Chapter 22

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

This time, Bai Lianhua chooses to rest for a few more days before entering the new world.

He’s already realised that compared to the dear antagonists who’s all become different levels of bananas after breaking down, that white unchanging fog in the system space has become more and more lovely, worth a thorough examination.

It can be said that Bai Lianhua only decides to continue his mission now when he’s killed so much time there’s no more time to kill in his rest.

But suddenly, another attack threatens his delicate little heart.

——He was still in the system space the last moment, and the next he suddenly appears in thin air and falls into someone’s embrace.

Lucky for him, it was not a fall from on high. It’s not particularly painful, but he did sprawl himself all over the other person.

Bai Lianhua raises his head, and comes face to face with a noble-looking and familiar person. He blanks out for a moment before reacting, he should be… Meng Yanbai?

Looks like he’s in the antagonist Meng Yanbai’s world this time.

But their clothing is off… Bai Lianhua’s eyes widen, and is in disbelief when he sees the bright yellow clothing on Meng Yanbai. And he feels as if he’s suffocating when he glances over the chair they’re sitting in.

Imperial robe? Imperial throne?

What do these two items combined implicate? Bai Lianhua starts wailing in his mind, oh no no no, Meng Yanbai still usurped the throne!

As if he’s burned, he immediately wants to stand up.

But Meng Yanbai,, who’s also utterly shocked at first, has collected himself, and wraps Bai Lianhua with his arms tightly. Then he grips Bai Lianhua’s chin and sniggers.

“Nice. So apparently making it onto this throne means seeing you again.”

“Why have I not done this earlier?”

Bai Lianhua is restrained. He remains quiet——Hey Mr. antagonist, isn’t the black aura emanating from you a bit severe? It’s terrifying.

The Meng Yanbai in my memories wasn’t like this!

Bai Lianhua’s silence has displeased Meng Yanbai, “why are you not speaking? Didn’t you choose to come give your congratulations to this day, when I am ascending the throne?”

Bai Lianhua “…”

Oh my God, is this the first night after Meng Yanbai’s enthronement? I’m sorry, I didn’t even know that before you told me this, Mr. antagonist.

——Also, you sure are pretty adept at this “ gu gu gu ” business. I really can’t tell it’s your first day here. You sure have become accustomed to your job already.

Bai Lianhua feels that the system has sent him at a way too awkward time. The only good thing is that there’s only Meng Yanbai here in the whole of this palace hall. There’s not even a eunuch or imperial maid around. They’ve probably been dismissed by Meng Yanbai… Uh, he probably wanted some peace and quiet.

But no matter what, at least he isn’t seen by anyone else.

Bai Lianhua tries to recall the information about this world.

Meng Yanbai——The antagonist of this world is originally from the Residence of Great General, but his mother has a low social status. She’s only a concubine that General Meng unceremoniously took in at the borderlands. She died giving birth to Meng Yanbai as well, and was buried without rituals in the end.

The poor little Meng Yanbai, therefore, had become associated with bringing misfortune . Due to the other spouses of General Meng speaking poorly of him, saying how he brings misfortune to mothers, so after his biological mother, the next would be the official mother . So he is despised by the lady of the house.

And when he was born, there were already four noble-born sons and several ignoble-born sons in the household. So he was not seen as being of much value to General Meng, and so he was treated poorly since birth.

And especially because Meng Yanbai was somewhat physically weak when young, unlike other members of the Meng family who are natural-born martial artists. So he’s easily a target for picking on. He’s often chided and called names like ‘ little bastard .’

When he was a bit older, while he’s become talented with horseback riding and archery, he’s still not brave or valorous. Instead, he enjoys spending his time with books, and enjoys strategising. But his wisdom and pragmatism are seen as conniving and deceitful; he’s out of place in the Meng family.

Yet he is part of the Meng family, after all, so he had to walk the path of the Meng family. When he was older still, he went to the borderlands, working his way up from a foot soldier in a military camp. He knows he’s basically nonexistent in the Meng family, so he never borrowed their name for his convenience.

Yet his fifth brother, a noble-born son who’s close in age to him, is both rash and reckless, and is also touted for being from the Meng family, and has declared he’ll achieve greatness.

Unfortunately, they ended up in the same military camp.

Their goals different, the two people have stayed away from each other and been peaceful on the surface.

Meng Yanbai did great. His military achievement has piled on and on after several years in service. He’s not the bravest nor most fearless one on the battlefield, but thanks to his natural military skills, he’s always the one that ended up with the most gains in the end. In the end, in only a few years, he’s already been promoted through several ranks, becoming equal to his fifth brother in rank.

Normally, if everything continued as it was, this would probably end up being an inspirational story of a little pitiable soul successfully rebelling against oppression; however, there was an accident in the original timeline of the world.

Meng Yanbai’s fifth brother, who was heedlessly ambitious, made a wrong decision during a sortie, that ended up causing a series of terrible consequences. Afterwards, Meng Yanbai, who successfully repelled the enemy was assigned the role of the sacrificial pawn and he’s ordered to take the blame for his noble-born brother who lost.

The reasoning is simple too. The Meng family flows in your blood, therefore you should give up your life for the Meng family.

What’s scarier, with the Meng family being in charge of military affairs, they’re able to pull the wool completely over the military camp, and they’re able to play both judge and jury.

Infuriated, Meng Yanbai rebels against the Meng family with his subordinates. The Meng family, however, only reports the result without the cause to the imperial court, so they’re seen as traitors and are hunted down by the imperial court.

Meng Yanbai takes all his subordinates and escapes into the mountains. They rest and regroup, and then men started to gather around them. With their numbers, they just ended up toppling the entire imperial court. Their rebellion went smoothly, and he becomes the new emperor.

But Meng Yanbai still has the grudge and anger in him from his previous experience. He’s ruthless and cruel, and ends up becoming an infamous tyrant. Under his rule, the populace suffered.

And Bai Lianhua’s identity in this world is quite interesting——He’s an imperial prince.

… Yep. A prince of the previous dynasty that was toppled by Meng Yanbai.

What’s similar to Meng Yanbai is that he’s also a child without a mother. Unlike Meng Yanbai, though, his biological mother was a Guifei , whose position was only under the imperial consort.

What’s similar again, though, is that they’re both despised by their official mothers.

Bai Lianhua, son of a Guifei, is the sixth prince among the imperial princes. Though his biological mother passed away early, his maternal relatives are still there. Without considering him as a character, only his circumstance would put him in the path of the imperial consort who sees him as an obstacle to her son’s path to the imperial throne.

So the imperial consort, acting as his surrogate mother, exploits the fact of Bai Lianhua being physically frail, and so with her ‘gentle loving’ disposition, she asks a soothsayer for a divination. The result was that Bai Lianhua should be raised in a household of a military officer where there is a lethality aura, which will suppress his inherent inadequacies and improve his condition.

This is chasing Bai Lianhua out of the centre of the political theatre that is the imperial palace.

The emperor, unfit as he is, bought the excuse wholesale.

So Bai Lianhua was sent to the Residence of the Great General like that. For other imperial princes, they’d probably be so livid they’d cough up blood. It’s unexpected serendipity for Bai Lianhua though, because now he can approach his mission objective directly.

Besides, he’s not come to this world to be an emperor. Go fight for it all you want.

——Also, there’s only imposing emperors, black-bellied emperors… Who in the world would want a white lotus as an emperor? That would make for quite the farce, and he’s not interested in seeing that.

Bai Lianhua had quite the comfortable life in the Meng family. While in a certain sense he’s ‘exiled’ by the imperial consort out of the palace. In a subordinate’s residence, though, his identity as an imperial prince is still highly regarded, and the members of the general’s household had to graciously welcome him.

As Bai Lianhua is still young, General Meng’s wife and concubines also enthusiastically urged their sons to get familiar with this sixth prince. Everyone knows the sixth prince will have to return to the palace eventually. He might not be seen favourably by the imperial consort, but his biological mother is a dear lover of the emperor! The emperor might have been a bit dumb in letting him out of the palace, but normally the apportionment of resources would see the sixth prince enjoying the best part of the palace. He is definitely something in the emperor’s mind.

Who can tell what the future holds? Maybe the sixth prince is the chosen one.

Unfortunately, when interacting with all the kids inside the Meng family, Bai Lianhua is always indifferent in attitude. He’s only more caring towards Meng Yanbai whose mother has passed away.

The two kids with similar life experiences up to then has become good friends, and they’re able to talk about anything and everything. From now on, they’re able to share their happiness and comfort each other’s unhappiness. Even if there’s a difference in their status, their friendship is unaffected.

While the others in the Meng family are not without complaint regarding the sixth prince’s eerie vision in judging people, but they also didn’t dare bully Meng Yanbai anymore. Even the servants have retracted their arrogance and treat him the same as other young masters.

Bai Lianhua believes he’s managed to pull the rug out from under them. He’s directly resolved the future path where the antagonist would be bullied and traumatised. And then he’s become a good friend of his and has opened up the defences of his mind one by one, so that he doesn’t just hold everything inside him, whether good or bad, so that it doesn’t brew into a big problem.

And when Meng Yanbai is farther and farther away from his unsettling description in the original world timeline, Bai Lianhua is relieved.

Especially when later he secretly manipulated it so that Meng Yanbai didn’t go to a military camp with his fifth brother, and instead gives him a transfer order that’s on hold for now while giving him a job in name in the capital, before having him moved to another military camp more peaceful in tone, he finally breathes a sigh of relief.

Now he’s eliminated all possible potential risks.

So Bai Lianhua receives a notification from the system that his mission is completed, “congratulations host, you have completed the white lotus mission to 100%, becoming a pure, flawless white lotus, successfully emanating your brilliance to soothe the antagonist. Now the mission is complete and you can detach from the world.”

Bai Lianhua is satisfied. Now he has to consider how he’ll leave this world.

In the end, Bai Lianhua chooses the most logical and reasonable outcome——His cheap father happened to be summoning him back into the palace back then. He’ll return alright, since the imperial princes are all grown up and their infighting has become so severe it’s almost surfacing. Bai Lianhua detached from the world as he was being schemed against by several of his older imperial brothers.

——True, the princes were trying to take his life, but he didn’t die from them. He disappeared and left the world directly.

So, to Meng Yanbai, he’s… supposed to be a corpse right now.

Bai Lianhua’s thoughts return, and is feeling impressed with how brave Meng Yanbai turned out to be.

Look, in this vast, emptied palace hall, as the candlelight wafted and wavered, casting layers of eerie shadows on the surfaces, Meng Yanbai doesn’t even leave one single person here to serve him, and decides to stay here alone in the dead of night… Most importantly, upon seeing him, who’s supposedly ‘dead,’ his first reaction is not to run away, nor is he sprinkling dog blood or looking for a rooster , and instead decides to hug him tight without letting go. Is this even how a normal person might respond?

As Bai Lianhua is still silent, Meng Yanbai gives up trying to make him answer. Instead, he continues, “say, presents are in order for a congratulation. Where’s yours?”

Bai Lianhua “…” He chooses to continue pretending to be a quail . Mainly, if he doesn’t, he’s not going to manage to keep up with the antagonist’s conversation.

“Then how about you yourself be my present?” Meng Yanbai lifts up Bai Lianhua’s hair and lightly caresses it.

“I’ve always been wondering, why does this chair seem to hold such appeal that everyone wants to acquire it. Willing to fall out with brothers and even commit familicide over it.”

“Now, though, I see that it is certainly worth doing so.”

“If one sits on it, becoming the true Son of Heaven on earth, then even dreams will come true, and even dead people can be resurrected.”

Bai Lianhua tries opening his mouth, but still fails to produce any sound whatsoever.

Meng Yanbai sees through his awkwardness, and chuckles, “I don’t care what you are right now. Human, ghost, monster, whatever you are, as long as you are there, and I can touch it, then I will not question it.”

“Now, I also have enough power to protect you.”

“Of course, I also have enough power to keep you. So that you don’t have to leave me for some random person’s order.”

Bai Lianhua “???”

He gives it a thought, and largely understands that it’s the decree recalling him issued by the then emperor back then that Meng Yanbai is talking about. His way of expressing it, though, is odd…

The familiar scent of… gayish gayness…

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