Su Rong realized, so her mother had fallen in love with her biological father later, that was not a strange thing indeed.
Perhaps because the most difficult part of the story had been told, Xie Yuan became more relaxed and began to recount the past to Su Rong, "Your mother had agreed to marry the Nanchu Crown Prince for the sake of Daliang. Later, when Dawei proposed a marriage alliance, the late Emperor wanted to continue the war, and the current Emperor shared his sentiment. However, your mother secretly asked the Nanchu Crown Prince for help. He was initially furious, but after your mother stayed in Nanchu for three months, he agreed. When she returned to Daliang and traveled to Dawei for the marriage, she discovered she was pregnant. She had to pretend to be dead to escape, otherwise, she could not have saved you."
Su Rong had heard these from wet nurse Zhao, and nodded, "The Nanchu Crown Prince back then is the current Nanchu King, isn’t he?"
"Yes."
Su Rong was confused, "Isn’t it said that the Nanchu King cannot father a child? I heard that he still has no children, and Nanchu has been considering letting the Nanchu King adopt a successor from the royal family, hasn’t it?"
Xie Yuan shook his head, "I don’t know what exactly happened, but you’re definitely the child of the Nanchu King. Your mother was chaste and only had relationship with the Nanchu King."
Su Rong was puzzled, "Uncle Xie, are you sure?" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Xie Yuan glared, "Your mother said so herself, could she be lying? If your mother had to lie, she wouldn’t lie to me."
"Alright, alright, I understand. My mother trusted you most." Su Rong surrendered, "That really is strange. Did the Nanchu King suffer an injury that affected his ability to father children? Otherwise, with so many women in the Nanchu Royal Palace, why hasn’t anyone else had a child with him?"
Wet nurse Zhao remembered a speculation the Empress Dowager had once mentioned, "Maybe it was because of the death of Princess Zhenmin, the Nanchu King was heartbroken and didn’t want to be intimate with other women? It is said that the Nanchu Imperial Harem has been vacant. But whether it is true or just a rumor, we can’t be sure."
Su Rong was silent, "Is that possible?"
Wet nurse Zhao, with her rich experience, "It’s not impossible. Back then, the Nanchu Crown Prince was very fond of the Princess. If he couldn’t truly move the Princess’s heart, she wouldn’t have agreed to..."
She left her words unfinished. After all, before the Princess sought help from the Nanchu Crown Prince to avoid the extinction of Daliang, Princess Zhenmin was in love with Xie Yuan.
Su Rong turned to Xie Yuan after understanding wet nurse Zhao’s implication, and followed her logic, "If it’s true that he has kept his harem vacant for my mother, it’s not surprising that the Nanchu Queen has harbored so much resentment that she resolutely sent assassins to kill me, no matter how far away or how long it took. As the only child of the Nanchu King, the Nanchu Queen must hate him and my mother so much that she vented her anger towards me and won’t stop until she kills me."
She was puzzled, "Did the Nanchu King believe that my mother was dead back then? Didn’t he investigate?"
"Upon hearing the news of your mother’s death in Dawei, the Nanchu King fell into extreme grief. He fell ill and was bedridden for three months. The Nanchu court suspended all court sessions for three months." Xie Yuan said with complex feelings. "It’s commendable of him to believe that your mother had feelings for him and that she gave birth to you despite all the risks."
Su Rong snorted, "He was so foolish. Even his Queen knew my mother wasn’t dead, yet he had no clue all along."
"A proverb says that the one who is in the affair is confused, while the onlooker is clear. Perhaps when a man is in deep sorrow, he loses his judgement and becomes lost." Xie Yuan did understand the Nanchu King, "Moreover, your mother deliberately led him to believe she was dead. Before her staged death, she sent him a suicide note."
Su Rong was more perplexed now, "Why couldn’t my mother hide her real identity and stay with the Nanchu King after faking her death?"
Xie Yuan shook his head, "Your mother’s faked death was beneficial for Daliang. Dawei was greatly disadvantaged and then conceded many advantages. If your mother had really gone to the Nanchu King, any leaked information could have jeopardized Nanchu. After all, Nanchu still had the Nangong Family, which had provided two generations of queens and wielded immense power as in-laws. No matter what, they could never have hidden this from the Nangong Family. Therefore, your mother couldn’t go."
Su Rong understood. If she hadn’t thought about everything when she saw Zhou Gu off this morning, and hadn’t heard what Xie Yuan just said, she would probably just scoff at the situation. But now, she felt it was quite understandable, "For the sake of someone’s well-being, it is best to stay away from them."
She felt melancholic, "Sure enough, my mother and I are truly mother and daughter."
Listening to her words, Xie Yuan, sensing a hidden meaning, thought for a moment and vaguely grasped Su Rong’s thoughts. He asked her, "You visited Zhou Gu outside the city today. What did he say before he left? What are you planning?"
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