Chapter 23

The commotion inside had died down during their bickering. Most of the Imperial Guards had retreated, moving methodically under the command of their captain.

The Fifth Prince felt dizzy. Half-slumped against the carriage edge, he mocked with a weak but unwilling voice, "Seventh Brother, you really are something. You're going to be the death of me."

"You are suffering from excessive blood loss." Xue Jin'an carefully observed his wound, calculated the rate and volume of the bleeding, and provided a precise answer. "You have three hours of bleeding left before you die."

This statement jolted everyone back to reality. Only then did they realize the Fifth Prince was a wounded man. Amidst the chaos, the silent coachman stepped forward. "Go fetch the imperial physician."

As he spoke, the coachman knelt to examine the Fifth Prince's wounds, applying medicine and bandaging him with practiced efficiency. As for the medicine—

"Give that here." The Fifth Prince ordered someone to snatch Xue Jin'an's bag, then reached in and rummaged through it. He produced a bottle of wound medicine as if it were the most natural thing in the world—it was identical to the one the Fifth Prince had hidden in the rockery of the abandoned palace.

"Huh?" Fulu, who knew every item in the Qifeng Courtyard like the back of his hand and had personally watched his master pack, let out a sound of confusion.

Xue Jin'an had known what the prince was up to the moment he ordered the bag to be snatched. The man wanted to use his belongings to cover up the fact that he was skilled in martial arts and carried medicine on him at all times. Seeing him produce a bottle that hadn't been in the bag, Xue Jin'an merely tilted his head and said nothing, trading a glance with the Fifth Prince—one devoid of any tacit understanding, yet filled with mutual awareness.

The Fifth Prince glared a warning at Xue Jin'an and let the coachman pour the medicine onto the wound. The stinging pain brought a cold sweat to his brow, but he did not utter a single sound.

Xue Jin'an looked at the treated wound and said, "You won't die now."

*So, you're annoyed that I’m not dying fast enough, aren't you?* The Fifth Prince, not wanting to speak, rolled his eyes in an act of defiant respect.

The coachman, having taken in the entire scene, could no longer suppress a laugh. "Pfft—"

Xue Jin'an and the Fifth Prince looked over in unison. The latter’s gaze was icy. "What are you laughing at? Am I amusing to you, Your Highness?"

"Ah, the commoner was just watching the two Highnesses bicker and couldn't help but think of my own younger cousin. Our relationship is quite good as well," the coachman replied.

It was unclear whether the Fifth Prince was allergic to the word "brother" or the phrase "good relationship," but his usual impartial sarcasm was shattered. In short, he flew into a rage.

"Which eye do you see us having a good relationship with? We'd sooner stab each other to death, wouldn't we?" The Fifth Prince’s expression was dark and his eyes cold as he denied it categorically.

He glared at the coachman, gripping the carriage rail so hard that he left deep indentations of his five fingers.

"We have no relationship," Xue Jin'an said, glancing at the Fifth Prince and nodding in agreement.

Xue Jin'an truly felt he had no relationship with the Fifth Prince. In his eyes, both the Fifth and Fourth Princes were merely humanoid, walking accessory libraries. The difference was that one was a weakling accessory library who couldn't even control his own heart rate or bleeding, loved to shriek, and could be easily subdued; the other was an accessory library who oscillated between being a good person and a swindler, who was generous with skills and equipment, and even took him to see mobile phone exhibitions—the only downside being that he would stir things up but not take responsibility for the consequences.

Xue Jin'an wanted to leave. He felt that these people and these events were hindering his plans to visit the mobile phone exhibition.

"Is that so? It seems I was mistaken. This commoner knows his place; I beg the two Highnesses to forgive this indiscretion." As he spoke, the coachman lifted his bamboo hat, revealing a face strikingly out of place with his attire—a handsome countenance, as radiant as the scorching sun, impossible to forget.

He was not old, looking to be just past his twenties, with curly hair, green eyes, and deep-set features. His appearance was aggressively striking, yet when he smiled, his eyes curved and deep dimples appeared at the corners of his mouth, giving him a distinctly childlike air.

He possessed a fierce, wild look; he loved to read, constantly playing with a jade pendant while doing so; and he was skilled in archery and horsemanship, capable of shooting five arrows at once.

Xue Jin'an recognized his identity almost immediately: the rebel king, Cui Zui.

Cui Zui hailed from the Cui family of Jiangnan, the same ancestral home as Cui Pengfei, the only one of the late Emperor's three regents to successfully retire with his reputation intact.

Cui Zui was a bastard born of an affair between the third young master of the Cui family and a foreign courtesan. He grew up in a brothel with his mother and learned some martial arts from the underworld figures who frequented the place.

When he was eight, his mother passed away from illness. To survive, he began running errands in the brothel. It was then that the third branch of the Cui family found him and sought to acknowledge him; it turned out the third young master had damaged his health through debauchery and, over the years, had only this one child.

Cui Zui returned to the Cui family, but due to his background and appearance, he was not well-regarded; even his biological father did not care for him. The Cui family was a prominent aristocratic clan that had flourished since the previous dynasty, where everyone was educated and held titles. Wanting to fit into the family, Cui Zui abandoned martial arts for literature.

He was intelligent and learned quickly. Within three years of studying, he rose from a boy scholar to a provincial scholar, always ranking first—it was a glorious time, and he even gained a reputation as a child prodigy. Then, as if under a curse, he failed the provincial examinations three times in ten years. Watching his younger brother pass the exams and prepare to head to the capital for the national trials, Cui Zui could no longer bear it. He packed his bags and followed him to the capital, hoping to secure an opportunity for an official career.

During this trip to the capital, Cui Zui witnessed the prosperity of the imperial city and the weight of power and officialdom. He also learned that he hadn't failed because of poor scholarship, but because he had foreign blood and his mother had been a courtesan.

His background and the mother who raised him had become his stain. Cui Zui was indignant. He desperately wanted to get ahead, to stand on high and tell everyone that his origins were not a mistake, and that background and talent were not the same thing.

Knowing that the civil service examinations were a dead end, he worked hard to showcase his talents at literary gatherings. Years later, he succeeded. Recommended by a close friend working for Prince An, he became a strategist for the Fifth Prince. He wanted to realize his ambitions, but the Fifth Prince only valued his martial arts, keeping him by his side as a handsome and useful bodyguard.

After the Fifth Prince was toppled by Chu Wenjing’s insane attack, his entire network of resources was inherited by his younger brother, the Ninth Prince, including Cui Zui.

At the time, the Ninth Prince was in need of talent and showed him favor. Cui Zui thought he had grasped an opportunity, only to find that the Ninth Prince was merely interested in his face and, upon learning of his background, wanted to train him as a plaything.

Cui Zui left the Ninth Prince’s camp in fury and decided to change paths: he would join the army. He sought out the old friend who had recommended him to the Fifth Prince.

He thought that was the end of his troubles with the Ninth Prince, but he had underestimated power and the human heart. He was betrayed by his friend, had his tendons severed, and was delivered to the bed of Grand Princess Baoyi.

The novel did not detail the torment Cui Zui suffered in the Grand Princess's mansion, but when he appeared again, he had seized control of the Northwest Army and declared himself king in rebellion.

The commander of the Northwest Army at the time was Helian Yong, the adopted son of Helian Cheng. As for Helian Cheng himself, he had died defending an isolated city against the Rongdi army two years prior, refusing to surrender.

In truth, Cui Zui’s career as a rebel king was quite flourishing. While he lacked achievements in internal politics, he was a master of external expansion, beating the barbarian enemies until they dared not show their faces, achieving the feat of "no royal court in the northern desert." Then, the Eighth Prince received an imperial decree to suppress the rebellion, recapturing the Northwest Army. Using a series of strategies—sowing discord, the "two peaches kill three men" tactic, and every trick in the book—he caused the rebel team to collapse.

Cui Zui became the experience points for the Eighth Prince, laying a deep foundation for his later success in the struggle for the throne.

In short, Cui Zui was a villain forced into his path step by step.

Xue Jin'an had not expected this person to appear here.

Thinking that the imperial examinations were in March of next year, and it was already the end of October—the capital was far away, winter travel was difficult, and most students would arrive in the capital early—it wasn't strange that Cui Zui was in the capital with his cousin.

But why was he in the Imperial Palace? If Cui Zui had the connections to show his face before the Emperor, he wouldn't have wasted so many years despite having both fame and talent, forced to rely on the circuitous route of a friend's recommendation.

Cui Zui had come with someone—someone permitted to ride a carriage inside the Imperial Palace, someone whose carriage could park alongside the Imperial Palanquin, someone respected by the Emperor.

The last Prime Minister of the Great Qi, Cui Pengfei. Xue Jin'an looked at the carriage and was 70% certain of its owner.

But at the same time, new questions arose. Cui Pengfei was a background character who only appeared in a lying-in-state pose when Cui Zui rebelled, using his own life, the lives of his sons, and a will forbidding the Cui family from serving in office for three generations to preserve the family line. Why would he appear at this time?

Wasn't Cui Pengfei’s character supposed to be that of a white-bearded old man who, after retirement, indulged in landscapes, occasionally offered guidance to bewildered students, and wrote travelogues without involving himself in politics?

Even with the butterfly effect—where a small butterfly flapping its wings could cause a massive hurricane—the plot would shift from the moment he entered this book world.

But Xue Jin'an, who considered himself law-abiding and low-key, had no idea where his own butterfly wings had flapped.

He looked at Cui Zui before him, vaguely feeling that something, somehow, somewhere had gone wrong.

Xue Jin'an, who had yet to find out what kind of demonic wind his wings had stirred up, recorded this bug.

The imperial physician arrived tardily at this moment. After taking the Fifth Prince's pulse, he was ushered inside.

The eunuch rushing out from within was none other than Li Hechun. "Physician Hu, there is another wounded patient inside—the Sixth Prince. He was slashed in the neck by the assassin's blade..."

No wonder the Imperial Guards had reacted so slowly, as if they were throwing the match. It turned out there was still an assassin inside. But why was the one inside also holding a prince hostage?

Was this assassin targeting the Emperor or the Princes? And it was very strange; having reached the point of taking a prince hostage, why didn't he take one down with him when he was at death's door?

Xue Jin'an was logically theorizing a conspiracy when he suddenly felt a subtle, lingering gaze. It came from... Li Hechun.

Xue Jin'an always felt this man was thinking about something that would cause his system to get a virus.

The machine felt something was wrong; the machine wanted to know.

Xue Jin'an did not hesitate to turn on his Bluetooth and connect to Li Hechun.

Then, a dialog box popped up: [Hello, this service requires a corresponding fee~]

Xue Jin'an: "..."

He recalled Li Hechun's account that sold news about the Emperor, and his hand silently reached into his sleeve to touch the fifty coins he had earned as wages.

Clicking pay, the fifty coins vanished.

[Bluetooth connection successful. Time limit: 30 seconds.]

In an instant, Xue Jin'an shared Li Hechun’s perspective and thoughts.

Li Hechun wiped the sweat from his forehead, his eyes calmly assessing the two princes, especially Xue Jin'an.