Chapter 21#

I am a man with the mental age of someone in their twenties. I’m not afraid of ghosts.

But I’m afraid of death.

So when the emperor, with ill intentions, appointed me as the crown prince’s study companion and ordered the crown prince’s tutors to treat me well and not to punish me for minor mistakes, I felt that my future was bleak.

I would either fail the mission of a profligate son leading others astray and offend the most powerful man in the country, or I would succeed in the mission and offend the most powerful woman in the country.

As for the most powerful child in the country, based on the stories my future sister-in-law told me, I felt that whether I succeeded or failed, I couldn’t please him.

My heart is bitter, but I can’t say it.

Who made me the second son of the prime minister’s family, while he is from the imperial clan?

However, when I entered the palace and saw the crown prince, who was one year younger than me, I suddenly felt less panicked.

Because the crown prince, he is so damn handsome.

Just a nine-year-old child, but you can tell from his face what kind of handsome man he will be in the future, one who will capture the hearts of thousands of young girls or gay youths.

Although I am also a gay youth, I am not in the ranks of those whose hearts will be captured.

The crown prince is handsome, but when I think of the stories my future sister-in-law told me, I lose all interest.

And this damn handsome crown prince is really a scheming bastard.

If he didn’t want me as his study companion, he could have just complained to his father the emperor or his mother the empress.

But no, he didn’t.

After meeting me once, he pretended to be sick, and it was the kind where he “developed a high fever and was almost unconscious” right after I left.

So I had just returned home from the palace at noon, and by the afternoon, I was summoned back to the palace by the empress on the pretext of “meeting the imperial son’s study companion” for an interrogation.

The empress kept a smile on her face and her tone was amiable, but when I left the palace an hour later, I felt like I had been skinned alive.

“Bitch!”

My future sister-in-law, who had come specially to visit me, and I both evaluated the crown prince this way.

No matter how handsome he is, he is still a handsome bitch.

It’s a case of “a beauty, but alas, a thief.”

The crown prince was “sick” for three days and finally recovered.

The emperor summoned me to the palace to officially begin my duties as the crown prince’s study companion.

I originally thought the empress would obstruct this. But it turned out that during these three days, the empress was found to be pregnant, and already three months along. Probably to ensure the safety of this hard-won fetus, she moved to the imperial villa in the suburbs to focus on her pregnancy and no longer managed palace affairs.

So, I went to the palace again to see the scheming crown prince.

The last time I entered the palace, the crown prince acted as if he had just met a new study companion, showing no abnormality. But then he turned around and pretended to be sick for three days to frame me.

This time, after we met, I bowed to him, but he didn’t return the courtesy or speak for a long time. Just as my back was about to ache from bending, he suddenly dismissed everyone around him.

I couldn’t help but be startled.

But thinking that I was, after all, the second young master of the prime minister’s family, I felt that even if he disliked me, he should, for my father’s sake, not be too cruel to me.

“ming zh□…” the crown prince suddenly helped me up and called out to me.

His voice sounded both joyful and painful, both expectant and fearful.

My heart trembled, and I didn’t dare to move.

Oh my god!

This scheming bastard pretended to be sick last time, and this time he’s pretending to be crazy. I don’t know if the empress will come back from the imperial villa and kill me.

“ming zh□, don’t you remember me?” the crown prince asked with apparent earnestness.

Of course I remember him, the crown prince of this dynasty, the future CEO, and the culprit of my one-hour ordeal a few days ago.

But now that he was acting so emotional, I couldn’t appear too cold. I could only say with a hint of shyness, “Jun’an of course remembers Your Highness. Actually, when I saw the crown prince last time, I felt as if I had seen you before. For no reason, you looked familiar, and I felt in my heart that we were old acquaintances… but Your Highness has remembered Jun’an’s name incorrectly.”

The crown prince stared at me blankly for a long time, then suddenly pulled me into his arms and held me tightly, whispering, “It’s fine if you don’t remember, it’s fine.”

Being held in the arms of such a neurotic, scheming, beautiful little boy, my heart was both fluttering and panicking.

Fortunately, he didn’t hold me for long before letting go. He called the eunuchs and palace maids back and went with me to see the crown prince’s tutor who was giving a lecture today.

Originally, according to His Majesty the Emperor’s wishes, while the crown prince was studying, I should be responsible for eating, drinking, and playing on the side. But having just been reprimanded by the empress, I didn’t dare to act on my own whims.

So, while the crown prince was listening to the tutor’s lecture, I sat quietly on the side, daydreaming.

As a result, during the break in the middle of the lecture, the crown prince actually had the imperial kitchen prepare five kinds of pastries for me.

I took a look, and they were all my favorites. I couldn’t help but cry out in my heart.

This guy had actually figured out all my preferences in just three days. With such scheming methods, it would be easy for him to torment me in the future, leaving me with no one to complain to.

I finally endured until the end of the lecture in the palace and immediately found an excuse to escape.

When I returned to the prime minister’s residence, my future sister-in-law was indeed there again, keeping my mother company and waiting for my brother to come home from work. She then thoroughly questioned me about what had happened in the palace today.

“He really is a lingering ghost,” she said in a low voice after a long silence, having heard my story.

I deeply agreed.

Unfortunately, although the crown prince had the looks of Nie Xiaoqian, I didn’t think I had the fate of Ning Caishen.

For the next six months, except for the days off and the times the crown prince went to the imperial villa to visit his mother, he and I were together almost every day.

He put on the appearance of a close friend every day, wanting to stick with me both in and out of class. Looking at his beautiful little face, I was both pleased and frightened.

Fortunately, there were no more mishaps during this period, and I was no longer as nervous when I saw Chu Ruiyuan as I was at the beginning.

Yes, the crown prince’s name is Chu Ruiyuan. I finally know it now.

If my future sister-in-law asks me again, I can definitely answer, so she won’t look at me like I’m an idiot.