The underground palace was dry and shielded from light, so grains and flour could be preserved for a long time. Zhou Huairang found a large amount of rations in the granary, including not only food for humans but also fodder for horses, so much that it filled more than a dozen storerooms.

Zhou Huairang shouted, “Great joy ah, we’ve struck it rich!” With strong fortifications and abundant provisions, even if they didn’t become kings, it was still worthwhile. From now on, all of this would belong to the soldiers of Nanjing!

They had been living on dry rations for days, so when Zhou Huairang saw the rice, his eyes lit up. He wished he could just roll around in it. He eagerly scooped up a pot of rice, planning to cook a fragrant meal for His Highness, when he suddenly heard a strange noise from the front hall. It sounded like a fight, one clash after another.

Zhou Huairang’s face fell. Had something happened to His Highness?

He couldn’t care less about anything else. In his haste, he forgot to put down the pot and sprinted toward the main hall, holding the iron pot shouting, “Your Highness, your subject has come late to protect you!”

The moment Zhou Huairang set foot in the main hall, a stool cut in half flew toward his face. Then, he performed a move that he, a frail scholar, could boast about for the rest of his life.

With quick reflexes, he raised the iron pot to shield his face. The stool hit the bottom of the pot with a clang and fell to the ground.

Since when had he developed such god-like reflexes?

Zhou Huairang dazed, lowered the pot and saw the Crown Prince holding his sword, radiating a murderous aura. Every strike was aimed directly at the opponent’s vital points. Using his sword wasn’t enough; the Crown Prince even used the couch to push himself up and kicked out with all his might, sweeping his leg fiercely towards the enemy.

That “enemy” was, without a doubt, the young prince of Beiyuan, who was “fleeing” all over the hall.

Zhou Huairang breathed a sigh of relief. Even he wasn’t so dumb as to believe that the Young Prince would actually hurt their Crown Prince. Still, wasn’t this a bit too intense?

Wei Zhenfeng had prepared himself for Zhao Mian to draw his sword, but he hadn’t anticipated that Zhao Mian’s fury would burn so fiercely; for a while, he simply could not extinguish it.

He couldn’t fight back, so he could only dodge while trying to reason with Zhao Mian. “Didn’t we agree not to draw your sword? A ruler doesn’t go back on his word.”

“What did you ask?” Zhao Mian’s face and the corners of his eyes were red with rage. His voice was breathless, and his gaze was filled with intense, humiliated fury. “I’m asking you what you just asked!”

Another sword thrust came toward his chest. Wei Zhenfeng was tired of dodging, so he just stood still, as if to say, “Go ahead and stab me if you want.” He thought Zhao Mian would stop, but to his surprise, the other person had no such intention. Instead of slowing down, he seemed to speed up.

…Wait, you’re serious?

To avoid being killed on the spot, Wei Zhenfeng was forced to dodge at the last moment. He then grabbed Zhao Mian’s hand, which was clutching the sword hilt, and said helplessly, “When are you going to get rid of this bad habit of drawing your sword at the slightest provocation?”

 “In front of you, never, even in death.” Zhao Mian said coldly.

Wei Zhenfeng reminded him, “You can’t call Shen Buqi here.”

Zhao Mian’s eyes darkened. “Why would I call Shen Buqi? I’m going to cut out your tongue myself.” Although Zhao Mian’s words were harsh, he couldn’t use any strength with Wei Zhenfeng holding his wrist. He tried to break free. “Let go.”

Wei Zhenfeng raised an eyebrow and actually let go obediently.

He released his grip so suddenly that Zhao Mian, carried by momentum, lurched forward. Fortunately, he promptly used his sword to support himself on the ground, leveraging it forcefully to spin around.

The sword, by pure coincidence, pointed toward the hall entrance, its tip aimed directly at the space between Zhou Huairang’s eyebrows.

Zhao Mian: “……?”

Zhou Huairang instinctively squatted down, hugging his head and trembling. “Your Highness, it’s me!”

Zhao Mian came to his senses. “This has nothing to do with you.” He commanded in a cold voice, “Get out of the way.”

Zhou Huairang didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire of the Young Prince’s mouth and bolted. “Y-Your subject takes his leave to cook you a meal!”

After Zhou Huairang left, Zhao Mian didn’t waste a second and charged again with his sword. “Take this!”

The two fought all the way from the front hall to the bedroom. Wei Zhenfeng gradually grew weary, his movements visibly becoming more strained. He wasn’t paying attention and took a kick to the chest from Zhao Mian, which made him groan in pain.

Wei Zhenfeng clutched his chest. “I haven’t eaten for three days for your sake. Can you not kick so hard?”

Zhao Mian looked at the young man’s pale, handsome face, completely unmoved. “Was it for my sake? Wasn’t it for your child?”

Wei Zhenfeng was surprised. “So there really would be a child?” he said, glancing at Zhao Mian’s stomach.

Zhao Mian was shaken with anger, even forgetting the decorum befitting a Crown Prince, and blurted out something unseemly, “Wei Zhenfeng, what the hell are you barking about?”

Wei Zhenfeng had no choice but to draw the dagger from his waist. “You forced me to do this.”

After all, the Crown Prince was a disciple of one of the four great masters. If he really got serious, it would be difficult to deal with him without a weapon in hand. If he continued to just dodge without fighting back, he might really die under the Crown Prince’s sword.

That would be too great a loss, especially since the fifteenth of the month was almost here.

Zhao Mian saw Wei Zhenfeng draw his dagger, and he scoffed, no longer holding back. Wei Zhenfeng, eager to eat, wanted to end the fight quickly and had to fight with all his might without harming Zhao Mian.

The two went back and forth, fighting to a standstill.

The bedroom they were in was the largest in the underground palace. If their guess was correct, this should be the bedroom the Western Xia Emperor meticulously prepared for himself.

The hall was ornately decorated, with coiling golden dragons carved into the inner pillars. At the very end was a golden and jade-inlaid dragon bed. During their fight, the light yellow gauze curtains were sliced into light strips, scattering onto the bed.

Zhao Mian had to admit that Wei Zhenfeng’s movements were indeed fast, so fast that just dodging took a great deal of his concentration and energy. It was already a feat to avoid him; he had no time to think about where to dodge to find an opening to counterattack—and this was with Wei Zhenfeng having not eaten for three days.

Just as the cold, flashing dagger swung toward him, Zhao Mian retreated several steps until his calf hit something. He didn’t know where he had been pushed, but he had nowhere left to go. The blade was getting closer and closer to him, about to cut across his chest. Wei Zhenfeng suddenly stopped his motion, switching to his other hand, which wasn’t holding the dagger, and gave him a swift push to the chest.

Zhao Mian fell into a soft, light-yellow bedding. His eyes met two golden dragons coiling around a pearl.

Was this the canopy of the Western Xia Emperor’s bed?

Zhao Mian was slightly taken aback.

He… had been forced onto the dragon bed by Wei Zhenfeng?

Zhao Mian tightened his grip on his sword, wanting to get up and continue the fight, but Wei Zhenfeng pressed him back down. “Alright, alright, don’t move.”

How could Zhao Mian listen? He bent his leg and kneed Wei Zhenfeng hard in the stomach. “Let go of me.”

Wei Zhenfeng hissed, his brow furrowing. He seemed a little annoyed, raising his right hand, which held the dagger, above him.

Zhao Mian was certain that Wei Zhenfeng wouldn’t do anything to him, but he still closed his eyes out of instinct. He felt the blade come toward his side very fast, and then his sleeve felt like it was being tugged on. He opened his eyes and looked to the side. His sleeve had been pinned to the dragon bed by Wei Zhenfeng’s dagger.

Zhao Mian narrowed his eyes. “Are you seeking death?”

“Before I die, you have to give me time to explain, right?” Wei Zhenfeng said gloomily, rubbing the spot where Zhao Mian had just kicked him.

“What do you have to explain? Wei Zhenfeng, what on earth are you thinking about all day?”

“I understand that you’re angry, but you have to look at it from my perspective.” Wei Zhenfeng tried to explain his thought process step by step to Zhao Mian. “Your father was able to have a child. I connected that with the possibility that you could also have one. Isn’t that a normal thing to think?”

Zhao Mian looked at the two teardrop moles close to his face and gritted his teeth. “My father used Wan Huameng’s fertility potion. I didn’t. How could I get pregnant? Tell me, how could I get pregnant?!”

“But those three times I shot…”

Zhao Mian interrupted him sharply. “Shut up! Say one more word to insult me, and I swear I’ll take us both down on the fifteenth of this month.”

Wei Zhenfeng patiently explained, “I’m not insulting you. I’m just thinking. Why would your father need to use that? Why did he only have a child with Prime Minister Xiao and not with anyone else? Could it be a strategy for the Emperor of Nanjing to consolidate his power, prevent the harem from interfering in politics, stop the rise of in-laws, and prevent officials from forming factions?”

Zhao Mian’s eyes widened. For the first time, he looked at Wei Zhenfeng as if he were an idiot.

Wei Zhenfeng, oblivious, sat down next to Zhao Mian, clutching his wound. “You are the future emperor of Nanjing. So will you also have to follow Nanjing’s tradition and bear your own Crown Prince yourself, just like your father?”

Zhao Mian was speechless.

Wei Zhenfeng wasn’t comfortable sitting, so he simply lay down. Looking at the two dragons playing with a pearl on the canopy, he said, “Besides, your behavior these past few days has been a bit like you’re pregnant. You were throwing up.”

Zhao Mian: “…………”

Wei Zhenfeng put his hands behind his head and chuckled. “But seeing your strong reaction just now, I knew you wouldn’t actually get pregnant with my child. I was just overthinking it.”

Zhao Mian was silent for a long time, then he said, “Wei Zhenfeng.”

“Hmm?”

“Have you ever considered that my Father and the Prime Minister had my brother and me simply because… they love each other?”

Wei Zhenfeng seemed to suddenly not understand human language: “Ah?”

“Is it so hard to understand having a child with the person you love, and having one or two children who share both of your bloodlines?” Zhao Mian asked slowly.

Wei Zhenfeng fell silent.

The silence that had been with Zhao Mian now transferred to Wei Zhenfeng.

“Does the Young Prince really think that the Emperor only has children to continue his bloodline and ensure a successor?” Zhao Mian said with a hint of sarcasm.

Wei Zhenfeng was stunned for a moment, then said softly, “I really did think that.”

Zhao Mian let out a cold laugh, turning his head to look at the two dragons playing with a pearl on the canopy with Wei Zhenfeng. “Idiot.”

“In the Beiyuan palace, every concubine who gives birth does so to win favor or for the glory of her maternal family,” Wei Zhenfeng said. “I’ve truly never seen anyone who had children for my father because they liked him. My father favored them and had children with them also not out of love, but because he believed that having many children would be beneficial to the stability of the empire.”

The secrets of the Beiyuan harem were things the Qianji Institute had investigated to some extent. The intensity of the power struggles there was something that someone who had never experienced palace intrigue, like Zhao Mian, couldn’t imagine.

Two years ago, when Wei Zhenfeng led his troops deep into Lingzhou and soundly defeated the enemy, his mother died suddenly without warning. It was said to be a sudden illness, but he didn’t know the real truth.

“So, I never thought that an Emperor could have a child with someone simply because they love each other, just like ordinary people.” Wei Zhenfeng apologized. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, I was presumptuous.”