Good Man Operation Guide

Shen Huling, the Second Prince, didn’t know what he had done wrong to even have provoked His Majesty’s anger to be sent to a miasmic land. His biological mother, Consort Yao, had even interceded for him, but it was useless. Then she was also deprived of her consort title and sent to the cold palace.

The news soon spread all over the city, and both officials and the other Princes were shocked and afraid to stir things up.

Since the Princes gradually grew into adulthood, the Emperor had been balancing the forces of the four Princes as he allowed them to develop. Analyzing from that, there seemed to be the intention of letting them fight, whereas long as they don’t hurt their siblings, whoever wins would be the final winner.

Although the four Princes have always made trouble for each other, when the time came for an alliance to be made, it would always be the First and Second Princes who allied with each other followed by the Third and the Fourth Princes as the second ‘team’, which was balanced.

The only one left would be the youngest of the five Princes, whose mother passed away early and had only one elder sister, who was young and had no ability. He was always the neglected one and had never been counted among them.

Therefore, almost everyone believed that the future Crown Prince must be one of the first four Princes, even the four of them had thought so.

They would all fight each other, but as the Emperor was watching, they wouldn’t even need to be afraid of death.

Since because of this presence, no one dared to stab one another, but they ended up severely stabbed by the least likely person.

Up until the night before he was sent to the miasmic lands, the Second Prince was still frantically shouting for his Emperor Father.

It was definitely not his Emperor Father who insisted on this order. How could Emperor Father want him dead? It must be one of the other brothers who was playing tricks.

Unfortunately, even until he left the capital, the Second Prince failed to meet the Emperor as he wished.

It was not that the Emperor was afraid that he would become softhearted after seeing him, but that since he knew the truth about Consort Liu that day, he had been so depressed that he couldn’t even get out of bed.

And so, the First Prince lost his ally with who he had allied with several times. While he was happy that he had one less competitor, he began to worry that neither the Third Prince nor the Fourth Prince would ever form an alliance with him. So now that the Second Prince was out, these two Princes would definitely rise against him.

In his haste, he visited the Empress to find out what was going on.

When the Empress arrived, the Emperor was still feeling a little sentimental. In the beginning, the Empress had praised Consort Liu several times in front of him, then when he was angry with Consort Liu, she had even advised him to go to Consort Liu’s palace to have a look. But at that time, he was very angry, so the more the Empress persuaded him, the more he felt that Consort Liu was unappreciative.

Clearly, it was Consort Liu’s fault, so why should he bow his head instead?

At that time, if Consort Liu had said that she wished to request a meeting with him, he wouldn’t have gone so far as to not want to see her.

But he didn’t expect that Consort Liu had already drawn a picture and wanted to see him but was stopped by that ungrateful b*tch, Consort Yao.

The Emperor wanted to recall with the Empress how good Consort Liu was, but the Empress ended up coming to intercede for Consort Yao. He became angry as soon as she mentioned Consort Yao. He didn’t know what he had missed at that time, but now that he knew it, the Emperor wouldn’t hesitate to push all the mistakes onto Consort Yao.

It was all that b*tch.

If she hadn’t blocked Consort Liu’s painting for him, how could it have become like this?

He had always been a person who lived according to ‘hate you, then I’ll hate your whole family’, so even if the Second Prince was his own son, the other couldn’t escape the fate of being abandoned by his Emperor Father.

But still, this was the Empress, so the Emperor still suppressed the anger in his heart and only said that he didn’t want to talk about Consort Yao.

Then he began to reminisce with the Empress about the voice and smiles of Consort Liu.

Unexpectedly, the Emperor caught a glimpse of guilt in the Empress’ eyes at the mention of Consort Liu.

The Emperor was now at his most sensitive period, and he could instantly perk up at any information related to Consort Liu.

He kept his emotions to himself and allowed the Empress to go but began to think about what the old momo had said.

She said that Consort Liu had always sought an audience with him, but he never came to Chang’an Palace. Finally, she handed the letter to Consort Yao. After Consort Yao suppressed the letter, the old momo didn’t know what she said to Consort Liu, but the Consort stopped requesting for a meeting, and she began to weaken day by day.

At that time, the Emperor directly went to Consort Yao’s palace to inquire about the letters, then disposed of the Second Prince and Consort Yao in one fell swoop but didn’t even stop to think about the previous words at all.

Consort Liu had been requesting to see him all along.

But he never received any news that Consort Liu had asked him to visit. He even grew angry at the fact that even as she was ignored by him, she still never asked to see him.

At that time, the Empress was in charge of the harem.

“Cough cough cough.”

The Emperor covered his dull chest and coughed violently. When the old eunuch who waited on one side saw it, he hurriedly stepped forward. “Your Majesty, do you want to summon an imperial physician to come?”

“No need.”

The Emperor suppressed the rage in his heart, his eyes were full of darkness.

“Call someone over.”

He must find out how many people were behind Consort Liu’s death.

As throughout the capital discussed how the second prince angered the emperor and was sent directly to the miasmic lands, another piece of news also arrived.

The Empress had unfortunately passed away, and his royal highness, the Eldest Prince, was not even able to finish his mourning before he was expelled from the palace, that is, he was conferred as a ‘County Wang’.

(TNote: County King/ County Prince/ County Wang = this means he was demoted to the position or something like a Duke in western countries.)

But this was a Prince!

Even if he wasn’t the Empress’s own son, he was recorded under the Empress’s name as a direct descendant! Among the four Princes, he was the one who had the greatest chance to become the Crown Prince!

Yet now, he had only been hastily named a County Wang.

What’s more, the Emperor ordered him to keep his filial piety for his Mother within his residence, which was equivalent to it just being a disguised house arrest, and that he was not allowed to leave the residence without orders!

The Second Prince had just fallen, and then the First Prince also fell. The remaining Third Prince and Fourth Prince couldn’t care less about celebrating but just shrunk their heads one by one, fearing that the next unlucky one would be them.

It was quite normal for a Prince to be put under house arrest after provoking Emperor Father’s disgust, but they hadn’t heard of the Second Prince doing anything that could disgust their Emperor Father.

A few years ago, the First Prince took a fancy to a commoner who was already engaged and directly kidnapped her before killing her fiancé’s entire family. After that, the girl refused to obey and angered him, so he directly threw her into a brothel to be humiliated.

The woman managed to escape with great difficulty and went to the Public Security Ministry to file a complaint. It so happened that the official, who took over the matter was also a conscientious one, who immediately reported it.

At that time, the court was very noisy. If any official’s son did such a thing, he would be exiled even if he wasn’t executed. But it happened that the Emperor excused the First Prince’s faults, changing what would have been a large matter to an insignificant matter. The woman was safe and sound along the way to the capital but then ‘died of an acute illness’. Meanwhile, the home of the official, who had reported the matter, caught an ‘accidental fire’, where all of his family, including himself, died. So both the victim and ‘witness’ were gone. The Emperor made it clear that he didn’t care about it.

If the r*ped woman had been the daughter of an official or a daughter of a noble family, even if the whole family got destroyed, there would still be many relatives from the broken bones and roots, who might not say anything on the surface, but would definitely take revenge whenever they had the chance.

(TNote: broken bones and roots = far off relatives that came from the same root. Broken bones = may be cut off but are from the same body.)

It so happened that this unfortunate woman was just an ordinary civilian, so everyone just felt that it had nothing to do with them and called it a day. So neither her nor her grievance became a stain of the First Prince.

The Second Prince wasn’t a lover of women, but to protect his maternal family after they bullied others because of land disputes, this led 30 people to directly becoming slaves, dead in less than a year. Afterward, he was implicated but still, the Emperor suppressed the matter.

Therefore, the Third Prince and Fourth Prince were quite puzzled.

These two things were serious enough in every aspect, but their Emperor Father could already endure such a thing. So what exactly did the First Prince and Second Prince do that led to their outright removal?

Although it was good that the two of them were abolished now, there was no reason for what the Emperor Father did, so they were worried that they would follow suit. Therefore, both of them were honest and quiet, planning to look at the situation first.

Shen Hu’an thought the same way as they did.

He was also frightened by the Emperor this time. The Second and First Prince were the more favored Princes, but they still met this fate. So wouldn’t it be just a matter of waving a hand to deal with an unpopular prince like him!?

Shen Hu’an wasn’t afraid of death, however, thought it was also funny to mention, what he was afraid of was pain!

Once because of the brutal behavior of four brothers, Shen Hu’an had dreamt that one of his brothers ended up on the throne, then he, the little prince who has never been taken seriously, was directly killed.

So after waking up from that dream, Shen Hu’an kept brainwashing himself that if this day really came, he must not be afraid, but wait for death with his usual expression so as not to be laughed at!

But to not be afraid of death didn’t mean that he wasn’t afraid of his sister becoming sad over his death.

If he was really dead, the first one to become sad would be his sister, and Shen Hu’an had a vague feeling that she would never let go of the person who killed him.

She was a Princess, who wouldn’t pose any threat to the throne, so even if the four imperial brothers ascended the throne, they would only kill the Princes but wouldn’t do anything to the Princess. At most they would only severely criticize the fuma, so though life may be bitter, their life would be safe.

But if his sister were to try to avenge him, whether she succeeded or not, her life would be lost!

So Shen Hu’an had been afraid to leave the palace lately in fear of offending his Emperor Father, who had suddenly gone on a killing spree for some unknown reason, and just spent all day studying inside the palace. It was only when the Empress passed as well that he dared to go out.

The Empress was their ‘Mother’. So when she passed away, the Princes had to kneel for three days.

They had to kneel from dawn in the morning to sunset, where during this time, they weren’t allowed to drink even a mouthful of water. And they could only drink water and eat after the sun goes down.

Arguably, the First Prince should’ve been kneeling in front, but unfortunately, the First Prince was under house arrest, and even his name, which was under the Empress’s, couldn’t change the fact that he couldn’t come out to mourn the Empress.