Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

Chapter 163 A Heavy Deficit

Translator: Tracycbj

As if his heart was scratched softly by a cat, Du Chuxuan felt itchy and helpless. Luo Yun blushed. Even if she stayed with the two of them every day, she couldn’t stand the constant bombardment of sweet words. She turned around and put down the clothes, leaving quickly.

Du Chuxuan smiled and went up to greet him. “What’s up? Why do you suddenly say such sweet words?” As he spoke, he playfully bit at the lips of Yuxing Tianrui, who widened his eyes in Du Chuxuan’s arms. “Stop it. It’s daytime. How could you do this?”

“Your Highness, you do know it’s daytime.” Du Chuxuan looked at him in amusement and entered the room, holding Yuxing Tianrui’s shoulders. “We are the only people in the room. If you don’t shout so loudly, no one knows what we are doing.”

Yuxing Tianrui wished to kick the man in front of him to death, but he was led to the table. Du Chuxuan took out a lot of account books from the side like a trick. “Your Highness, do you know what these are?” He pointed to the account books that piled up high on the table and sighed.

‘”Of course they are the account books.” Yuxing Tianrui reached out and leafed through the book on the top. He didn’t know about the expenditure of the East Palace. Over the years, when there was a lack of anything, the Emperor would send it immediately. East Palace was never short of anything.

“Yeah, these are the account books, but there are tons of problems with them.” Du Chuxuan rubbed his head with frustration. He had asked Dongxiang and the others to hurry up and sort out the expenditure and income on these account books.

Now his initial suspicion was proved to be right. The expenditure of East Palace for a month was able to raise all the ordinary people in a city. However, he never believed that Yuxing Tianrui had used so much money.

This man was handling or learning to handle the government affairs every day, and he was busy with Sect Luo business when he was out of the palace. Sect Luo had been operating well, and Du Chuxuan didn’t believe that Yuxing Tianrui would lack money.

However, the account books showed that Yuxing Tianrui was definitely extravagant. They recorded clearly that he received countless treasures from the local governments for a birthday celebration. Those treasures were priceless, which were even rare in the imperial palace.

Du Chuxuan had seen the treasury of East Palace, which was small and packed with stuff, but he didn’t find any treasures there. Where did they go? Wasn’t that suspicious?

Besides, no matter how hard the Emperor worked, the annual taxes were limited. All the income was given to Yuxing Tianrui, but the national treasury didn’t seem in a deficit. Wasn’t that strange?

Du Chuxuan put forth his thoughts and the facts to Yuxing Tianrui in details. “Zizheng, you haven’t been able to protect yourself in the most important field.” He sighed deeply. The deficit of one million taels of gold on the account books was too huge even for an extremely wealthy man.

This was probably the reason why the Emperor had been spoiling Yuxing Tianrui for so many years. He attempted to ruin the impression of the world on Yuxing Tianrui. He intended to prove to his people that the Crown Prince that they had trusted for many years was actually an incompetent candidate. When that happened, Yuxing Tianrui would be disqualified from inheriting the throne.

Holding the account book in his hand, Yuxing Tianrui was overwhelmed. He looked down at the red circles made by Dongxiang and the others with red pens. He couldn’t help frowning. “I never used these money.”

He had never had the ginseng of a thousand years or ganodorma lucidum of ten thousand years. However, he had given these things to the Emperor and Empress Dowager. These things were obtained by Sect Luo, and he had never spent a penny of East Palace.

Du Chuxuan shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if you did it now. If the Emperor takes the chance and announces the account books to the world, you would be doomed.”

He said slowly, afraid that would hurt Yuxing Tianrui. However, Yuxing Tianrui only seemed disppointed instead of depressed.

“I saw this coming, but I never imagined that he would plot this so early.” Ever since he knew that he was not the Emperor’s biological son, Yuxing Tianrui had been treating the Emperor as a respected elder. After so many years, these feelings had been worn out.

His hand held the account book and trembled slightly. “No one knows who you are. This palace is not a safe place. You should find an excuse and leave.” Yuxing Tianrui lowered his head so that no one could see the look on his face.

Du Chuxuan frowned and grabbed Yuxing Tianrui’s shoulder, lifting his chin. “What do you mean? Do you want to abandon me when you see I’m of no use?”

“What are you doing?” Yuxing Tianrui felt the pain in his chin and he tried to break away. A trace of pain flashed across his eyes. “You should go as I ask. Do you want to die with me here?”

A short silence fell upon the room. Just as Yuxing Tianrui was feeling uneasy, he heard Du Chuxuan chuckle.

“You like to lose your temper.” As he muttered softly, he held Yuxing Tianrui in his arms and rubbed his face against him. “When did I say I want to leave? Your Highness, do you want to dump me after you use me? Or are you tempted by the new beauties?”

“You know what I mean!”

“You know that I won’t leave,” Du Chuxuan said seriously. He turned to meet Yuxing Tianrui’s eyes. “I have risked my life for you and we have been through so many difficulties. When we are going to make it, you tell me that you wanna quit?”

His gaze was frightening as if he was going to devour Yuxing Tianrui, who shuddered and fell silent.

“Isn’t it just a million taels of gold? Did you forget what my family does? I will secure your position of Crown Prince even if I have to sacrifice all my properties.”

Du Chuxuan said firmly, and the eyes of Yuxing Tianrui turned red.