Chapter 21: If You Betray Me, I Will Kill You
“I’m here to teach you, you heartless man!”
Jiang Yingnan said, and with a “slap,” he struck Chu Ziqian hard across the face. “I betrayed my family and lost everything for you, yet you’re only concerned with frolicking with others! Chu Ziqian, do you even deserve to be the Crown Prince of Chu?!”
“…What are you saying?” Chu Ziqian’s face darkened at the last sentence. “Jiang Yingnan, what are you doing? Have I spoiled you? If you continue to be unreasonable, don’t blame me for being impolite!”
“Come on, be impolite!” Jiang Yingnan threw himself onto the bed. “My buttocks are already swollen and bruised because of you, beat me again! I want to see how impolite you intend to be!”
“What’s going on?!”
Chu Ziqian noticed that Jiang Yingnan’s clothes near his buttocks were torn, and his flesh was exposed and horribly injured.
He quickly covered Jiang Yingnan with a quilt, and said coldly to the Crown Princess, “Get out.”
“…” The Crown Princess was also shocked and bewildered by the sudden change. Hearing Chu Ziqian’s exceptionally cold tone, she didn’t dare to get angry for the moment, and only said resentfully, “This is my room, you’re telling me to leave?”
Chu Ziqian frowned, carefully scooped up Jiang Yingnan along with the quilt, and walked towards his own room.
Jiang Yingnan realized that he was still his masochistic self. Although he had just created a scene, seeing Chu Ziqian being gentle towards him, his anger subsided by half.
Chu Ziqian gently placed Jiang Yingnan on the bed in his room and said softly, “Anan, what happened? How did you get hurt like this? You’ve broken my heart!”
Jiang Yingnan could no longer suppress his emotions, he threw himself into Chu Ziqian’s arms and sobbed.
“Alright, alright, I’m here,” Chu Ziqian was heartbroken by his crying, repeatedly patting his back and soothing him softly, “I won’t let anyone bully you again.”
Jiang Yingnan asked in his arms, “Did you consummate your marriage? If you did, get out.”
“No, no,” Chu Ziqian quickly shook his head, “I didn’t consummate the marriage.”
Jiang Yingnan finally let out a long sigh of relief and began to narrate the events tearfully.
“It was all your idea! Now Chu Lianmo has discovered the truth, you’ve failed and harmed me, I’ve been kicked out like a stray dog!”
“…” Chu Ziqian never expected that Ying Dong, the well-trained assassin, would betray his employer.
“Alright, Anan, don’t be sad, I’ll find a place for you.”
“What do you mean find a place for me? Don’t you still refuse to let me marry into the Crown Prince’s mansion?! Do you think I can still help you become the heir apparent of the Jiang family?”
“Okay, okay, I’ll marry you,” Chu Ziqian quickly said softly, “After you recover from your injuries, I’ll marry you immediately.”
Jiang Yingnan “hmph”-ed, and calmed down slightly.
“Actually, I’ve always felt that my mother doesn’t like me, she only likes my elder brother… Now even my father hates me… Ziqian, you’re the only one I have left in this world, if you betray me, I’ll just die! And I’ll drag you down to hell with me!”
“…I won’t betray you.” Chu Ziqian promised, but in his heart, he was thinking, he had been attracted by Jiang Yingnan’s gentleness and consideration, but the closer they became, the more prickly he became, he would have to find a way to deal with his temper later. But now that Jiang Yingnan had just suffered such a great grievance, he could only coax him first.
That night, although Chu Ziqian applied some pain-relieving medicine to Jiang Yingnan, he was still in so much pain that he couldn’t sleep. When he thought of his grievances, he would cry, and Chu Ziqian kept soothing him softly.
In fact, Jiang Yingnan was very strong in front of others, unwilling to easily reveal his vulnerable and soft side, but in front of Chu Ziqian, he had long since lost his pride.
The next day, Chu Ziqian temporarily settled Jiang Yingnan in a guest room in the Crown Prince’s mansion.
He sent many guards to guard the vicinity of the guest room, fearing that the Crown Princess would cause trouble for Jiang Yingnan.
In fact, Chu Lianmo not only planted spies in the De Wangfu, but also in the Crown Prince’s mansion.
So, he quickly learned all this information.
That night, he discussed the matter with Qi Xiaojun, who was lying beside him: “The Crown Prince keeps a man around ambiguously, and even guards the Crown Princess like a thief because of him. Do you think this is a big scandal if it gets out?”
“You… want to use this to make a fuss?”
Qi Xiaojun immediately understood Chu Lianmo’s intentions.
Oh well, perhaps Jiang Yingnan was just a poor man who was misled by the Crown Prince. Perhaps because they had similar experiences, he felt a little sympathy for Jiang Yingnan.
“Forget it.” Chu Lianmo seemed to understand the emotions in Qi Xiaojun’s expression, “Let’s not use these matters of the inner courtyard. Although Jiang Yingnan is not entirely innocent, he has already received sufficient punishment; there’s no need to involve him in the political struggles of the court.”
Qi Xiaojun breathed a sigh of relief, “I didn’t expect Your Highness to be so considerate and kind.”
“What?” Chu Lianmo raised his eyebrows, “In your heart, I’m a cruel and ruthless devil?”
Qi Xiaojun knew that he wasn’t seriously blaming him, so he just smiled faintly, “I didn’t mean that.”
Chu Lianmo turned his head and stared at his beautiful smile. He rarely saw Zhou Jun smile at him. Just like he rarely saw the person in his memories smile.
This direct gaze made Qi Xiaojun feel a little embarrassed, he subconsciously blushed slightly and looked away at the ceiling.
This blush on his fair cheek made him even more charming.
Chu Lianmo swallowed, suppressing his inner excitement, and changed the subject, “How’s your martial arts practice these days?”
“It’s going smoothly, and my relationship with Lord Murong is getting better and better.”
“That’s good.” Chu Lianmo smiled faintly, “You can even win over Ying Dong’s heart, let alone Aying? Compared to him, he’s really easy to please, isn’t he?”
Qi Xiaojun laughed, “He’s really easy to please.”
Actually, Qi Xiaojun was starting to understand why Chu Lianmo liked Murong Ying so much. He was often like a cute younger brother.
The next day, Qi Xiaojun followed Murong Ying to practice martial arts as usual.
During a break, Murong Ying sat under a large tree by the martial arts field and smiled, “My wounds are almost healed, I should be able to return to being a guard. I’ll miss you, my disciple.”
“Heh, I’ll miss Master too. If you have free time in the future, you can give me some more guidance.”
“Definitely, definitely.” Murong Ying smiled brightly when Qi Xiaojun called him Master.
At this time, Yin Mei walked towards them with a basket.
As soon as Murong Ying saw him, he subconsciously retracted the smile from his face. He, like Qi Xiaojun, disliked this person.
“What?” Murong Ying didn’t like to pretend, his face showed undisguised impatience. He wouldn’t treat this kind of person as a master during off-duty hours.
“I made some pastries,” Yin Mei said with a pitiful look, “Try them, okay? Jun…”
He looked at Qi Xiaojun with red eyes, “I know I was wrong before, but I’ve deeply reflected on it during this period, we are all serving the Prince under the same roof, let’s make peace, okay?”
Qi Xiaojun said coldly, “Put it down, we’ll eat later.”
“Thank you for your magnanimity!”
Yin Mei, as if deeply moved, put the basket on the ground and left, looking back three times.
“What does this guy want to do?”
Murong Ying opened the basket, looked at the colorful pastries, took a silver needle and tested each one for poison. As a guard, he often tested poison for Chu Lianmo, so he always carried a silver needle with him.
The color of the silver needle didn’t change.
“He doesn’t seem to be trying to poison us,” Qi Xiaojun frowned and pondered, “Otherwise, if he directly poisoned us in his own name, wouldn’t he also be unable to escape?”
“Then… should we eat?” The pastries looked very appetizing. Murong Ying was a little tempted seeing that the pastries were not poisoned.
“I’ll try.”
Qi Xiaojun picked up one of the pastries and took a small bite, chewing repeatedly, without hurrying to swallow it.
Besides the sweetness of the pastry itself, there seemed to be another taste.
And Qi Xiaojun was somewhat familiar with this taste.
“Spit it out.” Qi Xiaojun immediately spat out the pastry, “He’s trying to play tricks again.”
“This scoundrel is so bold!” Murong Ying was furious, “What did he put in? I’ll tell His Highness right away!”
“No hurry.” Qi Xiaojun smiled cunningly, “If we say the pastries are problematic without any evidence, it’s pointless. It’s better to wait until His Highness returns to the mansion and let him experience it himself.”
“What?” Murong Ying’s eyes widened, “You know there’s something wrong with this, and you still want to give it to His Highness?”
“Don’t worry, this thing won’t harm him.”
“…Then…” Murong Ying hesitated, “I’ll leave it to you.” After spending this time together, he trusted Qi Xiaojun very much now.
That afternoon, while Chu Lianmo was busy in his study, Qi Xiaojun took the initiative to bring the pastries over.
It was easy to get hungry in the afternoon, so the kitchen often sent pastries.
“Your Highness, these are pastries from Yin Mei. They look pretty good, and I didn’t want to enjoy them alone, so I brought them to share with you.”
“…” Faced with Qi Xiaojun’s rare initiative, Chu Lianmo looked at him with suspicion, feeling that he was acting strangely.
But Chu Lianmo didn’t say anything, he just picked up a pastry and chewed it.
The next moment, he also spat out the pastry.
Chu Lianmo got up and walked to Qi Xiaojun, lifting his chin without warning, “Did you know there was something wrong with the pastries?”
Qi Xiaojun was treated so roughly by Chu Lianmo for the first time. He knew that Chu Lianmo had sensed something was amiss and didn’t dare to lie anymore, “Your Highness also knows that this is the taste of Rouxi Powder?” (Note: Aphrodisiac)
“Heh!” Chu Lianmo sneered, “There are so many men and women who want to climb into my bed, I’m very familiar with this taste. What? You deliberately let me eat this, do you want to be one of them?”
Qi Xiaojun’s chin was pinched painfully by Chu Lianmo, and facing his extremely contemptuous gaze, he couldn’t help but get angry:
“Knowing that Your Highness doesn’t want to touch me, how could I have such thoughts? Your Highness has many wives and concubines, even if you were affected by the aphrodisiac, wouldn’t it be easy to find someone to cure you?”
This was why Qi Xiaojun set this trap.
If the aphrodisiac was resolved in time, it wouldn’t harm the body.
“You’re actually so brazen!” Chu Lianmo increased his strength, pinching a bruise on Qi Xiaojun’s tender skin, “Fortunately, I recognized this taste, otherwise, I’d just have to endure it… Do you want to be punished with Yin Mei!”
Qi Xiaojun felt even more aggrieved at his last sentence—
He was a prince, forced into these intrigues of the inner court, why should he, taking advantage of his superior strength, bully him so!