The Villain Loaded My System

Gu Xiyu actually didn’t know what Crown Prince Yuchi Lan was up to.

When people came to the Fourth Prince’s residence, he thought it was the system’s prediction and that the mission target had come to him.

The steward was in charge of the reception. At that time, he was having tea and chatting with Murong Qingwan in the hall when he hurried in to report to Yuchi Rong: “Fourth Highness, it’s the Crown Prince’s men, they said they have something important to discuss with you, and need to see you.”

They immediately knew that it was a big deal.

He and Murong Qingwan’s plan to follow Yuchi Rong back to the palace was a secret, but he didn’t expect the Crown Prince to find them so quickly. From the attitude of the representative, it seemed that he had the intention to force the Fourth Prince into handing the person over.

“Our Highness has said that the Fourth Prince is suspected of disobeying His Majesty’s wishes by hiding the princess from Dayan. The princess is not dead, yet you are hiding her without permission and trying to hide the truth. It is really inappropriate; please return her to Our Highness.”

Yuchi Rong replied, “Princess Danyan’s marriage is with the Third Highness, he should be the one to ask for her, what does it have to do with the Crown Prince?”

“Third Highness has withdrawn the marriage from His Majesty, and technically speaking, the princess is no longer under his jurisdiction. Fourth Highness has been away from the capital for a long time and may not be aware that His Highness the Crown Prince has been in charge of the investigation and tracing of the princess since her disappearance. Now that there is news of the person again, the Crown Prince will use all means to deliver the princess to the palace unharmed, so as to help stabilize the tension between us and the Dayan kingdom.”

“Although Dayan is just a small kingdom, even dogs will jump over the wall when they are anxious. Since they are now a subsidiary of our Yao Kingdom, we more or less need to take good care of the princess they sent to us, don’t you think?”

Yuchi Lan had probably said these words, and the representative who came to lobby them calmly said them out loud, with a very insistent attitude. The problem is that Yuchi Rong and Gu Xiyu had just returned to the capital, and originally thought that since the palace had announced the death of the princess, they didn’t have to take the initiative to report it. This helped let the Crown Prince catch this leak and come to take the person away.

Unlike the time he was escorted by the bridal party, it was a bit risky for Gu Xiyu to take Murong Qingwan’s place without a wedding dress or red veil.

In the hall, Murong Qingwan could not sit still. She slammed the sword in her hand onto the table and said to Gu Xiyu in a strong tone as if she were ready to go to war, “Imperial brother, you have suffered a lot because you took my identity, it is me they want; it’s no big deal to accompany them on this trip.”

“Anyway, it’s just going to the Royal Palace of the Yao Kingdom, the people in the Fourth Prince’s palace will all witness me leaving with the Crown Prince’s people, and if something does happen, they can testify for me. I don’t believe that His Highness the Crown Prince will do anything to me!”

Gu Xiyu, who had been nursed to a better state of health in a poor mountainous place like the fortress, was now in much better spirits than before and no longer spoke as weakly as before: “No way.”

“The prince is so determined to get you into the palace, he must have something in mind. You won’t be able to answer if you meet the emperor and he asks about your disappearance. Besides, you and the Fourth Prince have been working together for a long time and have a better understanding of each other, so you will know how to handle the situation if something happens. I have no special abilities other than my sound limbs, and I might be able to do more for you by entering the palace.”

Gu Xiyu thought that the Great Demon might be in the palace, and as the third prince, he was rumored to spend most of his time in the palace, so this would be a good opportunity to meet him. He could only stop Murong Qingwan from revealing her identity on the grounds that he was worried about her and needed to deal with the emperor’s various interrogations.

Before leaving, he gave Yuchi Rong the jade the fortress master had supposedly stolen from Wei Chiyan and given him.

He was worried that In case he still failed to meet Wei Chiyan when he entered the palace, Yuchi Rong, who was the fourth prince, was the only one he could count on now: “Just give this to him and say that I gave it to you.”

If Wei Chiyan really was the fortress master he had met outside, he would not be indifferent. And to be conservative, if he really wasn’t the fortress master, he would get suspicious and come to see him when he saw this missing item, right?

That was what Gu Xiyu thought.

He was originally worried that the prince might have found out his and Murong Qingwan’s identities in advance, but when he quickly put on his makeup and changed his clothes, the prince’s people didn’t notice anything unusual.

Fortunately, one of the survivors of the original bridal party was brought, and the other party had seen the ‘princess’ and identified him through his figure, nodding and saying, “She’s indeed the person we picked up from Dayan.”

Gu Xiyu was then taken all the way to the crown prince’s palace, where he sat for most of the day in the opulent palace under the watchful eyes of many palace staff.

He couldn’t act rashly and could only silently chat with the system in his mind.

[Didn’t they say they wanted to take you to the emperor? Why did they take you to the Crown Prince’s palace?] The mechanical voice of the intelligent system should have sounded emotionless, but Gu Xiyu felt some anger and even a bit of grievance in the tone.

Gu Xiyu replied: “I’m not sure, isn’t there any information about the original plot in the database? Did Murong Qingwan go through this plot?”

The system may have gone through the information, but it took a long time to answer him, sounding awkward and hesitant: [The crown prince and Murong Qingwan indeed had interactions in the original plot, but since it’s the…heroine’s world, there is only a record in the database that says she has side plots with many people, all of which involved one-way feelings..so she probably went through this plot.]

[The original Murong Qingwan gradually attracted the Crown Prince’s attention after having several encounters with him. How could he suddenly become interested in you when you have never had contact with him?] The intelligent system’s tone sounded really dissatisfied to the extreme, as if it wanted to abandon its system identity, come out, and beat the crown prince up.

Gu Xiyu couldn’t hold back a laugh. He lowered his eyes in silence and then responded, “There’s no rush; he shouldn’t be able to do anything to me for a while.”

After a pause, he added, “It would be better if Wei Chiyan could be more sensible and come to see me on his own initiative.”

Just as he finished this topic with the system, a eunuch came from outside the hall and treated him with a fairly respectful attitude, “Please follow this servant to the Imperial Study, His Majesty says he wants to see you.”

Gu Xiyu naturally could not disobey the emperor’s order, and without saying anything, he got up and followed him out.

Unlike in the modern world, where the study was only a short distance from the bedroom, the prince’s palace was a really long distance from the imperial study. Gu Xiyu dragged his broken body as he followed the eunuch in front of him, and his legs ached a little by the time the young eunuch finally brought him to the imperial study where the emperor usually worked.

His breathing was a little disorganized. He straightened his back and waited outside to be called in, opening his mouth slightly to breathe out, a light mist kept coming due to the cold.

The sun had not yet set when he left the palace, and Gu Xiyu had not prepared a thick cotton coat because he didn’t expect it to take so long. It was unlikely for the people in the palace to prepare any warm clothing for a ‘princess’ from a small kingdom. His bones were already aching from the freezing wind.

Luckily, there was no delay in the imperial study, and the guard who had gone into the room came out to invite him in not long after.

In the room, there was the old emperor behind the table with his long grey beard and majestic expression and a man in an almond-yellow robe. The other man turned sideways as he entered, his eyes brightening as they moved back and forth over him, as if he were taking a closer look.

The man was probably around thirty years old, and the embroidery on his chest resembled a dragon and a python, so Gu Xiyu guessed that he should be the legendary Crown Prince Yuchi Lan—the man who had brought him into the palace.

Gu Xiyu felt a little nervous from his stare. People in the royal family were not easy to deceive, and he was quite worried that his identity would be immediately revealed.

Yuchi Lan stared at him for a long time with a complicated emotion in his eyes. Gu Xiyu couldn’t tell what was mixed in there, he could see some surprise, but there was no suspicion.

Fortunately, the original owner had a slightly feminine appearance, which did not look out of place after the disguise. The old emperor was not suspicious and greeted him with a question: “Are you the princess from the Dayan Kingdom? Zhen wonders if you have any proof on you.”

Because of the long distance, no one could guarantee that there would be no accidents or that someone from outside the palace would impersonate the princess, so when Gu Xiyu and Murong Qingwan left with the bridal party, they carried special tokens from the Dayan Palace to prove their identity. After meeting the bandits and separating from Murong Qingwan, he had given her these important items for safekeeping and asked her for them before leaving with the crown prince’s men.

The eunuch beside the old emperor took the token he handed out and submitted it to the emperor.

After confirming his identity, the old emperor said in a slightly pleasant tone, “Something unpleasant happened on the way to our Yao Kingdom a while ago, and Zhen called you to offer you an apology on behalf of our Kingdom. The compensation will be delivered to you once We have ordered someone to take care of it.”

“We sent people to search for you, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea, We couldn’t get any news and We almost thought you had been killed. It must have been a hard time for you.”

This statement was obviously  an inquiry about the process and the state of affairs, so Gu Xiyu answered in accordance with the Emperor’s words: “I am grateful for Your Majesty’s concern. The guards of the wedding procession tried their best to protect me on that journey, but the bandit’s attack was too sudden and fierce. It was thanks to the cover of the maids who were with me at the time that I was able to survive.”

Gu Xiyu did not say exactly how he had escaped, nor did he say directly that he had been taken captive. If the emperor knew that he had been taken captive in a mountain fortress, he would be suspicious of his ‘innocence’, and even if he did prove it in the end, he would not be able to withstand the gossip that would be spread around, and it would affect Murong Qingwan’s reputation. But he wasn’t sure how much information Prince Yuchi Lan had about him, especially since Chen Wei in Luohe Fortress was his close friend and must have informed him of the matter.

He guessed that it was because of Chen Wei that his return with the Fourth Prince had been discovered so quickly. Under such circumstances, he certainly could not be the first to take the initiative to lie to the emperor that he had not been taken away as he was not sure if Yuchi Lan would step in to expose him, so he could only answer vaguely.

“After that… it was only by luck that I met His Highness the Fourth Prince and his men, and only with his help did I reach the imperial city without any problems. However, I entered the capital and found that the palace had already made up its mind about my life and death, and the marriage with the third prince had been called off. That is why I didn’t report to the palace immediately, so please forgive me, Your Majesty.”

The emperor stroked his beard and then said, “It’s alright, We understand.”

“The reason I asked you to come to the palace today is to talk to you about this matter. Now that you have arrived at the palace safe and sound, the promised peace marriage with the Dayan Kingdom must continue, after all, this is also a concession you have made to rest the war.”

Gu Xiyu lowered his eyes and said, “Naturally.”

The marriage partner was Wei Chiyan, so he had no problem with it.

Unexpectedly, the old emperor then said, “The third prince approached me before to withdraw from this marriage, but We didn’t expect you to come back. Unfortunately …… unfortunately that son grew up with his own ideas, and has a rather special hobby. A princess like you can’t be wronged by marrying him.”

“It just so happened that the crown prince mentioned you a while ago, so someone looked at your horoscopes and found that you are very compatible with each other, and it would be very beneficial for both of you if you were united. We thought that since the crown prince was interested, We would have you marry him as compensation.”

At his age, the crown prince was naturally already married. He had married the daughter of the prime minister and a relative of the empress, so she had very strong backing and was capable of supporting the crown prince to the throne. So to him, it didn’t matter if the side concubine could help him or not.

Gu Xiyu was a little stunned. His partner was said to be with the Great Demon, how did it suddenly become the Crown Prince?

The news came unexpectedly, and he was just a ‘bargain’ sent to the Yao Kingdom’s door in exchange for peace. Even though the Emperor sounded kind, he had no say or choice in the decision and could only accept it.

When Gu Xiyu left the imperial study, it was already dark outside. The young eunuch who had shown him the way was still waiting outside, and when Gu Xiyu saw him, he was still inwardly reluctant.

He had been looking forward to meeting the Great Demon and carrying out his mission properly, only for his plans to get shattered. Moreover, he now had to stay in the palace and could not leave.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to move directly into the Crown Prince’s East Palace until they were married. The Emperor had already ordered someone to arrange for him a separate courtyard in the palace, and he would probably have to temporarily stay there for the next few days.

“Although she will be taken as a side concubine, she is still a princess of the Dayan Kingdom. Simple ceremonies and a wedding banquet must be arranged. We already calculated the date, and it will be half a month later. In order to prevent any more of the previous incidents, you should stay in the palace for the time being.”

Gu Xiyu stood outside the door of the imperial study for a while while even hearing the young eunuch who was calling him. The emperor’s words still lingered in his mind, intertwined with shock and confused emotions, causing his head to buzz.

A palace maid who had been standing by the pillars of the long corridor ahead for some unknown amount of time suddenly came up to him, carrying a red, thick-looking fleece cloak in her arms.

She handed him the cloak to protect him from the cold, and without saying who had sent it to him or even giving him the chance to ask, she bowed slightly and turned to leave.

The first thing that came to Gu Xiyu’s mind was the crown prince in the imperial study, and he felt repulsed for a moment. There were many guards and palace staff around, so he couldn’t just throw the garment away and could only carry it and follow the young eunuch, thinking that he would throw it away when he returned to a place where no one could see it.

It would be bad luck to keep it.

[Have you finished seeing the emperor? How did it go? Did they give you a hard time?] The timing of the intelligent system’s inquiry was quite opportune.

Gu Xiyu replied unhappily, “No, but my mission is full of twists and turns.”

[What do you mean by that?]

“The Crown Prince somehow fell in love with the heroine, and anyway, after all the fuss, the Emperor has now promised me to the Crown Prince as his side concubine.”

[?]

The more Gu Xiyu thought about it, the angrier he became: “Why do you think that foolish Wei Chiyan backed out of this marriage? I think he’s deliberately trying to get me into trouble.”

[…]

Wei Chiyan, who had just returned to the palace and hadn’t had the chance to meet the ‘princess’ yet, was also wondering about the same thing.