Proofread by ZiarayZ
Like this translation? Support Daed by buying a coffee !
A late summer night, a rare refreshing time, a slight breeze swept away the blazing heat of the day.
Qin Nuo sat on the winding corridor by the Xi Yue Lake. Lazily reclining against the railing, he was nodding off to sleep.
Suddenly, there"s the sound of light footsteps approaching, bringing a sweet floral fragrance. A graceful, touching mutter traveled to his ears: "Your Highness, how can you fall asleep here again? Near the end of summer, the autumn winds gradually rise. The nights are already quite cold."
Accompanying the quiet, soft words, a white hand slightly raised, a thin layer of silk cloth spreading open as it landed on Qiu Nuo"s abdomen. At the same time, the hand mischievously moved in a caress.
"It would be bad if Your Highness felt feverish again, let this lowly servant take a look."
The slender white hand nimbly wandered around, trying to wake up a certain NSFW thing.
Occasionally there are palace workers pa.s.sing by this corridor and look at them from afar. With romantic surroundings and a beauty in his embrace, it"s a very charming scene.
Qin Nuo slightly moved his body.
Thinking that he had a reaction, the beauty is secretly delighted. She immediately stuck closer to him with more unbridled pa.s.sion, hating that she could not hang onto Qin Nuo"s figure.
The palace workers who pa.s.sed by lowered their heads one by one, yet couldn"t resist peeking towards this side. This Ninth Highness is too much! To go this far in broad daylight …Nowadays His Majesty is still ill, if he heard this kind of news and…..
Just as the beauty is getting close, she didn"t expect that Qiu Nuo seemed to be completely unaware that there is another person on top of him. He stretched out, turning his body over at the same time.
With a gasp from the beauty hanging onto his figure, "PTONG!" She fell into the scenic Xi Yue Lake.
A shriek rang through the air, "Ah! Save me! Someone, wuu….Save….me!!"
At this moment, the Qiu Nuo in the corridor seemed to arouse from slumber. Opening his eyes, he looked around him. "Ai, what"s that sound?"
Several palace workers who had been pa.s.sing by ran towards this side, everyone lending a hand to pull the beauty who had fallen into the water out of the lake.
The lake is extremely deep, and quite cold. Even in the end of summer, falling into the water at night is not an enjoyable experience. As for one"s image? Don"t even mention it. The thin silk palace clothing is already soaking wet, clinging to her body. The meticulously done hairstyle has been undone by the water, messily scattered across her face.
The Qin Nuo across from her just woke up from his dreams to see this sight. He immediately screamed, "Ahhhh! It"s a ghost!"
A few young palace workers couldn"t resist laughing. They all say that the Ninth Highness isn"t very sharp. As expected, the rumors aren"t wrong! Putting aside his act of pushing away the beauty who had thrown herself into his embrace, he also made a big deal out of nothing.
The "female ghost" reached a hand out to pull down the dark green aquatic gra.s.s on her head. She wanted to speak, but instead sneezed in succession.
"Ai yah, it"s Lu He! How did you fall into the water?" A familiar voice evoked his memory, Qin Nuo scrutinized her for a good while before recognizing that it"s his personal servant.
"Your Highness……This lowly servant saw that Your Highness fell asleep here. Thinking that the night breeze is too cold, I"d wanted to help cover Your Highness with something. Yet…" The beauty Lu He is both embarra.s.sed and angry, and full of grievance in her heart. When she finished speaking, she couldn"t resist covering her face.
Putting aside the failure of her seduction attempt, to be seen by this many people…She"s afraid that it won"t be long until it spreads through the whole palace. She really does not have the face to meet people!
"Then it must have been that I was half-conscious in my sleep." Qin Nuo scratched his hair sheepishly. "You should quickly go drink a bowl of ginger soup. It would be bad if you catch a cold."
Lu He let out a cry of distress, holding her face as she turned and ran away.
Qin Nuo blinked in confusion, then turned to smile at the couple of people who had helped pull Lu He up: "Thanks for your help earlier."
The couple palace workers currently kneeling on the ground in ceremony are overwhelmed by favor from the superior: "How could we dare to accept Your Highness" grat.i.tude?"
Another person said: "Lu He that girl doesn"t know any etiquette. Your Highness bestowed upon her ginger soup, but she didn"t even express grat.i.tude. She just ran away."
"She"s all soaked, it"s hard not to be impatient." Qin Nuo smiled indulgently, turning to walk down the long corridor.
This Ninth Highness, doesn"t seem to have realized that Lu He that unsatisfied girl had wanted to seduce him ah! The couple of palace workers thought. With great tacit understanding among them, none of them mentioned it.
Once he was gone, the couple of palace workers stood up. A young, small eunuch among them couldn"t resist saying, "No wonder they all say that the Ninth Highness has a good temperament."
Another followed up with: "It"s a shame that he"s not that bright……."
"Stop right there! Is it even your place to say these kinds of things?" The oldest eunuch among them hurriedly interrupted his comrades" conversation. "Anyways, I heard that ever since the last time Ninth Highness fell severely ill, he"s already gotten much better."
The little eunuch also realized his mistake, changing the subject, "That Lu He, that appearance earlier is really…"
"Heh heh, the clothes was so thin it was like there was nothing. That pair in front of the chest…"
The couple of eunuchs giggled, the last part said in a very low voice.
The Qiu Nuo who had walked on ahead heaved a silent sigh. Even if the palace rules are very strict, it can"t stop the gossiping nature of these people ah! That"s right as well. To be trapped all day in the deep palace, with nothing else to ease one"s boredom, if he himself had transmigrated into a low-ranking palace worker, he might be a member of this group of gossipers as well.
Anyway, he"s taken care of a troublesome matter today. With Lu He as an example, he"s sure that others should now think twice before coming at him!
Don"t blame him for destroying that flower in such a way, it"s truly that Lu He is too much. He himself as a tender gra.s.s is just thirteen years old, but she can"t wait to weed him. Even if she"s one of the big palace girls a.s.signed to help him understand the birds and the bees, he can"t stand it!
Not to mention, the him several months ago had been a bona fide girl. If he"s expected to do it with the Xiao Jie Jie, he still hasn"t prepared himself mentally yet!
That"s right, Qin Nuo is a transmigrator.
To think at the time, after great effort and difficulty, she had tested into a decent university. After she graduated, she entered a company with a bright future. Qin Nuo had been happily fantasizing about becoming promoted, becoming the general manager, taking up the post of CEO, and taking a tall, handsome, rich man as wife er, marrying a tall, handsome, rich man. However, a sudden diagnosis sheet brought the grim reaper"s grievous news.
A fatal disease that current medicine is not able to cure! Her parents had long died in a car accident. A couple of relatives pooled together a couple thousands of money, considered to have fulfilled the last bit of their duty. A month later, she died alone in the hospital room.
She originally thought that people died like the extinguishment of a lamp, her consciousness dim. Yet she found herself opening her eyes again in this lonely, foreign Great Zhou dynasty.
She"s already arrived in this world for half a year now. She, or rather, he has gradually gotten used to these idle days.
He"s become the unfavored Ninth Prince Qin Nuo. That"s right, the name is the same as the one he had in the past life, although it"s unknown if there is any connection.
The plan to marry a tall, handsome rich man has become a mirage. But it doesn"t seem so bad to be a tall, handsome rich man himself! Especially when he"s already won at the starting line, when he opened his eyes to see the expensive heavenly decorations of royals.
Although he"s turned into a man, Qin Nuo"s personality has always been calm and composed. If you can"t do anything to prevent it, then you might as well sit back and enjoy it. After a few days to adjust from the little awkwardness towards the psychological and physiological aspects that he had, he was able to quickly adapt to his new body and circ.u.mstances.
Living the easy life with everything provided of a prince, although Qin Nuo did not have the original host"s memory, but based on her keen observation skills, she soon had a detailed understanding of the surrounding environment and her own circ.u.mstances.
The Ninth Prince Qin No is exactly thirteen years old this year. His birth mother Chen-fei was born in a Jiangnan scholarly family. She had a top-cla.s.s appearance, more delicate than flowers, and a good voice on top of that. As soon as she entered the palace, she became the emperor"s favorite concubine. It wasn"t long until she got pregnant. It"s hard to say that she is fortunate or that she is unfortunate, this first pregnancy is unexpectedly a pair of fraternal twins. In the ancient health care level, childbirth is like pa.s.sing through the ghost door. Not to mention it"s giving birth to two at once, and it"s the first pregnancy. Thus, after Chen-fei fought to give birth to a pair of twins, she unfortunately died of blood loss. She had been only 18 when she died.
Beautiful women suffer unfortunate deaths. The emperor really grieved for a while, but every one of the beautiful 3,000 women in the palace harem are each understanding flowers. The "sentimental" emperor soon put Chen-fei behind him, causing Qin Nuo this ninth prince to also become a n.o.body.
But in this royal harem, being a n.o.body is the norm.
The current emperor of the Great Zhou, Emperor Jing Yaodi, has no special strengths in political and state affairs. The only kind of affair that he has refined eyes and excellent taste in is the women in his harem. The members of the palace harem are not only top-cla.s.s beauties, each of them have unique skills. There are some who have soft physiques, proficient in bringing out the essence of dance; there are some who have suave songs, their voices shaking the skies; there are some whose poetry are so exquisite, it can be said to be unforgettable; there are some whose calligraphy and painting are so sophisticated, it is world-famous. If one was to talk about the quality of the palace harem, it"s definitely the highest or second-highest among the Great Zhou Dynasty emperors.
This also brings another consequence. That is, there are many princes. Not counting the ones who died as infants, there is sixteen who could be arranged in order. Of course, there are even more princesses; there are twenty.
As soon as there is an excess of princes, this honorific t.i.tle becomes less valuable. So except for the Di born princes and those born from the concubines who are currently favored, the large majority of princes are n.o.bodies.
No matter what, he had been lucky to have transmigrated into a prince. He does not have to worry about food or drink, nor does he need to live a hard life.
Although the history knowledge that he"d learnt in school is basically useless here since it"s not a certain dynasty in known history, but as a prince he 1) doesn"t plan on getting involved in the x political battle for the throne and 2) does not want to engage in social change to liberate the production forces and liberate the people. Instead, he just wants to live a leisurely and carefree life. That shouldn"t be a problem at all, right?
Xi Yue Lake is not far from the Tai Wei Palace Hall that he lives in. Walk down the corridor, follow the little stone pathway and turn at the bend, and it"s the Main Palace Hall.
As he entered the grand entrance, he collided head-on with an elegant, graceful youth followed by two young eunuchs who had just left from the corridor and are walking in this direction. Qin Nuo is all smiles as he called out, "Tenth Younger Brother."
Qin Zhe had originally wanted to turn his head and act like he hadn"t seen him, but Qin Nuo had already greeted him. Therefore he could only reluctantly greet, "Ninth Brother."
No matter what, it"s always a pleasing sight to see a beautiful youth—even if the beautiful youth"s face is as black as a pot"s bottom.
To speak of the grievances between Qin Nuo and Qin Zhe, it has to be recounted from the previous generation. Chen-fei"s life before her death had been a one-person show, the other beauties who entered the palace became the supporting roles that set off the main lead. This included the Tenth Prince"s birth mother Ge Xian-fei. The Ge family is a very historic and influential family clan. Her father is a major government official, the a.s.sistant minister in the Ministry of War. She had the most prominent family background among the harem girls who entered the palace at the same time. Such a girl from a scholarly family entered the palace, yet she was ranked lower than the Chen-fei whose family background is a minor government official. Naturally, she could not accept this from the bottom of her heart. The two women also got pregnant around the same time. The Tenth Prince is only three days younger than Qin Nuo. And at that time, the emperor was still immersed in the pain over the death of his beloved concubine. As a result, when the Tenth Prince was born, he didn"t even go and take one look. Ge Xian-fei"s resentment towards Chen-fei grew deeper. Under her influence, Qin Ze is also full of hostility towards this brother who is older than him by three days.
Qin Nuo is not naturally foolish. When he was four, the two children got into an argument. Qin Ze pushed Qin Nuo into the stone steps. Qin Nuo fell on his head, then he became dim-witted and stupid. Although Qin Ze caused an accident, it wasn"t very good to beat a prince to death. So they only, under the crime of "not watching over the royal children properly", beat the two children"s more than a dozen servants to death and fined Ge Xian-fei a year"s worth of allowance before considering the matter settled. However, like this, the grudge on both ends was formed.
In the inner palace of Great Zhou, princes who reached five years old, have to move away from their birth mother"s side to reside in the North Palace. As if that wasn"t bad enough, because of their close age, Qin Nuo and Qin Ze were again arranged to live in a palace together.
Tai Wei Palace does not have a lot of room. Qin Nuo is older, so he occupied the East Wing. The East Wing has beautiful scenery, it is warm in winter and cool in summer. And Qin Ze extremely grievously moved into the West Wing. From then on, their chaotic lives began.
A child without a mother has no background. And even if he did have a background, Chen-fei is not enough to reach the amount of influence and authority that the current Ge Xian-fei wields as a.s.sistant manager of the back palace and palace harem. So, these couple of years Qin Nuo has suffered a lot. Yet on the surface, Ge Xian-fei will definitely not expose any flaws that can be caught and used against her. Not to mention that Qin Nuo is a dim-witted one. Even if he experienced any difficulties, he had no way to express it.
And as the two grew older, Qin Ze is intelligent and good at learning, standing out as a person of extreme talent even among the numerous princes. On the other hand, Qin Nuo conducts himself clumsily, his homework a total mess. Don"t even mention any imperial affection or praise. So in the two boys" relationship, Qin Nuo is in a disadvantageous position.
Observing Qin Nuo"s carefree and leisurely appearance, Qin Ze sneered, blurting out the question, “I just saw Lu He cut a sorry figure as she hurried back. Could it be that she offended Ninth Brother?”
Ai, this good tenth younger brother of his. He does have the methods and strategies, but he"s still too young and immature. Or rather, because the other is a foolish person, he"s too lazy to waste too much on his schemes.
“We did indeed have a dispute. Tonight Lu He came to find me, saying that she fell in love with Tenth Younger Brother, you, at first sight. And she wanted to be transferred to your side. I couldn"t resist scolding her a few words, not expecting her to cry that if I didn"t let her come to–Tenth Younger Brother–your side, she would jump into the water….” Qin Ruo docilely confessed.
Qin Ze"s complexion changed, “Ninth Brother is joking with me, right?”
"Of course…." Qin Nuo rushed up, his arm wrapping around Qin Ze"s neck in one move. “I"m joking with you.”
Qin Ze long saw through his plans, yet not able to dodge quickly enough, got caught head-on into a headlock. As he felt that iron vise-like strength, his complexion began to turn very red.
"Let me go!" This hateful dimwit can"t do his homework, but his strength is surprisingly strong.
"What"s wrong with us brothers being a little close?" Qin Nuo tightened his hold, sweeping a glance over the couple of servants behind Qin Ze. After confirming that these people didn"t dare to approach, he lowered his voice and spoke by Qin Ze"s ears.
"Although…I hear the people around me say that Lu He really likes you, otherwise why would she be running over to your place all day?"
Qin Ze"s gaze tightened, his expression quickly recovering, "I don"t understand what Ninth Brother is saying. It"s just a servant, who would pay attention to these details?"
Qin Nuo "heh heh"ed, laughing twice.
Before he could open his mouth, Qin Ze reminded him, "Ninth Brother, you better go back to get ready. Don"t forget that tonight we still have to attend upon our ill Father Emperor."
Like awakening from a dream, Qin Nuo loosened his hold on Qin Ze. He said, “Ai yah! We"d better go back and eat then. Attending our Father Emperor in his sickness will take the whole night, you know? Tenth Younger Brother, you better not forget to eat more ah!”
Afterwards, he turned to walk towards the East Palace Hall, leaving Qin Ze behind him. Qin Ze gave a cold snort, swinging his sleeve as he left.
Middle-school syndrome teenagers are just this troublesome!
Qin Nuo sighed. He knew that the reason why Lu He would be so eager to climb the bed must have been because she had done so under someone"s direction. Otherwise, why would she choose to publicly act in a hallway where people are pa.s.sing? Does she still want any face?
Lu He is a palace girl who was a.s.signed to Qin Nuo"s side last month. According to the court rules of the Great Zhou, the princes are each a.s.signed a slightly older beautiful palace girl after they are thirteen years old. These palace girls are to act as a teaching mama, er, jiejie who knows about human interrelations. This is to prevent the majority of princes from producing any bad incidents because they are young and ignorant. After all, in regards to love, desire, this kind of thing, blocking is not as good as dredging. Before the royal wedding, these palace girls will be taken back, and arranged to other posts, lest they by virtue of favor, cause stress and annoyance for the future w.a.n.gfei.
Which is to say, Lu He is imperially ordered to climb the bed!
But a few days after Lu He was dispatched, the news came that the emperor was ill.
So this matter of arranging the accompaniment is delayed for an unknown period. Since the Da Zhou is a place that pays particular attention to etiquette, there"s really no way to explain yourself if your old man is severely ill but you"re pulling a palace girl for wanton pleasures in broad daylight.
And Qin Ze is also aiming for this point, thus the order for Lu He to seduce him in public under broad daylight. Whether anything happens or not, as long as such rumors come out, his impression in the hearts of the public will drop a lot further.
To be honest, there is really no need. He himself had already fallen far behind, yet the other (QZ) acts like his heart wouldn"t be content unless he tramples on him (QN) a couple of times. What kind of mentality is this!