The Crown Prince feared the Emperor’s thunderous rage and hesitated, not daring to go.

“After Your Highness goes, just say you heard Prince Liang claim he was refining elixirs for His Majesty. Your Highness could not tolerate Prince Liang slandering His Majesty, which is why you flew into a rage and ordered the Crown Prince’s guards to escort those children out of Prince Liang’s mansion. That’s all there is to it. Otherwise, must father and son remain estranged forever?”

Under Old Fang’s earnest and repeated persuasion, the Crown Prince reluctantly changed his clothes and, bringing detailed reports of the bandit suppression in Shouyang, entered the palace to see the Emperor.

As Old Fang had predicted, after the Crown Prince entered the palace and presented his memorial, he began crying and begging for forgiveness.

Only then did the Emperor lose his temper, pointing at the Crown Prince with a face full of anguish: “Tell me… you’re already the Crown Prince! What more could you possibly be dissatisfied with? And yet you still want to harm your brother!”

“Father Emperor, you’ve wronged your son! I had no intention of harming my brother! That day, I truly only wanted to go in and visit my brother! But… when I saw that my brother was indeed refining elixir pills, and he spoke so arrogantly, saying he was refining them for Father Emperor, how could I tolerate him slandering Father Emperor like that? I ordered the guards to escort the children out of the mansion for treatment, then fainted from anger!”

The Crown Prince looked up at the extremely furious Emperor, his mind racing as he choked out: “Afterward… afterward, when I saw Prince Liang was unharmed, I realized that Prince Liang truly was refining elixirs for Father Emperor. I was truly both angry and heartbroken!”

“What?!” The Emperor raised his voice, already on the edge of explosive rage. “So you’re angry with me, your Father Emperor?! Your Father Emperor has disappointed you!”

“Yes! Father Emperor has disappointed your son! I am the Crown Prince… I should be the person Father Emperor trusts most!” The Crown Prince’s face was streaked with tears, his eyes filled with anger and unwillingness. “Refining elixirs for Father Emperor… matters concerning Father Emperor’s dragon body should be entrusted to me! I should be the son Father Emperor trusts most! Not Prince Liang!”

The Emperor’s rage that had surged to his head suddenly felt as if someone had poured a basin of cold water over it. Not only did it subside… but his heart also felt somewhat warm.

After all this commotion, the Crown Prince was competing for his favor here.

The Emperor unhurriedly sat down in his chair, looking at the sobbing Crown Prince, and tossed a bright yellow handkerchief on the ground: “What are you crying for! You’re grown up! Competing with your brother for favor… aren’t you ashamed! And you have the nerve to tell me!”

The Crown Prince crawled forward on his knees to pick up the handkerchief and wiped his tears, still crying.

“Why didn’t I entrust this matter to you! Isn’t it because you’re the Crown Prince! Just like now… Prince Liang has been confined to his mansion for refining elixirs, and memorials from the Censorate are still falling like snowflakes onto my desk! As the Crown Prince… if you were to refine elixirs, would you still want your position as Crown Prince?!”

The Crown Prince looked up at the Emperor, and after his shock, said again: “Father Emperor… but you are my Father Emperor, the person I most respect and love. I would be willing to do anything for Father Emperor! Please entrust this matter to me! I will certainly do better than Prince Liang!”

Although… the Crown Prince’s targeting of Prince Liang this time and disrupting his elixir refining had displeased the Emperor, the fact that the Crown Prince’s actions were motivated by competing for favor and that he regarded him as his most beloved person did diminish the Emperor’s anger considerably.

“Enough! Stand up!” The Emperor leaned against his cushion. “You should not get involved in this matter. Be a good Crown Prince. In the future… this position of mine will be yours to inherit! Don’t let other matters distract you. You must remember… the son Father Emperor loves most is you! Precisely because it’s you… That’s why I don’t want you involved in matters that violate ancestral precepts.”

“Father Emperor…” The Crown Prince wanted to argue further, but saw the Emperor raise his hand to stop him.

“This matter need not be discussed further! If you’re truly idle… then help Father Emperor handle more memorials! My study is piled half-full with memorials!”

Seeing this, the Crown Prince kowtowed in acknowledgment and obediently withdrew from the hall.

Standing to one side, Gao Demao saw that the Emperor’s brows seemed to carry a hint of a smile. He replaced the Emperor’s tea with a fresh cup and said with flattering praise: “Although the Crown Prince disrupted the elixir refining matter, his sincere devotion to Your Majesty is genuine! This reminds this old servant of stories I’ve heard about common families where the youngest children compete for favor—harmless and quite amusing. I never expected to witness it today.”

The Emperor accepted the teacup with a smile: “Yes… The Crown Prince has a filial heart!”

After drinking his tea, the Emperor asked Gao Demao: “How many of the elixir pills Prince Liang sent last time remain?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, about ten remain,” Gao Demao replied promptly.

The Emperor nodded and instructed, “Bring one elixir pill! Also, send all the memorials in the study to the Crown Prince’s mansion. From now on, except for extremely urgent memoranda, don’t send them to me!”

Gao Demao acknowledged the order.

After the Emperor took the elixir pill with water, he lay down on the soft couch to rest.

Ever since the Emperor began using elixir pills again, he had grown increasingly indifferent to governmental affairs. Those memorials piled up in his study were indeed stacked half a room high! And even so… these memorials had all been pre-screened by ministers before being sent in.

But the Emperor felt that his current life was how an emperor should live.

When he first ascended to the throne, he was happy—happy to finally become the person above all others, with no one left who could bully him.

But after the initial euphoria came endless burdens. He had to be a good ruler, had to do better than his father, and constantly worried whether his actions met Bai Weiting’s approval, afraid that Bai Weiting would criticize him over small matters, always speaking of “correcting the ruler,” which made him extremely irritated.

Now that Bai Weiting was dead and the Jin Kingdom no longer had the Bai family, the Emperor felt much more relaxed, yet he still worried about historical records and future condemnation.

In childhood, he lived in constant anxiety from fear of being bullied.

After ascending the throne, he lived in constant trepidation from fear of ruling poorly.

But if he truly let go from the bottom of his heart, nothing seemed so important anymore.

The Crown Prince returned to his mansion with great relief. Immediately following him was the mountain of memorials delivered to the Crown Prince’s mansion. To make the Emperor look upon him with new eyes, the Crown Prince buried himself in his study to handle the memorials without daring to slack off.

The Crown Prince worked tirelessly day and night. Even after finishing the mountain of accumulated memorials and before emerging from his study, new memorials were delivered to the Crown Prince’s mansion.

So when he heard that Bai Qingyan had sent someone to deliver a message saying she wanted to go to Dengzhou on behalf of her mother Dong Shi to bring back Old Madam Dong to Shouyang, and that if the Crown Prince had any urgent matters, he should send messages in that direction, the Crown Prince paid no attention to it.

On the third day of the eighth month, Dong Shi was busy having servants load the festival gifts for the Dong family of Dengzhou onto the carriages.

Bai Qingping rode over on horseback, intending to escort Bai Qingyan out of the city.

Bai Jinzhi came to Boyun Courtyard. Feeling uneasy, she fidgeted for a long while. Seeing that Bai Qingyan was sitting on the soft couch reading a letter from Bai Jinxiu in the capital, she swallowed back her desire to accompany Bai Qingyan to Dengzhou, not daring to voice it.