Feng Xuan did not expect that his single statement would accelerate Qi Zhuoyu’s plans for rebellion.
It was not that he truly could not live in this dilapidated house. After all, birds were very conscious – marry a rooster, follow the rooster; marry a dog, follow the dog; marry a senior brother, follow the senior brother.
But for some unknown reason, Qi Zhuoyu suddenly became very resistant to him moving into this rundown house.
Especially when he saw Feng Xuan wandering around inside, with not even a place to lie down in the courtyard, the sense of violence in his heart suddenly reached its peak.
It was very much like…
A young beast who fought battles outside, returning home without the ability to even build a nest for his mate. In other words, he lacked the ability to support a family.
Instantly, the desire to win in his blood was provoked.
So on this day, spies lurking inside and outside the imperial palace…
The strategists supporting the Seventh Prince Qi Zhuoyu all received his carrier pigeon message at the same time.
Immediately, the strategists became excited.
In the Great Xin Dynasty, the current emperor could not be called incompetent and incapable, but could only be said to be completely inept at governing the country.
Although they had clearly entered an era of peace and prosperity, and the people of neighboring countries were living in peace and contentment, only their Great Xin Dynasty was struggling to survive.
There was no other reason.
It was just that Emperor Zheng of the Great Xin Dynasty was a superstitious and lustful person. Not only was he obsessed with alchemy to become immortal, but he also imitated the Emperor Li of the human empire from hundreds of years ago, vainly hoping that he could live for thousands of years. He even wanted to have as many children as that Emperor Li, with more than twenty princes under his knees.
In recent years, after experiencing several major palace upheavals, nearly half of the twenty-plus princes died instantly.
As a result, Emperor Zheng became increasingly filled with hatred towards the princes. He refused to establish a crown prince. Seeing that he was already eighty years old, he was still continuously selecting consorts and producing offspring. The court had already fallen into chaos.
The supporters of the remaining princes were each fighting for themselves.
Unfortunately, the Fourth Prince was foolish, the Fifth Prince was timid, and the Third Prince was hopelessly indulgent in sensual pleasures. They were all a group of hopeless cases. Only the Seventh Prince Qi Zhuoyu was secretly recruiting soldiers and buying horses, winning over noble families. At a young age, he already showed unusual ambition and unparalleled talent.
The scholars and strategists of the Great Xin Dynasty instantly felt they saw a glimmer of hope.
They couldn’t wait to kill Emperor Zheng, then support the Seventh Prince to ascend the throne. The good days for the people would come.
Of course, the most important reason for choosing the Seventh Prince…
Was because he was the only one not controlled by the National Teacher.
For some unknown reason…
This National Teacher of the Great Xin Dynasty seemed to truly have some substance. Anyone who opposed him, whether princes or ministers, would all die tragically at home for bizarre reasons. But people discovered that the only person the National Teacher seemed to fear was the Seventh Prince. He even predicted that the prince was a star of solitary destruction, yet still could not do anything to the Seventh Prince.
Recently, the National Teacher had become increasingly arrogant, almost wielding power over the entire court.
The Seventh Prince had been keeping a low profile and had not contacted the strategists for a long time.
People couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous, afraid that the Seventh Prince, like other princes, would choose to give up rebellion out of fear of the National Teacher’s strange techniques.
Now that they had received Qi Zhuoyu’s carrier pigeon message…
Seeing that the Seventh Prince finally took action, how could they not be excited!
They opened the note and saw only one line:
[Qiaoqiang Workshop, gilt wood entwined branch bed.]???
Where was the promised grand plan for rebellion???
Qiaoqiang Workshop was the most famous furniture shop in the capital of the Great Xin Dynasty.
It wasn’t strange that Qi Zhuoyu knew this shop name, but why did His Highness suddenly mention a shop? Was there a new contact person for information in the shop?
The strategist held the note.
There was a sense of confusion where they understood each word, but when connected, they couldn’t comprehend the meaning at all.
Especially when they arrived at Qiaoqiang Workshop, they discovered that they weren’t the only strategists who had come here.
Other strategists scattered throughout the capital had also received notes from the Seventh Prince.
They read:
[Qiaoqiang Workshop, purple sandalwood lotus noble consort couch, purple jade coral entrance cabinet, gold thread brocade coral rug, taotie pattern jade ruyi pillow.]
And:
[Jade Water Pavilion, plum blossom fragrant cakes, phoenix tail shark fin, mountain delicacy dragon sprouts, five-spice squab, iced yogurt with snow pear.]
All were furniture, household items, and food.
Moreover, they were all the best quality items and the finest foods.
The strategists pieced the small notes together and speculated that the Seventh Prince might be severely deprived in the palace and could no longer endure. Although they had previously thought the Seventh Prince was somewhat of a masochist – despite owning countless shops and secret guards outside, he oddly liked to appear very poor inside the palace – they didn’t know what kind of quirk this was.
Thinking carefully, they could only say it was to deceive the eyes of the National Teacher and Emperor Zheng, keeping a low profile.
The strategists could understand the previous notes.
But when they saw the contents of the later carrier pigeon messages, the strategists became confused.
[Liuguang Pavilion, gold-inlaid sapphire dressing case, cloisonné glass mirror with flower branches, red gold coiled dragon necklace, hanging pearl blue jade earrings…]
[Qingshang Workshop, twenty bolts each of rain flower brocade, soft mist silk, and snow satin, also need brocade-trimmed fur cloak, Suzhou embroidered moonlight brocade robe, black gold cloud-embroidered front-opening robe, crescent moon phoenix tail cross-collared robe…]
And so on.
Almost all were things only used by imperial consorts.
Moreover, these jewelry and clothes were even more numerous than the previous furniture, looking as if they planned to buy out all the beautiful ornaments and fashionable fabrics and clothes in the entire capital.
The key was, what did the Seventh Prince want these for?!
The strategists looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to understand at all.
Perhaps they had dawdled for too long, as Qi Zhuoyu’s carrier pigeon message came again quickly, the tone already somewhat impatient.
[Buy quickly, enter palace.]
Remembering the Seventh Prince’s decisive methods despite his young age.
The strategists, just seeing these four words, had very unpleasant images pop into their minds.
Instantly setting aside their doubts, they prepared all the items according to the requirements on the notes.
They contacted a secret line in the palace and brought all the items into Qi Zhuoyu’s palace through a hidden river.
Everyone quickly understood on the way.
Qi Zhuoyu never did meaningless things; he must have a reason for doing this.
It must be helpful for the rebellion plan!
So with high enthusiasm, they placed all the items in the east wing room.
The originally empty east wing room was instantly filled with these furniture and decorations, becoming luxurious and gorgeous. The carpet was thick Persian wool, and even the air was burning with extremely expensive calming incense.
After finishing all this, the strategists nervously waited for the Seventh Prince to speak.
Qi Zhuoyu came in, looked around, and nodded. “Not bad.”
Then everyone saw the Seventh Prince suddenly walk out and go to the original wing room.
In less than a few seconds, everyone saw him suddenly drag out a youth. He was truly an extremely stunning youth. When that face was revealed, even the snow outside couldn’t compare to a thousandth of his beauty.
That youth also looked bewildered, being dragged along stumblingly.
The next second, Qi Zhuoyu kicked open the door of the east wing room and directly stuffed Feng Xuan onto the gilt wood entwined branch bed.
Feng Xuan was stuffed in a daze.
Qi Zhuoyu sat on the edge of the bed, feeling the soft bed.
It was incomparably better than the hard plank bed Feng Xuan had just slept on.
“How is this bed?”
Feng Xuan hadn’t yet reacted.
He had been sleeping in Qi Zhuoyu’s original room just now. He had to say, the big devil’s palace was really poor. That bed was terribly hard, he couldn’t sleep at all, and his body was almost marked with red imprints.
Suddenly falling into this soft, cloud-like brocade quilt, he said, “…It’s quite good.”
Qi Zhuoyu nodded, his expression somewhat satisfied. “From now on, you’ll sleep here.”
……
……
Ah?
A question mark slowly appeared above Feng Xuan’s head.
He finally came to his senses and suddenly noticed that the east wing room had completely changed.
Clearly when he came in the morning, the room was full of dust, as if no one had lived there for over a decade. Now it was completely renewed, the level of luxury no less than the emperor’s bedchamber, right?!
This very familiar sense of déjà vu of being the senior brother’s pet bird.jpg
Feng Xuan suddenly had that feeling again, that he should have only slept for ten minutes, not ten years, right?
How did so many things suddenly appear in the east wing room? Did the big devil rob the Imperial Household Department while he was asleep?!
Thinking about it, this fit his bad habit of robbing everywhere to support himself.
Feng Xuan felt a bit dazed. “Your Highness, why did you bring so many things to the east wing room?”
Qi Zhuoyu’s expression changed, suddenly very unhappy. “Didn’t you feel the bed in the room was too hard?”
Perhaps noticing that Feng Xuan’s tone didn’t seem very delighted.
Qi Zhuoyu frowned and said, “You don’t like it?”
After thinking for a moment, his face darkened. “I see.”
Qi Zhuoyu said, “You want a palace as big as the imperial palace, with a courtyard, and a wutong tree.”
Feng Xuan: ???
He didn’t, he hadn’t, he was just saying it casually earlier!
Feng Xuan turned his head and saw the other strategists standing in the room.
Their dumbfounded expressions made Feng Xuan feel awful. Big devil, he hadn’t said he wanted so many men too!
Feng Xuan thought of Qi Zhuoyu’s neurotic thought process that was difficult for normal people to understand. His voice trembled a bit as he said, “Your Highness, these men aren’t also something you robbed for me, are they?”
Damn it. He was really fine with just the little imperial concubine persona, don’t make him take on some little tyrant persona who forcibly abducts commoner men!!
Qi Zhuoyu: ?
Qi Zhuoyu immediately turned vicious. “Nonsense!”
Although he was fierce.
Feng Xuan silently breathed a sigh of relief.
He tugged at Qi Zhuoyu’s sleeve, feeling he should clarify. “Your Highness. You should let them all leave.”
Feng Xuan hesitated for a moment, then leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I only need Your Highness as my man.”
Hearing this, Qi Zhuoyu grunted ambiguously.
It wasn’t clear if he was pleased or displeased.
“What are you thinking?” Qi Zhuoyu said, “These are all my strategists.”
When the strategists saw the Seventh Prince carry this youth out of the room, everyone’s expressions soured.
Especially when they saw His Highness place this youth preciously on the bed and solicitously inquire about his preferences.
The strategists’ minds went blank.
They had thought His Highness buying these things might have some ulterior motive.
They had thought His Highness might be preparing for the rebellion plan.
They thought and thought.
They hadn’t expected.
That His Highness simply bought them to please a beauty?!
What was this?! Thinking of the old emperor’s incompetent appearance, and that the Seventh Prince was his biological son, now seeing the Seventh Prince like this, could he be following in the old emperor’s footsteps?!
Wait.
It seemed even worse than the old emperor.
The Seventh Prince wasn’t even emperor yet, and he was already acting like an incompetent ruler?!
The strategists’ minds raced like a thousand horses, stunned for a quarter hour.
