At this moment, the emperor's study was brightly lit. Several eunuchs were guarding the door, some yawning incessantly. Seeing Fang Zhiyi approach, they hurriedly bowed and greeted him.
Fang Zhiyi did not return their greetings and walked straight in.
Just as he entered, a memorial flew right at his face. Fang Zhiyi tilted his head to dodge it. The old emperor sitting on the couch let out a surprised sound, clearly a bit puzzled.
"Good evening, Imperial Father." Fang Zhiyi bowed slightly.
"Good evening? What, are you angry that I called you over in the middle of the night?"
Fang Zhiyi's face was full of indifference. "I wouldn't dare."
The old emperor glanced at him with some doubt, but then remembered the matter at hand. "I let you oversee the state affairs, and this is how you do it? This Jiang Wenqi was just filling a vacancy, yet he jumped three ranks and directly entered the Ministry of Revenue. You approved this, didn't you? Huh?"
He waved the memorial in his hand. "The directors of the Ministry of Revenue have already submitted three memorials complaining about this! The Crown Prince oversees the state, and this is how he does it?"
"People say the Crown Prince is capable, but I think you're just stupid!" He raised his hand and threw another memorial. This time, Fang Zhiyi caught it with one hand and lowered his head to scan it briefly.
Actually, this matter couldn't be blamed on the original owner of the body. This Jiang Wenqi was the Third Son's man. The Third Son had come to him asking for a recommendation. Knowing that Jiang Wenqi had some ability, and out of a desire to look after the Third Son, Fang Zhiyi gave the newly vacant Vice Minister position to Jiang Wenqi.
Who knew that the Second Son would refuse to accept this. The Ministry of Revenue had always been the Second Son's domain, so the complaining memorials were surely his doing behind the scenes.
The original owner was truly unfortunate. Not only was he too honest, but he was also caught in the middle of these wicked siblings, taking all the abuse.
In the original plot, in order to protect his two younger brothers, Fang Zhiyi braced himself and endured a whole night of scolding and freezing. After that, he went straight to the morning court, and fell ill as soon as he returned home.
"Done reading?" The old emperor leaned forward. "The person you recommended has caused so much trouble after only three days in office. What do you have to say for yourself?"
But Fang Zhiyi's next action stunned the old emperor. He sat down opposite him without any hesitation, then reached out and pulled at the thin quilt tucked under the emperor. He tugged it once but it didn't move, so he added a little more force. The old emperor watched as he took the quilt that belonged to him and draped it over his own legs.
"What do you want me to say? Didn't you say that as the eldest brother and the Crown Prince, I should take care of my brothers? The Third Son asked me to help with a recommendation, there was a position in the Ministry of Revenue, and this Jiang Wenqi is pretty good, so I recommended him."
The old emperor was a bit dazed. He naturally knew the twists and turns involved, but he never expected this son of his, who was so honest it was almost cowardly, to directly throw the Third Son under the bus.
"If you're not satisfied, just issue a decree to dismiss him. He's not my man anyway. Let alone him, I don't have a single man in the entire court. How come everything gets blamed on me?"
These words made the old emperor catch onto another point: "Are you saying that I, no, We are wrong?" He had always used the informal 'I' in front of the Crown Prince, but changing his self-address now was clearly an attempt to suppress Fang Zhiyi.
"You are not wrong. How could you be wrong? The Emperor is always right. It's all my fault, I am completely wrong."
These words choked the old emperor for a moment. He looked Fang Zhiyi up and down with some suspicion. "Are you dissatisfied with Us? You handled this matter yourself, and now you're blaming it on the Third Son? Do you think Our throne is guaranteed to be yours?"
These were heavy words. Even the old eunuch standing nearby broke into a cold sweat, constantly winking at Fang Zhiyi, hoping he would say something submissive.
Who knew that Fang Zhiyi would lazily lean back against the chair. "How would I dare to be dissatisfied with the Emperor? Besides, as for this position, the Emperor can give it to whoever he wants. It doesn't matter to me whether I sit on it or not."
Hearing this, the old emperor laughed out of pure anger. "Do you think the throne is a cabbage? You can sit on it if you want? Since you said such words, you must have considered the consequences?"
"I've considered them. At worst, I'll stop being the Crown Prince and stop overseeing the state. I'll just go home, eat, and wait to die. Is that fine?"
"Your Highness the Crown Prince..." The old eunuch's legs went weak. Has the Crown Prince gone mad today?
"Shut up." The old emperor stopped the eunuch from speaking and stared at Fang Zhiyi with a gloomy expression. "Good. I never expected that a Crown Prince, Our own son, would rather give up his position over such a trivial matter. How promising!"
"So you also know it's a minor matter? Calling me away from my home in the middle of the night, do you know how cold it is?" Fang Zhiyi retorted directly. "I've already said it anyway. Yes, I approved it, but it was after overall consideration. If the Emperor isn't satisfied, you can replace him anytime. Did you call me over specifically just to scold me?"
"You..."
"Me what? Imperial Father, the Second Son and the Third Son are fighting each other, and you scold me? Is there any justice left?" Fang Zhiyi angrily crossed his arms. "I'm not doing this thankless job anymore. Whoever wants to do it can do it."
"Good, good, good..." The old emperor was furious. "Then get out of here! You don't need to be the Crown Prince anymore! You don't need to oversee the state either!"
Fang Zhiyi stood up immediately. "Thank you for your grace, Imperial Father!" Seeing that he was about to take the quilt with him, the old eunuch became anxious: "Your Highness, this..."
"Give it to him! Worthless thing!" The emperor roared.
Fang Zhiyi strode away as if he hadn't heard a thing.
"He actually didn't chop off my head? This old man must have something wrong with his brain," Fang Zhiyi muttered. As the cold wind blew, he felt his bones shivering. After a thought, he suddenly turned around and ran back. The emperor thought he had figured things out and was about to mock him a bit, but under the emperor's shocked gaze, Fang Zhiyi pulled a woolen blanket from behind him and draped it over his own shoulders.
"Oh, pure fur, high-end stuff. Dad, lend this to me."
"Your Highness, this is highly disrespectful!" The old eunuch, Zhang Dafu, finally couldn't hold back and grabbed a corner of the fur blanket.
"Sigh, if I'm not the Crown Prince, then I'm not. He's still my dad, right? What kind of dad would watch his son freeze to death? Give it here!" Fang Zhiyi snatched the blanket back, then turned to leave. After taking two steps, he remembered to turn back and give the old emperor a bow.
The old emperor just watched him disappear through the doorway.
"Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince is physically weak, please do not hold it against him. Perhaps he is just not in a good mood today..."
The old emperor snorted. "Didn't you hear? He's not being the Crown Prince anymore!" He paused, but then suddenly burst into laughter. "At least he still knows We are his dad. It's strange today, this cowardly thing actually dared to blame his own old man."
Zhang Dafu looked at the old emperor in bewilderment. Logically, the emperor should be flying into a rage. What was this...
"Send someone to the Crown Prince's estate and tell him to reflect on his mistakes behind closed doors! Uh... reflect for one day."
Zhang Dafu silently grumbled in his heart: How is this reflecting for a day? If you want to let him rest, just say rest...
The old emperor sighed, narrowing his eyes as he tapped on the desk. "The Second Son and the Third Son..."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
