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.

Aww this is a sweet and funny chapter.

—————————————————

Meng You: “……”

Yan Ke saw that Meng You stopped talking, so he coughed twice, and continued with a slightly hoarse voice to convince the volatile prince.

Yan Ke: “Look, I committed such a huge crime. Your Yue Kingdom will definitely not want me to stay in your country. You have to be a wise king~”

Meng You: “The emperor is still alive, if anyone else heard your words, you will lose your head.”

“At that time, this Lord won’t be able to protect you.”

When Yan Ke heard ‘beheaded’, he suddenly felt a chill go down his neck, and quickly said: “I was……was saying, a wise crown prince.”

Meng You: “……”

Yan Ke: “So what do you think? Do you agree?”

Meng You: “I don’t agree.”

If Yan Ke didn’t mention divorce, this knotty issue, it would still be okay. But now that he brought it up, he was now guilty of two crimes.

Yan Ke: “Why?”

Meng You said in an unhappy manner: “Do you really not know why? In this Lord’s entire life, I never had anyone climb over my head before.”

[T/N: Author used 爬到爷的头上去, it literally means climb over his head. It roughly means being too excessive and losing the sense of their status by disrespecting the other person in asking/doing too much. I left it as ‘climb over’ for further context behind the next line.]

Yan Ke: “……”

Even though the volatile Lord Crown Prince didn’t say it, but after Yan Ke listened to his words, he knew that he was being angry over the carrot and hole.

Yan Ke couldn’t help but let out a laugh: “Well your carrot can’t be used, so what can be done about it? You won’t even let me plant it?”

Meng You listened to Yan Ke’s laugh, and he scoffed at him in his heart: Very good.

Yan Ke: “If we divorced, I wouldn’t be planting it in your plot of land.”

Meng You kicked the door: “Try and touch this Lord and see what happen!”

Yan Ke: “……?”

Yan Ke heard his footsteps slowly walking away and let out a sigh of relief.

As expected, the brain circuit of this crown prince is not something that ordinary people can understand.

When you talked to him about divorce before, he thought it was just a special technique of coquetry you used to stick to him.

Now everything has been explained clearly, yet the Lord Crown Prince’s brain was now stuck at who was the carrot and who was the pit.

He felt weird. Was it important who was the carrot and who was the hole? No carrots would be used anyway.

Yan Ke thought about it, if it doesn’t work today, there’s always tomorrow. Not to mention that it was already so late, he heard from the maid that Meng You had rushed back from the frontier overnight, it must have been tough on him.

Yan Ke didn’t continue to be thoughtless, he turned around, loosened his bones and then got onto bed to sleep.

His illness had yet to recover, it was only dawn, but Yan Ke’s body had heated up like a stove again.

Meng You originally planned to go to the city gate towers to arrange the specific deployment of their troops to prepare against the upcoming attack from Chu Kingdom. His feet was called back by the steward before he had even walked out of the gate of the Crown Prince Manor.

Steward: “My lord, the Crown Princess is having a fever again.”

Meng You was displeased: “If he’s having a fever, go find an imperial physician.”

The steward did not know about the small couple fight between the Lord Crown Prince and Crown Princess, he just thought that the Lord Crown Prince was being insensitive.

So as an old man who was still alone even though he was already nearing the end of his passage of time, the steward prepared to give some words of advice to the Lord Crown Prince.

Steward: “My Lord, it’s not right for you to say this, even though the Crown Princess stole the city defence map, but my Lord, didn’t you say it too? Before the truth of the matter has been investigated, the Crown Princess is still the Crown Princess.”

“It wasn’t easy for the Crown Princess to marry into our family from such a far place……”

Before he had even finished speaking, Meng You interrupted him.

Meng You: “He was harbouring bad intentions when he married in.”

“The Crown Princess had waited at home for so many days for you but you……”

Meng You’s face emitted a green light as he watched the old steward, really, no wonder this old steward still didn’t have a wife in his lifetime.

[T/N: Face emitting green light seems to be either referencing to how a predator looks with the glow from its eyes or how a green hat (cuckolding) is making his face green.]

Each strike was sharper than the last.

‘His Crown Princess waited at home for many days’, but in a blink of an eye, it became ‘going to a brothel to find a lover’.

If you wanted to assign him a colour, I’m afraid that green is the most suitable.

[T/N: This green refers to having a green hat (cuckolding).]

The old steward was good at reading faces, seeing Meng You’s dark face, he changed the topic and used a technique that works on thousands of people, flattery.

Steward: “A few days ago, the Crown Princess had gotten up early in the morning to prepare a meal for you, this steward wonders if it suited your taste.”

After hearing these words, Meng You was a little puzzled: “……”

He asked in confusion: “You mean, those dishes were made by him? Didn’t he mention in the letter that the dishes were from a newly opened restaurant in the capital?”

The steward thought about it for a moment.

He said: “Isn’t this the Crown Princess not wanting to claim credit?”

Meng You: “……”

Your words are wrong.

Although he didn’t say that he made the dishes, but he certainly didn’t refute the credit to himself.

[T/N: See Chapter 14 for the letter]

Seeing that the old steward was still going to persuade him to see Yan Ke, Meng You waved him away impatiently: “This Lord will go and see him, just a short glance.”

The steward laughed: “Great.”

As soon as Meng You approached Yan Ke’s courtyard, he smelled the pungent smell of medicine. Once he walked in, the horrible smell of Chinese medicine was even stronger.

[T/N: Chinese medicine tends to be bitter and carry a strong scent.]

Last night, his spirit was still strong. Based on his posture when he was alone on the inside arguing with him outside the door, he could have even been able to go out and scold everyone for two streets.

After sleeping for a night, Yan Ke’s original fair and clear face appeared yellow and dull. Under his tightly closed eyes were dark circles from tossing and turning all night without sleeping as his illness made him feel uncomfortable all over his body. His hair binder was removed from his head and his black hair was draped on both sides of his body.

[T/N: It was normal for ancient Chinese males and females to have long hair which reached to at least half their back.]

Meng You’s measuring eyes were interrupted by Yan Ke’s violent cough.

When the maid was feeding the medicine to Yan Ke, she accidentally poured too much, causing Yan Ke to choke.

Because Meng You was here, the maid was frightened as she used a silk cloth to wipe away the black medicine that dripped out as Yan Ke couldn’t swallow the medicine in time.

Meng You frowned: “This Lord will do it.”

The maid stood up uneasily and passed the bowl of medicine to Meng You.

Yan Ke who had just choked on the medicine, even though he was uncomfortable, had no strength and even opening his eyes was a bit difficult for him, but due to his suffering from choking, plus his sensitive taste buds when the bitter taste spread out from the tip of his tongue, he was originally already a person who was especially particular about taste, after being choked for a while, he clenched his teeth tightly and was unwilling to drink anymore.

Meng You lowered the spoon to Yan Ke’s lips, but when he saw Yan Ke not opening his mouth, he immediately felt a bit annoyed: “This Lord had never served anyone before, you better not reject this honour!”

The room full of shivering maids and imperial physicians: “……”

Meng You scooped up the medicine again: “Open your mouth for this Lord, this Lord doesn’t want to repeat himself.”

The volatile Lord Crown Prince’s words only scared the room full of maids and imperial physicians, as for the person lying on the bed, he was resolute in his decision of avoiding the medicine and continued to keep his mouth tightly shut.

Meng You hmphed at Yan Ke and put down the bowl at the side heavily.

He leaned down, pressing on Yan Ke’s body, one by one, the maids’ faces turned red.

Meng You: “Didn’t you want to divorce? If you drink the medicine, this Lord——”

Meng You had yet to finish speaking when he saw that Yan Ke had already opened his mouth.

Meng You: “……”

After he finished feeding Yan Ke, Meng You took the silk cloth offered up by a maid and wiped the corners of Yan Ke’s mouth.

Then, he lowered his volume to a level which only him and Yan Ke could hear and took his time to slowly say: “Even if you drank the medicine, this Lord will still not divorce you.”

　　———

Author has something to say:

From this moment on, the Lord Crown Prince behaviour was as if he had discovered a new continent.

He wanted to eat.

Meng You: Yan Ke, go make a meal for this lord!

Yan Ke: Get lost.

Meng You: If you made a meal for this lord, about the divorce letter——

Yan Ke: My lord, would a Manchu Han imperial feast have enough food for you?

[T/N: Manchu Han imperial feast was a famous feast in history that was said to have at least 100 dishes.]

He wanted Yan Ke to give him a massage.

Meng You: Give this lord a massage.

Yan Ke: Don’t force me to beat you up, get away from Lao Zi!

Meng You: Divorce——

Yan Ke: My darling, is this strength enough? If it’s too weak or too heavy, you must tell me~

Because he said it too much, this phrase has become the Lord Crown Prince’s common saying, and one day, the situation flipped around.

He wanted to sleep.

Meng You’s eyes twinkled: Zi Gui, it’s time to sleep~

Yan Ke: Go back to your own room to sleep!

Meng You: Divorce——

Yan Ke: After sleeping, would Lao Zi still want to divorce? You’re very good.

Meng You: ……No, this Lord didn’t mean it that way……

(Meng You Cu)

[T/N: Author used 卒, this word has multiple readings (Cu/Cui/Zu) and meanings (Pawn/Servant/Finally/Died). When used with 中/Zhong, 卒中/Cu Zhong means stroke/cerebral haemorrhage. Haha so take whichever meaning you prefer~]

—————————————————

Author used 满汉全席/Man Han Quan Xi which means Manchu Han imperial feast. The ‘Man’ refers to Manchu ethnicity, ‘Han’ refers to Han ethnicity. According to Wikipedia, Emperor Kang Xi hosted this banquet consisting of at least 100 dishes of both Manchu and Han food to improve the relationship between Manchu and Han people.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_Han_Imperial_Feast