Chapter 12
After that encounter, the crown prince saw me as an even bigger thorn in his side.
Until one day, when someone tried to assassinate him, and the assassin got away.
The emperor grew anxious at once. Painful as it was, he even let me serve as the crown prince’s guard for a while.
At first, the crown prince treated me with disdain.
Until he argued with a subordinate, and I sent the subordinate flying.
The ten-year-old seventh prince ran over and collided with him. I sent the seventh prince flying.
The seventy-year-old grand tutor scolded him. I sent the grand tutor… The crown prince desperately held me back. “You really can’t hit this one!”
Fine. The grand tutor got a reprieve.
He argued with the crown princess. I sent the crown princess… The crown prince dropped to his knees. “Not this one either!”
I worked myself up into a mighty little huff.
Can’t hit this one, can’t hit that one. Who could I hit?
“You can’t hit me or my father,” said the crown prince. “Nor the old, the young, the ill, the disabled, or the pregnant. Anyone else, hit them and I’ll take responsibility.”
It really was wonderful to follow the right person. I discovered that my range of permissible targets had expanded.
Once I returned to my adoptive father’s side, even the crown prince would be fair game again.
The second prince was competing with him for the succession. Although it hadn’t gone as far as assassination, he was still driving the crown prince mad.
In his inexperience, the crown prince complained to me.
So when the second prince and the crown prince argued over policy again at court,
I rushed over and punched the second prince.
The crown prince reacted fast. In the next instant, he handed me his court tablet.
I took it, thought for a few seconds, and asked earnestly, “Are you the emperor?”
The second prince had been about to fly into a rage. Now he didn’t dare.
“No. The emperor is my father.”
“Are you the crown prince, then?”
“I haven’t become crown prince yet, have I?”
“And you’re not old, a little child, ill, or disabled?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“Then you’re certainly not pregnant?”
“Are you blind?”
No problem, then.
Reassured, I applied the miraculous power of brute force.
I whipped the second prince into a bamboo mat.
Every mark on his body was evenly spaced, in neat, orderly rows.
Stunned by the beating, he pointed at me and cursed. “Are you out of your mind? I’m not a bloody assassin!”
“You’ve stabbed the crown prince through the heart, and you say you’re not an assassin!”
The second prince turned to confront the crown prince. “Brother, where on earth did you find this mons—”
The crown prince covered his mouth. “Don’t you say that about her! She simply cares too much about her family!”
“You’re insane! Am I not her family too? Are you the only one born to our father?”
The crown prince sheepishly withdrew his hand.
At that moment, he deeply understood the emperor and Ye Cangfeng.
So this was what it felt like to have me at his back.
It was absolutely fantastic!
The crown prince apologized and made amends, but the second prince refused to accept them.
“Brother, unless you transfer our sister to me.”
The crown prince’s face changed instantly. “Piss off! Don’t push your luck!”
But once the assassin was caught, no matter how reluctant the crown prince was, I returned to the emperor.
Over this, the crown prince had a huge argument with his father. He even resorted to rolling on the floor. In the end, he still couldn’t keep me.
Before I left, he held my sleeve, loath to let go. “Sister, once I succeed to the throne, you must remember to come and protect me!”
I brushed him off. “We’ll talk when our dad’s dead.”