Chapter 43
Once again, the Emperor summoned King Jing to the palace. The imperial edict clearly stated that the King Jing was to bring the fish along.
Li Yu didn’t know the arrangements of the Third Prince and King Jing. Because it was the first time the fish had received an imperial edict, he felt a little smug.
He cooperated and jumped onto the crystal vase to let King Jing put it in. King Jing’s face was a little gloomy, but not because of the fish, because King Jing very gently stroked the fish’s head.
Li Yu remembered that the same hand held the fish in his arms and taught it to write, so he felt embarrassed and hid away. After a while, the fish’s temper flared up and it wanted to be rubbed again.
He could see that King Jing was in a bad mood. Although he didn’t know the reason, he hoped that King Jing would be in a better mood.
The small fish that took the initiative to ask for rubbed finally made King Jing smile. After rubbing the fish, King Jing took the fish and entered the palace according to the imperial edict.
Outside the Palace of Heavenly Purity, Eunuch Luo personally welcomed him. When he entered the palace, he saw the Emperor sitting on the Dragon Throne and several people dressed as officials. Strangely, the Third Prince and the Sixth Prince were also there.
Li Yu couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Last time when the palace was on fire, the Third Prince and the Sixth Prince specially came to the palace to visit the Emperor. Why did they come this time?
The Third Prince was a little reckless and the Sixth Prince was very scheming. Together, they couldn’t be underestimated.
Moreover, when King Jing entered the main hall with the fish, the two princes’ gazes were directed at him, making the fish a little nervous.
Li Yu also looked at the two princes from time to time.
When the Emperor saw that King Jing had arrived, he smiled and said, “Tianchi, you came at the right time. Your fish has grown golden scales, so I asked the Imperial Mirror to calculate it.”
So that’s why. Li Yu nodded to himself. The Emperor summoned him because of the auspicious omen.
Whether or not his fish was an auspicious sign, it would be difficult to convince the masses with just the Emperor’s mouth. After all, the Emperor had found an auspicious sign for himself. It would not be appropriate if word got out. However, if it was divined by the Imperial Mirror, then it was the real deal.
Just as the Emperor finished speaking, a long-faced official stepped out of the ranks and hung a large bag of books that Li Yu didn’t understand. Finally, he said, “Congratulations, Your Majesty. Congratulations, Your Majesty. A fish with golden scales is indeed a rare auspicious omen. This humble official has observed the celestial phenomena recently. The Crape Myrtle Star is dazzling and slowly rising. This auspicious omen indicates that our country is prosperous and the people are at peace. The weather is favorable for our country and for Your Majesty.”
The official’s words were basically praising the fish. The little carp couldn’t help but raise its tail.
He had already guessed it. People who knew how to read the weather and make deductions were all very clever. They definitely would not go against the Emperor’s will. His auspicious reputation was probably very stable.
The shadow in the emperor’s heart regarding the fire in Zhong Cui Palace had already disappeared. He smiled and nodded. “Very good, I think so too.”
Having received a great reward, the Imperial Observatory expressed his gratitude in satisfaction.
“Imperial Father, is this, is this all?”
The Third Prince waited for a long time, but he didn’t get the judgment he wanted. Shouldn’t the Imperial Observatory say that a fish with golden scales is an omen of becoming a dragon? Why didn’t the people he placed in the Imperial Observatory do anything?
The Emperor was also curious. “That’s all. What else could there be? From your tone, could it be that there’s more?
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
The Third Prince had already realized that something must have gone wrong. He wasn’t willing to let this opportunity go to waste. He braced himself and said, “Imperial Father, I’m not familiar with how the Imperial Observatory works. I don’t know if it’s just one official or if it’s calculated by many officials? If it’s just one person, will there be any omissions?”
Mu Tianming thought that it was possible that his people didn’t get the opportunity to meet the Emperor this time. If that was the case, it would be fine as long as someone else was replaced.
The official who congratulated the Emperor just now was the manager of the Imperial Observatory, Sun Si Miao. Manager Sun smiled and said, “Your Highness, you’re exaggerating. Calculating for Your Majesty and for our country is a very important matter. The result that this humble official gave was calculated by all my colleagues in the Imperial Observatory. If Your Highness doesn’t trust this humble official, it would be the same even if someone else came.”
Li Yu, “???”
Li Yu was shocked by the Third Prince. Why did the Third Prince suddenly ask for someone else?
He felt that the Third Prince was up to no good.
Just as he shook his fish body in shock, King Jing, who was sitting beside the crystal vase, stroked his back with his fingers. He caressed his back casually, as if he was comforting him and trying to make him feel at ease.
Li Yu naturally listened to his tyrant master. What was the Third Prince? He was just cannon fodder. King Jing had the male lead halo and was the next Emperor. He had already clung onto his master’s thigh, so what else was there to worry about?
Those who were able to work in the Imperial Observatory were all capable people. Although Sun Si Miao’s official rank wasn’t high, he still had some authority in front of the Emperor. The Third Prince questioned Manager Sun for no reason, but Manager Sun was natural and unrestrained.
The Emperor trusted Sun Si Miao, so he felt that the Third Prince was still a child.
The Emperor sternly reprimanded, “Tianming, since you don’t know about the Imperial Observatory, don’t point your finger.”
The Third Prince was reprimanded, so he lowered his head and looked at the Sixth Prince. Mu Tianxiao understood and took the initiative to say, “Imperial Father, it’s not that Imperial Brother is talking nonsense. It’s just that this son and Third Imperial Brother privately heard a child singing a nursery rhyme among the common people. It’s different from the Imperial Observatory … Third Imperial Brother and this son were afraid that they had misunderstood it, so we specially invited several eminent monks to come over and ask them to help us take a look.”
When the Emperor heard the word ‘nursery rhyme’, his heart skipped a beat. He stared at the Sixth Prince and asked, “What kind of nursery rhyme is it?”
“Some of the words are really unbearable, so this son doesn’t dare to read it aloud. Imperial Father, please take a look.”
The Sixth Prince took out a piece of paper that he had prepared in advance from his sleeve and handed it to Luo Ruisheng, the Head of Chamberlain.
After the Emperor received the piece of paper, he carefully read it. Although his expression didn’t change, Li Yu already felt that the atmosphere around him had become cold.
He thought to himself, ‘What’s written on the paper? Why is the Emperor so unhappy?’
‘Could it be slanderous words like’ the female lead of the Tang Dynasty’s third generation, King Wu “?”
After the Emperor finished reading, he faintly motioned to Head Steward Luo to pass the piece of paper to King Jing.
When the piece of paper fell into King Jing’s hands, King Jing quickly unfolded it and glanced at it.
He read very quickly, and because the ancient characters weren’t easy to understand, Li Yu only caught a glimpse of the sentence ‘the golden fish isn’t a fish in the pond. Once it ascends to the sky, it will transform into a dragon’.
Li Yu was speechless.
Even though Li Yu didn’t understand ancient characters, he knew that this sentence was meant to shift the blame to the fish!
Moreover, it wasn’t just about shifting the blame to the fish. This sentence also contained King Jing’s name. On the surface, it said that the fish would transform into a dragon, but in fact, didn’t it mean that King Jing would ascend to the throne?
Although it was true that King Jing would ascend to the throne in the end, it was still using nursery rhymes to spread the news. Were they afraid that the Emperor wouldn’t set his sights on King Jing?
After all, the Emperor was the ruler of a country. Even if he pitied King Jing, he couldn’t stand such instigation!
“Tian Chi, what do you think?”
The Emperor calmly asked King Jing. At this moment, no one knew what the Emperor was thinking. Mu Tianming and Mu Tianxiao could only hope that the Emperor would be afraid of King Jing.
After King Jing learned of the Sixth Prince’s evil plan, he ordered people to secretly follow the Sixth Prince. He also accidentally discovered that the Sixth Prince had sent people outside to teach children to sing nursery rhymes. Therefore, even if it was just a nursery rhyme, King Jing came prepared.
King Jing calmly glanced at Wang Xi. Wang Gonggong stepped forward and spoke on behalf of his master, “Your Majesty, this is complete nonsense. His Highness also found it strange that such a nursery rhyme would spread among the people with the intention to sow discord between Your Majesty and His Highness. His Highness earnestly requests Your Majesty to thoroughly investigate and see when this nursery rhyme was spread. If it was in the past two days…”
After all, the Emperor only recently learned about King Jing’s fish changing scales. He was afraid that someone was deliberately targeting him.
The Emperor thought for a moment and nodded in agreement, “King Jing is right. Zhen also has the same intention.”
The Emperor didn’t lose his temper at King Jing because of the nursery rhyme. Instead, he ordered the Imperial Bodyguards to investigate when the nursery rhyme first spread and who first spread it.
The Third Prince anxiously glanced at the Sixth Prince when his plan to frame King Jing didn’t work one after another. The Sixth Prince looked calm on the surface, but in fact, he was sweating a little.
This was the Sixth Prince’s ruthless plan. However, things didn’t go as planned. The Emperor didn’t pay attention to the nursery rhyme itself. As for when the nursery rhyme first spread, it was obvious that it couldn’t be hidden.
At this time, the eminent monks that the Sixth Prince ordered people to bring into the palace also arrived. Seeing a row of monks, Li Yu, who had been outside of the situation, suddenly remembered that there was a similar plot in the book that mentioned monks.
Because of this small butterfly, the plot of the original book was completely messed up. Originally, when the Sixth Prince and King Jing were fighting for the throne, the monks were ordered to spread rumors to frame King Jing in front of the Emperor. However, the rumor in the book was that “King Jing’s muteness was an inborn omen”. Now, it became ‘A fish with golden scales is a sign that it will turn into a dragon”?
Of course, it was nonsense. It wasn’t particularly rare for a fish to have golden scales. For example, koi fish basically all had golden scales. The Emperor raised many koi fish in his own lotus pond. How could it be the turn of an ingredient koi to turn into a dragon?!
However, although this was the reason, it couldn’t be used to persuade the Emperor.
Li Yu secretly thought that the Sixth Prince had also figured out a way to spread rumors. The medicine was different, but the medicine was the same. Would the flaw in this paragraph in the book appear in the same way?
In the original book, the Sixth Prince framed King Jing too hastily, so he couldn’t find any trustworthy eminent monks. Moreover, ordinary monks weren’t stupid and wouldn’t get involved in the fight between the princes. Therefore, the monks that the Sixth Prince found in the book were all his trusted subordinates who pretended to be monks. Even their bald heads were recently shaved and didn’t even have a ring mark on them!
Thinking of this, Li Yu stared at the monk at the front without blinking. He wanted to find some clues from the monk’s body.
Because he stared very seriously, he slowly found that the monk’s neck would occasionally rub against his collar. This action was a little abrupt.
Li Yu suddenly understood. When a monk shaved his head in a hurry, there would usually be some strands of hair stuck in his hair. This monk was uncomfortable because of the prickling.
From this, he concluded that the monk that the Sixth Prince brought this time was also a fake monk!
As long as he could make the fake monk give himself away in front of the Emperor, the Emperor wouldn’t believe them no matter what they said.
Li Yu thought it through. Of course, he wanted to pour some water on King Jing and send King Jing and himself away. However, the Sixth Prince didn’t give King Jing any chance to breathe. He rushed to report to the Emperor, “Imperial Father, the nursery rhyme needs to be investigated slowly. It may not be true. The monks that I invited are all eminent monks. Why don’t you let them check Fifth Imperial Brother’s fish? That way, we will know.*
Li Yu, “…”
Although the Emperor ordered the imperial bodyguards to investigate the nursery rhyme, he still had doubts about King Jing. He thought that it wouldn’t be a big deal to let the monks take a look, so he nodded and agreed.
However, the Emperor didn’t explicitly say that he wanted King Jing to hand the fish to the monks.
King Jing’s hand that was holding the crystal bottle tightened. Wang Xi, who knew King Jing’s thoughts, gathered his courage and said to the monks, “You don’t have to do anything. His Highness will take the crystal bottle and show it to you.”
The Emperor knew that King Jing cared a lot about the fish. Thus, even the monks could see the fish. Because the Emperor suspected King Jing, he felt some vague guilt and acquiesced to King Jing’s action.
At this time, Li Yu didn’t have time to find another opportunity to inform King Jing. If he wanted to think about it at length, the Sixth Prince would be the first to disagree. Moreover, these fake monks were right in front of him. Li Yu couldn’t tolerate these monks saying something like a golden carp turning into a dragon and driving a wedge between the Emperor and King Jing.
King Jing could suggest that the Emperor investigate the nursery rhyme because this was the first time the Emperor had heard of such a rumor. He might not believe it easily. However, if the monks also said the same thing, would the Emperor still trust King Jing?
He usually stayed with King Jing and knew very well that King Jing didn’t have any disrespectful intentions. The father-son relationship between him and the Emperor wasn’t easy to come by, so he shouldn’t be suspected like this!
The most important thing now was to expose these fake monks in public. Once these people left the palace, it would be difficult to find them again. There was still a chance, even if he had to take a little risk!
While King Jing brought the fish close to the leading monk and pointed the fish to the monk, Li Yu desperately bumped the fish in the crystal bottle in the direction of the monk.
The strength of the fish had been strengthened by the main task and had increased by several times. Li Yu bumped the crystal bottle with all his strength. With a crack, a big hole appeared in the crystal bottle. The little carp instantly flew towards the leading monk.
The monk didn’t expect the fish to escape from the crystal bottle. He was stunned for a moment and subconsciously raised his arm to block the fish.
However, it was too late. The little carp had already jumped over the monk’s arm and onto his shoulder. At this moment, the System’s voice sounded in the chaos. However, Li Yu didn’t care about the new task at all. He had been waiting with his tail raised. As soon as he jumped onto the monk’s shoulder, his fish tail swept out.
His original intention was to knock off the monk’s hat. He believed that as long as he did so, King Jing would be able to find out that these monks were fake. In order to expose these people, he didn’t care about the task anymore. He also didn’t care about how ridiculous it was for a fish to knock off a monk’s hat in front of the Emperor. He didn’t have much time to think. He just instinctively wanted to protect King Jing and prove that it was the Sixth Prince who had framed King Jing.
The monk was so frightened by the menacing fish that his mouth opened wide. His hat fell to the ground and he even forgot to cover his head.
“Father!” The Third Prince and the Sixth Prince shouted in unison. Both of them had seen the fish break out of the bottle and knock off the monk’s hat!
King Jing had been paying attention to the little fish. Since he approached the monk, the carp spirit had been anxiously pacing back and forth in the crystal bottle. He felt that there was something wrong with the monk. The carp spirit seemed to want to tell him something important.
He had already made all kinds of assumptions, but he didn’t expect the carp spirit to forget about its own safety and directly jump onto the monk!
Seeing that the carp spirit had broken out of the bottle, King Jing couldn’t allow anything to happen to the fish. He had to deal with the aftermath. Most of the remaining fragments of the crystal bottle were still in his hand. King Jing gathered his wits. While everyone was looking at the fish, he grasped the fragments in his hand tightly and let the fragments cut his hand until it bled.
“Your Highness!” Wang Xi, who was beside King Jing, exclaimed.
King Jing waved his hand. Time was tight, so he could only do this.
Wang Xi stamped his feet. He wavered between bandaging King Jing’s wound and protecting Xiaoyu’s master. In the end, he chose Xiaoyu’s master because King Jing’s expression told him to do so. He couldn’t go against King Jing’s wishes.
After the little carp knocked off the monk’s hat, it fell to the ground and kept flapping its wings.
Wang Xi hurriedly took the spare crystal bottle and stored the fish properly.
As soon as the fish was fine, King Jing focused on looking for the monk’s flaws. He found that the monk’s hat had been knocked off, revealing a bald head with nothing on it.
King Jing quickly realized that … this was a fake monk. This was what Xiaoyu wanted him to know!
“Tian Chi, what happened just now? Your hand …”
In a trance, the Emperor saw that the fish had somehow pounced on the monk. When he looked again, he saw that King Jing’s hand was also injured.
Wang Xi anxiously wanted to speak up for his master, but King Jing didn’t let him. Instead, he dipped the crystal bottle in blood and directly wrote on Wang Xi’s lapel –
Father, please understand. I found that the monk was a fake and had not received the precepts. In a hurry, I threw the crystal bottle at him to force him to reveal his flaws.
The Emperor was speechless.
Ever since the Emperor heard the nursery rhyme, he couldn’t calm down. At this moment, he repeatedly looked from his blood-stained lapel to the crystal shards on the ground. He was struggling in his heart. The fake monk hurriedly put his hat back on, but it was too late. The Emperor ordered the guards to hold the monk down firmly to check his head. After taking off the monk’s hat, they found that he had indeed not received the precepts.
The Emperor understood that he saw the fish fly out because King Jing had hurriedly broken the crystal bottle. King Jing couldn’t speak and couldn’t clarify himself in time. He could only use this method to expose these fake monks.
Because of his habit as an Emperor, he didn’t think things through and questioned King Jing. He was almost taken advantage of by a group of fake monks!
King Jing’s hand kept bleeding and his face was pale. The Emperor was very regretful. He patted King Jing’s shoulder and said gently, “Tian Chi, good boy, you have suffered. Quickly go and have the imperial physician take a look.”
The Emperor ordered Luo Ruisheng and Wang Xi to help King Jing to the side hall to wait for the imperial physician.
