ITVCFITB CHAPTER 77

Chapter 77 – A Hard-to-Believe Message

Fresh off reliving how Li Mingjin really hurt his leg, Luo Shuyu bit his lip.

He stepped into the study, narrowed his eyes at Mingjin, and called, “Your Highness.”

Just that look told Mingjin he’d been found out again. His reply came wary. “...Yes?” He hastily searched his conscience for recent crimes.

Shuyu set both palms on the desk. “Let’s try being honest people?”

Hand to heart, Mingjin swore, “Before you, I am absolutely honest and transparent.”

Shuyu pointed at his feet. “I hear your injury on our wedding trip wasn’t from ‘evading pursuers.’”

“...” Mingjin silently cursed An San, that little traitor. “At the time it was… hard to explain. The misunderstanding already existed, so I… let it stand.”

“Now you’re honest,” Shuyu said dryly.

Mingjin scratched the back of his head. “Since I’ve been found out… if I don’t confess, you’ll be mad.”

Shuyu dipped a brush into ink. “So I shouldn’t be mad now?”

“What can I do to make it up to you? I was wrong. I shouldn’t have kept it from you.”

Truth be told, Shuyu did understand why Mingjin hadn’t come clean. Back then they’d just married and trust was tender. But thinking about it now still irked him.

“Come closer, Your Highness,” he beckoned.

Mingjin obeyed. “Close your eyes,” Shuyu ordered.

Mingjin complied. A few swift strokes later. 

“You… drew on my face, didn’t you?” he said flatly.

Shuyu burst out laughing. “You look awful. Hahaha!”

Mingjin cracked an eye, snatched the brush, and lunged for Shuyu’s cheek. But Shuyu darted away.

“Don’t run, let me draw one line!”

“In your dreams.”

“I’m going to catch you!”

“You dare?”

“I do!”

“Then you’re sleeping on the chaise tonight.”

“I’ll still draw.”

“No! Too ugly, I refuse to match you.”

There are no overnight grudges between husbands. In the end both had to wash their faces. Serves them right.

---

Before they knew it, the Spring She festival arrived. Farmers prayed for good rain and harvest; Mingjin and Shuyu ladled a few ceremonial drops themselves.

Gucheng was no longer merely self-sustaining; its granaries were flush. Mingjin had turned the place fertile and rich.

They returned to the very spot on the wall where they’d once stood together. The battlements had long been reinforced; as far as the eye could see, Gucheng looked exactly as they’d imagined.

The city had also grown severalfold. Over the past three years, stability drew waves of people, tens of thousands more than at the beginning. Refugees from the north came seeking life; even small Ghost-Yan tribes pledged service to Mingjin.

Policies differed by origin and tribe. Mingjin was no longer the inexperienced administrator from three years ago. He still made small mistakes, but on big matters, he was clear-headed, quick to correct, and eager to learn. Toward the Ghost-Yan subtribes, he rolled out tailored measures, but the empire’s own citizens always received priority.

There were bumps, but Gucheng’s development held steady.

In the capital, too, wheels turned. The Crown Prince and the Yan clan were fully fused now, waiting for Emperor Tiansheng to breathe his last so they could enthrone their man.

Only, Tiansheng was spry of late. Though anger still burned in his chest, he’d learned how to leach it away after years of fencing with the Yans. And these days he seemed reborn: he and Consort Mei spent their hours happily experimenting in kitchen gardens; his body strengthened; his meals grew cleaner. The prince and the Yan clan found no chance to poison him.

The empress and emperor were estranged; she couldn’t get close.

What the Yan clan hadn’t counted on was a second line guarding the emperor from within the palace: the ever-serene Consort Wei.

Emperor Tiansheng often played chess with Old General Wei, and the two had become candid. The emperor confided that recalling the general to court wasn’t to strip his military power but to go with the current, end well and end clean, instead of fretting daily over unfilial sons.

Wei understood immediately and cooperated. Quietly, the guards around the emperor were replaced by men loyal to him and to the general. One glance could tell the difference between soldiers who had seen battle and those who’d only polished floors.

Of course, Wei didn’t swallow the emperor’s words whole. Three years back in the capital before His Majesty said this? “Fear of death” prettied up as “imperial-minister affection.” It sounded nice, but Wei’s hackles stayed up. The emperor calculated too much. Take him at face value and all those moves and countermoves were for nothing and his son’s years in the harem, meaningless.

Everyone had a plan.

The Fourth Prince’s covert investigation into the Gucheng provisions case wasn’t smooth, but with quiet boosts from Shen Mingyun and Chen Rong, he still gathered a decent haul.

The Yan clan wasn’t seamless. Some relatives reaped fame and fortune; others got sucked into the struggle without money or power, with messy households where courtyards brimmed with concubines and fires were easy to spark. From chaos came useful leaks.

The Fourth was a consummate networker, drinking with this faction today, a brothel with that one tomorrow. He even ran his own establishment, sending peerless, clever beauties into Yan households to seed turbulence.

Piece by piece, the evidence piled up. Truth began surfacing.

Still, it wasn’t yet enough to nail the Yans to the board. He needed a final, fatal proof.

What to do?

Since giving birth, Shen Mingyun had mostly stayed in the Fourth’s residence. The child, of course, was beloved. The emperor often summoned them just to dote on his grandson. Apparently, grandbabies worked wonders.

Using the child to pacify Tiansheng was a sound tactic, feeding straight into His Majesty’s yearning for family.

The Fourth rode that goodwill into real benefits.

But parenthood sparked fights. The Fourth felt that since Shen was both princess consort and father, he should shoulder care; Shen, in turn, wanted the Fourth to be home more and not come back every night stinking of wine. More than once, he banished the Fourth to the study.

The Fourth really would sleep there then crawl back the next day to make peace. The pattern repeated. Shen took it as his due. The Fourth grew weary. Shen only received in love, never gave; his rules multiplied, don’t do this, don’t do that. Their affection looked steady from the outside, but hairline cracks were spidering.

Another burr: Shen’s foul mouth. Crude, even vulgar. He wouldn’t read. The Fourth sometimes wanted to discuss the ancients; Shen stared blankly… then scoffed.

The Fourth regretted it, many times, wanting to cut ties. For the great work, he endured. He simply stayed out more, sometimes not returning at all.

At last Shen noticed the coolness and panicked.

Modern tricks die hard. To win him back, Shen staged a grand surprise on the Fourth’s birthday and wrapped himself up like a gift.

The Fourth softened again. Surface calm returned, but the crack remained.

Even with the marriage patched, Shen’s itch to go out didn’t subside.

The child was growing and didn’t need eyes on him every moment; there were nurses and playmates aplenty. As the emperor’s first true grandson, no one dared cross Shen.

Basking in flattery, Shen swelled.

Spring revived the capital, and word of a public ritual reached him. While the baby napped, he changed clothes and slipped out with his guards.

He just wanted a stroll, snacks, a ceremony, back home to mind the baby. Nothing grand.

He bought a paper sack of melon seeds and watched the rite, spitting shells like a pro.

Halfway through, a system that hadn’t pinged in ages chimed.

【Mission: Rescue the man lying on the ritual platform. Reward: 300 points.】

Three hundred!

He hadn’t seen a reward that high in ages. He had to do it.

He’d run plenty of tasks from home lately, small stuff, bland and forgettable. This at least looked spicy.

Sure enough, a half-naked man was bound on the platform. The system didn’t say why he had to be saved. Shen believed it meant him well, and acted at once.

He had elites with him, bodyguards the Fourth insisted upon ever since the kidnapping scare. Shen might crave fun, but he was afraid of death.

A bit cunning, he ordered his men to shout “Pickpocket!” The crowd churned. In the confusion, his guards snatched the man off the platform.

Drugged and limp, the fellow didn’t stir.

They whisked him to a shabby inn. The man was… well-built. Bare chest, smooth, even musculature, exactly the physique Shen envied and, as a pampered “young master,” couldn’t craft.

He was still ogling when the man woke.

Eyes opened to find a pretty “young lord” staring. Instinct kicked: the man’s hand shot out and clamped Shen’s throat.

Shen nearly blacked out before his guards pried them apart. He wheezed for a long moment, then being the vengeful sort kicked the man in the chest. “I saved you and you repay me like this?!”

The man collapsed back onto the bed, hacking.

After a testy back-and-forth, the air eased.

Not a local, then his accent wasn’t from Great Xia, and certainly not the capital.

“Where are you from?” Shen asked.

“I…” he faltered.

“Be honest. I rescued you; I’m not here to harm you.”

Clutching his kicked-in ribs, the man’s eyes worked fast. He softened his face. “I’m from Ghost-Yan. My name is Hachi. I’m a trader. I came to the capital to do business. On the road, I was tricked and sold. Bandits grabbed me for a sacrificial offering. If not for my benefactor, I’d be at the bottom of a river.”

“A mere peddler?” Shen thought the system never threw him nobodies. This one was surely more than he seemed. “Ghost-Yan is up north. What do you even sell, sheep?”

“You don’t know, young lord,” Hachi said. “Our grasslands also yield ore. I meant to trade in jade.”

“Oh?” Shen’s mind ticked. The Fourth needed a proper, public path to kingship. With jade… that could work. The system had been useful. “Ore means big profits.”

The capital’s nobles adored gemstones. With the right designs, scarcity, and a bit of hunger marketing, raise the price, who wouldn’t buy?

Better verify the man’s identity first.

For once, Shen made the cautious call: he left guards to watch Hachi and returned to the Fourth’s manor.

He walked in to a crying baby. The Fourth had come home early to dine with Shen, only to find him gone; their son howled. By the time Shen slipped back in, the Fourth was pacing with the child.

He let the roaming slide with one eye closed. “Where did you run off to? Our son’s nearly cried himself hoarse.”

“I came back, didn’t I? Just went out for snacks, don’t be so grim. Oh by the way, I saved someone today.”

The Fourth stiffened. “Again? A man?”

Completely unfazed, Shen said, “Yes, a man.”

The Fourth handed the child to a nurse and didn’t hand Shen anything. “You’ll rescue anyone.”

“This one’s useful,” Shen said, shooing the servants away and lowering his voice. “He claims he’s Ghost-Yan, a jade trader. I’ve got a way to make money.”

“Go on,” said the Fourth, interest pricked.

Shen whispered his plan. When it came to marketing gimmicks, he had an arsenal; any decent one could become a “classic campaign.”

“A diamond is forever…” well, jade could be, too.

Great Xia already adored jade. If he introduced new styles, curated scarcity, stirred hype, and jacked the price, there’d be buyers.

The Fourth was intrigued and agreed to meet the man.

The next day, they visited Hachi.

A few exchanges told the Fourth the truth: this was no simple merchant. Only Shen would swallow the story whole.

Even so, cooperation might serve.

The Fourth began to probe for Hachi’s real identity.

---

Far away in Gucheng, Li Mingjin and Luo Shuyu received a report:

A Ghost-Yan prince had slipped into the capital disguised among merchants.

Shuyu’s first reaction: “Shadow Shen Mingyun.”

Those princes had a habit of orbiting Shen. Track Shen’s movements, catch the prince.

Mingjin agreed at once and dispatched a fast courier to the capital. Catching that prince would be another blow against Ghost-Yan.

That night, lying side by side, still warm from a round under the covers, they talked about the prince and Shen.

“How are you so certain this prince will seek out your cousin?” Mingjin asked.

“Some people have gravity,” Shuyu said. “They pull in the strange ones. And this prince is nothing if not strange.”

“He’s the cruelest of them,” Mingjin said. “I’ve heard the fates of his captives, skinned, if not dead.”

“Then he must be taken,” Shuyu said. “And kept far from Shen.”

In the book, a Ghost-Yan prince had indeed fallen for Shen at first sight. If not for the Fourth’s vigilance, Hachi would have hauled Shen off to the grasslands as a concubine. Because of that entanglement, Ghost-Yan had refrained from invading while the Fourth fought for the throne.

This time the prince arrived late. Who knew how things would shift?

Half a month later, news came that neither of them could believe.

Shen Mingyun eloped with Hachi.

---

Author’s Note:
Third Prince: Wife, forget realism, let’s do future interstellar campus!
Luo Shuyu: Whatever makes you happy.
Third Prince: I’m a powerful ALPHA. You’re a fragile OMEGA, madly in love with me. I don’t like you. You plan to seduce me during your first heat—
Luo Shuyu: On the day of the “heat,” the hospital calls. Turns out I have gland cancer. I get surgery and have the gland removed.
Third Prince: …

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