Everyone Wants To Harm Me - Chapter 79

The Third Prince woke up, but his mind was still clouded.

He rubbed his eyes, turned around, and seemed to have completely forgotten what he had just said. With a gloomy expression, he looked at me and said, “Wife, I’m hungry.”

Hadn’t he eaten anything at the banquet? Why was he hungry now? I glanced around, but there was nothing to eat in the room. What should I do?

I considered getting up to ask the maid outside for some food, but Yu Chongrui held me back. “Don’t pay him any mind. It’s a burning sensation in his stomach caused by the mix of alcohol and poison—it only feels like hunger, but it’s an illusion.”

I couldn’t remember exactly how I had felt the time I took Wushisan, but I did recall that after drinking with Feng Yuan, I had felt a burning thirst.

“Should we give him some water?” I asked.

The Third Prince stood on the couch, shouting, “What are you two whispering about in front of me? I’m thirsty! Hurry up and pour me some water!”

There was some tea in the room, though it was a bit cold. Still drinkable. I poured a cup and stood beside the couch. “Come down and drink.”

He stood there and beckoned me with his finger. “Come up.”

I stood silently, holding the cup.

“Well, they say you should listen to your wife at home.” The Third Prince pouted, then walked carefully down from the couch, his movements uneven. The bed was more than a foot high, so he had looked taller than me when he stood on it. Looking down at me, he chuckled, “My wife has become shorter and more beautiful. I don’t like looking up at my wife—it’s not worthy of a husband.”

Yu Chongrui, who had been standing beside me, suddenly stood up, pulled me behind him, and took the teacup from my hand. He handed it to the Third Prince. “Your Highness, please have some tea.”

He was taller than the Third Prince when standing on the ground.

The Third Prince tilted his neck, looking up at him. “Who are you? Why are you in my room with my wife? Give her back!”

He reached out to grab Yu Chongrui from behind. But Yu Chongrui calmly handed him the teacup, and the Third Prince forgot what he had intended to do. He stared down at the cup in confusion. “Why give me this?”

Then, after a brief thought, he suddenly raised his hand and poured the tea over his head.

I quickly grabbed a towel and tried to wipe him off, but it was too late—his head and face were soaked, and water splashed all over the bed.

The Third Prince freed himself from my grip and began spinning around on the couch, shouting with glee, “It’s raining! It’s so cool!” He shook his wet hair, spraying water everywhere.

Yu Chongrui turned to me. “Just sit down and watch. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine soon.”

He gently pulled me to the table and calmly poured me a cup of tea.

The Third Prince continued to jump on the couch, took off his shirt, and waved it over his head. “Go! Go! Deer—ah!” After a moment, he wrapped the shirt around his head, looked up at the ceiling, and began chanting with feeling, “Looking east to Jieshi, I can see the vast sea… I am so lucky, I sing to express my feelings!”

It was difficult to watch.

I sipped my tea, lifting the cup to partially cover my face, and glanced at Yu Chongrui over the rim. He was looking at me too, his expression a mix of amusement, as if he was holding back a smile.

Did he remember something… similar to this?

I glanced at the wild and frantic Third Prince beside me. He knelt on the couch, pulling his hair apart and putting it in his mouth, bleating, pretending to be a sheep eating grass.

Growing up in the palace, living a life of luxury, he surely knew what a sheep looked like and how it sounded. The Third Prince was quite well-versed!

It seemed I had gotten too hot that day, and I had let my hair down. If I could still like him after our first meeting, I’d be a fool.

Though it was rare for me to be in the same room with Yu Chongrui, today was not the best time to express my feelings. I’d better wait until this situation was over and he’d forgotten how embarrassing I had been before I talked to him…

It seemed he could sense what I was thinking. Leaning closer, he whispered with a smile, “You’re better than him.”

My face turned red—not only from my embarrassment but also because… he was so close when he spoke. His voice was soft, and his breath brushed against my ear and neck like a feather.

I couldn’t help but shrink my shoulder away from him, turning my eyes toward the Third Prince and asking, “What did you do to make him sleep when you brought him over?”

Yu Chongrui answered calmly, “I pressed an acupoint on the back of his head—basically the same as knocking someone out.”

“Why don’t you let him sleep a little longer?”

“The child is delicate. If I don’t control the pressure correctly, I might make him a fool.”

I couldn’t help but think he was almost a fool now.

The Third Prince finished “eating the grass,” spat out the hair, and suddenly stood up. “I’m full! I need to pee.”

He was true to his word, not waiting even a moment. He started undoing his belt right over the pillow.

Now I really couldn’t just sit there and watch. I rushed over and grabbed his waistband. “Not here! Come down!”

The Third Prince obediently ran barefoot off the couch, heading for the corner of the room. “Then I’ll pee here.”

“Not here either!” He was really losing it. I turned to Yu Chongrui. “You… you take him.”

Yu Chongrui, probably from holding back laughter, kept his face calm. He walked over and said to the Third Prince, “Your Highness, please follow me.”

There was a guest restroom behind the Lan Garden Guesthouse, separated by a thin wooden wall. I heard the Third Prince say happily, “Let’s see who can pee farther!”

Yu Chongrui’s voice remained steady and restrained. “Your Highness, please stand and aim.”

“You’re not coming?”

“Your humble servant doesn’t need to.”

“But my new friend today said that all men pee together, and those who don’t dare to have small penises.”

Who had the Third Prince met today?! The wedding banquet guests were all well-known figures. Was this how they taught their younger generations? Or did all the boys in their teens act like this?

Yu Chongrui said, “Your humble servant really doesn’t need to, Your Highness. Please, do as you wish.”

The Third Prince seemed to understand and said, “No wonder no one ever peed with me… because everyone around me was a eunuch.”

You should stop talking…

Left alone in the room, I suddenly remembered that time on the Shangsi Festival—I had been alone with Yu Chongrui for a full two hours. Could I have…?

That room had been a rented warehouse with empty walls. If I… I’d be too embarrassed to face anyone.

Yu Chongrui was right. Why should I dwell on what had happened that day? Just forget it. It would be better if nothing had happened.

If only he could lose his memory…

Yu Chongrui returned with the Third Prince from the restroom. When he saw me, he coughed, his face flushing slightly. I felt a little embarrassed too, so I spoke to the Third Prince. “Your Highness, would you like some water?”

The prince nodded. This time, he didn’t pour it over himself like before. He drank it obediently.

He had jumped and danced for a long time, sweating. His body temperature dropped considerably. The effects of the medicine began to wear off, the alcohol resurfaced, and he made a lot of noise for a while before finally falling into a peaceful sleep.

Yu Chongrui said, “The Third Prince is drunk. I’m afraid he won’t wake up tonight.”

I replied, “The banquet is almost over. Take him to the princess. Let her take care of him.”

I bent down to cover the Third Prince with clothes. Yu Chongrui stood by the couch, not immediately picking him up. He asked, “What about you?”

“You go first. I’ll go around the other side to avoid being seen.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

I turned to look at him. He was gazing down at me, his eyes clear and distant.

I suddenly wished the Third Prince would jump up and make a scene again, so I’d have a good excuse to stay a little longer. But we’d been gone long enough. The longer we stayed, the easier it would be to get caught.

“I’ll meet up with the princess and go back to the palace together.” I lowered my eyes and said, “Let’s go quickly. Don’t dawdle, or the night will be long, and there will be many dreams.”

Yu Chongrui picked up the Third Prince from the couch. I opened the door for him. As he stepped through the threshold, he turned back to remind me, “Remember what I said.”

I looked up, not quite understanding what he meant.

“Don’t act rashly. I’ll find a way.”

With that, he strode out and quickly disappeared into the shadows of the trees along the path we had come.

I stayed in the room for a while longer, tidied up the bed that the Third Prince had messed up, then picked up the Princess’s cloak from the rack and took the opposite route back toward the front hall.

Halfway there, I vaguely heard laughter coming from the front hall and was stopped by a palace servant who whispered, “County Princess is needed. His Highness requests your presence.”

On the wedding night, Prince Xin actually had time to see me.

The servant guided me around to the side room of the banquet hall. From the outside, the rooms appeared to be closely connected, but there was actually a hidden space between them, separated by two walls. Prince Xin was waiting in this secret room.

He was peering through a hole in the wall to the other side. When he saw me close the cover of the hole, he smiled and said, “Where did Sister Yao go? I had a hard time finding you.”

I draped the princess’s cloak over the back of a chair and replied, “I accompanied the Princess outside to sober up a bit. We ran into Grandfather. Today is Your Highness and my sister’s joyous day—Grandfather was so pleased that he drank too much and took a fall. After tending to him, the Princess felt the night air was chilly and sent me back to the Lan Garden for her cloak. Prince Xian’s residence is vast indeed—it took forever to find the place.”

Prince Xin didn’t ask any further questions. He turned back and looked through the hole in the wall again. “Ah, Prime Minister Yu is back too. What a coincidence. I wonder what took him so long outside?”

I had only been worried that the two of us had been away too long and might raise suspicion, but I hadn’t expected Prince Xin to be hiding in a secret room, spying on the guests. He seemed to be keeping track of everyone’s movements.

After Li Minghai got into trouble, his apprentice Zhang Sanquan ran away, and his whereabouts remained unknown. I didn’t know if he had surrendered to Prince Xin. If he had, he would have surely told all the details about what he had seen and heard in the South Market that day.

I didn’t make any more excuses but simply said, “Your Highness, why don’t you ask Prime Minister Yu yourself?”

Prince Xin smiled but didn’t respond. Instead, he asked, “Sister Yao, would you like to come and take a look?”

There were three small holes with covers on the wall. I leaned over to one of them and looked out. The entire front hall, except for the corner of the wall, was visible. As I looked, I said, “Had I known Your Highness had such a mechanism, I wouldn’t have bothered joining the male guests.”

I really did see Yu Chongrui. As soon as he returned, he was surrounded by people and toasted. He drank several cups in a row. I tried my best to look away and observe the other guests in the hall.

What I saw next surprised me: I discovered who had poisoned the Third Prince with Wushisan. Just as Yu Chongrui had suspected, it was the maternal uncle of the Sixth Prince. He had tricked his own nephew into thinking the powder was candy and had him share it with the Third Prince. To avoid suspicion, he had even sacrificed his own nephew—the boy began vomiting and convulsing uncontrollably. His family claimed it was a seizure and rushed him home.

The Sixth Prince was young and isolated. With such a relative to hold him back, it would be even more difficult for him to take the throne.

After surveying the room, I closed the peephole cover and said to the Prince, “His Majesty sent me to investigate how many of Your Highness’s allies are among the guests today.”

Prince Xin said, “Sister Yao, please report to the Emperor what you saw.”

Seeing that I was confused, he explained, “I’ve already informed the important people not to come. Many of them have drawn a clear line with me, so their presence at the banquet won’t raise suspicion.” He paused, then looked at the wall and added, “I did send an invitation to Prime Minister Yu, but I never expected he would actually attend. Seems there’s something at my wedding banquet that interests even him.”

I picked up from his last line and said, “So the guests outside are all expendable pawns, and Your Highness is ready to sacrifice them to protect the key players? Didn’t Your Highness say before that these people risked their lives to follow you and assist you? You would never betray them?”

“When the enemy is strong and I am weak, shedding a tail to escape is a necessary survival tactic,” the Prince replied. “But don’t worry. Since His Majesty sent you to investigate, that means he lacks solid evidence and can’t convict anyone. At most, he’ll just quietly strip them of power and demote them. Once I ascend the throne in the future, I’ll recall them to the capital and reward them handsomely to make it up to them.”

I could only hope he kept his promise.