Can a System Have Bad Intentions? - Chapter 155

The head eunuch rolled his eyes internally, thinking how unlucky these eight brothers were to have to deal with this father-son issue in the middle of the night.

The eight princes, roused from their beds, entered the imperial study half-asleep.

At the sight of the eldest prince, the parrot shuddered in fright and collapsed in its cage, playing dead.

The eldest prince glanced at it and said to the Emperor, “Father, calling us here in the middle of the night isn’t because you need us to deal with its corpse, is it?”

The second prince twitched, “No way, did it die? Brother, haven’t you not teased it for a few days? I remember it was just playing with your son yesterday.”

At the mention of the eldest prince’s son, the parrot twitched its leg.

What did it mean to surpass the master? As a parrot, it had learned this lesson thoroughly.

The bird’s life was not easy!

“Nonsense!” The Emperor, his anger flaring, glared at his two unruly sons. “Deal with this!”

He gestured towards Qin Mo, who was kneeling on the floor.

The sleepy princes finally noticed someone kneeling there.

The fourth prince jumped, “Oh my, Father, if you hadn’t said anything, I’d have thought this was a statue brought in as tribute.”

The fifth prince patted his chest and swallowed nervously, “Little Nine? Father, what did you do to make Little Nine kneel down and plead with you?”

The Emperor: What nonsense are you all spouting?

“He wants to get married!”

The Emperor roared, looking like a lion ready to explode.

The eight princes collectively twitched, looking at the Emperor with expressions that said, “How could you not understand?”

The Emperor slammed his hand on the table, “He wants to marry Lu Tang from the Qiao family!”

Ding!

The eight princes stared in shock, as if struck by lightning, then all exclaimed in unison: “What the hell!”

The eldest prince looked at Qin Mo in astonishment, “You’ve been silent for over twenty years, only to drop this bombshell?”

But to the Emperor, the tone sounded like: “Oh, you can do that?”

The Emperor: What, are you envious?

The second prince frowned, “Little Nine, does Lu Tang know about this?”

The third prince stroked his chin, “This is interesting. This could be written into a novel and turned into an opera. Fourth brother, get your wife’s theater troupe to work on this. Such material shouldn’t be wasted.”

The fourth prince hastily pulled out a goose feather pen, “Don’t rush me, I’m working on it.”

The fifth prince smacked his lips, “Remember to add that the protagonist is part of a Cuju team (ancient Chinese soccer team), specifically the Yunqi Club.”

“I got it.”

The eighth prince looked melancholic, “So, you’ve already won over the young master. Meanwhile, my prospects are still uncertain. Truly, happiness in this world is hard to fathom.”

The Emperor nearly fainted with rage.

“I called you here in the middle of the night to listen to this nonsense?”

The eight princes stared at the Emperor: You know calling us here in the middle of the night is wrong?

The Emperor: Oh heavens, what have I done to deserve this?

He wanted to dismiss them, but if they left, he wouldn’t be able to sleep. And there was an early court session tomorrow, damn it.

Thinking ahead and with cunning, the Emperor slowly rose from his chair, slowly walked around the table, slowly stepped outside. Just as the princes hadn’t figured out what was happening, the Emperor bolted from the imperial study, shouting, “Lock the door!”

Bang!

As the nine princes realized what was happening, the door to the imperial study was locked from the outside.

Standing outside, the Emperor declared, “I don’t care what method you use, make him give up this idea. Otherwise, no one leaves!”

The seventh prince glanced at the Emperor’s ceremonial dragon robe for tomorrow’s session and said weakly, “Father, are you planning to skip court tomorrow?”

The Emperor rolled his eyes, thinking he might want to.

“Why, are you planning to go for me?”

Inside, the nine princes responded in unison, “Your ceremonial robe is in here. What, are you not going to wear it tomorrow?”

The Emperor: !

The eldest prince picked up the parrot cage, “The parrot is in here too. Father, it doesn’t matter if we can’t get out, but this little thing might not survive until tomorrow.”

The parrot, who had been playing dead, suddenly shrieked, “Scared to death!”

The head eunuch watched the Emperor’s face turn from pale green to dark green, then took a step back and lowered his head silently.

Sure enough, the next moment, the Emperor pounded the door with his fist. “Get out!”

Then, like a disgruntled gopher, he stormed off towards the Empress’s quarters.

If I can’t sleep well, no one can.

Once the Emperor left, the eight princes turned to their ninth brother. The eldest prince spoke first, “Do you really want to marry Lu Tang?”

Qin Mo nodded. “I truly do, more sincerely than you love the eldest sister-in-law.”

The second prince took over, “Does his family agree? Even if we can convince Father, we can’t force his family. Our family doesn’t do such things.”

The third prince continued, “It’s already troublesome enough for the Qiao family to take in a son-in-law. Now you’re making them extinct. Old Master Qiao would haunt you if he knew.”

The fourth prince immediately added, “If Old Master Qiao haunts you, make sure to share the material with me.”

The fifth prince rubbed his fingers, “Is he of age?”

The sixth prince sneered, “Little Nine, I never thought among us brothers, you would be the most beastly. How are we supposed to face that?”

The seventh prince sighed, “So, does everyone know about the dog hole behind the imperial study?”

The eighth prince patted Qin Mo’s shoulder, “Stand up. We’ve got the exit ready!”

The nine princes, without further ado, took the Emperor’s ceremonial robe and parrot and crawled out through the dog hole.

The guards, accustomed to the Emperor and his sons’ antics, averted their eyes in unison: I see nothing; I am an emotionless blind man.

The next morning, the Emperor, thinking he had won, sat on the throne in casual clothes.

Then he saw his nine sons standing below.

Let’s not delve into how the Emperor managed to get through that court session. Describing his inner turmoil would take at least five thousand words to capture accurately.

At the Qiao Family Inn.

Lu Tang, having not seen her mother and sister for over half a year, stayed up late into the night chatting with them.

Finally, she looked at Miss Lu Shuqing and asked a long-held question, “Mother, now that Lu Deren is dead, can I live as a girl? I want to get married.”

Miss Lu Shuqing was so shocked she thought her brother was possessed and was about to ask Er Bao to fetch some urine.

However, she then heard her mother say, “Oh right, I forgot about that. Sure, you can be a girl starting tomorrow.”

Miss Lu Shuqing: What the heck!

Is one splash of urine enough?

The next morning, Miss Lu Shuqing was so frightened she came down with a fever.

And Madam Qiao, being middle-aged and sleep-deprived, caught a cold.

The task of meeting with suppliers, originally planned for them, fell to Lu Tang.

Naive Lu Tang thought it was just an ordinary morning.