The Emperor summoned Jing-wang once again into the imperial palace. In the imperial edict, it clearly stated for Jing-wang to bring fish.
Li Yu didn’t know the individual arrangements that the 3rd Prince and Jing-wang had made. Because fish was included in the imperial edict this time, he felt somewhat elated inside.
He very cooperatively jumped on top of the crystal bottle to allow Jing-wang to put him inside. Jing-wang’s face color was somewhat dim, but it wasn’t towards the fish because Jing-wang still extremely gently petted fish on the head.
Li Yu remembered that the same hand also encircled fish into Jing-wang’s embrace and taught fish how to write. Embarrassed, Li Yu scooted away. However, not long afterwards, his fish instincts took over and he started to beg for petting again.
He can tell that Jing-wang’s mood wasn’t very good. Although he didn’t know the reason, he hoped that Jing-wang’s mood could turn for the better.
Xiao Yu, who was actively begging for strokes, finally earned a smile from Jing-wang. After petting the fish, Jing-wang brought the fish to the imperial palace per the edict.
Outside of Ganqing Palace, Luo-gonggong welcomed them personally. Entering the palace, the Emperor was still sitting on his dragon chair up top. There were also some people in official outfits; what’s strange was that the 3rd Prince and 6th Prince were also present.
Li Yu couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Last time when the palace caught on fire, the 3rd Prince and 6th Prince entered the palace specifically to check up on the Emperor’s well-being. What were these two people doing here this time?
The 3rd Prince was slightly malicious; the 6th Prince was secretly craftily. Grouped together, they must not be considered lightly.
Plus as soon as Jing-wang brought fish and entered the main hall, the two Princes’ gazes immediately shot over, making fish somewhat nervous.
Therefore, from time to time, Li Yu looked over at these two princes.
Upon seeing Jing-wang’s arrival, the Emperor smiled and said: “TianChi, you came just in time. Your fish grew gold scales so I ordered the astronomy department for a divination.”
So it’s for this. Li Yu nodded to himself. The Emperor’s summon was because of the auspicious sign matter.
The Emperor’s words were not enough to convince the masses whether a fish like him was really an auspicious sign. It would be like the Emperor creating a good luck charm for himself; spreading this outside wouldn’t be too proper. However, if it was something that the astronomy department calculated out using divination, it’d count as genuine.
The Emperor just finished talking when a long faced official made a noise in acknowledgement and stepped forth. Reciting a series of words that Li Yu couldn’t understand, he finally said: “Congratulations, your majesty. Great news. For a fish to grow gold scales, it is indeed a rare auspicious sign. This official also looked at the state of the constellations recently. The Emperor Star has been shining brilliantly, ascending slowly. This auspicious sign indicates that our dynasty is prosperous and peaceful with favorable weather for good harvest, which is beneficial to our dynasty and to your majesty.”
This official boasted with phrases after phrases, basically praising the fish. The little carp couldn’t help but lift up.
He already guessed before, people who divinated were always very astute and definitely wouldn’t go against the Emperor’s wishes. His label as an auspicious sign was probably down pat.
The shadow the Emperor had in his heart towards the big fire in Zhongcui Palace passed. He nodded his head with a smile: “Very good. I also thought this to be true.”
The official from the astronomy department received a huge reward and gave thanks in satisfaction.
“Father, this…this is all?” The 3rd Prince waited for a long time, but didn’t receive the conclusion he needed. Shouldn’t the person from the astronomy department say that for a fish to grow gold scales, it was a sign that it will transform into a dragon? Why was the person he placed inside the astronomy department completely useless!
The Emperor said strangely: “This is all. What else can there be? Hearing from your tone, is there something else?”
“No. This is not what I mean.” The 3rd Prince realized that there must have been an issue somewhere. Unwilling to accept that this chance would go to waste, he stubbornly said: “Father, I’m not familiar with how the astronomy department operates. Is it just one person doing the calculations or different people working together? If it’s only one person, can an omission be possible?”
Mu TianMing(3) thought perhaps his subordinate didn’t get picked to meet the Emperor; he just needed to switch the official.
The person from the astronomy department, who was congratulating the Emperor just now, was the head diviner, Sun XiMiao. Head Diviner Sun said with a smile: “3rd Prince, your words were quite excessive. To divinate important matters for his majesty and for this dynasty, the answer that I provide is deduced from a collaborative effort from everyone in the astronomy department. If your highness doesn’t trust me, you can exchange me for someone else. But the answer will still be the same.”
Li Yu: ???
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.
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Of course Li Yu would listen to his tyrant master. What was the 3rd Prince? Only a cannon fodder. Also Jing-wang had the protagonist aura and was the next Emperor. He already managed to hug his master’s big thighs, what’s there to be afraid of!
To be able to work inside the astronomy department, one had to have some skills. Although Sun XiMiao’s official rank wasn’t high, he still had quite some weight in front of the Emperor. The 3rd Prince doubted Head Diviner Sun without reason, however Head Diviner Sun responded quite magnanimously. The Emperor trusted Sun XiMiao. Therefore, he only felt that the 3rd Prince was being immature.
The Emperor reprimanded sternly: “TianMing(3), since you don’t understand how the astronomy department words, then stop criticizing randomly.”
Scolded, the 3rd Prince lowered his head and gave the 6th Prince a glance. Mu TianXiao(6) understood and actively stepped forth to say: “Father, it’s not that elder brother is speaking randomly. Rather, privately we heard a children’s nursery rhyme being sung amongst the common people, which seemed to contradict with the words of the astronomy department…… The 3rd Prince and I are afraid to misunderstand so we specifically invited a few seasoned Buddhist monks to ask them to take a look.”
Hearing the words “children’s nursery rhyme,” the Emperor’s heart skipped. He turned to stare at the 6th Prince and asked: “What kind of nursery rhyme?”
“The actual words of the sentences are unbearable, this son doesn’t dare to recite it. Please look it over instead, father.”
The 6th Prince pulled out a previously prepared piece of paper and handed it over for the Head Manager Luo RuiSheng to present to the Emperor.
After the Emperor received the paper, he carefully read it. Although his complexion didn’t change, Li Yu already felt the surrounding atmosphere turn cold.
He thought, what’s written on the paper? Why would it make the Emperor so unhappy?
Was it some kind of prophecy similar to “In the 3rd dynasty of Tang, a woman will be Wu Emperor”?
After the Emperor finished reading, he coolly indicated to head manager Luo to give the paper to Jing-wang.
The paper landed in Jing-wang’s hands. Jing-wang swiftly opened it for a look. He read very quickly. Because ancient writing was hard to understand, Li Yu only managed to catch a glimpse, saying “Gold scales aren’t actually objects in a pond. Placed in the sky, it’ll turn into a dragon.”
Li Yu: ???
Even though Li Yu didn’t understand ancient words very well, he understood this sentence. This was a plan to shift blame on fish!
Not only was it causing trouble for fish, it secretly hinted at Jing-wang’s name. On the surface, it said that fish can turn into a dragon. But in actuality, wasn’t it pointing out that Jing-wang might ascend the throne?
Although Jing-wang really did ascend the throne in the end, to use nursery rhymes to pass this information on right now, was this someone terrified that the Emperor wouldn’t notice Jing-wang?
The Emperor was the ruler of a nation after all. Even if he felt pity towards Jing-wang, he still wouldn’t bear this kind of instigation!
“TianChi, what do you think?” The Emperor asked Jing-wang without batting an eye. No one knew what the Emperor was thinking at this moment. Mu TianMing(3) and Mu TianXiao(6) only hoped that the Emperor would grow fear and caution against Jing-wang.
However, after Jing-wang learned of the 6th Prince’s malicious plan, he ordered people to secretly follow the 6th Prince. He accidentally discovered that the 6th Prince ordered people to teach kids this nursery rhyme outside. Therefore, Jing-wang was even prepared for this nursery rhyme.
Jing-wang calmly gave Wang Xi a glance. Wang-gonggong stepped forth and spoke for his master: “Your majesty. This is complete nonsense. His highness is also very baffled why this kind of folk song would spread amongst the common people and deliberately create a dispute between the Emperor and his father-son relationship. His highness implores your majesty to investigate thoroughly and see when this nursery rhyme started spreading. If it’s only in the last few days……”
Jing-wang’s fish only switched scales recently after all. The Emperor only discovered this recently. It was likely someone did it purposely to target Jing-wang.
The Emperor pondered momentarily and nodded his head in approval: “Jing-wang’s words are correct. I also plan to do this……”
The Emperor didn’t actually throw a temper at Jing-wang because of the nursery rhyme. Instead, he ordered the imperial guards to investigate the earliest start of the song, as well as the people who spread it first.
Seeing his traps towards Jing-wang fail continuously, the 3rd Prince gave the 6th Prince an urgent look. The 6th Prince looked unperturbed outwardly, but actually he was also starting to sweat.
This was the hammer that the 6th Prince came up with, but contrary to what he expected, the Emperor didn’t actually pay attention to the nursery rhyme itself. Not to mention, the earliest spread of the song was easy to investigate and couldn’t fool anyone.
At this time, the seasoned monks that the 6th Prince invited also arrived. Seeing the row of monks, Li Yu who had been observing all this time suddenly remembered something. There was also an event that occurred in the book that mentioned seasoned monks.
Because of his little butterfly effect, the plotline of the original novel has already been messed up. Originally, when the 6th Prince and Jing-wang struggled for the throne, he ordered monks to start rumors in front of the Emperor to slander Jing-wang. However, in the book, the rumor created was “As a naturally born mute, Jing-wang was inauspicious.” How did it become “Gold scales aren’t actually objects in a pond. Placed in the sky, it’ll turn into a dragon”?
Of course it was absolute nonsense. It wasn’t even exceptionally rare for a fish to have gold scales. For example, all koi basically have gold scales. The Emperor himself raised many, many koi in his lotus pond. So how could a food ingredient fish transform into a dragon first?!
However, this reason couldn’t be used to persuade the Emperor.
Li Yu secretly thought, since this was the same plan that the 6th Prince came up with, different broth but the same old medicine, would the loophole that appeared in the book also appear here?
In the original book, the 6th Prince was in too much of a hurry to frame Jing-wang and couldn’t find any trustworthy seasoned monks quick enough. Plus, normal monks weren’t stupid and wouldn’t get involved in the battle between the princes. Therefore, the monks that the 6th prince found were all just his loyal subordinates in disguise. They didn’t even shave their head bald for too long. Nor did they have the 6 markers on their heads.
Thinking this, Li Yu stared unblinkingly at the monk at the forefront, searching for some kind of clue.
Because he stared extremely seriously, he slowly discovered that the monk would occasionally rub his neck against his neck collar. This movement was somewhat odd–
Li Yu suddenly realized. Shaving in a hurry often left broken pieces of short hair behind. This monk was in discomfort from being poked by the short hairs.
From this he determined that this time the 6th Prince also was using fake monks!
As long as these fake monks could be exposed in front of the Emperor, no matter what these people said, the Emperor wouldn’t believe them.
Thinking it through, Li Yu naturally planned to splash Jing-wang with some water and make them go outside again. However, the 6th Prince didn’t give Jing-wang any chance to breathe. He rushed to present to the Emperor, saying: “Father, the investigation of the nursery rhyme will take some time and might not come up with anything. All of these people I invited are senior monks. Why not let them examine 5th brother’s fish. We’d know immediately.”
Li Yu: “……”
Although the Emperor ordered the imperial guards to investigate, he still had doubts towards Jing-wang in his heart. Thinking that it wouldn’t matter to permit the monks to have a look, he nodded and allowed it.
But the Emperor didn’t actually say clearly to have Jing-wang hand over the fish to the monks. On the contrary, Jing-wang held onto the crystal bottle even tighter with his hands. Wang Xi, who understood Jing-wang deeply, gathered his courage and said to the monks: “You guys don’t need to move. His highness will hold the crystal bottle for you guys to see.”
The Emperor knew Jing-wang was very careful and concerned towards the fish. This way, the monks can also see the fish. Since the Emperor suspected Jing-wang, he also held a faint hint of guilty conscience. Therefore, he silently acquiesced to Jing-wang’s decision.
By this time, it was too late for Li Yu to find some other way of letting Jing-wang know. The 6th Prince would be the first to object to prolonging time. Not to mention, these fake monks were right before their eyes. Li Yu couldn’t allow these monks to say something related to “gold scales transforming into a dragon” and continue to drive a wedge between the Emperor and Jing-wang.
Jing-wang was able to suggest to the Emperor to investigate the nursery rhyme because this was the first time the Emperor had heard of this kind of rumor; he wouldn’t believe in it so easily. However, if the monks also said the same thing, repeated rumors become a fact. How could the Emperor trust in Jing-wang then?
Li Yu normally was always together with Jing-wang so he knew best that Jing-wang didn’t have any disrespect towards his father at all. The father-son relationship between the two of them didn’t come easy; it shouldn’t have to suffer this kind of suspicion and doubt!
The top priority was still to expose these fake monks right in front of everyone. If these people managed to leave the imperial palace, it would be hard to find them afterwards. It’s not that there’s no chance at all. It’s fine if he has to take a risk!
As Jing-wang brought fish closer to the head monk and allowed the monk to see fish, inside the crystal bottle, Li Yu slammed violently towards the direction of the monk.
The strength of his fish body has been increased in a variety of areas after the main mission, several times. Li Yu also used everything he got. With a kacha sound, a big hole appeared on the crystal bottle from the impact. The little carp instantly flew out and pounced on the head monk.
How could the monk have thought the fish would escape out of the crystal bottle. For a split second, he was shocked. Subconsciously, he raised his arm to block.
However, it was too late. The little carp already jumped past the other’s hand, landing on this person’s shoulder. When the system sounded at this time, it was in the middle of a loud commotion; Li Yu didn’t have time to bother checking which mission updated. Aiming carefully and tail raised in waiting, as soon as he jumped onto the monk’s shoulder, he swung his tail horizontally outward.
He originally intended to knock the monk’s hat off, believing that if this happened, Jing-wang would figure out that these monks were fake. In order to expose these people, he already disregarded the mission and disregarded how blasphemous it was to attack a monk’s hat right in front of the Emperor. Without excess time to think and deliberate, he only instinctively thought about protecting Jing-wang by proving that this was all a plan by the 6th Prince to harm Jing-wang.
The monk was so scared by this extremely ferocious behaving fish that his mouth opened wide. When his monk’s hat hit the floor, he completely forgot about covering his head.
“Father!” The 3rd Prince and 6th Prince yelled loudly in unison. The two of them both saw this fish breaking out somehow and even… even knocking off the monk’s hat!
Jing-wang was paying attention to Xiao Yu this entire time. Ever since he got closer to the monk, the carp demon started to pace agitatedly inside the crystal bottle. He felt that it was extremely likely there was something wrong with the monk. The demon carp seemed to want to tell him something important. He already envisioned all sorts of plans, but he never thought the demon carp would disregard its personal safety and directly jump on the monk instead!
Seeing the carp demon already breaking out of the bottle, Jing-wang couldn’t allow any mishap to happen to this fish and needed to deal with the aftermath for this fish. A large portion of the broken pieces of the crystal bottle still remained by his hand; Jing-wang focused his thoughts. While everyone was still looking at the fish, he resolutely squeezed the broken pieces in his hand, allowing the fragments to cut his own hand, drawing blood.
“Your highness!” Wang Xi cried out in alarm by Jing-wang’s side.
Jing-wang waved his hand. Urgent time. No other choice.
Wang Xi stomped his feet. Deliberating for a moment between helping Jing-wang wrap his wound and protecting Master Xiao Yu, he ultimately chose Master Xiao Yu because Jing-wang’s expression told him to do so. He couldn’t go against Jing-wang’s wishes.
After the little carp knocked down the monk’s hat, he fell to the floor and flopped around. Wang Xi hastily placed the fish into a spare crystal bottle.
Once the fish was fine, Jing-wang focused on finding the monk’s issue. He discovered that the monk, who had his hat knocked off just now, revealed a completely bald and shiny head with nothing on it at all.
Jing-wang quickly realized, so…… this was a fake monk. That’s what Xiao Yu wanted him to know!
“TianChi, what happened just now. Your hand……”
One moment, the Emperor saw the fish somehow jumping onto the monk. The next moment, he saw Jing-wang’s hand injured.
Wang Xi anxiously wanted to speak for his master, however, Jing-wang didn’t allow him. Instead, he used his blood and wrote directly on Wang Xi’s clothes–
Father, please inspect thoroughly. This son discovered the monks to be fake; they didn’t actually take the oath. In a moment of urgency, I threw the crystal bottle forcibly to expose this deceit.
The Emperor: “……”
Ever since the Emperor heard the nursery rhyme, he’s been slightly perturbed. At this moment, as he looked at the bloodstain repeatedly landing on the front of Wang Xi’s clothes, and then looked at the broken crystal fragments on the floor, his heart continued to twist and turn. In utter panic, the monk put on his hat again. However, it was already too late. The Emperor ordered the guards to restrain the monk firmly and examine his head. After taking off the monk’s hat for a look, sure enough, he did not take his oaths.
The Emperor understood. He saw the fish fly out. In actuality, it was Jing-wang who hastily broke the crystal bottle by squeezing it. Jing-wang was unable to speak so he was unable to promptly explain himself clearly. He could only use this kind of plan to expose these fake monks.
Because of his habit as an Emperor, he didn’t think clearly and started to suspect Jing-wang. He was almost tricked by this group of fake monks!
Jing-wang’s hand bled unceasingly, face turning pale. The Emperor regretted deeply. Patting Jing-wang’s shoulder, he said gently: “TianChi, good child. You suffered. Quickly go let the imperial physicians take a look.”
The Emperor ordered Luo RuiSheng and Wang Xi both to support Jing-wang and help him to the side hall to wait for the imperial physicians.
The 3rd Prince, 6th Prince, and the fake monks, who were kowtowing nonstop, remained behind to face the absolutely infuriated Emperor.
thanks for the chapter!
LMAOOOO those two might finally understand why the 2nd prince and his mom went absolutely bonkers after encountering Jing-Wang’s cute little carp—
LMAOOOOO2! Magic carp is coming for you!
No one can say Magic Carp is useless anymore XD
Thank You for the chapter (｡’▽’｡)♡
Such a cute fish that ruin other’s plans 😂.
Thanks for the chapter ☺️.
Jing wang backed him up cause if he didnt their plan might back fire he always protects his fish no matter what😭🇵🇰
I just realized that it is like Jing-wang is a pokemon trainer and Li Yu is a Magikarp that is slowly turning into a Gyarados hahahahaha
This is why u don’t eff around with this little fish, Princes. You don’t want to be like the second prince and concubine Qiu 😂
😂😂😂
this emperor father, i must say, is so easily swayed…
This emperor deserve to die also isn’t it natural that ur child will be the next emperor why do these emperors act like this is a big deal ,
this emperor… is easily swayed… aah…