Translated by Eve

　　Edited by Wuxian

　　Situ Yu was preoccupied with the truth he had just discovered and the protagonist shou, Lin Xiao, who was suffering from an unexpected calamity, felt like the whole world had gone dark.

　　Who the heck was the Fourth Prince? Did he have anything to do with him? Lin Xiao had thought that he had been low-profile enough in the past. He never thought that a prince would unexpectedly take a fancy towards him and even request the Emperor to bestow them a marriage. This was simply a nightmare!

　　The sisters by his side were acting very strangely. They fawned over him, flattered him, and were in crazy fits of rage and jealousy. Meanwhile, Lin Xiao felt so bitter that he could find no words to describe it. He didn't want to climb up via the Fourth Prince at all, OK?!

　　Although he was brought up as a woman since he was young, Lin Xiao himself knew that he was a man. He had never planned on marrying into another man's family. His only hope was to grow up in peace before sneaking out to purchase some property and settle his birth mother down there. He would then wait for a good opportunity to fake his death, rid himself of his ident.i.ty, and then change his appearance.

　　Unfortunately, all of his plans were ruined by the Fourth Prince that had unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere! Lin Xiao was filled with complaints. Every night, he would roll up his quilt and beat it up, pretending that it was the Fourth Prince. Of course, what was more important was thinking about how to free himself from this farce.

　　He thought about it over and over. As in the plot, Lin Xiao decided to tarnish his own reputation and quickly set out to do so. After Zhao Xihe learned about his every movement via his secret agent, Sui Yuan was put to ease.

　　The plot at this moment had nothing to do with Sui Yuan. After having successfully facilitated the opportune connection between the bride and groom—the protagonist gong and shou—Sui Yuan could finally let his heart settle back down and happily wait for the plot to progress to the point in time in which Situ Yu finds out about Lin Xiao's ident.i.ty as a man. When the two people would stand hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder and begin to destroy the plans of Xu Tu and Situ Gui, only then would he appear on stage once more.

　　As for Zhao Xihe, he naturally would not be like Sui Yuan and simple-mindedly beam with happiness when he saw that the plot was 'advancing normally'. The Emperor had secret agents all across the country and the Capital was of the highest priority. After the secret agents reported back, Zhao Xihe found out quite a bit of information that had been neglected by Sui Yuan. Furthermore, he was naturally very clear on just why Situ Yu had suddenly changed his att.i.tude and decided to have Lin Xiao enter his harem. He had even been the one who had given a hint, thereby 'letting the cat out of the bag', so that Situ Yu would be able to perceive the relations.h.i.+p between himself and Sui Yuan.

　　This was a warning. So long as Situ Yu obediently concentrated on his task—which was to follow the plot with Lin Xiao— then Zhao Xihe would naturally wait until the right moment to abdicate and hand his position over to him. However, if he was unwilling to give up…Zhao Xihe would not mind letting him become a mere skeleton of an Emperor.

　　After settling the plot's crisis, Sui Yuan, of course, would be in the mood to play around. He truly did like the lifestyle of a hedonistic, rich son. Unfortunately, 'it is easier to invite the devil in than to send him away'. Sui Yuan had made friends with Zhang Zhenye and Xie Ling for the sake of playing matchmaker for Situ Yu and Lin Xiao. Now, he's obtained his wish, but the two people were still enthusiastically friendly towards him and would untiringly come entangle themselves with him. This rather annoyed Sui Yuan.

　　Xie Ling could write and Zhang Zhenye could fight. These two people were certainly the perfect companions to go out with. To see an opera while sipping tea, to go on a walk and appreciate the scenery in the spring—the eloquent and distinguished Xie Ling would always clearly and logically narrate all sorts of folklore. Even after hearing it a thousand times, one would not grow tired of them. Meanwhile, hunting on horseback and partic.i.p.ating in cuju tournaments were Zhang Zhenye's specialties. To face off against worthy opponents would stir up one's compet.i.tiveness and desire to win, making people want to keep on fighting despite all setbacks.

　　Thus, regardless of how Sui Yuan was completely unwilling in the beginning, in the end, he had a lot of fun with the two people and enjoyed himself so much he forgot to go home. This made Zhao Xihe feel upset at Sui Yuan for not fighting back enough, but whenever he saw Sui Yuan's happy appearance, he would not be able to harden his heart to stop him.

　　——They were only father and son in name, but because Sui Yuan's appearance and character settings were evidently especially childish, it really did make him feel as if he was raising a son. It really made him feel extremely anxious.

　　Of course, the worst was Situ Yu squeezing in at some unknown point in time. He had changed his previous att.i.tude of avoiding Sui Yuan like he was the plague, thereby quite baffling Sui Yuan.

　　——Could it be that he was worried that his right and left arms would be hooked away by Xu Tu, who belonged to the enemy faction, and therefore came over to monitor things? However, why the heck did he always use that expression that seemed to say 'he wanted to speak but was hesitating' and 'he was holding a secret he'd take to his grave' to stare at him?! Sui Yuan was being made nervous by the previously normal protagonist gong. He could totally not figure out just what he wanted to do!

　　Meanwhile, Xie Ling, who perceived this too, also could not understand just what his master was thinking.

　　When he met with Sui Yuan's inquisitive look, Xie Ling, who was riding atop a horse, slightly shook his head. He could feel the abnormality of his master's state as of late, but no matter how he tried to directly or indirectly ask about it, the other would only keep silent. He did not give him any chance to inquire about it.

　　So as to not anger Situ Yu, Xie Ling could only restrain any superfluous curiosity and guess in silence whether his marriage with Lin Xiao had anything to do with this. After all, it was after Situ Yu had raised the matter of having Lin Xiao enter his residence that he had become this abnormal.

　　Of course, there was also another possibility…Xie Ling s.h.i.+fted his gaze towards Xu Tu, who was urging on his horse to chase after Zhang Zhenye, after making a wager with the other while laughing, and knitted his brows. Situ Yu's att.i.tude towards Xu Tu was clearly not right. There was a high probability that his abnormality had to do with Xu Tu.

　　…It couldn't be that Xu Tu and Lin Xiao really were having a secret affair? Xie Ling simply wanted to fall apart when he came up with this conjecture. However, when he thought of Xu Tu's natural att.i.tude as he spoke about Lin Xiao, he tossed this unreliable conjecture to the back of his head in the end.

　　Xie Ling and Situ Yu had leavy loads on their minds and weren't in the mood to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Meanwhile, Sui Yuan and Zhang Zhenye, these simple organisms were much happier. They happily pulled their bows and fired their arrows and returned after experiencing a rewarding journey in the end.

　　It was still early and they were still buzzing with excitement. Thus, they were reluctant to say goodbye like this. Zhang Zhenye proposed that they directly take the sky as their canopy and the earth as their mattress, and have a barbeque feast right there in the open, without any fear of hards.h.i.+p. They would do it themselves and eat their fill. Xu Tu was playful by nature and certainly would not refuse. Furthermore, Sui Yuan was rather interested in this himself and naturally agreed.