study.

The housekeeper carefully brought a bowl of medicine.

"My Lord, the young prince returned all the maids yesterday. The booklet... the booklet was burned."

Duke Wei looked at the military book in his hand without even raising his eyelids.

"You little brat are becoming more and more arrogant."

Although he said this, there was no trace of blame on the man's face. He drank the medicine on the table in one gulp, frowning slightly.

"What do you think about the Wang family's affairs?"

"I dare not speak nonsense."

Duke Wei snorted lightly.

After investigating for so long, he had already figured it out. The princes had already secretly arranged their troops and deployed their troops in the fight for the throne.

The matter of the third prince is just the beginning.

Since the former crown prince passed away at the age of ten, the throne of the Eastern Palace has been vacant. Now the second, third, fourth, and eighth princes have all come of age. Each of these princes is eyeing the throne of the heir apparent.

After the New Year, Huai Yan would be nineteen. There was only one prince in the palace, the Thirteenth Prince, who was still very young.

The princes are all of similar age, and they are all young and full of vigor. I am afraid there will be another bloody storm in the future...

“Ahem…”

Duke Wei clenched his fist and couldn't help coughing. He waved away the butler's hand that wanted to step forward. He had been in the military all his life, and had countless hidden wounds. Now that he was old, all kinds of illnesses came.

"Go call Huai Yan over here. I have something to say to him."

"yes."

The butler withdrew respectfully.

Soon after, the boy's voice was heard outside.

"uncle."

"Come in."

The boy poked his head out with a smile.

"I guess my uncle must be missing me."

Duke Wei raised his head and glanced at him, his expression not looking very good.

"Humph, you like those women, why don't you want them anymore?"

Zhou Huaiyan came over.

"Oh, uncle, how can domestic flowers be as fragrant as wild flowers?"

"absurd!"

Duke Wei slammed the table.

Zhou Huaiyan quickly slid behind the man and pressed his shoulders attentively, then pushed him down.

"Uncle, Huaiyan is joking."

The young man patted Duke Wei's shoulders skillfully and continued

"If Huaiyan gets married in the future, he will definitely be as doting and loyal to his aunt as his uncle is to her, giving her all the best things in the world. Huaiyan will definitely not even glance at other beautiful women."

Duke Wei thought of his deceased wife and his eyes softened a lot.

"You are not good at anything, but you are good at talking smoothly."

Zhou Huaiyan didn't feel bad at all, instead he felt like he was being complimented.

"As long as you can make your uncle happy, that's a good skill."

Duke Wei's sullen face could no longer be suppressed. He stroked his long beard, and a smile appeared in his eyes.

"Then tell me, which girl do you want to love and pamper exclusively?"

Zhou Huaiyan knew that his uncle was setting a trap for him, so he cleared his throat.

"Of course, you have to be like my mother. Not to mention how good her writing skills are, but at least she has to be able to kill three times in and three times out of a chaotic battle!"

"Nonsense!"

Duke Wei was so angry that he blew his beard.

Everyone knows that since the new emperor ascended the throne, he has strictly prohibited women from joining the army. Zhou Huaiyan's words simply meant that he did not want to get married.

"Uncle, if you want me to get married and have a happy family, you must let Huai Yan choose someone he loves. Otherwise, what's the difference between me and those playboys out there?

It's just that I forcibly shoveled the beautiful flowers that someone else had carefully cultivated and dumped them in my yard, ruining them."

Duke Wei: "......"

Although it was a twisted logic, he couldn't refute it after thinking about it carefully. In the end, the man still waved his hand.

"Forget it, forget it. I can't decide your marriage, but if the emperor grants you a marriage in the future, what will you do?"

"Emperor... Father is reluctant to grant me a marriage."

Zhou Huaiyan shrugged.

"I already have a maternal family as powerful as my uncle's. He is already jealous of me. If we marry into another family, my father will be worried."

Therefore, Zhou Huaiyan's current reputation as a playboy is what the emperor wants to see the most.

"Huai Yan, do you want that seat?"

Zhou Huaiyan's tone was full of disgust.

"I don't want to be one. Being an emperor is exhausting and hard. I have to review thousands of memorials during the day and give birth to children at night. I have to give birth to children with different women. I'm afraid even a donkey in the birthing team can't stand such exhaustion."

Duke Wei: “……???”

These words shocked Jiang Yi so much that he was stunned for a long time.

"Don't talk nonsense! How dare you criticize His Majesty!"

After a pause, he asked again,

"Then you kept that strange...scholar, wasn't it to take advantage of the Yun family's power?"

"Who said that?"

Zhou Huaiyan was surprised.

"Don't you understand me, uncle? I'm just greedy for his beautiful eyes."

"What's more, the Yun family's daughter has been dead for more than ten years, and Ah Fei has no token of trust. How could the Yun family possibly recognize him? Even if they did, how could they hand over the family to Ah Fei, who has the blood of a foreign race?"

Jiang Yi carefully examined the boy's expression and confirmed that he really had not lied.

The man sighed.

On the day he returned to Beijing, he thought about returning the military power, so that Huai Yan could stay away from the struggle for the throne and live a peaceful life as a leisurely prince. But a sudden assassination completely shattered Jiang Yi's fantasy.

Is it possible to avoid this fight for succession just by wanting to?

He is old, and now he is in a hurry to arrange a marriage for Zhou Huaiyan, just to give his younger sister's children more help and protection.

"uncle,"

The boy hugged his neck and acted coquettishly, as if he had guessed his concerns.

"As long as you live well, stay healthy, and live happily, Huai Yan will surely live a peaceful and smooth life, rich and glorious!"

"Well, why are you clinging to me like a little girl? Aren't you ashamed?"

Duke Wei pretended to be fierce and chased him away. Zhou Huaiyan still refused to let go.

"Uncle, Huai Yan needs your help with something else."

"oh?"

"You said the other day that Ah Fei has an extraordinary physique. Why don't you just let him learn martial arts so that Huai Yan can have someone to protect him."

Duke Wei immediately knew what he was up to. He wanted to teach the foreign slave martial arts, but he didn't want him to be trained as a death warrior.

"You want to ask me for someone again?"

"No, no, my uncle's things belong to my uncle, Huai Yan is just borrowing them for use."

Duke Wei glanced at him.

"Who do you want?"

“Weihe!”

Zhou Huaiyan knew that the personal bodyguard beside his uncle was a well-hidden person. He had once followed Duke Wei to fight against foreign tribes in the snowy plains. He was a fierce general. But later he retired due to injury and had no family, so he became a bodyguard.

“You know how to choose.”

Duke Wei laughed and cursed, but still gave it.

"Thank you, Duke!"

The young man gave a crooked military salute and left with a smile. As soon as he walked out of the study, the smile on Zhou Huaiyan's face faded.

"Hongdou, go check if there is any medicine in uncle's kitchen and what kind of medicine it is."

The eldest maid was slightly surprised.

"yes."

Ah Fei followed the young man gloomily. He had just vaguely heard the Duke talking to his master about getting married.

But he has not yet drawn the cunt out of his master's body. If his master marries a wife, he can no longer sleep with his master.

I don't know which daughter the master will marry in the future. What if the future mistress can't tolerate him and throws him to the horse shop to sell him?

The more Ah Fei thought about it, the more scared she became.

He walked all the way back into the house, and it was not until Zhou Huaiyan's index finger poked him backward that the kitten came to his senses.

"What are you thinking about? Why are you so absorbed in it?"

"Owner......"

Ah Fei held her red forehead and looked up at him eagerly.

"Huh? Why aren't you talking?"

"Master...are you going to get married?"

Zhou Huaiyan poured himself a glass of wine. He was still thinking about the faint smell of medicine in his uncle's study.

"Getting married? Uncle is interested, but he hasn't decided yet. What's the matter?"

Ah Fei lowered her head, and her voice sounded a little muffled.

"So, what kind of wife does the master want?"

The boy didn't expect that Ah Fei asked the same question as his uncle. Zhou Huaiyan didn't know what kind of woman he liked. He was always alone in his previous life, and at most, he had a cat by his side.

A...blue-eyed, black, long-haired cat.

He was nostalgic, so he raised another Cuicui that looked just like him in this era. Later, Cuicui died, and he met Ah Fei.

Just like my uncle said, people always live longer than cats.

Zhou Huaiyan had experienced a long period of loneliness, so he especially cherished this life with family affection. As for marrying a wife, the identity of a prince involved too many things, which meant that his marriage was destined to be mixed with many other things.

Now there is a murder plot hidden in the capital. Zhou Huaiyan does not want the throne, but also wants to protect his uncle. It is already very difficult for him to have the energy to deal with a woman with unpredictable thoughts.

So he drank a glass and said half-jokingly,

"Well, this... naturally requires the ability to kill three times in and three times out of the chaotic battle."

He winked at the kitten.

"I am born with a weak body and cannot practice martial arts, so I naturally need to find a close bodyguard with superb martial arts skills."

[Kill three times in and three times out of the chaotic battle array...? ]

【Superb martial arts...】

The kitten stared at him blankly.

"The master's request... is truly different from others."

If it were just this, an unspeakable ambition would grow in Ah Fei's heart.

——He can too.

Although this body is humble, whether it is martial arts or poison, or even everything she has learned in hell, Ah Fei can do her best. Even Hongdou, who was born as a dead soldier, did not notice Zhou Huaiyan eavesdropping outside the house when he was talking to him that day.

But then, Ah Fei remembered the burned book.

"But Master, there has never been a daughter of an aristocratic family in the capital who is good at martial arts."

"Who said I want to marry the daughter of a noble family?"

Zhou Huaiyan laughed loudly, drank a pot of wine, and went to look for the forbidden dagger. It was made of the same meteorite as the Sky-breaking Halberd, and was something Jiang Xuan left behind.

He lazily leaned on the couch, touching a piece of sunken wood and carving something. Ah Fei was stunned. He went over and nestled at the boy's feet, whispering,

"But if you are not the daughter of an aristocratic family, how can you be worthy of the master's status?"

Zhou Huaiyan was carving something carefully on the wood.

"A Fei, remember, everyone in this world is born of parents, flesh and blood, with seven emotions and six desires. Even you and I are essentially the same."

At this point, the boy stopped and looked down at the shocked kitten.

"There is no distinction between noble and inferior bloodlines. That is all deception. The reason why I am a prince and you are a so-called slave is simply because my ancestors gained the right."

"Kings and generals have power, so they crown themselves as of noble blood. They classify others as slaves and lowly people. This is only for their own benefit, to ensure that their descendants can continue to exploit and oppress others."

"Do you know the founding emperor of the Great Zhou? Back then, he was just a so-called... a nobody."

Zhou Huaiyan touched the kitten's soft curly fur, and the scent of agarwood stained his cool fingertips.

"So, Ah Fei, don't feel inferior to yourself because of your bloodline. You are not dirtier or inferior to anyone else. If you want something, work hard to get it."

The kitten was stunned.

He had never…never heard such shocking words. Just a few sentences had caused his worldview, which he had held for more than a decade, to collapse instantly.

For the first time, someone said to him,

[We are no different. Your blood is not cheap.]

Even her mother, the only one who loved Ah Fei, never said such words. She would only let Ah Fei hide, hide, and endure again and again.

Only then... can we survive!

But the master told him——

【If you want something, work hard to get it...】

【Strive for...】

He recited in a daze.

But, if he wants...

Ah Fei raised her eyes, and saw the young man's beautiful and gentle face. His beautiful peach blossom eyes were slightly drunk, and they were full of charm.

——She is truly the most beautiful woman in the world.

Ah Fei heard her heart beating wildly.

"But would the master really... willingly spend his life with a person of low status?"

"Lowly...?"

The young man played with the beautiful dagger in his hand. The silver reflection passed across his face, and suddenly a thrilling charm emerged.

Ah Fei clearly heard his wanton laughter——

"If your Highness likes me, even if I am a slave, what's the harm?"

[Even if I am a slave, so what? ]

[Why not...]

At this moment, the shadow of Ah Fei suddenly dissipated and turned into countless broken lights, which finally gathered together.

——Transformed into the gentle eyebrows and eyes of a young man

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