Pei Wuchen’s brows were locked tightly together and he had been pacing around at the entrance for a long time before he braced himself to enter the door. As soon as he entered, he encountered Feng Wan’er.

“Senior Chen? Why are you here? Are you here to look for me?” Pei Wuchen could feel his temples pounding and even his scalp was feeling numb.

When Feng Wan’er saw Pei Wuchen’s silent and unpleasant expression, she felt a little suspicious. “Senior brother, are you feeling uncomfortable? I see that you don’t look too well.” She was rather concerned for him.

“Many thanks for junior sister’s concern. I am fine. However, I do have something I need to discuss with junior sister about. Can we speak in the room?”

When Pei Wuchen spoke, there was a grave expression on his face. Feng Wan’er felt that Pei Wuchen really had something urgent to talk to her about and quickly invited him into the room.

“What did you say? You are bringing the princes along for the trip to the Falling Cloud Mountain Range with the Phoenix King Valley?”

Pei Wuchen explained the situation in the imperial study earlier and Feng Wan’er couldn’t sit still when she heard it. She was originally seated properly and when he spoke about how he was going to bring the other princes to the mountain range, she stood up from her seat and looked at Pei Wuchen with her huge, bell-like eyes. Her eyebrows arched upwards and there was an expression of disbelief on her face.

Feng Wan’er looked at Pei Wuchen’s deadpan expression and understood that everything he said was true. She gradually composed herself before sitting down.

“I know, doing so will be making things really difficult for the Phoenix King Valley and yourself. However, Emperor Father was the one who gave the order and I can’t defy him.” Pei Wuchen knew that he was in the wrong and he was speaking softer and softer.

Feng Wan’er didn’t reply immediately and simply closed her eyes. After a long moment, when the air in the room was going stale, she finally opened her eyes and spoke. “Do you know what kind of position I will be in because of this? Those elders in the Phoenix King Valley are already dissatisfied with how arrogant and willful I am when ordering them around. How can you agree to your Emperor Father’s request so easily? Everyone knows about the relationship between you and I, and not a single person will believe me if I said that I had nothing to do with it! Tell me, how am I supposed to handle this?!”

Feng Wan’er might be peevish normally, but she wasn’t a fool. She understood that Pei Wuchen had acted first and informed her later all because he wanted to keep his reputation. Now, he was pushing all this mess to her.

When Pei Wuchen heard that Feng Wan’er was scolding him, he immediately refuted, “What am I supposed to do?! Emperor Father made things difficult for me in front of all my brothers. Had I not predicted this in advance and made preparations, I would have been punished by my paranoid Emperor Father long ago!”

“Yes, he is my father, but he is an Emperor. He is a ruler who will make use of everything to benefit himself and the Cloud Water Nation! That’s right, I am indeed his son but when I address myself as ‘official son’ in front of him, I am his official. ‘If the ruler wants the official dead, the official has to die’. Right now, he wants to make use of me in order to get a share of the pie. Do you think I feel good being sandwiched in the middle?”

Pei Wuchen had always been cultured and refined, it was also how he treated women. Feng Wan’er had never seen Pei Wuchen yelling so hysterically and loudly before and she was shocked.

Pei Wuchen seemed to have realized that his attitude towards Feng Wan’er wasn’t too good. After all, she was someone he loved and even though he had suffered grievance and pressure from his Emperor Father, he shouldn’t vent it all out on Feng Wan’er. He quickly spoke up to comfort her. “I lost control earlier and I hope that junior sister will not take it to heart. I will personally explain this matter to the Hall Master. Hall Master has always been the most partial person in our Phoenix King Valley and will definitely not blame junior sister.”

Seeing that Feng Wan’er wasn’t replying to him, Pei Wuchen immediately left the room to look for the Phoenix King Valley’s old hall master to discuss this matter.

At the Second Prince’s residence, another scene played out.

In the study room, Pei Qingfeng had a smile on his face as he casually sipped on his tea. A folded fan rested in his other hand and he carefully studied the surface of it. He seemed extremely carefree.

As for the personal guard beside him, he had a long face as though he swallowed an entire bitter gourd.

“Master, are you really going to head over?” The guard asked reluctantly.

Pei Qingfeng heard the question and placed the fan down. He raised his eyes and replied, “I have already agreed to it in front of my Emperor Father. I even said that I will set off earlier so as to avoid slowing everyone down due to my crippled legs. If I take back my words now, I will be deceiving the Emperor.”

When Pei Qingfeng was done speaking, the corners of his mouth curled upwards and the smile on his face widened. It was as though he was extremely satisfied with himself.

His guard felt that his master was simply a fox who had a hundred tails. When the guard saw that Pei Qingfeng was determined to make a trip to the Falling Cloud Mountain Range no matter what, he understood that it wouldn’t matter how much he persuaded. He had no choice but to complain, “Master, you obviously had this all planned out. You know that His Majesty was going to make a fuss, thus, you deceived this subordinate by saying you wouldn’t go. This subordinate couldn’t follow you into the imperial study and naturally wouldn’t know what went down. Since you have already agreed, this subordinate would never know if it was a decree from His Majesty or was it your own intention.”

Pei Qingfeng laughed in response. Since he had already achieved his objective, it was nothing for his guard to complain a little.

“Master, the number of people looking for Divine Physician Bai has finally decreased during these few days.” Pei Rumo’s guard made a report in the First Prince’s residence.

“Prepare the items, I will be making a trip to the Falling Cloud Mountain Range in three days.” Pei Rumo instructed his subordinate before he took off the clothes he wore during the imperial court assembly.

...

“Is it because of that rumor? This subordinate hopes that Master will obtain good results.”

Pei Rumo glanced at the guard and snorted. “Heh, I am not taking the lead this time. Pei Wuchen is going to lead the way. I don’t think I’ll be able to accept your blessing this time.”

The guard understood that he had said something wrong and immediately knelt on the ground with a ‘plop’ in order to seek forgiveness from Pei Rumo.

Pei Rumo didn’t intend to punish the guard. He simply allowed the guard to get up before he muttered, “But this time, Emperor Father wants to forcefully obtain a share of the profits from the Phoenix King Valley. Third Brother agreed to help Emperor Father do so... He is the last disciple of the Phoenix King Valley Master and also Emperor Father’s favorite son. He must be trapped between a rock and a hard place right now. He’s just like a mouse in the bellows, suffering from piercing wind from both directions. Right now, he must be at the relay station explaining the plan to the members of the Phoenix King Valley.”

Pei Rumo muttered to himself before heading back to his room. He prepared to change out of his attire for the day.