Your Ninth Royal Highness, Please Change Your Clothes

The Bird

Wen Chan didn’t want to talk about Liang Yanbei either. After a few vague sentences, he asked Ah Fu to set up a chessboard to play chess with Liang Shuhong.

On seeing him taking the initiative, Liang Shuhong could, naturally, not refuse. Besides, Liang Shuhong had some self-confidence in his chess skills, he thought that he should win the first two games, and then deliberately lose the third game for Wen Chan as to make him feel happy as well.

But Liang Shuhong’s calculations were wrong, once again. For the entire two hours, it was he who was beaten. When the sun slanted westward, Wen Chan made his last move, and again won the game. Liang Shuhong was still muddle-headed after being beaten once more. Wen Chan then looked up at the sky and said, “It’s getting late, Brother Shuhong should head back to the mansion as soon as possible before it gets dark. ”

At that moment, Liang Shuhong, who was still thinking about how to make his next move, on hearing Wen Chan’s words, loosened his grip on the chess piece in his hand and smiled stiffly, “Your highness, then I will retire first. I will come to you later to relieve your boredom.”

When Ah Fu was sending him out, Liang Shuhong was still thinking in his head about how Wen Chan won such a hard game of chess. His brows furrowed unconsciously when he thought about it.

The little servant boy who was walking by his side saw that there was something wrong with the expression of his master, so he couldn’t help but ask, “Yong master, did the ninth highness say anything that was unpleasant to hear?”

His thoughts were interrupted by the little servant boy, looking sideways Liang Shuhong, after pondering for a moment decided to ask the servant a question of his own, “Have you heard of anything relating to the chess skills of His Ninth Royal Highness?”

The little servant boy said, “No. But I have heard rumors before that the literature, martial arts, music, and horseback archery skills of the ninth highness were not good, so it’s likely his chess skills are not good either.”

“No.” Liang Shuhong lightly shook his head.

Liang Shuhong had heard that the ninth prince had been a useless person for a long time, but after playing a few games with him, Liang Shuhong found the chess skills that he owned and had confidence that he could easily be blown away by Wen Chan. One move by Wen Chan could make Liang Shuhong retreat a considerable amount and each retreat cost many of his own chess pieces. It was extremely troubling.

“Young master means…”

“The ninth royal highness seems to be a bit different from before.” Liang Shuhong mumbled in a low voice.

In the past, the chess skills of Wen Chan were indeed awful. And later after becoming an emperor, his only passtime in the Shen Palace was to drink tea and play chess. Unfortunately, the chess skills of the people around him were never even close to his own skill. So it was difficult to find an opponent which had made him gloomy, eventually, he thought of a clever solution.

Every time he turned the name plaque1, he would either go to the palace of the concubines or he would call them to his palace and would state, “If you lose to me in chess, you will sleep in the side chamber.”

In order to climb onto the emperor’s bed, the concubines immersed themselves in studying and meticulously acquiring the skills of chess, even though they only wanted to win against the emperor.

Unfortunately, they didn’t expect that Wen Chan was also studying hard when they were making great efforts to study chess, and therefore Wen Chan’s chess skills became better and better, to the point where he turned into the “Wen seeking a defeat” in the palace.

Wen Chan, who had been sitting all afternoon, stretched out and smacked his lips tastelessly2. He muttered, “It’s no good. He wasn’t anywhere near as skilled as my concubines.”

After Ah Fu ordered the people to tidy up the chessboard, he leaned over to Wen Chan and asked, “Your Highness, do you want to have a meal? This servant has sent someone to ask the imperial kitchen about what they made for dinner tonight, and the kitchen is said to have prepared duck braised in sauce.”

Wen chan asked suspiciously, “Didn’t we have that for dinner yesterday?”

“It is different.” Ah Fu said, “It was apricot and plum sauce yesterday, but today it is chili sauce.”
Wen Chan thought that no matter what the sauce was, it would be delicious.

Eventually facts did prove that the braised ducks made with the two differing sauces did indeed taste different. Whilst eating the braised duck with apricot and plum sauce, Wen Chen had only one word in his mind: “delicious!”

And so now, whilst eating the braised duck with chili sauce, Wen Chen’s mind was like: “It’s delicious! But it’s so spicy!”

After eating, his lips were brilliant red, looking as if he had rubbed rogue on his lips, and his skin also became whiter. After Ah Fu saw this, he immediately gave him plum tea to relieve the spicy taste on Wen Chan’s tongue.

Wen Chan was able to eat spicy food in his past life, but that was after many experiences with spicy cuisine. Now, however, he was in his teenage body which hasn’t eaten many spicy foods, and after eating the braised duck, he felt burning pain from his tongue to his entire esophagus, and what felt like an unending hot stream of fog was going to his brain. Even after drinking 3 cups of plum tea, he had only helped to suppress the heat a tiny amount.

After taking a bath that night, Wen Chan laid on the bed, he still had a hot feeling in his abdominal cavity, and he didn’t sleep until midnight. Wen Chen thought, “I can’t eat such a spicy thing anymore. It’s terrible!”

Wen Chan’s stomach was tormenting him like crazy for most of the night, and it was only at dawn when he drifted off to sleep.

The sleep was so deep that he didn’t even have dreams. He was still in deep sleep even when the sun completely enveloped the imperial palace. Even the clock failed to wake him up during the early morning hours.

But after a mere cry of a bird that came from nowhere, Wen Chan’s consciousness was pulled out of his sleep, the bird’s cry was sharp and loud as if it was making the sound in his ears.

Wen Chen frowned slightly, his eyelids stuck together heavily.

Immediately afterward, a voice resembling a woman screaming sounded throughout the palace, “Your Ninth Highness! Your Ninth Highness! ”

The sound was sharp and had a very penetrating nature.

After four or five screams, Wen Chan, who was sleeping soundly, had completely woken up. Eventually, opening his bloodshot eyes, Wen Chan dispiritedly came down from his bed and without even putting on his footwear, walked to the door of the hall with a thud. Stretching out his head, he saw Ah Fu and a few servants gathered together in the courtyard.

Ah Fu was carrying a birdcage in his hands. Inside the cage, a bird was jumping around, it was this bird that made the sound that woke Wen Chan up, “Your Ninth Highness! Your Ninth Highness!”

Several palace servants were amused by the bird and laughed.

Wen Chan felt like his head was about to explode. He coughed hard. His voice hasn’t opened properly yet since he had just woken up. With a hoarse, lazy voice he angrily said, “What is the matter with this bird? Shut it up! ”

As soon as the palace servants heard his voice, they stopped smiling. They turned around and bowed to Wen Chan. After Bowing, Ah Fu placed the cage on the table and said to WEn Chan, “Your highness, this is the parrot sent early in the morning by young master Liang.”

“Liang Shuhong? ” Wen Chan was very uncomfortable last night for a long time due to the spiciness. When he was finally able to sleep soundly, he was awakened by the bird. The bird was still screaming even at this moment, “Your Ninth Highness! Your Ninth Highness! ” He said in a bad tone, “When did he have the time to care about my meal? It would be better for him to use this time to think about how to improve his chess skills. Besides, this bird was sent to the wrong place. Ah Fu, take it to the imperial kitchen!”

“Your Royal Highness misunderstood. This is not from young Master Liang. It is from the Young Master Liang of the Shilang family of the Ministry of Rites. I heard that he had been raising parrots for more than a month, so he taught the parrot this sentence.” Ah Fu explained at once.

As soon as he said the name of Liang Yanbei, Wen Chan’s anger was completely gone. He was taken aback and he glanced at the bird who was jumping around on the table. He asked suspiciously, “What did Liang Yanbei give me the bird for?”

“Master Liang said it was to relieve the boredom of your Royal Highness.” Ah Fu replied.

Liang Yanbei had such preferences. He always liked all kinds of strange things. In his previous life in order to please Mrs.Liang, he trained a parrot to speak words for half a year. And every day, he would call it to praise Mrs.Liang, and it was trained to say, “Hiding the moon, shaming the flowers3. Fish sink, goose alights4.” Wen Chan was really envious at the time.

Who would have imagined that it would be delivered into his hands first, after being reborn……

“Bring me the bird so that I can see it.” Wen Chan ordered.

Ah Fu smiled so much that his eyes were almost gone. He handed the birdcage to Wen Chan, “Your Highness, this servant dare to say that you won’t be able to find a bird more beautiful than this in the whole capital.”

This bird was indeed very beautiful, its body light yellow in color, and the feathers of its wings were white. There was a jade crown with yellow buds on the top of its head, and when it danced, its wings would spread out, which were small and cute.

Wen Chan thought in his heart that it was natural because they hadn’t seen the bird sent to Liang Yanbei’s wife by Liang Yanbei. Its whole body was bright red and it looked like a phoenix baby, its voice was gentle and beautiful and was much better than the sharp voice of this parrot.
At this moment, the parrot’s black eyes turned, and it opened its mouth, “All hail the Ninth Highness!”

Wen Chen’s heart jumped. The corners of his mouth unconsciously raised and he said, “This bird is more pleasing than its master. ”
Ah Fu smiled but did not answer.

“Did Liang Yanbei personally come to deliver it?” Wen Chen stretched out a finger to tease the bird and pretended to ask inadvertently.

“It was Senior Liang. Senior Liang stopped by to deliver the bird this morning.” Ah Fu answered before quickly changing the topic, “Your Highness, have you ever noticed that senior Liang’s hair by his crown is really neatly combed, and looks much better than that of other lords?”

When he said this, Wen Chan remembered that Liang Jun once met with his friend, who got drunk at a restaurant and complained to him that the hair on his head was getting less and less and that a large part in the middle was going to be bald. He had started to cry whilst saying this.

It so happened that there was a court official next door who heard Liang Jun’s cries clearly. So on the next day, the whole capital city knew about Senior Liang’s baldness.

After pondering for a moment, Wen Chan said, “This matter cannot be imitated. Don’t look at Master Liang like that. Anyways after a long time, he will become bald sooner or later. ”

“What! “Ah Fu eyes widened in horror, “Is Your Highness serious?” ”

“Of course.” Wen Chan made a solemn vow. If it was really just a rumor, why would Liang Jun always have to put up with it? Couldn’t he just walk in front of the people after removing his crown? The rumor would have collapsed quickly if he did that, but Liang Jun didn’t do that, and every time he came out in public, he would be either wearing a hat or a jade crown.

Wen Chan used his fingers to trace the feathers of the bird. With a dull voice, he asked, “Has there been any news of Liang Yanbei joining the army in the capital? ”

In his previous life, Liang Yanbei joined the army in February and was learning battlefield tactics in March, Wen Chan’s question was just to reassure himself.

Who knew that Ah Fu would reply, “This servant has not heard of any such news.”

Wen Chan was puzzled at first, and then relieved, Ah Fu’s character was that of a palace servant who was always in the depths of the palace. So how would he be able to quickly know about the news in the capital? Perhaps it will take a while before the news could be fully released.
After standing for a long time, he felt that the soles of his feet were ice cold. He yawned again, waved his hand, and said, “Silence this bird, I’ll go back to sleep for a while. ”

“This servant will carry your orders.” Ah Fu retreated with the bird in his hand.

He didn’t know what method the other party used. He lied on the bed and listened carefully, and sure enough, he couldn’t hear the sound of birds.

So on that morning when everyone else was busy, Wen Chen slept comfortably.

1

This was a method by which emperors used to find the person with whom he would sleep that night.

2

It can be used to express regret.

3

lit. hiding the moon, shaming the flowers (idiom) / fig. female beauty which exceeds even that of the natural world

4

lit. fish sink, goose alights (idiom, from Zhuangzi 莊子｜庄子); fig. female beauty captivating even the birds and beasts