snow-white lotus roots, were many visible old scars, like spiderwebs. Even a man who had served in the army for years would not have so many.
“It took me a full ten years to reach Your Highness.”
She then asked softly, “Can someone like me gain the trust of the Crown Prince?”
The Torture Chamber was suffocatingly quiet.
Ten years had passed, and many scars had faded or disappeared. However, from this tip of the iceberg, one could still glimpse the cruelty and abuse she had suffered in her youth. Without a single word, a monstrous hatred surged, as if to make those scars come alive again, transforming into hideous grinning faces.
Eunuch Lai took a sharp breath. “Your Highness…”
“No need to pity me,” Xue Sui calmly pulled her old jacket closed. “I am not here seeking sympathy. I will show the Crown Prince my value.”
She looked up at Li Zhao again. “We each get what we need.”
Li Zhao: “I do not engage in losing trades.”
Xue Sui’s gaze was faint. “If my life is lost, does it matter if it’s a loss or not?”
Li Zhao smiled again.
His smile sent shivers down their spines.
Eunuch Lai and the guards held their breath.
Xue Sui, as if nothing had happened, tidied her clothes and said seriously, “I have come today to inform the Crown Prince. At the Cold Dispelling Banquet three days from now, the ‘bandits’ from Lao Jun Mountain will return.”
Li Zhao raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You risk your life to warn me? What is your intention?”
Xue Sui glanced at him. “Consider it my meeting gift to the Crown Prince. I will return to the Xue family soon. If Your Highness is still alive then, please send a return gift.”
Li Zhao’s lips twitched slightly. “Hmph!”
The Crown Prince flicked his sleeve and left, leaving Eunuch Lai bewildered.
This woman had trespassed into You Huang Ju at night, committing a grave offense against the Crown Prince. There was no way she should have survived.
Why had he shown mercy and let her go?
He was anxious, but Xue Sui was not.
She slowly bowed. “This villa is deep and secluded. This humble girl is frightened. I beg Your Excellency to escort me out.”
Eunuch Lai: …
She was not frightened at all.
It was he who was frightened now.
The Crown Prince’s thoughts were unfathomable. One wrong step, and he could lose his head.
Eunuch Lai, with a dark expression, escorted Xue Sui to the entrance, only to see Guan Ya, the Crown Prince’s personal guard, catching up.
A dark, lacquered wooden box was handed to Xue Sui.
Xue Sui did not take it. “What is this?”
Guan Ya’s expression was blank. “His Highness instructed that you should look at it after you return.”
…
Xue Sui returned to the Old Mausoleum Swamp with the box, it was already dusk two days later. She opened the first layer and found that the box contained another box inside, and the inner box used a Luban Lock.
Did Li Zhao anticipate that she wouldn’t be able to open it?
Xue Sui raised an eyebrow, the box turning between her fair fingertips…
Click! The wooden tenon sprang open.
Inside the box was a brownish-gray pill.
And a note.
“You are fortunate. Take the antidote and survive.”
Xue Sui clutched the cold box, a cold sweat breaking out on her back, as if the vipers from You Huang Ju were slithering up from beneath her skirt…
The wooden box was poisoned!
If she couldn’t open this specially made Luban Lock, she would be a fool, unworthy of plotting with the Eastern Palace. Then, dying from poisoning would be her final fate.
A thousand treacherous schemes, a myriad of hidden malicious intentions.
How ruthless Li Zhao was!
The world said that the Eastern Palace was more dangerous than the Imperial Palace, and being the Crown Prince was harder than being the Emperor. If Li Zhao made one wrong move, he would be doomed.
He had to be ruthless.
If Xue Sui wanted to scheme with a tiger, she had to be even more ruthless than them.
The poison quickly took effect, large drops of sweat falling. Her stomach ached as if being twisted.
Xue Sui swallowed the pill, and a faint smile slowly appeared on her lips.
“Young Lady, Master is back and wants you to go over.”
Xiao Zhao knocked on the door, and Xue Sui’s expression changed, her smile vanishing from her face.
Everyone has something they fear.
Xue Sui had three Masters.
The one she feared the most was her eldest Master.
It’s great to see familiar faces in the comment section.
See you tomorrow, my dears~~
Li Zhao （zhào）.
Crown Prince: What does this mean? It ends after a brief appearance? I’m not the male lead?
Xue Sui: No. Next…
