You don't understand!
Ye Jingchen reached out and patted Xie Chang'an on the shoulder, with a mysterious expression on his face.
"What I want to be is never some upright and virtuous crown prince!"
Xie Chang'an's lips twitched. "Then what do you want to do?"
"I want to be a useless snack that looks like it has no skills and is easy to manipulate."
"You're insane!" Xie Chang'an said to him directly.
"I think you should be able to understand my behavior. Didn't you always do the same thing, carefully plotting everything in secret, and then stunning everyone in the end?" Ye Jingchen put his hand on Xie Chang'an's shoulder and asked.
It feels good to be on top, but Xie Chang'an seems to be growing taller lately. If I don't take advantage of being taller than Xie Chang'an now, Xie Chang'an might be taller than me in a year or two.
He put his hand on Xie Chang'an's shoulder, secretly plotting something.
Although he said he wanted to amaze everyone, Ye Jingchen still preferred to remain hidden in the background forever, and it would be best if everyone looked down on him and ignored him, so that he could be a lazy bum with a clear conscience.
Xie Chang'an ignored the hand on his shoulder; Ye Jingchen's strength was like a tickle to him, insignificant.
What he said was quite interesting: how did Ye Jingchen know what he was like before?
Isn't he from another world?
Xie Chang'an never doubted the magical world in his dream, because his ideas were too unique for people of this era to possess.
But at the same time, Xie Chang'an also had a feeling that Ye Jingchen seemed to understand him very well, and Ye Jingchen's trust in him seemed to come from that understanding.
Ye Jingchen knows him very well, but he doesn't know Ye Jingchen at all! He doesn't know what he's thinking or what he wants to do. He didn't know before, and he still doesn't know now. This unknown attracts him, but at the same time, it makes it impossible for him to completely trust Ye Jingchen.
Xie Chang'an gave him a meaningful look. "I am cautious because I have nothing and can only survive by scheming in secret. But you have everything, yet you are still so careful. I'm afraid you will have difficulty winning people's respect in the future."
"Xie Chang'an, do you think I'm smart?" Seeing that Xie Chang'an didn't resist, Ye Jingchen simply went further and put half of his body weight on him.
“Very smart,” Xie Chang’an said without hesitation.
It was a kind of intelligence he had never seen before; he planned three steps ahead for every move he made.
"Actually, I'm not as smart as you think. I'm just very patient," Ye Jingchen said with a smile.
"The reason I can plan all this now is simply because the enemy is in the open while we are in the dark. They don't know us, but we know them very well. We have a huge advantage in information, so we can gradually erode them."
“Once we lose this advantage, we can only manage a draw at best, and both sides will inevitably suffer losses. But I don’t want my side to suffer any losses. To minimize such losses, I can even slow down my pace indefinitely, given enough time.”
"My personality isn't suited for direct confrontation because I'm too greedy. I want too much, but I'm willing to let go of too little. If I were to stand in the spotlight, it would be easy for people to exploit my weaknesses!" Ye Jingchen said to Xie Chang'an with a double meaning.
Isn't this yet another instance of him dissecting himself to Xie Chang'an?
Xie Chang'an remained silent for a moment.
This is where his ideas and beliefs differed from Ye Jingchen's.
He believes that everything involves sacrifice, whether it's people or money, and as long as it's within an acceptable range, it's reasonable.
However, Ye Jingchen dislikes any sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of human beings.
Ye Jingchen is indeed as he himself said, very self-aware, and he is indeed not suited to playing the open game.
"If you want to use Yan Xu, then you have to be open about it, because Yan Xu is a very independent and straightforward person, and he hates beating around the bush!" Xie Chang'an reminded him.
He didn't want to remind Ye Jingchen so soon, but he couldn't bear to.
"You seem to know Mr. Guzhu very well?" Ye Jingchen immediately grasped the key point in his words.
At this moment, Ye Jingchen seemed to have forgotten him.
This is precisely what puzzled Xie Chang'an.
“He used to work with me,” Xie Chang’an said vaguely.
"What position does he hold? How long has he been there? What are his abilities? Besides being straightforward, what other characteristics does he have?" Ye Jingchen's eyes lit up, and he asked four questions in a row.
"Prime Minister."
"Until I die."
"Very strong."
"Solitary".
Xie Chang'an answered his questions one by one, but his answers were all very concise.
The two of them are now very close, which makes it easier for them to communicate without worrying that their conversation will be overheard by Ye Jingchen's elusive bodyguards.
"He was able to become prime minister, so is it beneath him to just be the Minister of Personnel now?" Ye Jingchen asked hesitantly.
"The Minister of Personnel is the head of the Six Ministries, second only to the Prime Minister," Xie Chang'an reminded him irritably.
"Moreover, Wang Xianruo is a veteran of two dynasties. Although he is not very capable, his position is not so easy to shake."
Reminded by Xie Chang'an, Ye Jingchen suddenly realized that the position of Prime Minister was the highest among the civil officials in the court, second only to the emperor. In his father's reign, the only people who could be compared to the Prime Minister were the Grand Tutor, the Duke of Anguo, and the Duke of Zhenguo.
Xie Chang'an said that he had worked with Yan Xu for a period of time, which means that his position was either equal to Yan Xu's or higher than Yan Xu's.
"Were you an emperor in your past life?" Ye Jingchen leaned closer and asked a question that he was particularly curious about and interested in.
He was transmigrated into the book halfway through reading it, and would never see the ending. For a bookworm like him, this was incredibly frustrating!
Xie Chang'an was startled and subconsciously tilted his head, wanting to see Ye Jingchen's expression when he asked that question.
Then he saw a pair of bright, sparkling eyes, filled only with curiosity and excitement, without any of the other emotions he expected to see, such as probing.
"What if I had done it before?" Xie Chang'an asked tentatively.
He found that Ye Jingchen was becoming less and less wary of him. If it were right after his rebirth, he would never have revealed to Ye Jingchen, the current crown prince, that he might have once sat in that position.
"That's great!" Ye Jingchen patted Xie Chang'an's shoulder hard and said excitedly.
Although he had always wondered whether Xie Chang'an eventually became emperor, as mentioned in the novel's synopsis, he was unsure when Xie Chang'an was reborn, so he couldn't confirm it.
If Xie Chang'an had been an emperor in his previous life, wouldn't he be even more adept at this one, and he could entrust him with even more tasks?
"Aren't you worried that I'll replace you?" Xie Chang'an looked at Ye Jingchen with a strange expression, not understanding why he was so excited!
Given Ye Jingchen's status, shouldn't he have been showing this excited expression upon hearing his words?
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