The Princess's Smile (10)
After a while, Miss Jenny called out from outside the door, "28 minutes are up."
Jian Tanxi took a sleeping pill from Qu Chen and then went out.
She said to Miss Jenny, "Miss Jenny, as the referee, shouldn't you refrain from intervening if it's safe to do so?"
Miss Jenny said, "Yes, that's basic referee etiquette. I won't intervene unless you seriously endanger the King, the Princess, or anyone else."
"OK."
Jian Tanxi walked up to the king and said, "Your Majesty, the reason I summoned the eldest prince is because I have discovered a secret. The eldest prince is actually a woman."
The king exclaimed in surprise, "What did you say?"
The king was so shocked that his mouth was slightly agape.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jian Tanxi flicked the sleeping pill into his mouth.
The king immediately fell into a deep sleep.
Miss Jenny rushed over anxiously, only to find that the king had indeed only taken a sleeping pill and had no other effects, so she left again.
The princess was both shocked and furious: "Jian Tanxi, why did you do this?"
Jian Tanxi apologized: "I'm sorry, Princess, there is a play that can only be performed when the King is asleep."
"You wouldn't be plotting against my father, would you?"
"I'm just a player, this is your territory. If I do anything wrong, you can definitely stop me."
The princess thought it made sense, so she continued, "You said my eldest brother is a woman? Why?"
"I'll discuss this with the princess later. Just make sure she doesn't speak for the next five minutes."
"It's that simple?"
"That's right."
Not long after, the eldest prince rushed in and asked, "What did Father call me here for?"
At that moment, he saw the king lying on the ground and wanted to go forward to check on him.
Jian Tanxi stopped him and said, "Your Highness, please wait a moment. The King suddenly fell ill and passed away. He left a message saying that you would inherit the throne."
The eldest prince's eyes flickered: "Is it true?"
Jian Tanxi said with certainty, "Yes."
She kept her eyes on the eldest prince, waiting for him to smile.
Surely such a joyous occasion as obtaining the throne deserves a smile?
However, the eldest prince, being quite shrewd, didn't even manage a smile. Instead, he looked grief-stricken and said, "I'll take care of my father's funeral first."
As he spoke, he was about to walk to the king's side.
Jian Tanxi quickly said, "Your Highness, the King is actually just in a coma; he hasn't passed away. Of course, he didn't say he would give you the throne. Please don't be angry; I just lied to you to make you laugh."
The eldest prince frowned: "What do you mean? You are merely a guest of our kingdom, yet you dare to fabricate rumors of the king's death? Do you believe I will punish you?"
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get through this, I didn't mean anything by it. But now, I can't get through it, and I'm going to get beaten up by Miss Jenny anyway, so I hope you can calm down."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
At this moment, Miss Jenny said to Jian Tanxi, "Jian Tanxi, I really admire you. You realized that the eldest prince was a woman, so you thought of fabricating false information to make him smile. As long as he smiled, you would have completed the 'princess's smile' mission. Because the eldest prince is actually the eldest princess. Unfortunately, the eldest prince is not one to smile easily. Even if she knew she would inherit the throne, she wouldn't show any joy. Your wishful thinking has failed."
Although you failed this time, your strategy and quick thinking were astonishing.
Upon hearing Miss Jenny reveal his biggest secret, the eldest prince panicked and said, "Miss Jenny, what are you saying? Don't talk nonsense!"
Miss Jenny said to the eldest prince, "Your Highness, don't be nervous. There's no one else here, and I'm sure the players won't reveal your true identity. They're just players; they just need to complete their missions. Our kingdom's affairs have nothing to do with them."
"When the king wakes up, I'll help you cover up the lie. After all, you don't know, my mother was your wet nurse; she knew you were a woman and told me."
The eldest prince was pale: "You...so you knew all along...then you really won't tell my father?"
“Jian Tanxi just told him, but he clearly doesn’t believe her. As long as I tell the king later that this was all a lie made up by Jian Tanxi to give him a sleeping pill, the king will believe it.”
"All right."
The eldest prince, or rather the eldest princess, calmed down a bit.
The second princess asked her, "Big brother... are you really the older sister, not the older brother?"
The eldest princess nodded.
Why do you dress up as a boy?
"Because when my mother first married into the family, she discovered that my father had some mistresses. In order to secure her position, after I was born, she lied and said that I was a boy, so that I would be the eldest prince. My mother and wet nurse always dressed me up as a boy, and no one knew my true identity except them, including you."
The second princess hugged her tightly: "So you're my older sister... No wonder you didn't let me hug you before, you were afraid I'd discover your identity..."
Eldest Princess: "Yes."
When the sisters recognized each other, the second princess shed tears again.
Unfortunately, neither of the princesses smiled.
Miss Jenny asked Jian Tanxi, "Jian Tanxi, how did you find out that the eldest princess is a girl?"
Jian Tanxi said, "When I met the eldest princess, I felt that she looked a bit feminine. Later, I heard the guests talking about how the eldest prince never got close to anyone. Whether it was bathing, training, sleeping, or eating, he didn't like anyone to be too close to him, not even the second princess."
At that time, I felt that the eldest prince was a bit strange, but I hadn't thought about his gender yet.
Another detail is that when Qu Chen got close to the eldest prince, he suddenly started crying.
Qu Chen has a special ability: lie detection. He can detect if someone is lying.
However, the eldest prince did not speak to Qu Chen, so why was Qu Chen crying?
Aside from his inexplicable crying and tantrums, one possibility is that he sensed the eldest prince's pretense in certain matters.
Based on these clues, I'm starting to suspect that the eldest prince is a woman.
Later, I asked Queen Mary a question about her soul.
I asked her if her only concern in this world was her daughter.
She answered me, yes.
But this answer is unreasonable. She should have said that her only concern is her children, not just her daughter.
The only reasonable explanation is that her two surviving children are both daughters.
So I came up with the idea of making the eldest princess laugh, because making the second princess laugh was too difficult.
I think that the eldest princess has been studying, training, and protecting the country all these years, and she must have a strong desire to inherit the throne.
She would surely laugh if she knew she was about to ascend to the throne.
I never expected that after all my efforts, the eldest princess wouldn't even smile; all my hard work would have been for nothing.
The eldest princess said, "I do want to inherit the throne, but I don't like to laugh. Besides, if my father really dies, it wouldn't look right for me to just start laughing."
Jian Tanxi sighed.
Miss Jenny said to Jian Tanxi, "Although I admire you, according to the rules, since the princess didn't laugh, I still have to punish you."
So, Miss Jenny beat up all the players again.
Everyone was seriously injured, and everyone took a healing pill.
Now, there are only 2 healing pills left.
In ten minutes, they will go out again to make the princess laugh.
Even the usually strong Meng Yuening was at a loss, muttering, "We've tried everything, even caught the ghost of the late Empress, but it didn't work... Even using a scheme to expose the eldest princess's identity didn't work... What should we do? Is this a hurdle we can't overcome?"
Jian Tanxi comforted her, saying, "Don't be discouraged, we still have two more chances. We're healthy now, and even if we fail the next time, the worst that can happen is we get seriously injured. There's always the next time."
"Next time...sigh..."
In fact, Jian Tanxi herself wasn't confident either.
What happens after that? Are they all dead?
At this moment, Xu Yunhong said, "Why is it so cold..."
Hearing her say that, the others also felt cold, so Professor Pan turned off the air conditioner in the room.
But it's still cold even with the air conditioner off.
Xu Yunhong asked, "Could we turn on the air conditioner?"
Huo Zimu said, "You're running the air conditioner in the sweltering heat? Do you want to take a brain-boosting pill?"
Xu Yunhong murmured, "But it's really cold..."
At that moment, Meng Yuening pointed out the window: "Look outside! It's snowing!"
Everyone looked outside in disbelief, and there it was—a heavy snowfall! No wonder it was so cold.
Heavy snow in August? Unheard of...
Just then, the Queen rushed into the hall with the young prince and asked, "Where is the King?"
Miss Jenny went up to the Queen and said, "Your Majesty, there are still players playing the game, so we cannot see the King at the moment."
The Queen said, "I have something urgent to attend to."
She was taken aback when she saw the eldest prince (eldest princess) there, and then greeted the eldest princess.
The Queen was very proper in terms of outward etiquette.
However, the eldest princess ignored her.
The queen didn't care.
She saw the king lying on the ground and asked in a panic, "What happened? What's wrong with the king?"
Miss Jenny said, "His Majesty the King accidentally took a sleeping pill and will not wake up for several hours."
The queen quickly gave the king a sobering pill, and the king woke up immediately after taking it.
He asked with some confusion, "Why has the Queen come..."
The Queen said somewhat nervously, "Your Majesty, look outside..."
The king, seeing the heavy snowfall, panicked and exclaimed, "It's snowing... How could this be..."
The Queen, somewhat anxious, said, "Your Majesty, do you remember what that witch said?"
"I remember……"
Only after the king finished speaking did he realize that the eldest princess was also there. He recalled that before he fell into a coma, Jian Tanxi had said that the eldest prince was actually a woman.
The king was a little suspicious and wanted to verify, but he had more important matters to attend to, so he didn't have time to ask about the gender of the eldest prince (or princess).
The king held the little prince tightly in his arms and said, "No one may take the little prince away..."
The queen said, "But the witch's power is immense; we are no match for her..."
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