Prince Yin Wenyan, Princess Yin Xiulan, and Emperor Yin Renshu are having their mini exclusive conference in their new venue, the Emperor's Hall.
"I already told you, I only know the god of war!" His majesty said more or less five times now.
Her highness rolled her eyes for who knows how many times already. "See? That stupidity of yours is the worst! Truly beyond remedy!" She fans ay herself violently.
His highness sighs as he massages the bridge of his nose. "Alright, calm down you two. It already happened and we can't do anything about it anymore."
"That's right!" The emperor immediately responded. "Xiulan, you're so much of a nagger. That's why you can't get yourself a lover."
The princess closed her fan at once. Her face becomes ashen. "What did you just say?" She hits her brother on the arm with her fan. "Bold of you to say that!"
"Oho? Bold of me to say that? Am I wrong? " Emperor Yin Renshu turns his head to his brother. "Wenyan, you heard that?"
"..." Surprise and disbelief are evident in Prince Yin Wenyan's face. However hard he thinks about it, he didn't notice that she has a lover. He asks, "Xiulan, do you have a lover?"
"I---" Princess Yin Xiulan was about to explain herself but got interrupted by his majesty.
"Who is that bastard? Show him to us." He draws his sword out of its scabbard for about an inch.
Then a long silence enveloped the entire hall. The three of them didn't speak for a while. Her brothers' eyes stared straight at her. One still hasn't recovered from the shock and is confused. One waiting for his sister's response. And one torn between being embarrassed and angry.
"Achoo!" They're too silent that they even heard Lieutenant General Liu Chen sneeze from the outside of the hall.
"Aish! I have none, okay?" Princess Yin Xiulan finally managed to say something.
Well, she really doesn't have one! She reacted to her brother's statement earlier because she refused to admit that her attitude makes it hard for her to have a lover.
In fact, she already asked Liu Chen to go out with her... to a restaurant nearby. The Lieutenant-General just cooked for her instead of going out though.
"Oh." Prince Yin Wenyan seems to buy it immediately and didn't talk about it any further.
"Pfftt..." Emperor Yin Renshu puffed a laugh. "How old are you again? How come you still don't have a lover?"
This emperor... if his sister got herself a lover, he will face him with his sword. If she has none, he'll laugh at her, tell her that she's old and should have one.
Princess Yin Xiulan raised her left eyebrow. "What are you laughing for? Do you even have a lover?"
Emperor Yin Renshu sneers, "Well, technically I have a wife, two consorts, and some concubines."
For the first time in forever, his majesty brags about his harem.
"Oh, right! How could I forget about that?" The princess' tone is filled with sarcasm. "So careless of me to forget that you and 'your wife' doesn't even have a close relationship with each other! You're even too relaxed now that she's nowhere to be found! You let 'your wife' go missing."
His airy attitude disappeared all at once only to be replaced by denial. "I didn't!"
Now, it's Princess Yin Xiulan's turn to sneer. She turns her head to her other brother and asks, "Wenyan, I'll ask you. What was he doing when his wife got missing?"
"Hmm... let me recall." Prince Yin Wenyan pinches his chin as he tries to recall that certain time. After some time of thinking, he replies, "Sleeping. Renshu, you were just sleeping that time."
"..."
Now that he thinks about it, he was indeed sleeping that time! It's when Eunuch Xu went berserk for the first time and sucked a good amount of blood from him, which causes him to lose consciousness.
"Wenyan, you're the empress' husband too! And you don't have a romantic relationship with anyone!" Being pushed into the corner, the emperor tries to pass the matter to the prince." You two are in cahoots against me when you both don't have lovers?"
"Have you forgotten? I am just a double. You're the real emperor so the empress was only married to you." The prince defended himself.
The princess steps in for the prince with a proud tone, "And besides, Wenyan is about to have a lover so don't be like that!"
The emperor's eyebrows knitted and his pair of phoenix eyes narrow. He asks, "You're courting someone?"
He wonders, how come he doesn't know about this?
"I'm courting someone?" Prince Yin Wenyan got surprised by it too.
"Why are you acting surprised? Is it not the case with you and Eu---"
"No. It's not like that." Prince Yin Wenyan immediately covers her sister's mouth with his palm as he sternly denied it. "Xiulan, what are you saying?!"
"Yu... Yu who?" The emperor doesn't seem to let the topic slip away.
"Don't mind it. Xiulan misunderstood it." He let go of her sister.
Princess Yin Xiulan only grins. There's no way she's going to believe his nonsense.
The prince clears his throat and his embarrassed face becomes solemn. "Anyway, let's not keep this long. As for the annual ceremony for good harvest, we can't do anything about it so let it be. As for me..."
He paused. Should he tell them everything? They might get too shocked. And he doesn't have a shred of evidence too if ever they ask him for proof. Even he wouldn't believe it if he didn't see it with his own eyes. Imagine, for almost three decades their mother's body was still intact and unburied inside the grand empress dowager's hall. That would be very hard to believe.
"What did you find out in her hall?" Emperor Yin Renshu asked.
"I found the spirit herb. Our assumptions were right." He replied.
"So they really kept it in there?" Actually, this isn't something unexpected to the emperor. In fact, the three of them anticipated finding out something in her hall.
"But why would they keep it?" The princess can't help herself but wonder.
"..."
Yin Wenyan didn't say anything. What would he tell them? The grand empress dowager kept it to preserve their mother's body?
Actually, he's not planning to keep that matter forever. He will tell them eventually but not now. The situation they're in is already too much to handle. One more shocking revelation might make them depressed.
"Maybe it's for the empress to prevent qi deviation? She's practicing dark arts after all." The princess general guessed.
Not correct but not a bad try.
Emperor Yin Renshu also tries to guess, "Or it could be... it could be the grand empress dowager wants to prevent more wrinkles?"
Sounds absurd but it somehow makes sense. Yueguang Hua is a spirit herb that can renew cells and supply spiritual energy. But still, it's absurd. Too absurd for the current situation they're in.
"Probably." Princess Yin Xiulan opens her holy weapon and gently fans herself. She then commented with her sarcastic tone, "Or maybe, you're just stupid."
"What? She's conscious about her physical appearance though." The emperor tried to reason out.
"Okay, her reason as to why she's keeping it is still unknown." Yin Wenyan lies. "Leave it as it is for now. We will get back to it later."
He continues, "As for Empress Xue Chi, she's not in there. I also went to the empress dowager's hall but she's not there either."
Princess Yin Xiulan speaks, "If the grand empress dowager or the empress dowager didn't hide her, where could she be? Did she run away? But it's hard to sneak out of the palace without anyone noticing. And why is that none of those two asks about her?"
Emperor Yin Renshu replies, "Because they don't know she's missing yet?"
She argues, "But they're not confronting us for capturing her either!"
The emperor scratches his head. "Aaargh... I don't know what to think anymore!"
"It's been a long day for the three of us. Let's stop here for today." The prince said as he rises from his seat. "Also, Eunuch Xu is probably bored in the Lotus Hall by now. And it's time for dinner. I have to go bring him his meal."
Princess Yin Xiulan forms a grin on her lips saying, "Liu Chen cooks very well! Should I ask him to cook for you two?"
"Is that okay? He's a high-ranking official in your ministry."
"Nah. It's fine."
"Wenyan." Emperor Yin Renshu calls out using his serious tone.
Even the princess general turns her head to her other brother. It's rare for him to be this serious so his siblings paid attention to him.
He continues, "I'll go."
Hearing this, the princess raises her left eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
She's a hundred percent supportive of her brother Yin Wenyan to pursue Eunuch Xu. With his other brother Yin Renshu getting in the prince's way, the princess can't help but get irritated.
The prince on the other hand didn't say anything but the gentleness in his face is completely untraceable. Both wearing solemn expressions on their faces. If one will look at them now, that one will be confused as to who is who.
They look totally identical!
"What I'm saying is that I'll go see Eunuch Xu on behalf of Wenyan. I'll also bring his dinner to the Lotus Hall. I'm the one who hired him anyway." The emperor said, still with a serious face. "And besides, isn't it your turn to sleep here in the emperor's hall, Wenyan?"
"..." Prince Yin Wenyan pursed his lips still didn't say anything.
It's true that if he didn't hire him that day, he won't be working directly under them. However, isn't Xu Zhengming a eunuch the first time they met after years of separation? In fact, he met him hours before his brother met Xu Zhengming.
Whatever it is, then again, Prince Yin Wenyan is just a mere double of his brother the emperor. If he thinks through it, he really has the greater authority over the eunuch.
The emperor added, "If I remember it correctly, we both preferred to sleep here, right? So enjoy your next three nights here."
For some reason that the first princess doesn't know, she felt an intense and heavy atmosphere between the two. She felt like she should not dive in any further so she finds her way out of the hall.
"Um... Liu Chen is waiting for me outside. I'll just have him deliver the dinner, okay? Bye for now!"
After that, she quickly left the emperor's hall.
"Wenyan..." The emperor calls again. "Is there something I don't know?"
"What do you mean?" The prince responded with a question.
There are a lot of things that he knows that his brother doesn't know. For example, he knows about their mother's body in the grand empress dowager's hall. His brother also doesn't know that he met Xu Zhengming before.
But Prince Yin Wenyan actually knows what his brother is meaning to say to him.
"About Eunuch Xu." Emperor Yin Renshu uttered. "I noticed lately, aren't you being too overprotective on him?"
"Oh, I see. It's about Eunuch Xu Zhengming. Now that you mentioned it..." The prince continues, "It seems there's something I don't know yet as well. Why do you care if I am indeed being overprotective over him?"
"..." His majesty can't find a word to respond.
Now that his brother asked him that, why would he care if his brother is like that towards Eunuch Xu? Why is he being salty about that?
"Also, if this didn't even cross your mind, you're putting Eunuch Xu at the edge a lot of times already. Have him eat poisoned food. Taking him out in an investigation that resulted in his first encounter with that dead eunuch. And most of all, you burned the only thing that kept him human." The prince continued to roast him. "If I'm not going to be 'overprotective' of him, who will?"
He's not going to deny it. He indeed put him into dangerous situations. But did he even do that intentionally? If he'd only known, he would not permit any harm to go against Xu Zhengming.
"Anyway, I'll be attending him in Lotus Hall for the next three days. You need not show your face to him by then."
Prince Yin Wenyan averted his eyes and casually shakes his head. "Whatever you say."
His majesty didn't like how his brother responded to him but chooses to let it slip. "I'll take my leave now."
He didn't wait for Prince Yin Wenyan to respond and turns his back on him, leaving the Emperor's Hall.