Bai Shan finally revealed the mystery, lowering his voice, "The reason His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was scolding both you and himself was because he realized the truth."
Prince Gong instinctively asked, "Realized what?"
"Realized that the mistakes of the past weren’t your fault, Your Highness. The Crown Prince feels he also has so responsibility, so you see, even the Crown Prince has recognized his misunderstanding and mistake towards you. How could the misunderstanding between you brothers not be resolved?"
Prince Gong furrowed his brows, unwilling to believe Bai Shan’s words, but both he and Zhou Man said that the Eldest’s words were not just scolding him but also himself.
And indeed, the Eldest’s anger earlier today was quite peculiar...
Prince Gong felt a sense of wavering within, uncertain whether to believe them or trust himself.
Seeing his hesitant expression, Bai Shan pressed on, "If Your Highness doesn’t believe it, why not observe closely for the next two days? I swear, the Crown Prince won’t take advantage of your poor health to bully you; rather, he will care for you. This is enough to show the brotherly affection of the Crown Prince towards you."
Prince Gong was almost nauseated just listening, let alone believing it.
But inside, a voice told him that perhaps what Bai Shan said was true.
Still hesitating, Prince Gong decided to wait and see how the Crown Prince would behave over the next few days.
Only then did Bai Shan glance at Manbao, signaling silently to her, and the two left together.
"If you want to change the topic, what if the Crown Prince doesn’t cooperate?"
Bai Shan replied, "If we can take this opportunity to repair the relationship between the Crown Prince and Prince Gong, I believe His Majesty will be lenient. As for the Crown Prince, since he’s willing to give Prince Gong good dicinal wine, he will surely be willing to give other things too. Go and find Princess Mingda, ask her to help."
Manbao instantly understood, whispering, "You want to keep both sides in the dark?"
Bai Shan smiled, stroking her hair as he said, "What else can we do? We can’t let you go back and get punished, can we? Emotions are mutual, and over ti, they naturally deepen. Moreover, they are brothers of the sa bloodline; nothing is impossible."
Manbao pondered deeply. She didn’t really want Bai Shan to get involved in this matter. After all, with the royal family brothers, true feelings co quickly and fade just as fast.
In the future, if their brothers fall out again, Bai Shan, who acted as the diator, would end up in a difficult position.
The rule for ministers regarding Imperial Family entanglents is to avoid getting involved if possible.
If it weren’t for her, he would certainly have watched as an outsider; why would he intervene?
Manbao lowered her head, tapping her toes, saying nothing.
Bai Shan seed to understand her dilemma. He looked around, and seeing no one nearby, he gently took her hand, solemnly saying, "We are betrothed, and a couple is one body. If you suffer, so do I. No matter what the future holds, let’s first overco the imdiate hardship, and we’ll have plenty of ti to deal with future difficulties later."
"Besides," Bai Shan slightly raised his chin with confidence, "if their brothers turn against each other again in the future, who says I’ll just be a powerless bystander?"
Manbao looked at him, her heart pounding, and after a mont, she blushed and nodded, decisively agreeing with a "Yes!"
It wasn’t difficult to ask Princess Mingda for help. Even without considering her relationship with Manbao, she was very willing to assist in nding the relationship between the Crown Prince and Prince Gong.
Thus, before Prince Gong went to bed that night, an attendant brought a bowl of cubilose porridge, saying, "Your Highness, this was prepared by order of the Crown Prince, who said since you’re injured, you shouldn’t let yourself go hungry, but you also shouldn’t have anything greasy, so they made cubilose porridge for you."
Prince Gong looked incredulously at the bowl in the attendant’s hand, unwilling to accept it, "Did the Crown Prince really say that? Is there poison in this porridge?"
The attendant seed startled, dropping to his knees with a whimper, trembling as he replied, "N-no, that’s what Eunuch Wu said. The Crown Prince ordered it, saying, saying..."
Prince Gong angrily demanded, "Saying what?"
"Saying not to let the Third go hungry, or else, if he gets ill and His Majesty asks, it would be my fault again. Then Eunuch Wu ordered soone to cook the cubilose porridge."
Prince Gong thought the words sounded like sothing the Crown Prince would say, and he finally relaxed enough to take the cubilose porridge and drink it. However, he still felt quite resentful, grumbling coldly, "It was his fault to begin with; if he hadn’t struck , would I be like this now?"
He wanted to speak more harshly, but recalling Bai Shan’s words, he swallowed them back down. It wasn’t worth accumulating further resentnt with the Eldest over this sort of thing; if he really beca emperor one day and sought revenge...
But although resentful, Prince Gong saw reason—not wanting to continue in a direction that wouldn’t bode well for himself, or for his wife and children.
So Prince Gong forcibly suppressed his frustration, waving the attendant away.
After exiting the room, the attendant lowered his head as he reported to those waiting in the side hall, repeating exactly what was said between Prince Gong and him.
Mingda waved her hand, dismissing him with a reminder, "Take good care of Prince Gong."
"Yes," the attendant bowed and withdrew.
Once he was gone, Changyu jumped up, astonished, looking at Bai Erlang, "You, you managed to write sothing almost identical?"
Bai Erlang wanted to say he hadn’t written it all by himself—that after Bai Shan and Manbao had reasoned it out, he’d simply organized the words.
But glimpsing Bai Shan slightly shaking his head, Bai Erlang chose not to divulge the truth, instead vaguely saying, "I can write a story; I can reason, at least a little."
Mingda gave him several looks, then asked, "In your opinion, will our Third Brother accept the Crown Prince next?"
Under everyone’s gaze, Bai Erlang couldn’t exchange looks with Bai Shan or Manbao, so he thought for himself, saying, "Not the first ti, no. But a second and third goodwill gesture? Once enough tis pass, the resentnt in Prince Gong’s heart will dissipate, naturally."
Just like him—after being bullied, with Bai Shan giving him so good food and Manbao providing a couple of good books, no matter how angry he might initially be, it would fade over ti.
Bai Erlang scratched his head, "But the Crown Prince doesn’t seem like the type to yield easily. This ti was fine—a suggestion from the Princess led to the porridge being made, credit attributed to the Crown Prince, but what about afterward?"
Bai Shan said, "We are still here; we don’t need to do much, just ntion things slightly in front of Prince Gong. Being too deliberate wouldn’t be good either."
Princess Mingda and Princess Changyu started to feel bewildered, not quite understanding the subtlety.
Bai Shan seed to know their concern, and with a glint in his eye, he smiled, "Tomorrow, the princesses can observe and learn a bit."
Mingda looked at Bai Shan, then at Manbao and Bai Erlang, before slowly nodding, "Then I’ll trouble you all."
Bai Shan smiled, "This ti it was also a stroke of luck; if Prince Gong hadn’t been injured, it wouldn’t have been possible to repair the relationship between the two Highnesses. This difficulty turned into an opportunity."
User Comments
0 comments from readers