Chapter 33
From that day onward, Yu She never visited Third Prince’s estate again . Nor did he step foot outside the side courtyard of Prince Yu’s estate .
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Zhong Wan wasn’t sure if he were thinking too much, but in a short while, it seemed many of the spies at Prince Qian An’s estate had left .
He felt as though something he could not see had suddenly disappeared .
Although it was less troublesome, a sense of emptiness filled him .
Young Prince Yu’s character seemed to have suddenly changed . For many days in a row, he did not leave his estate or cause trouble . Quiet like he had been in his youth .
However, Zhong Wan grew more and more uneased .
He had passed on many messages to Lin Si, but such messages seemed to enter a void . Anxious, he had people inform Lin Si that he would no longer mention having him return to Qian An . And Lin Si appeared the next day, ashamedly .
“If you don’t want to return, then forget it . ” Looking at Lin Si’s anxious and frightened expression, Zhong Was was between laughter and tears . “Could I even force you to go?”
Lin Si stared at Zhong Wan and earnestly gestured, “If you truly forced me, then I would return . ”
“I don’t have the time to do that . ” Zhong Wan allowed Lin Si to sit . Out of the blue he said, “Are you unwilling to return to Qian An because of Xuan Jing?”
Lin Si almost missed the chair .
Zhong Wan thought, as expected .
That year, Zhong Wan and Lin Si escaped the side courtyard of Prince Yu’s estate together . The moment they had stepped foot outside, they separated .
The young Zhong Wan couldn’t be certain whether Yu She would search for him . The two of them leaving together would make them too large of a target . That they would be easily noticed didn’t have to be mentioned . Furthermore, there was no way the two could both leave the capital together . Zhong Wan and Lin Si agreed to regroup in three days in the suburbs . If they still could not meet in three days, then they must leave on their own .
Zhong Wan left the capital without a hitch and waited three days . But in the end, he did not see Lin Si .
His heart burned from anxiety . He feared that Yu She had captured Lin Si . Or even worse, someone else did .
Zhong Wan said in a soft voice, “Back then, I…”
But Lin Si rushed to say with sign language, “It’s not Master’s fault . We only agreed to wait for three days . I was incompetent and couldn’t leave the capital . ”
Light laughter spilled from his lips . But Zhong Wan did not continue on that topic . At that time, he had worried for Lin Si, waiting in the suburbs for one month .
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Yet if he said this now, there would be no meaning to it .
In the end, Zhong Wan had left by himself . After staying in Qian An for half a year, he finally received news from Lin Si . And he learned that Lin Si had accidentally been caught and passed through many people until ultimately landing in the estate of Fourth Prince, Xuan Jing .
All along, Lin Si never spoke about how much he had suffered . He only told Zhong Wan that Fourth Prince was actually a good person and did not abuse him . In fact, he treated Lin Si very well .
Originally, Zhong Wan had thought Lin Si treated Xuan Jing’s place as a temporary place to stay . But currently, it seemed Lin Si owed Xuan Jing immensely .
Ill at ease, Lin Si stared at Zhong Wan . He gestured, “I am worried about him . ”
Lin Si seemed as if he really let down Zhong Wan . He kept trying to explain, sign language as quick as lightning . It made Zhong Wan a little dizzy . He couldn’t help but laugh . “I didn’t say anything, so why are you in such a rush? Since we’ve talked to this point, if you’re really sorry, then do me a favor . ”
In a flash, Lin Si nodded .
Itbcu Qjc rjlv, “Pc atf oeaegf, lo Wejc Alcu mjc jrmfcv atf atgbcf, qea rbwf ubbv kbgvr lc obg wf jcv tfiq wf qgbafma rbwfbcf . ”
Olc Vl rlucfv, “Qtb?”
“Tbecu Uglcmf Te . ”
Coafg wbwfcar bo rfglber atbeuta, Olc Vl ufraegfv, “Ciatbeut Mbegat Uglcmf kjcar ab yf atf mgbkc qglcmf, P vbc’a atlcx tf tjr la lc tlw . ”
It was hard to explain in a few words, but Zhong Wan said, “Do you dare to say such blunt truths to Xuan Jing?”
Lin Si smiled and shook his head .
“Who knows what the future may bring?” A smile graced Zhong Wan’s lips . “Just promise me for now . Treat it as coaxing me . ”
Lin Si thought for a moment, then nodded in a solemn manner . He schemed for Zhong Wan, gesturing, “Should we directly strip Young Prince Yu’s rank, so that Prince Yu’s estate falls? Fourth Prince will definitely be fine with that! Then strip him of his status as a civilian, turning him into a slave . Force him to eat soft-bone medicine, then send him and his self-selling contract to Master . ”
“Stop, stop . ” Zhong Wan’s head ached . “How much do you and Xuan Jing hate him?”
Lin Si signalled, “I’m still okay . Fourth Prince curses Young Prince Yu to death every day . If he truly ascended the throne one day, we’d have to expend much effort to have him agree to spare Young Prince Yu . Master knows that Young Prince Yu might be the emperor’s bastard son . If this truly were the case…”
“That’s why I’m saying you have to help me protect him . Since you’ve already promised me, if that day truly arrives, you must not let Xuan Jing kill him . ” A moment of thought, and unable to bear it, he said, “There’s no need to make him a slave . Don’t use the soft-bone medicine . Just send him to me . ”
Lin Si wanted to smile, but dared not to .
“I sought you today because I have proper business to speak with you . I had placed a spy near Xuan Qiong, and that person said—” Zhong Wan’s heart raced, and he flew into a tangent, saying, “After Xuan Jing ascends the throne, Yu She wouldn’t commit su*cide, would he?! That year, he had so many estate soldiers guarding me . Now, I don’t have anyone lending me a hand to keep watch on him, so why don’t you help me feed him some sleeping drugs…?”
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Lin Si tried his best not to smile .
Zhong Wan did not realize at all that he had mentioned Yu She again . “His life truly is terrible, don’t you think? His only way out is to come to me . Life is so unpredictable . ”
Lin Si used sign language to say, “Maybe Young Prince Yu would jump at the opportunity . ”
A smile graced Zhong Wan’s lips . “Jump at what opportunity? To be kept in a golden house by me?”
Lin Si recalled when Yu She had captured him, the latter almost using torture instruments on him . His back chilled .
To store this catastrophe-inducing person in a golden house would be difficult .
“Stop mentioning him all the time to me . ” Zhong Wan shook his head . “Now let’s get to the proper business . ”
Lin Si cupped an ear, as if trying to hear attentively .
Zhong Wan suppressed these fantasies . “The spy I had placed by Xuan Qiong’s side said that a few days ago, Prince Yu and Imperial Consort Yu had a private discussion . Ever since then, Imperial Consort Yu had calmed down a bit . She no longer made a fuss about wanting an explanation . A few days ago, for some reason Yu She removed the wheels from Xuan Qiong’s carriage . Xuan Qiong was so angry, he wanted to hit him, but was stopped by Imperial Consort Yu . She even lectured him angrily . ”
Zhong Wan furrowed his brows . “I remember that Her Highness Imperial Consort Yu has always liked to cause trouble in the past . Why did she calm down so much after having a ‘private discussion’ with Prince Yu?”
Lin Si thought for a while . Signed, “That I’m not sure . However, I had asked around recently, and heard a few other things . And they all had something to do with Young Prince Yu . ”
Zhong Wan also did not speak further . He approached the desk . Picked up paper and a brush .
Lin Si gestured, “It’s not because I was hiding from Master that I did not come here recently . I was actually investigating something for Fourth Prince . Master, do you remember that Fifth Prince had found two hard-labor servants that used to work in the Royal Mausoleum’s villa?”
Zhong Wan nodded . It wasn’t just this . Xuan Qiong had even found Princess Royal Anguo’s pregancy pulse report .
Lin Si continued to gesture, “Fifth Prince followed this clue in his investigation and found another clue . The secret woman who gave birth and disappeared had perhaps long since been delivered to the Royal Mausoleum . At the very least… earlier than Princess Royal Anguo . ”
Zhong Wan frowned . Then this woman must have been sent there before the previous emperor’s funeral?
Li Si signed, “What’s strange was that at the start, this woman protected her baby carefully, and hid in the Royal Mausoleum without any issue . However, after Princess Royal Anguo had arrived, and the two met, she went mad out of nowhere . Even at risk of death, she wanted to abort the baby . ”
Zhong Wan’s heart tightened . That “baby” should be Yu She . He wrote, “Why?”
Lin Si shook his head, gesturing, “I don’t know . I only know that for the sake of aborting the baby, that woman once ate a bowl of ashes from the incense burner… There’s a rumor among the civilians that eating the ashes of an incense burner would abort a baby . But this was only a rumor . After someone realized she did this, they forced her to eat medicine that would get her to vomit the ashes . She suffered a lot but the baby was saved . ”
Aghast, Zhong Wan wrote, “How did Princess Royal treat her after she had abused herself like this?”
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For a while, Lin Si did not respond . Then he said with sign language, “At first, Princess Royal had someone watch over her all day and night . But if one wanted to commit su*cide, one would find a way to do it even under watch . Taking advantage of the time when people weren’t paying attention to her, the woman grabbed anything and struck her lower abdomen with it . Once, she almost killed the baby . Princess Royal lost her patience, and summoned an imperial physician…”
Lin Si took a deep breath . Signed, “To cripple her legs . ”
Zhong Wan’s entire body chilled . He strived his best to endure and wrote, “Then what happened?”
Lin Si gestured, “I’m not sure how they crippled her legs . Since she was pregnant, they could not just break her legs . Perhaps they used acupuncture . In short, she could not stand anymore or walk . After that, that woman lost her mind completely . She didn’t eat or drink . Those attending to her had tied her up . Her arms and fingers had all been restrained tightly, like she was a decoration . ”
Zhong Wan said with a trembling voice, “Then what?”
“They kept her restrained like that, until she gave birth,” gestured Lin Si . “As she was in labor, they naturally had to remove her restraints . Word has it that after she gave birth, when everyone present did not notice, she almost killed the baby by throwing it to the ground . ”
Zhong Wan closed his eyes . A long while later, he wrote, “Does Yu She know about these matters?”
Lin Si could not bear to look at Zhong Wan, but he did so anyway . He gestured, “I think Young Prince Yu knows all of this . ”
A sharp pain pierced Zhong Wan’s heart .
Yu She knew everything .
The moment Young Yu She learned that the mother who raised him had abused his birth mother, how did he get past it?
Lin Si could not stay for long . Could not wait for Zhong Wan to slowly digest what he had learned . He signed, “There’s something else that’s very strange . ”
Zhong Wan gasped . “Speak . ”
Lin Si gestured, “At first, before that woman’s legs were crippled, Princess Royal Anguo had spoken to her . I don’t understand . Princess Royal Anguo said, ‘Previously, no one forced you at all, and you were the one who wanted to keep the baby . So why are you regretting it after seeing me?’”
Zhong Wan tried his best not to think about Yu She . The words stayed in his mouth for a while, before he finally wrote, “She had been very happy to get this child, and even took the initiative to hide in the Royal Mausoleum to wait for labor without worry . Never had she imagined that Princess Royal Anguo would appear . Would take away her child . ”
Zhong Wan’s heart trembled . At that time, Princess Royal Anguo had already lost her own child .
If not, then at that time her lower abdomen should already be very conspicuous… That woman had seen Princess Royal Anguo with a flat abdomen and foresaw that her baby would be taken away by her after birth, understanding that she would be killed . Only then did she realize she had entered a trap . For this reason, she went mad, wanting to kill her child even at risk of her own life .
Perhaps it was self-defense; perhaps it was retaliation .
Zhong Wan said in a low voice, “For the sake of making this child hers, Princess Royal Anguo avoided everyone and lived in the Royal Mausoleum for a long time . She… Was she able to deceive Prince Yu?”
Lin Si said with sign language, “This is the second point I wanted to inform Master . When Fifth Prince was investigating this clue, he accidentally discovered that it was the exact clue Young Prince Yu had followed years ago . ”
Zhong Wan’s pupils dilated .
Lin Si signalled, “I also discovered it . I followed the trail left behind by Young Prince Yu and continued to investigate . And many things became much simpler . I also discovered something else . But I have yet to report it to Fourth Prince . ”
After Young Prince Yu learned that he wasn’t Princess Royal Anguo’s son, he grew depressed for a long time . He worried that Prince Yu had been completely in the dark since the start . Worried that throughout all these years, Prince Yu loved the wrong person . And he worried that those people swindled Prince Yu of his princeship . So… he schemed to place this information into the hands of Prince Yu’s trusted aide .
Zhong Wan gritted his teeth . “Is he stupid?! If Prince Yu didn’t know, then wouldn’t telling him mean giving up his own life?!”
Lin Si gripped his own fingers, before signing, “After the trusted aide found out, it were as if he had been struck by lightning . He asked Prince Yu for an audience that very night .
Zhong Wan said with a trembling voice, “Then what did… Prince Yu say?”
Lin Si signed, “The trusted aide had been immensely anxious, analyzing the pros and cons for Prince Yu . But His Highness indifferently said—”
A gloom settled in Lin Si’s gaze as he signed, “Prince Yu said, ‘Don’t worry . It’s impossible for Heir to inherit my position . And it’s even more impossible for him to become the crown prince . ’”
Zhong Wan tasted blood in his mouth .
Prince Yu had been well aware of the truth, and in fact already arranged a “good place” to keep him .
Those people absolutely would not allow Yu She to survive until he could inherit Prince Yu’s position .
And the young Yu She at that time actually worried that his father was being deceived by others .
Had Yu She been eavesdropping at the door when Prince Yu and his trusted aide had that conversation?
The fifteen-years-old Yu Ziyou was modest, gentle, pure, and graceful .
After Yu She heard his expressionless father, whom he was worried about, reassuring his trusted aide and determining Yu She’s death with a light word, what did he think?
Father wasn’t father; mother wasn’t mother .
Zhong Wan closed his eyes . His heart hurt so much, he could not utter a word .
Lin Si approached him half a step . Standing by Zhong Wan’s side, he wrote, “Master, Young Prince Yu’s parents are unreliable . Do you still want to stay?”
“Yes . ”
Zhong Wan staggered a bit as he rose to his feet . “You can leave . I… I have to visit the side courtyard of Prince Yu’s estate . ”