Chapter 66 — TVF Chapter 66

The Table-Flipping Old Father (6)

The plot made things very clear. Si Chenghui, seeking to ease the Emperor's burdens, offered a clever scheme, and the Emperor indeed used this underhanded trick to catch Prince Haicheng off guard.

However, the story didn’t elaborate on Prince Haicheng’s past or his character, nor did it describe exactly how Si Chenghui presented his plan to the Emperor. But from various details—especially Si Chenghui’s way of humoring Princess Anyang while having romantic entanglements with his confidantes in the capital—Qin Jingzhou had no trouble guessing that Si Chenghui had used a honey trap.

Honey traps may be a clichéd device in novels by now, but the truth is, even today, they still work.

Prince Haicheng once had a beloved, a girl who perished before the age of seventeen. This beloved had only one full-blooded sister, close to her in age, who later became Empress.

Yet, no matter how deep the Empress’s relationship with the Emperor, she was bedridden following the birth of Princess Anyang and ultimately passed away when the princess was eight.

Prince Haicheng missed his true love. Failing to marry her sister, he settled for the next best thing—he took her half-sisters as concubines, and not just one.

Both Prince Haicheng’s third son and that noble lady are children of his beloved’s half-sisters—not even sharing the same mother.

Si Chenghui’s actions indirectly led to the death of Prince Haicheng. Later, after Si Chenghui rose rapidly through the ranks, he accidentally encountered the fugitive concubines of Prince Haicheng. So taken was he by their beauty, he hid the two of them away…

The story spelled it out plainly: when Si Chenghui saw the two concubines of Prince Haicheng, he immediately understood why Cao Pi had insisted on marrying Zhen’s widow.

Also, the story mentioned once that Prince Haicheng’s true love and the deceased Empress’ father bore the surname Dugu—he was one of the six current Inner Cabinet Grand Secretaries.

This had long passed the point of déjà vu.

Even the system couldn’t help but comment, “I’m really starting to wonder what the Dugu family looks like.”

Qin Jingzhou admitted, “It’s not just you, I’m curious too.”

Soon came the opportunity to meet the descendants of the Dugu clan in person.

With both witness and evidence in hand, Prince Haicheng had bloody hand-printed confessions sent straight to the capital. Standing atop the moral high ground, he didn’t wait for the Emperor to respond before sending troops to round up all three thousand elite soldiers hidden in the mountains.

Thanks to his disciple playing the diligent guide once more, Qin Jingzhou accrued some credit for himself too.

At the year’s end, when Qin Jingzhou went to the Prefecture Capital to pay his respects to Prince Haicheng, not only did he see the familiar Third Prince’s Third Son, but he also met the prince’s beloved daughter, the young princess.

The young lady was truly stunning—so much so that even Qin Jingzhou found her delightful to behold. It was said that, compared to her beautiful mother, Princess Anyang resembled her imperial father more closely.

After the formal greetings, the group proceeded toward Prince Haicheng’s study. The Third Son led the way, while the young princess followed half a step behind her brother. Si Chenghui walked just behind her, wearing a gentle smile, eyes ever straight ahead, but in the distance, there was still a beautiful young woman whose gaze remained firmly fixed on Si Chenghui… unable to look away.

Qin Jingzhou found it amusing. “This is what you’d expect from a male-oriented harem story.”

The system agreed with feeling, “Never mind the protagonist’s career arc, but most female characters in these harem novels really are something else.”

Soon, Prince Haicheng was there in person—just as Qin Jingzhou expected, friendly and full of praise in his words.

Prince Haicheng’s ambitions required support from every corner, especially from the major gentry and noble families within his domain.

The Si family, even with allied ties to the Zhao and Han families, didn’t even make the list among the established gentry.

But the Si family did have a barely passable hundred-man militia, and most crucially, they were the first to openly and decisively back Prince Haicheng when he turned against the Emperor.

As the saying goes, buying a horse for a thousand gold is all about showing intent—the first to side with the cause must be rewarded handsomely. His daughter also sincerely liked Si Chenghui… which made Prince Haicheng resolve to grant his daughter’s wish.

Since Si Chenghui was still observing mourning, the wedding was set for the first auspicious day after he shed his mourning clothes.

Actually, Qin Jingzhou himself was also in mourning. After attending Prince Haicheng’s celebration banquet, he returned to the Si Family Fortress atop the mountain and immediately gathered his children, sons-in-law, and hand-picked disciples, instructing them to keep a low profile and stay on the mountain to practice martial arts as much as possible.

Though his children, sons-in-law, and disciples had indeed made great strides in the past six months, he hadn’t forgotten that they were still half-illiterate, with much room left in their education.

Until the specially invited tutors finished their work with basic literacy, he had no choice but to spell every matter out for them piece by piece.

Prince Haicheng’s high regard for them was really just him buying a horse for a thousand gold, he explained. “Now that we’ve made a name for ourselves, jealousy is sure to follow.”

At this, the newer, more honest disciples immediately grasped his meaning.

And sure enough, after the new year, several petty quarrels broke out between Sanjia Village and its neighbors. The incidents were minor, and when the clan elders came to demand an explanation, Qin Jingzhou simply told them, “Let’s not be hasty,” and sent them away.

He absolutely refused to go down the mountain. Not even a prodigy in martial arts discovered in town could tempt him, and Si Chenghui also stayed holed up in his house near the Prince’s mansion, citing mourning as a reason not to go out unless summoned by the prince or princess…

Qin Jingzhou and Si Chenghui had kept their heads down for half a year, while the capital argued just as long over how to deal with Prince Haicheng.

Prince Haicheng’s people brought a mountain of evidence to press charges, putting the Emperor in a truly awkward spot. Just seeing how many princes held real power in Great Qi made it clear that the Emperor and the Imperial Clans Chief were not on close terms.

Besides, the Emperor barely managed to command respect as it was; now he even tried to use a honey trap—finding a girl who resembled Prince Haicheng’s long-lost Dugu sweetheart, then drugging her to seduce the prince. His imperial relatives couldn't stop making snide comments, pushing the Emperor’s blood pressure ever higher.

Yet with all the evidence out there, he could deny involvement, but he couldn’t stop his relatives and the nobility from forming their own opinions—nearly all of them sided with Prince Haicheng.

As his standing waned and the prince’s grew, the special troops stationed around Prince Haicheng’s domain were wiped out, and the Emperor had no choice but to swallow his losses.

At this point, Princess Anyang stepped forward. “Father Emperor, your daughter is willing to share your burdens!”

The Emperor was deeply moved, aware that his daughter might not return, but still granting her request.

So Princess Anyang took the beauty specially prepared by the Emperor for Prince Haicheng and quietly headed south. Whether she was doing it for her father’s plans or to confront Si Chenghui herself, only she knew.

Upon learning that Si Chenghui had defected to Prince Haicheng and was set to become his son-in-law, she smashed anything in her room that could be broken.

Once outside Prince Haicheng’s domain, she paused and sent word to her former lover—a man named Wang, once a top-ranked scholar, who now served as magistrate in a county within Prince Haicheng’s fief.

When he received her personal letter, Wang Daren was beside himself with joy and actually slipped out of his post in the dead of night to meet Princess Anyang.

During the day, his absence might have attracted little notice, but venturing out at night truly drew attention…

On his own turf, Prince Haicheng imposed no curfew, and by that very night, he already knew of Wang Daren’s movements… Compared to the Emperor, Prince Haicheng truly was a benevolent father.

The next morning, as he sat to breakfast with his children, Prince Haicheng recounted the whole affair to them as a joke.

The young princess hurried to tell Si Chenghui, “Anyang’s here, secretly meeting her old lover… What do you think of that?”

To be fair, the young princess was no hopeless romantic, but in any case, she was leagues better than Princess Anyang.

Si Chenghui was happy to placate his little princess. “What do I think? You and I love each other. Back then… if I hadn’t obeyed her, she’d have had my whole family killed.”

The young princess was startled. “She… it’s only been a few years, has she really become so unreasonable?”

Si Chenghui patted her hand without replying, but inside he was terribly curious: Just how much did that beauty resemble Prince Haicheng’s beloved Dugu, for the Emperor to insist on the honey trap even after the prince had already seen through it once?

Two days later, thinking himself discreet, Wang Daren brought Princess Anyang and her party into his county seat.

Under the protection of the Prince’s Household Guard, the Third Son, the young princess, and Si Chenghui disguised themselves and went to the county too… There, as they wished, they met the beauty prepared for Prince Haicheng. At the first glimpse, the three were left speechless for quite a while.

Over the course of nearly a year, Qin Jingzhou patiently taught on the mountain while overseeing the construction of the entire Si Family Fortress. Of course, just because he avoided going down the mountain, didn’t mean his outer disciples stopped venturing out to gain experience.

The most suitable job for these young disciples was to roam the streets of the Prefecture Capital and the county town as spies—most of his martial disciples were appallingly bad actors, so he simply set them as bodyguards for the three future medical students he was personally training.

His students worked as traveling healers, with Prince Haicheng’s approval, but they only treated wounds and injuries. They never prescribed internal medicine—even for colds, they refused, let alone complicated illnesses.

The families who had once sought to teach him, the upstart, a lesson, all gave up after finding nowhere to strike. Only one family persisted—yes, the very household of Princess Anyang’s lover.

This family was determined to make trouble for the traveling healers.

The family head tasked a trusted agent with slandering Qin Jingzhou’s medical student for causing a death, not letting go until the disciple paid with his life: As the supposed victims, they didn’t want money, just the life of the ‘quack.’

The specially trained medic, just twenty, had never faced such a scene—his eyes reddened.

His fellow disciples exchanged glances, and once a crowd of townsfolk had gathered, they came forward. Pinning down the weeping “victim,” they dragged both him and the allegedly murdered corpse straight toward the Yamen.

The lead disciple raised his voice, pronouncing every word clearly, “You say we’re quacks who killed someone, right? Then let’s go see the magistrate together!”

But after just a few bustling hundred meters, someone came dashing after them, “It’s all a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”

The lead disciple smiled, “What’s that? We can’t hear you.”

It was late autumn, and the weather was far from warm.

The messenger, cold sweat beading on his brow and soaking his back, cried out, “It’s all a misunderstanding! The old man died naturally, it had nothing to do with the doctor!”

The “victim” stared. “Huh? That’s not—” Before he could finish, a man suddenly appeared and clamped his hand over his mouth.

Across the street, on the teahouse’s second floor, Princess Anyang wore a look of disdain. “This is your plan?”

Wang Daren looked troubled, for just now as he visited the privy, an attendant had slipped him a little note. The note read: “Bringing Princess Anyang here without permission—what exactly are your intentions?”