kvmb Chapter 397 Revelation of His Own Background
Chapter 397 Revelation of His Own Background
Inside the box was a jade hairpin broken in two, with bright red blood seeping from the broken ends into the delicate and translucent hairpin, like wisps of smoke dissipating.
This hairpin was found by the guards when they were collecting Yi Zhen's remains after killing the wild beast.
The Empress picked up the broken hairpin, and a chilling sensation seeped into her finger bones.
This jade hairpin was always worn by Yizhen during her lifetime. It is said that it was a piece of jewelry given to her by her elder brother when he left Northern Qi, as if it were a promise between the two of them.
Now that the jade is broken and the soul is gone, the brother and sister will never meet again.
The Empress pursed her lips. Yi Zhen, a hostage princess, was in a very difficult situation in Northern Qi. Before she came to the Crown Prince's side, she was bullied by the sons of noble families, and her pride was crushed inch by inch.
To send her elder brother back to the Great Zhou, she sold her body and soul, serving the Crown Prince without any official status. But her life didn't improve; instead, with the Crown Prince's indulgence, even the most unruly servants in the mansion dared to bully her.
Even so, she always had a smile on her face when facing the crowd, radiating a warm glow.
Even though she had fallen into the mire and her spine was broken, she still maintained her dignity no matter how hard and humiliating her life was.
She never gave up on herself or let herself sink into the mire. Instead, she chose to pull herself together, struggled to climb out of the mire, and strived toward the hope and beliefs in her heart.
She saw her own past self in Yizhen. Faced with the oppression of the royal family and her clan, she lacked the courage and ability to resist, and she was unable to live the life she wanted within the predetermined fate.
Yizhen's resilience and pride deeply moved her. She wanted to be like Yizhen, breaking free from the shackles that bound her and living according to her own heart.
After all, her status and position in Northern Qi were far better than that of the tragically fated Yi Zhen. Yi Zhen had never given up, so what reason did she have to give up on herself and accept her fate?
From then on, she began to take her medicine properly, cherish her body, and learn to refuse the Crown Prince.
After she mustered the courage to take that step, she suddenly discovered that refusing to do things she didn't want to do wasn't as difficult as she had imagined.
She felt a deep connection with Yi Zhen, but this woman she felt a connection with died tragically in the arena.
The Empress snapped out of her reverie and gently placed the hairpin back into the box.
She had the ability to save Yizhen, but because she didn't attend the palace banquet, she missed the opportunity to save Yizhen.
If she had been more well-informed and arrived faster, would the situation have been different?
Yi Zhen did not die, and finally her brother, the emperor, came to take her back to the country.
Unfortunately, no if.
All of this seems to indicate that no matter how hard they try, they still cannot change their fate.
The Empress felt extremely depressed. She closed the box and put it back in the dark cabinet.
-
On the other side, when Lady Shou'an returned to the Marquis's residence from the palace, the servant waiting at the gate bowed and said respectfully, "Madam, the Marquis is waiting for you in the study in the front courtyard."
Upon hearing this, Lady Shou'an went to the study in the front courtyard.
The servant guarding the study door saw that Lady Shou'an had returned, so he quickly greeted her and opened the tightly closed door.
When Lady Shou'an entered the room, she saw the Marquis of Shou'an sitting in a grand chair, holding a book and flipping through it.
"My lord, I have conveyed your message to the Empress. She asked me to pass on a message to you: on the day Princess Guangning is to marry, there is no need for all the officials to jointly petition His Majesty to establish a Crown Prince."
Lady Shou'an sighed, "Her Majesty is thoughtful and stubborn. Over the years, she has only ever cared about Princess Yizhen. She had the ability to stop it, but because of her health, she couldn't save Princess Yizhen. She's been struggling with herself ever since."
She speculated, "Now that Princess Yizhen's son has returned, Her Majesty's desire to place the Prince of Guangling as the crown prince is probably to resolve her own inner conflict, isn't it?"
Upon hearing this, the Marquis of Shou'an frowned deeply: "Absurd."
He threw the book he was holding onto the table, his expression displeased: "The entire family has poured all its resources and connections into Prince Qi. Now that Prince Xian has been demoted back to his fiefdom, and Prince Guangling's status means he's ineligible for the crown prince position, that position belongs to Prince Qi. At this crucial moment, she abandoned her support for Prince Qi. How am I supposed to explain this to my family? To the faction that supported Prince Qi?"
At this point, Marquis Shou'an's face turned angry: "It's one thing to change people at the last minute, but she actually foolishly wants to support the Prince of Guangling. This is going against the civil and military officials and against the people of Northern Qi."
Lady Shou'an, seeing that the Marquis of Shou'an's face was ashen and he was furious, knew that he would not do as the Empress wished.
She wanted to say a few words on behalf of the Empress to calm the Marquis of Shou'an down.
Suddenly, Lady Shou'an remembered something.
"I almost forgot, Her Majesty asked me to bring you a brocade pouch." Lady Shou'an took out a brocade pouch from her sleeve and handed it to the Marquis of Shou'an with both hands: "Her Majesty said that after you see this brocade pouch, you will make a decision in your heart."
Marquis Shou'an took the brocade pouch, untied the string, and pulled out a letter.
After reading just one line, the Marquis of Shou'an's face darkened, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the letter turned white, as if he was trying his best to restrain some emotion so as not to tear the thin letter to shreds.
Marquis Shou'an read the letter word by word. The veins on his forehead throbbed, making his dignified, square face appear extremely fierce and terrifying.
With a loud bang, he slammed his hand on the table: "That wretched child!"
Lady Shou'an was startled. Seeing that the Marquis of Shou'an's expression was not right, she quickly took the letter, looked at it carefully, and exclaimed in horror: "My lord... my lord, Chong'er... Chong'er is not the lady's son?"
So, is it because of some unresolved issue in her heart that Her Majesty the Empress wanted to support the Prince of Guangling as the Crown Prince?
“No wonder…no wonder Her Majesty said that only if the Prince of Guangling sat on that throne could she live.” Lady Shou’an’s face turned ashen. “If this matter is exposed, she will surely die. She dares not compete with the Prince of Guangling for fear of revealing Chong’er’s true identity, which is why she wants to send Chong’er to his fiefdom.”
Lady Shou'an clutched her chest, repeatedly muttering the word "muddled," utterly bewildered as to why the Empress would do such a thing.
Marquis Shou'an closed his eyes, suspecting that the Empress was too weak to have children and had taken the risk of adopting a child in order to secure her position.
He thought of how the Prince of Qi was conceived through an affair between a palace maid and a guard, and was secretly raised by the Empress in a dark room in Chang Le Palace, and his face darkened again.
Things I couldn't understand before, I now understand completely.
The Empress deliberately instigated the Prince of Qi to target the Prince of Guangling, so that the Prince of Qi would make a mistake and then be demoted to his fiefdom in a logical way.
The Marquis of Shou'an's right eyelid twitched suddenly, as if foreshadowing something bad was about to happen.