Chapter 442 Finale]
Xiao Yunshuo was speechless for a moment.
He had been loved by his grandfather since he was young, and was personally appointed as the future crown prince of Dayu. He had a noble status that no other brothers and sisters could match. However, he was also feared and envied by his own father, and he inherited the throne after going through life and death.
However, once you become an emperor, you will have to review endless memorials, deal with the people's livelihood, border security, natural disaster relief, resource allocation, and countless other things every day.
That's fine, but even his household affairs... The queen in the palace has been ill and childless for years, and the matter of taking a concubine cannot be delayed. He has to negotiate with ministers every day. In just one year, no less than three ministers have threatened to resign or even commit suicide. How long can he hold on?
He really knew best the emperor's helplessness and hard work.
The sacrifice that matches the supreme power is not easy.
Chen Fenghe was not sure whether his choice was right, or even... perhaps the choice at this time was a simple and rough interference in his child, cutting off his path to becoming an emperor.
But... it's easy to be a tyrant, but being a wise ruler requires a lot of self-sacrifice.
She would rather be a little domineering and selfish, but she also wants her child to leave the imperial family.
Xiao Yunshuo was pushed to the position of crown prince since he was a child, and no one gave him a second choice.
She couldn't let her child end up in the same situation.
Of course, in such an era, even if her child did not become the supreme emperor, she could ensure that he would grow up safely and freely without suffering any undue hardship.
"What's more, Chao'er and Yu'er were both born outside the palace. If I bring them back to the palace, I'll have to kill many people and silence many mouths to prove their identities. Even so, there's no such thing as a wall that's impenetrable. Maybe no one will discover it in a year or two, but what about five or ten years? If someone with ulterior motives finds any clues, just a few simple rumors, saying Chao'er and Yu'er are not the emperor's blood, will be enough to incite those who covet the throne in Dayu to stir up trouble. Your Majesty, do you want to kill every palace maid and eunuch who knows about this, as well as the innocent villagers in this village, just to keep this secret?"
Xiao Yunshuo glared at her fiercely, his eyes bloodshot. After a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, "Even so... so what? Feng He, you don't think I'm a good person after ascending the throne from Crown Prince to Emperor, do you? If I tell you that if you don't come back with me, I will not only kill everyone in this village, but also your brothers and sisters. Feng He, are you still going to say 'no'?"
Chen Fenghe's heart sank. Xiao Yunshuo's words and actions at this moment were definitely not a joke.
However, she finally raised her hand, gently touched Xiao Yunshuo's cheek, and whispered, "You won't. You are indeed not a kind person. How can an emperor be kind? But your political tactics have a bottom line. If not, you would not be the man I fell in love with. Xiao Yunshuo, you should know that if you really do this, then... you will no longer be the person I love."
The crimson in the corners of Xiao Yunshuo's eyes became even more intense, and the despair in his dark eyes was as suffocating as a deep pool.
How could she be so cruel? Since she admitted that she loved him, why could she leave him so cruelly and decisively?
"Even if... I don't use that method, do you think... I can't forcibly abduct you back to the capital?"
Chen Fenghe's eyelashes fluttered slightly, and then she said softly, "Your Majesty, have you never thought about how I disappeared from the heavily guarded imperial palace?"
Xiao Yunshuo thought about it, but couldn't figure it out.
As Chen Fenghe spoke, he put Chao'er back on the couch and then went straight into the space.
Seeing her disappear out of thin air, Xiao Yunshuo widened his eyes in shock.
Then, Chen Fenghe came out of the space and appeared in front of him again.
In her hands was a treasure chest, which, when opened, was filled with oriental pearls, gold, silver, and jewelry, each of which was priceless. Then there were grains and even firearms and gunpowder.
Xiao Yunshuo looked at what was spread out in front of him, pursed his thin lips, and didn't know how to react for a moment.
What is happening before our eyes is something that only gods and ghosts can do.
Chen Fenghe looked at him and said, "I asked Manager Gu to bring a message to the Emperor. If the Emperor finds this place, I will tell you everything. What you just saw is my secret. Your Crown Princess, the real Chen Fenghe, was forced to hit her head against a pillar and died when the news of your false accusation of death reached the palace. Although my name is also Chen Fenghe, I am not from this time and space. It's just that I also encountered a life-and-death disaster in my original time and space. By chance, I borrowed the body of your Crown Princess and survived. This... maybe it is the legendary... "Besides this, I have a space where I can hide, store things, grow food and fodder, and raise livestock. Before I was exiled, all the supplies in the palace and the capital were emptied. Even the supplies and treasures that disappeared during my exile were moved into this space and stored. During the siege of Yanmen Pass, the food and fodder provided by Gu Hongzhi to the defending soldiers also came from my personal space... And the reason I was able to disappear from the palace without anyone noticing was also because of the space..."
Xiao Yunshuo listened to those bizarre things that were so bizarre that no matter how hard he investigated, he could not find any clues or explanations. It turned out that...
Chen Fenghe continued, "So, if I want to leave, I can disappear without a trace at any time. I can even... stay in this space until I die and never see you again. Even so, will the emperor still threaten me with the lives of the people I care about, Chao'er Yu'er, and Yichuan Qingxing?"
Xiao Yunshuo's body shook and he took a step back.
Chen Fenghe even thought he was going to fall, but before she could subconsciously try to help him up, he had already stood still.
All the emotions in his eyes were hidden in an instant, leaving only the bottomless ink color.
"Are you really... determined to do this? Do you really... want to do this?" Xiao Yunshuo asked word by word.
Chen Fenghe lowered her eyes. This was clearly something she had decided long ago. It was clearly... just a 'divorce'. Why was she so shaken now?
"This is good for both you and me. You should appoint a more qualified queen, take in many concubines, and have many children..."
"Okay!" Xiao Yunshuo interrupted her harshly, "I...as you wish!"
In the second year of Tiansheng, the queen passed away and the whole country mourned.
Xiao Yunshuo postponed the selection of concubines on the grounds of mourning the queen.
In the third year of Tiansheng, the Second Prince of the Northern Rong finally defeated the First Prince and became the new Great Khan of the Northern Rong, uniting the various tribes that had been scattered by internal strife. Xiao Yunshuo dispatched envoys, and the monarchs of the two countries met in Shuozhou and forged a peace treaty.
Before leaving, Zhao Ye suddenly stopped Xiao Yunshuo and said, "Your Excellency Emperor Dayu, there is a remarkable woman who provided me with food, fodder, and weapons, helping me defeat my brother. This twenty-year peace alliance is something I promised her. She once told me not to reveal this to you, but I agreed to this twenty-year peace alliance not because I was afraid of you, Xiao Yunshuo. Twenty years from now, I will definitely lead my army south again to fight you again!"
Xiao Yunshuo suddenly pulled the reins, and the horse under him neighed and stood up.
"You mean she...?!"
Zhao Ye didn't turn around, but simply waved his hand and said loudly, "She said that this twenty-year alliance is a gift to someone. Tsk! How infuriating!"
In the third year of Tiansheng, six months after signing a peace treaty with the Northern Rong, the Emperor suddenly fell seriously ill, leaving the Imperial Hospital helpless. The Empress Dowager issued an imperial decree, seeking out the most renowned physicians throughout the land. The physician who could cure the Emperor would be rewarded with a promotion and a thousand taels of gold!
All of a sudden, all the famous doctors in the world came to the capital. After numerous rounds of screening, dozens of them entered the palace to diagnose and treat the emperor, but they all returned empty-handed.
Seven days after the imperial edict was announced to the world, late at night.
The lights in the bedroom had been extinguished, and the eunuch who was keeping watch nearby kept his head drooping.
A figure appeared silently beside the bed.
The person who came had a veil on her face and reached out to press on Xiao Yunshuo's wrist on the bed.
Then, her eyes widened in shock.
Suddenly, Xiao Yunshuo grabbed her wrist with his backhand, and then he spun around, pressing her under him.
"You... are pretending to be asleep!" Chen Fenghe whispered.
Xiao Yunshuo had already raised his hand to lift the veil from her face. When he saw the familiar face in his memory, he couldn't help but raise his hand to stroke her cheek.
"I know... you will definitely come, cough cough cough!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Xiao Yunshuo started coughing violently.
The eunuch outside was awakened and quickly knelt down and asked, "Your Majesty, is your Majesty unwell? Do you want to summon the imperial physician?"
Xiao Yunshuo covered his mouth and nose with his hands, raised his voice slightly and said, "It's okay, everyone go down."
The eunuchs withdrew as instructed.
Xiao Yunshuo was about to hide his hand, but was caught by Shen Fenghe in time.
When her fingers touched the sticky touch of his palm, Shen Fenghe's heart was torn as if by a knife.
"Xiao Yunshuo, are you crazy? Are you just trying to lure me out..."
Perhaps due to weakness, he leaned over and hugged her, whispering a smile in her ear, "I can't hide it from you. Don't worry, as long as you take the antidote in time, you won't die. As long as you come to see me, I will take the antidote. It's enough to take the antidote once a year for this poison. Once a year, okay?"
Chen Fenghe burst into tears in an instant.
She suddenly realized how ridiculous and cold-blooded her decision and her so-called persistence were.
She is the dumbest fool in the world!
Xiao Yunshuo laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "Didn't I say it before? I'm not a good person. If I use Chao'er Yu'er or Yichuan Qingxing to threaten you, you'll get angry and hate me. I have no choice but to... threaten you with myself. If... you don't mind..."
Chen Fenghe suddenly punched him hard on the shoulder and said in a trembling voice, "Xiao Yunshuo! You bastard! How could I not care?"
She pulled out a porcelain bottle from her space, took out the pills inside, and said, "Take the antidote immediately. I... will take Chao'er and Yu'er back to the capital. Whenever you want to see me, I will appear."
He gambled with his life, so she was destined to lose miserably.
In the darkness, Xiao Yunshuo's eyes were as bright as the moonlight. His voice trembled as he asked softly, "Is it true?"
Shen Fenghe nodded heavily and said, "It's true."
A month later, a clinic opened in the capital. The manager was a lady who always wore a veil. She heard that her husband was a medicinal herb merchant, so she moved the clinic and pharmacy to the capital because of its cheap location. However, her husband was out collecting and selling medicinal herbs all year round, so the affairs of the household and the clinic were run and maintained by Madam Shen and her twin brother and sister who were only two or three years old.
In addition to seeing patients and selling medicine, Madam Shen also opened a clinic to recruit female disciples and teach them medical skills.
I heard that Shen Qingxing, the third daughter of the Shen family and the former queen's sister, had studied under her for several years and now had superb medical skills, able to diagnose and prescribe medicine for common diseases. Therefore, many families in the capital sent their daughters here to study medicine.
During the years that Shen Yichuan and Shen Qingxing were away from the capital, their publicly announced destination was that they had followed Gu Hongzhi to live in other prefectures and counties.
During the past two years, the Gu family has gradually brought some of their assets from behind the scenes to the front stage, and has gradually become a royal merchant on a scale comparable to that of the old man Gu in the past.
Not long after the clinic opened, Gu Hongzhi moved his family to the capital, so Shen Yichuan and Shen Qingxing also returned to the capital.
The emperor took pity on Shen Yichuan and summoned him to the palace to be the ninth prince's tutor. He also conferred the titles of prince and princess on Shen Yichuan and Shen Qingxing respectively, and granted them a mansion.
However, because Shen Qingxing followed 'Madam Shen' to study medicine, she lived in the clinic most of the time.
At night, the clinic closed and a carriage stopped at the back door.
The man in the cloak quickly entered the courtyard and went to the main house as if he was familiar with the place.
Candles were burning in the room, and two three-year-old children were reading a medical book attentively. When they saw the man come in, they immediately dropped their books and ran over, shouting happily, "Daddy! Daddy!"
Xiao Yunshuo squatted down and hugged the two of them in his arms, and asked with a smile: "Have you been good today? Did you bother your mother?"
The two little ones immediately shook their heads like rattles and said, "No! Mom is pregnant with our little brother, and Chao'er and Yu'er are grown-up children already, so they won't make a fuss!"
"Brother, you're wrong! It's not your brother, it's your sister!"
"No, it must be my brother!"
The two little guys started arguing seriously.
Chen Fenghe's belly was slightly bulging. Hearing this, she said unhappily, "Go wash your hands. Dinner will be served soon. Tonight we have your favorite lamb stew."
After hearing this, the two of them immediately went to wash their hands.
Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "You come here so frequently, it's really embarrassing for Yuan Xu and the others. Why not let them send a message and I will go to the palace."
Xiao Yunshuo put his arm around her waist and said with a smile, "You're not feeling well right now, and Chao'er and Yu'er are still young. They'll be scared if they go to the palace. I'd better run away. Or do you not want to see me?"
Haichao and Yuyin also inherited Chen Fenghe's personal space, which also had the function of teleportation. Moreover, the spaces of the mother and her two children could communicate with each other, so they could enter the palace with her without anyone noticing.
Chen Fenghe glanced at him angrily and said, "I didn't say that."
Xiao Yunshuo placed his hand on her abdomen and said with a smile, "Did the little guy kick you today? Let me hear it."
The last time she was pregnant and gave birth, he missed everything.
This time, he must get involved with this child from the very beginning...
Late at night, Chen Fenghe snuggled in his arms, her eyes quietly tracing his outline.
God was kind to her after all. Xiao Yunshuo had indeed kept his promise and stayed with him for the rest of his life.
However, it was difficult for the ministers in the court. They had to submit many memorials every month to urge Xiao Yunshuo to select concubines and establish a new queen.
However, Xiao Yunshuo simply did not read the reply. The reason he gave was that he had a serious illness that year that damaged the foundation of his body. It was not good for him to do that kind of thing, otherwise the disease would relapse and his life would be in danger.
This is of course nonsense, otherwise where did this baby in her belly come from?
In the ninth year of Tiansheng, Emperor Yuxuan Xiao Yunshuo passed away. As he had no children, he passed the throne to the ninth prince, Xiao Yunhao. Three years later, Xiao Yunhao married and named Shen Qingxing his empress.
In the year of Emperor Yuxuan's death, the clinic was bought by Gu Hongzhi, and was still run by the female disciple handed over by Madam Shen. Madam Shen and her child left the capital with her husband. Afterwards, many people vaguely saw them in the north, Lingnan, or the east...
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