The Villain Runs Wild

Ch 71 - Ruthless Crown Prince x Foolish Prince: He Can Do It Too


Zhou Yunfang won the polo match in one fell swoop, and his performance could even have been described as brilliant, and his aunt, Prince Lan’s Lateral Concubine, smiled brightly.

Prince Lan’s Lateral Concubine had been affected by the cold in her early years and found it hard to conceive, and her relationship with her younger sister had been very close, so she was very fond of her sister’s child. After her sister fell ill and died, she raised her nephew as her own son, and brought him to the capital so he could study and have a better future.

Now that Zhou Yunfang had come out on top before all these nobles, she was more than happy.

“This child is not bad, let’s choose him to be this One’s study companion.”

The light-as-a-feather voice came from one of the seats in the pavilion, and Prince Lan’s family, who sat on a neighbouring pavilion, froze in the spot as if struck by lightning.

When Prince Lan’s Lateral Concubine was clearly able to make out who the voice came from, she went from joy to sorrow, and she almost wept.

“P-Prince… Fang’er is young and impetuous, his talents are dull, how could he be His Highness the Crown Prince’s study companion…?”

The beautiful woman trembled as she spoke, her eyes full of pleas.

The Crown Prince’s study companion! Who didn’t know that the Crown Prince was a living target right now? It was no secret that His Majesty was already clearly dissatisfied with him, it was just that he hadn’t found an excuse to depose him yet.

Even if the Governor of State Affairs’ power was deeply-rooted in court, who could tell what the future would hold?

Moreover, the Crown Prince had an unreasonable temper and was not an enlightened master, Prince Lan’s Lateral Concubine feared her nephew would accidentally bump into the Crown Prince while entering the palace, which would inevitably end in a beating or a scolding, maybe he would even lose his life!

Prince Lan stroked his beard and let out a sigh, looking anxious as he spoke: “This Prince will go talk to the Crown Prince.”

He’d long since walked away from the heart of politics, but if his nephew became the Crown Prince’s study companion, they would inevitably have a relationship with the Crown Prince’s faction, and who knew what the Emperor’s attitude would be then?

What Prince Lan said was pretty much of the same opinion. Zhou Yunfang was young, he had no outstanding skills or talents, moreover, his temper was frank and outspoken, and had vaguely conveyed that he didn’t want to be pulled into the power struggle.

Faced with his uncle Prince Lan’s arguments, Lin Sui listened calmly, waiting until he finished speaking and nodding as though he were thinking deeply.

“I understand Second Uncle’s thoughts, but Second Uncle has watched me grow up and knows what kind of temper I have. I usually won’t change my mind after deciding on something, and I’ve taken a liking to him, so I don’t care what kind of person he is.”

Prince Lan’s beard trembled, and he understood that this meant he wouldn’t be able to change his mind.

Most of those in positions of power were like this, they heard others’ words and said they understood, but didn’t actually plan on changing their decisions and really didn’t care if they had to force others, they only wanted to see their desired results.

King Qing looked on happily, but he was also a little curious on the inside, just what about Zhou Yunfang had caught the Crown Prince’s eye? Prince Lan had long since been an idle prince, so it didn’t seem necessary for the Crown Prince to rope him in.

Everyone had their own thoughts as they walked towards the outside of the riding field.

Zhou Yunfang found out he’d been personally appointed by the Crown Prince as his study companion, and hadn’t come back to his senses as he followed next to his aunt.

He had a carefree and seemingly brutally frank character, but had become a person who was meticulous when he needed to under his uncle and aunt’s guidance.

He didn’t have too much of an idea of what the power struggle between the imperial factions was like, he was just surprised about his sudden rise into the sky, and was a little flustered by his uncle and aunt’s worries, so he looked towards the Crown Prince with curiosity.

The Crown Prince was just over sixteen years old, and stood out from amongst the crowd with both his appearance and bearing, one could see he wasn’t ordinary with a single glance.

Within this curiosity, he suddenly sensed a trace of danger.

This was a martial artist’s intuition, the eyes on him were like those of a ravenous wolf stalking him from deep within a mountain, making his whole body feel uncomfortable.

Zhou Yunfang immediately looked towards the sight he sensed, but the feeling quickly disappeared.

“Aunt, who is that by His Highness the Crown Prince’s side?”

“That is the Fifth Highness.”

Zhou Yunfang made an “oh” sound, maybe he’d been wrong, everyone in the capital had heard about the Fifth Prince’s stupidity, and that kind of gaze could not have come from him at all.

Zhou Yunfang scratched his head, and didn’t think about it again.

Lin Sui was in a rather good mood after getting the talent he’d been waiting for, and could also faintly sense the unconcealed resentment from a certain puppy beside him, but he didn’t intend on coaxing him.

Provoking him a bit was not necessarily a good thing, but maybe something unexpected would happen.

This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.

After the start of winter, the weather got increasingly cold.

In the Imperial Flower Garden, the winter hat plants[1] were blooming, their red clusters looking particularly gorgeous in the grey, misty winter days.

“The Fifth Prince is sick?”

Lin Sui was reading documents, and the tip of his brush stopped as he heard this.

In total, Yan Qin hadn’t come to the Eastern Palace for three or four days already, Lin Sui had thought he had his own things to do, so he hadn’t expected that he’d actually fallen ill.

Fu Shu spoke: “That is what Bao Su said, she already asked Imperial Physician Zhang to go take a look at him, he said he’d been affected by wind-chill and prescribed a few suitable doses of medicine, but there didn’t seem to be an improvement.”

Lin Sui finished writing his remarks with red ink, then spoke indifferently with his eyes fixed on the characters: “Go take a look, if the illness is truly serious, find a doctor to go see him.”

Fu Shu accepted the order and left. Lin Sui placed his brush down, not in the mood to keep reading any more, and thought about the plot the System had given him, but couldn’t find any clues.

Speaking of, the System had been quiet for very long.

Lin Sui had initially thought that the System was really stupid, but later found that the System also had intelligence. The System clearly understood it couldn’t hold him back, and could only use the threat of punishment against him.

But the System also knew that he was naturally rebellious, and that he wouldn’t change what he wanted to do because of being punished, sometimes he would even deliberately provoke it due to being in a bad mood from said punishment, so the System practically didn’t use this method any more.

It completely dropped its frontal attack, he didn’t know if it was still holding back some evil tricks or if it thought that it could still complete its mission like this, so he didn’t investigate.

About quarter of an hour later, Fu Shu returned.

“When this servant went to see, the Zhongyu Palace maids said that Bao Su had gone to request to see the Emperor. The Fifth Prince has been getting weaker these past few days and startles awake every night, saying he sees Noble Consort Shu in his dreams, and during the day he calls out Noble Consort Shu’s name in a daze, scaring all the people of the Zhongyu Palace. Bao Su went to request that His Majesty allow the Fifth Prince to return to Noble Consort Shu’s family home so that he could recuperate in Lord[2] Pei’s residence.”

When Lin Sui heard this, he understood. Yan Qin was pretending to be sick, he wanted to get out of the palace.

In the palace, Yan Qin couldn’t free himself from his disguise in one day, and he was like a bird with broken wings and bound feet, so it was difficult for him to reach his full potential.

“No need to worry, then.”

Fu Shu nodded, and left the study.

Lin Sui spread out a piece of paper, and casually traced a few lines on it.

He may as well go out to see the outside world, he could only grow the more he saw.

Lin Sui’s sight fell on the paper, and he finished sketching the lines. To an outsider, this would seem like some strange lines in some unknown shape, but if someone in the know were to carefully examine it, they would find that it was a map of the Yan Province.

The Yan Province had a particular geographical location, a large river ran through it, so every time it was flooded, it brought about disaster.

There would be a spring flood next year, and unprecedented heavy rains would make the flood season even more violent. The flood would burst a dike, and break through to countless homes and farmlands, causing disastrous losses in the region.

Innumerable victims would rush into the surrounding provinces, but the disaster wouldn’t be the most awful thing, the terrible thing would be the disease and plague that came after the catastrophe.

This flood could have been prevented originally, but because of the Emperor’s mediocrity and the fighting between every faction, the people below would play tricks to deceive others.

The Zhang Province had Xue Dingchun to bring about light, but the voices of good officials in the Yan Province were weak, and it was difficult for them to shake up the entire system.

There were mines in the Yan Province, and the region was more complex than the Zhang Province. It had bandits and despots deeply rooted with one another, and officials were either powerless so they simply turned a blind eye, or they exhausted all of their power but were only able to do extremely small things. Most drifted with the waves and followed the crowd blindly, mixing up with the black water and becoming part of it.

In the original story, Yan Qin thought of an extremely effective way to treat the victims and stop the plague, but he didn’t appear in person, instead he imparted all this to two of his retainers, which let them enter into the heart of power and allowed him to obtain more power.

Lin Sui tossed the paper into the brazier and watched as it was swallowed up by the flames.

He wasn’t planning on acting according to Yan Qin’s methods, seeing as he was a prophet, there was no need for him to try to remedy things after the disaster.

But even if he moved fast, there was no way for him to ascend the throne and settle all the obstacles before next year’s spring flood, however, he had other ways.

His ways were very simple, very crude, and very villainous.

It would be fine as long as all those obstacles were dead.

A radiant light flickered past Lin Sui’s eyes, and the corners of his mouth hooked into a smile.

That smile carried viciousness and a bloody scent, if Yan Qin were here, he’d surely think that his previous assessment had been right.

Lin Sui was bound to be a tyrant when he ascended the throne.

This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.

Bao Su requested a meeting, and quickly got an answer.

As Lin Sui had expected, the Emperor agreed.

No one in the palace had any objections to stop him, after all, everyone thought he was an unthreatening existence.

Sometimes, one just had to bank on others underestimating their enemy, and Yan Qin quickly left the palace.

When he was leaving the palace, Yan Qin lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and turned back to look at the solemn and majestic palace doors.

He had to learn more things and had to make quick progress, there were truly too many eyes and ears inside the palace, and there were truly too few opportunities for him to reach his potential.

Even though he felt a little reluctant to leave his big brother the Crown Prince’s side, he would still return.

His big brother the Crown Prince had taken a liking to that Zhou Yunfang, wasn’t it just because he saw he could ride a horse and do martial arts? He could do it too.

But his big brother the Crown Prince also had study companions by his side, not just study companions, but also all kinds of subordinates.

There were too many people in his big brother the Crown Prince’s eyes, he simply wouldn’t be remembered.

So what if they were blood-related brothers?

Yan Qin put down the curtain, his eyes turning cold.

Yeah, so what if they were brothers.

This is a fan translation posted to title-in-progress.dreamwidth.org. Support the author if you can.

A timely snow foretold of a prosperous year, and in the blink of an eye it would be another year.

Nothing major happened at the beginning of spring so, apart for the fixed holidays, it was the Crown Prince’s birthday which was quite lively.

The Crown Prince’s birthday was on February seventh, and the Crown Prince would be seventeen years old after today.

Lin Sui woke up on the day of his birthday and found a snow falcon outside of his room.

There was a bamboo tube tied to the snow falcon’s legs, and there was a slip of paper inside the bamboo tube.

——A congratulations gift for the Crown Prince’s birthday.

The characters were flowing and elegant, with a bit of sharpness, but it hadn’t been signed, so they didn’t know who sent the gift.

Fu Shu said: “When this servant woke up early in the morning, it was inside the courtyard.”

“Let’s keep it, this One quite likes it.”

The falcon’s body was white as snow, its beak was curved and its eyes were sharp, and when it spread its wings it was both fierce and beautiful, it was quite delightful.

Lin Sui could generally guess who it had been. He waved his hand, and the falcon landed on his shoulder with human-like understanding.

The snow falcon had been excellently trained, the strength of its claws had been well-controlled when it landed, which showed that the person who trained it had put a lot of thought into it.

Lin Sui stroked its head, thinking about that pitiful little puppy that used to sleep curled up by his legs.
 

◆◇◆◇The author has something to say: [The story is set in ancient times, don’t support the illegal rearing of wild animals in the modern day!]

Little theatre, Pei Mansion

Lord Pei: What books does the Fifth Highness want me to find? Essays on current affairs, comprehensive histories, or rare lost books?
Yan Qin: Folk remedies for growing taller.
Lord Pei: ???
Fam, does that make sense?
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

[1] I had never heard of this flower before but its chinese name is “冬紅 winter red” and its common english name is the chinese or mandarin hat plant. 

Pic.

 ⤴

[2] Yan Qin’s grandfather is being addressed as “裴大人 Pei Daren” with ‘daren’ being a respectful form of address towards nobles or superiors, which doesn’t really have a direct translation in english (it literally means smth like ‘great person’). ⤴