As soon as Emperor Jingming spoke, several princes lowered their heads even further.
“Fourth Prince, the fight broke out in your residence, you explain!”
Fourth Prince secretly sighed. As expected, being the host of the banquet, he couldn’t escape responsibility.
Under the emperor’s imposing presence, the Fourth Prince had no choice but to explain: “Today was Seventh Brother’s eighteenth birthday. Since he rarely stays in the capital this year, I invited our brothers to celebrate with him. As Seventh Brother currently has no residence, I invited everyone to my mansion…”
Fourth Prince’s explanation made Emperor Jingming’s eyebrows twitch. He suddenly remembered that the Seventh Prince hadn’t been granted a princedom yet, so he had nowhere to live.
This realization made Emperor Jingming feel somewhat guilty when looking at Yu Jin. Though he was uncomfortable seeing this son due to their conflicting birth charts, ultimately it wasn’t the child’s fault but rather heaven’s arrangement. Whatever should be given to the Seventh Prince must still be given. No matter how many sons he had, they were all his flesh and blood, not blown in by the wind.
Emperor Jingming silently contemplated, growing angry. Among all the civil and military officials and palace consorts, not a single person had reminded him of this matter!
Emperor Jingming would never admit to his forgetfulness, instead transforming his sudden guilt into anger directed at others.
“Later we drank too much and started fighting—” Fourth Prince’s face turned pale, unable to continue. The fight was too embarrassing to mention.
Emperor Jingming’s expression darkened: “Does drinking too much justify fighting? Who struck first?”
Fifth Prince suddenly became animated, covering his bleeding head as he shouted: “It was Seventh Brother! He hit me on the head with a wine jar!”
“Is this true?” Emperor Jingming looked toward Yu Jin.
Yu Jin gave a simple “Mm” and concisely replied: “Yes.”
Emperor Jingming’s anger rose: “Why did you hit your Fifth Brother?”
At this moment, not only Emperor Jingming but all the kneeling princes wondered about this question: Why indeed? They had been enjoying Fifth Prince’s boasting at the time—what made Seventh Prince suddenly crack open Fifth Prince’s head?
Yu Jin rubbed his nose: “I was drunk.”
The princes were dumbfounded.
“How dare you!” Emperor Jingming’s eyes narrowed as he looked at his bruised and battered sons, his anger mounting. “And what about the rest of you? Fifth Prince and Seventh Prince were fighting, how did you all end up in such a state?”
Seeing Emperor Jingming’s gaze fall on him, the Sixth Prince, his face covered in blood, complained pitifully: “Fifth Brother made my nose bleed!”
Being too drunk at the time to remember who started it, Fifth Prince righteously shouted: “He slapped my face!”
Sixth Prince exploded in anger: “You hit my nose first, that’s why I slapped you!”
Eighth Prince chimed in: “Fifth Brother struck first! Fifth Brother even kicked me flying, that’s why I accidentally grabbed Third Brother’s vital spot—”
“Pfft!” Among the palace servants keeping their heads lowered, someone finally couldn’t hold back their laughter. Fortunately, the nobles were all too angry to notice, allowing them to catch their breath and dare not make another sound.
The third Prince’s lips turned white with rage. That bastard Eighth Prince—he had planned to suffer this humiliation in silence, never to mention it. Now he had become everyone’s laughingstock. Compared to almost having one’s manhood yanked off, a bloody nose or cracked head seemed trivial.
Why should he be the most humiliated when they were all fighting mindlessly?
Third Prince, filled with resentment, caught sight of Fourth Prince and immediately said: “I too am at fault. I shouldn’t have accidentally torn off Fourth Brother’s pants and undergarments, causing him to be exposed—”
Fourth Prince: “…” What had he done to deserve this?
Emperor Jingming’s beard trembled with rage: “You worthless lot!”
The princes immediately lowered their heads: “We deserve punishment!”
“Good that you know you deserve punishment!” Emperor Jingming’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot. “All of you go to the Clan Court for meditation! No meat or grains for three days. You must have been too well-fed to start such a brawl!”
What an embarrassment—why didn’t these good-for-nothings just run around naked playing in the mud?
Emperor Jingming grew angrier as he thought about it. His gaze fell on the uninvolved Crown Prince, and his brows furrowed: “Crown Prince, one day of meditation in the Eastern Palace!”
The Crown Prince was stunned. It made no sense for him to kneel in punishment, so why should he face meditation too?
This was utterly unreasonable!
Emperor Jingming, still enraged, saw the Crown Prince’s look of defiance and sneered: “Among you eight brothers, six gathered to celebrate Seventh Prince’s birthday. Only you were absent—why is that?”
Whether the Crown Prince considered himself too superior to associate with his brothers or his poor relationships led to being excluded—in Emperor Jingming’s view, neither reason was acceptable.
How could the heir to the throne behave this way? He would struggle to shoulder great responsibilities in the future. He must be punished together with the others—jade must be carved to become a gem.
“I… was wrong…” The Crown Prince’s face fluctuated between red and white as he lowered his head in frustration.
Fourth Prince had invited him, but given his status, why should he give a face to Seventh Prince, someone even Father Emperor had forgotten about?
And Fourth Prince—why put on such a virtuous act every day? Did he want to be Crown Prince? How presumptuous!
At this moment, the Crown Prince completely missed Emperor Jingming’s intentions, feeling only resentment and grievance. Father Emperor was truly biased—all because his mother died early and he wasn’t close to the current Empress Dowager, leaving no one in the palace to speak for him.
“Get out, all of you!” Emperor Jingming waved his sleeve, and immediately several guards stepped forward, whisking the princes away in the blink of an eye.
The great hall suddenly became empty.
Emperor Jingming sat down with a dark face. Pan Hai didn’t dare offer consolation, silently standing to the side with his head bowed.
He had no place to comment on His Majesty’s family affairs—better to let the emperor calm down on his own.
Soon the news reached the imperial consorts in the rear palace.
Consort Xian, mother to Fourth Prince and Yu Jin, trembled with anger upon hearing that Yu Jin had caused trouble at Prince Zha’s residence.
“This cursed child has brought nothing but trouble to me and Zha’er since birth. Who would have thought he’d still cause problems after growing up? Poor Zha’er even wanted to celebrate his birthday—”
At this moment, only one of Consort Xian’s trusted elderly servants was present in the room.
The elderly servant advised: “Please calm down, Your Grace. In my humble opinion, this might not be such a bad thing.”
“Not bad?”
“Indeed. Consider this, Your Grace: The Seventh Prince has turned eighteen, normally the age to meet with His Majesty. But no one dares mention this when His Majesty doesn’t bring it up. With His Majesty’s many duties, how would he remember the Seventh Prince unprompted? Now, whether through causing trouble or not, at least His Majesty has remembered the Seventh Prince’s existence.”
Consort Xian sneered: “What good is being remembered? He’s nothing but a troublemaker!”
“Your Grace, Prince Zha had good intentions, and His Majesty knows this. The Seventh Prince’s troubles can’t be blamed on the Prince. Now that His Majesty remembers the Seventh Prince, he’s likely to grant him a princedom as per custom. Won’t this help support Prince Zha in the future?”
Reminded by the elderly servant, Consort Xian’s thoughts stirred.
Was Seventh Prince’s troublemaking intentional?