The Empress Dowager's words lingered in his mind, and he couldn't find a single word to refute them. Instead, it seemed he had found something more in them…
"She is my concubine, a woman in this harem. Does the Empress Dowager think she can escape?" Yu Jingchen didn't know why he said such a thing.
The Empress Dowager was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this, and then she laughed—a mocking laugh.
"Haha, Your Majesty, listen to this yourself, does this sound like something you would say?" the Empress Dowager said sarcastically.
She took two steps closer to Yu Jingchen: "Your Majesty, all of Nan Zhiyun's tragedies are because she fell in love with you and then entered the palace. You always thought that I forced her on you for power, but you don't know that for her sake, I could even give up being the Empress Dowager!" The Empress Dowager suddenly became agitated as she spoke.
"Yu Jingchen, what do you think Heaven gave you a second chance at life for? Let me tell you, this life is for you to atone for your sins!" The Empress Dowager approached Yu Jingchen, speaking each word clearly.
Upon hearing the Empress Dowager's words, Yu Jingchen's pupils constricted slightly, and he looked at her with a hint of disbelief.
"What? Surprised?" The Empress Dowager's lips curled slightly. "Did you think I was suddenly different from before? Do you still think I was joking with you just now?"
"Yu Jingchen, you don't think that after experiencing such a past life, I would let Yun'er repeat the same mistakes and walk the same old path again in this life, do you?" The Empress Dowager seemed to have become a completely different person.
"What does the Empress Dowager want to say?" Yu Jingchen felt a sudden sense of tension.
"It's nothing, Your Majesty. Don't worry. Since you dislike my Yun'er so much, I will definitely not let her continue to bother you this time." The Empress Dowager stepped back and resumed her usual dignified demeanor.
"Your Majesty, in my previous life, Yun'er died in your arms. Do you still remember what she looked like when she died? I... but I will never forget it in this lifetime. Even for this reason, I will tell Yun'er to stay far away from you." The Empress Dowager smiled faintly.
In fact, the Empress Dowager is not very old now, only in her early forties. With proper maintenance, she rarely has wrinkles or gray hair. She entered the palace at the age of fifteen and adopted Yu Jingchen two years later. She treated him sincerely, but unfortunately, the child she raised grew up to be the person she hated the most.
"Jingchen..." The Empress Dowager suddenly changed her address, and Yu Jingchen was taken aback by it. When he was little, the Empress Dowager always called him that, and only she would. He would call her that too, but what was it again? Something like, "Mother, Mother, Empress Dowager..."
"I truly regret adopting you. If I hadn't raised you, Yun'er, the Nan family, and I would all be doing well, either living peacefully and quietly, or enjoying wealth and prosperity. Yu Jingchen, isn't this your way of repaying kindness with enmity? In your previous life, did you ever regret it during those years in the future?" the Empress Dowager asked.
Yu Jingchen remained silent. Did he regret it? In the past, he would have decisively said, "I will never regret what I have done." But now... Yu Jingchen felt he couldn't say those words.
Seeing Yu Jingchen remain silent, the Empress Dowager's laughter grew even more joyful: "Your Majesty, this won't do. If you continue like this, I might really make you experience some of those things that cause excruciating pain without bloodshed..."
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