Chapter 50: Do You Really Think I'm Afraid of You?

Faced with Li Tai's completely hysterical accusations and provocations, Cheng Yaojin showed not a shred of fear. Instead, this troublemaking fiend was spurred on to completely let loose!

Rolling his ox-like eyes, old Cheng placed his hands on his hips, puffed out his chest, and boomed angrily: "If I have something to say, I'll say it! I, old Cheng, stand upright and walk straight; what is there for me to be afraid of?!"

"Do you really take me, old Cheng, for someone who is afraid of you?!"

"I, old Cheng, find it utterly baffling!" His voice grew even louder, carrying undisguised contempt. "If the Crown Prince forced his way into the palace, go take it up with the Crown Prince!"

"Why on earth are you stubbornly biting onto me and bickering about my 'stallion' here?!"

"Did it provoke you?!"

"Isn't Your Highness the Prince of Wei sticking your nose a bit too much into other people's business?!"

As he spoke, Cheng Yaojin simply threw caution to the wind, pushing his unprincipled and brazen nature to the extreme. Without skipping a beat, he directly began dragging up old scores: "Forget about arguing with His Majesty over horses in the imperial court; I, old Cheng, have even gotten drunk at palace banquets and had fierce, cursing shouting matches with His Majesty!"

"These matters—who among all the civil and military officials in the court does not know, who does not understand?!"

"His Majesty hasn't even said a word about it; does it your turn, a mere Prince of Wei, to point fingers and find fault?" He abruptly pointed at Li Tai, his spit nearly spraying onto the other man's face. "Furthermore, regarding the offense against imperial decorum just now, His Majesty has already handed down a punishment with his own golden words!"

"What, is Your Highness the Prince of Wei still refusing to let it go, wanting to punish me all over again on His Majesty's behalf?"

"Or could it be... that you wish to bypass His Majesty and directly sever this old head of mine?!"

"Come on! Come, come, come!!" Cheng Yaojin abruptly tilted his massive head, his thick neck— bulging with throbbing veins—thrusting straight toward Li Tai. "My head is right here!"

"If Your Highness the Prince of Wei has any spine, cut off my head right here in the Taiji Hall, right in front of His Majesty!"

"Let's see if Cheng Yaojin bats an eyelid!"

"If I even blink, I am no longer a man who urinates while standing!"

"You... you... coarse and vulgar!" Li Tai trembled all over from Cheng Yaojin's scattered and unreasonable tactics. The finger pointing at Cheng Yaojin shook like a fallen leaf in the wind, his mind went completely blank, and for a moment he was struck speechless. "... You're merely sophistry and groundless slander!"

Lacking more powerful words to vent his overflowing fury and resentment, the Prince of Wei could only uselessly repeat his pale and feeble accusations, his complexion turning from red to pale green, and then from green to deep purple.

It looked as though he might pass out from qi stagnation at any second.

Inside the Taiji Hall, there was a deathly stillness.

There was only the sound of Prince of Wei Li Tai's heavy breathing like a bellows, alongside the tall, broad, and imposing figure of Cheng Yaojin, which carried a touch of scoundrelism, a trace of mockery, and an unassailable majesty.

Those two words—"disputing horses"—echoed like a spell through the solemn hall, completely turning what should have been a grim and cruel struggle for the succession into an absurd debate.

Upon the throne.

Li Shimin's gaze was as deep as an abyss, and no one could fathom his true thoughts.

Meanwhile, at the vortex of today's court storm, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Li Chenqian, who had been standing attendance before the throne and acting as if he were above the fray, finally saw the corners of his otherwise calm and unruffled lips twitch upward in a motion almost too subtle to perceive, tracing a faint yet meaningful arc.

It was not as if he had not anticipated encountering a tempest of impeachments today.

Yet the performance put on by Prince of Wei Li Tai—so crazed and so devoid of all pretense...

Still gave him quite a "surprise."

And his Imperial Father's attitude today, which seemed to indulge this farce... Li Chenqian understood it crystal clear in his heart!

His Imperial Father was clearly fishing!

Using his own intrusion into the palace last night as bait, his father was shaking out all the hidden factions of the Prince of Wei within the court, along with those opportunists and restless elements, dragging them all out into the broad daylight!

Could it be...

That this was the "grand gift" his Imperial Father had spoken of with such profound meaning last night, meant specifically for him?

This was nothing less than a clear roster demarcating the enemy camp from his own!

At this very moment, Li Chenqian truly felt his Imperial Father's deep trust and reliance upon him!

Yet, when he looked again at the seemingly absurd and comical Cheng Yaojin... Li Chenqian's thoughts raced.

This Duke of Lu's performance today was wild and unrestrained, yet it precisely scratched the exact itch in his Imperial Father's heart. Could he, too, be a part of his Imperial Father's plan?

Or could it be that he was yet another "gift" bestowed upon him by his Imperial Father?

The moment this thought arose, Li Chenqian quickly suppressed it.

It was simply because he understood these founding aristocrats who had watched him grow up far too well.

That Cheng Yaojin was an overlord who had carved a path through the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the chaotic twilight of the Sui dynasty, and had once ruled his own territory! That untamable nature deep in his bones, that absolute confidence in his own strength—how could he be so easily brought to heel?

Even if his Imperial Father personally issued an order for him to pledge allegiance to the Eastern Palace, given Cheng Yaojin's temperament, he would likely only pay lip service while defying orders in secret.

Furthermore... in the past, among this cohort of founding meritorious officials and fierce generals, apart from the harboring-ulterior-motives Hou Junji, who had ever truly thought well of him as a once-profligate heir apparent...

I'm afraid even Hou Junji was merely utilizing him, much as Brother Zhao had said....

Thinking up to this point, the sense of relief Li Chenqian felt due to Cheng Yaojin's disruption dissolved into a hint of complexity.

He could not help but once again think of Zhao Mu—that man who spent his days lingering among the pleasure quarters and brothels of Pingkang Ward, seemingly dissolute yet unfathomably deep...

The catalyst for all the changes that had occurred in him stemmed entirely from this person.

Thinking of this, a wave of gratitude toward Zhao Mu welled up once more in Li Chenqian's heart...

Yet, right at this moment...

"Speaking of which, Your Highness the Prince of Wei..." Cheng Yaojin spoke up carelessly once more, his voice booming and without any attempt to hide the mockery on his face. "If you say I am engaging in sophistry and groundless slander, then what on earth were you and your pack of running dogs doing right here in the court just now?"

Cheng Yaojin's simple counter-question instantly dragged everyone's thoughts back to that uproarious farce that had taken place before the matter of the horses...

"First you were crying out for blood, and then you were weeping and wailing as you pleaded for leniency..."

"I, old Cheng, am getting exhausted just watching Your Highness!" With that, Cheng Yaojin cupped his fists in a salute, bowed toward the throne, and continued, "You claim that His Highness the Crown Prince forced his way into the palace to commit treason."

"Yet His Majesty hasn't even spoken a word yet!"

"Just what specific law His Highness the Crown Prince has broken, and how he should be dealt with—that is entirely for His Majesty to decide!"

"Yet here you are, putting on displays of 'forcing the imperial palace' and 'being in a state of mental distraction'."

"You speak as if it were absolute gospel truth. Did you witness with your own eyes His Highness the Crown Prince rebelling?"

"Or is it that you, the Prince of Wei, are capable of replacing His Majesty to deal with the Crown Prince?"

His logic was unpolished yet hit straight at the core!

Everyone kept saying the Crown Prince had forced his way into the palace, which was tantamount to treason.

Yet His Majesty hadn't even defined the nature of the crime yet, and you lot were already anxiously rushing forward to impeach him and plead for him at the same time!

What on earth were your intentions?

Especially Cheng Yaojin's final phrase—"the Prince of Wei replacing His Majesty"—was a truly heart-piercing accusation!