Trigger Warning (Click)
Prince Wei is pretty aggressive in his approach here, which some of you might find uncomfortable. It’s also, by modern standards, attempted rape.《 Previous | Table of Contents | Next 》
Translation: marchmallow
Well, that was something Feng Sheng was completely oblivious to. No wonder Gou Qing’s expressions, as well as the glint in his eyes, were so strange.
If Prince Wei’s supposition was true, then what was Gou Qing’s intention? As Prince Wei’s subordinate, he was perfectly aware that Prince Wei had been scouring for her everywhere, yet he withheld her whereabouts to himself.
Calling to mind Gou Qing’s lascivious mouth and his frequent attempts to flirt with her in the past, although Feng Sheng tried her utmost to maintain her composure, she couldn’t cease the bubbles of guilt from rising up.
Given how keen Prince Wei’s eyes were, with just a single glance at her sudden expression, he could already formulate a multitude of conjectures in his head.
“Fang Feng Sheng!”
“What now?” startled, Feng Sheng subconsciously asked.
Little did she know that such a reaction would incite Prince Wei’s frustrations to overflow. He gnashed his teeth in anger, itching to tear the person who had stolen her attention to shreds.
Frightened of his expression, Feng Sheng quickly explained, “What’s the matter with you? There really is nothing between me and Gou Qing. We merely cooperated in the past. Don’t you know these things?”
He naturally knew. In fact, he only found out once Gou Qing and Feng Sheng’s cooperation was set in stone.
Everything was merely coincidental. The restrictions he set on Gou Qing wasn’t actually much. First, he enabled him to fish for gold; second, he didn’t mind when Gou Qing recruited people to his side. Similar to the Crown Prince, if he yearned to accomplish great things, he couldn’t make do with scheming alone. If you wanted those below you to work themselves to the bone for you, you must have silver. If you couldn’t even feed them until they’re satisfied, who else could you count on to toil for you?
However, he and the Crown Prince were treading different paths. The Crown Prince was descending from the top, while his aim was the opposite. He was ascending from the bottom.
He had been assisting Gou Qing for several years, so he knew Gou Qing’s character very well. He seemed unruly, but he was actually circumspect. Cognizant of this, he didn’t require the other party to give an account of every single detail. Because he had ordered people to keep an eye on Feng Sheng, traces of their cooperation were bound to crop up, which was how he discovered the two of them working together.
With that, he became completely aware of the relationship between the two, as well as the exact reason why Gou Qing had chosen to cooperate with Feng Sheng. However, he didn’t prod the other party right to his face and simply manifested to him an appropriate amount of regard for Fang Feng Sheng. Gou Qing himself took it in stride, but he didn’t expect Gou Qing to be momentarily muddled.
Yes, to this day, Prince Wei attributed that little bit of inclination Gou Qing had at that time to a moment of confusion.
Both were smart people. He was convinced that Gou Qing could discern what he should and shouldn’t do. It was just that, thinking about it and seeing it with his own eyes were two entirely different things. He knew perfectly well that he shouldn’t act on his ire, but he still couldn’t hold back his belly full of fire, and Feng Sheng’s little display of guilt was undoubtedly the spark that ignited that fire.
The more Prince Wei brooded over it, the angrier he grew. He dragged Feng Sheng into his arms and stifled her with his mouth.
At first, Feng Sheng wanted to thwart him, but she didn’t want to further provoke his rage. Even though his kisses hurt a little, she still endured. Who would have imagined he would grow more and more excessive, actually hauling her on his lap and reaching out to tug her clothes?
“You, let go! What crazy thing are you doing?!”
Prince Wei said nothing and merely immersed himself on his own.
Feng Sheng’s discomfort heightened, unable to comprehend how things had progressed this way. However, she couldn’t speak at all. He was persistent in blocking her mouth with his, and her panting became heavier by the instant. Later, without knowing why, she started crying.
Prince Wei initially assumed it was his own sweat. Then, he sensed that something wasn’t quite right. His body stiffened, and he stopped moving. He tried to pry her hands away from her face, but Feng Sheng fought desperately to keep him from doing so and pushed him hard. With great difficulty, she thrusted his sweaty body away, just noticing that she herself had been stripped down to her undergarments and was straddling him in such a humiliating position that she felt like her head was going to explode.
She wanted to cry again but felt that she had lost too much face to cry. She could only cover her face with both hands in an attempt to conceal herself.
Prince Wei knew that he had been too impulsive that moment, and he panicked when he saw her like this. He tugged at her hands to balk her from hiding.
The two continued their ‘you push, I pull’ scuffle until they both collapsed on the quilt. Feng Sheng shoved him away to drive him out, but he wouldn’t say anything, refusing to leave. Their manner of contending with each other could rival even Zhuge’s1 scintillating resourcefulness. Neither of the two were young, nor were their identities insignificant, but right now, they were just like children jostling on the bed.
Outside the door, Zhi Qiu and Dong Mei exchanged glances, not daring to move.
They both knew that today’s squabble between the Princess Consort and His Highness was an extremely rare occurrence. His Highness’s face might seem cold, but long after serving by their masters’ sides, they were able perceive that the Princess Consort usually had the final say in most of the major decisions. Them fighting like this was a first.
Just now, His Highness howled, startling the two of them. Before their souls could recover, the Princess Consort’s cries escaped from inside. Now closely listening to their movements, could it be that they were actually fighting?
Zhi Qiu was unable to bear it. Dong Mei pulled her back and whispered, “What are you doing?”
“Inside……”
“Come on. How can we servants interfere with the affairs of our masters? Besides, the Princess Consort will be unable to stand a slap from the prince. They’re surely not fighting.”
“If it’s not a fight, what else could the noise be?”
“You’ll have to ask the masters. Well, don’t be impatient. Even if a real fight breaks out, it’s not something we servants can stick our heads in.”
Prince Wei was already like an arrow on the bowstring. After being tossed around like this, how could he stand it? The veins on his forehead jumped.
He was already restraining his strength. This time, he no longer held back. He grasped her waist tightly and pressed her towards himself, grabbing both of her hands with his free hand.
After tossing about, everything transformed into a scene of bedlam. In the end, all had forgotten how it even started. Feng Sheng was quite vexed, but she was now lacking strength. She wanted to gather some energy and wait to settle accounts with him. Who would have thought he would call for hot water? He personally took the kerchief and wiped her body with it, which was what he would usually do after the incident, so she could neither muster the strength to release her anger from her system, nor get it to dissipate.2
The next day, Feng Sheng was still livid and ignored Prince Wei for a whole day.
Prince Wei’s face was ice cold. He was also irate. He happened to have business outside, so he went out for an entire day without saying a word of greeting. When he returned in the evening, the moon was already at the tip of the tree. He strode towards the courtyard and noticed that the main room was not lit, so he plodded to the study. De Wang saw his glum visage and did not dare say anything. This master and servant pair, one sat behind the desk pretending to skim through official documents, and the other stood there at the side on high alert.
The more Prince Wei looked at De Wang, the more crestfallen he became. He tossed the teacup aside and rose to his feet.
“Your Highness, where are you going?”
Therefore, De Cai’s remarks about De Wang’s stupidity was not at all wrong. He received a kick in exchange for that question. When De Wang got up from the ground to catch up with him, he saw his own master march straight into the main room.
If you knew what would happen, why did you still do it?!
Translator’s Note:
Bad Prince Wei. I’m gonna post a spoiler about what follows in case you guys are wondering if he keeps doing this.
Spoiler + Thoughts (Click)
They make up the next chapter. After that, Prince Wei stops being forceful and their relationship eventually takes a turn for the better. Nothing like this happens after that. This chapter is the last time. The next chapter does shed a bit of light as to why Prince Wei is the way he is, which is consistent with the time period he’s in. However, this doesn’t discount the fact that he had intended to force himself on her in a moment of impulse.
Okay, but seriously speaking, the last few chapters, Feng Sheng always seemed unwilling whenever he wanted to do it, which, by common sense and by modern standards, is rape. I’m not even gonna pretend this is okay. The ancient era was extremely sexist and patriarchal. Women didn’t have rights, and according to the ‘Three Obediences and Four Virtues’, a woman had to obey her father as a daughter, obey her husband as a wife, and obey her son as a mother (but this is situational). Although Feng Sheng’s character has been mostly unconventional, and although she acts ahead of her time, she’s still, after all, born and raised in ancient and imperial China (which seems to be why she’s rather unaffected the next day after all those nights they had sex with dubious consent. To her, she was simply doing her duty as a wife.), and Prince Wei similarly so.
I know this is fiction, and the story totally would’ve been fine even without the whole thing. I honestly don’t know why authors like including sexual assault in their content. Though as someone who’s read countless harem intrigue in C-novels, I’ve personally been so desensitized. BUT, this doesn’t mean I’m fine with it. There’s a limit to how scummy an ML can be. If you’ve read ‘The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir’, you’ll understand what I mean (The plot for that overall is 5/5, but the ML is utter trash). This genre in particular is exceedingly saturated with domineering and trashy MLs. Fiction and reality are different things. Sexual assault is disgusting no matter what context, even for webnovels such as this. I know some of you can’t stomach it, and I honestly respect and understand that. Whether or not you find Prince Wei reprehensible is all up to you.
1 诸葛: probably refers to Zhuge Liang (181-234), military leader and prime minister of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. In popular media, he’s often depicted as a sage and military genius mastermind. The author is being ironic, saying that they’re both calculating each other in their childlike scuffle as Zhuge would in war.
2 Feng Sheng was surprised he called for water, because that was something he usually did after sex, which didn’t happen this time. He called for water because they were all sweaty after fighting like children.