After his 2-day vacation, Li Yuanying returned to school. Just like what he told Li Tai, he believes that the Emperor favour is not reliable, people’s praises are not reliable. The only way to do well is to depend on yourself to learn more knowledge and get plenty of experience to establish yourself in this world.

Li Yuanying happily dusted his butt and went back to school but the outside world was in a storm from his actions.

The news about the Emperor’s decision to send away Prince Wei were made known to many; some were happy and some sad. Those who were devastated were naturally Li Tai’s supporters. If Li Tai leaves the Capital, will the Emperor still favours him so much? Will Li Tai still have hope in fighting for the throne with the Crown Prince?

Many supported Li Tai because he was the Emperor’s favourite son. He was awarded a literary hall at a young age, all his expenses were similar to that of a Crown Prince and a few years ago he was helping to manage the Capital city. With that, why wouldn’t those who can’t get favour from the Crown Prince join his team?

Now with the Emperor’s new decision, this had thrown off many people’s plan. Although Prince Wei had the best and biggest fiefdom among all princes and the Emperor will reserve the best men to serve him, but Perfecture Xiang is not Chang’an. Once a person is far away, everything will change!

In the past Li Tai was allowed to stay mainly because of the Emperor’s love. Now that his Majesty has decided, what can we say to change his decision and keep Prince Wei in the Capital?

There were a few intelligent supporters among Prince Wei’s men. He gave Li Tai a suggestion to make his wife pregnant to delay things for a few months. Let’s plan again slowly!

Li Tai bought the idea and spent many nights with her. Coincidently, the princess’s period was delayed. Li Tai was overjoyed and immediately went to inform his father about this happy news but with a worrisome expression: “This child came at a bad timing.”

Li Er being middle aged naturally loved children. “What do you mean bad timing?”

“Didn’t father ask us to pick a date to move out? The first few months of pregnancy is the most unstable, I wonder if this trip will hurt the baby.”

Li Er was worried too. He quickly informed Li Chung Feng not to pick a date yet. After all, Li Tai had stayed around for so many months, let’s postpone the plan until after the baby is born!

“Although this is not your first child you still need to pay much attention.”

The Emperor motioned for Li Tai to leave and not to worry about anything. He even rewarded him with many gifts.

Li Tai happily returned home and quickly inform his wife that they will no be moving.

Princess Yan softly touches her belly after her husband had left. She did so until Little Round Ball came looking for her with food in his hands.

“Eat! This is delicious!”

Princess Yan finally came to her senses and hugged her child tightly and ate the snack he brought over.

“Indeed, it is delicious.”

Little Round Ball was happy.

Princess Yan smiled along but had a subtle worried look.

Even though the closest person to her did not share his plan fully, she could have guessed his intentions. Initially she was glad to be able to leave everything behind, but her husband used their unborn child as a chess piece.

She can only hope that all will be well.

……

Li Chung Feng was tasked with calculating a good day to send off Prince Wei but got to know the job is cancelled. He was a little troubled only to find out that the delay was due to the princess’s pregnancy.

Li Yuanying did briefly drop by to mention to him that this was his suggestion to the Emperor and requested for Li Chung Feng to choose an auspicious date, do not choose a rainy or windy day. If he did so then it would be Little Round Ball who would be suffering.

Knowing that Prince Wei’s trip is delayed, Li Chung Feng sighed.

Prince Teng’s action was for the good of the Li Family but not everyone would buy it. Now that Li Tai is staying back, it is inevitable that he would bite back. And he would bite back very hard, otherwise it would not be good enough to soothe the hardship he faced in this period.

Such a person even a child like Li Yuanying can decipher, many would be able to do the same. It is just that most people had ulterior motives, had been observing and had been picking sides. Some were not interested to join any sides. In short, no one else would say such direct things to the Emperor.

Li Chung Feng and Prince Teng had a 20 year age gap but had many things in common. Hearing this news, he requested that one of his men write to Dong XiaoYi to inform Prince Teng about this news about Prince Wei delaying his travel.

Yuanying received the letter while he was having a discussion with Tang Xuan and friends. Seeing the white bird that was gifted to him by Li Jing, he moved away from his friends and sat on a big rock to read the letter. When he was done, he slowly tears the letter into pieces and fed them to the fish swimming in the pond. After he was done, he sat there quietly looking at the fish swim.

Haih… what a waste of my saliva.

While he was deep in thoughts, he heard Tang Guan’s voice: “It’s your turn to take up duty.”

Yuanying turned around, his classmate still had an unfriendly stern look. He jumped off from the big rock and spoke: “Seriously, why did I give this idea to the teachers. Now I have to go on duty, it’s so tiring!”

“You not only gave this idea. You also told the teachers to have a small test every month and a big one every three months. We are going to have our monthly test soon.”

Yuanying insisted on keeping the fact that this action was to mess with Wei Ying a secret.

“Exams are great. Wouldn’t you want to test yourself after learning so much? You need exams to analyse how much you really understand a topic! I really love exams!”

Tang Guan was too lazy to deal with this kid.

Since there was someone willing to listen to him, Yuanying spoke to Tang Guan the whole way back.

Once he met up with Tang Xuan and Di Renjie, he quickly threw Tang Guan away and happily went on duty.

While he said that being on duty is tiring, he was excited and enthusiastic when he did it. He seriously went around learning about this and that. If he sees something he was interested in, he stayed back and asked a ton of questions and refused to leave. It was only when Tang Xuan was done and came to pull him away did the boy move on.

When it comes to Li Yuanying’s attitude, many people saw it but didn’t say much. After all he is just a child. No one should be expecting him to really be a law-abiding student.

In fact, many were surprised by his good performance already!

…….

The days in the Academy was peaceful but rumours were already spreading in the outside world but these weren’t bad rumours. They all centred around the good relationship of the Crown Prince and Prince Teng; who did everything together, opening a library, helping refugees, sponsoring the Imperial Academy. Everywhere you go you’re bound to see their shadows. Everyone that brings up the duo had good comments for them – Benevolent and love their citizens like themselves.

Li Yuanying’s essay from his first monthly exam was leaked out into society and this got him even more praises. Many said that he was very talented and bright as if he was a bright star that came down to earth from the skies!

Hearing all these praises made the boy feel good about himself. In the past his reputation was tied to being a demon king but now people praise him for his talent, and some even wrote poetry about him. It’s truly amazing!

Wu Mei heard about these rumours too. As night came, she sat near the lamp with Wei Shu discussing the things that they have heard in daytime.  

For a Vassal Prince it is not a problem to have bad reputation, just put up with a few naggings about it. But to have an incredibly good reputation is a big problem. Why should a mere vassal prince do with it?

Wu Mei has interacted much more with the Emperor than Wei Shu and knows him better than her.

She expressed her thoughts to Wei Shu with some anxiety: “Building a library and giving shelter to refugees were done so long ago. No one brought these up in the past but now people are suddenly exaggerating. I think someone did this on purpose.”

Wei Shu is Wei Zheng’s granddaughter. Although grandfather gives people the feeling of being able to speak and advise, she knows that grandmother is worried about him every day. After all, the Emperor is someone who has dragged out his courtiers to be executed in a fit of anger in the past.

Someone sitting at such a high position will always have suspicion in his heart.

Wei Shu frowned: “Is someone targeting His Highness?”

Wu Mei nodded.

Who?

Both of them fell into deep thoughts. These are obviously overrated praises aimed not only at Li Yuanying but also at the Crown Prince! His Majesty is in his prime, if the crown prince wins the hearts of the people and gathers them together early, what will His Majesty think?

Both girls were going to remind Yuanying about this the next day, but someone beat them to it that night itself.  

Yuanying was assigned under Tang Guan’s team and were to stand guard at night at the dormitories together. The moonlight was quiet, and both boys walked together with a lantern. Yuanying’s mouth wouldn’t stop blabbering about the poems written about him and proudly told Tang Guan that although these poems were not superior works, they wrote great praises which is great!

Tang Guan’s father is a senior member at court. Although he has lately been addicted to vices and had no heart to work, Tang Guan has learned lots from him since young. Seeing Li Yuanying so slack and not vigilant, Tang Guan stops and looked at him seriously.

Yuanying wondered: “Why did you stop?”

“This isn’t something to be happy about. Don’t be too complacent and be careful not to dragged his Highness the Crown Prince with you.”

Why.

Tang Guan shared his interpretation of the situation to him. There is no such thing as a father or a brother’s bond after becoming the king of a country; the position of crown prince is the most difficult to secure. If you’re overly useless you will be scolded but if you are too outstanding, you will be feared. In conclusion being useless or outstanding will put you in a difficult situation but it is safer to be humble at the early stage. As long as you are a good son, you will survive until the time of succession. If you showed too much talent too early, you might not live long!

“There is no such reason. Chengqian is the emperor’s own child.” Said Yuanying with a gloomy expression.

How can a father be unhappy that his son is outstanding?

Tang Guan stopped sharing at this point.

Li Yuanying quietly looked at the dark road ahead before catching up to Tang Guan who had already walked a distance away.

Notes from the author:

Little Prince: I can’t be happy when other’s praises me, that’s unreasonable!