ITVCFITB CHAPTER 83

Chapter 83 — The Crown Prince Is Deposed

Luo Shuyu hadn’t walked off on a whim.

First, he knew that besides his shadow guards, Li Mingjin always had another team quietly tailing him and reporting back. Second, the men in the bookstore had clearly prepared in advance. Even if An-Ten forced a way out, they’d both be injured and might still end up cornered. Better to go along than set the whole city boiling.

Blindfolded in the carriage, he mapped their route by sway and turn. They hadn’t left the city; they were heading south.

The south, Gucheng’s prosperous quarter, where the Third Prince’s residence also stood. The kind of place where the most dangerous is the safest. Bold and… not stupid.

Whoever they were, he wanted their aim.

The carriage stopped. Hands, polite ones, helped him down. “Please,” they kept saying.

A newly built compound, one of many since Gucheng’s population boom. The wealthy had flocked here; houses rose quickly; even old shells were refurbished and lively again. The stories about Li Mingjin and Luo Shuyu had drifted into local legend, and quite a few “moved nearby” just to be closer to that aura. Whoever brought him here likely belonged to that set.

He was shown into the main hall. A servant offered top-grade summer tea, fragrant and tempting. Shuyu set it aside untouched.

A figure drifted in, a young man too pretty for his own good, dressed in this season’s most fashionable summer wear, hair oiled with the freshest scent, hairpin from that famous local shop. Everything on him felt familiar.

Because Luo Shuyu owned the same things.

The youth bowed with impeccable grace. “Zhou Ping greets the Third Prince Consort. You are as calm as I imagined.”

“I don’t know you,” Shuyu said evenly.

“You wouldn’t,” Zhou Ping smiled. “But I’ve known of you for quite a while.”

Zhou. The name clicked. “You’re from Zhou.”

The last time had been a faux “young master” from Zhou. Today, another.

“You’re quick,” Zhou Ping said, eyes alight. “Then you can guess who my elder brother is.”

“Princess Jiayang,” Shuyu replied. “Your brother Zhou Jia.”

“Mm. The ‘princess’ was my royal father’s solution for a proxy marriage.” Zhou’s fan flicked once. “I’m curious how you talked him into letting you go. I heard you were already in his hands.”

“He had no retreat,” Shuyu said. “Letting me go was his only path to live.”

“And yet you caught him in the end,” Zhou said.

“He attacked the Crown Prince. Whether commoner or foreign prince, commit violence in Great Xia, pay the price. Does Zhou gongzi disagree?”

“No contradiction,” he conceded lightly. “But he is my brother. I want him back and I think you can help.”

“I’m in Gucheng,” Shuyu said with a faint smile. “Your brother was taken in the capital. You know the distance. How do you suppose I help?”

“Not my concern,” Zhou Ping sang. “You and the Third Prince are famously devoted; with you in my hands, he’ll find a way. Besides, I have a piece of news even your emperor doesn’t know. If he hears it, how will he treat your prince?”

“What news?”

Zhou poured himself tea. “Our Zhou has long traded jade with Ghost-Yan. But for nearly a year, the supply stopped. I suspect you know why.”

“And why,” Shuyu asked mildly, “ask a mere ‘back-courtyard manager’ of matters between your Zhou and Ghost-Yan?”

“Don’t be modest. I’ve stayed in Gucheng, asked around. This city is unlike any in Great Xia, and you… if you are ‘just the inner court,’ then no one is.”

“Oh?” Shuyu glanced over the outfit again, each piece a deliberate echo of himself. “Thank you.”

“I admire you,” Zhou said. “If you were in our country, we’d be fast friends.”

“I recall your Princess Jiayang said Zhou is very tolerant of gers,” Shuyu answered. “I admire that custom.”

Admire what’s worth borrowing; refuse what’s rotten, that was all.

Catching his own drift, Zhou let the smile sharpen. “The Hachi family’s jade mine is now in your Third Prince’s hand, isn’t it?”

Shuyu did not blink. “If you wish to discuss clothes, perhaps. Foreign trade routes between your Zhou and Ghost-Yan? I truly wouldn’t know.”

“No matter,” Zhou said. “I’ve already sent a letter to the Third Prince. With you here, he’ll answer. I can wait. I only hope you’ll bear with us as a ‘guest’ a few days.”

Shuyu simply met his eyes. Zhou’s men were bold. They’d forgotten whose city this was.

Within minutes of Shuyu’s disappearance, a tail had been fixed to the suspicious carriage. By the time he and Zhou exchanged a handful of lines, soldiers had ringed the compound so tight even a mosquito would bounce.

Zhou’s bodyguard rushed in with a pale report. Shuyu needed no more. Mingjin is here.

Zhou tried for serenity. “No wonder you beat Ghost-Yan into retreat. Swift.”

“Let me go,” Shuyu said, “and he won’t make this ugly.”

“Not necessarily,” Zhou countered and then, almost cheerfully, “One more thing. I envy you. I admire you and I admire the Third Prince. He’s exactly the man I dreamed of marrying.”

Shuyu blinked. The first time anyone had said that to his face. He couldn’t decide whether to laugh or sigh. A challenge? From a Zhou?

Zhou waved men to watch Shuyu and strode for the gate, excitement bright on his face, only to stop short before Lin Haiming’s cold blade.

“You’re not Li Mingjin,” Zhou said blankly. “Where is he?”

Lin Haiming did not waste breath. “Take him.”

Zhou: “…”

---

Though Shuyu was unharmed, a kidnapping was a kidnapping. Li Mingjin had no intention of letting the mastermind off.

On the way back, Shuyu laid out Zhou Ping’s identity and purpose.

“It isn’t about Zhou Jia,” Mingjin said once they were home. “He wants the jade.”

“Those spies in the city are his?” Shuyu asked.

“Not necessarily. Zhou Ping is too loud for careful work.” Mingjin’s jaw tightened. “There’s someone else behind the agents.”

“So we still haven’t found the hand,” Shuyu murmured.

“Not yet. Take more men when you go out.”

Shuyu smiled. “Don’t worry. This was a fluke. The city’s still safe.”

“It isn’t,” Mingjin said. “Enemies have slipped in.”

“We can’t stop living because of spies,” Shuyu said, gentle but firm.

“Then we’ll redo the city’s defenses,” Mingjin conceded.

Shuyu’s thoughts slid back to Zhou’s threat. “Do you think he’ll tell Father about the mine?”

“He has no proof,” Mingjin said. “And do you think Father would trust an unverified rumor over the son he considers guileless?”

Guileless. Shuyu almost laughed. Which royal wasn’t shrewd? Still, in the emperor’s eyes, the Third Prince and his consort did look… simpler. With Meifei’s recent gambit, “taking the blow” for him, the emperor’s trust had only grown.

Even if suspicion stirred, what then? No evidence. And the mine was Ghost-Yan’s, not Great Xia’s. Hardly grounds to censure Mingjin.

Zhou Ping’s stunt was a reminder: nothing stayed secret where profit flowed. They’d grown a touch too comfortable in Gucheng. Time to live alert again.

News came quickly: Zhou Ping had been secured and placed next door to Hachi, the Ghost-Yan prince. No explanations owed to anyone. Both had slipped into Great Xia; better to keep them on ice than let them go cause storms abroad.

Hachi had adapted to captivity. Zhou Ping, on learning the neighbor was the Hachi, gaped. This pudgy man was a Ghost-Yan prince? So much for rumors of a handsome, rugged conqueror. Never trust hearsay.

Catching one Zhou didn’t end the spy problem. Work in Gucheng continued.

---

With Zhou’s Second Prince at his side, the Fourth Prince cut through Yan clan holdings like a hot knife. In half a month he took his first city; the emperor sent reinforcements; bards sang “bandit-slayer” up and down the roads. Under three months, all occupied cities were back; the Yan clan’s plan collapsed. Yan Chancellor was hauled to the capital for judgment.

In the twentieth year of Tiansheng, tenth month, the Fourth Prince and Shen Mingyun returned in triumph.

A month later, the axe fell:

The Crown Prince was deposed.

Charges: extravagance beyond the emperor’s means; factionalism; collusion with the chancellor’s house; a plot to poison the emperor. Not a voice in court rose to defend him. All poured their fury onto the Yans.

By the twelfth month, the deposed Crown Prince “hanged himself” in the imperial retreat.

After that, Empress and Grand Empress Dowager prayed dutifully and chanted scriptures.

In Gucheng, Luo Shuyu and Li Mingjin sighed. They knew the truth. The Crown Prince hadn’t chosen a rope, he was a stain the emperor meant to scrub out. With the Yan clan fallen, the prince could not be allowed to live.

A private letter from Meifei carried more: the emperor spared the Empress not from mercy, but design. When he died, he would take her with him. As for the Grand Empress Dowager, complicit and unlikely to see many more springs.

While Great Xia tore and mended, Ghost-Yan’s own turmoil wound down. The First Prince nearly had the kingdom in hand.

On New Year’s Eve, after nearly a year in custody, Hachi was sent back to Ghost-Yan.

And in Gucheng, Luo Shuyu and Li Mingjin sat together in the study, ink fresh, writing couplets for the door.

How many more quiet nights like this would they get?

---

Author’s Note
Third Prince: Baby~ today you’re a rookie cop locked up by a mafia prince, me. You fell for me and blew your cover. I torment you, body and soul. This time you won’t escape.
Luo Shuyu: I climb out the window, fall from the eighth floor, and end up fully paralyzed. You live with the guilt forever.
Third Prince: …

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