[Various] The Deposed Crown Prince's Survival Story

Fusu put down the soup bowl in his hand, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, leaned forward to look into Hehua's eyes, and said coldly, "Father only told me about your marriage; I only told Chen Ping, and Chen Ping probably wouldn't dare to tell anyone else. So now the question is, how did you find out?"

“Uh…” He Hua, who had been so aggressive just moments before, stiffened and her eyes became unfocused.

This princess has never corresponded with Chen Ping!

"Speak!" Fusu crossed his arms, looked at the embarrassed Hehua, slammed his hand on the long table, and said loudly, "And what are you doing now? The eldest brother is like a father, how dare you point your finger at the Emperor like that?"

Hehua quickly withdrew her hand, lowered her head, twisted the ribbon on her clothes, and awkwardly crawled to Fusu's side, saying ingratiatingly, "Brother... Brother Fusu... the best, the very best Brother Fusu in the world... the brother who loves me the most in the world..."

Her voice grew sweeter with each passing moment. Not only was her voice sweet and gentle, but her hands were also constantly moving, patting her shoulders and rubbing her legs. Wherever Fusu hit, Hehua would point, just as obediently as... just as... Fusu was in front of Ying Zheng.

As expected, he was bullied by the Emperor, so this princess is going to get revenge, you big bad guy.

Hehua respectfully massaged his elder brother's back and feet for most of the hour. Finally, Fusu hummed in agreement, waved his hand, and said in a lazy voice, "I've taken your matter to heart. You may leave now."

"Thank you, brother!" He Hua gritted her teeth, forced a smile at Fu Su, and said.

"If your smile is so fake, then stop smiling." Fu Su looked at He Hua coldly. "You little brat, raising a daughter is really not easy. I've really worried myself sick so that you can get married."

Thinking of this, Fusu rubbed his temples. His women had given him four sons in one year, and now he was a father of five at a young age. The five naughty children cried and made so much noise that he didn't want to go back to that house at all.

People are always greedy. Once they have a son, they want a daughter. The father and mother pressured her every day to give birth to a granddaughter for them to play with.

I don't want to have any daughters. Having Hehua alone is already enough of a headache. If I have so many daughters, where am I going to find sons-in-law?

It's so convenient to have a son; just send a bunch of women over there. With so many women, there's bound to be a good one.

As Fusu sighed in despair, feeling like he was being used as a baby-making tool by the stupid Earthlings, the fourth round of tests began.

Wait a minute? Where did this fourth round of testing come from? What happened to the promised three rounds?

Here's what happened: According to the official explanation, the reason for the fourth round was that His Majesty the Emperor wanted to personally summon all the candidates. Not only did he want to summon them in person, but he also wanted to give them questions to see which candidate's style suited his taste better, and then, incidentally, re-rank them.

Of course, the official statement is that unless you do something disastrous yourself—like writing bad things about His Majesty the Emperor on the exam paper—you generally won't be eliminated in this round of exams, and your ranking won't change much.

However, there is one problem.

The examination was held in the main hall of Xianyang Palace, which Qin Shi Huang named the "Hall of Unification of the Four Seas". The Hall of Unification of the Four Seas could accommodate nearly 10,000 people to attend court at the same time. Its scale was unimaginable to ordinary people. Even the important dragon pillars were too large for an adult to hug.

In the past, Qin Wuyang, who was born into an official family in the Yan state and had seen the palaces of the Yan state, was so frightened by the magnificence of the Xianyang Palace that his face turned ashen—although this was also related to his guilty conscience.

Among these candidates, although there were quite a few from prestigious families, most were, frankly speaking, uncultured country bumpkins. Imagine a group of complete novices being dragged to such an imposing place, surrounded by nearly ten thousand people, with countless soldiers around them, and finally, a very tall and imposing figure sitting on the throne above them. While the candidates didn't lose their composure and wet themselves in fear, their hands trembled uncontrollably as they wrote and answered the questions, shaking as if they had Parkinson's disease.

Ying Zheng looked at the nearly one hundred students below the hall who were answering questions earnestly, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

Su'er was absolutely right. Almost every one of these candidates who managed to pass several rounds of exams was an elite among people.

However, most intelligent people have one flaw: they are arrogant and self-important. If you want them to work hard for you, you have to curb their arrogance and let them feel the power of the emperor.

After one round of exams, the papers are collected, graded, and ranked, but not all papers are ranked; only the top ten are selected.

Those who are so afraid that they can't even write properly should be discarded. Although they won't fail the exam, they won't be important in the early stages. If you're worried and afraid of trouble, and can't even overcome this fear, how can you achieve great things? Not eliminating you is giving you a chance.

The final ranking of the top ten was roughly the same as the ranking after the third round of testing, except that the ninth and tenth place rankings were switched.

After the fourth round of examinations, there was a banquet where Ying Zheng personally bestowed wine upon the top three candidates.

Everyone had been to these kinds of official banquets before. They were nothing more than a set of very complicated etiquette, such as "Your Majesty bestows wine" and "Your subject receives the wine," as well as bowing. These were all nonsense concocted by those Confucian idiots. Rather than bestowing wine, they were more like a way to torment people.

But it's fine if they make a fuss. It's better to let the Confucianists mess with the rituals than to let them do other people's business—it's not like they're messing with themselves anyway.

The courtiers could only watch as Ying Zheng bestowed wine upon the top three candidates with standard etiquette. They had no choice but to watch, for even if they had wine, they could not drink it until the emperor had finished bestowing it.

Giving wine to the first-place winner is good; nothing went wrong.

Giving wine to the second-place winner was fine; nothing went wrong.

Giving wine to the third-place winner is... not good. Why is His Majesty looking at the third-place winner so strangely? Doesn't he look a bit like a son who has been lost among the common people for many years? I heard that His Majesty has liked to go out and have fun since he was the crown prince. Could this be His Majesty's hidden gem?

The sharp-eyed onlookers immediately turned their attention to the third-place winner, and then... they discovered... that the third-place winner was incredibly good-looking.

Isn't he an incredibly handsome young man?

His face is as fair as jade, isn't it!

This made me question my sexual orientation... absolutely not!

Some quick-thinking netizens have already come up with some wild theories: Could it be that His Majesty hasn't established an empress for so many years because he loves men more than women, so this time... His Majesty has finally met his true love? Otherwise, why is his gaze so strange! However, this third-place winner is quite good-looking, so it's not surprising that he's found true love.

It must be mentioned here that in ancient China, whether it was an emperor or an ordinary person, having homosexual relationships was not considered a big problem, as long as it did not interfere with marriage, having children, and continuing the family line, and others would not bother with your private affairs.

For example, the state of Chu, one of the Seven Warring States, was rife with homosexuality, and the relationships between men and women were extremely chaotic. Two men openly meeting on the street could even become a famous story passed down through the ages. The King of Chu had a fondness for slender waists, and it wasn't the palace maids who starved to death, but rather the ministers around him. He was utterly corrupt.

In reality, the traditional Chinese preference for male homosexuality has little to do with homosexuality in later generations. Male homosexuality usually means that a woman has had too many affairs, so she has an affair with a handsome young man; if a woman gets pregnant, she uses a handsome young man to cover it up; if the state stipulates that officials are not allowed to talk about life with fallen women, then they talk about life with fallen handsome young men.

It is precisely because of these special features that everyone can be exceptionally relaxed and have incredibly creative ideas.

Back then, Lord Longyang was such a formidable swordsman, wasn't it because he was too handsome that the King of Wei took a liking to him?

Given the precedent, we can't blame people for overthinking. The blame lies with the fact that the third-place winner is too good-looking, making it hard for people to resist speculating.

Ignoring everyone's strange wild ideas, Ying Zheng continued reciting his lines according to the prepared script, "You are indeed a handsome man. I wonder if you have a wife at home?"

Upon hearing Ying Zheng's words, everyone's imaginations immediately waned. Given our Emperor's personality, would he be the kind of person who cares whether the other person has a wife or husband? Absolutely not!

So there must be other reasons why he asked that question.

The most likely explanation is... many people who know about Ying Zheng's children have already started speculating.

If that's the case, third place is not bad either. Although the results are not as good as the top two, they are still one in a million talents, plus their looks.

The first place winner is at most a buzz cut and a neat face with regular features, nothing else to praise; the second place winner has a big beard, a little old man in his thirties, so he gets a negative score and is kicked out.

The third-place winner is only twenty-three years old and so good-looking, it's not surprising that His Majesty took a liking to her.

"I lost both my parents at a young age and was raised by my elder brother. My family was extremely poor, and I had no means to get married, nor did I have anyone to officiate at the wedding," Chen Ping said, suppressing his excitement.

After the third round of exams, knowing he was third, he thought he had no chance. But then a fourth round of exams came out of nowhere. He thought the fourth round was arranged by the eldest son through connections, but he still came in third place. Chen Ping was heartbroken. If he hadn't been in the main hall in front of the ministers, he would have even thought of crying.

I was just about to find a place to have a good cry to mourn my dead love when His Majesty suddenly brought up this matter again.

This...could it be...the so-called surprise gift package?

"Oh? How can such a talented man be unmarried? That won't do! A man of marriageable age should marry. Didn't you say there was no one to officiate your wedding? Then I will personally bestow a good marriage upon you." Ying Zheng smiled, but his heart was filled with anger. Looking at this brat who wanted to steal his lovely daughter, he stroked his beard and said rather reluctantly, "I have a daughter named Hehua, seventeen years old this year. She is virtuous and kind, and of marriageable age. I wonder if you..."

"Thank you for your great kindness, Your Majesty. I am extremely willing." Chen Ping knelt down with a thud and kowtowed to Ying Zheng.

Chen Ping didn't dare to be coy or say anything like "How could I possibly accept this?" His reason was that he absolutely couldn't give the enemy a chance to back out. What if this was just Ying Zheng being polite and casually saying it to win people's hearts?