Chapter 173 - The Princes Past (1/2)

meanwhile, Prince Yi stormed out into his residence, still fuming. He directly went into his study and locked the door and then proceeded to smash whatever he could get his hands on, venting out the anger that was still raging on the inside. Sending the sounds of wreckage through his manor, causing everyone within to shrink into their shells, all wondering what happened to the Prince, but all too scared to go to him.

Prince Yi smashed everything around him, there was nothing of value in there...Nothing of value in his life.

{...He made me a fool...He must have laughed when I asked to stay with that woman...must have thought I was a fool who was beneath him...I was so stupid...No, he made stupid. It's all his fault!...}

The memories of his years in ignorant stupidity and the years he spent thinking the woman who ordered his mother's death was the only good thing the world. His life had gone down to hell while his younger brother's who had been pitying and worrying about his mother's confinement, rose from the ashes and settled back on the pedestal with ease. While he had never even made it to the pedestal.

He was content at the bottom, life was unfair but he was content but then life became and he could not help but be resentful.....He was jealous, he knew. He might have been unfair, he knew. But his younger needed some unfairness in his life, why did everything always right itself when it came to him, his younger brother had everything he ever wanted. Everything they all wanted.

He had their father's approval. The only one who did. If their father were ever capable of love, he had it. But he was conceited and saw what they all craved for as nothing, held no regard for it, while he basked in its glory. It made sense, Jun Kai was just like their father. Cold, manipulative and condescending. But even still, he still tried to spare him.

When the enraged Crown prince wanted to send assassins, he persuaded him to go for the kidnapping scheme and use the assassination as a backup plan...to give him a chance to live. He knew as long as he lived, the rest of them will always fall to the wayside, but still, he tried to spare him. He was not sure why, but he did and hoped he would quietly disappear from there. They all knew their father well and if Jun Kai really became a hostage and by the enemy, their father may just pay the price, but only so he could bring him back and kill him himself for the disgrace.

And so, he hoped he would take the chance to disappear on his own and make all their lives much easier. The Empress would have been fine, Jun Kai was not really her son and the Crown prince had no mother so her position as the Empress dowager would still have been secure. He worried for her, as he thought she was the reason that he stayed alive until he could leave the palace. After that day when she reprimanded Consort Ji,

Jun Kai also ignored him and he spitefully ignored him in turn. But he was grateful to the Empress, she had saved him and was nice to him on occasion as well, asking after his welfare when she came across him. She was always nice with a warm smile. When everybody else forgot him and treated him as nothing, she remembered he existed. She was nice to everyone. He was jealous of Jun Kai, jealously angry about how licky he had been to have someone that nice. But as usual, Jun Kai never appreciated anything, he had everything but showed a condescending indifference. It was infuriating and so his anger towards him grew.

That was until he had discovered the truth three years ago, when he was finally coming into a new sense of hope, a new sense of being, his world turned upside down again.

By the age of fifteen, their father had already given Jun Kai full control of the army with the mandate to forge ahead and expand the empire. Jun Kai's reputation was soaring to new heights, obscuring the existence of the Crown prince. And the Crown prince was getting increasingly anxious about his situation and had asked for permission many times to join the war, but their father kept refusing him with the words, 'This is where you are needed'.

They had been raised not to question their father, but the Crown prince could not back on this issue and so butted heads with their father many times asking for an explanation as to why the fourth prince was allowed to increase his reputation, while he had to sit here fading into the background. The Crown Prince asked but their father never bothered to give a reason and always dismissed him.

As the days progressed the Crown Prince became more agitated and paranoid. And one night, he visited Prince Yi's manor, incredibly sullen and asked for a drink and while they drank he sullenly informed, ”I am going to be deposed.”

Prince Yi froze, completely baffled, ”What?”

The Crown Prince laughed mockingly and grabbed the jar of wine and gulped it down and then said, ”That's not right. The position was never mine in the first place, I was just keeping the seat warm.”

”What do you mean? You are the recognized Crown Prince and the position has been for so many years. Did father say something?”

The Crown Prince sat quietly for a while, then sneered, ”I have figured it out. I finally understand what it all means...He's going to kill me.”