The Child Emperor-Chapter 323: Acting Against Family

“Poison, poison again.” Cui Teng’s face turned ashen, and he glared viciously at Prince Donghai. Standing within arm’s reach, his eyes seemed ready to burst from their sockets and shoot out like stone pellets.

Prince Donghai sat in his chair, leaning back as much as possible, and solemnly warned, “Step back.”

Cui Teng slowly retreated, repeating, “It’s poison again.”

“I heard you.”

“Do you dare say it has nothing to do with you? The previous poisoning attempts were all orchestrated by your mother.”

Prince Donghai’s face darkened. “First, there were only two previous poisoning incidents in total. Second, that was the Empress Dowager’s frame-up. Even if the poisoning was truly related to my mother, she never told me about it. Third, my mother is your aunt, surnamed Cui. If we must talk about connections, the Cui clan is under even greater suspicion.”

“What did you say?” Cui Teng rushed forward to Prince Donghai’s side. This time, not only was his gaze fierce, but he also raised his fist.

Though Prince Donghai had never been beaten by Cui Teng, he was still quite wary of him. He leaned back further, looking at the fist. “Cui Teng, what do you think you’re doing?”

“I want to…” Cui Teng lowered his fist and asked in confusion, “It really wasn’t you?”

“Hey, His Majesty keeps me around as a precaution. I always eat His Majesty’s food, but His Majesty never eats mine. I can’t even bring food to his side. How could I poison him?”

Cui Teng had originally been sixty to seventy percent certain, but after hearing Prince Donghai’s explanation, only twenty to thirty percent of his suspicion remained. He stepped back again and scratched his head. “In that case, the poisoner could only be someone close to the Emperor. There are many such people – dozens of eunuchs and guards.”

“The poisoner is someone close to His Majesty, but the person who provided the poison might not be…”

“Then it’s still related to you. Your family has this habit.”

Prince Donghai kept sneering coldly, looking Cui Teng up and down as if he had long heard of his reputation but was meeting him for the first time today.

Cui Teng felt uncomfortable under this scrutiny. “What? Are you trying to frame me?”

Prince Donghai shook his head. “You haven’t visited Sister Cui Zhao for several days now, have you?”

“It’s so chaotic now, where would I find time to see her? Prince Donghai, don’t try to change the subject. What exactly do you know about this poisoning?”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” Prince Donghai feigned surprise.

Cui Teng was stunned. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly understood and rushed to Prince Donghai’s side for the third time, saying angrily, “So you want to frame my sister!”

Prince Donghai wasn’t as afraid as the previous two times. He pushed Cui Teng away and asked impatiently, “Who are you loyal to? His Majesty, or the Cui family?”

“Of course… His Majesty, but I must also protect the Cui family.” Ever since his eldest brother’s death, Cui Teng felt the burden on his shoulders had grown considerably heavier.

“I’m the same as you, except I must protect the Tan family. So after we separated just now, the first thing I did was ask the Tan brothers if they had been secretly up to something. Only after confirming they hadn’t did I look for other clues. What did you do?”

“I… it couldn’t be related to Third Sister.” Cui Teng put on a dismissive expression. “Third Sister is more timid than a mouse.”

“But she dared to come to Jincheng City.”

“She was escorting the Champion Marquis’s son! And… and when she came, how could she have known that Jincheng City would be besieged by the Xiongnu?”

Prince Donghai let out another series of cold laughs. “Cui Teng, oh Cui Teng, with your limited intelligence, you still want to protect the Cui family? Even the Cui family members don’t trust you, so they hide things from you when something happens.” ŗἁNꝋβЁs

Cui Teng was furious. He spun around in place, then suddenly darted to Prince Donghai’s side, grabbed the teapot from the table, smashed it hard on the ground, and strode out of the room.

Prince Donghai leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding Cui Teng’s aggressive move, and secretly mocked his rashness. He sat there thinking for a while, very much wanting to have a talk with Lin Kunshan, but the fate seer was a prisoner, heavily guarded. Unless the Emperor permitted it, no one could see him.

After being enlightened by Prince Donghai, Cui Teng found things increasingly suspicious the more he thought about it, and his heart grew angrier. He strode through the prince’s mansion, and after turning a corner, he was not far from Cui Zhao’s quarters when he saw two people hiding behind corridor pillars, whispering and occasionally snickering.

Cui Teng was extremely suspicious at this moment. He crept closer quietly to hear what the two were saying.

“Old Six, tell me again, did you really see it?”

“I’ve told you several times already. I saw it long ago. Security wasn’t as tight then, and I was helping move things into the courtyard. I saw it with my own eyes, tsk tsk…”

The other person was itching with curiosity. “Is she really as powerful as the legends say, able to drive people mad with just one look? Tell me quickly, what does she actually look like?”

“Sigh, it’s not that I’m deliberately hiding it from you, but I really don’t want to drag you down with me. It’s bad enough that I’m the only one who’s unlucky.”

“Come on, even if I get unlucky, I’m not afraid—Marshal Deng is fine, isn’t he? He even got promoted.”

“Ha, his is a dangerous position, a cursed post. He won’t have a good end later. Haven’t you ever wondered why the Xiongnu, who haven’t set foot inside the pass for decades, suddenly appeared, and instead of going anywhere else, they came straight for us?”

“Why? Isn’t it because of the Emperor?”

“Let me tell you, but don’t tell anyone else.” The servant lowered his voice. “The Emperor, like all of Jincheng City, is also cursed. What really drew the Xiongnu here is…”

“Good heavens, then aren’t we…”

Cui Teng couldn’t listen anymore. He came out from behind the pillar and glared furiously at the two servants.

Both men were in their thirties or forties. They hadn’t expected someone to be eavesdropping behind the pillar, especially the hot-tempered Second Young Master of the Cui clan. They were both scared stiff.

Cui Teng cursed and kicked one servant to the ground, then threw a punch that knocked teeth out of the other servant’s mouth. As he threw a second punch, the servant instinctively dodged, and Cui Teng’s fist struck the pillar hard, causing him to grimace in pain. He clutched his injured hand, hopping and jumping while cursing furiously.

The two servants finally came to their senses and ran for their lives. Cui Teng chased them for a few steps but couldn’t catch up, shouting angrily, “I’ll remember you two!”

Cui Teng was beside himself with rage. He lifted his foot to kick the pillar, but once again came out the loser, limping toward the courtyard while wishing he could be a hundred feet tall and trample the entire prince’s mansion.

With the war situation tense, even the gate guards were gone. Cui Teng pounded on the door with his good right hand, shouting, “Open up! Open up!”

The courtyard gate opened, and Marchioness Ping’en said in surprise, “Brother, what… what happened to you? Who did you fight with?”

Cui Teng ignored her and walked straight toward the main house. The maids and servants didn’t dare stop him, watching helplessly as he barged into the Champion Marquis’s wife’s bedroom.

Cui Zhao was lying in bed. Having barely eaten or drunk for several days, she looked even more haggard. She struggled to prop herself up and said, “Second Brother, you’ve come.”

Although this wasn’t his sister by the same mother, she was still a member of the Cui clan. Seeing her weak and pitiful appearance, most of Cui Teng’s anger dissipated. No matter how he looked at her, he couldn’t believe she could be the jinx bringing bad luck, much less a poisoner.

Cui Zhao felt uncomfortable under his stare. “Second Brother, you…”

“It’s nothing.” Cui Teng turned and walked to the outer room, where he met Marchioness Ping’en who had followed him in.

“Oh my, dear brother, why are you in such a rush? Did His Majesty scold you? Being close to the ruler is like being close to a tiger—these things are unavoidable. How is His Majesty lately? I heard he hasn’t come out for two days, and with so many Xiongnu outside the city, what are we to do… Brother, why are you staring at me like that?”

Cui Teng suddenly understood. “It’s you!”

“Of course it’s me. I’m your eldest sister, married to Marquis Ping’en. Your nephew is called Miao Yuan, but you never visit him.”

Cui Teng roughly ordered the maids to withdraw, then said seriously, “Why did you and Third Sister come to Jincheng City?”

Marchioness Ping’en looked confused. “To deliver the Champion Marquis’s son to the Deng family. You knew about this long ago.”

“That’s not right. The Cui clan isn’t short of people. To send one child, there’s no need for both you and Third Sister to come at the same time.”

“Hehe, dear brother, this is for show, isn’t it? Third Sister was married to the Champion Marquis after all. We couldn’t very well entrust the child to servants, could we?”

Cui Teng’s anger flared up again. “Cui Shujun, you know I sometimes can act against family, right?”

Marchioness Ping’en retreated several steps. “Dear brother, don’t do anything rash. Who have you been listening to?”

“You! It’s you who talks too much. Third Sister’s bad reputation was entirely created by you.”

“Dear brother, what are you saying? I…”

Cui Teng turned and overturned the table. Cui Zhao in the inner room let out a soft cry but didn’t dare make another sound, much less come out.

”The truth!” Cui Teng glared furiously at Marchioness Ping’en, forcibly swallowing the profanity that had reached his lips. “What I’m telling you is the truth, and I want to hear the truth from you too. Father isn’t here, so I’m the head of this household. If you dare hide anything from me, don’t blame me for being unkind.”

Marchioness Ping’en was so frightened her face turned pale. The half-siblings had never been close to begin with, and Cui Teng was the type who didn’t recognize even his own relatives when he flew into a rage. She was truly afraid and stammered, “Don’t… don’t be angry, dear brother. This was all… all Elder Laojun’s idea.”

“Ha.” Cui Teng wasn’t surprised at all.

Marchioness Ping’en calmed down slightly. Knowing she could no longer hide the truth, she decided it would be better to persuade Cui Teng to help instead. “Grandmother received word that Maiden Wang doesn’t like that little sister Xiaojun has become empress…”

“Maiden Wang?”

“His Majesty’s birth mother. She’ll become Empress Dowager sooner or later. She doesn’t like little sister Xiaojun, and she’s already taking steps to have the empress deposed, or even secretly harmed.” Marchioness Ping’en didn’t hesitate to exaggerate.

“What? But… His Majesty would never agree to that. He and the empress are deeply in love.”

“Of course His Majesty wouldn’t agree, so Maiden Wang devised a cunning scheme. She wants to use beauties to seduce His Majesty. Once His Majesty becomes infatuated with such things, he naturally won’t favor the empress exclusively.”

Cui Teng grunted, immediately understanding how formidable this strategy was. “So Zhang Qinyan is Maiden Wang’s…”

“Exactly. I’ve already investigated thoroughly. Liu Jie was ordered by Maiden Wang to find beautiful women for the emperor, but he was too incompetent to accomplish anything. It was Marquis of Luoyang, Han Chou. He had long been secretly currying favor with Maiden Wang and, acting on her instructions, presented beautiful women to His Majesty.”

“Ah, so that’s it. No wonder the old fellow was willing to give up Zhang Qinyan.” Cui Teng nodded, then suddenly felt something was wrong. “Then you and Third Sister… surely you’re not…”

“I told you, this was grandmother’s idea.”

Cui Teng studied Marchioness Ping’en, frowning.

Marchioness Ping’en said angrily, “It’s not me! What kind of person do you take me for?”

“Then it’s Third Sister?” Cui Teng pointed toward the inner room, lowering his voice.

Marchioness Ping’en’s wife nodded. “Anyway, the Champion Marquis is already dead. Rather than remain a widow, it’s better to…”

Cui Teng felt both ashamed and angry. “What has become of the Cui clan? When Prince Donghai had a chance to inherit the throne, we practically wanted to marry all our sisters to him alone. Now we’re going to… sigh.”

“Struggles between maternal relatives have always been like this. Sisters and aunts entering the palace together happens frequently. The Cui clan hasn’t done anything excessive.”

Cui Teng thought it over. “But it’s useless. His Majesty is devoted in love… How can Third Sister compare to that zither girl?”

Marquess Ping’en’s wife laughed. “That’s why I won over the qin master and his daughter.”

“What?”

“They’re working for the Cui clan now, no longer under the control of the Marquis of Luoyang and Maiden Wang. With their help, it won’t be long before His Majesty favors Third Sister. The problem now is getting Third Sister to recover her health quickly.”

“What did you have the Zhang father and daughter do to His Majesty?” Cui Teng’s heart skipped a beat.

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