His highness's Allure - Chap 20
When Pei Zheng spoke in this tone, it was a clear sign that he was not in a good mood.
As slow as Qi Changyi was, one thing he was adept at was reading Pei Zheng’s facial expressions.
He leaned against the side of the desk and rubbed his aching bottom. His clothes were already half dry, but they still felt cold against his skin.
Pei Zheng called out, “Cheng Feng.”
The man in black who had been standing outside flashed into the room, “Your orders, Master.”
“Send the prince back to his palace. This minister is tired, so we will continue His Highness’s lessons tomorrow.”
Cheng Feng affirmed the order, and Pei Zheng turned to leave.
Qi Changyi hurriedly pulled at the edge of his black sleeve and blurted out, “Pei-gege3, are you angry?”
Pei Zheng’s face was icy; he merely stared back at him in silence.
Qi Changyi already knew the reason behind his displeasure; there was no doubt that he had been discovered by Qi Changfeng. He lowered his little head in shame, “Pei-gege, don’t be angry, I really didn’t mean to, I tried really hard to endure it, but my tongue still hurts a little…”
The more he spoke the lower he bowed his head. It was almost buried in his chest.
Pei Zheng finally extended his hand to lift the other’s chin and spoke in a gentler tone, “All right, it’s not about that. I’m just angry that Your Highness was pushed into the Lotus Pond.”
He thought for a while and finally made up his mind.
“Cheng Feng.”
Cheng Feng appeared next to Pei Zheng in the blink of an eye. Pei Zheng lowered his head and whispered something into his ear; Cheng Feng walked over to Qi Changyi and supported him with his arm as they left the study.
Upon returning to the palace, since Li Yu’s injury still hadn’t healed completely, it was a little maid who brought up a bowl of steaming bitter, black medicine.
When Qi Changyi caught a whiff of it, he felt the urge to vomit. However, since he fell into the water today, he would have to drink it to ward off the cold.
As he was sitting in bed, wrapped in a blanket and holding the bowl of black soup, Qi Changyi suddenly thought of the time Pei Zheng had fed him medicine. His face flushed bright red, and the little maid was startled.
“Your Highness, should this servant fetch Imperial Physician Jiang? Your face is all red.”
Qi Changyi touched his cheeks that had suddenly turned hot and stammered out, “N-no, it’s okay, I’m strong and healthy, and I’ll get better after drinking the medicine, please don’t call Imperial Physician Jiang.”
The little maid thought to herself, Your figure is so thin and small, yet Your Highness can still say that you’re strong and healthy.
After finishing the medicine, Qi Changyi groggily laid down and promptly fell asleep.
By the time he opened his eyes, twilight had already fallen, and everything was swathed in hazy darkness.
He hadn’t eaten much all day, so he was a little hungry. Just as he was about to summon a servant, there was a sudden noise from outside.
There was a large group of people standing in the palace courtyard. In the past, his residence was always deserted, so a confused Qi Changyi went outside to see what the commotion was about.
The pretty figure surrounded by the crowd was suddenly revealed: It was the third princess Qi Yirou. She had actually come to Qi Changyi’s bedroom to make a scene.
She was still resentful from the events of the afternoon; this princess who was cradled in the palm of the heavens6 definitely wouldn’t let it go.
After spotting Qi Changyi standing outside the crowd with a pale face, she pointed at him accusingly and shouted, “You vicious fool! Tell me, where did you hide my Yingying?!”
Everybody in the courtyard sucked a nervous breath. Yingying was a snow-white puppy, the beloved pet of the third princess. The dog usually had five servants that tended to it.
Upon discovering that Yingying was missing, the third princess became so enraged that she immediately ordered for the hands and feet of those five servants to be cut off, and for them to be thrown into prison to await their deaths.
After searching for the dog all over the palace, a servant claimed to have seen Yingying running toward the ninth prince’s residence, and the third princess immediately rushed over with her servants and guards.
Qi Changyi was shocked by the accusation. He had been inside sleeping all day and hadn’t seen Yingying. He repeatedly shook his head, “I don’t know, I haven’t seen it.”
Upon seeing the aggrieved expression on his beautiful face, the third princess felt angry and jealous to the extreme. Even though he was a man, he was born with the same alluring appearance as his vixen of a mother.
She stomped forward angrily and grabbed a handful of Qi Changyi’s ink-black hair, pulling it viciously. “You’re lying! You killed Yingying, didn’t you?! I knew you were the same as your Mother Consort, you evil thing!”
Notes
Whew sorry this was my first translation ever! Please forgive me if it sounds super clunky haha, the raw text of the novel actually has pretty simple language in comparison to other novels. Please let me know if there are any errors.
1: flashed (闪), glittering, literally the flashing of light
2: You may know that a long time ago, everybody had to refer to themselves differently. Pei Zheng, as Prime Minister, uses ‘本相’.
3: 哥哥: endearing term for ‘big brother’.
4: 认错: literally ‘admit mistake’. I don’t know how to word it lol
5: Female servants use ‘奴婢’ to refer to themselves, it roughly translates to ‘this slave’ or ‘this servant’, but it didn’t flow well in the context.
6. Cradled in the palm of the heavens (捧在天上). Cradled in one’s palm means to be cherished and favored.
