Good Man Operation Guide

As Shen Huyang was immersed in getting along with her fuma day and night, Shen Hu’an, the Fifth Prince who had never been taken seriously, seemed to have gotten an epiphany since coming back from Nancheng. He no longer liked to play around as before but was doing work seriously.

Although the other party was young and somewhat inexperienced because he had been protected by their sister their whole life until now, it stood to reason the matter in Nancheng was somehow completed, though the specifics of “how” was unknown. Shen Hu’an, who should have fallen several times in the process, actually barely stumbled and ran the errand properly.

The four Princes before him all felt uncomfortable that their status was about to be threatened, but they couldn’t be bothered to send people to his mansion as they had done with the other three. So one by one, as if having discovered for the first time that they had a youngest brother, affectionately pulled Shen Hu’an into a conversation.

Fortunately, after some private investigation, the four princes confirmed that Shen Hu’an was still the original fool. Although his stupidity wasn’t as obvious anymore, it was still absolutely impossible to accomplish anything on his own.

Therefore, since it wasn’t that he had deliberately hidden himself before, then there must be an expert supporting him from behind him.

So this time, the four princes didn’t attack each other, but all of them started to investigate the people around the Fifth Prince without disturbing each other.

Only some snooping guards, that’s all. The people around the Fifth Prince had always been fixed, and the guards had been assigned to him since he was 13 years old according to the standard regulations. So if any of these people were really so smart, why would they hide in silence for so long?

Aside from these guards, if one were to speak of any new faces around Shen Hu’an, then it would be the Fuma of Princess Huyang, who was now employed in the Hanlin Academy, but the other would always ask for leave because of his illness.

Princess Huyang used to love riding horses in the spring, but this year she didn’t go out at all. Instead, she took care of her fuma wholeheartedly inside the palace, where the imperial physician was repeatedly summoned to make a diagnosis and give treatment for the fuma.

To be honest, the four princes paid more attention to this Eldest Princess than the Fifth Prince.

First of all, she took the ‘Hu’ character, which was a privilege that no other Princess has ever had before. Although they couldn’t see any area where the Eldest Princess had been favored in these recent years, the word ‘Hu’ alone was enough for them to treat her with caution.

(TNote: Seems like the character/letter Hu is exclusive for the male in the royal family at this time.)

Secondly, unlike the silly sweet brother, Eldest Princess was much more intelligent.

If she hadn’t been protecting Shen Hu’an in the palace, how else would Shen Hu’an have been able to live in peace to do such silly things?

The Eldest Princess being married off to a sick and weak commoner with little to fall back on, allowed all four Princes to be secretly glad that the Fifth Prince had no helpers.

By then, she would be out of the palace, so even if she wanted to help her younger brother again, she might not be able to do so.

But who would have thought that just when the Eldest Princess has left the palace, the Fifth Prince, who had always been foolishly sweet and dependent on his sister’s protection to barely survive, would actually rise instead?

Either way, the sick fuma was probably unlikely to be the one they were looking for…

After all, he was only a shabby scholar, how could he have that kind of insight? Not to mention they’ve heard that he was so weak that he would cough just because the wind was blowing, which caused the Eldest Princess to stay by his side every day. Meanwhile, the Fifth Prince became even more worried about his sister’s ‘widowhood’ and would run over there every time he left the Palace, such that when he returned, he would have a drooping face, looking depressed. So they knew that this fuma was really unwell.

The four Princes didn’t worry too much about the Eldest Princess’s ‘widowhood’. After all, even if she really did become widowed, she was already out of the palace, so there was no chance that she would be taken back by Emperor Father.

After excluding the guards and the new fuma, the Princes began to turn their attention to the counselors that Shen Hu’an had taken in since his return from Nancheng.

The Princes all had counselors. Of course, they generally didn’t have as many as Shen Hu’an.

Were strategists just cabbages that grew on the side of the street? Thirty! Even if the number brought momentum, it still shouldn’t be so much!

(TNote: ‘cabbages’ = alluding to common goods that can be commonly found in abundance.)

This was absolutely abnormal. So there might be a true master hidden among the 30 counselors, while the remaining 29 were all accepted by Shen Hu’an to cover his tracks.

Otherwise, who would be so stupid? As if they’ve never heard of such things as counselors before and started to collect them in batches.

They didn’t believe that the Fifth Prince, Shen Hu’an, was really that stupid, so the four Princes locked onto the main suspect(s) almost simultaneously.

The 30 counselors, although they all arrived after the incident, were all suspected except those they themselves had arranged to infiltrate.

***

“The four princes aren’t people willing to tear into each other face to face. If they want to find out who is guiding Your Highness behind the scenes, they would naturally not inquire face to face, but hide in the shadows and use their own means to find them…”

The house was lit with incense, and the blue-clothed scholar, holding a black chess piece, slowly placed it on the board. “The four Princes have all inherited His Majesty’s temperament of being paranoid and so would privately investigate in the dark. So they will definitely run into the hands of the other Princes when investigating… Then what would be the first reaction to being found by someone when one’s hiding in the dark?”

Shen Hu’an was holding a white chess piece, almost wanting to scratch his head as he looked at the chess game. He was frustrated, but he had to answer Lin Shiheng’s question. He hesitated for several seconds before he answered with uncertainty, “Flee?”

“That’s right.”

The handsome scholar, who for many days had seldom smiled admiringly at him, finally gave him a smile on his pale face.

“Your Highness has made progress.”

“What the four Princes do and think is nothing amazing. It’s normal for them to escape when they encounter something, but if they escape, this reaction would certainly make the other party feel they were suspicious.”

“Although they act meticulously, they are not untraceable. And so if they look into those people, they would find the other Princes. If Your Highness encountered this situation, how would you think in your heart?”

Shen Hu’an, who had just been praised, relaxed and answered without thinking, “I would think that the Imperial Brothers were checking it out along with me!”

A ruler quietly appeared in front of him again.

Shen Hu’an, who hadn’t said much just yet, but was proud and smug all over, opened his eyes wide as his body subconsciously shrank back. “I… I… I…, I said the wrong thing!”

Lin Shiheng held a ruler in his hand and smiled gently. “What did Your Highness say wrong?”

How would he know what part was wrong!? He would be beaten anyway, so he just admitted it first!

Shen Hu’an gulped and stared at the ruler, speechless for a while.

“Fine.”

Thinking that he wouldn’t be able to run away from this today, but unexpectedly that handsome scholar as if having refound his conscience, simply lightly placed the ruler back, then sighed with a slightly magnetic voice, gentle and elegant, “Your Highness is young and has always been silly…”

He paused, swallowed the originally intended word back, and changed it, “…It’s normal to be ignorant of the world.”

“Over the years, each of the four highnesses has had their own mother’s protection and have been fighting for the Crown Prince position since they were sensible. We don’t know how many secret means they’ve used on each other, and there have been alliances and confrontation. When they see that there are other royal highness’s people in Your Highness’s courtyard, their first reaction is by no means that this was also a spy there to inquire information. No, they would speculate in their heart, whether Your Highness was allied with the other Princes.”

Shen Hu’an understood but also didn’t quite understand.

His hand unconsciously grasped the white chess pieces, feeling puzzled. “But when I was a child, I was bullied and laughed at by them. Such that even when I ran into a few of my Imperial Brothers before I went to Nancheng, I was still ridiculed. How could they think that I would ally with them…?”

“There is no eternal enemy in the world.”

“Does Your Highness think that the Third and Fourth Princes who are allied in the matter of Nancheng have no resentment towards each other? It’s just that the benefits of the alliance were so great that they were able to suppress their hatred for each other.”

“Your Highness, you’ve underestimated the benefits of the alliance.”

Lin Shiheng was still so lighthearted on the surface and spoke with a gentle tone, but the words that came out left Shen Hu’an confused for half a moment.

Unlike his four Imperial Brothers who had fought openly and secretly since childhood, he had never fought anyone, partly because he was too weak to fight and partly because he didn’t have the intentions of fighting in his head at all.

Just like a child, when he would get bullied, he would only think, ‘I don’t want to be around him, I hate him!’; instead of being like his four imperial half-brothers, who would never show hatred when being bullied, but instead think in their hearts ‘be patient and wait until I’m sitting on the throne, then I’ll kill you first’.

Shen Hu’an knew vaguely how his four elder brothers were. Every time he made eye contact with them, clear thoughts would appear in his mind…

That no matter which one of them ascended to the throne, his life still wouldn’t be any better.

Therefore, he wanted to ascend to the throne instead…

But no one told him that the first step to the throne was to guess what his four Elder Brothers were thinking!

The young scholar, who looked weak, coughed lightly and then continued, “As long as the four Princes misunderstand that Your Highness has allied with the others, we don’t have to intervene in the rest, and they will fight on their own.”

Shen Hu’an nodded after understanding. “But what if they come to deal with me first?”

Lin Shiheng chuckled with gentle eyes as if he heard a child telling him a joke. “Don’t worry, even though Your Highness has changed a lot recently, in the eyes of the four Princes, you are just a mantis.”

(TNote: ‘mantis’ came from the phrase ‘a mantis trying to block a cart/carriage’ and thus, in this case, describes someone who does not have the ability to challenge the difficulty at hand… at all.)

In other words, Shen Hu’an was so weak that his four Elder Brothers never regarded him as an opponent at all.

Shen Hu’an: “…”

He tried to struggle. “In fact, I have done a really good job recently…”

“Yes.”

Lin Shiheng smiled gently, and his slender fingers gently landed on the chessboard. “Your Highness, it’s your turn.”

Why did he look like he was coaxing a child?

Shen Hu’an sullenly placed a white piece down and went on to ask, “According to Brother-in-law, I don’t have to do anything and the four Elder Brothers would fight by themselves?”

“There is still something that we need to do.”

With joy in his eyes, Shen Hu’an immediately straightened his chest out in a blatantly fearless manner and firmly asserted, “Brother-in-law, there’s no harm in saying it, I can definitely do it!”

Lin Shiheng smiled and waved at him. “Sink your face and make a face like you’re hiding your anger.”

“As long as Your Highness runs into other Princes like this tomorrow…”

That simple?

Shen Hu’an sank his face with a grain of salt, showing an expression of ‘I am very angry’.

“No, do it again.”

He thought about it, then he twisted his eyebrows slightly and looked at Lin Shiheng in a glaring posture. “How about this?”

The blue-clad scholar frowned. “Don’t wrinkle your eyebrows so much.”

“Oh…”

Shen Hu’an obliged, but his eyebrows grew tighter and tighter.

Lin Shiheng slowly pulled out a ruler.

“Hand.”