Disclaimer: This is edited MTL. Do forgive any grammar mistakes as they are my own and not the author’s. I may add some of my own words for clarity sake, but I will try not to change the meaning of the whole sentence. When the author uses 成语 / Cheng Yu, which is something like idiom-like phrases, I may just translate them in simple English if they are not very meaningful. Otherwise, I will add a translation note. An example would be ‘不三不四’, I would most likely translate it as ‘dubious’ depending on the context.

This chapter ends in an exciting way! Not sure if it counts as a cliffhanger but the end makes me look forward to the next chapter! Hmm, I was thinking about putting this chapter in the NSFW site but I suppose it can still get away with a PG-13 rating.

Btw, I replaced all previous reference for dark guard to shadow guard.

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Su Yu was going to maintain a smile at first, but when he heard those words, his face instantly turned grim.

He stepped closer to Yan Ke: “Why? Didn’t you learn a lesson from that time when you were clamouring at the door of my house, wanting to commit suicide? Don’t threaten me! Give me the city defence map.”

Su Yu clutched Yan Ke’s wrist, fiercely exerting strength.

Yan Ke’s felt so much pain that his complexion immediately changed.

Looking at the stubborn Yan Ke, Su Yu directly took out the city defence map himself from Yan Ke’s robes.

Su Yu smiled sinisterly: “Zi Gui, wait for me to fetch you.”

Then he turned around, leaving behind an image of his merciless, cold back.

Yan Ke nodded his head.

I will wait for you to come and court death.

Yan Ke wiped his tears, covering his painful heart, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Thinking about this person whose love had never blossomed before, it’s not good to let him experience this type of heartbreak right?

Yan Ke: “Don’t cry, after the divorce, this bro will take you away to live a happy and carefree and happy life~”

Yan Ke thought further about it, the original owner probably wasn’t in the mood to hear what he had to say, so he closed his mouth and wiped his tears away.

He was just about to return to the manor when he discovered Tang Qi standing behind him.

Both of them stared at each other. Yan Ke was especially awkward as he continued to wipe the tears on his face away, and then smiled towards Tang Qi.

Yan Ke: “You——”

Tang Qi coldly stared at Yan Ke for a long time.

He felt that Yan Ke was a person who did not put up airs and was easy to get along with, so he had sincerely wanted to be friends with him.

But, looking at this situation, his demeanour was probably faked just so that he could achieve today’s results.

Tang Qi: “Crown Princess, please take a walk with this official. The Crown Prince Manor has lost something important. The Emperor has ordered this minister to bring your honourable self into the palace for questioning.”

[T/N: Author uses 您/nin instead of 你/ni, they both mean ‘you’ but 您/nin is the courteous version of you, to be used for elders/people of higher status than you. Previously Tang Qi uses 你/ni to address Yan Ke since it’s more casual and friendly. I’ve translated 您/nin to ‘your honourable self’ to show how Tang Qi is disappointed with him and wants to draw a line with Yan Ke. It should be interpreted as excessively polite, even though it sounds sarcastic in English.

On a side note, the steward always addresses Yan Ke as 您/nin but it’s not very important in the steward’s context so I’ll usually translate that to just ‘you’. ]

Yan Ke nodded his head.

He had already expected it, if they ever discovered that the city defence map was lost, they would definitely detain him.

If he was useful in the war between their countries, he would be a hostage.

If he wasn’t, then they could only kill him to vent their anger.

Yan Ke: “Tang Qi, since we are bros, can I ask you a few things?”

Tang Qi: “This official doesn’t dare to be bros with your honourable self.”

Yan Ke sighed and shiftily got closer to Tang Qi: “I didn’t give him the city defence map.”

Tang Qi: “……I saw it.”

Yan Ke: “That was a fake map. I changed the contents of the map by switching the easy to defend but hard to attack areas with the easy to attack but hard to defend areas.”

Yan Ke seriously patted Tang Qi’s shoulder: “I treat you as a bro, so I told you this. I’ve already sent the real one to Meng You, he will probably receive it by tomorrow.”

Tang Qi saw that Yan Ke was on one hand, irritatedly wiping his tears, on the other, saying that he treated him as a bro. If anyone else heard him, they probably wouldn’t believe him either, right?

Tang Qi: “These words, Crown Princess, your honourable self should say it to the emperor.”

“I would naturally say these words to the emperor. Speaking about that, would I be locked inside a prison?” Yan Ke started trying to get some news from Tang Qi.

Tang Qi: “This depends on the emperor. However, since the Crown Princess has done this type of thing, being locked up is most likely unavoidable.”

Yan Ke: “Is the prison under your administration?”

Tang Qi: “No.”

Yan Ke: “Since you are Meng You’s bro, now that his Crown Princess is in trouble, shouldn’t you do your part for this brotherhood, to help me arrange things properly in the prison?”

[T/N: Author used 打点/Da Dian which can mean bribe or arrange. Yan Ke is hinting that Tang Qi should bribe the guards or arrange some comfortable amenities in the prison.]

Tang Qi: “………”

He talked so much about brotherhood, it wasn’t for the sake of defending himself but to open a back door in the prison?

[T/N: Backdoor meaning like a generic term for either having better amenities, kinder guards or jailbreaking.]

Tang Qi: “Crown Princess, I will give your honourable self a piece of advice, Shu Li’s temper isn’t that good. Admitting your mistakes in front of him without any resistance, might be able to reduce your torture.”

Yan Ke looked at Tang Qi.

Yan Ke: “I feel that, he wouldn’t torture me.”

Tang Qi retorted: “I feel that he would.”

Yan Ke: “Want to bet?”

Tang Qi: “………Bet on what?”

Yan Ke extended five fingers: “Five Hundred Taels.”

[T/N: Depending on the dynasty and whether it is during the warring period, the value of five hundred taels varies greatly but according to an answer on baike/baidu, it’s worth between 10,000RMB-2,000,000RMB. This can buy at least a few years supply of buns.]

Tang Qi: “………”

Tang Qi: “???”

Tang Qi: “Did you forget what’s your current status now?”

[T/N: Tang Qi used 你/Ni here. Hehe I guess he’s not so angry now.]

A soon to be prisoner!

Even if the Crown Prince came back, he may not be able to help!

Yan Ke: “I didn’t forget, a prisoner.”

Yan Ke: “It’s not like I wouldn’t come out, you can give it to me after I come out!”

Tang Qi indifferently answered: “Then we’ll talk again after you come out.”

[T/N: Tang Qi used 你/Ni again here.]

Yan Ke wanted to speak more with Tang Qi, but seeing that he wasn’t in the mood to bother with him, there was no point in him talking one-sidedly.

Yan Ke followed behind Tang Qi, saying that he wasn’t nervous would be a lie, he originally wanted to talk to Tang Qi to distract himself.

But……Seeing that this brother was filled with anger, Yan Ke decided to forget that idea.

After entering the palace, Yan Ke was pressed down by two guards to kneel in the imperial court where ministers would usually hold their meetings at. Everyone in the Crown Prince Residence, were all kneeling in two lines with their heads down.

Yan Ke saw the old steward who had been beaten into unconsciousness and frowned.

In this age where the punishment of a crime would implicate all associates, when someone commits a crime, it means that their whole family would need to be responsible for it.

[T/N: 家/Jia is a word that means family or home. The whole family in this context doesn’t only refer to family members but also the servants of the house.]

He stole the city defence map, while the people of the Crown Prince Residence, especially the steward, were guilty of the crime of not guarding the map well.

The emperor angrily looked at Yan Ke: “The city defence map, was it taken by you?”

Yan Ke nodded his head: “It was me who took it, but, I’ve given it to the Lord Crown Prince already.”

The emperor wouldn’t believe Yan Ke’s words so easily and turned his head to stare at Tang Qi.

Tang Qi bowed. He didn’t hold back anything about what he saw and described everything.

The emperor sat in the dragon throne and darkly scrutinised Yan Ke.

[T/N: Only the emperor can sit in the dragon throne. It’s a majestic chair in the imperial court where the emperor would usually sit on it and make decisions about the matters raised in court.]

Yan Ke felt very uncomfortable under the emperor’s death stare, he said: “I gave the city defence map to the Lord Crown Prince. Your majesty, if your honourable self doesn’t believe me, your honourable self could get someone to go ask him about it.”

The emperor evidently believed in Tang Qi more.

Tang Qi said that he witnessed with his own eyes that Su Yu took something from Yan Ke’s body, and that something was admitted by Yan Ke to be the city defence map.

Tang Qi even mentioned what Yan Ke had said when he was bringing him to the palace, whether what he had said was the truth or a lie, would be determined by the emperor.

Emperor: “Take him away!”

When Yan Ke was being dragged around, he faced Tang Qi and tried to use his eyebrows and eyes to signal Tang Qi. It was only when he disappeared from the main hall that he stopped.

Tang Qi: “………”

The people from the Crown Prince Residence helped each other back to the Crown Prince Manor.

Only Tang Qi was left in the main hall.

The emperor let out a sigh: “Do you think, that he’s telling the truth?”

Tang Qi: “There’s a possibility that he’s telling the truth, there’s also a possibility that he’s lying, this official doesn’t know.”

Tang Qi continued: “But——Your majesty, this official feels, this matter should only be concluded after the Lord Crown Prince returns. Even if Chu Kingdom attacked us now, we can still hold our ground against them for a while, so we can still wait for the Lord Crown Prince for one more day.”

The emperor began to speak but then hesitated: “This temper of Shu Li’s……”

Emperor: “This Yan Ke is still useful, this Emperor doesn’t want him to die for the time being.”

Tang Qi: “This official will stop him.”

The emperor nodded and sent an imperial edict to the frontier.

News from the imperial city wouldn’t reach the frontier so quickly, several lieutenant generals under Meng You only knew that ever since their Lord received a letter this morning, his mood seemed to be quite bad.

Therefore, at this time, no one dared to touch the crown prince’s reverse scale.

[T/N: Author used 逆鳞/Ni Lin which means reverse scale. To touch a person’s reverse scale, means to do something to activate the person’s berserk mode.]

The reason why Meng You was in a bad mood, was because——he received Yan Ke’s letter about going to a brothel.

[T/N: See Chapter 19 NSFW Chapter for the letter]

Meng You sat alone in the general’s tent, looking at the strong and powerful words, sullenly looking at it for a long while, and finally aggressively jabbed the letter angrily with his finger, saying: “Going to a brothel and you can still act as if you didn’t do anything unreasonable? This Lord had never even been there before!”

Meng You: “You want to divorce? You dare to say that this Lord is thinking too much about having feelings between us? Your carrot can’t fit into this Lord’s hole?!”

Meng You was raging alone for a long time, especially in the moment when he took out all of Yan Ke’s letters mentioning divorce from under his pillow to read them again.

Especially that moment when he took Yan Ke’s reconciliation letter out of his pillow and looked at it again.

That feeling of ‘He doesn’t want to divorce anymore’, had never been stronger.

You want to divorce? This lord doesn’t want to anymore!

Who allowed you to go to a brothel! Who allowed you to be the carrot!

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Author has something to say:

Honestly speaking……

I don’t dare to show my face in the comments section anymore (Hides face with hands)

TAT

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Hehe Yeahhh~~ Meng You appears again 😀 I’m looking forward to what he has to say to Yan Ke