WK Chapter 11

A chill crept up from the bottom of his heart, but Qu Dubian didn’t open his eyes, controlling his breathing to remain steady.

 

A stranger had entered the room.

 

The favorability section of the simulator couldn’t record everyone.

 

First, it couldn’t display the favorability of blood relatives, as the blood relation would make collecting favorability much easier, potentially cheating.

 

Second, it depended on encounters and fate.

 

The concept of fate was vague and not worth discussing for now, but the idea of “encounters” was easy to understand.

 

In the dead of night, for the simulator to suddenly pop up this reminder meant that this person called Yi Shi’er was now in his sleeping chamber!

 

An assassin come to kill him?

 

No, no, this was the imperial palace, the inner court. How could an assassin so blatantly try to assassinate a prince… or could they?

 

Qu Dubian fell silent for a moment, after all, every era had its madmen.

 

Since the commotion at the Imperial Kitchen, the Imperial Hospital had stopped giving him “cold medicine,” probably because the person behind it all realized he had survived and feared the risk of exposure.

 

Could it be that they thought it was a pity he hadn’t died and were now resorting to assassination?

 

Last time it was underhanded framing, this time it was direct action. Wasn’t the gap between these approaches a bit large?

 

It shouldn’t be.

 

Calm down.

 

Calm down.

 

Qu Dubian’s clenched fist slowly relaxed.

 

If he were really assassinated, a prince dying for no reason just as Ju’an Hall’s status was improving would be a huge loss of face for his nominal father. A thorough investigation would follow, and the person behind it would gain nothing for their efforts. There was no need to send an assassin after a child like him.

 

In his extreme mental tension, he heard a faint sound, like folded paper being opened.

 

Qu Dubian: “?”

 

Paper, was it wrapping poison?

 

Thinking of this, he relaxed a bit. With the simulator, poison had almost no effect on him, it would only be internalized as a disease type and then recorded.

 

Yi Shi’er blew some sleeping powder on Wen Xiaochun and Ye Xiaoyuan, then stood by the bed drawing.

 

Before sending him out, the Yi Division leader had told him to record the young prince’s daily life. This was his first field assignment, and he didn’t know how detailed to be, so he simply decided to draw down the entire living environment around the young prince.

 

He drew silently, but quickly, with just a few strokes creating vivid images.

 

After drawing the outside, he finally tiptoed to the bedside, raising his hand to lift the newly changed light curtains.

 

Inside, the child was sleeping covered in sweat. Seeming to sense the slight chill he brought, the child’s small brows furrowed slightly, and he suddenly rolled over, sticking his bottom up, turning his back to him.

 

With this movement, more than half the blanket fell off.

 

The child wore an old, washed-out dudou (traditional undergarment). He was too thin, and the small strings of the dudou hung quite long at his lower back. Seeming to feel cold, he even shivered.

 

Damn, the blanket fell off, he’s about to get goosebumps!!

 

Qu Dubian had held his breath to the limit, barely maintaining the appearance of steady breathing, not being discovered.

 

The next second, the fallen blanket was placed back on him, the person pulling it up properly and even meticulously tucking in the corners.

 

Qu Dubian: …?

 

After covering him with the blanket, the person didn’t leave. He heard some more rustling sounds of a pen tip scratching on paper, then the “assassin” carefully let down the curtains, returning them to their original state.

 

Qu Dubian rolled over again.

 

Yi Shi’er paused, looked again, and seeing the blanket hadn’t fallen, closed the curtains.

 

Qu Dubian silently opened his eyes. At the moment the curtains closed, he clearly saw on the tightened black sleeve of the “assassin” an embroidered light cyan winter orchid.

 

The winter orchid was the national flower of Great Zhou.

 

It bloomed in all four seasons, had strong vitality, and was usually a light, elegant cyan color. In the coldest depths of winter, it would turn into a crimson blood orchid.

 

There were many varieties of orchids. The people of Great Zhou loved orchids, and even Ye Banban’s clothes had orchid patterns.

 

But not everyone could embroider winter orchids on their clothes.

 

Ye Banban had once told him that only those with the emperor’s permission could embroider winter orchids on their clothes. Even princes and royal family members couldn’t do so without permission.

 

The child’s dudou he was wearing had a winter orchid pattern. It was made from fabric specially awarded to Consort Yun by the emperor. Among the harem consorts, only Consort Yun had this honor.

 

Was Yi Shi’er his nominal father’s man? Being able to embroider the national flower on clothes, he might even have an official position.

 

Qu Dubian fell into thought.

 

Judging from this person’s actions, he probably had no ill intentions.

 

Yi Shi’er, the name sounded odd. Based on his years of watching TV dramas, could this be one of those legendary cold, emotionless, self-less secret guards whose names were just numbers?

 

What a cliché setting.

 

But what exactly was he here for? Qu Dubian couldn’t help but start theorizing conspiracies.

 

He tossed and turned in bed, becoming more and more alert.

 

Meanwhile, outside on the bare branches of the elm tree.

 

Yi Shi’er expressionlessly tucked the paper with the drawing of the bare-bottomed child in a red dudou into his chest.

 

As the cold wind blew, he too became more alert.

 

Not only recording, but also covering the blanket for the superior’s superior’s superior’s child.

 

When would this overtime work end?

 

–

 

It wasn’t until the latter half of the night that Qu Dubian finally succumbed to physical fatigue and fell into a drowsy sleep.

 

He slept uneasily and had a nightmare. In the dream, he overslept and woke to find only ten seconds of lifespan left. As he desperately practiced Tai Chi to save time, his body physically shattered. Ye Banban and Xiaochun cried while picking up his scattered pieces to make porridge…

 

When he woke up, he lay in bed with a slight headache, staring blankly for a while.

 

The room was completely silent.

 

Daylight filtered in from outside, and faint bird chirping could be heard.

 

Qu Dubian blinked, stretched, and fished out his warm little clothes from under the blanket, putting them on himself.

 

“Can you detect if Yi Shi’er is nearby?” Qu Dubian asked in his mind, yawning as he finished.

 

“Think carefully before answering. How can I study at ease under the surveillance of this Yi Shi’er, whoever he is? If he has ill intentions and reveals that I went to study after discovering it, I definitely won’t be able to go to class anymore. If I can’t go to class, I won’t learn to write. If I can’t write, I can’t write experience. Then…”

 

“Actually, being illiterate is fine too. You could let me write in modern Chinese characters. Oh, or you could wait a few years until my nominal father remembers me and sends me to school, or until I’m killed by someone and you can conveniently bind to a literate host of the right age.”

 

Simulator: […]

 

Simulator: [Host’s request is reasonable. Simulator will provide real-time distance of Yi Shi’er for the host.]

 

Qu Dubian felt pleased.

 

“Where is he now?”

 

Simulator: [10 meters from the host.]

 

Qu Dubian: “Can you mark a location for me like a certain map?”

 

The simulator didn’t respond. Qu Dubian pouted. Fine, there had to be a limit to testing boundaries. Today’s result was an unexpected pleasant surprise. It seemed he was more important to the simulator than he had thought.

 

Ten meters…

 

He must be outside the palace.

 

He guessed in his heart that his nominal father had finally shown some concern for his young son after the dream and the Imperial Kitchen incident, secretly sending someone to watch him.

 

But a guess was just a guess, it couldn’t be completely certain.

 

Once Xiaochun had scouted out the route to the East Palace tomorrow, he could sneak off to study. This would be a good opportunity to test things out.

 

Having decided what to do, Qu Dubian put Yi Shi’er out of his mind. Under his observation, he practiced Tai Chi and ate as usual.

 

–

 

In the evening.

 

Yi Shi’er returned to Zichen Palace with several sheets of drawings.

 

He presented five drawings, describing in a flat voice what he had seen in Ju’an Hall, without missing a detail, even more meticulously than Head Eunuch Yu.

 

Emperor Chongzhao flipped through the drawings in his hand.

 

The first showed the interior of Ju’an Hall’s sleeping chamber at night, with two eunuchs sleeping below the master’s bed. He snorted coldly, “These two servants really have no manners.”

 

Yi Shi’er said: “There seem to be no other beds in the other halls. His Highness’s chamber is warm. This subordinate guesses it’s because His Highness is afraid to sleep alone, or to save on coal fire.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao called out: “Yu Decai!!”

 

Head Eunuch Yu, from behind a screen: “Your Majesty.” Secret guards couldn’t easily be seen by anyone other than the emperor, so he could only stand behind the screen.

 

Emperor Chongzhao: “Didn’t we just replenish supplies recently? Is Ju’an Hall still short on coal fire?”

 

Head Eunuch Yu respectfully said: “There certainly shouldn’t be a shortage. Perhaps they were used to conserving from when they lacked supplies before.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao was silent for a moment: “Continue.”

 

The Yi Division shadow guards weren’t particularly strong in martial arts, but without exception, they all had excellent memory. Yi Shi’er could even reproduce every word he had heard in Ju’an Hall since last night, and could summarize the general causes and results of events in concise language.

 

How to say it depended on the specific situation.

 

In this case, naturally, the more detailed the better.

 

As he spoke, Emperor Chongzhao turned to the next page. This one showed a child turning over in sleep, without showing the face – this was the child he hadn’t seen in nearly three years.

 

The child was wearing a dudou. Because it was a quick charcoal sketch, the color of the dudou couldn’t be seen, but Emperor Chongzhao paused, his gaze lingering on a familiar pattern at the corner of the dudou.

 

That pattern was a winter orchid.

 

Emperor Chongzhao still remembered when Consort Yun was pregnant, he had happily ordered embroiderers to embroider that piece of red silk with blooming winter orchids. Among all the princes and princesses in the palace, only Consort Yun’s child had this honor.

 

He and Consort Yun had once been so looking forward to the child’s birth.

 

He had thought about using this silk to make tiger-head hats, toys, and little clothes for the child, whether it was a boy or a girl.

 

Originally, he thought this silk was still in Consort Yun’s sealed palace, but now it seemed that when they moved palaces, the palace people had brought it to Ju’an Hall.

 

The hope and blessings from back then had indeed become clothes, worn on the child’s body.

 

Emperor Chongzhao suddenly felt somewhat emotional.

 

He turned another page.

 

The third drawing showed the layout of the entire Ju’an Hall courtyard.

 

The previous emperor had only two princesses, one married off to Jiangnan, the other sent as a bride to the northern frontier. In his reign, princesses were also scarce, with only one young princess being raised in the back palace so far.

 

So Ju’an Hall, as the place where princesses lived before marriage for generations, became increasingly desolate and cold. The courtyard had no proper decorations, only two clotheslines strung up with a few pieces of clothing hanging on them.

 

The fourth and fifth drawings showed morning Tai Chi practice in the courtyard and breakfast.

 

“He has a hobby of practicing Tai Chi?” Emperor Chongzhao was a bit surprised. “Is this a long-standing habit, or…?”

 

Yi Shi’er: “He seems quite proficient, so it should be a habit His Highness has had for a while.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao praised: “Liking martial arts, this child’s health must be good. He takes after me; I was robust as a child.”

 

In fact, Consort Yun had gone to the frontier at seven years old, so her physical condition was naturally good too, otherwise she couldn’t have withstood the cold winds of the frontier. This child had indeed inherited their excellent constitution.

 

“…”

 

Yi Shi’er paused.

 

He thought of the Seventh Prince’s body with barely two ounces of flesh, where you could see the bones of his back when he turned over. That frail appearance didn’t look like good health at all.

 

Emperor Chongzhao looked over these five sheets of paper several times: “You…”

 

Yi Shi’er prepared to withdraw.

 

Emperor Chongzhao fingered the paper pages, seeming not to have seen enough, and said pensively: “Wait a moment before you go back, then come again tomorrow night.”

 

Yi Shi’er: “?”

 

So this overtime work life still hadn’t ended, had it?

 

 

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