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Xiao Yuan\'s face fell, the flicker of hope going out from his eyes like a snuffed candle.

His gaze lingered on Chu Yun\'s face only a moment before he turned to Fan Jiang on the bed. "Name your price," he said, dispirited. 

He wasn\'t even going to try to bargain, or threaten Chu Yun that he could just go behind him and find the physician anyway. Maybe curse him out the house and say he would summon all the physicians in Haolin. Surely one of them could come up with a cure.

But Xiao Yuan was too tired for any of that. He was a man beset by enemies on every side. 

The man Chu Yun spoke with when he dropped off Fan Jiang wasn\'t broken yet, but the man who looked at him from behind those empty eyes was.

He was on the verge of losing the one person he had left, and he couldn\'t take it anymore.

That was why Chu Yun knew he was going to get what he wanted. 

Sometimes, a clean break could be a fresh start.

"Renounce your claim to the throne," Chu Yun said, his back stiff. "In public. Come before the court and say you renounce as Crown Prince."

Xiao Zai\'s sharp intake of breath was almost deafening in the quiet room. Chu Yun could feel his gaze burning the back of his head.

Xiao Yuan turned around slowly, his gaze climbing up Chu Yun\'s body and landing on his face. "You know, I\'ve been hearing all kinds of praise about you," Xiao Yuan said, with a bitter sort of amusement, "No one shuts up about how courteous you are, and how respectful, and how dotting towards Xiao Zai."

His smile widened mirthlessly, and for a moment he almost resembled his father. They had the same kind of violent handsomeness, although there was something hungry to Xiao Yuan\'s sallow good looks -- as if he\'d spent several years living on the streets as an orphan. It was amazing that a Crown Prince could look that deprived.

"But that\'s not true at all, is it?" Xiao Yuan said, taking one step in Chu Yun\'s direction. "You have him wrapped around your finger. Somehow, you got him under your thrall," he looked at Xiao Zai over Chu Yun\'s shoulder. "My sullen younger brother has really blossomed since your wedding. Look at him, he even looks taller."

Xiao Zai had no reaction to the jab. Xiao Yuan snorted. "Maybe all it took to make a King out of him was someone whispering in his ear that he could be one."

One corner of Chu Yun\'s lips curled up. Xiao Zai had Gu Wei telling him that all his life.

No, the credit was all Chu Yun\'s.

Finally, Xiao Yuan sighed, hanging his head like a dead man going limp on the noose. "Very well. It\'s not as if I would make for a very good King."

Right then they heard a fierce screech from the door, "No, how can his Royal Highness say that?" Peng Rui\'s earlier grief was all but gone, replaced by a seething hatred.

She fell to her knees in deep prostration as soon as everyone turned towards her. "I beg that his Royal Highness please reconsider," she said knocking her forehead against the floor. "Being Crown Prince is not something that can be easily renounced, it is ordained by the Heavens that his Royal Highness as his Majesty\'s first alpha son should inherit the throne, and-"

Chu Yun slid the tip of his booted foot under Peng Rui\'s chin, making her mouth snap closed with a dainty click.

She gazed up at him in utter shock.

"Are you done?" Chu Yun asked, removing his foot

She shot Xiao Yuan a scandalised look, hoping he would say something about the humiliation Chu Yun had just subjected her to. Xiao Yuan spared her only a brief glance before looking once again towards Fan Jiang.

Peng Rui shot up to her feet. "Your Royal Highness! You can\'t let them humiliate us."

"There is no \'us\'," Chu Yun said, turning to her with a mocking smirk. "Can\'t you see that his Royal Highness has no interest in you?"

Her lovely eyes blazed with fury. If she could have killed Chu Yun and gotten away with she would have.

"As his Royal Highness\' Concubine, this one is loyal only to him-" she tried, her voice cracking.

Chu Yun laughed. "Is that why you drank abortive tea for days, until you lost your child?"

Her eyes widened, the spidery red veins around her iris almost doubled in size. "That\'s-"

She finally had Xiao Yuan\'s attention. He looked from between her and Chu Yun with a frown. "What\'s the meaning of this?"

The thought hadn\'t crossed Chu Yun\'s mind until he\'d seen her laying on the floor by the door, crying for Fan Jiang when at the feast she\'d looked like her biggest dream was for him to choke on his own saliva and die.

That odd behaviour led to another realisation. He was reminded of a conversation he\'d had with the three Physicians, about terminating his own pregnancy. Where the more scientific minded of the three mentioned that doing so would require a person to take abortive tea over a period of time -- which could have a series of unpredictable effects because Chu Yun was an alpha.

"It seems oddly convenient that of the many wedding gifts, Concubine Peng would be drawn to the exact same tea over a period of several days. It\'s not enough to take abortive tea once, it requires exposure of at least three times a day over three days," he smiled without any kindness. "It\'s impossible that Concubine Peng didn\'t feel sick well before she finally collapsed and lost the child. Why not alert someone at the first signs something wasn\'t right?"

Her face paled. She opened and closed her bloodless mouth and finally stuttered out, "It must have been stronger, fast acting."

Xiao Zai chuckled, making Peng Rui flinch as if she\'d been whipped. "What did my father offer you to make you keep drinking that tea?"