Reborn into the Harem of the Enemy Nation’s Prince CHAPTER 27
Chapter 27: The Wicked Receive Their Punishment
Chu Weide could only grit his teeth and agree to Chu Lianmo’s conditions.
The next day in court, he was the first to speak:
“Father, after deep reflection on Lin’er’s matter yesterday, I believe it is my fault for failing to teach my son properly… I am willing to take the punishment for my son, to receive the fifty lashes myself, and to confine myself to the mansion for two months!
“Eldest Brother is already very busy assisting Father, so during this period, I will temporarily entrust all my affairs to Fourth Brother.”
Emperor Chu Wen was somewhat surprised. He thought the relationship between Chu Weide and Chu Lianmo was tense, why would Chu Weide be willing to entrust his affairs to him?
At this time, Chu Lianmo spoke again at the right moment: “Father, Second Brother values me so much, and I am deeply gratified. I also thought about it yesterday, family harmony is the most important thing, and I also beg Father to be lenient with Lin’er.”
As soon as he said this, the ministers who had opposed it yesterday fell silent.
Emperor Chu Wen saw their “brotherly harmony,” and was somewhat gratified. “In that case, let’s do as De Wang said, and let him take the punishment for his son.”
“Thank you, Father!” Chu Weide let out a long sigh of relief and kowtowed to thank him.
The next moment, he was taken away to be caned.
The reason Chu Lianmo had beaten Chu Tianlin beforehand was that he could control the force himself, creating the effect of seemingly terrible injuries but without causing any serious damage to bones or muscles. The executioners might not be under his control.
In fact, the two executioners had been bribed by Chu Lianmo beforehand, and they beat Chu Weide mercilessly.
However, Chu Weide’s martial arts were quite good, so he wouldn’t be beaten to death or disability.
But no matter what, the fifty lashes were enough for him to suffer.
After receiving the fifty lashes, he was just like his son, his skin was torn and bloody, and he couldn’t even crawl up, he could only be carried back.
Back in the study of Rui Wangfu, Chu Lianmo vividly described to Qi Xiaojun how miserable Chu Weide was today.
This was probably the most pleasant news Qi Xiaojun had heard since his rebirth.
“Father, Mother…”
At this time, Chu Yunxuan walked over timidly, seeming hesitant to speak.
“What are you doing, feeling sorry for your biological father?” Chu Lianmo glared at him. “Do you know how many people he killed in Qi because of his suggestion to Father to attack Qi, including the Second Prince of Qi! The suffering he endured today is far less than one-tenth of the crimes he committed!”
“…I don’t agree with starting a war either…” Chu Yunxuan said softly, lowering his head, “But that’s not what I want to say… I want to say that although Second Uncle loves Alin, he’s always had a bad temper. Now that he’s paid such a high price to save Alin, Alin’s life in the mansion for the next two months will be very difficult…”
Chu Lianmo impatiently interrupted him: “That’s Chu Tianlin’s own fault. Did he feel sorry for you when you were beaten and punished? Now you’re worried about him.”
“Father, in fact, Alin is just a little spoiled and willful; he’s not vicious! I beg Father to ask Grandfather to let Alin live in Rui Wangfu for these two months! I think if someone carefully teaches him, Alin can still be saved!”
Chu Lianmo sneered, “Do I look like I’m kind enough to help my enemy raise his son? Unless you also adopt him. But Chu Weide definitely won’t agree to that.”
“Your Highness,” Qi Xiaojun couldn’t help but speak, “We did take a small advantage of Chu Tianlin… Perhaps he thought that since Ouyang Qin was in a brothel, he could force himself on him. You must know that most nobles have no respect for such people… Maybe Chu Tianlin isn’t completely incorrigible.”
“…” Chu Lianmo knew that Qi Xiaojun was always kinder than him.
He hesitated for a moment and finally agreed to Chu Yunxuan’s request.
So afterwards, Chu Lianmo went to ask Emperor Chu Wen, and Emperor Chu Wen agreed to let him temporarily take Chu Tianlin to Rui Wangfu.
When he sent people to pick up Chu Tianlin, as Chu Yunxuan had predicted, Chu Tianlin was indeed suffering.
As soon as Chu Weide returned to the mansion, he ordered Chu Tianlin to kneel in the courtyard and not get up until he calmed down.
Knowing that Chu Tianlin still had such serious injuries, how could he kneel? After a while, he lay weakly on the cold ground in the courtyard. The servants didn’t dare to take him back.
Sun Jiaojiao kept kneeling outside Chu Weide’s door to plead for her son, but Chu Weide, already irritated by the pain in his body, found her too noisy and ordered people to slap her thirty times, beating her until her cheeks were swollen, her once proud pretty face becoming as ugly as a pig’s head.
In fact, the last time Sun Jiaojiao bribed the imperial physician to harm Chu Yunxuan, Chu Lianmo had secretly informed Chu Weide, and Chu Weide had been dissatisfied with Sun Jiaojiao since then. Now he blamed her for her poor parenting and unreasonable demands, causing the old and new grievances to erupt.
Now, Sun Jiaojiao was in trouble herself and could no longer take care of Chu Tianlin.
When Chu Weide heard that Chu Lianmo was actually going to take Chu Tianlin away, he was so angry that he vomited blood. However, he was powerless to stop it.
Although Chu Tianlin, who was taken away, was relieved that he didn’t have to suffer from the cold in the snow, he was also afraid of what Chu Lianmo would do to him.
In fact, Chu Lianmo didn’t have time to bother with him. He ordered people to settle him in a guest room in Rui Wangfu and invited an imperial physician to treat his injuries and prescribe medicine.
Chu Yunxuan then went over and gently comforted him: “Alin, don’t be afraid, we won’t hurt you.”
Seeing his brother, Chu Tianlin became even more afraid and trembled in the corner of the bed. He thought Chu Yunxuan was going to retaliate for his and his mother’s past actions.
Seeing this, Qi Xiaojun could only smile wryly and comfort Chu Yunxuan, saying that as time went on, Chu Tianlin would naturally know that they had no ill intentions.
At this time, Chu Ziqian was summoned to the palace by his mother.
When Chu Ziqian arrived, Empress Chu was sitting in her palace eating chestnuts.
Chestnuts are delicious but difficult to peel. Of course, the Empress didn’t need to do it herself; it was the poor little eunuch who had his hands red and swollen from peeling a whole basket of chestnuts.
“Little Dengzi, you don’t have to peel anymore.” Empress Chu was quite considerate and stopped the eunuch named Deng in time. “You’ve worked hard, take a plate of chestnuts to eat.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty!” Little Dengzi immediately kowtowed gratefully.
“Greetings, Mother.” Chu Ziqian walked in.
“All of you, get out.” Empress Chu waved to the servants.
So Little Dengzi and the others withdrew.
Seeing that there was no one else in the hall, Empress Chu immediately retracted the gentle smile on her face, picked up a teacup, and threw it at Chu Ziqian. “You useless thing!”
Chu Ziqian could have dodged it, but he let the teacup smash against him, the scalding tea splashing all over him. “Please, Mother, don’t get angry; don’t upset yourself.”
“I’m going to be so angry that I die early because of you! Look at how much your brother suffered this time, and you couldn’t help at all, letting him fall into Chu Lianmo’s trap!”
Empress Chu wiped her tears, both angry and distressed. “Even if that’s it, now Chu Lianmo has even taken Lin’er to his place?! Who knows what bad idea he’s brewing! Why didn’t you take Lin’er to your Prince’s Mansion to raise him?”
“…Mother, I’m a human, not a god, I don’t have the ability to predict the future. When something like this happens, I’m very sad too, but I’ve done my best to help Ade and the others. It’s just that, even if this was a trap, it was Lin’er who chose to fall for it; he did it, no one wronged him, how can I exonerate him?!
“Besides, I’ve already been scolded by Father for being biased in helping Ade! If I insist on going on, I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep my position as Crown Prince, and who will help them in the future!”
“Damn it!” Empress Chu slapped the table. If she wasn’t afraid of the injuries on the Crown Prince’s face being seen by outsiders, she would have slapped Chu Ziqian’s face. “Your wings are really hard now, you dare to talk back!”
“Mother, I’m tired.”
Chu Ziqian didn’t want to kneel anymore and stood up.
“Since you were young, whenever Chu Weide did something wrong, you always made me clean up his mess. When you were young, you said he was still young and didn’t understand anything, he was my brother, and I had to protect him. Fine, I protected him…
“Now he’s over thirty, and his son even harasses men and women. Is he still young, and do I still have to protect him?
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to play the game of family harmony anymore. You can show your motherly love and filial piety yourselves!”
After saying this, Chu Ziqian turned and left the Empress’s palace, causing Empress Chu to cough repeatedly because she couldn’t catch her breath.
Chu Ziqian went straight back to the Prince’s mansion and pushed open the door to Jiang Yingnan’s room.
Jiang Yingnan went to help him undress. Now he was finally Chu Ziqian’s concubine, and he had to fulfill his duties.
However, he basically didn’t bother to say a word to Chu Ziqian, while Chu Ziqian tried to tell jokes to make him happy every day.
But Chu Ziqian was unusually silent today. He just sat by the bed, cooperating with his movements, his face very unpleasant.
And when Jiang Yingnan’s hand accidentally touched a certain part of his chest, he subconsciously frowned, “Mmm.”
“What’s wrong? Are you injured?” Jiang Yingnan couldn’t help but care.
Chu Ziqian didn’t answer, but unbuttoned his undershirt himself.
Jiang Yingnan discovered that a large area of his right chest was red and blistered, like a severe burn.
“What happened?! Who hurt you?”
“…” Chu Ziqian didn’t answer.
Jiang Yingnan quickly found some burn ointment and carefully applied it. “Hold still.”
Chu Ziqian sighed softly, “Anan, in this world, only you truly care about me.”
“…Your Highness is exaggerating. As the Crown Prince, many people care about you.”
“Is that so?” Chu Ziqian smiled wryly. “Because I’m the Crown Prince, Father has always been very strict with me since I was young, and rarely showed affection. Mother seems loving, but she only cares about her sweet son. Chu Weide is really sweet-tongued, and since he was young, he’s been following me, calling ‘brother, brother,’ but I only know now that he did it so that I would help him clean up the mess!”
“…I’ve also heard something about the court. Did the Empress blame you for De Wang’s matter?” Jiang Yingnan, with his intelligence, had guessed the truth from Chu Ziqian’s words.
“Anan, I’m really tired.” Chu Ziqian embraced Jiang Yingnan. “I just want to live a peaceful life with you… Please forgive me, okay?”
