The First Prince of the Ming Dynasty

Nanchang, the private prison of Prince Ning's mansion.

Tang Yin has been imprisoned for more than ten days.

These days, his treatment has plummeted... Before, when he pretended to be crazy, he was still a VIP of the Prince Ning's mansion. Apart from finding a doctor to treat him, his daily meals were still those of a guest, and he basically had the freedom to come and go as he pleased. He could "act as he pleased" and go wherever he wanted to pretend to be crazy.

For the next ten days or so, he could only spend his time in a dark and gloomy prison cell.

His meals were reduced to a meager diet of coarse grains, barely enough to keep him from starving. He couldn't even find salt, let alone meat. After more than ten days, without him even trying to pretend, he was starving.

And he's been worried lately...

She had made a ruthless decision, and everything was flawless. Even Prince Ning and his wife hadn't noticed anything amiss. So how did she end up failing, and losing to a little prince who claimed to have been to the future five hundred years ago?

"Hey, time to eat! You'll starve if you don't eat!" Just as Tang Yin was lying on the wooden bed covered with straw, lost in thought, the voice of the jailer came from the doorway.

For the first few days after he arrived, he did protest by going on a hunger strike, but later...

He then became obedient.

Even if he can't get enough to eat, and the Prince Ning's mansion doesn't seem to care whether he lives or dies here, why should he make things difficult for himself?

After more than ten days, I was still wearing the same clothes as before, and I was covered in sour smells. What was worse was that the cell was infested with lice, fleas, rats and other pests. There was only one small window facing the outside. Even if it wasn't completely dark, it was still a form of physical and mental torture. In the end, I managed to survive on that meager diet.

He got up, still disheveled, and walked to the cell door, intending to remind the jailer to take his chamber pot out to empty it, but the jailer simply said that and left.

The rice bowls were placed outside, and today, unlike usual, there were three bowls.

The staple food was no longer rice bran, but refined rice. Although the vegetables were still the same, there was a bowl of meat next to it, which contained only chopped chicken. He dipped his hand in the broth and then put it in his mouth, finding that it was both oily and salty.

When he moved the three bowls inside and placed them aside to eat, he almost burst into tears.

It wasn't that he felt the charm of the simple meal, but rather he was thinking... was this my last meal before I was executed?

……

……

the other side.

Zhu Yi and Gongsun Jin watched from the corner as Tang Yin put on what seemed like a one-man show. Only after he turned around and went into his cell to eat did the two of them come out.

"As the young master predicted, he still cherishes his reputation. It seems there's still a good chance we can get him to work for us," Gongsun Jin said with great admiration.

Zhu Yi said, "He just doesn't want to join us in the rebellion, not that he's willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good. This kind of person is very shrewd."

"Hehe, young master is right." Gongsun Jin was also secretly pleased.

Tang Yin, once an arrogant and unparalleled scholar, was revered by many. He was said to be someone who didn't compete with the world, a lofty and unyielding figure of integrity…

But he was nothing more than someone who was schemed against in the imperial examinations, and in the end, he couldn't even pass the exams and was forced to be aloof.

"Young Master, do you think it's really necessary to use him?" Gongsun Jin said. "We can wait until there's news from the capital before informing him about those matters. Let him suffer for a few more days."

Zhu Yi laughed and said, "My meeting with him doesn't mean he'll have an easy time. So, Mr. Gongsun, let's each get busy. After I teach him a lesson, we can discuss how to manufacture new gunpowder."

"Okay." Gongsun Jin understood immediately that Zhu Yi did not want him to disturb him when he went to see Tang Yin.

Gongsun Jin is not worried about Tang Yin stealing his thunder.

It doesn't matter who Prince Ning and his son will trust in the future.

The problem is that Tang Yin simply couldn't possibly follow the arrangements of the Prince of Ning's mansion. This kind of wild horse could never be tamed. In his opinion, if the Prince of Ning and his son wanted to achieve great things, they certainly wouldn't put Tang Yin in a very high position.

They were not of the same mind as the Prince of Ning's family; they were ultimately on different paths.

……

……

Inside the prison cell.

Tang Yin had just finished lunch when his stomach suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

Because he hadn't eaten meat for a long time, he felt nauseous after eating... but since no one was there to empty his chamber pot, he wanted to hold it in to avoid further discomfort to his nose.

Just as he was lying there clutching his stomach, feeling a bit unbearable...

There was a sudden noise outside.

He didn't turn around to look... because he was afraid that someone from the Prince of Ning's mansion had come to test him.

Even now, he still hoped that by feigning madness, he could make the people of the Prince Ning's mansion think that he was no longer of any use to them. He even tried to get Lou Suzhen to pity him and find an opportunity to let him go.

"Gurgle...da da da..."

It was a very strange sound.

It sounded like something was rolling on the ground, followed by faint footsteps, not like the jailers moving around.

Tang Yin endured for a long time, but finally couldn't resist. As he turned over, he turned his head and saw Zhu Yi playing marbles in the corridor outside the wooden door of the cell.

The two did not make eye contact.

Zhu Yi outside was engrossed in his own play. He dug three holes in the ground, placed five or six colorful glass marbles inside, and then played with them by himself.

Tang Yin was furious.

As the saying goes, enemies are especially hateful when they meet... If it weren't for this kid in front of him, at least he wouldn't be living such a miserable life now, or even living like this today, not knowing what tomorrow will bring... He was afraid that Prince Ning would kill him in a fit of anger and make him disappear from the world.

"Awake?" Zhu Yi played for a while before finally looking up at the cell and finding Tang Yin staring wide-eyed out.

Tang Yin, of course, wouldn't say anything.

Who knows if someone is hiding nearby? Perhaps Prince Ning is also hiding there? To talk to Zhu Yi would be tantamount to betraying oneself.

He didn't feel there was anything to talk about with Zhu Yi.

"What do you think of my beads? They're glass beads, very fun. I plan to send them to the capital as tribute." Zhu Yi continued squatting there playing with them, laughing as he said, "How about exchanging one bead for one tael of gold? Oh, perhaps not worth that... but surely one tael of silver can be exchanged?"

Tang Yin was extremely annoyed.

He was thinking to himself, "You're dreaming!"

Do you think you can pass off a few tiny glass beads as gold? Is your Prince Ning's mansion so desperate for money that it's gone mad?

"The mighty Yangtze River flows eastward, its waves washing away the heroes of the past." Zhu Yi continued to mutter to himself, "Your poetry is quite good. It's being circulated everywhere now, and people are saying you live up to your reputation as a master of both poetry and painting."

After listening, Tang Yin's expression clearly froze.

He was thinking, "Didn't you write that? And you even said it was written by Yang Yongxiu decades later? How did it become my writing?"

"Get up, there are no outsiders here..."

Zhu Yi said with a smile, "Gongsun Jin came with me, so I sent him away first. I also told the guards outside to go out and have a drink. Your treatment isn't bad. So many people watching over you, how much food is being wasted?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Yin did not believe that Zhu Yi was cheating.

He sat up abruptly.

This way he could better observe the situation outside, but he still wouldn't take the initiative to talk to Zhu Yi.

"By the way, Mr. Tang, do you know what happened to you in history?" Zhu Yi asked with a smile. "I don't know if I explained it clearly enough that day."

Tang Yin thought to himself, "Don't try to threaten me. I'd rather die than associate with you."

Zhu Yi said, "Forget it, whether you want to know or not is none of my business. Do you know the fate of everyone in my Ning Prince's Mansion?"

Tang Yin immediately became very interested.

He wasn't looking for revenge against Prince Ning or to know the tragic fate of Prince Ning and his son; he was actually more concerned about what would become of Lou Suzhen.

Since this kid said that the Prince of Ning's rebellion was quickly quelled by the court a few years later... what about Lou Suzhen, who once had a deep and abiding friendship with him like that of Bo Ya and Zi Qi? What became of her?

"History says that after the defeat of Prince Ning, I wandered among the common people, took the name Zhu Xue, and after more than ten years, I was finally displaced and had nowhere to hide. In the end, I surrendered myself and was exiled to a high wall. Since then, there has been no news of me. It was a very tragic story," Zhu Yi said helplessly. "So I am not resigned to this and want to change all of this."

Tang Yin thought to himself, "You deserve to end up like this!"

I'll expose you!

Your whole family... except for your mother, are no good people!

Zhu Yi sighed, "What a pity for my mother... her future... alas!"

At this point, Zhu Yi deliberately stopped short of saying anything more.

This greatly worried Tang Yin.

After waiting for a while, Tang Yin saw that the boy was still playing marbles, and couldn't help but ask, "How is your mother?"

Perhaps because he hadn't had a proper conversation with anyone for a long time, his voice was very hoarse when he spoke, as if he had returned to the mortal world after being detached from it for hundreds of years.

Although he understood that doing so would be tantamount to admitting that he was faking madness.

But it's actually irrelevant.

Everyone knows you're faking your madness, and you really are. Whether it's revealed or not is just a matter of appearances...