Everyone looked towards the owner of the voice.
Zhao Ying stood there expressionlessly, her eyes so red they seemed to be bleeding.
She looked sad, but the words she spoke were cold and inhuman.
"Father, Shangguan Shu and I have already divorced. Burying him as a consort is against the rules..."
Shangguan Qingwan's face was covered with tears. Hearing this, she asked in confusion, "Mother..."
She was questioning why her mother was so cruel to her father?
She didn't understand, she really didn't understand, just like she didn't understand why her once happy family fell apart overnight, and why her parents, who had loved each other for many years, divorced...
Shangguan Bailin lowered his brows, his long eyelashes trembled slightly, as if he understood something.
The father made a mistake, and the mother was right to do this.
He should agree with his mother out of righteousness and reason, but... his father is dying... his father is dying...
Shangguan Bailin was in a dilemma.
Prince Liang frowned, "Cheng Qian, after all, the Prince of Zhenguo died saving you. It's just a posthumous reputation. Why do you care so much?"
Prince Liang seemed to be speaking for Shangguan Shu, but in fact he wanted to use this opportunity to split the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion and the Eastern Palace.
Sure enough, Shangguan Dan sneered and shook his head repeatedly.
Emperor Jianxi spoke, "Chengqian, you must listen to your father on this matter..."
"No need, Your Majesty..." The old Duke turned around and saluted.
His voice was low and he seemed to have aged ten years.
He raised his head, frowned and looked at Zhao Ying, his eyes misty.
"Your Highness, I do not know...how my son angered Your Highness and forced Your Highness to divorce me. Although I am old, I am not stupid. I know that it must have been the incident between Runzhi and Princess Huaian that angered Your Highness. He was bewitched and betrayed the princess for that whore. It was his fault alone and has nothing to do with Your Highness."
"Your Highness has been married to the Duke of Zhenguo for fourteen years. You have brought honor to the Duke of Zhenguo, given birth to children, and served as a wife and daughter-in-law. The Duke of Zhenguo is the only one who owes Your Highness. Your Highness does not owe the Duke of Zhenguo a single cent."
"Runzhi... what happened to him..." The old Duke opened his eyes wide, forced back tears, but his voice betrayed his pain, his voice choked with pain, "It's all his fault."
"But I want to tell Your Highness something."
"What's the matter?" Zhao Ying's voice was so clear and weak that it seemed as if it would disappear with the wind.
"Your Highness, do you know why I wanted to discuss marriage with Queen Hyomin?"
Shangguan Zhu's heart skipped a beat when he heard the voice, and he glanced at Zhao Ying with some fear.
Zhao Ying shook her head imperceptibly.
Seeing this, the old Duke's grief, almost overwhelming, erupted like magma. He cried bitterly, "It was Runzhi... It was Runzhi who begged me..."
"When Runzhi was four years old, he followed my wife into the palace. The moment he first saw the princess, he fell in love with her. From then on, he often asked me to bring him to the palace to see His Highness. His Highness's kite fell into the lake, and Runzhi went into the water to retrieve it. He came back and caught cold, and it took him several months to recover. He learned that His Highness loved lotus cakes, so Runzhi tried every shop in the capital and asked me to bring the best to His Highness..."
Kite...Hibiscus cake...
Zhao Ying suddenly remembered something.
His body went limp and he stumbled, but Nanny Li caught him in time and he did not fall.
"When he was eight years old, it happened to be His Highness's seventh birthday. He spent half a year preparing a birthday gift for His Highness, but His Highness didn't like it. Runzhi cried bitterly during the banquet..."
The old Duke looked at Emperor Jianxi, his eyes pleading, "Your Majesty also knows these things!"
Emperor Jianxi nodded solemnly.
"Runzhi once said that his greatest wish was to marry Princess Chengqian when he grew up, but he forgot about it later, all of a sudden. But I, this old minister, have not forgotten. Runzhi is my eldest son, the one I have devoted my life to... Unlike Your Majesty, I don't understand the love between husband and wife. I only know how to love my son," the old Duke became increasingly heartbroken, sobbing and beating his chest, "But how could my son end up like this? Someone wanted to harm him, but I was incompetent and couldn't find the murderer..."
He suddenly raised his hands, looked up to the sky and cried out, tears streaming down his face. Every word he said seemed like a question to the heaven, or a humble prayer.
"God, please tell me, who is trying to destroy my son?! Who is trying to harm my Runzhi? Let him die with regret and without illness!!"
It’s Zhao Yao.
Shangguan Zhu added silently in his heart.
He kept staring at Zhao Ying's reaction. Seeing that Zhao Ying was indifferent to his father's words, he felt relieved, but then he felt endless pain.
Zhao Ying was stunned, her soul was sucked away in an instant, leaving only her shell. The empty body could not cry or feel pain. She witnessed the grief and noise in the hall like a bystander. In a trance, this group of people were strangers, but she felt that she knew them.
The figure was vague, fuzzy and clear, and the voice was far away and near...
In her sight, there was an old man crying, crying so sadly. He was telling a story while crying, and his snot and tears were flowing into his mouth. She felt disgusted for a moment but wanted to laugh.
When she was a child, she was like this too. She cried so much that she tasted the saltiness of her snot. She thought it was fun, and later she often cried just to lick the salty snot.
Because she suddenly became tearful, her father and mother thought she was wronged and had hysteria, and they gave her a lot of trouble.
The prince also comforted her and said that his sister looked pretty even when she cried!
When will this farce end?
It started when Wei Fu made fun of her.
While she was "turning over a new leaf", she was also annoying Wei Fu to death.
How deep was this boredom? If she had other playmates with higher "safety" when she was young, she would never have played with Wei Fu again.
She had a small notebook in which she recorded Wei Fu's evil deeds. She often played with Wei Fu during the day, and at night, she wrote down all the words and behaviors that offended her. She looked at the candlelight and swore to herself that she would take revenge when she grew up.
The prince accidentally discovered this record of revenge and was shocked, saying that she was insidious.
So what if she is insidious?
Her proud kite was dropped into the lake by Wei Fu. Her favorite lotus cake was always snatched away by Wei Fu as soon as it was served on the table. He looked like a starving ghost. After eating, he would make faces at her with the leftovers hanging on his mouth and show off to her.
How could she have such an annoying cousin like Wei Fu?
She didn't really like lotus cakes, but after Wei Fu snatched it from her, he gave her a psychological hint, making her feel particularly satisfied after eating a bite of lotus cake...
She was insidious, because every time Wei Fu was annoying, she never lost her temper or got angry with him. Instead, she smiled sweetly, but in fact she was rolling her eyes like turning the pages of a book in her heart.
When she grew up, she understood some things and realized that her cousin was just naughty and mischievous when he was a child. It was not worth it for her to bring up the past with him when she grew up, which would damage the royal reputation.
Perhaps the hatred for the hibiscus cake disappeared, not only because she grew up, but also... One day, there was suddenly a plate of hibiscus cake in her palace. The taste was different from the one made by the imperial chef in the palace, and it had a unique flavor. The most important thing was that it contained a locust flower, and her cousin was allergic to it!
Wei Fu's face was swollen like a pig's head, and she stuffed her mouth with lotus cake.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
