Chapter 2: The Prince is a Woman (Part 2)

Zhao Jincai’s beard twitched. This wasn’t his! But it was quite a large one.

A-Zhen frowned and casually tossed another gold ingot down: "You dropped another one!"

This time, Zhao Jincai saw her throw it with his own eyes. The motion was graceful and natural. Ah! This... how could one refuse such a thing?

He seemed to understand a little now.

He didn't know what this Heir Apparent was planning, but he would just go with the flow. Thinking of this, Zhao Jincai’s face broke into a smile: "Many thanks to the Heir Apparent for the reminder."

He glanced at the two golden ingots lying on the ground, finding them truly delightful. Once he reported this, his master would certainly not make him hand them over, so these were indeed his gold ingots.

The Prince Ning estate was truly wealthy.

Footsteps sounded outside the tent. Zhao Jincai quickly picked up the two gold ingots and stuffed them into his sleeve pocket. When the people outside entered, they saw him taking Ning Guangjun’s pulse with a look of distress. Ning Guangjun’s cohorts were all shocked at the sight.

At a time like this, why had Prince Ning fallen ill?

Were they still going to rebel tonight?

If Prince Ning didn't wake up, it would certainly be impossible.

Looking at the unconscious Ning Guangjun lying there, everyone muttered to themselves—could it be that Prince Ning truly lacked the destiny of an emperor?

"Doctor Zhao, how is Prince Ning?"

"When will Prince Ning be able to wake up?"

"Doctor Zhao, do you have any way to wake Prince Ning?"

Facing the barrage of questions, Zhao Jincai handled them with ease.

Upon learning that Prince Ning could not wake up for the time being, everyone looked disappointed. Just then, they noticed A-Zhen standing to the side. Before they could speak, A-Zhen spoke first.

"I fear Father cannot wake up for a while. Everyone should go back and rest first; any matters will have to wait until Father wakes up."

Everyone sighed inwardly, but there was nothing else to be done.

The Heir Apparent lacked Prince Ning’s charisma and was usually a man of few words who followed Prince Ning’s lead in everything. To expect him to lead them in carrying out the original plan—they felt that would be having too long a life and looking for death.

"I will trouble Doctor Zhao to keep watch here tonight. After all, Father’s condition is somewhat critical, and I fear there might be accidents." After everyone left, A-Zhen said to Zhao Jincai.

Zhao Jincai couldn't refuse. He thought that the Heir Apparent’s purpose was to inform Prince Ning’s cohorts that the Prince’s condition was critical. He just didn't know what the other party’s goal was—did he want to stop the rebellion, or did he want to take his place? If he wanted to take his place, why not take the opportunity to lead the men to rebel? Was he afraid he couldn't suppress those people, so he wanted to plan slowly?

He had been left here, and now with the Heir Apparent by his side, he had no chance to go and report to his master. There shouldn't be any major problems; his master had already arranged everything. If there was no movement here, there would be no danger on his master’s side, and even if there were, it wouldn't come from the Prince Ning estate.

Thinking of this, Zhao Jincai stayed in Prince Ning’s tent with peace of mind.

Late at night, in the tent of the Northern Xia Emperor Ye Ji, there was only a faint light, and the massive tent was deathly quiet.

If someone were to walk in, they would see several figures standing inside, surrounding the person at the head of the room. They looked like they were facing a formidable enemy, as if waiting for something.

The side light illuminated half of Ye Ji’s face, while the other half was completely hidden in the darkness. Even so, the visible half of his face was hauntingly handsome, yet no one dared to look up.

There was only the sound of faint breathing in the tent. No one spoke, and there was almost no movement, as if they had all been frozen in place.

After an unknown amount of time, Ye Ji raised his eyes to look outside: "Did they say the beginning of the Chou hour? Ji Yun, what time is it now?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, it is almost the Yin hour." Ji Yun was Ye Ji’s personal guard and the commander of the guards. He was also somewhat puzzled; the intelligence was certainly correct, and the other side had indeed planned to rebel at the Chou hour. "Perhaps Prince Ning is too cunning and changed the time."

Ye Ji’s face remained expressionless. His fingers, resting on his lap, tapped lightly. He said coldly: "Then we wait. I want to see just how cunning he can be."

With that, silence returned to the tent.

Time passed bit by bit. Even Ji Yun, a top-tier expert, felt his legs going numb. He found it strange that Prince Ning still hadn't made a move. At this point, they couldn't send anyone to investigate for fear of alerting the other party, which would make it impossible to achieve the Emperor’s goal.

"What time is it?" Ye Ji asked, clutching his teacup. The tea inside was naturally cold, but since it was summer, the temperature of the tea didn't matter.

Ji Yun replied: "Replying to Your Majesty, it has just reached the Mao hour."

Ye Ji’s eyes narrowed, his handsome face gloomy: "The sun will be out in a while. Do you all think that old dog Ning will really come?"

Ji Yun dared not make a sound, and the others held their breath.

The Emperor, who was always calculating and never missed a beat, had actually waited here in vain for an entire night. This was the first time he had suffered such a stifling loss; who would dare to speak loudly at a time like this?

Seeing the atmosphere in the tent becoming increasingly frigid, Ji Yun spoke softly: "Shall we arrange for someone to go and investigate?"

It was already dawn; Prince Ning had likely abandoned the plan.

A cracking sound was heard. It turned out that Ye Ji had lost control of his strength and crushed the teacup, tea dripping from his hand onto the floor.

This terrified the Grand Eunuch Hou Rongfa, who hurriedly stepped forward to take the shards and carefully wiped Ye Ji’s palm, checking to see if it had been cut.

"Why must Your Majesty be angry? A mere Prince Ning—there will be plenty of opportunities to deal with him," Hou Rongfa persuaded. "Given Prince Ning’s ambition, he would never give up so easily. There must have been some unexpected situation last night."

"Would Your Majesty like to rest?"

Ye Ji’s expression was not good: "Wait a little longer, in case of changes."

Prince Ning had been preparing to pull off something big, and he had just happened to seize this opportunity. It was a rare chance to wipe them all out in one go.

He had prepared everything for this, just waiting for Prince Ning to come and seek death. If he didn't kill the man, he would feel terrible. If he couldn't wait for anyone, wouldn't he have wasted the entire night? Just thinking about it was enough to drive him mad.

The sky was bright; it was a sunny day.

The people in the tent were silent, all holding their breath. They could feel that the young emperor at the head of the room was in a foul mood. He had prepared all night, only for Prince Ning not to show up. One could imagine how frustrating it felt to punch into cotton.

"Your Majesty, there is news from the Prince Ning estate."

Ye Ji lifted his eyelids, finally showing some spirit, but his gaze was icy, as if he might explode at any moment. Could it be that Prince Ning had sensed something was wrong and had sent someone over early in the morning to gloat?

"Speak." Ye Ji spat out the cold word from his thin lips.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Prince Ning suffered a sudden illness last night and remains in a coma. The Heir Apparent and Doctor Zhao kept watch in the tent all night. Currently, it can only be said that his life is not in immediate danger." The guard reporting the news felt the chill from above and his whole body went rigid.