G: Scheming Crown Prince VS perceptive third son of a marquis’s household: S
Gu Yun, Crown Prince of Dayong, is fifteen and widely recognized at court as a master strategist. Anything can be a piece on his board, including the illegitimate son of a marquis who shot two birds with one arrow at the hunting grounds, then looked up and smiled at him.
“He’s clever. He’ll be useful,” Gu Yun tells his bodyguard.
And so the plan begins. He recommends Shen Jinglan for the Imperial College, summons him to the Eastern Palace to copy books, and teaches him political tactics and the ways of the human heart. From calling him “Your Highness” to calling him “Gu Yun,” every step is part of the game.
But things gradually spin out of control:
Shen Jinglan takes a blade for him, then lies in a ruined temple and grins. “Gu Yun, you owe me your life.”
Gu Yun’s hands tremble as he bandages him. “...Who told you to take the hit?”
Shen Jinglan: “You did. A chess piece is supposed to protect its master, right?”
Gu Yun falls silent.
Later, on a snowy night at the northern border, Shen Jinglan carries Gu Yun out of a pile of corpses, panting as he says, “Your Highness, you should lose some weight.”
Leaning against his back, Gu Yun murmurs, “I raised you for ten years, and this is how you repay me?”
Shen Jinglan grins. “I’ll repay you. For the rest of my life.”
On the day he ascends the throne, Gu Yun’s first decree makes Shen Jinglan Duke of Supporting the State. The ministers kneel throughout the hall, but Shen Jinglan alone stands below the palace steps, looks up at him, and mouths, “Gu Yun, you lost.”
Gu Yun smiles from the dragon throne.
He raised a chess piece for ten years, only to lose himself in the game. Worth it.
