Faint morning light entered a side hall of the prince's residence. Last night's chaos had passed, but an awkward silence still lingered in the air.
Jiang Yuejian was joining two lengths of hemp rope, tying the knots with practiced hands. Wearing a thin, snow-white underrobe, Li Ce leaned against a pillar with one hand bracing his waist, his face still pale. He stared at Jiang Yuejian with a complicated expression—or, to be precise, at the silver tube in her hand, the “weapon” that had now been washed clean.
“You expect me... to jump around here like a madman?” Li Ce asked through gritted teeth, his voice still hoarse from last night's exhaustion.
“This is physical assistance for passing the stone.” Jiang Yuejian tossed the skipping rope into his arms. “Either jump, or when the stone moves down tonight and blocks your urethra again, we do another catheterization. Which would you prefer, Your Highness?”
Remembering the terror of being at the mercy of that silver tube, Li Ce shuddered. Without another word, he actually took hold of the handles.
The mighty Prince Regent began awkwardly skipping rope in the hall. Slap, slap... With every jump, pain in his lower back made his brow twitch. His underrobe shifted with the movement, revealing the lean definition of his abdominal muscles.
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside.
“Imperial Uncle! I heard you were suddenly taken gravely ill last night. I've brought every physician from the Imperial Medical Bureau—”
Before the guards could stop him, the twelve-year-old emperor, Li Chenggan (provisional name), burst through the doors with a crowd of white-bearded old physicians.
Dead silence.
The young emperor froze. The old physicians' jaws nearly hit the floor.
What were they seeing? The cold, imposing, utterly unassailable Prince Regent they knew was disheveled and drenched in sweat... swinging two ropes and performing some bizarre jumping motion in the middle of the hall.
Beside him sat an obscure young Taoist nun holding a bowl of plain water. Her tone was languid. “Don't stop, Your Highness. Two hundred more. You haven't earned this boiled water until you've finished.”
Li Ce's inner monologue: Kill me. Now. Immediately.