When Wei Shuyi took his mother to the yard, he saw his father following them naturally.
"Father." Wei Shuyi stopped and said, "I want to talk to mother alone."
Duke Zheng paused. Did he have to avoid him too? "Okay..." Duke Zheng was always easy to talk to. "It just so happens that I want to go for a walk in the garden."
It rained heavily last night, so he had to go check on the flowers and plants in his garden.
"Go slowly, father."
Duke Zheng had just left humming a little tune when Wei Shuyi took two steps and stopped again. He turned to look at his sister who had caught up with him and reminded her with a slightly tired smile, "Miaoqing, brother said he wanted to talk to mother 'alone' -"
Wei Miaoqing nodded, but asked in return: "Then I can't listen?"
Looking at his sister's matter-of-fact expression, Wei Shuyi felt that he was the only one in trouble and everyone was causing more trouble.
Wei Miaoqing quickly explained why she should do so: "It's not a serious matter anyway."
After all, if my brother wanted to discuss serious matters, he would never talk to his mother. Otherwise, wouldn't that be like talking to a cow or talking to a deaf person?
"Don't think I don't know. Brother, you want to tell mother about Madam Chang, right?" Wei Miaoqing leaned closer, lowered her voice with curiosity in her eyes, "Brother, you must have met Madam Chang on this trip. Did you do well in this meeting? Let me hear it too. I can help you with some advice!"
"Manager Fang, drag her down... take her back." The first person who couldn't stand it anymore was Duan. She waved her hands at the manager beside her, with a look on her face as if she couldn't bear to listen any more.
She really didn't want to recall any shameful experience of trying to turn His Highness into her daughter-in-law! Whenever she accidentally thought of this, she would hold her head and run away like a rat, bursting into screams in her heart to stop herself from thinking about it any further.
Seeing her mother and brother walking toward the courtyard, Wei Miaoqing, who was being forcibly persuaded to leave by Manager Fang by grabbing her arm, could not help but feel puzzled: "What happened to my mother these days?"
Where is the determination that made him want to bring Madam Chang home to be his daughter-in-law?
But my mother was still concerned about Madam Chang. Could it be that she felt that Madam Chang was becoming more and more outstanding... and that my brother was no longer worthy of her? Wei Miaoqing, who was afraid that he would be left alone to fight in the future, was muttering in his heart, while Duan had already sat down in Wei Shuyi's study.
The study here is spacious and bright, divided into two rooms, inside and outside. Even though Wei Shuyi is not at home for many days, it is still cleaned every day without a speck of dust.
The door of the study was closed and Changji was standing outside with a serious expression.
In the inner study, in order to talk in a low voice, Duan and Wei Shuyi sat on chairs on either side of a small table with a chessboard. Duan couldn't wait to ask first: "... Zi Gu, have you seen the person? Have you asked? Have you confirmed it?"
Wei Shuyi nodded: "Yes."
Duan was startled for a moment, then revealed a joyful expression that seemed to be both crying and laughing, clutching the handkerchief and saying, "I knew it was right...Except for His Highness, there would be no one else."
"Then, is Your Highness all right?" Duan asked with red eyes, "Has he lost weight or gained weight?"
"I've lost some weight." Wei Shuyi didn't dare to look at his mother's overly concerned eyes: "But I've grown taller."
"Your Highness has grown taller..." Duan, who was originally crying, repeated it, and suddenly laughed: "Your Highness can still grow taller..."
She found it novel, amusing, fortunately and happy.
Then he quickly asked, "Has Her Highness ever mentioned me?"
Wei Shuyi nodded silently, his eyes fell on the box on the desk beside him, and said, "That's what 'she' asked me to bring to my mother."
Duan followed his gaze, quickly stood up and walked forward, opened the box, and saw the dazzling array of jewelry inside. She suddenly choked up and said, "Your Highness still misses me as much as before..."
Duan picked up a pearl flower, and through her tearful eyes, she seemed to have returned to her youth.
She slowly pinned the pearl flower into her hair, and then picked out two gold hairpins of different styles, as well as silk flowers, and put them into her hair. She also put bracelets and bracelets on her wrists.
Finally, she asked with tears in her eyes, "Zi Gu, does it look good?"
Wei Shuyi nodded with a slightly stiff smile and honestly said, it was a mess, just like his current life which was full of immorality.
It can be seen that the mother's love for the late prince was so deep that it could not be hidden.
Looking at his mother's eyes filled with tears and joy, Wei Shuyi, who had been running around for many days and had just recovered from an illness, looked increasingly pale and broken in smile.
He temporarily suppressed his chaotic feelings and spoke out the source of the torment that had been tormenting him all the way: "Mother, you can now tell me the unspeakable secret about the late crown prince."
Duan, who was stroking the pearl flowers on her temples, was startled when she heard this and looked up at him.
Wei Shuyi: "Before coming back, His Highness personally promised that he would allow my mother to tell me the truth about this matter."
Duan's hands dropped, and she stared at him suspiciously for a moment, saying, "Don't try to deceive me."
She glanced at her son confidently and sat back down again: "If Your Highness really wanted you to know, why didn't you tell you in person?"
Wei Shuyi smiled awkwardly: "Perhaps 'she' thought that what I did before was too annoying, and she intended to make me suffer for a while."
Duan suddenly raised her eyebrows: "Your Highness also thinks you are annoying."
Wei Shuyi was used to it, and pushed forward to the point without stopping: "A mother can admit that her son is annoying, but she cannot question her son's filial piety. Since I know you have sworn not to disclose this matter without permission, you will not use it to lie and deceive me."
At this point, he smiled slightly and said, "Besides, if my son wanted to deceive you, he wouldn't have to wait until today and go through so much trouble."
Duan's eyebrows jumped twice. Although this statement seemed to belittle her intelligence, it was indeed very convincing...
Duan looked at her son's expression and analyzed it carefully, and finally dispelled her doubts.
Before she spoke, she sighed slowly: "This is a long story, and it involves so many things that I don't even know where to start..."
Wei Shuyi showed a patient demeanor that did not match his inner feelings: "Mother, just tell me slowly."
Just when he thought his mother was going to lay the groundwork, he heard her say, "In fact, when I was studying with Princess Chongyue in her mansion, the person I saw most of the time was the princess's brother, Prince Li Xiao."
Wei Shuyi's expression became confused in an instant.
Very strange...
He had clearly heard every word before, and it was just an ordinary, straightforward statement, but why was this sentence made up of them so difficult to understand? Duan: "If I put it this way, you will understand it, right?"
Wei Shuyi: "My son seems to understand, but not quite..."
"You are nothing special." Duan looked at him with contempt. "Isn't it the time when you used to rely on your own talent to laugh at others for not understanding what the teacher was teaching?"
"Mother..." Wei Shuyi smiled with difficulty: "At this juncture, there is no need to bother teaching your son the principles of life."
Along the way, he has reflected deeply on his conduct as a human being.
Duan seemed to be in a good mood: "It's just a side job to teach and entertain."
Then he added: "What's more, what I said is not nonsense, but the truth."
"Mother..." Wei Shuyi asked in confusion, "Isn't Prince Li Xiao the late Crown Prince? Why did mother call him Princess Chongyue's brother, Prince Li Xiao?"
This was the strangest thing my mother had said.
Such a narration seems to place "Prince Li Xiao" in the position of object, while "Princess Chongyue" is the subject of the story.
"No." Duan shook her head, her expression becoming more serious. "Prince Li Xiao is the prince Li Xiao of the Princess's mansion. He is not the same person as the Crown Prince Li Xiao mentioned by the world."
Wei Shuyi's expression froze, and he thought quickly as he asked, "The one in Princess Chongyue's mansion is Prince Li Xiao... Then where is Princess Chongyue?"
"Princess Chongyue is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
After Duan finished speaking, Wei Shuyi suddenly stood up.
He was always calm and composed, so such an action was considered inappropriate for him.
"Mother said..."
Duan's voice was somewhat emotional: "Since he was about eight or nine years old, all the Li Xiaos that appeared in front of people were played by the eldest princess."
There was a loud "boom" in Wei Shuyi's head, like a strong wind sweeping across the mountains.
He had thought of no less than a hundred possibilities in recent days, like tributaries, but each tributary would always be blocked by the mountain wall halfway and could no longer move forward... and at this moment, these tributaries suddenly merged into one, surging in the mountains, and suddenly rushing down from the top of the mountain, falling as magnificently as a waterfall.
Standing under the waterfall, he was finally able to get a glimpse of the complete appearance of the green mountain.
The clouds and mist dissipated, revealing the deep and lush green mountains, with the tops of the mountains reaching into the sky, so majestic and breathtaking.
Wei Shuyi stood there, no longer having any questions and unable to speak for a moment.
But he could hear every word his mother said clearly: "…Prince Li Xiao is weak and sickly, and has never recovered. He lives in the Princess's mansion and rarely sees people. The people who serve and take care of him are all insiders like me."
After a while, Wei Shuyi finally regained his consciousness: "Then... did the late emperor know?"
Duan sighed vaguely: "Your Highness once told me to reassure me that the late emperor probably knew about it..."
About?
That means that one does not know on the surface, but actually knows clearly.
Wei Shuyi listened quietly to his mother's words: "I vaguely remember that at that time, the late emperor seemed to prefer the third prince who was raised in the palace of Empress Changsun, but the third prince had a strong and outgoing personality... As he grew older, the competition among the princes of various factions became more and more intense..."
"The late emperor originally wanted to use Your Highness to shield the Third Prince from those open and secret attacks, and let Your Highness serve as the Third Prince's sharpening stone to pave the way for him."
When Duan said this, there was a hint of sarcasm and relief in her voice: "But the late emperor underestimated Your Highness and Your Highness's mother, and overestimated his own control. Later, the situation gradually became out of his control."
The third prince died unexpectedly, and then later, even he himself suddenly passed away without leaving behind even a single clear word, or if he did, it never had a chance to leave his bedroom.
Following these words, Wei Shuyi's mind was dragged back to the palace and court affairs of many years ago.
So, the Crown Prince, who is so glorious in the eyes of the world, is just a sword forged by the late emperor for his other son?
Logically speaking, such a knife would be melted in the flames of war or destroyed in party struggles... But this knife became sharper and sharper, and it was out of the control of the knifemaker.
She had always been aware that she was being used by the late emperor, but she took advantage of this use to refine herself and stand above millions of people.
This is really, really amazing.
At this moment, thinking of what she had experienced, Wei Shuyi could only make such a plain comment.
Then, he suddenly became stunned and looked at his mother, asking, "So, the person who went to Beidi to marry... must be someone else?"
Duan's voice was light and hoarse: "No, it's also your highness."
When she finished speaking, Duan lowered her head and tears fell.
Wei Shuyi suddenly fell silent.
I see.
It turned out that the person who quelled one war after another for Dasheng and the person who went to Beidi at his own risk to buy Dasheng a three-year opportunity to recuperate were all the same person.
But the world never knew, and neither did he.
For a woman who had accomplished unprecedented feats and ascended to the throne, what she went through in those three years in Beidi... I'm afraid it's simply not something that can be described as enduring humiliation.
Wei Shuyi's eyebrows and the fingers in his sleeves were slightly clenched, and his heart felt a dull pain and indescribable shock.
Knowing that the person he loved was not a man, he should have felt relieved and happy, but at this moment he suddenly realized that all the heavy past was weighed down on her alone, and he felt that this truth was cruel and dark.
But amidst this cruelty, there is an indomitable brilliance. In this darkness, the most noble soul grows.
Wei Shuyi was in a state of turmoil. He looked out of the slightly ajar window frame, where lush green banana leaves were peeking out.
He suddenly thought in a distracted way that a single move can have an impact on the overall situation. If she had not guarded the Dasheng River time and time again in the past, this clump of banana trees might not have had the opportunity to grow here, sway in the spring breeze, receive the gift of sunlight, and then appear in his eyes.
"Mother." Wei Shuyi stared at the banana trees and said in a trance, "I have read so many books and boasted that I have read through people's hearts and have broad knowledge, but I never knew that there is such a person in this world."
Hearing this, Duan suddenly stood up as if awakened from a dream, not even bothering to wipe away her tears. She walked up to her son and asked him in a panic, "Zi Gu, do you... really still have feelings for His Highness?"
She had asked tentatively before, but Wei Shuyi had never directly admitted it.
But at this moment, he said frankly: "Mother, yes."
Duan's eyes went dark for a while, and she felt that the world had made people too deceiving: "This..."
How could she be worthy of being His Highness's mother-in-law, and how could His Highness... look down upon her annoying son! Duan complained: "...What should I do?"
"It doesn't matter." Wei Shuyi said, "Anything is fine."
This is his mood at the moment, and probably also his mood for the rest of his life.
He thought highly of himself and had a lofty character. Having had the good fortune to witness the magnificence of such green mountains, he was destined to find it difficult to be moved by other vegetation.
"Thank you, mother, for telling me."
Wei Shuyi bowed to his mother and turned to walk out.
Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, Duan came to his senses and followed.
Looking at the lady with her hair and hands covered with jewels, Changji was surprised and felt that the lady was like a jewelry stall with legs. She didn't need to bring anything and could go directly to the West Market to set up a stall.
Duan looked at her son's back, sighed and told Changji: "Hurry up and follow him...see what he is going to do." (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
