"Brother, even if you weren’t stuck in here but were outside, in your little brother’s eyes, you still wouldn’t be able to help much."

"Those words of yours are really hurtful."

"Sorry."

"Even here in this lakeside pavilion, I can still read some of the court gazettes, so I more or less know what’s been happening outside these past few years."

"For example, our Yan’s Lord Pingye?"

"You poking at my sore spot on purpose?"

"I wanted to see how you’d react. After all, you know as well as I do, our bunch of brothers were never in the habit of playing at brotherly affection since we were kids. It’s only because Second Prince is now Crown Prince that he deliberately puts on a bit of a show."

"I know. Lord Pingye is your man."

"Oh now, oh now, brother, I really don’t have the face to say that. The man is now Lord Pingye, commander-in-chief at Snow Sea Pass, the top favorite in front of Lord Jingnan.

He’s hardly some lackey under my command."

The Third Prince looked at Ji Chengjue, silent for a long while, as if turning something over in his mind. In the end he gave a carefree smile

and said:

"I wasn’t going to say this, afraid you’d think I was sowing discord. But I’ll say it anyway, because you’re clear on this too: at this point I have absolutely no need to sow discord. In my current situation, I no longer harbor any hope of leaving this place. If they would just neatly bestow death on me, that would actually be a kind of release.

What I still remember now is the look in Zheng Fan’s eyes the day he struck at me."

"Please, speak."

"In his eyes, I didn’t see the slightest trace of awe. He simply did not revere the Royal Family’s blood flowing in us."

Not revering the Royal Family’s bloodline,

in essence means,

not revering imperial power.

Ji Chengjue chuckled. "I’ve known that for a long time."

"Mm."

"But, brother, what’s so rarefied about the blood in our veins? Brother, do you know why you ended up suffering the consequences of your own actions back then? Those Confucian scholars were in your ear all day long babbling about orthodoxy, about grand righteousness, about the ruler as the norm for the minister. And you actually believed them."

The Third Prince’s lips trembled slightly.

Ji Chengjue raised his wine cup, took a sip on his own, and said:

"To put it bluntly, if the one sitting on the dragon throne right now weren’t our father, tell me—Earl of North Border and Lord Jingnan, tsk tsk tsk, which of them could be held down? Chances are their troops would have marched straight into Yanjing and changed the dynasty long ago.

What bullshit Royal Family bloodline. People, you see, are prone to this affliction: once life gets a bit better and their chair sits a bit higher, they always feel they’re somehow different, innately a cut above others.

The century-old noble clans of our Yan have already been battered by wind and rain. To say they care, that’s pretending to care. Others can say in front of you that they care, but you mustn’t really believe they actually will.

So, the wife I just married is a commoner woman. My father-in-law is a butcher, my eldest brother-in-law is also a butcher. Their skill at slaughtering pigs is wickedly efficient."

"Heh... heh heh heh."

The Third Prince started laughing, and as he laughed, it was as if tears were falling.

"Ji Chengjue, I’m a bit younger than Eldest Brother and Second Prince, so my memories came a few years later than theirs. Back in the day, I seem to recall hearing an old minister say that when you were little, father was extremely fond of you.

I always dismissed that, because at the time, in my eyes you were just an idle Prince, muddling through life, eating and waiting for death, nothing more.

Thinking back now, it really was my own shortsightedness."

"Don’t. Even if Second Prince remembers earlier, to this day he still doesn’t look at me straight on, let alone you, Third Brother."

"So, you’re planning to live a different way now?"

Ji Chengjue nodded and said:

"Live a different way. Stake my life and property, my wife and children, and formally announce to the world: I, Ji Chengjue, will seize the throne; I will contend with Second Prince for the position of Crown Prince in the East Palace."

"Since your grand wedding is coming up, then Second Prince’s marriage should be put back on the agenda too, right?"

"Heh heh heh."

Ji Chengjue tilted his head back and laughed continuously, laughing until it turned into a dry cough.

"What’s wrong?" the Third Prince asked.

In the Third Prince’s view, the reason he had no hope of leaving the lakeside pavilion—no hope even of getting a clean, swift end—was precisely because Lord Jingnan was involved.

And once the Crown Prince and the Earl of North Border’s manor became in-laws, it would be like adding another layer of protection.

Ji Chengjue extended a finger and placed it on his own lips, saying:

"I don’t dare say."

"Why don’t you dare say?"

"Or perhaps, I just don’t want to say."

Ji Chengjue stood up, didn’t bother packing his things, and prepared to leave.

From beginning to end, the Third Prince never asked Ji Chengjue why he had come to the lakeside pavilion to see him, and Ji Chengjue had no intention of explaining that question either.

When Ji Chengjue turned around and started walking out,

the Third Prince called out:

"When your child reaches the age to practice calligraphy, have him come to me for copybooks. I’ll start preparing them today."

Ji Chengjue did not stop, did not turn, didn’t even look back,

he just lifted his hand and waved it,

"Thanks, brother."

...

On the morning two days later,

Assistant Expositor of the Ministry of Rites, Chen Ziyou, wearing his official robes, carrying a basket of red-dyed eggs in his left hand and a stack of new clothes in his right, arrived at the gate of the Prince’s residence.

He didn’t seem to intend to go in. He set the basket of red eggs down on the ground first, then hugged that stack of new clothes to his chest and leaned against the stone lion to rest.

About a quarter of an hour later,

Ji Chengjue came out from inside, with Master Zhang following behind him.

The Sixth Prince was dressed today in full court robes, a red flower tied to his chest. Master Zhang had also changed into a new eunuch’s uniform and had even specially matched it with a new horsetail whisk.

Chen Ziyou had already nodded off leaning against the stone lion; it was Master Zhang who stepped forward and lightly patted him awake.