Chapter 1: A Broken Engagement? An Elopement? A Deposed Crown Prince?

Page 1 of 3

The sixteenth year of the Zhenwu era.

It was the ninth month of autumn, when the golden season blazed with heat intense enough to melt stone and flow metal.

The Xia Kingdom. The capital, Shangjing.

The Qin Prince’s Residence, main hall.

Sunlight streamed through the latticed windows and spilled across the hall.

Ye Xun sat upright before the writing desk and slowly opened his eyes.

A graceful figure entered his field of vision.

Focusing his gaze, Ye Xun saw a young woman with an oval face standing in the hall. She wore a pale-blue gauze dress embroidered with flowers and cloud-patterned ankle boots, while a carved jade hairpin held her raven-black hair in place.

Fair skin, exquisite features, bright eyes, pearly teeth, every glance radiant with charm...

She was truly a peerless beauty.

At that moment, the girl slightly raised her willow brows and spoke in a calm voice.

“Your Highness, the Emperor has dissolved the engagement between you and Yunqing. Please take care of yourself.”

With that, she turned and left.

Ye Xun watched her graceful figure disappear.

He was utterly bewildered.

Had he... just been dumped?

Then, memories surged into his mind like a flood, crashing through his consciousness in an instant.

Ye Xun frowned and pressed one hand to his forehead. The violent influx of memories inevitably left his head throbbing.

A moment later, he recovered his senses.

Though he could not make heads or tails of it, one thing was certain.

He had transmigrated.

As a transmigrator, beginning his new life by getting dumped was already hopelessly clichéd.

But that was far from the only absurdity.

Today, he had suffered the dissolution of his engagement.

Three days ago, he had been stripped of his position as Crown Prince.

It was truly one disaster after another, like a leaking roof coinciding with a night of rain, or a late boat meeting headwinds.

Ye Xun frowned helplessly.

Of all the things in the world that could happen once in a millennium, why had this happened to him?

After a while, Ye Xun came back to himself and had no choice but to accept reality.

Since he had no power to change it, there was no point dwelling on it.

He began digesting the memories he had inherited.

The young woman who had come to dissolve the engagement was named Shangguan Yunqing. She had been personally designated by the Emperor of Xia as the Crown Prince’s secondary consort. Not only was she beautiful, she was exceptionally talented as well. At last year’s poetry gathering, she had overwhelmed all the young scholars of Shangjing, leaving them unable to raise their heads.

The Emperor of Xia had personally bestowed upon her the title of First Talented Lady of Great Xia.

Her father, Shangguan Panshi, was the Minister of Revenue of Great Xia—the emperor’s own moneybag.

For Ye Xun to have his engagement dissolved by imperial decree today was an enormous loss. He had lost both the beauty and the treasury.

But whom could he blame?

It was all the previous owner’s own fault. Ye Xun was merely being forced to take the blame for him.

How wretched had his predecessor been?

Heh...

His crimes were too numerous to list.

Take what happened half a month ago, for example.

The Great Xia general, Lu Jiuyuan, had hosted a banquet at his residence and invited the Emperor of Xia to attend.

The emperor had thought that although Ye Xun was useless, he would ultimately inherit the throne and would one day need the support of the nation’s pillars.

So he had brought Ye Xun along.

Who could have expected that the bastard Ye Xun would publicly slap Lu Jiuyuan’s eldest daughter, Lu Wan’er, on the backside?

The act left every guest staring in stunned disbelief.

The Emperor of Xia had been utterly humiliated and would probably have crawled into a crack in the ground if one had opened before him.

The result was obvious.

Crown Prince Ye Xun had become the finest subject of gossip over tea among the common people.

They had even given him a nickname:

The Crown Prince, Demon of the Bottom.

Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

Memorials impeaching Ye Xun had poured into the imperial court like carp crossing a river. Quite a few had even called for his removal as Crown Prince.

A wall that has frozen three feet deep does not freeze in a single day.

The civil and military officials of Xia had long since reached the limit of their patience with Ye Xun.

This incident had also become the final straw for Crown Princess Mu Lingshuang.

Unable to endure the humiliation, Mu Lingshuang had fled back to the Mu family estate in Yunnan overnight.

The Yunnan Mu estate was a powerful feudal domain within the territory of Xia.

Mu Lingshuang herself was known as the Martial Goddess of Great Xia.

The Emperor of Xia had exhausted every means and paid an enormous price to arrange that marriage.

Yet before Mu Lingshuang had even had time to bear Ye Xun a child, he had already angered her into returning to her parental home.

With all these matters piling up, Ye Lantian had come under tremendous pressure and flown into a thunderous rage.

He had issued an imperial decree stripping Ye Xun of his position as Crown Prince.

As for the other ridiculous things Ye Xun’s predecessor had done, they were too numerous to count.

In short, he had been a hopeless case—a lump of mud that could never be shaped into anything.

Naturally, there had been no premium subscription.

Not only had he failed to receive a cheat ability, he had started on hell difficulty.

Sigh...

Ye Xun rose to his feet and sighed helplessly.

No divine system to save him...

His parents were still alive...

How was this the kind of beginning a transmigrator was supposed to have?

Recalling Shangguan Yunqing’s graceful departing figure, Ye Xun could not help lamenting the loss.

What a lovely girl.

And with Mu Lingshuang included, what lovely girls—two of them.

Damn it...

If he had arrived ten days earlier, would he not have been able to embrace one beauty on each arm?

Ye Xun truly wanted to drag that scoundrel out and beat him senseless.

This blame should never have been his to bear.

Ye Xun was no longer the Crown Prince of old. He was a transmigrator who had occupied another man’s nest.

But his predecessor had been such a complete bastard that even if Ye Xun did not want to take the blame, he had no choice but to pinch his nose and accept it.

What a calamity...

Ye Xun picked up the teapot from the desk and gulped down a mouthful.

So he had been stripped of his position. Fine.

So his engagement had been dissolved. Fine.

He was still the Qin Prince, after all. He could rely on his status as a prince to live a lazy, carefree life. He would have no worries for the rest of his days.

Just then, the young eunuch Cao An entered the hall carrying food.

Two plates of vegetables and a bowl of white rice.

Ye Xun stared at the meal, utterly dumbfounded.

Was he really expected to eat this plainly?

There was not even a scrap of meat.

This hardly seemed like a prince’s standard of living.

Ye Xun looked up at Cao An in confusion.

“Is... is this all we’re eating?”

Cao An hurriedly smiled apologetically.

“Your Highness, His Majesty has allotted you only one string of cash each month. That is enough for this much food. If we improve the meals even slightly, we will have to go hungry during the latter half of the month.”

“If Your Highness is not accustomed to eating this, this servant can personally serve you instead.”

What the hell...

You can personally serve me?

Ye Xun shuddered and hurriedly waved his hands.

“Forget it. Plain rice is perfectly fine. I’ll do without your personal service.”

He put down his chopsticks. Thinking about Cao An’s words had greatly diminished his appetite, but he continued, “With only one string of cash, who is going to pay the servants’ wages?”

Upon hearing this, Cao An smiled.

“Your Highness, rest assured. His Majesty has already ordered all the servants in the residence dismissed. Apart from Your Highness and this servant, there is no one else left in the Qin Prince’s Residence.”

“Oh, right... There are also Wangcai and a... stray cat.”

Ye Xun: “...”

The enormous Qin Prince’s Residence, plus one dog and one cat, had only four living creatures in it?

Could things get any worse?

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3

“Sigh...” Ye Xun slightly furrowed his brows and sighed again. “As a prince, I do not even have a maid to warm my bed.”

He then lifted his teacup and brought it to his lips.

Hearing this, Cao An’s brows drew together. He hesitated inwardly, then clenched his teeth and made up his mind. Dropping to his knees, he said, “If Your Highness does not find this servant distasteful, this servant... this servant can attend to Your Highness.”

Pfft—

Cough, cough, cough!

Ye Xun nearly choked to death on his tea.

Was this young eunuch really that bold?

Or were the princes of Great Xia simply not picky?

Since when could eunuchs serve in the bedchamber?

“Thank you...” Ye Xun said, smoothing his breathing with one hand, his face full of melancholy.

“Heh heh...” Cao An mistakenly thought Ye Xun was praising him. He lifted the corners of his mouth and smiled. “It is only what this servant should do. If Your Highness is not accustomed to it, this servant can first use—”

Before he could finish, Ye Xun sprang to his feet and pointed at him.

“Stop!”

“Never mention this again. Otherwise, do not blame me for turning ruthless!”

“Ah?” Cao An froze, then hurriedly answered, “Yes. This servant will do exactly as Your Highness commands.”

Although he agreed aloud, he was bewildered inside.

Had they not been having a perfectly good conversation just now?

Why did His Highness suddenly not want it?

He had not even tried. How did His Highness know it would not be good?

Cao An could not figure it out and shook his head helplessly.

Ye Xun was helpless as well. Although the offer had disgusted him, Cao An’s loyalty was as undeniable as the sun and moon.

He was even willing to sell his own body.

He had practically reached the level of blind devotion.

Cao An was not only loyal; he was also extraordinarily skilled at raising dogs. His nickname was Mad Dog Cao, and according to him, his dog-training skills had been passed down through his family.

Wangcai, the mastiff kept at the residence, had been raised entirely by Cao An. It was as large as a tiger and ferocious beyond compare. During last year’s autumn hunt, Wangcai had battled a fierce tiger for fifty rounds without falling behind.

After that battle, the name Mad Dog Cao had spread far and wide.

Still, the nickname differed somewhat from Cao An’s actual temperament.

He was not mad at all. If anything, he was somewhat timid.

Now, master and servant—Ye Xun and Cao An—were dependent on each other for survival.

Ye Xun could hardly hold Cao An’s foolish offer against him.

The eunuch had meant well.

Even if it had been rather disgusting...

After a pause, Ye Xun continued eating the unpalatable boiled greens.

This would not do. He needed money.

And he needed quick money. If he went into business, he did not even have the capital to get started.

Lowering his head as he ate, Ye Xun continued questioning him.

“Do you know of any way to make money? We cannot survive on one string of cash a month, can we? Forget the two of us—even Wangcai cannot be fed on that.”

Cao An also felt despondent at this.

Wangcai was ferocious, but its appetite was even more astonishing. A single meal for it was enough to cover three days of food for the two of them.

He had been worrying over the same matter.

Then, a spark of inspiration flashed through Cao An’s mind.

“Your Highness, there will be a public literary contest tomorrow beneath Qujiang Tower. The competition will involve poetry and prose and is being hosted personally by His Majesty. If one defeats the many scholars and places third, one can receive three hundred taels of silver.”

“A literary contest?” Ye Xun asked in confusion. “What sort of literary contest?”

Cao An replied, “It seems to be... Oh, right. It is being held so that Miss Shangguan Yunqing can choose a husband. Was His Majesty not originally going to marry Miss Shangguan Yunqing to Your Highness? But then...”

He did not continue.

Ye Xun nevertheless understood the general situation.

No wonder he had noticed a hint of unwillingness lingering in that young woman’s eyes. She clearly had not expected the Emperor of Xia to dissolve her engagement first, only to arrange a husband-selection contest for her immediately afterward.

Ye Xun’s brows knitted tightly, and displeasure rose in his heart.

Damn it. The lovely wife who had nearly been his was about to marry someone else?

How could he possibly tolerate that?