Chapter 10
Xue Jin'an held the fourth prince tightly in his arms until he dragged him to the chosen abandoned palace before releasing his grip.
Almost immediately, a strong force pushed him away. In order to successfully stage an accident, Xue Jin'an turned off the anti-fall mode halfway and fell weakly to the ground.
"Xue Jin'an? How is it you?" The Fourth Prince recognized the person who had kidnapped him. He touched his face and ribs, which were still throbbing with pain, and looked like he had seen a ghost.
No, Xue Jin'an, who looked half-dead, actually had that much strength? He struggled the whole way but couldn't break free; he probably has marks all over his body.
The fourth prince was a little flustered and cowardly. He quietly took a step back and said in a fierce but weak voice, "Xue Jin'an, are you sick? Why are you picking a fight for no reason? I have things to do today and I can't be bothered to argue with you."
He tried to run away, but a cold "Fourth Brother" stopped him in his tracks.
Xue Jin'an slowly stood up from the ground and said calmly, "Fourth Brother, you pushed me and you want compensation. It would be better if you stayed for another fifteen minutes before leaving."
He had calculated that the slowest he could change the battery was 15 minutes, leaving him a lot of room to maneuver and so there was no need to rush.
"You...you have something to say, so put the knife down!" The fourth prince's legs were weak and he could barely move. He pointed at the knife that he didn't know he had somehow gotten into his hand, and felt his scalp tingle.
Seeing Xue Jin'an standing there motionless, the Fourth Prince assumed his words had worked and was overjoyed. His mind raced, and he stiffly forced a smile, trying to salvage the situation. "Seventh Prince, don't get agitated. Let's sit down and talk slowly. It was wrong of me to bully you; I should compensate you. I'll give you whatever you want—here, my purse, it's full of gold leaves, consider it my surrender gift. Is that enough? If not, I'll have Shunde go back and get more..."
In reality, Xue Jin'an did not take action immediately. Instead, to ensure the safety of the environment where the battery was being excavated, he turned on the highest level of cameras and scanned the area within sight.
He didn't even bring Xiao Luzi this time, just so he could successfully dig out the battery.
However, upon scanning, Xue Jin'an discovered something was amiss.
Xue Jin'an was certain that this place was abandoned. He even specifically checked the original novel, where the Fifth Prince had mentioned to Chu Wenjing when dealing with people: "I know of an abandoned palace near the Imperial Study. It was personally built by the late Emperor for Consort Hui, and later..."
The Fifth Prince paused, then mumbled, "After Consort Hui died, no one ever entered this palace again. Fortunately, later Father Emperor set up the Imperial Study here, so the empresses had to avoid suspicion. It was completely abandoned, and even passersby rarely came by. It was no different from the Cold Palace."
Afterwards, the Fifth Prince described in detail the specifications of the palace and what flowers, plants and trees were planted in the courtyard.
Xue Jin'an was still wavering between several options, but upon seeing such an obvious textual description, he immediately abandoned the other choices and opted for this place.
It's closest to the Imperial Study and has the clearest map—a complete victory!
However, upon arrival, they discovered that the sparse number of people did not mean the absence of people; this place was likely someone's secret base, with traces of frequent climbing even visible on the artificial hill.
As if on cue, Xue Jin'an heard footsteps approaching and frowned slightly. "Looks like we need to hurry."
Xue Jin'an walked towards his beloved battery, but the humanoid accessory store was so frightened that it took a big step back.
The Fourth Prince, who had been talking until his throat was dry, suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and his eyes welled up with tears. "No, no, no, don't move! If you have any complaints, discuss them with me. How do you know I disagree if you don't discuss it with me? I admit I have a bad temper, but I'm actually quite easy to talk to. Look, Shunde betrayed me right in front of me, but I didn't punish him at all—ah, don't move! Don't come any closer!"
Worried that his shouting would attract more people, Xue Jin'an stopped, thought for a moment, and gave a friendly smile. "Fourth Brother, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you. I just want to exchange batteries with you."
After thinking for a moment, he realized that people in ancient times probably wouldn't know what a battery was, so he explained, "It's like a heart."
That's it. Xue Jin'an felt that cutting my flesh wasn't enough for him, so he decided to chop me up, and even rip out my heart, liver, and bones.
The fourth prince panicked even more, his voice choked with emotion, "Seventh brother, killing... killing is against the law, you should lay down your butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot..."
The footsteps outside grew closer, and Xue Jin'an gave up trying to persuade him and decided to take direct action to claim compensation.
"Aaaaaaahh ...
Xue Jin'an hadn't expected his physical stats to suddenly improve so much. Human adrenaline was truly a wonderful thing; even machines needed it. Fortunately, he had rehearsed various contingencies beforehand, allowing him to easily pursue and intercept the Fourth Prince. He sensed the footsteps outside stop, and soon after, he heard the sound of someone climbing the wall.
Xue Jin'an decided to go all the way and forced the Fourth Prince towards that direction, leisurely continuing to approach while calculating the time.
Cornered and desperate, the fourth prince somehow learned to climb trees on his own and leaped up in a flash.
At the same time, the person outside also climbed onto the wall.
"Ahhhhh!" The frightened fourth prince kicked out, but luckily the newcomer was skilled and managed to regain his balance in time.
"Fourth Prince? It's you?" The familiar voice was like heavenly music. The Fourth Prince cried out with tears streaming down his face, overjoyed, "Fifth Brother! Fifth Brother, save me! Xue Jin'an has gone mad, he's trying to kill me!"
"What?" The Fifth Prince was taken aback.
No wonder the Fifth Prince was familiar with this palace; it turns out this was his secret base.
Xue Jin'an stood under the tree, looked up, and called out calmly and obediently, "Fifth Brother."
The fifth prince saw the knife in his hand. He remained silent for a long time, then turned around and tried to jump over the wall. "I've come at the wrong time. I'll leave now."
"Ahhh, Fifth Brother, don't leave me!" The Fourth Prince quickly grabbed the Fifth Prince's trouser leg and forcefully restrained him.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and the warm yellow light fell on Xue Jin'an's upturned face. He showed his happiness with his most standard smile: "No, Fifth Brother, you've come at just the right time."
He said it from the bottom of his heart.
The Fifth Prince's scalp tingled: "Do you believe me that I'm actually blind? Master Cen granted me leave to go to the Imperial Hospital, but I couldn't find my way and wandered into this place by mistake, but I didn't see anything?"
The Fourth Prince was shocked: "Fifth Brother, you can actually say so much in one breath?!" Usually, you only manage to utter one or two words at a time!
Fifth Prince: "...You're hopeless, just wait to die."
*
The fifth prince wasn't blind, but he skipped school.
The Imperial Study is acting strangely today, and Master Cen is acting even stranger.
The other person had been sitting there ever since he came in, flipping through a stack of yellow paper covered with writing, sometimes stroking his beard in admiration, and sometimes frowning and clicking his tongue.
When he got excited, he suddenly slapped his thigh, his face displaying a mix of emotions, like a face-changing act, leaving onlookers stunned.
"Master, what are you looking at? Let us see too!" The Second Prince couldn't contain his curiosity any longer. He gently kicked the ground to the side, and his study companion immediately spoke up first, showing his keen sense of observation.
In fact, everyone was very curious. The princes were too aloof to notice, but the attendants had no concern for their image and craned their necks to look.
But clearly, Master Cen didn't want to tell them, and casually brushed it off, saying, "It's nothing, just an assignment."
As he spoke, he turned the yellow paper upside down and stuffed it under the other papers, then stood up, ready to begin his lecture. "Today I will be teaching in your place. Let me first see how far your Master Jiang has progressed in his study of the Book of Rites..."
What Master Cen said was true. It was indeed an assignment from a few days ago. He didn't know when or how it had reappeared on his desk. Even the yellow paper was made from his talisman paper, which he used on the spot. Fortunately, the other party brought his own pen and ink and did not use his cinnabar—cinnabar is expensive to begin with, and its price has recently increased.
It was the Lower Yuan Festival, and monks and Taoist priests often held sermons and lectures in the city to promote their doctrines. Master Cen, who was a Taoist priest, naturally did not miss it. He stayed in the capital for several days and only managed to leave the city and return to his Taoist temple last night before the curfew.
So when he got up this morning to practice drawing talismans, he discovered this assignment.
Master Cen suspected that someone had entered his room, and his disciple bluntly said, "Our Taoist temple is not well-known in these mountains, and Master, you are unwilling to give money to the government. We haven't had any pilgrims for half a year."
"I think it might be a warning from the patriarch, wanting you, Master, to make more money and also to learn from the Wanfu Temple next door and sculpt a golden statue or something."
Master Cen immediately kicked his disciple out and turned to look at the unsigned article.
What first caught his attention was the meticulous, upright, and even rigid handwriting.
It is said that one can judge a person by their handwriting. Master Cen was a Taoist priest with a free and easy personality, and his handwriting was just as unrestrained as he was. Especially when he wrote cursive script, the beginning and end of the characters were connected like a painting, carrying a transcendent artistic conception.
Logically speaking, someone like him should dislike rigid characters the most, but when these characters are rigid to the extreme, they form a kind of realm in themselves—the beauty of regularity.
Even if Master Cen didn't like it, he had to admit that it was very pleasing to the eye. What was even more pleasing was the content of the article. The structure was clear and neat. Although the opening was conventional, the analysis of the original sentence was very accurate. Although the words and sentences occasionally jumped around and seemed nonsensical, the viewpoints were refreshing and the writing was very brilliant.
The entire article is truly contradictory, as if it were written by a Confucian scholar with only a basic understanding of literature. But which Confucian scholar wasn't a learned man? How could he have only a basic understanding of literature?
If Xue Jin'an knew what he was thinking, he would shrug and say: There's nothing we can do. They're coders, they don't have writing skills, so they can only fill in the content with database stuff. It's good enough if it looks okay at first glance.
Master Cen was so engrossed in the article that he was only reminded by his disciple that he had to teach a class that day. He hurriedly took the half-read article and went to the palace.
The reason he kept it hidden from others was simply because the article was too outspoken, and some of the content was simply not suitable for public display.
Master Cen told the truth, but no one believed him. On the surface, they opened their textbooks and listened attentively to the lesson, but in reality, their eyes were fixed on the desk where the "homework" was placed. They were secretly plotting under the Master's nose, choosing a gullible person to take the yellow paper over and take a look.
Ultimately, unsurprisingly, the role of the scapegoat fell to the Eighth Prince, even though his position was not suitable for this task.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
