Chapter 285 I Only Want Her
Shoukang Palace.
The Queen Mother is worshiping Buddha.
Nanny Zhu stepped forward with a worried look on her face. "Empress Dowager, this is terrible. The Emperor just slipped and fell down the stairs and has fainted."
"What did you say?" The Queen Mother was shocked and stopped twisting her Buddhist beads.
"How could the emperor, who was perfectly fine, slip and fall down the stairs?"
Nanny Zhu whispered, "I heard the Emperor was drunk, and it was dark... so he slipped and fell."
The Queen Mother frowned, "He lives a life of drunkenness and dreams all day long, and he doesn't look like an emperor at all!"
Although she was angry, the empress dowager still walked towards Chengming Palace with her arm around Nanny Zhu's wrist, looking worried.
When they arrived at Chengming Palace, the smell of ambergris mixed with a strong alcoholic drink was surging in the bedroom. Xiao Heng's pale face was flushed with alcohol, his thin lips were slightly parted, and he uttered intermittent and unclear mumblings. Upon closer listening, it turned out that he was calling for Liu Yuetang.
When the imperial physician saw the queen dowager coming, he immediately bowed and greeted her.
The Queen Mother looked at Xiao Heng lying on the bed with concern, "How is the Emperor? Is he injured?"
The imperial physician bowed and said, "Your Majesty only suffered some superficial injuries, which are easy to treat, but this mental illness..." He sighed heavily and shook his head.
"I hope the Empress Dowager can comfort the Emperor. If he continues to be depressed, he may become seriously ill."
The Queen Mother frowned and waved her hand, "I understand. You can go down now."
After the imperial physician left, the empress dowager sat next to Xiao Heng and looked closely at his haggard face.
His once handsome face was now sunken, his eye sockets were dark and thick, and his brows were tightly furrowed.
He was thinner and more haggard, as if he had aged ten years.
The Queen Mother then realized that the last time she looked at Xiao Heng quietly like this was a long time ago.
In fact, Xiao Heng looks very similar to the late emperor, especially his nose and mouth.
As he watched, he suddenly felt that this scene was very similar to the despairing look of the late emperor after Song Jinrou's death.
What she feared most finally happened. Her husband and his son were both depressed and heartbroken because of a woman, and they even abandoned their country and the government.
She stretched out her hand tremblingly and gently placed it on Xiao Heng's hand.
This normal action between mother and son was extremely strange and rare to her.
"Zhu Yi, I'm scared!"
Zhu Yi said softly, "Empress Dowager, the Emperor is fine. Imperial Concubine Shuyi just passed away, and the Emperor can't accept it right now. But he will slowly get over it as time goes by."
The Queen Mother stared at Xiao Heng in a daze, tears sparkling in her cloudy eyes under the candlelight.
"I'm afraid the emperor will repeat his father's mistakes."
She held Xiao Heng's hand tightly, "I only have this one son..."
At this moment, she began to be afraid, afraid that her son would leave her and that she would become alone.
When Song Jinrou died, the late emperor went crazy and wanted the six concubines to be buried with her.
Just like that day, Xiao Heng drew his sword and wanted to kill everyone in the six palaces.
Generation after generation in the Xiao family are romantic men who live for women. She originally thought that her son was heartless and disloyal, but she didn't expect that he would be heartbroken for a woman.
"Empress Dowager, the Emperor will be fine." Nanny Zhu leaned down.
"Zhu Yi...please go down. I will talk to the Emperor for a while."
Nanny Zhu nodded, stood up and slowly retreated.
The Queen Mother gently ruffled Xiao Heng's messy hair on her pillow, a trace of regret on her face. "Your Majesty, if I had known this would happen, I would not have stopped you from favoring Concubine Xi."
Xiao Heng was still sleeping.
The Queen Mother continued to arrange his hair and murmured, "Heng'er, I am indeed an unfit mother. Because of a celestial phenomenon, I have become estranged from you for twenty years."
"Over the years... Queen Mother has never wiped your tears, combed your hair, or made your clothes. Instead, every time we meet, we argue."
"But seeing you like this, your mother is heartbroken. For the sake of Jingyuan and the people of Liming, can you please cheer up?"
At this moment, the fingers in her palm moved slightly. The Queen Mother paused and said slowly, "Heng'er, you always ask me why I don't like Song Jinrou."
"In fact, I like her very much. She is gentle and virtuous, dignified and generous. She is the kindest person in the six palaces. She is too perfect and there is no fault to be found. Because of this, I envy her and I am jealous of her."
"I'm jealous of her family background, jealous that your father treats her sincerely, and even more jealous that she's your father's first woman. And that's why, no matter how hard I try, even if I risk my life to love your father, in your father's eyes, I can't even compare to Song Jinrou's shadow."
"Later... even you liked Song Jinrou very much. Even after you returned to my side, you never forgot Song Jinrou and always regarded her as your mother. I became even more jealous of her, so I also disliked you."
At this point, she quickly shook her head. "No! What mother doesn't love her own child? Queen Mother... I have the same problem as you: I'm stubborn, but I also have another bad habit: I'm easily influenced. It's precisely because of this that the rift between you and Queen Mother has grown deeper and deeper, and our relationship has become increasingly strained."
She knew that Xiao Heng had woken up, and perhaps there were some things he couldn't say, so it would be good to say them now.
"But Heng'er, seeing you like this, I'm really heartbroken. I'm terribly scared. You're my only son... I just hope you're okay."
"Your son will never get better." A low voice slowly reached the Queen Mother's ears.
She was slightly stunned, and when she raised her eyelids, she saw Xiao Heng staring at the curtain above his head with empty eyes.
He slowly pulled his hand out of the Queen Mother's palm, expressionless, and said calmly: "Some things, once lost, you don't want to have them anymore."
“And some things, once you have them, you can never lose them.”
The Queen Mother understood that the former was referring to her belated love.
The latter is Liu Yuetang.
"Heng'er, there are so many women in the harem. Didn't you like Shen Qingtang the most in the past? From now on, no matter who you favor, I will let you do as you please and won't ask any more questions, okay? Your mother only asks you to take good care of yourself and stop drinking all day and being depressed."
Xiao Heng pulled his lips weakly, sad and sorrowful: "I don't want anyone else now, I only want her."
"Mother... you know... I am very afraid of fire,"
The Queen Mother froze in place, staring at Xiao Heng in astonishment.
Without waiting for her to answer, Xiao Heng said, "When my fear of fire was at its worst, I couldn't light a single candle in my bedroom. Countless days and nights, I was awakened by nightmares. I dreamed of you, Queen Mother, holding my sixth brother's spirit tablet and scolding me, and I dreamed of me being burned..."
"It was Mother Wen Yi. She held me to sleep every night and sang ballads to me, gradually dispelling the shadows in my heart."
At this point, tears seemed to glisten in Xiao Heng's eyes, and the empress dowager's throat felt so sour and unbearable that she finally couldn't hold it back and burst into hot tears.
She didn't expect... she didn't expect that what she had done would cause such great harm to her son.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
