“His Majesty values her?” After his loud laughter, the Crown Prince turned cold. “I too would like to know just how great Lord Mo Zi’s abilities are to make my Father Emperor value her so highly. Today is just the opportunity—I must witness it for myself. Perhaps she’s not as good as Xiao Mingrou, otherwise how could Father steal a woman his son had set his eyes on?”
Rumor had it that Xiao Mingrou had first caught the Crown Prince’s eye. He’d told the Empress to select her for him during the selection process, never expecting that after His Majesty saw Xiao Mingrou in person, he directly designated her as a consort.
Unexpectedly, the rumor was true.
“Therefore, even if this prince admires Official Song, I dare not let Father Emperor know, lest I rejoice in vain once again.” The Crown Prince stared at Mo Zi lecherously. “Moreover, perhaps this time it’s this prince who will steal Father Emperor’s woman.”
“Disgusting—” By this point, if Mo Zi still made polite conversation with him, she’d be an idiot.
The Crown Prince flew into a rage. “Song Mo Zi, you’re seeking death!”
“The grand Crown Prince of Great Zhou, future heir to the throne, actually speaks such nauseating words, his mind full of filth—truly disappointing beyond measure.” Was this living proof that wealth doesn’t last three generations? Otherwise, what was wrong with this Crown Prince? He was even worse than the Crown Prince of Yuling.
“Official Song can be as sharp-tongued as she likes. This Crown Prince came here today waiting for you. No matter how much you struggle, you’ll still taste every flavor.” This was no chance encounter—he’d deliberately waited at Wangqiu Tower.
Xu Yang led his squad of men to surround Mo Zi, shouting loudly, “Brothers, we are under imperial orders to protect Lord Mo Zi. We swear not to retreat even unto death!”
The Crown Prince’s mouth twisted in a crooked smile. “Does General Xu think this prince is merely talking and wouldn’t dare take your lives? This prince will show you that even if I kill all of you, my Father Emperor won’t use me as a sacrifice.”
Outside the forest, urgent hoofbeats approached. Dozens of tall horses charged in, mounted by masked knights clad in iron armor, their gazes cold as they looked at Xu Yang’s twenty-some men, long swords gleaming silver in their hands.
Even if everyone on her side fought to the death, they couldn’t escape the trap the Crown Prince had specifically set for her. Mo Zi quietly advised, “General Xu, while there’s life, there’s hope.” She’d already been defeated once today—she couldn’t lose a second time.
Xu Yang turned to look at her. Finding no helplessness in her expression, only a meaningful smile.
Mo Zi then said to the Crown Prince, “Your Highness need not kill anyone. Mo Zi will drink with Your Highness until we’re both drunk.”
The Crown Prince narrowed his eyes. “Official Song is indeed clever and knows how to read the situation. This prince is not one driven by urgent lust. Who knows, perhaps after chatting with you, I might lose interest.”
Mo Zi looked again at those masked knights, then suddenly dismounted and walked before the Crown Prince, lifting her head with a smile. “Why doesn’t Your Highness walk a stretch of road with Mo Zi?”
Xu Yang and his men had their weapons confiscated and were escorted behind.
The Crown Prince’s riding crop was about to lift Mo Zi’s chin when she evaded it. He was quick to anger, raising his whip to strike. “Song Mo Zi, you refuse to learn!”
Mo Zi maintained her smile throughout. “Mo Zi was born with this temperament—I can’t bear even the slightest grievance. If Your Highness wants to win a beauty’s heart, shouldn’t you also accommodate my nature somewhat? Could it be that the Crown Prince has always gotten whatever he wanted and never had to make any effort? Or is Your Highness afraid of this unarmed little woman?”
The Crown Prince jumped down from his horse. “Who would fear you?” The entire traveling lodge was filled with his people. No matter how clever she was, she couldn’t escape.
“I see the forest scenery is beautiful—gentle breeze and warm sun. Why not make the ground our banquet hall and set up a table of wine right here?” She had no desire to enter that filthy traveling lodge.
“As Official Song suggests, this prince will please you this once.” The Crown Prince ordered people to prepare the banquet. “However, in a while, Official Song must sit in this prince’s lap as thanks.”
“Your Highness is truly romantic. If you’re willing to have the spectators stand a bit farther away, Mo Zi can also try feeding you wine mouth-to-mouth, as long as Your Highness enjoys it.” How nauseating, how nauseating. Her heart and liver trembled chaotically, her teeth grinding. She wanted nothing more than to spit all over the Crown Prince, but she forcibly endured it.
“Official Song truly understands. I imagine this is also how you captivated my Father Emperor, though I don’t know why you didn’t enter the palace. What are you doing being a female official?” Because of Mo Zi’s “enthusiasm,” the Crown Prince’s guard slightly lowered.
A pig, even if dragged to the North Pole, is still a pig. Mo Zi smiled, though her gaze was cold. “If I’d entered the palace, how could I have encountered Your Highness?”
The Crown Prince couldn’t see Mo Zi’s coldness, only felt that her smile was brilliantly beautiful, making his heart race with desire. He couldn’t wait to pull her into his embrace, so he reached out to hook that little enchantress who was slender as a willow branch.
Naturally, Mo Zi evaded again. “Your Highness, wait a moment. The table has been brought, and I can smell the wine’s fragrance. I wasn’t satisfied with my midday meal today. I hope Your Highness can feed Mo Zi until she’s full.”
The Crown Prince was about to darken his expression, but hearing her sweet, coquettish voice, he immediately softened. When the banquet was set, he had all the soldiers withdraw outside the forest, leaving only a dozen or so highly skilled personal guards near the trees behind them, who weren’t to appear without his command.
“Official Song, can you be a bit closer to this prince now?” The Crown Prince patted the empty seat beside him.
Mo Zi’s gaze quickly swept the area. The nearest guard was about ten meters away. Though the Crown Prince had them turn their backs, it would be easy for them to look over. She smiled sweetly and sat down beside the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince was overjoyed, his hand just reaching for the slender waist he’d long desired.
“Your Highness had better remove your hand, otherwise if I’m not careful and my hand has nothing to steady it, the needle might pierce through. It’s a poison needle, snake venom—no medicine or stone can cure it.” Mo Zi smiled like a flower. In her palm was a tiny, tiny crossbow actually fitted on her finger, with a pitch-black needle revealing its tip, aimed right at the Crown Prince’s waist.
The Crown Prince’s breathing immediately grew heavy. “You… you dare?” His tone was reproachful, but his voice didn’t dare grow loud. “If this prince has an incident, you won’t survive either. This prince is the current Crown Prince. Even if this prince erred first, at most Father Emperor would punish me.”
“Is that so?” Mo Zi held the crossbow in her left hand while taking a piece of dried meat with her right. “Mm, delicious. Which shop made this?”
The Crown Prince growled low, “How would this prince know?”
“Really?” Mo Zi spoke loudly for those watching eyes, her laughter like bells. Then she leaned close to the Crown Prince’s ear and whispered, “If His Majesty knew you were colluding with Daqiu people, plotting for his throne, I wonder if a few words of reproach would settle the matter?”
Cold sweat broke out on the Crown Prince’s forehead, but his mouth remained stubborn. “You’re talking nonsense! The one colluding with Daqiu is clearly Wu Chengwan. What does it have to do with this prince?”
“Your Highness is too modest.” Her stomach was calling out in hunger, so she discussed while eating. “Although Your Highness is the Crown Prince, you have no military authority. These hundreds of men on this mountain, appearing at your traveling lodge—surely they’re not just guards? I’ll ask His Majesty about this when I return. However, those thirty or forty cavalrymen—even from dozens of zhang away, I can smell their scent.”
“Wha… what scent?!” The Crown Prince wanted to wipe his sweat, but he didn’t dare move.
“The smell of herding sheep and cattle.” Mo Zi took a sip of wine. “That is, the smell of Daqiu people. Has His Highness the Crown Prince never been to Daqiu? There’s nothing else in abundance there, but cattle and sheep fill the streets. People who’ve lived there long all carry a bovine and ovine odor.” Now this was truly talking nonsense.
“This prince has… has never been there.” He should have made them bathe daily.
“As the Crown Prince of Great Zhou, yet your knights are Daqiu people—truly invites wild speculation.” Mo Zi ate and drank, her expression quite cheerful. “Speaking of which, Prince Li’s rebellion has solid evidence, yet he refuses to confess. Now that I look at it, the matter is truly suspicious. When assassins boarded my boat, the others carried nothing on them, but there was one—a minor leader—who carried a protective amulet from a woman. Though someone else might not have noticed anything unusual, thinking further, the other party knew that the woman’s courtesy name on the amulet could become a clue, didn’t they? Wu Chengwan says he didn’t know there was a secret chamber in his bedroom. Such an excuse sounds ridiculous at first, but it’s actually very strange. He’s not stupid either. Since people already searched it out, why wouldn’t he admit where the secret chamber was? Honestly, I don’t like Prince Li because he’s submitted many memorials against me before His Majesty, very opposed to women serving as officials. However, precisely because of this, I feel he’s the type who speaks his mind directly. After all these years of mediocrity, rebellion and usurpation doesn’t seem like something he could pull off.”
The Crown Prince didn’t want to speak, but she pressed with her left hand, frightening him until his whole body turned cold. “You have no reason to suspect this prince. This prince is already the Crown Prince. Great Zhou will be this prince’s sooner or later.”
“Even so, you can’t say it too definitively. His Majesty is in good health, free of illness and pain, in his forties, just entering his prime years. If your Father Emperor lives to the age your grandfather did, you’ll have to wait twenty years. Twenty years from now, how old will Your Highness be? Forty?” Mo Zi laughed lightly. “If you can actually become emperor, it doesn’t matter—forty years old or twenty years old, it’s all the same. What’s most frightening is that your brothers will all have grown up, and the Crown Prince position might ultimately have to be relinquished. Your Father Emperor wasn’t the Late Emperor’s eldest son. Your Highness, your desire to be emperor seems quite urgent.”
The Crown Prince’s face turned iron-blue. “I do want to be emperor. So what?” In his agitation, he stopped using “this prince.” “I am the Crown Prince. Since childhood, everyone around me, including Father Emperor, has been teaching me how to be an emperor. However, I’ve never thought of rebelling. Wu Chengwan was involved in the Yuan family massacre case back then. I had only just turned one year old at that time.”
“That’s true.” Mo Zi seemed to have a sudden realization.
Seeing this, the Crown Prince thought himself cleared and became somewhat arrogant. “Song Mo Zi, before this prince grows angry, quickly put down that poison needle in your hand, otherwise—”
“Why are those Daqiu cavalrymen appearing at your traveling lodge and under your command?” Did Prince Li Wu Chengwan and the Crown Prince each separately collude with Daqiu? If that were truly the case, the Emperor would be pitiful indeed.
“What Daqiu cavalrymen? Do you have evidence? Words alone prove nothing.” As soon as he escaped, he would quickly clean everything up.
“I have only words, but you’re very close to having your words become golden decrees.” Twenty years! “Your Highness, give an order and have their captain come over.”
He wasn’t that foolish, to let her confirm the cavalrymen’s identity.
Mo Zi spoke unhurriedly. “Your Highness, do you know this is a manifestation of a guilty conscience? How about this instead? Pointing a poison needle at Your Highness wasn’t Mo Zi’s true intention. It’s really because Your Highness forced me to this point. As long as Your Highness is willing to let me return to the city, everything I saw and heard today can be treated as if it never happened.”
“Why should I trust you?” The Crown Prince’s eyes were gloomy.
“If you don’t trust me, we’ll perish together. Your Highness really can’t think clearly. After I go report, if Your Highness cleans everyone up, wouldn’t I be shooting myself in the foot?” The longer time dragged on, the more disadvantageous for her. “I’ll count to three. Your Highness chooses one. Die together, or send me back to the city. One, two—”
“I’ll send you back to the city!” the Crown Prince shouted urgently.
The student can be taught. Mo Zi smiled faintly.