Chapter 9 — The Voice of the Heart Unmasks the Fake

Tham Thanh Dao stood behind the crown prince, his fingers holding the wine bottle slightly clenched. 【The Crown Princess wants to leave the palace? So good! It's even better that she's gone. There are only me and the crown prince left in the Eastern Palace. There are countless opportunities for men and women.】 I bowed my head and took a sip of wine, swallowing the cold laughter in my stomach. Two days later, the Crown Princess followed my convoy and left the palace. Before leaving, I went to Phuong Nghi palace and talked for a long time with my mother. After listening, the queen's eyebrows furrowed into knots:

"Are you sure you want to do that? What if she..."

“Don't miss it.”

I said:

"The queen mother only needs to do one thing. Call the prince's brother to the palace where he is staying for a few days, saying that he has been infected with wind and cold since the Mid-Autumn Festival night and needs to rest. Just leave an empty shell in the East palace for her to jump into."

My mother held my hand tightly, looked at me for a long time, and finally gritted her teeth and nodded. The second day after the convoy left the capital, something happened to the Eastern Palace. The news was quickly brought by horses. Tham Thanh Dao put spring medicine in the prince's brother's tea. The dosage is not heavy, but enough to make a man's mind confused and lustful thoughts flare up. She has calculated everything. Considering that the crown prince's brother was kept by his mother at Phuong Nghi Palace to "recover from illness", the East Palace only had her and a few rough maids left. But the crown prince was not there. That cup of tea was given to another person. He is the leader of the crown prince's close guard, a military mandarin in his mid-teens, full of vigor. When Tham Thanh Dao pushed the door open and entered, the lights in the room were turned off. ## 17 The next morning, the Eastern Palace was in chaos. The head of the guard knelt in the middle of the yard, bowed his head and admitted his guilt, saying that last night his whole body was hot for some reason, his mind was not clear, and he thought he had drunk too much alcohol. While daydreaming, he did something careless with a palace maid. After waking up, I discovered that it was Thanh Dao, a maid of the princess's palace. Tham Thanh Dao's clothes were not neat, she was shrinking in the corner of the bed, her face was full of tears, but in her mouth she only repeated one sentence:

"I don't know... I don't know anything... Someone harmed me..."

The commander of the guard pointed to the sky and swore:

"Last night I only drank one pot of tea. That pot of tea was brought by Miss Thanh Dao!"

When the eunuch in charge of the Eastern Palace came to report, I was at the southern translation station looking at the drawing of the water canal. The Crown Princess sat opposite me peeling tangerines, her fingers extremely steady.

“Pipe.”

I finished reading the letter and gave it to her:

“Guess what happened?”

The Crown Princess received the letter and read it once. The blood on her face returned little by little. She put down the letter, remained silent for a long time, and finally burst into laughter.

“Can Nuong.”

She called me, her voice hoarse but very steady:

“Thank you, sister.”

I took her hand:

"From now on, don't bear everything yourself. I'm your little aunt, if you don't look for me, who will you look for?"

The prince's tears finally fell, large drops hitting the tangerine. But she is smiling. On returning to the capital, my father was waiting for me in the royal study. The person sitting behind the dragon bench, holding the case file at the Eastern Palace in his hand, had an extremely unsightly look on his face.

“She's so bold!”

The royal father slammed the file on the table:

"Dare to put that dirty thing in my son's tea? What exactly is in her head?"

【Wait, the East Palace has finally happened what? Obviously I'm preparing for the crown prince... Why... Could it be that Hua Can Nuong is playing a trick? It's just a woman, can her hands reach that far?】 When I entered the royal study, Tham Thanh Dao was kneeling outside the door. After being escorted back, the emperor's father directly ordered someone to tie her up and throw her on the tile floor in front of the royal library waiting for processing. Her whole body was covered in mud, her hair was more than half loose, her face was blue and purple in places. It is said that after waking up, the guard commander angrily hit his chair. A chair leg flew and hit her in the face, leaving wounds.

“Father.”

I stood in front of the royal study door, bowed my head and looked at Tham Thanh Dao:

"As for her, please let me handle it myself."

The emperor looked at me and nodded. I sat down in front of Tham Thanh Dao and looked into her eyes. She raised her head to look at me. There was only resentment left in his eyes, he didn't even bother pretending anymore. 【Hua Can Nuong, you are cruel enough. But do you think that's the end? I will not admit defeat. I still have the trump card left unturned. At most, I directly state my identity, telling them that I am a time traveler and know things hundreds of years into the future. I can help them make gunpowder, paper, printing... Do they dare to kill me? Killing me is like personally cutting off the path to dominating the world!】

“Tham Thanh Dao.”

I spoke softly:

“What are you thinking? Are you thinking of using what you know in exchange for one life?”

18 Tham Thanh Dao's eyes suddenly opened wide.

“You… how do you know?”

I smiled:

“Do you think you are the only smart person in the world?”

Tham Thanh Dao stared at me for three breaths. Then she suddenly went crazy and struggled. The rope tightened on her skin to the point of drawing blood. She didn't feel any pain, she just screamed hoarsely:

"You too! You also come from that place, right? You are also a time traveler! That's why you were able to write those poems and understand about water wheels! You're just like me!"

All the palace staff in the yard were stunned. They didn't understand what "traveling through time" meant, but the four words "you are like me" were clearly transmitted into everyone's ears. The emperor's father walked out of the royal study, stood on the steps, and looked down at her from above:

“What did you just say?”

Tham Thanh Dao seemed to have caught the last life-saving straw, crazily twisting his body, screaming towards his father:

"Your Majesty! You don't know who she is! She is like a slave, she comes from a very far away place. She knows a lot of things, this slave also knows! This servant knows how to make gunpowder, knows how to make cheaper paper, and also knows how to improve agricultural tools! Your majesty, please keep the slave, the slave is much more useful than Hua Can Nuong! If you kill the slave, you will definitely regret it!"

【The trump card has been taken out! I don't believe these feudal emperors can refuse those temptations. Gunpowder, papermaking, printing, anything is enough to make them kneel down and beg me!】 The father stood on the steps, bowed his head and looked at her, his expression unchanged.

“Are you done talking yet?”

Tham Thanh Dao was stunned.

“I don't need you.”