Chapter 20: CH 12.1

Translator – Xiao He Lian

Chapter 12.1

The next day.

Wen Chi opened his eyes and found himself lying on the Crown Prince’s bed. Although he was only curled up on one side, he was so frightened that he rolled off the bed.

The young eunuchs outside heard the commotion and hurried in.

Seeing Wen Chi fall on the carpet the little eunuch sighed, “Young Master Wen, are you okay? Why did you fall?”

Wen Chi was dizzy and was helped up by the eunuch. He asked: “Where is the Crown Prince?”

“His Highness the Crown Prince got up at chenshi1辰时 [chén shí] the period of the day from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m, perhaps to meet the emperor. This servant is not very clear ……”

The little eunuch’s position is not high. So he can’t serve the Crown Prince personally and he only sees the crown Prince a few times in a day. But since this young master Wen can stay in the crown prince’s bedroom he is naturally someone he can’t afford to offend and he must serve carefully, “Young Master Wen, take a rest first. This servant will bring you a basin of water to wash your face and prepare your breakfast.”

Wen Chi couldn’t remember when he fell asleep last night. He frowned and thought for a while before he remembered that he was standing in front of the crown prince’s bed and kept yawning… It seemed that the crown prince hadn’t fallen asleep at that time and even allowed him to sit on the bed for a while, so he really sat down.

Then he fell asleep.

Thinking of this, Wen Chi held his forehead in agony.

“Young Master Wen.” The little eunuch was frightened by his reaction, “Are you alright?”

Wen Chi shook his head. Since things had come to this point, he could not stay any longer. After informing the little eunuch, he picked up the coat and belt he had taken off at some point and left in a hurry.

Back at Bamboo Flute Residence, Wen Chi still had lingering fears.

Ruo Fang, Ruo Tao and Ping An had been in the courtyard the whole night and when they saw Wen Chi coming back, they all showed their surprised expressions and welcomed him one after another.

Ping An stood behind with a happy face, while the two little girls Ruo Fang and Ruo Tao were chirping around the Wenchi

“This is great, young master Wen. It’s good that you’re okay.” Ruo Fang looked Wen Ji up and down, and seeing that Wen Chi was fine, she was relieved. Then she said with a smile, “Last night, Eunuch Zhu sent someone to say that you spent the night at His Highness’s place, but us servants were terrified.”

Hearing this, Ruo Tao gave Ruo Fang an angry look: “I told you that you think too much, in fact, His Highness is not as scary as you think.”

Ruo Fang stuck out her tongue: “It’s not that the rumors are too scary.”

“You. “

Ruo Tao shook her head helplessly and said, “We should be happy for Young Master Wen. Young master Wen is the first person in the East Palace to serve His Royal Highness in bed. If the first son is conceived in time, when His Royal Highness successfully ascends to the throne then Young Master Wen will be the father by virtue of the son and will be directly elevated as an imperial concubine.”

“Cough cough cough!”

Before Ruo Tao’s words fell, Wen Chi was frightened by the bewildering amount of information in her words and coughed violently.

“Young Master Wen!” Ping An hurriedly squeezed in, gently stroked Wen Chi’s back, and glanced at Ruo Tao, “Stop Talking.”

Ruo Tao wanted to say something, but shut her mouth and watched with Ruo Fang as Ping An helped Wen Chi into the house.

Ruo Fang scratched her head: “Speaking of which, Ruo Tao. Do you think Ping An is a little strange? He doesn’t seem to like getting along with the two of us.”

“Really?” Ruo Tao took a deep look at the room before withdrawing her gaze and smilingly took Ruo Fang’s hand, “Then we can play by ourselves, not with him.”

Ruo Fang said: “Yes, let’s not play with him.”

Wen Chi was exhausted by Shi Ye both physically and mentally and after hurriedly washing his face and feet, he spent the whole day in bed.

However, he did not know that the news of his overnight stay at the crown prince’s place had spread like wildfire, and in just one day’s time, it spread through the entire East Palace as if it has wings – of course, the words that were being said about him behind his back were not good.

It was not until two days later, when someone suddenly came to visit, that Wen Chi learned of this from Ping An.

Originally, Ping An didn’t intend to mention these bad things to Wen Chi. But Ping An did not expect those people in the East Palace to come to the bamboo flute residence so soon.

“The legitimate daughter of the Hanlin2翰林 [hàn lín] member of the Imperial Academy scholar, Lord Zhang is outside. Her surname is Zhang and her name is Caihua. She entered the east palace a few days ago.” Ping An said, “I heard that Lord Zhang is upright and honest, and is very popular among the people and his daughter is also gentle and generous. How about meeting her, Young master Wen?”

Wen Chi had ten thousand reluctances in his heart, although he likes socializing very much, he doesn’t like this kind of intrigue and life-threatening social interactions. He can’t afford to provoke them nor hide from them. He asked Ping An, “Can I not see her?”

“Whatever Mr. Wen says is what you want, I will ask Ruo Tao to send them away.” After Ping An finished, he asked, “Young Master Wen really doesn’t want to meet her?”

Wen Chi asked him back, “Must I have to see her?”

“That’s not what this servant meant.” Ping An immediately knelt down on the ground in fear and explained carefully, “Young Master Wen, the palace is not like the outside, many things are beyond your control. Even if we don’t commit crimes, we can’t guarantee that others won’t commit crimes against us. So we might as well make a few close friends earlier and if something happens, we can look out for each other.”

Wen Chi immediately understood.

To put it bluntly, Ping An is persuading him to hurry up to pull a partner for the palace fight and the legitimate daughter of the hanlin scholar probably came with this kind of thought too.

Therefore, Wen Chi didn’t want to see her anymore. He closed his eyes and waved his hand and said: “Leave.”

Seeing that he couldn’t be persuaded, Ping An didn’t say anything more and quietly went out.