Chapter 136
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Prince Yan and Xie Duo were not full brothers.
Xie Duo was informed of this secret after the Emperor fell seriously ill.
This was Han Jiao’s most plausible inference, which could provide a reasonable explanation for Xie Duo’s unusual behavior.
But if Xie Duo was not the Empress’ child, whose concubine’s child could he be?
How could the Empress possibly be willing to cooperate with the Emperor and claim someone else’s child as her own?
This was not right.
In the novel, it was mentioned that before the Empress became pregnant with Xie Duo, she regained the Emperor’s favor, and during her pregnancy, she suffered from severe morning sickness, with the Emperor showing unusual concern.
These were details mentioned in the novel, witnessed by many palace maids and even relatives. The Empress’ care during her pregnancy couldn’t have been faked.
Could it be that the Empress’ child was switched?
That didn’t make sense either. Newborn babies changed rapidly, and children born a few months apart could be vastly different. How could they switch the child right under the mother’s nose?
Unless the switch happened right at birth, and the babies were born within nearly the same month.
But Xie Duo didn’t have any same-age siblings.
Han Jiao couldn’t figure this out for now and started pondering another question.
Why did the Emperor insist on having this child inherit the throne?
Looking back, it seems the Emperor, right from the start, deliberately stirred up conflict between the eldest and second eldest legitimate sons while suppressing both sides. He did this to prevent them from growing too powerful, actually paving the way for his youngest legitimate son, who, in reality, wasn’t born of the Empress.
Han Jiao felt like his head was about to explode.
What was wrong with this Emperor? Did he somehow see exceptional potential in Xie Duo right after his birth, foreseeing that he could become an extraordinary ruler for all time?
But deducing from the Emperor’s prior planning, he must have had this idea even before Xie Duo was born.
Yes, before Xie Duo’s birth, the Emperor wanted this child to inherit the throne. Such an urge and attachment couldn’t have arisen out of thin air for an unborn child. It must be because the child’s other close connections have some special ties with the Emperor.
Of course, the most likely possibility was the child’s biological mother.
Though this idea might sound strange, it could make everything logical.
Suppose the Emperor wanted a woman he had a child with to inherit the empire, but he couldn’t make her the Empress, so he set up this grand scheme.
The detailed reasons behind this, Han Jiao couldn’t figure out, but he needed to understand what the Emperor had told Xie Duo to make this seemingly passive prince take a decisive and preemptive stance for self-preservation.
Based on Han Jiao’s knowledge, Xie Duo wouldn’t naturally harbor such caution and hostility towards his once close brothers due to his background, unless Prince Yan had already made a move against him, shattering his trust.
This possibility seemed unlikely. Ironclad as Xie Duo was, he never displayed the kind of cunning from the book. Moreover, even in the book, the corrupted Prince Yan, in the end, still treated Xie Duo as his real brother.
It seemed more likely that the Emperor had done something to utterly destroy Xie Duo’s trust in family bonds, plunging him into the current dilemma.
Xie Duo obviously didn’t want to harm Prince Yan, but he was actively working to undermine Prince Yan’s influence and reduce his power.
Han Jiao’s heart grew cold.
Everything was starting to make sense.
No wonder in the novel, Xie Duo acted so strangely, playing cat and mouse, constantly weakening Prince Yan’s power.
The ultimate big boss in the book always found creative strategies, directly attacking the allies hiding behind Prince Yan but never launching a direct assault on Prince Yan.
This approach might seem like a thankless task, but when Han Jiao first read the book, he thought the cunning and darkened Prince was a genius, deliberately showcasing his skills to torment the male lead.
Even though his behavior was strange, at the time, readers all believed that such a genius antagonist who hid his true self, playing cat and mouse, had a certain dark charm. It seemed normal.
And now, Han Jiao really understood the big boss’ personality.
Xie Duo was a remarkably straightforward person. Becoming his enemy would lead to a swift demise. In other words, you’d die very quickly. He had absolutely no leisure to play games with enemies on the battlefield. The only explanation for his strange behavior in the novel was that he couldn’t view Prince Yan as a real enemy.
But in the novel, Prince Yan took his brother’s reluctance as intentional humiliation.
This long string of speculations made Han Jiao both fearful and relieved.
If the rough cause-and-effect direction of these speculations was correct, Han Jiao could try to find a solution to relieve Xie Duo’s inner conflict with Prince Yan.
How to find the right solution?
He needed to know what that scheming Emperor had actually told Xie Duo. Where could he investigate this?
Han Jiao finally understood why his interactions with Prince Yan’s faction had made Xie Duo so fearful.
The Emperor somehow made Xie Duo believe that Prince Yan was secretly plotting against him. Han Jiao’s previous action seemed too much like a spy sent by Prince Yan.
Surprisingly, Xie Duo still dared to sleep with him every night.
After thinking through the whole situation, Han Jiao’s emotions shifted from shock to fear, ultimately leaving him feeling heartbroken.
His lazy and arrogant stinky little brother had changed overnight, and he only noticed it now.
How did Xie Duo manage these past few months?
In just seventeen years of life, he had been living in someone else’s identity, suddenly not knowing who he was, while the mother and brothers he had always considered family secretly plotted against him.
This world seemed like a false bubble to Xie Duo, with nothing left to trust.
Han Jiao felt such a strong urge to rush into the palace and give his stinky little brother a comforting hug.
If only on the day of confession, he hadn’t said he only liked Xie Duo a little.
He was head over heels in love with his dear stinky little brother, for heaven’s sake!
Xie Duo even asked if he’d still like him if he turned out to be nobody.
Whether he was the Ninth Prince or the Emperor’s illegitimate child, Han Jiao wished that guy’s status wasn’t so high, so he could throw tantrums and demand Xie Duo’s attention anytime.
It was all because that guy was the Crown Prince. Han Jiao had to guard an empty room for a week without daring to even let out a fart, as if he had no basic rights as a lover!
He needed the big boss to know about his feelings, regardless of their status and positions.
But at times like this, he couldn’t rush. Directly exposing Xie Duo’s wounds might make him react defensively. First, he had to gain his trust.
Patience, patience, he had to take it one step at a time.
No matter what, he had to make Xie Duo believe that he was on his side.
To prove this, the quickest way was to go against Prince Yan’s faction.
It seemed he really had to badmouth Senior Minister Xu to the big boss!
The reason Xie Duo couldn’t let go of his guard against him was that he had mixed up his persuasion strategy before.
Every time Xie Duo came home and held him affectionately, Han Jiao foolishly started persuading him not to target Prince Yan’s faction.
No wonder every time he spoke, Xie Duo’s expression turned numb, like stagnant water.
Falling in love with an “enemy spy” was a unique experience. The big boss could definitely fill an ocean with his woes.
Han Jiao regretted and sighed for not acting differently. To make amends, he decided to somehow obtain the accounts of Senior Minister Xu’s subordinates, to see if he could find any corrupt officials and help the big boss get rid of a few of them.
With a clear plan in mind, Han Jiao started to vigorously pursue the big boss.
From acquaintances to secret admirers, from secret admirers to lovers, it had always been Xie Duo making the effort to get close to him, putting aside the face of Great Chu’s number one cuju master. Now that the cuju master was injured and trying to avoid everyone, it was time for Han Jiao to persist.
So, Han Jiao went to seek an audience in the Xiyuan Hall every day.
Fortunately, Xie Duo didn’t reject his advances. He just seemed a bit uneasy, probably fearing Han Jiao’s persistent questions about Prince Yan’s faction.
But in a matter of days, Xie Duo noticed that the interests of the little child prodigy had shifted.
Han Jiao sat beside him at the dragon desk, neither helping with official documents nor discussing state affairs, just reading a book on the side.
He was reading some unserious books, probably from who knows where, filled with a lot of “action scenes.”
Han Jiao, with a poker face, read these explicit books on the side, and when he encountered overly dramatic scenes, he would share them with the big boss.
“In this book, the hero fought his enemy for two days and two nights before emerging victorious, then saved his wife. After that, he got all intimate in a cave until morning, and the next day, he went right back to confront his foes, as if he didn’t need sleep at all,” Han Jiao propped up his chin with one hand and quipped to the big boss, “How can anyone not sleep for two days and still go on for a whole night?”
After hearing his question, the big boss, who was holding official documents, looked thoroughly confused.
Han Jiao straightened up and leaned closer to Xie Duo, raising an eyebrow as he asked, “Hmm?”
In that instant, his fighting spirit was ignited. Xie Duo dangerously squinted his eyes and spoke in a deep voice, “I accept your challenge.”
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