Chapter 114
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Han Jiao’s heartbeat began to accelerate uncontrollably.
Although he had received praises for his abilities from others since childhood, the way Xie Duo expressed it so firmly brought a different kind of happiness to Han Jiao.
Or, maybe it was Xie Duo himself who was different from anyone else.
When Prince Yan or others genuinely praised Han Jiao, their gaze and emotions carried admiration and respect.
Xie Duo, on the other hand, exuded a strong sense of possession when uttering these praises, as if he had just found a precious treasure that would now be claimed as his own.
Han Jiao felt he was overthinking it again. The big boss was actually quite refined and not as domineering as he appeared on the surface.
However, many times, the big boss’ way of expressing things was too direct. He rarely faced rejection while growing up, making it difficult for him to realize when his demands cross the line.
Han Jiao’s personality was the complete opposite. His father was a rather old-fashioned and stubborn person.
From birth, Han Jiao was expected to do the “right things,” like focusing on his studies, avoiding excessive materialism, and refraining from early romance.
Even though he tried to consciously break free from his father’s influence since childhood, his sense of right and wrong was still subtly confined.
Any desire that wasn’t considered a “righteous” pursuit made Han Jiao feel ashamed. The stronger the desire, the more it shamed him, even to the point of wanting to escape.
For some reason, Xie Duo, to him, seemed like an irresistible evil temptation. Even though the recent praise had thrilled him, Han Jiao still couldn’t restrain the urge to escape at this moment.
The feeling of this conflict was driving him almost crazy.
When Xie Duo wasn’t around, Han Jiao could easily daydream about him when he paused from work. But when Xie Duo stood before him, it made him want to escape.
Han Jiao handed over the memorial in his hand to Xie Duo. “It’s up to you to handle it. If it causes trouble in the court, don’t blame me.”
Unexpectedly, Xie Duo, along with the hand holding the memorial, grabbed his hand and pulled him closer, very close, with a mischievous smirk. “Up to me to handle it? The memorial or you?”
Han Jiao hastily stepped back.
Xie Duo immediately released his hand. “Seventh Brother said you taught him a dance that can only be done by two people together to relax.”
Han Jiao felt somewhat nervous for no apparent reason. He raised his eyes to steal a glance at Xie Duo’s expression, and lowered his gaze without answering.
“Why haven’t you taught me?”
“Because you don’t need to relax,” Han Jiao replied calmly. “Is there anything that makes you nervous?”
“Of course,” Xie Duo said earnestly. “You teaching Seventh Brother a dance privately and not me makes me nervous.”
Han Jiao held back a laugh and looked up at Xie Duo.
“I’m not joking, Han Xiaobai. You’ve been putting too much effort into Sixth and Seventh Brothers, as if I don’t exist.”
This made Han Jiao unable to contain his laughter. Such a complaint sounded quite funny to him because he had been maneuvering between Prince Yan for a large part of it, mainly for Xie Duo’s sake.
Xie Duo, on the other hand, felt ignored. Han Jiao didn’t feel wronged but found this misunderstanding quite amusing.
When he saw a bewildered and dejected look on the big boss’ face, Han Jiao suppressed his laughter.
“Your Highness,” Han Jiao explained seriously, “Is it my merit or my fault to cure Prince Duan? Why does it seem to displease you now?”
“I’m just curious why you care so much about Seventh Brother.”
Han Jiao thought for a moment and replied, “Prince Duan is quite pitiable.”
This response left Xie Duo even more perplexed.
The fact that Han Jiao’s focus was on “pitiable” was quite unexpected.
It was quite a coincidence, as Xie Duo felt that his current situation could be considered as some of the worst luck in his entire life. Finding someone more pitiable than himself would require consulting historical records about women like Dou E and Meng Jiang.
What was even more unfortunate was that none of this could be made known to anyone. As the Crown Prince, he couldn’t find another reason to prove that he was more pitiable than Seventh Brother.
“Let’s go.” Xie Duo looked for an alternative route.
Han Jiao was puzzled. “Where to? I haven’t finished my duties yet.”
“To Xiyuan Hall to review the memorials.”
“That’s not a task I can intrude upon.”
“I’ll review them myself, occasionally, I’ll listen to your opinion.”
Han Jiao wanted to follow, but the thought of being alone with Xie Duo in the study brought back that sense of guilt.
“Sixth Brother is also helping me review the memorials.”
Hearing this, Han Jiao’s eyes lit up. He looked at Xie Duo, agreeing readily, “Then let’s go and find Prince Yan.”
Upon entering the study in Xiyuan Hall, Han Jiao saw that Prince Yan was already buried in a mountain of memorials.
As soon as his Ninth Brother and Han Jiao entered, Prince Yan, drenched in sweat, immediately breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and asked them to help review the memorials.
Prince Yan rarely sought outside help in such matters. He had a strong desire to handle state affairs, but the pile of memorials accumulated in the past two weeks had gone far beyond his capacity. He needed to deal with this batch quickly, and he believed in the abilities of Han Jiao and his Ninth Brother.
The three of them quickly immersed themselves in the state affairs. Occasionally, Prince Yan would pause to seek Han Jiao’s opinion.
Originally, the three of them were seated in different places, with Prince Yan sitting behind the desk.
Before long, for the sake of convenience, Han Jiao moved his chair next to Prince Yan.
Following suit, Xie Duo moved his chair next to Han Jiao.
This seemed unnecessary because Xie Duo reviewed the memorials extremely quickly and didn’t need input from others.
At first, Prince Yan was skeptical about his younger brother’s abilities and deliberately went through a stack of memorials that Xie Duo had reviewed. After finding them satisfactory, he followed suit.
Han Jiao couldn’t mark the memorials himself in red ink, so he circled the appropriate suggestions in the imperial court notes and then had a eunuch transcribe them onto the memorials.
Sometimes, the suggestions in the notes weren’t entirely suitable, so Han Jiao would pause and ask Prince Yan how to proceed.
Although asking Xie Duo might lead to a more efficient solution, Han Jiao felt that once he started talking to Xie Duo, the atmosphere would shift away from work.
After a few times, as Han Jiao turned to ask Prince Yan again, Xie Duo also paused in his review and looked over to them discussing.
This was completely different from what the Crown Prince had envisioned.
Xie Duo had brought Han Jiao to the study to personally engage in intimate discussions about state affairs, not for him to engage in lively discussions with Sixth Brother.
This time, Han Jiao’s question made Prince Yan hesitate a bit. He reviewed the memorials twice, checked the imperial court notes, and deliberated for a moment before choosing one of the suggestions.
Han Jiao seemed to want to say something but was still contemplating. On the side, Xie Duo spoke up, “The remarks on this memorial are downplaying the issue. Someone is trying to protect the implicated family.”
Prince Yan paused at these words and carefully reviewed the content of the memorial once again.
The memorial discussed a member of an official’s family in the Ministry of Personnel occupying farmland through abuse of power.
The two proposed penalties in the imperial court notes were relatively mild: one required the immediate return of the farmland and significant compensation, while the heavier one demanded imprisonment for the implicated individual.
Prince Yan looked at Ninth Brother with a puzzled expression. “According to the laws of Great Chu, these two sentences seem reasonable.”
Xie Duo reached across Han Jiao, who was in the middle, and pointed to a section of the memorial. “It’s written here that the local authorities have received six related complaints in three years. If Father Emperor had reviewed this twice or more in the past, this entire family should have been severely punished. The fact that not a single member of their family has a criminal record suggests that the serious offenses they committed earlier have been covered up by their influential connections. This is not a minor case of encroaching on farmland. It’s a significant crime involving collusion between officials and businessmen that has deceived the wisdom of the Emperor.”
Prince Yan suddenly grasped the significance. He furrowed his brow and nodded. “We almost let them slip through.”
Xie Duo looked at him and said, “Sixth Brother, are you tired? Take a break. Leave the rest to Master Xiaobai and me.”
Prince Yan felt somewhat ashamed and didn’t know how to respond.
Han Jiao quickly came to Prince Yan’s rescue. “It’s because the imperial court notes guided Your Highness’ thinking. With the large number of memorials that piled up in the past half-month, I took a shortcut and first looked at the recommendations of the court members before reviewing the memorials. If Your Highness hadn’t pointed it out, these clever individuals might have succeeded in their deceit.”
“Is that so?” Xie Duo looked at Han Jiao with a piercing gaze, as if trying to see through him. “If you hadn’t seen the clues, these two recommendations would have been reasonable. Why did you specifically consult Sixth Brother?”
Han Jiao was startled and urgently signaled with his eyes for big boss to stop talking.
But Xie Duo continued to fix him with that piercing gaze, unwilling to back down, as if he intended to make Prince Yan leave his territory of his own accord.
Indeed, there was an unusual fierceness in Xie Duo’s eyes, and it was out of character for him. He used to show no mercy to his brothers.
The present Xie Duo had indeed changed. Since the desire deep in his heart became clear, Han Jiao’s dependence on his Sixth Brother made the ignored Xie Duo felt like he was sitting on pins and needles. In less than half an hour, his self-restraint had been exhausted.
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