Yun Kui’s mind went blank, unsure when His Highness the Crown Prince had arrived or how much he had overheard… perhaps everything.
Otherwise, why would his face be so dark with fury? She could even hear the cracking of his knuckles as his fists clenched.
"My luck is truly terrible! Getting caught badmouthing someone right in front of them—His Highness will surely skin me alive..."
With a pitiful expression, she stepped forward and pleaded in a low voice, "Your Highness, this servant didn’t mean it that way. Please let me explain—"
The Crown Prince’s gaze swept past her, landing coldly on Li Meng behind her.
Li Meng immediately dropped to his knees with a thud. "Your Highness, spare me! This lowly officer was merely patrolling outside Chaoyang Hall and happened to run into a fellow villager for a brief chat. I had no idea Yun Kui was someone under Your Highness’s care..."
The Crown Prince looked down at him, his voice icy. "Now you know?"
Li Meng’s face paled with terror. "Yes, this lowly officer deserves punishment..."
The Crown Prince’s expression turned ruthless. "You abandoned your post to secretly meet with one of my bedchamber maids. By law, the penalty is—"
Yun Kui hurriedly interjected, "Your Highness, it wasn’t a secret meeting! We just happened to cross paths—"
Li Meng’s head snapped up at the Crown Prince’s words, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at Yun Kui.
He never imagined this girl wasn’t just a palace maid—she was a bedchamber attendant!
"Hasn’t the Crown Prince already slept with her?"
"If I’d known, why would I have bothered talking to her? Just because she’s pretty and seemed easy to fool—serves me right!"
Hearing his thoughts, the Crown Prince’s expression darkened further, his face like storm clouds.
Guo Xiao, the captain of the guards, arrived upon hearing the commotion and immediately bowed to the Crown Prince before glancing at Li Meng. "Your Highness, this—"
"Isn’t this the maid Li Meng bragged about—the one who supposedly threw herself at him and was infatuated with him?"
The Crown Prince closed his eyes, suppressing the rage boiling within him, and issued his verdict with chilling brevity. "Neglect of duty. Forty lashes."
Yun Kui stared at him in disbelief. "Your Highness!"
She had only exchanged a few words with someone—how could that warrant forty lashes?
At that punishment, would he even survive?
Li Meng’s blood ran cold, and he kowtowed frantically. "Your Highness, spare me! I truly only spoke to her as a fellow villager—nothing improper ever happened!"
The Crown Prince had no patience for further excuses. With a glance at Guo Xiao, the latter immediately bowed and ordered Li Meng dragged away for punishment.
Yun Kui’s face turned deathly pale. As the Crown Prince turned to leave, his expression unreadable, she rushed after him. "Your Highness, I swear there was no secret meeting! You can’t punish him like this—"
The Crown Prince ignored her, his aura so oppressive it sent chills down her spine.
Yun Kui’s nose stung with unshed tears—this was the ruthless, tyrannical Crown Prince she had once known.
Desperate, she reached out and grabbed his sleeve. "Your Highness..."
The Crown Prince took a deep breath and finally stopped.
Yun Kui clutched his sleeve tightly, her fingers turning white from the force. "Your Highness, I wasn’t speaking ill of you—you arrived before I could finish. If you’re punishing him harshly because of me, then I—"
The Crown Prince turned to face her, his gaze so cold it froze her words in her throat.
After a long silence, he sneered. "What do you propose?"
Trembling, Yun Kui stammered, "Punish me instead. I shouldn’t have met with a guard in private, shouldn’t have spoken out of turn about you. I forgot my place—I deserve the punishment, not him..."
The Crown Prince’s voice was sharp. "Do you think I won’t punish you? Every one of your offenses is recorded. Sooner or later, you’ll answer for them all."
"Yes, this servant deserves punishment… but Li Meng is innocent. Please, Your Highness, show mercy..."
Yun Kui didn’t know what Li Meng truly thought, but in her eyes, such a harsh penalty was unjust.
The Crown Prince’s gaze turned mocking. "You’ve known him for what—a few days? And you’re certain he’s innocent? Or have you already given him your heart, and now I’ve torn you two lovebirds apart?"
Suddenly, he remembered—during her interrogation, she had once dreamed of her future: "Marry a strong, sturdy guard and live out the rest of my days in shameless bliss."
Was the guard she spoke of Li Meng?
Did she want to marry Li Meng?
Li Meng might be vile and scheming, but his physique could indeed be described as robust.
He also recalled that night when he questioned her about her dreams—among the long list of names she mentioned was her fellow villager, Guard Li. That had to be Li Meng.
She had even dreamed of Li Meng!
And as for what Guo Xiao had thought—whether true or not—Li Meng clearly believed she had once pursued him obsessively and boasted about it to others.
The Crown Prince shut his eyes again, and when he reopened them, the fury within was barely contained.
Yun Kui shrank back at the sight of his blood-red eyes, quickly shaking her head. "No, we’ve barely met! He didn’t even know I was in the Eastern Palace until today!"
How many times they had met—he would investigate that himself.
His anger flared, and he sneered. "You’ve barely met, yet you’re already defending him, even willing to take his punishment?"
Before Yun Kui could retort, he cut her off. "In your eyes, I’m nothing but a ruthless monster. If I decide to end his life, what can you possibly do?"
Yun Kui finally understood the meaning of "hoist with one’s own petard."
She clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms, and gritted out, "So Your Highness means to say that I must spend the rest of my life in Chengguang Palace, never speaking to another man, and every man who so much as glances at me will meet his doom?"
The Crown Prince’s expression darkened further, a murderous aura she hadn’t seen in a long time radiating from him.
"One more word, and I’ll have him executed on the spot."
Cao Yuanlu, standing nearby, subtly shook his head at her. If the Crown Prince had only ordered lashes, he didn’t truly intend to kill. If he wanted Li Meng dead, the command would have been far more final.
Yun Kui bit her lip hard and fell silent.
Cao Yuanlu, unable to hear the inner thoughts like her, also felt the punishment was excessive but dared not intervene. Instead, he cautiously changed the subject. "Your Highness, if we delay any longer, we’ll miss the spectacle over there."
Still caught between anger and distress, Yun Kui reflexively asked, "What spectacle?"
The Crown Prince’s voice was icy. "Your master and mistress’s spectacle."
Yun Kui was baffled. What master and mistress?
Cao Yuanlu was equally confused—since when was Yun Kui connected to the Heir of Ningde Marquis?
The Crown Prince gave her a cold look. "Come with me now, or go join your fellow villager in death. The choice is yours."
Knowing she was powerless against him, Yun Kui had no choice but to follow.
---
Chaoyang Hall.
Emperor Chunming, noticing the Crown Prince’s absence, summoned Tang Fugui. "Where has the Crown Prince gone?"
He had hoped to discuss potential candidates for Crown Princess with him tonight.
The Emperor had pondered the matter for days and already had a few noble daughters in mind.
Two were daughters of the Crown Prince’s former allies—families who had long supported him. A marital alliance would only strengthen those ties, making them ideal candidates.
Several noblewomen from prominent families had fathers or brothers whose misdeeds were already in Emperor Chunming’s grasp—either evidence of corruption uncovered by the Imperial Guards, awaiting arrest orders. Marrying them into the Eastern Palace would bring no advantage to the Crown Prince, while the Emperor could seize the right moment to eliminate them all in one sweep.
Two candidates recommended by the Ministry of Rites were also deemed unsuitable for the Crown Prince, but Emperor Chunming considered betrothing them to his fifth and sixth sons instead. A few others, though not from illustrious families, were daughters of upright scholars and could be granted as secondary consorts to the second and fourth princes.
Just as Tang Fugui was about to report, his disciple Wang Ze entered with a bow and announced, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince has sent word that an interesting spectacle awaits in the side hall and invites Your Majesty to witness it."
Emperor Chunming was puzzled. A spectacle? What could the Crown Prince possibly want him to see?
His expression darkened, and he rose immediately, arriving at the side hall even before the Crown Prince.
At the foot of the steps, Zhao Yue, a trusted guard under the Crown Prince, stood waiting with two maidservants and a male attendant in custody. Though their mouths were gagged with cloth, the Emperor recognized one of them—a maid serving Concubine Yu from the Baohua Hall.
His face turned ashen. "What is the meaning of this?"
Zhao Yue saluted and replied, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince discovered that Concubine Yu and the Heir of Ningde Marquis were meeting privately here tonight. He ordered us to detain these servants and await Your Majesty’s judgment."
Emperor Chunming nearly saw black. His fury twisted his face into something almost monstrous. "Preposterous!"
"Whether it is or not, Your Majesty need only step inside to see for yourself."
A cool, detached voice spoke from behind. The Emperor turned to see the Crown Prince, clad in dark robes embroidered with golden dragons, walking unhurriedly through the moon gate.
Clenching his fists, Emperor Chunming suppressed his rage. "So this is the spectacle the Crown Prince wished to show me?"
The Crown Prince chuckled lightly. "Does Your Majesty hesitate because you fear what you might witness?"
With a face full of wrath, the Emperor kicked open the side hall’s doors.
The sounds of intimate passion inside came to an abrupt halt.
Cao Yuanlu immediately ordered attendants to extinguish the incense burner. Just as they moved to open the windows for ventilation, a sharp sound of shattering glass pierced the air.
Qin Ge reacted swiftly, intercepting the Heir of Ningde Marquis as he tried to leap out the window, dragging him before Emperor Chunming.
The heir’s clothes were disheveled, his breath ragged, fresh scratch marks visible on his neck.
The Emperor’s eyes burned with fury. He kicked the man to the ground, then stormed inside, knocking over a screen to reveal the bed—strewn with hairpins and the unmistakable evidence of passion. The wanton woman lying there, covered in marks, was none other than Concubine Yu.
Emperor Chunming’s blood boiled. "You shameless whore!"
For twenty years, the Emperor had maintained an image of dignified composure, his emotions never betraying him. But now, he trembled with rage, his imperial bearing shattered by the overwhelming humiliation.
The Heir of Ningde Marquis struggled to his knees, finally regaining his senses. Desperation flashed in his eyes as he crawled toward the Emperor, pointing at the Crown Prince.
"Your Majesty, this is a trap! The Crown Prince bribed my attendant to lure me here—he seeks my death! He aims to sow discord between Your Majesty and the Empress, to turn you against my father! Do not be deceived, Your Majesty! Do not slay a loyal subject for his schemes!"
Emperor Chunming laughed coldly, his teeth clenched. "You dare call yourself loyal after defiling my concubine?"
No matter the circumstances, the two had been caught in the act—their adultery undeniable, the Emperor’s dignity trampled beyond repair.
Among the chaos, Yun Kui, who had followed the Crown Prince, stood dumbfounded.
So, the "master and mistress" the Crown Prince had mentioned were the Heir of Ningde Marquis and Concubine Yu?
How did he know that all those seductive tricks she’d learned in her dreams had been taught by them?
Amid the shocking scene, she stole a glance at the Crown Prince, an absurd thought crossing her mind:
He’s wiped out my entire school. Who am I supposed to learn from now?
Commander of the Imperial Guard: Greetings.
Aunt Bizan: There’s still us—your martial uncle and aunt.
The entire court: We can teach you too.
Crown Prince: I could also...
