Refusing to Serve Me? Then Off With Your Head!

Chapter 49 Yan Ping's Special (1)

There was always one thing that I feared most ever since I was young; that would be participating in the palace's annual banquet. An Yi, Uncle An's only child was too overbearing and kept on pressing me to play with her.

She was full of mischief while I was born weak. I always had to rest in a room to recuperate, and she would always chased after me and dragged me away to play in the grass outside. She would be ecstatic after running a few laps in the imperial garden, but I would be too tired and drained. After I went home, I would have to rest for a couple more days to get better. It was miserable.

Many years later, on that fateful day during which she drifted away from me, I discovered that I feared losing her more than being forced to play with her.

When the prince of the Great Chen was one year of age, he was appointed as the Crown Prince. When he was four, the emperor appointed me as the Crown Prince's tutor. As he stood in front of me with his short legs, I could see her silhouette in his twinkling, grape-like eyes. My heart twisted.

His Majesty's phoenix eyes were domineering and authoritative, while An Yi's were always twinkling and carrying traces of smile. She had always had her own ideas ever since she was young, she was like a clear lake, too innocent and clueless for this world. Whenever she smiled at me without restrain, the sparkle in her smile could penetrate through my heart.

Perhaps, it was her unmasked joy and sorrow that drew His Majesty to her in the beginning. Perhaps, that was what drew him to her during his visit to the Great Chen.

Back then, fate was making it's way through everything in a fierce, irrepressible manner. I had really wanted to escape from her who in turn, kept chasing after me heatedly. Despite everything, even I could tell that my resistance to her was really weak.

She was completely clueless to everything back then. She only knew to chase after me and I would run away while panicking, never really getting the chance to take a good look at the person chasing after me.

People in the palace were poking fun of her, calling her 'the passion of a broken sleeve'. Everytime I went into the palace, people would point at me while gossiping. When I stumbled upon her who was smiling innocently and earnestly, I would get the desire to kick her into a pond.

(TN: The passion of broken sleeve is a slang for homosexuality.)

———— I really did that, in the end. I kicked her into a pond before walking away.

That was not a one-time occurrence, and after time, I got used to treating her with malice.

After the then Crown Prince of the Great Qi left, Father invited me to his study to talk about work. He was worried about our foolish Crown Prince and in the end, decided to change camp. He was in cahoots with the Crown Prince of the Great Qi and promised to help him once war between our kingdoms started.

I was stunned as I stared at my own Father. A good portion of his hair had turned silver, but his face still carried the roughness of someone who had frequented the battlefield. He still looked magnificent and passionate for the land.

The political scene of the Great Chen was muddled. Two years later, the emperor of the Great Chen's health took a turn for the worse. The empress interfered with politics while the Crown Prince was a foolish furniture who had no understanding for politics at all. That situation sowed discord between the ministers.

Father and Uncle An was stuck in the middle of it.

Uncle An had always been honest and upright; he was not the kind to flatter the ruler. The empress kept complaining about Uncle An in front of Father, complaining about how he refused to cooperate with others. Father always had to advise him to calm him down. The court was only calm from the outside, but not on the inside.