Chapter 0010: The Unrecognizable Second Prince, Master Manipulator Xie Chengze
He thought Xie Chengze had long forgotten this person, never expecting that over a decade later, he and Shen Yuan would so quickly form secrets behind his back.
He had even clung to a faint, ridiculous hope—that perhaps his second brother was truly tired, unwilling to continue their rivalry, that he had returned to the gentle, smiling self of old. But now he realized Xie Chengze might not have changed at all; he remained the one who treated everyone with kindness.
He simply no longer extended that kindness to him.
Xie Jinyu didn’t know what he had done wrong in the past.
But he must have erred somewhere, for his once amiable and carefree second brother to gradually become unrecognizable.
He ought to take responsibility.
“It seems Second Brother holds Shen Shilang in high regard, favoring him even in childhood.” Beneath golden sleeves, Xie Jinyu clenched his fists, feigning nonchalance.
“Haha, is that so?” Xie Chengze couldn’t recall this memory and chuckled evasively, maintaining neutrality. “Young Master Shen is indeed outstanding, though of course, Crown Prince brother is exceptional as well.”
Xie Jinyu froze, then abruptly lifted his head to stare at Xie Chengze.
After fifteen years together, he could detect the slightest shift in Xie Chengze’s emotions. Just now, there had been a trace of sincerity in his words.
Second Brother was acknowledging him.
Second Brother had even said he surpassed Shen Yuan.
His fists tightened further beneath his sleeves. The eighteen-year-old youth, praised by the elder brother he had admired since childhood, unconsciously straightened his back. A flicker of awkward shyness crossed his eyes, and even the tips of his ears flushed unnaturally.
Shen Yuan keenly noticed this peculiarity.
It was the first time he had seen the Crown Prince so agitated.
In their previous life, the Crown Prince always wore a smile, reserving only visible frustration toward Xie Chengze—yet never to the point of red-faced fury.
But something felt subtly off, though he couldn’t grasp the fleeting strangeness.
“Second Highness,” Shen Yuan interjected, breaking the tense atmosphere between the brothers. “We came today to seek your assistance with an important matter.”
Xie Jinyu cleared his throat and sat upright. “Yes, precisely.”
“Oh~ Really~” Unaware of the undercurrents, Xie Chengze slung an arm around Xie Jinyu’s shoulder like a close brother, smiling cheerfully. “Then let me guess—what brings you to me today?”
The sudden contact made Xie Jinyu stiffen instantly.
In the past, such sudden intimacy from Second Brother had always been superficial, easily seen as manipulative. Yet this time, it felt like a return to childhood—a simple, genuine gesture of brotherly affection.
A sense of regained dependency filled his heart, mingled with unease and complexity. He lowered his gaze slightly, his hand beneath the sleeve tentatively inching toward Xie Chengze before halting abruptly.
Afraid to shatter this fragile, bubble-like bond.
He heard Xie Chengze’s soft, gentle voice murmur leisurely by his ear, “Yi Province’s climate is unique—summer floods inevitably lead to winter famine. Now that the Min River’s flooding has breached the Jiangdi, reconstruction must wait until the dry season. This means farmers can only cultivate fast-maturing coarse grains in the interim.”
“But these grain varieties typically yield low and are difficult to preserve, making them utterly inadequate to meet the winter food demands of Yizhou 16 Xian’s population. When grain prices skyrocket, the common people across the province won’t be able to afford food, leading to severe famine. Cannibalism and human trafficking will become commonplace.”
“To save costs, the Yizhou Zhifu will inevitably conscript prisoners from various counties to construct the Jiangdi. If farmers can’t afford food, prisoners certainly won’t fare any better. With the massive scale of the Jiangdi construction project and the limited number of supervising yamen runners, it’s highly likely that starving prisoners will rebel and attack…”
Xie Chengze chuckled lightly, “Once those vicious prisoners escape, they’ll easily occupy mountains as bandits and hijack official roads. With the people starving and the government failing to act, Yizhou will be littered with corpses. If heaven turns a blind eye, it might even lead to rampant plague.”
“If those three hundred thousand taels of relief funds were properly allocated, the people of Yizhou might still have a glimmer of hope. But as we all know, if even fifty thousand taels of silver ultimately end up in the pockets of Yizhou 16 Xian’s magistrates, it would be considered ‘benevolence’ on their part, wouldn’t it?”
Xie Chengze patted Xie Jinyu’s shoulder meaningfully, “Among those memorials Father Emperor sent you, there must have been quite a few from loyal ministers mentioning this matter, right?”
Xie Jinyu suddenly looked at him, “How did Second Brother know?”
Had Father Emperor shown those memorials to him as well?
“Father Emperor has always valued you highly and never slackened in your education, even going so far as to use me as your whetstone. Now that you’ve reached the age to apply your learning, the Yizhou disaster serves as a perfect, albeit brutal, case study for your training. Naturally, Father Emperor would send the relevant memorials to you.Xie Chengze wore a bitter smile, though inwardly he mused that when he’d suggested in the imperial study that Emperor Jian send the memorials, it had merely been to go with the flow. Even if he hadn’t mentioned it, Emperor Jian had already intended to do so.
Though the speaker might be unintentional, the listener was certainly intentional. Hearing these words, Xie Jinyu trembled from head to toe, feeling as if a doubt that had plagued him for years had suddenly been resolved. He stared at Xie Chengze in astonishment, “Second Brother, you… could it be…?”
Seeing Xie Jinyu so shocked, Xie Chengze immediately had a brainwave. He tightly grasped Xie Jinyu’s hands and spoke earnestly, “Jinyu, no need to say more. You are my most beloved younger brother. Becoming the whetstone for your growth is what I, as your elder brother, ought to do—and what I’m willing to do with all my heart.”
A sensation both tingling and sorrowful spread through Xie Jinyu’s entire body. His lips trembled slightly as he gazed at Xie Chengze with red-rimmed eyes, overwhelmed by a sudden tide of grievance and guilt.
He had never imagined—never even considered—that his gentle and outstanding Second Brother’s complete transformation, his constant rivalry and opposition, had all been to cooperate with Father Emperor in tempering and forging his path to becoming a ruler!
No wonder he could never find the reason for Second Brother’s sudden change in temperament. No wonder Second Brother only treated him with cold disdain—
So Second Brother had never changed at all. He had always been the one who cared for him most!
And he still called him his most beloved younger brother…
Seeing Xie Jinyu so guilt-ridden that his eyes reddened, Xie Chengze knew the game was won.
Although the original Xie Jinyu was profoundly scheming, his character setting was that of someone who deeply valued brotherly bonds. If he hadn’t given the original host chance after chance to reform, Shen Yuan wouldn’t have needed to contend with the original host for a full ten years.
So Xie Chengze simply embellished the facts, turning Emperor Jian’s intentional and convenient exploitation into his own proactive assistance, thereby completely whitewashing his villainous identity.
Ah, could he be a genius?
Xie Chengze completely failed to notice that Shen Yuan’s face beside him had darkened to the color of charcoal. He raised his hand and coughed a few times, his sun-reddened cheeks deliberately feigning illness to show a hint of frail suffering. “Ahem, ahem… Now that you’ve reached the age to stand on your own, it’s time for your second brother, the whetstone, to step back after fulfilling his purpose.”
And this retreat would last a lifetime.
“Second Brother…” Xie Jinyu tightly grasped Xie Chengze’s hand, as if trying to embed his knuckles deeply into the gaps of his own fingers, staring at him unwaveringly. “I… I will treat you well.”
He would bring all the finest things in the world to his second brother.
This was a promise he had made since childhood.
Xie Chengze, completely unaware of the gravity of the situation, nodded with satisfaction and continued his persuasion. “Second Brother also hopes Jinyu will treat him well. You are the brother I care for the most.”
Xie Jinyu lowered his gaze, looking at their intertwined hands, a slight smile curling at the corners of his lips. “Of course, I like Second Brother the most.”
It had been this way since childhood, and it remained so now.
“Back to the main topic. His Majesty intends to send someone to Yi Province to oversee disaster relief efforts. However, the officials are all entangled in collusion, their influence deeply rooted. No one is suitable to send except the newly appointed Ministry of Rites’ Shen Shilang, who has yet to align with any faction and, as a disciple of Shen Taifu, possesses an untainted heart. He is the most suitable candidate.”
“But Shen Shilang is, after all, a newcomer to the court and lacks influence. A powerful dragon cannot defeat a local snake—the local officials may not heed his commands. Therefore, a prince must also be sent to assist him. Or, to put it another way, someone Shen Shilang can leverage…”
Xie Chengze looked up, a faint, ambiguous smile playing on his lips as he glanced at Shen Yuan. “The Crown Prince is naturally unsuitable, and the Fourth Brother lacks prestige. Only I, the Second Prince renowned throughout the land, am the most fitting choice.”
Sticking to his persona, he coughed lightly twice before adding, “So, you came to ask me to leave the capital and head south to Yi Province, but you were afraid I’d be unwilling to part with the luxuries of the capital and reluctant to endure the hardships of Yi Province, right?”
In the original story, the original host had refused to go to Yi Province. Left with no choice, the Crown Prince volunteered to go. By supporting Shen Yuan, he offended many officials, which drove them to rally behind the Second Prince, gradually forming the Second Prince’s faction.
The false dragon’s struggle for the throne began with the disaster in Yi Province.
Xie Jinyu’s gaze flickered as he stared at Xie Chengze. He had always known that his second brother’s previous foolish acts were merely an act. Now, just by sitting in Cheng Huan Palace, he could see through the court and the situation in Yi Province with absolute clarity. Wasn’t this proof enough that his second brother had been hiding his talents all along to temper him?
Sweetness and bitterness flowed incessantly in his heart, but when he thought of the dangers in Yi Province, Xie Jinyu felt a surge of worry. “The situation in Yi Province is uncertain. It takes over a month to travel from the capital to Yi Province, and rebuilding Jiangdi will take more than three months. What if famine or riots break out during that time…”
If Xie Chengze were to get hurt, Xie Jinyu would rather go to Yi Province himself.
Seeing Xie Jinyu’s hesitation, Shen Yuan immediately stepped forward and cut off his thoughts. “His Highness the Second Prince is exceptionally wise and capable. He is undoubtedly suited for this task, and only he can accomplish it.”
Shen Yuan knew all too well that Xie Chengze was someone who couldn’t stand others’ praise. In his previous life, he had often exploited this weakness, luring the arrogant Xie Chengze into his traps by inflating his ego.
No sooner had Shen Yuan finished speaking than Xie Chengze turned to him with a smile. “Jinyu is my younger brother. Since he has asked, I am naturally willing to offer my full assistance. However, this ultimately benefits Shen Shilang as well. I wonder what kind of reward Shen Shilang intends to give me in return?”
So he was here to demand compensation. Shen Yuan scoffed inwardly but pressed on relentlessly, “Your Highness, the Second Prince, your journey south to Yi Province benefits the common people. Their praise is the greatest reward you could receive.”
Xie Chengze chuckled. “Indeed, the people benefit, and their praise is the finest reward for me. But since Shen Shilang benefits as well, what will your token of gratitude be?”
Shen Yuan: …
“Indeed, once the matter in Yi Province is resolved, Shen Shilang’s official career will soar to new heights,” Xie Jinyu chimed in, clearly displeased with Shen Yuan’s lack of tact.
Shen Yuan: …
Gritting his teeth, Shen Yuan asked, “Then what reward does Your Highness, the Second Prince, desire?”
Xie Chengze released Xie Jinyu’s hand and slowly approached Shen Yuan barefoot, his captivating phoenix eyes fixed intently on him. “You—you are the reward I desire.”