Circ.u.mventing Fate - Volume 2 Chapter 357 Offending Parties

Ah Jin cleared her throat and pushed aside her discomfort and tried to move the focus of the room away from her. So she turned to the Imperial physician and asked, “Would you have prescribed this if she was pregnant?”

The Imperial physician started, “That -… Well, it may be strong but it still wo-”

“Can you say for sure that it would not have affected the child – if, she happened to have become pregnant yesterday -” She caught herself again, her eyes darted to Lei Xing and she quickly added, “Or the day before or the day before th-”

“We get it.” Lei Xing flatly interjected with a frown, “Honestly, just say recently…” She mumbled under her breath, holding her reddening ears as it dawned on her that they were in fact, so matter of factly too, discussing her s.e.x life. Seeing this old physician’s face turning red too made it even worse.

Ah Jin awkwardly nodded and then glared at the Imperial physician, who frowned and awkwardly said, “Well… It would also depend on the situation, but I’m sure it wou-”

“Then that is enough, one should always err on the side of caution. This body is already very weak and being pregnant makes it even more so.” Ah Jin uncharacteristically scolded, “The Empress should be treated with extreme care as if she were already pregnant as we can never know when it could be yesterday- I mean, know the time it could be that she conceived. It could be anytime… not just yesterday.” Ah Jin awkwardly finished, cold sweat sliding down her reddened face

The three people stared at her with curious eyes until finally, Lei Xing cleared her throat and awkwardly said, “Um… something lighter then – Actually, nevermind. I’ll sleep it off. You can go.” She said to the Imperial physician, who quickly bowed and nervously retreated with his offending medication.

Ah Jin let out a sigh of relief, feeling completely drained as she turned to Lei Xing and continued to scold, “Your majesty, you need to be more careful in your actions… and you Xiao Ruo, you should also ask questions. Your role is to advise, not just to serve.”

“I -” Xiao Ruo protested and then turned to Lei Xing with an extremely aggrieved expression. She had tried but Lei Xing never listened to her.

Lei Xing lightly cleared her throat and looked Ah Jin over with a skeptically raised eyebrow, “You… Are you sure you’re alright? I’ve never seen you talk to so much of your own volition before. If somethi-”

“I’m perfectly fine!” Ah Jin loudly exclaimed, causing Lei Xing and Xiao Ruo to jump. Before they could say anything more, Ah Jin bopped her head, “I’ll go pack now.” She hastily said as she rushed out of the room and all the way back to her own room, where she sat at her bed and fanned her heated face.

This was all Doctor Lou’s fault, he just had to have dragged her along with him to Lei Xing’s room last night for what he called a “learning experience”. To be fair, Doctor Lou had no idea – or so he said, one could never truly be sure when it came to him – that they would find Lei Xing and the Emperor so “tangled.”

Even Doctor Lou had been temporarily stunned by the scene and when Ah Jin threw him an accusatory glance, he announced “I am NOT a pervert.” as he directed blankets to bury the two. Before he went over and shoved the Emperor off Lei Xing, with a banket swiftly redirecting itself to cover Lei Xing’s body. Doctor Lou then crouched down in front of the bed and waving Ah Jin over and telling her to learn “well”.

At that point, Ah Jin was not sure exactly what she was supposed to be learning here. But after he fished out a glowing gem from his sleeve, she quickly figured out what he was doing.

Honestly, at that point, she began to worry that she might be doing something that was not allowed. After all, capturing souls for personal use, human or otherwise, was expressly banned. But her master, the great Doctor Lou waved away her concern by indignantly saying “We are simply righting a past wrong in this case – nothing to worry about! Nothing at all! Don’t worry, Shifu will protect you!”

He had quickly covered up that slip-up, but Ah Jin had not missed it nor its implication – there were other souls he had captured and stored like this. But she pretended she did not understand and focused on the “lesson”.

Even though it was worrying, she trusted that her Master was a good person. If he did something, then there was a good reason for it, no matter how bizarre. Moreover, it was not like she would actually report him. Even though he did not officially adopt her as he did with Xiao Ying, he had still done a lot for her.

Moreover, she knew that the reason he had not adopted her was because unlike Xiao Ying, when he found her, she knew who she was and he probably always believed that she would have eventually made her way back home when she was ready to. He asked no questions and simply took her in and well, tried his best to raise her.

After Doctor Lou was done with the…procedure, he went about correcting the scene. With a flick of his finger, the blankets went back to where they once were in the corner, folded. Then the Emperor floated over Lei Xing and plopped back on top of her with a bit more force than anticipated – to Lei Xing’s detriment. But Doctor Lou could not be blamed for that, after all, he was being good and did it all with his eyes “closed”.

When Ah Jin tried to protest this rearrangement, Doctor Lou cut her off with “One must not interfere with the course of events. We must always maintain the integrity of the scene, where possible~ It’s important! Hehehehe~ Let’s go!” He ordered as he swiftly picked Xiao Ying up from the lounge chair and disappeared.

Despite Doctor Lou’s “words of wisdom”, Ah Jin felt bad for Lei Xing and was going to move the Emperor and properly tuck them in but then she turned back to them to find Lei Xing awake and frowning, upset. Doctor Lou’s hold on the sleeping pair had disappeared with him and since Lei Xing was now awake, there was nothing Ah Jin could do anymore so she left as well.

Ah Jin wearily sighed and massaged her head, wondering when all this would be over, “Forget it!” She knocked her head as her eyes spun with the offending memory.

{…If they ever find out that I saw – They’ll kill me! T_T)… but I am most definitely NOT a pervert! This is all Shifu’s doing, not mine! ( >< )…}

***

“You seem to be adapting well.”

Prince Yi knit his brows and immediately sat up to see the Emperor standing in the corridor. He had been lying down staring at the ceiling of his cell. Prince Yi brought his legs down but remained sitting, obviously not bothered with greeting or showing the Emperor any deference. He straightened his back and looked at the Emperor sideways, “Is this it then? An ancient treason plot I know nothing about…”

The Emperor quietly looked at his deviant brother and his lips rose in a smirk. He had thought that he would be upset seeing Prince Yi like this, but he honestly felt nothing. If anything, he actually felt quite pleased with the current circ.u.mstances, “You do realize that I do not actually need a reason to kill you… I just thought it more apt to provide one.” The Emperor said with a smirk, purposely looking to agitate his brother.

Prince Yi smirked back at the Emperor, “I see you have decided to finally show your true colors…”

The Emperor lightly chuckled, “Unlike you, I never hid in the first place. It seems you simply misunderstood my intentions. I turned a blind eye, hoping that you would use the time and opportunity to realize your mistakes and turn back. But clearly, all you used it for was to grow your greed.”

“Hmph! Grow my greed?” Prince Yi went with a snort, as he rose to his feet and approached the bars and glared at the Emperor, ” You sound as if you have never been greedy in your life? You keep talking out the side of your mouth. You say you don’t want the throne, the next thing you conspire to get it. You refuse h-” Prince Yi caught himself and instead said, “You say you want peace with Zou, yet you would happily make their princess face the disgrace of bearing a dead man’s child out of wedlock.”

The Emperor slightly narrowed his eyes at Prince Yi for a bit, before raising his eyebrows and flatly stating, “I won’t spare you. You may think you are protected because you managed to hoodwink the Zou princess but let me make this clear. I fear no one and no country, whether it be Zou or their allies, I can crush them all if I so wished… Do you know what I located today?”

Prince Yi warily looked at the Emperor with knit eyebrows but did not humor him with a response. But the Emperor was not phased, “Would you mind telling me what you were raising a personal army for?” The Emperor asked and Prince Yi went still.

Prince Yi quickly recovered and indignantly went, “What personal army?” There was no way the Emperor should have been able to find them, especially not so quickly… unless the Emperor had already been looking for them. Prince Yi inwardly shook his head, he had to be bluffing.

The Emperor smiled and took a step closer to the bars and leaned in as he responded in a low voice, “When you’re the only antagonist I have left, it’s hard not to connect the dots, even harder to ignore them. You have really grown the numbers since the death of our dear older brother. It seems you are truly more capable than he was. It is unfortunate, but there will be much bloodshed come morning.” He menacingly said with a smirk, seeming to be enjoying himself a bit too much.

Prince Yi’s face betrayed his thoughts as his face paled, he had not actually believed that the Emperor was serious about killing him until just now. It was one thing to bring up the matter of his past treason – he could argue against this by saying that their father had already pardoned him for it by not investigating him and that any suspicion on him was an affront to their father. It was a dead matter. But for the accusation of having a personal army which broke a cardinal rule, there would be no recourse.