This Crown Prince is Ascending the Throne in the Entertainment Industry - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

On this side of the clinic stood a reddish-brown traditional Chinese medicine cabinet. Each small drawer was labeled with at least three herbal names, meaning the medicinal ingredients inside were naturally mixed together.

On the other side, a frosted glass partition plastered with slogans formed a consultation room. Through it, one could faintly see a hospital bed covered with a torn blue gauze shroud and a set of peeling, chipped medical equipment.

The entire clinic—from the narrow entrance hanging with yellowed, transparent plastic strip curtains to the dim, yellow light of the innermost consultation room—was no larger than thirty square meters.

Under the contrast of the blackened floor tiles, styled from at least forty years ago, and the mottled, flaking walls that were in terrible shape, both young people standing inside the room looked a few degrees more haggard.

“What’s the matter?”

The old doctor had graying hair. He sported a long beard and wore a brown robe, looking just like a character out of a period drama, except for the stethoscope hanging around his neck, giving him the appearance of someone practicing a blend of Chinese and Western medicine.

The girl opposite him was in her twenties, with delicate and pretty features, though she possessed an undernourished paleness. Having just washed her hair, she had rushed over in a hurry, casually throwing on a gray hoodie and sweatpants, with slippers dangling loosely from her feet.

Her expression carried a deep panic: “…My brother, my brother…”

As she spoke in terror, she yanked the person beside her.

The old doctor nudged his reading glasses up and squinted at the person who had been pulled a step forward.

He looked to be around twenty years old. His hair was messy and long, draping over his face and obscuring his eyes. The sleeves of his oversized black hoodie hung empty. When his sister yanked him, a section of his frighteningly thin arm was exposed.

“Malnutrition?”

“No, it’s not that issue… Xiao Xu, let the doctor look at you!”

Xiang Xu raised his head slightly. From beneath his barcode-like bangs, a pair of pitch-black eyes was revealed.

Beneath his seemingly calm exterior, Xiang Xu’s worldview had actually collapsed several times over by now.

An hour ago, he had been wearing a red wedding robe embroidered with gold thread. With a heart pounding wildly against his chest, imagining the face of the Crown Princess he had longed for through starlight and moonlight, he had hesitated at the palace doors for a full burning of an incense stick before gently pushing them open.

Candlelight flickered, and pearl curtains clinked softly. He took a few steps inside, hit something with a loud thud, and blacked out.

When he woke up, he saw a face full of anxiety.

His body lacked an ounce of strength, his head felt like it was about to explode from dizziness, and gastric juices were churning in his stomach. Forcing down the discomfort, he tried his best to identify the owner of this face.

Xiang Xu, the Crown Prince of the Yin Dynasty, had lost his mother at a young age and was raised entirely by Imperial Noble Consort Jia.

The person in front of him was the daughter of Imperial Noble Consort Jia, Xiang Xu’s Second Imperial Sister, named Xiang Ji. Xiang Ji was always known for being gentle and amiable, and she treated him like her own younger brother.

With a headache so severe it felt like his skull was splitting and his vision flashing white in waves, Xiang Xu endured the pain and pressed his head: “…Imperial Sister, why am I…”

The hand shaking him froze, and Xiang Xu froze too. He saw a face full of horror. He had never seen his Imperial Sister display such an unreserved expression before.

Tracing his gaze downward, he saw his Imperial Sister’s hair was soaking wet, hanging in wild, messy strands just like a concubine who had gone mad in the Cold Palace. The clothes she wore were of a style he had never seen before, stained with mottled water marks. Continuing further down, a flash of fair ankles caught his eye.

She was barefoot!

Xiang Xu immediately turned his face away. At that moment, he realized he was in an extremely confined space. This space was dark, enclosed, piled high with clutter, and littered with trash, emitting waves of a sickening stench.

Some light spilled down from above. He turned his face, and a square light source gave him a fright, making his head—which had just started to feel a bit better—throb violently again.

“Xiao Xu, what’s wrong with you?!” Seeing Xiang Xu pounding his own head, Xiang Ji snapped out of it and crouched down.

Her voice blended with the memory of his Imperial Sister calling him “Ah Xu,” forming circles of uneven ripples around his ears.

Xiang Xu’s headache worsened. Xiang Ji anxiously tried to pull him up, but Xiang Xu instinctively dodged the hand she extended. This physical reaction startled even himself.

Xiang Ji’s hand froze in midair for a brief moment, but she still pulled Xiang Xu up from the ground and supported him. Her voice was slightly tight: “Xiao Xu, we’re going to the hospital, right now!”

Helped out of that cramped, enclosed space, the cool night breeze poured into Xiang Xu’s body, easing his headache slightly.

A faint throbbing pain came from his forehead and the upper right side of his ear, a large bruise covered his right shoulder, and a scratch as thick as a pinky finger lined the area below his left wrist.

He recalled the scene inside that tiny space just now and the position he was in when he woke up.

His forehead had slammed into that desk holding the glowing square screen. As his body slid down to the right, his left hand had instinctively tried to grab onto something, but it scraped against the corner of the desk, leaving a scratch, and ultimately his right side crashed onto the floor.

However, even though he could deduce how he had knocked himself out, he had absolutely no way to explain the situation before his eyes.

Supported by Xiang Ji as they left that cramped, enclosed space, under the dim lighting, they wound their way down a filthy, descending staircase flight by flight. Every time they reached a turn, a hallway extending inward would appear, with narrow doors tightly packed along both sides. This scene occurred at least six times.

Finally, they walked out of that hellish tenement building and stepped into the cold wind.

In front of them was a shed, where many two-wheeled things were parked haphazardly. The surroundings were filled with identical buildings, standing squeezed together row after row.

A bizarre-looking object came flying at them at high speed. Just as Xiang Xu narrowed his eyes to get a better look, Xiang Ji swiftly pulled him to the side, and a human head turned around from atop the two-wheeled object.

“Open your eyes!”

His figure had already drifted far away, but the shout still echoed in the air.

The Crown Prince of the Yin Dynasty, who was being cursed at for not having eyes for the very first time in his life, was completely stunned.

“Xiao Xu, let’s ignore him.” Xiang Ji tugged at him, her eyes looking over cautiously, as if she was very afraid he would make a scene.

Xiang Xu was currently disoriented and had no grasp of the situation, so what scene could he possibly make? The moment his Imperial Sister gave him a gentle tug, he lowered his face and followed her forward.

“Where are we going to find a hospital so late…” Her voice was tight, and her hand held a small, glowing square brick, her finger sliding across it.

The light passed through the phone and illuminated Xiang Ji’s face, turning from green to blue.

“56 plus 213…”

The light in front of her turned white, and she pressed numbers onto the phone one by one.

“269, there’s still 269 yuan left.”

So it was arithmetic? But why do arithmetic at a time like this?

Xiang Xu lowered his head in thought.

Although this Imperial Sister was very strange, she was the only familiar entity in front of him right now. Judging by her attitude toward him, she wouldn’t go as far as to harm him.

All sorts of guesses swirled in his mind, making him feel a bit nauseous from thinking too much. The young woman in front of him suddenly came to a halt, holding that glowing brick and spinning around in place a few times.

Xiang Xu was deeply puzzled by her behavior, but then she suddenly snapped straight like a compass needle and nodded firmly.

“This way.”

What was she doing now?

Xiang Xu didn’t dare to voice his questions again, worried about causing his Imperial Sister to panic once more.

He carefully analyzed his Imperial Sister’s speech habits from her brief words.

She called him “Xiao Xu” instead of “Ah Xu,” called it a “hospital” instead of the “Imperial Academy of Medicine,” referred to him as “you,” and referred to that man as “him.”

His gaze shifted to the shop signs lining both sides of the street. Those signs still glowed even in the dark, making them clearly visible.

“x Rice xx Yellow Stewed x Zhou”

“Snacks Friends x Interaction”

“Style Creation Classic x”

“xx Hardware”

Scanning row after row of characters, half of them were familiar to Xiang Xu, and the other half could be guessed, but the meaning when combined together eluded him.

It wasn’t just the architecture and clothing; the language expressions and character usage habits here also had subtle differences from the Yin Dynasty…

Although he didn’t understand what had happened, more than twenty years of alertness to danger told him that when arriving in a completely unfamiliar environment, it was best to watch his words and actions before figuring out the situation.

First, he couldn’t show too many abnormalities. The words he had spoken earlier must have made his Imperial Sister notice something strange, which was why she was so tense.

He decided not to speak unless absolutely necessary, and to first figure out what was going on.

Having made up his mind, Xiang Xu even restrained the way his eyes scanned the surroundings, though his mind remained tightly strung, ready to react to any sudden danger.

Only… he glanced at his own two legs wrapped in black pant legs, which looked like hemp stalks. He highly doubted that if they truly encountered danger, this physique of his could be of any use.

The bizarre circumstances were beyond count. Seeing himself reduced to this weak and frail state, he couldn’t even cry.

He only thought abstractedly of his Crown Princess whom he hadn’t even met, and finally felt a pang of heartache.

Due to the intimidating majesty of his imperial father, combined with his own personality, no girls had ever dared to approach him since childhood. He had been single and lonely for over twenty years, and with great difficulty, a political marriage had brought him a princess—

—Pia! Gone!

What on earth happened!

Xiang Xu’s inner mind was collapsed, but thanks to the setback-style education his imperial father had given him since childhood, he didn’t cry out loud.

Many times, Xiang Xu couldn’t tell who was more cruel to him: the heavens or his imperial father.

But considering his imperial father had finally bestowed a Crown Princess upon him, only for the heavens to snatch this tiny piece away, it seemed the heavens were the cruel one.

Carrying a complex mood of self-deprecation all the way, he was ultimately brought by his Imperial Sister into an old clinic located inside an alley.

In this clinic, Xiang Xu was relatively familiar with the traditional Chinese medicine cabinet on this side, while the glass-enclosed consultation room on the other side was a completely foreign zone.

The old imperial physician sitting there looked reliable judging by his age, but the metal stethoscope hanging around his neck left Xiang Xu unable to compliment it.

“Malnutrition?”

The old imperial physician’s voice carried a hint of weariness amid its aging tone.

“No, it’s not that issue…” Xiang Ji pulled Xiang Xu forward a step, “Say something!”

Xiang Xu understood his Imperial Sister’s meaning. However, words capable of causing panic in his Imperial Sister would surely cause panic in the imperial physician as well. To prevent others from discovering his abnormality, he had already decided to be prudent in speech and action, so at this moment, he absolutely kept his mouth shut.

The old doctor, whose face was full of deep furrows, sized him up from head to toe. Beneath the lenses, his cloudy eyes flashed with an analytical light, making Xiang Xu feel a bit uncomfortable under his gaze.

“Does your brother have psychological issues?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“He isn’t even willing to speak,” the old doctor looked displeasedly at the haggard girl, “Psychological issues must be taken seriously as early as possible, otherwise they will become more and more severe.”

Xiang Ji’s lips pursed, and her fingers gripped the hem of her clothes tightly behind her back. She suddenly lifted her head, and upon catching Xiang Xu’s searching gaze, she turned her face away as if feeling a bit guilty.

Xiang Xu calculated that judging from the physician’s words “must be taken seriously, otherwise it will become more and more severe,” this so-called psychological issue should be a type of disease.

Could this illness be the reason he came here?

Because of this illness, the original owner of this body died, or communicated with some ghosts and gods to summon him here to possess the body?

But if it was a body possession, couldn’t they pick and choose a bit? He knew of the so-called three thousand great chiliocosms, but where the heck did they drop him off?

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