Chapter 5

Chapter 5

To find the missing Dragon Throne, Xiao Yu practically tore the palace apart from top to bottom.

He even drew portrait after portrait of the Dragon Throne-front view, side view, back view, every angle imaginable… There were so many drawings they covered his entire desk.

He even called me over to look. “Does it look like it?”

I nodded. “Yes, yes, it does.”

To me, he looked like he was suffering from lovesickness.

[System, it looks like the Dragon Throne is his true love after all. We’re done for.]

[Holy crap, did I overdo the setting? No! We have to stop him. A man and a chair will never have a happy ending!]

Xiao Yu put away the drawings, walked to the door, and called for someone to come in.

The System frantically urged me to act.

[The male lead might have lost his mind. For the sake of the plot, you have to slap him awake!]

Summoning my courage, I grabbed Xiao Yu by the wrist. The moment he turned back, I slapped him across the face.

“Your Highness, come to your senses! A man and a chair will never have a happy ending!”

Xiao Yu seemed stunned by the slap. His gaze went faintly blank. “You hit me?”

The guard at the door pushed it open and entered.

“Your Highness, your orders?”

Xiao Yu snapped back to himself, gritted his teeth, and without even turning around, handed over the drawings.

“Take these to the Ministry of Works and have them make it as soon as possible. Dismissed.”

The guard withdrew.

I narrowed my eyes in sudden realization, feeling more than a little awkward.

“Oh. So those were blueprints, Your Highness. The perspective drawings were very well done.”

Xiao Yu clutched his injured cheek and sucked in a sharp breath, his expression exceedingly ugly.

“Just now… you thought I was insane, didn’t you? Between the two of us, who exactly is the one not in their right mind?”

I gave an embarrassed laugh.

“Hard to say before. Now it’s definitely me.”

Xiao Yu told me to go outside and clear my head.

I was punished with keeping watch at the palace hall entrance and spent the entire night in the cold wind.

By the time I woke up, it was already noon.

Guards and palace maids were coming and going, yet not a single person had called me awake.

My forehead had gone numb from knocking against the doorframe. I realized a fox-fur cloak had been draped over me, then used the palace door for support as I climbed to my feet.

Xiao Yu held a brush in his hand. “Awake?”

I placed the fox-fur cloak on the couch and rubbed my waist as I straightened.

Without looking up, he pointed at the window.

“The umbrella is over there. Go back and rest.”

At least he still had a bit of conscience.

The sky was pale, and fine rain fell like needles, dense and unbroken. At the end of the steps, someone was kneeling.

I walked closer with the umbrella open and only then saw that it was a sickly young man.

He knelt with impeccable posture. Though the rain soaked his entire face, he never lowered his head or flinched away.

His brows and eyes bore a slight resemblance to Xiao Yu’s.

I left the umbrella with him.

The System said, [That’s the Fifth Prince, Xiao Jin. Let me see… a cannon-fodder villain with basically no combat power…]

At dusk, Xiao Jin came to return the umbrella.

He stood beneath the corridor without entering, leaned the umbrella beside the door, then took a white jade porcelain bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the windowsill.

“A thank-you gift.” He pointed at the wound on my forehead, then turned and left.

That night, after Xiao Yu heard about it, he came over.

“The umbrella I gave you-you gave it to someone else?”

That sounded so familiar.

I hesitated. “Uh… does this mean if I want something of yours tomorrow, I won’t be allowed to have it?”

Xiao Yu froze for an instant. “As long as you know.” He casually turned his head aside, spotted the white jade porcelain bottle, picked it up, and tossed it to one of his subordinates.

“Have the imperial physician examine it.”

It seemed he was highly wary of the Fifth Prince, Xiao Jin.

“Would the Fifth Prince try to harm me? He looks like a good person.”

“Looks like?” As expected of the male lead, Xiao Yu caught the main point at once. “You think he’s good-looking?”

I carefully recalled the Fifth Prince’s appearance.

“The two of you look about the same, I guess. He’s a little paler, a little thinner, speaks a little more softly, and looks more frail and delicate…”

Xiao Yu cut me off coldly.

“Did I ask you to compare me to him? Exchanging gifts in private-don’t tell me there’s something going on between you two.”

I immediately fell silent.

Just then, the person from earlier returned.

The medicine the Fifth Prince had given me really was poisoned.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“At least that proves there isn’t anything going on between us.”

Xiao Yu looked at me coldly.

“So you really are one of Xiao Jin’s people. Otherwise, he would have no reason to kill you to silence you.”

Me: “?”