Xu Qingyang thought that a member of the imperial family who was so kindhearted, who loved the people so dearly, was the only choice for emperor. So what if he ignored etiquette? The great do not trifle over details. Nothing mattered, as long as the people received material benefits. Xu Qingyang hoped that all the people of Xia could be as fortunate as those of Huainan. He hoped Prince Huainan would be emperor.

Therefore, since entering Prince Huainan’s residence, Xu Qingyang had always attempted to persuade Prince Huainan to take the throne. Emperor Jingren had no heir, so if anything happened to him, Prince Huainan was the most likely person to inherit the throne. He wouldn’t even need to fight for it; Emperor Jingren just had to die. But Prince Huainan was softhearted. He was too fond of his brother and refused to harm him. Even in that attack at the hunting grounds, he had given strict orders to his subordinates not to harm a hair on Emperor Jingren’s head but take him alive at all costs. If not for that, how could so many specially trained warriors have been completely routed!

“Your Highness,” Xu Qingyang said in Prince Huainan’s ear. “You are so concerned about brotherly feelings, but His Majesty clearly doesn’t see you as his brother. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be keeping you locked up in the Court of the Imperial Clan until the fifteenth and trying you over such a tiny thing, just a matter of something His Majesty said. He’s clearly treating you as a criminal, Your Highness!”

Prince Huainan was pretty annoyed about Xu Qingyang droning on every day about how he should be emperor. He didn’t want to be emperor, anyway. He… Well, it would be pointless to say anything now. Who knew Emperor Jingren was such a stickler? He would be taking his meals in prison during the festivities. Alas.

“Well, I…did do something wrong first…” Prince Huainan replied dispiritedly. “Just to shut those censors up, my imperial brother has to keep me in the Court of the Imperial Clan temporarily, even if he’s just going through the motions. It’s just living somewhere else. I can go anywhere I want as long as the Court of the Imperial Clan’s people accompany me. They won’t stop me. It’s not much different than living at my residence.”

During her private talk with him today, the empress dowager had told him how many hardships his brother faced, how frustrating that crowd of censors was, so he had to do what his big brother and his mother said, behave and be dutiful for now. The empress dowager had also said that once the New Year’s celebrations were over, she would pretend to be ill, the sort of illness that required the sufferer’s child to use their own flesh and blood as the raw ingredients for a medicinal potion; Emperor Jingren, in his position, couldn’t harm his own body, so it would be Prince Huainan who bled, showing himself to be filial piety itself. How could such a goodhearted prince be disloyal? And Emperor Jingren would have a credible reason to release him from the Court of the Imperial Clan. The censors wouldn’t be able to say anything about it.

Prince Huainan had been astounded by the empress dowager’s scheme and felt a profound conviction that the woman who had raised an emperor must have more to her than met the eye. What subterfuge!

So he gave Xu Qingyang a general account of what the empress dowager had said. He knew Xu Qingyang well. He had his heart in the right place; he was loyal to Prince Huainan, and he was good to the people. He just liked Prince Huainan too much and was desperate to give him the whole world. No one who sat on the throne would satisfy Xu Qingyang, unless that person was Shen Junyi. Prince Huainan had a great deal of faith in Xu Qingyang.

After hearing the empress dowager’s plan, Xu Qingyang thought deeply, then said, “Just what I would expect from Your Highness’s mother. She is no ordinary person. This way, Your Highness can both clear yourself of the charge of insubordination, and make a name for yourself in the capital, so everyone knows of Prince Huainan’s great filial piety. Your Highness’s bloodline is pure. As long as you are known, you will have no need to form your own faction and take on the ignominious reputation of being disloyal. You will be the only possible choice for the throne.”

Prince Huainan developed a headache as soon as he heard this. He said, “My imperial brother is a pretty good emperor. Look at how well he’s organized the capital. And this year he’s passed a new law to take blood from those unscrupulous merchants and return it to the people. He’s a very wise ruler, and anyway, reading gives me a headache. There’s no way I could read a memorial to the throne. I’m not emperor material.”

“What Your Highness has is the genius of doing good for the people, not the mediocrity of studying dead books!” said Xu Qingyang admiringly. “Besides, isn’t Your Highness always saying you want to return to the capital? That you miss the palace?”

That wasn’t because he wanted to be emperor, though! He was restless because he couldn’t seduce the young emperor without being in the capital! Rather than forge a good reputation in the capital and return to Huainan to continue plotting rebellion, he preferred to be put under house arrest in the palace, so he could see Emperor Jingren all the time!

Prince Huainan, whose aspirations did not match his aide’s, felt a wave of weariness.