Your Ninth Royal Highness, Please Change Your Clothes

After he thought about it for a while, the eunuch’s high voice came from the palace hall door, “His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor is here-”

After the sound came from the door, everyone in the hall restrained their waves of laughter and stood up from their seats. They knelt at the hall door, “Long live the emperor-”

An emperor wearing a yellow dragon robe walked in slowly. He was over fifty years old now, with strands of white hair in his beard. Even though his appearance looked old, he couldn’t hide his youthful handsomeness. He looked around at the people in the hall with a gaze that wasn’t angry or arrogant, stepping in black boots embroidered with gold silk. He walked up to the seat in front of the hall. His voice was as deep and profound as a goblet, “You may rise.”

Everyone below stood up and turned around to face the emperor in the seat. All stood with their heads down, well-behaved.

The emperor spoke again and asked everyone to sit down. Along with the emperor came Qiao Xiangcheng, the Director of Rites, and Liang Jun, the Assistant Minister of Rites. The two sat below the emperor, one on each side.

Wen Chan almost forgot Qiao Xiangcheng, but Wen Chan remembered his daughter clearly. If nothing bad had happened to the Qiao Family, his daughter would’ve become Wen Chan’s main wife afterward.

While he was thinking about it, pen, ink, paper, and inkstones were suddenly placed on the table in front of him. He heard the emperor say, “Although this test will not be recorded, since you have picked up your pens, you should give your best effort. I will sit and wait for the answers that you will hand in.”

After speaking, he glanced at Qiao Xiangcheng. Qiao Xiangcheng got up and unfolded a paper roll. There was only one word on it – ‘Loyal.’ He said, “This is the exam question. There is no limit to the genre. The time limit is one shichen1. You may start soon.”

It might sound pleasant to hear, but even if the test wasn’t recorded it wouldn’t take even two days for the test marks to spread in the capital since all the direct sons of all the people with big status in the capital were there……

As soon as the voice fell, a bell rang. While Wen Chan was still indulging in flights of fancy2, many people subconsciously touched the ink pen.

Wen Chan stared at the blank paper. Not so long after, “loyal” filled his entire mind. If this test was based on ability to express it, then Zhong Wen Jin would surely be the first3.

What was loyalty? Wen Chan climbed into Xi Liang’s highest position in his previous life. But in the end, he still didn’t know the meaning of loyalty. Zhong Wenjin didn’t hesitate to betray his family for loyalty, attacking his father and brothers. Xie Zhaoxue took up arms and died on the battlefield in the name of loyalty. Qiao Xiangcheng fought to his death, protecting the imperial city in the name of loyalty. Liang Yanbei put his life on the line, spending his whole life at war in the name of loyalty. He built a harem and a big family in the name of loyalty.

To be loyal, these people ignored the danger and endured the pain. With heavily harmed bloody hands and beaten bodies, they raised the prosperity of Xi Liang in exchange for the loud praises from tens of millions of people.

It was easy to abandon loyalty, but it was hard to keep it.

Wen Chan seemed again to see the bloody sky shrouding the capital city in a daze. The magnificence in the former days turned into nothingness, and there were sharp and miserable wailing everywhere. He found himself in a place, heavily reeking of blood. When he turned his head, he saw Wen Xun wearing a hideous expression. A long blade had pierced into her thin and weak body. Her bloody hands crawled step by step to his feet, dragging out a long, bloody mark. Her fingers climbed onto his boots, and she weekly wailed, “Royal Brother… Royal Brother… it hurts……”

The capital was no longer as prosperous as it used to be, and it became hell on the earth.

Wen Chan was so startled that cold sweat dripped from his body. He opened his eyes suddenly and found that he was lying on the table, surrounded by teenagers bowing their heads, writing at a tremendous speed. Above him sat the emperor, bowing his head to read a book and Qiao Xiangcheng writing.

However, Liang Jun noticed him lazing about and glared at him slightly.

Wen Chan quickly wiped the small drops of sweat from the tip of his nose. He lifted the brush to dip it in ink and exhaled with fear. He didn’t expect that he would fall asleep while thinking about it. By chance, if the emperor found out, he would be punished.

This time, he slept most for of it. Therefore, the bell rang after he sat there blankly for a while. Everybody stopped writing and sat, waiting for the ink to dry.

Wen Chan looked at the words he had written, feeling a little guilty. He didn’t dare to look around. However, when he glanced around, he found that people around him had written to the brim, and black color densely packed their papers.

After they collected the papers, the palace hall became very quiet. Qiao Xiangcheng and Liang Jun read the answer sheets carefully, and from time to time, they took out one or two answer sheets and handed them to the eunuch beside the emperor.

Wen Chan turned indescribably nervous, especially after seeing his answer sheet handed over to the emperor. His answer sheet was easy to recognize as it had a large blank space.

The emperor raised his eyes and said, “Lao4 Jiu.”

Wen Chen stood up immediately, “Erchen5 is here. ”

“Are there only three words on your answer sheet?”He flipped the paper over and over, there were only medium-sized characters on it, and nothing else, “You tell me. What does this “difficult to achieve both6” mean?”

For a while, everyone in the hall secretly looked at Wen Chan. Many people were surprised when they learned that he had only used three words to answer. After a moment of silence, Wen Chan said in a gentle voice, “Replying to the Emperor Father. By “difficult to achieve both”, this Erchuan means the loyalty to the country and the king.”

“The sovereign king cares about the people under his rule. Isn’t loyalty to the king equivalent to loyalty to the country?” The emperor asked again.

But Wen Chen didn’t reply anymore.

Even though he was silent, many people present there could hear what he meant. Only the wise monarch would worry about the people, while the incapable monarch would only worry about himself. After all, there was a difference between caring for the people and caring for the king. However, no one dared to say those words. If they said it, they would be considered rebellious.

Everyone in the hall secretly lightened their breaths, fearing that Wen Chan would provoke the dragon’s wrath. But when the emperor saw that Wen Chan no longer replied, he didn’t continue asking. He merely said flatly, “There is no ink in the belly,7 but there are a lot of false thoughts in mind. From today onwards, your punishment will be confinement for three months. You can think about it behind closed doors. ”

Wen Chan almost uttered a sound of joy. He immediately kowtowed and thanked the emperor, “I will sincerely obey the instruction of Emperor Father.”

The three words exchanged for three months of tranquility, a happy event for Wen Chan. At least he didn’t have to get up early to study at the Bo Xue Palace for the next three months.

Afterward, the emperor began to evaluate the other people’s answer sheets. Originally, what Wen Chen cared most about were Zhong Wenjin’s answers. But who would have imagined that they didn’t even deliver Zhong Wenjin’s answer sheet to the emperor? Wen Chen felt that if Zhong Wenjin was second in terms of loyalty, no one else could be the first. Perhaps he failed to express the magnificent aspiration in his heart because of his poor literary style?

At noon, the long review was finally over. To Wen Chen’s surprise, Liang Yanbei was the one who got first place in the test.

If he hadn’t been reborn and returned to his teenage years, Wen Chan would have almost forgotten that this Great General Liang, always called a rough man decades later, used to be a scholar of great talent.

The emperor was happy and gave almost everyone rewards. Of course, except for Wen Chan. After they sent off the respectful emperor and the two superiors of the Ministry of Rites, the atmosphere in Ming Rong Hall suddenly relaxed.

Wen Chan didn’t intend to stay longer. As soon as the emperor left, he also stepped out of the hall gate. Ah Fu, who had been waiting in the side hall, had already come to stand outside the door, and he greeted Wen Chan as soon as he saw him come out.

He walked through the wide corridor and conveniently smoothened the creases on his gown. He hummed a popular song, feeling satisfied and leisurely.

Wen Zhang quickly caught up, “Ninth Royal Brother!”

He called out to stop Wen Chen while panting a little. His young and tender face was completely distressed, “Ninth Royal Brother, why didn’t you answer the paper well, and Emperor Fater punished you to three months of confinement?”

Naturally, Wen Chan was relaxed. “It’s not that I didn’t write well, but what I wrote was the answer from my heart.”

“But…” Wen Zhang wanted to say something but hesitated.

“Don’t worry. Being confined for three months is a good idling time that I rarely get. He also habitually patted Wen Zhang’s head,” I heard the Emperor Father saying that the answer sheet you wrote was pretty good. It is already an extraordinary thing for your age. If you continue to work hard, you will definitely be better than the champion.”

Wen Zhang, being praised, felt a little bashful. He blushed and said, “Thank you, Ninth Royal Brother, for your praise. I will come to meet you when I am free. Although I can’t bring you out, I will be able to relieve your boredom.”

Wen Chen smiled and replied, “Okay, then I will store snacks and tea for you. ”

After the two said a few words, Wen Yue spotted them with his sharp eyes. He brought a group of people together and said while laughing in a playful tone, “Lao Jiu, the three words you wrote today were really amazing. Bengong admires you!”

Wen Chen flattened the corners of his mouth previously hooked up. He turned his head to look at him and said, “I’ve embarrassed myself in front of you, Royal Brother.”

“You have embarrassed yourself in front of me. If you ask me who was the most outstanding in the test today, I would say you. You have simply turned yourself into a laughing stock.” Wen Yue was merciless, and the people behind him laughed when they heard this.

This commotion caused a lot of noise. Liang Yanbei, who had just come out with Xie Zhaoxue, instantly noticed the noisiness. He searched for the voice and saw Wen Chan with an expression as bland as water.

With a subconscious turn of his toes, he wanted to step forward and say hello. However, he remembered Wen Chan’s cold and dull look, making him stop.

Wen Chan said, “Royal Brother is wrong. If we are gonna talk about excellence, I still can’t compare to Royal Brother’s year of Wuxu8. It’s really unforgettable. ”

He referred to an essay the prince wrote when he was fifteen years old. It was about what happened to him in the year of Wuxu. After he finished writing it, he showed it to the emperor in high spirits. Unexpectedly, he couldn’t tell the three characters -Wuxu and Shu- apart. So in the entire essay, instead of writing “Wuxu”, he wrote “Xushu.” That was made into a big joke and was widely circulated.

Wen Yue had always regarded this as a stain on his life. When he heard him mention it, his face turned red and white with anger. His small eyes9 widened, and his appearance turned extremely ridiculous.

When Wen Zhang saw his sinister expression, he became afraid that he would break Wen Chan into pieces. He stretched out his hand to pull Wen Chan’s sleeve and whispered, “Ninth Royal Brother, the time has come. It’s time for us to have dinner. ”

Of course, he didn’t want to get entangled with Wen Yue too much. When Wen Zhang said this, Wen Chen nodded at once. For the first time, he dropped etiquette and turned away while saying nothing. Wen Yue was furious and wanted to stop him, but Wen Xiang curbed him.

Wen Chen walked away quickly and disappeared from everyone’s sight in a short while. Wen Yue stormed off angrily, taking away the others with him. Liang Yanbei smacked his lips, not knowing what to think. He stood there for a while and then left with Xie Zhaoxue.

After parting from Wen Zhang, Wen Chan lay down on the carriage and returned to his bedroom comfortably.

Only the crown prince and Wen Chan had control over the palace among the emperor’s heirs. The prince was the sovereign and the Eastern Palace’s lord. Wen Chan could enjoy such treatment because of the monk who changed his name more than ten years ago.

They said that Wen Chan used to be prone to illnesses when he was young. Once, he got seriously ill, and the country met with huge natural calamities like “drought in the east and flood in the south.” The people started speculating that the ninth prince was the reincarnation of a celestial Daoist immortal. If the ninth prince died this time due to the illness, countless people of Xi Liang would die along with him.

Two days after they sent the imperial notice, an old Buddhist monk entered the emperor’s palace to visit him. The emperor had always believed in Buddhism, and he immediately paid respect to the old monk as a treasured guest. The old monk didn’t waste time talking useless things and directly proposed to see the ninth prince. So the emperor sent some people to bring Wen Chan, who was at his last breath.

The old monk said, “It is difficult to get the illness of this child. His fate is connected to Xi Liang only because of his name. If his name is changed, it will ease the ties that are connecting him and Xi Liang.”

After saying that, he waved his hands and wrote “Chan.” That was the origin of Wen Chan’s name. When the old monk left, he also took one of Wen Chan’s younger brothers with him. He especially warned them not to connect ‘prince’ with his name. Otherwise, the same disastrous mistake would repeat.

After that day, the illness actually started to improve. The natural calamity in Xi Liang also ceased. The emperor thanked the old monk and decided to repair all the temples in the radius of the capital. Every temple had “Chan”10 on it.

Due to this special status, the emperor had always been very lenient with his discipline and even assigned him a separate palace.

When Wen Chan returned to the palace, there was already a group of guards waiting outside.

The emperor’s movements were so fast. As soon as he said that he would confine him, he dispatched a group of people. Wen Chan didn’t care much and took Ah Fu into the palace to have his meal.

Translator’s corner

Advanced happy Christmas guys.

Hope you all have happiness at all times [ just like our Wen Chan when he got to know that he will be confined ].