Everyone's eyes were on Yun Yuan. Even Prince Su was confused about the situation. In his impression, his royal brother was not the kind of person who would act like this.

He looked at Ji Huai again. He was not a fool. He already knew that Ji Huai was his real second son. He didn't believe that the emperor didn't know.

"Royal brother..."

The emperor raised his hand to interrupt the King of Chu. One was the prince of Rongguo and the other was the son of Suwangfu. He wanted to know who Yun Yuan would choose.

Yun Yuan felt the oppression in the emperor's gaze, and her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, seeming to be in great trouble.

"Is that really the case?"

The emperor raised his eyebrows: "Your Majesty, do not joke."

He had an arrogant attitude, like an emperor who held the power of life and death. With just one word, he could make them kill each other. This feeling of being manipulated in the palm of his hand made Yun Yuan very uncomfortable.

Her frown deepened.

The emperor shook the dagger in his hand, silently urging her.

Yun Yuan walked towards him slowly, each step carrying a heavy burden. She reached out for the dagger in his hand with trembling hands. When her fingers touched the slightly cool hilt, her heart couldn't help but freeze.

Under the emperor's slightly deep gaze, Yun Yuan finally grasped the entire dagger and took it down with force.

She turned around and faced Mu Xingzhi and Ji Huai, her eyes lingering between the two of them, as if she was making a difficult decision.

Mu Xingzhi looked at Yun Yuan with trust, but his hands were actually shaking slightly. He couldn't bear to see Yun Yuan in trouble, so he took the initiative to step forward.

"Choose me... The child cannot be without a father."

After hearing this, Ji Huai shook his head violently, his eyes filled with determination and resoluteness: "No, you haven't left any bloodline yet, and you and Yun Yuan are the legally recognized couple. If you want to die, let me die."

The two of them pushed each other, neither of them willing to give in. Yun Yuan pursed her lips and lowered her head. Her long eyelashes cast shadows on her eyelids, hiding the expression in her eyes.

The emperor looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help feeling a little surprised.

Suddenly his pupils constricted, and he quickly stretched out his right hand and grabbed forward. Then he groaned, and a look of pain appeared on his face, but he still held the thing tightly.

Prince Su was horrified: "Your Majesty! Call the palace physician quickly!"

While Yun Yuan was stunned, the emperor hit her hand twice with his other intact hand. Yun Yuan felt pain and subconsciously let go of her hand. The emperor took the opportunity to snatch the dagger and threw it to the ground.

"Bang!"

There was silence all around, and Mu Xingzhi and Ji Huai protected Yun Yuan behind them.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. Yun Yuan did not mean to do that."

The emperor calmly wiped the stickiness from his palms with a bright yellow handkerchief and looked at them coldly.

"You two are truly affectionate, but it seems I have forced you to break up a couple. Well, I won't hold you accountable, but I will take this child with me."

Ji Huai was shocked: "Your Majesty, the child is innocent, please let him go, I am willing to die as an atonement!" After saying that, he was about to pick up the dagger on the ground, but was stopped by Prince Su's men.

"I think you've misunderstood." The emperor threw the blood-stained handkerchief to the ground. "This is my great-nephew. How could I harm him?"

Ji Huai: "Wha...what?"

Ji Zhang's face turned pale and he felt hopeless. What he had done was finally exposed.

The court physician arrived, and the emperor held out his hand for bandage. "This child is destined to be with me. I will bring him back to the palace and raise him well."

Ji Huai still didn't understand: "Your Majesty, you are mistaken. The child is mine, not Ji Zhang's."

"You are not mistaken. Ji Zhang is an imposter. The nephew I really lost is you."

It took Ji Huai a long time to react. He subconsciously looked at Yun Yuan and Mu Xingzhi. Seeing that they nodded, he believed that what the emperor said was true.

He was puzzled and asked, "What on earth is going on?"

Prince Su also wanted to know, so he shouted at Ji Zhang: "Ji Zhang, tell me everything you know."

At this moment, Princess Su came over with the help of her maid. Seeing Ji Zhang kneeling on the ground, she asked with concern, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, did An'er do something wrong?"

Seeing blood on the emperor's hands, he was startled: "Is it... Is it An'er who did it?"

"No." Prince Su said, "Ask him what he did specifically."

Concubine Su asked Ji Zhang in confusion, "An'er, what did you do?"

Ji Zhang lowered his head in embarrassment: "I... I am not your real child, Ji Huai is."

"What...what?!" Princess Su searched the crowd and quickly fixed her gaze on Ji Huai. She covered her chest and took a step back: "You are my An'er?"

Ji Huai was a little overwhelmed when he suddenly realized that his parents were still alive: "I...I don't know."

The emperor stared at Ji Zhang intently. "Confusing the royal bloodline is a grave crime. Who gave you the courage to do this?"

Ji Zhang's face was as pale as paper. He slowly closed his eyes, as if recalling something. After a long time, he glanced at Yun Yuan and Ji Huai, lowered his head and explained what had happened.

Ji Zhang was the child his mother Ji gave birth to when she was a concubine. Later, the man fell ill and died. No one acknowledged the child's identity, so she took the child back to her hometown.

On the way back home, they met someone who wanted to kill them. The assassin saved them and entrusted Ji Huai to her. She waited for the assassin to come back for a long time, but he didn't come back, so she took both children back home.

Ji Huai's swaddling clothes and the things he was wearing were all precious items. Ji knew that Ji Huai's identity was not simple. Her status as an unmarried woman with two children made her looked down upon by many people. She didn't want her children to be looked down upon in the future, so an idea emerged in her mind.

Although she was not sure whether Ji Huai's family would come to find her, she had made plans for it early on.

First, she tattooed a crescent-shaped mark on Ji Huai's arm on Ji Zhang's arm according to the shape and position, and then changed the crescent-shaped mark on Ji Huai's arm into a circle.

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