“Greetings to the King of Qin from the Hostage Prince Wei Lian.”
Editor: Miiya and Avalie
Wei Lian had enough of his bitter-hard days.
Just because he could bear hardships didn’t mean he preferred living like this.
When he was in the Chu Palace, he was a little, pitiful child who was left unattended until the age of six. His life was no different from that of a young eunuch in the palace.
During that time, there was a Beloved Consort in the palace. She was unable to gain a firm foothold in the back palace after failing to conceive in the past two years. Wei Lian saw the opportunity and deliberately bumped into the consort’s arms at the imperial garden. The palace maid immediately scolded him for not watching where he was going and dragged him out for punishment.
“This maid doesn’t know where this uneducated young eunuch came from. He dared to injure the Beloved Consort.”
Kid Wei Lian raised his head to reveal his adorable face that was as smooth as jade and as white as snow. He complained stubbornly, “I’m not some young eunuch. I’m Young Master Lian.”
This kid was actually a son of royalty.
The Beloved Consort quickly ordered the maid to release him and sent another to make some inquiries. Only then did she learn that this child was the King of Chu’s seventh son, whose biological mother had passed away early, leaving him alone and without support.
Coming across a situation similar to her own, the Beloved Consort had a moment of self-pity. Her mother’s background wasn’t high, and she’d experienced a supportless and helpless life in the palace, having only the favor of His Majesty. But for how long? The imperial physician informed her that her frail body would make it difficult for her to conceive. To have no heir in the palace was not a feasible long-term plan.
Seeing this seventh son of royalty, an idea was born in her mind.
Since then, the Beloved Consort looked after Wei Lian’s well-being more often than not. In return, Wei Lian played ignorant and showed a childlike adoration towards her. The palace staff acted pragmatically, and his life soon turned for the better.
A month later, the Beloved Consort remained barren. Finally, on the pretext of ‘feeling lonely in the palace and wanting a child for company’, she took Wei Lian in under her care. As for her request, the King of Chu naturally approved it.
Wei Lian broke away from his harsh life of bullying, mockery, and desperate poverty.
The Beloved Consort had no maternal love for Wei Lian, seeing him only to benefit her own needs. She thought the child knew nothing of this, but what she didn’t know was that Wei Lian knew everything.
That year, the six-year-old child was already as insightful as a mirror. Even their deliberate encounter at the imperial garden was also formed from his careful plans.
Wei Lian didn’t need a meaningful mother-child relationship. The Royal Consort needed a son to establish herself in the palace, while he needed a backer to improve his circumstances. A mutual exchange of interests, each seizing what they needed, nothing more, and nothing less.
He didn’t mind having another mother.
Never did he expect that, half a month later, the Beloved Consort was discovered to have a happy pulse during her pulse diagnosis. Because she would soon have her own son, her treatment towards Wei Lian became indifferent. He didn’t fuss or cause trouble, but asked the Beloved Consort to have some pity. She regarded this child as her lucky star, and since she had taken it upon herself to care for him, she couldn’t just kick him out since that would mark her as cruel.
So, Wei Lian continued to live well.
But when the Qin army pressed against the border, the land of Chu needed to hand over a prince as hostage, and Wei Lian was still the least important one.
The choice was easy.
_
He had fended for himself from a young age, and it continued even until the present.
No one knew better than Wei Lian how snobbish the people in the palace could be, as well as how manipulative and selective they could be. He was the target of their bullying because the King of Qin dismissed him. Supposing he managed to catch the eye of the king, there could be exotic delicacies for him to select from on the table tomorrow, and even lychee could be brought to him quickly from a great distance.
But therein lay the problem.
He had to meet the King of Qin first.
According to the relationship between the two countries, the King of Qin was already merciful for not killing him, let alone summoning him for an audience.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
To expect the other party to take the initiative was out of the question.
If the mountain won’t come to me, then I must go to the mountain.
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He had never seen the King of Qin, only heard of this figure’s rumors.
Ji Yue, the King of Qin, was cold-blooded, belligerent, and brutally heartless. His brothers were all casualties during the fight for the throne. The last one standing was the nine-year-old Ji Yue, whom the Queen Dowager had been supporting. Since his ascension to the throne, it was the Queen Dowager’s family that held the power of the throne, while regarding the young king only as a puppet.
But at the age of fourteen, the King of Qin removed his relatives like weeds. He personally beheaded the most senior minister, uprooted all of the opposing party, and ordered the execution of the Queen Dowager’s nine relations. During that period, there was a bloodbath in Yongping City, and even the sky looked as if it were bleeding.
The Queen Dowager was placed under house arrest for her acts of universal immorality. After several months had passed, she was presented with a meter length white silk.
He calmed the civil strife with brute force and then set his target on the other six countries.
Exterminated the Xia at the age of fifteen.
Eliminated the Chen at the age of sixteen.
Fought the Liang at the age of seventeen.
Annexed the Yan and Lu in succession at the age of eighteen.
Attacked the Chu at the age of twenty-one.
Triumphed in every battle.
People held him in high esteem and praised him for his innate talent as a God of War, fated as the monarch. Those who feared him denounced him as the incarnation of King Yan, a tyrant of this dynasty.
…These had nothing to do with Wei Lian.
All he knew was that this man was hard to deal with. To arouse the King of Qin’s interest could backfire, with his life being the cost.
But Wei Lian wouldn’t know until he tried.
The King of Qin didn’t establish his back palace and never showed interest to anyone. Even when love between two men was prevalent, no one knew whether the King of Qin fancied men or women, let alone what type.
Wei Lian was pondering what persona he should create for himself in order to attract the king’s attention.
For a monarch who had eyes for conquest, he wouldn’t have compassion for the fairer sex.
Flattery and subservience would definitely not work. The King of Qin would surely have caught enough glimpses of those types of approaches. Even Wei Lian himself disliked such behavior.
A noble and unsullied nature, with a hint of narcissism, maybe?
Those wouldn’t work either. Why would an aloof person anxiously exploit an opportunity? He shouldn’t bring this kind of two-faced trick in front of the King of Qin, it would only make him appear disgraceful.
Then…display his ability to show that they were equally matched?
A strong personality could arouse one’s desire to conquer, but the issue was that he could be dragged away for chopping beforehand. The King of Qin would never leave a threat close by. In fact, no monarch would.
He vetoed several proposals one after another, feeling a headache from the whole thing.
How could he strategize if he knew nothing about the King of Qin?
Wei Lian cracked a small opening in the window again, welcoming the cold wind on his face to clear his mind.
The light in the sky was already somewhat shut out. The palace staff were still sweeping away the accumulated snow on the road, and a palace eunuch, who seemed to be the one in charge, urged them to make haste.
He realized something.
The Green Bamboo Pavilion was located in a remote part of the palace, with hardly any visitors. This palace road was also the only way to the cold palace, and with night approaching, it sent eerie chills down anyone’s back and scared anyone away from taking this route.
It had been snowing for several days, and today was the first time where people had come over to clear the snow, indicating that an important figure would pass by later.
There was no imperial consort in the palace, making it impossible for a beloved consort to aloofly visit the cold palace just so she could ridicule an unfavored imperial consort. Then the only person who would walk upon this road would be…
The King of Qin.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It was hard to keep track of the King of Qin’s whereabouts. Wei Lian was even pondering over how to have an accidental meeting. This was great, it would surely save him some effort.
He once inquired about the king from the palace maids. Although he was disliked by the people of Qin, he was born with a fine appearance and was known to be gentle and elegant. He could make the faces of a group of young palace maids blush and their hearts race, and his questions would always yield an answer.
For example, he learned one thing.
The status the King of Qin was born with wasn’t high. His birth mother was Yun Ji, who lost the former King’s favor. Thus, he survived in the cold palace with his mother.
However, Yun Ji went insane in the cold palace. One snowy night, she threw herself down a well and died, leaving only a pair of footprints in the snow.
Later, in the King of Qin’s earlier years after he succeeded the throne and was coerced by the Queen Dowager, he never took a look down the dried up well where his mother’s body rested.
It wasn’t until the Queen Dowager was ordered to commit suicide that he issued the order to collect his birth mother’s bones from the bottom of the well for a proper burial.
On nights with heavy snow, the young monarch would sometimes visit the cold palace and sit on the decayed and dusty small bed for a while.
On occasion, he would even stay the entire night.
_
Wei Lian felt that he could empathize with the King of Qin from the sufferings they’d both experienced.
The difference was that his own childhood was absent of a mother, so there wasn’t any warmth for him to pursue.
The King of Qin was originally the Queen Dowager’s pawn. But at the end of the match, the pawn overturned the chessboard and changed the overall situation.
While Wei Lian was a discarded son of the country of Chu, and it was uncertain whether this abandoned son could be shaped into a valuable piece.
At present, Wei Lian closed the window, drew the fox fur coat closer to his body, and as he was about to get up, Chang Shou couldn’t resist asking, “Young Master, where are you heading?”
Wei Lian pushed open the door. “To guard a tree stump, waiting for rabbits.”
…In this whole world, perhaps only Wei Lian dared to describe the tyrannical sovereign king as a rabbit.
Chang Shou hurriedly said, “Please add another layer before you leave!”
“No need, and neither of you are allowed to follow me either.” How could he display his miserable circumstances to the fullest without showing his frail and solitary figure.
“Ah, Young Master! This—” Chang Shou turned to Chang Sheng helplessly. “It’s cold outside!”
Chang Sheng stopped him. “Trust in Young Master.”
_
The snow was piled to a great depth.
Even after the palace road was cleaned, the path was still very slippery. One could easily fall with a single careless step.
The few palace workers tasked with sweeping the snow had already stopped for the day and turned in for the night. The vast world was still covered with a layer of white.
Wei Lian dressed in a plain, white cloud-brocaded long gown, wrapped in a snow-white fox fur coat, and stood in the wind and snow. His thread-like inked hair draped behind him, red lips framed pearly-white teeth, and picturesque eyes enhanced his appearance.
He’d brought this outfit from his home country. He was still a tribute in the end, so he couldn’t dress too miserably. The Chu favored the color white and fancied floating large sleeves. Combining the country of Chu’s two cultural aesthetics, Wei Lian appeared all the more elegant and untainted.
Wei Lian didn’t have to wait long as in the distance, he could see the imperial sedan coming, followed by twelve palace maids, a head eunuch and several imperial bodyguards. A very majestic scene.
Even a deaf person could sense the spectacle despite not being able to hear it.
The tip of Wei Lian’s ear twitched slightly as he pretended to just notice the sound and turned around. The fox fur coat swept the ground and made a striking spin.
When he saw the sedan chair, he showed a startled expression before lowering his eyes and quietly kneeling to the ground.
In contrast to the country of Chu, the country of Qin favored the color black. The black dragon pattern on the sedan and the twelve imperial guards specification made it easy to identify who was approaching.
As the sedan approached, Ji Yue noticed the young man kneeling by the side of the road.
Countless palace staff knelt down throughout the way, and none of them caught his eye, until this one, who was impossible for him to overlook.
The young man knelt in the snow and wasn’t blocking the way. His gaze was lowered, revealing a pale, slender neck and a flawless side profile.
A pair of bright red lips like red plum flowers unafraid of the biting cold snow.
It carried a sense of utterly delicate charm.
When the sedan was about to pass, Ji Yue ordered in passing, “Halt.”
The head eunuch, Li Fuquan, immediately echoed loudly, “Halt!”
The sedan was steadily lowered.
“Who is that?” Staying seated in his sedan chair, Ji Yue asked with his lower jaw propped up by his hand.
Li Fuquan repeated the question loudly, “Who is ahead?”
Wei Lian lightly closed his lips, bowed low enough for his forehead to touch the ground and raised up to answer, “Wei Lian, the hostage prince, greeting the King of Qin.”
Wei Lian.
This name was very unfamiliar.
But Wei was the surname of the monarch of Chu.
Ji Yue tried to recall, and finally remembered that half a month ago, the country of Chu came to negotiate peace with treasures and a hostage prince. To him, a hostage prince was no different from an inanimate object, merely a spoil of war.
A close attendant asked him what to do with the hostage prince. At first, Ji Yue wanted to order the prince’s death, but he changed his mind and said, “Place him in the back palace.”
The original intention was indeed humiliation. But as he became busy, he immediately tossed the hostage prince to the back of his mind.
It turned out the prince was a rare sight of beauty.
However, Ji Yue was not interested in beauty. His mood had always been unpredictable. He could have a pleasant conversation with Wei Lian one moment, and suddenly kill the young man the next moment.
Ji Yue got up from his seat. “Why are you outside in this cold weather?”
Wei Lian stayed kneeling and dared not lift his eyes.
But he could still hear the King of Qin’s voice, both young and pleasant.
It was completely different from the sinister and ruthless picture he had imagined.
Yeeey, You did it! Great to have the whole novel here ^^ I keep my fingers crossed for the second project! ♡〜٩( ╹▿╹ )۶〜♡ Now it’s time to thank for every chapter, haha ❤