Rebirth Of Chen An

Chapter 165: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

Translator: Flying Lines

The condition Chen An gave was simple: he wanted to talk to the General and the Prince separately.

Both the General and the Prince were surprised when they heard it. They’d expected Chen An to ask for something more substantial, like riches, or certain position and power; to talk separately was not something they’d anticipated.

But Chen An had an addendum to his condition: the two could not lie to him.

“After that, if I still can’t help you handle the foreign nationals, you can do whatever you please with Ding Sheng and me. You’ve got nothing to lose.”

Chen An was not wrong in that. If he could turn away the foreign invasion without shedding a drop of blood, it would be a godsend to the General and the Prince.

On the other hand, if he failed, the two would not be any worse than where they were now.

They really had nothing to lose in this.

So the question was, what did Chen An want to know from them?

Chen An promised that he was not going to pry into anything confidential like military secrets or issues concerning the two’s core interests. So what reason did the General and the Prince have to refuse this man who looked like the emperor but with a strangeness in him?

The first person Chen An wanted to talk to was not the General Lu Feng, but was the Prince, who he’d met for less than three days, yet nonetheless knew quite well from the memories of the emperor.

Chen An chose the late emperor’s study as the place for their conversation.

The study had been unoccupied for some time. When Chen An pushed open the door, he could smell motes in the air. Walking over to the desk, he touched a finger to the surface and found a layer of dust on it.

“Is it because neither you nor the General comes here now, that they’ve stopped dusting this place? Or have you forbidden people to come in?” Chen An unceremoniously wiped the dust off the chair in several strokes and sat down. When he looked up, his eyes met those of the Prince, who just walked in and was watching him with a coldness plastered on his face like a mask.

Turning into a smile, Chen An asked: “You don’t want me to touch anything in this place, but find it hard to say any harsh words when you see a face like his. Am I right?”

Apparently his words hit a target somewhere; a moment of surprise flashed across the cold mask.

Chen An pushed up his glasses because he needed to see clearly every subtle expression of the Prince.

The Prince had been on guard towards Chen An since they met. The looks he cast toward Chen An were cold and hostile; nonetheless, there was a trace of confusion and longing in them.

Recovering his cold exterior, the Prince asked in turn: “You can read people’s minds?”

“I know that as a member of the royal family, you detest being read. You may be high and mighty in the eyes of others, but in mine,” Chen An paused, and with a small laugh and some scorn in his voice, he continued, “you are human, both of you. You may be a general or a prince, but you’re still human with flesh and blood, with love and hate.”

Chen An himself once had power and riches that would not pale in comparison with the General or the Prince.

He too, was blind in the mighty fortress that he built himself. He knew the General and the Prince, because he was like them once, not to see the error of his ways until he lost the people he loved.