A chill crept up from the depths of his heart. Qu Dubian did not open his eyes, controlling his breathing to remain steady.
There was a stranger in the room.
This favorability module of the simulator was not something just anyone could be recorded in.
First, it could not display the favorability of relatives connected to him by blood. After all, with such a relationship, collecting favorability would be much easier, which smacked of cheating.
Second, was encounter and fate.
The condition of fate was vague and elusive, so let's not discuss it for now. But the first two characters, "encounter," were easy to understand.
In the dead of night, the simulator suddenly popping up this reminder meant that this person named Yi Shier was currently right inside his bedchamber!
An assassin sent to kill him?
No, no, this was the imperial palace, the inner court. How could an assassin be so brazen as to kill a prince... or maybe not? One couldn't be sure?
Qu Dubian fell silent for a moment. After all, every era had its lunatics.
Ever since the incident at the Great Kitchen, the Imperial Hospital had stopped supplying the 'cold medicine.' Probably the mastermind behind it had discovered he survived and was still alive, afraid the matter might be exposed, so they stopped giving the medicine.
Could it be they felt it was a pity he didn't die and had now switched to assassination mode?
Last time it was a sneaky frame-up, this time they're drawing their sword directly. Isn't the leap in between a bit too big?
It shouldn't be.
Calm down.
Calm down.
Qu Dubian slowly loosened his clenched fist.
If he were really assassinated, a prince dying for no reason at this critical juncture when his status in the Ju'an Palace had just improved, his so-called father would absolutely lose face. Under a thorough investigation, the mastermind would gain nothing but trouble. There was simply no need to dispatch an assassin for a child like him.
Under extreme nervous tension, he heard a faint sound, like folded paper being opened.
Qu Dubian: "?"
Paper, could it contain poison inside?
Thinking this, he felt slightly relieved. With the simulator here, poison was almost useless against him; it would only be internalized as a type of illness and then recorded.
Yi Shier had blown some sleeping powder at Wen Xiaochun and Ye Xiaoyuan and was now standing by the bed, drawing.
Before the Yi Squad Leader sent him out, he had told him to record the young prince's daily life. It was his first field assignment, and he wasn't sure how detailed he needed to be, so he simply decided to draw the entire living environment around the young prince.
He drew silently, but quickly, with just a few strokes, creating vivid images.
After finishing the surroundings, he finally tapped his toes lightly and landed before the bed, reaching out to lift the newly changed, light and thin bed curtains.
Inside, the child was sleeping, drenched in sweat. Seeming to sense the slight chill emanating from him, the child's small brows furrowed slightly, then he suddenly turned over, sticking his bottom up, with his back facing him.
With this movement, most of the quilt slipped off.
The child was wearing a water-washed, faded bellyband. He was so thin that the little ties of the bellyband hung down quite a length at the small of his back. Seeming to feel cold, he even shivered.
Damn, the quilt fell off, his goosebumps were practically standing up!!
Qu Dubian had held his breath to the limit, barely managing to maintain the appearance of steady breathing and avoid detection.
The next second, the fallen quilt was pulled back over him. The visitor tucked him in properly, even meticulously smoothing the corners.
Qu Dubian: ...?
After covering him, the person didn't leave. He heard more faint sounds of a brush tip scratching against paper. Then the 'assassin' gently and carefully lowered the bed curtains, returning them to their original state.
Qu Dubian turned over again.
Yi Shier paused, took another look, and seeing the quilt hadn't slipped, finally closed the curtains completely.
Qu Dubian silently opened his eyes. The moment the curtains closed, he clearly saw a pale green Han orchid embroidered on the 'assassin's' black, tight-fitting sleeve.
The Han orchid was the national flower of the Great Zhou.
It bloomed all year round, tenacious and full of vitality. Usually an elegant green, during the coldest depths of winter, it would transform into a crimson blood orchid.
There were many varieties of orchids. The people of Great Zhou loved orchids; even Ye Banban had orchid patterns on his clothes.
But not everyone could embroider Han orchids on their garments.
Ye Banban had once told him that only with the emperor's permission could one embroider Han orchids on clothing; otherwise, not even imperial princes or members of the royal clan could.
The child's bellyband he was wearing had a Han orchid pattern, made from fabric specially awarded by the emperor to Consort Yun back then. Among the imperial consorts, only Consort Yun had received such an honor.
Was Yi Shier sent by his so-called father? Being able to embroider the national flower on his clothes, he probably even had an official position.
Qu Dubian fell into thought.
Judging from this person's actions, he likely meant no harm.
Yi Shier—the name sounded strange too. Based on his years of watching TV dramas, could this be the legendary cold, ruthless, selfless royal guard whose very name was just a number?
Such a cliché setting.
But what exactly was he here for? Qu Dubian couldn't help but start to overthink.
He tossed and turned in bed, growing more and more wide awake.
Meanwhile, outside on the withered branch of the pagoda tree.
Yi Shier expressionlessly tucked the paper with the drawing of the bare-bottomed child in the red bellyband into his robe.
A cold wind blew, and he too grew more and more wide awake.
Recording was one thing, but having to tuck in the child of his superior's superior's superior...
When would this overtime end?
-
It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that Qu Dubian, unable to resist his body's exhaustion, fell into a fitful sleep.
He slept restlessly and had a nightmare. In the dream, he overslept, woke up to find his remaining lifespan was only ten seconds, and while frantically practicing Tai Chi, his body physically shattered into pieces. Ye Banban and Xiaochun cried as they gathered his broken pieces to make congee...
When he woke up, he lay in bed with a slight headache, staring blankly for a long while.
The room was utterly silent.
Outside, daylight filtered in, and the faint sound of birdsong could be heard.
Qu Dubian blinked, stretched lazily, fished out his warm little clothes from under the quilt, and put them on himself.
"Can you detect if Yi Shier is nearby?"
Qu Dubian asked in his mind, yawning after the question.
"Think carefully before answering. How can I study in peace under the surveillance of that Yi Shier, whoever he is? If he has ill intentions and reports that I'm going to the study hall after finding out, I definitely won't be able to go. If I can't go to the study hall, I won't learn to write. If I can't write, I can't write my reflections, then..."
"Actually, being illiterate is fine too. Just let me write in modern Chinese characters. Oh, or you can wait a few more years until my so-called father remembers me and sends me to the study hall, or until I'm killed by someone and you can just bind with a new, literate host of the right age."
Simulator: [...]
Simulator: [Host's request is reasonable. The simulator will provide real-time distance tracking for Yi Shier.]
Qu Dubian felt pleased.
"Where is he now?"
Simulator: [10 meters from the host.]
"Can you mark his location for me, like a certain unscrupulous map app?"
The simulator didn't respond. Qu Dubian pouted. Fine, testing boundaries had its limits. Today's result was an unexpected boon. It seemed he, as a host, was probably more important to the simulator than he had thought.
Ten meters...
He should be outside the palace hall now.
He suspected that his cheap father, after the dream incident and the Grand Kitchen affair, had finally taken a bit more notice of his youngest son and had secretly sent someone to check on him.
However, suspicion was just suspicion; he couldn't be entirely sure.
Once Wen Xiaochun had mostly scouted out the routes around the Eastern Lodge tomorrow, he could sneak off to the schoolhouse. Coincidentally, he could use this matter to test his theory.
Having decided on his course of action, Qu Dubian put Yi Shier out of his mind. Under his own observation, he went about his routine—practicing Tai Chi when it was time and eating when it was time.
-
By evening.
Yi Shier, holding the few sheets of paper he had sketched on, returned to the Purple Zenith Hall.
He presented five drawings, describing in a flat, emotionless voice everything he had observed in the Peaceful Residence Hall, down to the last detail, even more meticulously than Eunuch Yu.
Emperor Chongzhao flipped through the drawings in his hand.
The first depicted the interior of the Peaceful Residence Hall's bedchamber, likely at night, with two eunuchs sleeping on the floor at the foot of their master's bed. He snorted coldly, "These servants truly have no sense of propriety."
Yi Shier said, "Other halls seem not to have beds. The hall where His Highness resides is warm. This subordinate speculates it might be because the young prince is afraid of sleeping alone, or perhaps to conserve charcoal."
Emperor Chongzhao raised his voice and called, "Yu Decai!!"
Eunuch Yu, standing behind a screen, responded, "Your Majesty." Shadow guards could not easily be seen by anyone other than the emperor, so he had to remain behind the screen.
Emperor Chongzhao: "Weren't supplies just replenished? Could the Peaceful Residence Hall still be short on charcoal now?"
Eunuch Yu replied respectfully, "It certainly should not be lacking. Most likely, it's a habit formed from past shortages, a tendency to be frugal."
Emperor Chongzhao was silent for a moment. "Continue."
The martial arts skills of the Yi-rank shadow guards were not particularly strong, but without exception, their memories were exceptional. Yi Shier could even recount every sentence he had heard in the Peaceful Residence Hall since last night, or summarize the general cause and effect of events using concise language.
How to report depended on the specific situation.
In this current situation, the more detailed, the better.
As he spoke, Emperor Chongzhao flipped to the next page. This drawing depicted a child sleeping on its side, face not shown—this was the child he hadn't seen for nearly three years.
The child was wearing a bellyband. As it was a charcoal sketch, the color of the bellyband wasn't discernible, but Emperor Chongzhao paused, his gaze lingering on a familiar pattern at the corner of the garment.
The pattern was a cold orchid.
Emperor Chongzhao still remembered when Consort Yun was pregnant, how joyfully he had ordered the embroiderers to work on that bolt of red satin embroidered with blooming cold orchars. Among all the princes and princesses in the palace, only Consort Yun's child had received such an honor.
He and Consort Yun had been so full of anticipation for the child's arrival back then.
He had thought of using this satin to make a tiger-head hat, toys, and little clothes for the baby, whether it was a boy or a girl.
He had thought this bolt of satin was still sealed away in Consort Yun's deserted palace. Now it seemed that when the move to the new hall occurred, the palace servants must have taken it to the Peaceful Residence Hall.
The hopes and blessings from back then had still been made into clothes, worn by the child.
Emperor Chongzhao suddenly felt a wave of emotion in his heart.
He flipped another page.
The third drawing depicted the layout of the entire Peaceful Residence Hall courtyard.
The previous emperor had only two princesses, one married off to Jiangnan, the other sent in marriage alliance to the Northern frontier. By his own reign, princesses were again scarce, with only one young princess currently being raised in the rear palace.
Thus, the Peaceful Residence Hall, where princesses of previous generations lived before marriage, had become increasingly desolate and bleak. The courtyard didn't even have proper decorations, just two clotheslines strung up with a few garments hanging.
The fourth and fifth drawings: one depicted practicing Tai Chi in the courtyard in the morning, the other having the morning meal.
"He has a hobby of practicing Tai Chi?" Emperor Chongzhao was somewhat surprised. "Is this a long-standing habit, or...?"
Yi Shier: "He appeared very proficient. It should be a habit the young prince has had for some time."
Emperor Chongzhao praised, "Enjoying martial practice, this child must be quite healthy. Takes after me. I was robust as a child."
Actually, Consort Yun had gone to the borderlands since she was seven; her physical constitution was naturally good too, otherwise she couldn't have endured the harsh climate there. This child had indeed inherited the fine constitutions of both him and Consort Yun.
"..."
Yi Shier hesitated slightly.
He thought of the Seventh Prince's frame, with hardly any flesh on it, the bones visible under the skin on his back when he turned over—that frail appearance hardly seemed like someone in good health.
Emperor Chongzhao turned these five sheets of paper over and over, looking at them several times. "You..."
Yi Shier prepared to withdraw.
Emperor Chongzhao rubbed the paper between his fingers, as if he hadn't seen enough, and said thoughtfully, "Go back for now, then return tomorrow night."
Yi Shier: "?"
So this life of overtime wasn't ending after all, was it?
