Chapter 72 Ending
Hearing Yuan Zhao's heart-wrenching cry, Chan Zhen also started to have a headache.
"Zhao'er, be good and don't cry." She coaxed Yuan Zhao softly, glancing at the man with a dark face.
Chen Dingyao knew that she wanted him to leave, and he felt very uncomfortable, but he still turned around as she wished.
Without that burning gaze, Chan Zhen felt relieved to undress and feed Yuan Zhao. Perhaps because he was so hungry, Yuan Zhao's strength was a bit too much, causing her to groan softly in pain.
"Did he hurt you?" asked the man with his back to her.
Zen Zhen said coldly: "What does it have to do with Your Majesty?"
While gently patting Yuan Zhao's back, Yuan Zhao felt his mother's comfort and his movements became lighter.
The man said, "You are my queen, how can it have nothing to do with me?"
"Your Majesty, why do you have to deceive yourself?" Zen Zhen laughed in anger. "Do you think you can tie me down just by being your queen? I've never wanted to be your queen."
"But you are already my queen. We have prayed to heaven and earth and reported to the imperial court. Everyone in the world knows that you are my queen and my wife." Chen Dingyao was glad that he had facilitated all this before she recovered her memory. Even if she denied it now, it was an irrefutable fact in the history books.
Chan Zhen recalled the surprise he felt when he received the edict to establish the queen, but now he can no longer find that feeling.
When Yuan Zhao had almost finished drinking and gradually fell asleep in her arms, she carefully put Yuan Zhao down, stood up and said to him, "Let's change places."
She didn't want to argue with him in front of Yuan Zhao, even though Yuan Zhao didn't understand at all at this time.
Chan Zhen called Lu Zhu and the wet nurse to come in and take care of Yuan Zhao, and he went with him to the side hall on the other side.
The candlelight flickered, and the shadows cast by the roof fell on the faces of the two people.
"Your Majesty, I can no longer love you." She told him directly.
His eyes suddenly turned red, and he stepped forward to hold her shoulders, so hard that she couldn't help but take a step back.
"Why?" he asked in a low voice, his dark eyes fixed on her. "Haven't I treated you well enough? Or are you worried about me? Then I will immediately issue an edict to make Yuan Zhao the crown prince. Is that enough?"
"What are you crazy about?" Zenzhen tried to push him but failed. "Zhao'er was just born."
She just wanted Zhao'er to grow up safely, but she had no such ambition for the throne.
"I'm crazy?" He suddenly laughed and said to himself, "I am indeed crazy. I have been crazy for two lifetimes."
Because of his memories of this life, Zen Zhen always thought that no matter what he did, he would be infinitely tolerant, so he spoke coldly to him without fear. Seeing his current appearance, he felt a little uneasy.
"Why won't you love me?" He loved me so deeply that a hint of hatred almost formed in his eyes. "I've risked my dignity and even my life for you. I'm willing to offer you the best in the world, but why won't you love me?"
He tried every means possible, but one life was not enough, so he exchanged his life for another life. It was obvious that he had already obtained it in this life, but she cruelly took it back.
"Why, Chanzhen?" He shook her shoulders and asked through gritted teeth, "What else do you want me to do? You tell me, I'll do whatever you say."
Zen Zhen's heart inexplicably tightened, and his eyes felt sore and about to cry.
But she held back and looked at him calmly: "Your Majesty, you can't get everything you want."
"But I am the Son of Heaven. There shouldn't be anything in this world that I can't get," he said firmly.
"You are just obsessed with it," Zen Zhen endured the pain in his heart, "It's been two lifetimes. I am in pain. I don't want to love you anymore."
With such an ordinary background, she shouldn't have been involved in the fight between the father and son.
"I am in more pain than you!" he growled.
Ever since he realized his feelings for her, he had been awakened from his dreams countless nights by the curses of his ancestors and subjects. He had been proud, conceited, and arrogant for more than thirty years, but he had fallen because of her and ruined his entire reputation.
But what does it matter? Even if he knew the road ahead was an abyss, he still wanted to love her.
If he couldn't get her love in this life, he would rather give up his life and ask for it in the next life.
"Do you hate me?"
He suddenly pulled out a golden hairpin from Chan Zhen's head and handed it to her amid Chan Zhen's exclamation.
"I know that I was sorry to you in my previous life, so I will give you another life as compensation." He held Chan Zhen's wrist tightly and stabbed the golden hairpin towards his chest.
"No!" Zen Zhen resisted desperately, and finally changed direction when the golden hairpin was about to pierce his chest, and in the end only left a scratch on his clothes.
Zen Zhen was breathing heavily with lingering fear, and he threw the golden hairpin in his hand away as if his palm was burned, and two lines of tears flowed unconsciously from his eyes.
"You are reluctant to kill me?" His eyes showed surprise, "You still love me!"
Chan Zhen slowly raised her head, her heart still pounding. She looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar man before her, and finally, unable to resist, she raised her right hand.
"Bang!" Zen Zhen collapsed in tears, "You are hopelessly crazy!"
Chen Dingyao slowly turned his face back, and looked at her breaking down and crying, his eyes became even darker.
"This is the first time you've attacked me." No matter how much she hated him in her previous life, she only mocked him with words.
Zen Zhen suddenly came to his senses and realized that he had just done something extremely unacceptable.
"Your Majesty, are you going to punish me?" She hid her numb right hand behind her back.
Chen Dingyao noticed her movements and asked softly, "Does your hand hurt?"
Zen didn't expect him to ask that, so he frowned and didn't answer.
"My face hurts." His biological mother was the queen, and he was also very outstanding among his brothers. He had never suffered such injustice since he was a child.
Zen Zhen said angrily, "That's what you deserve."
If she had reacted any slower, the golden hairpin would have pierced his heart, and she could not bear the crime of murdering the emperor.
"Did this slap, Chan Zhen, calm you down?" He was older than her and had done many things to wrong her, so it was time for her to let go of her anger. "If it's not enough, hit me a few more times."
Zen Zhen was troubled by him and said, "Your Majesty, please give up."
"I don't love you," Zenzhen shook his head with tears in his eyes, not knowing whether he was trying to convince him or himself, "I don't want to love you anymore."
"What should I do then?" he pressed her. "You promised to be with me forever. You can't leave me halfway."
"I regret this!" Zen Zhen glared at him, "I don't want you anymore!"
The next moment, he suddenly grabbed her waist tightly and pressed her onto the table behind her. He then showered her with kisses like a storm.
He bit her lips madly, and held her tightly with his arms, as if he wanted to merge her into his bones and blood, so that she could become one with him and never be separated from him in this life.
Chan Zhen seemed to have returned to the absurd three months of darkness in the Zichen Palace in his previous life. Hatred welled up in his heart and he bit his lips hard.
He groaned, and the smell of blood spread between their lips and teeth. However, even so, he was unwilling to let her go. Instead, he hooked her tongue and went deeper.
The candlelight flickered, and the intertwined shadows of the two merged into one on the wall.
His hand lifted her dress from the bottom, but suddenly stopped when it touched her legs.
He released her lips, their ragged breaths mingling at such close proximity. He knew he had just lost control, and Chan Zhen's face, as expected, was filled with resentment towards him.
"Your Majesty, why don't you continue to force it?" Zen Zhen sneered.
Sure enough, after another life, he still couldn't change his nature. The gentleness and tolerance he showed in front of her before was just a disguise to deceive her into opening up to him.
He said softly, "Zhenzhen, please don't force me."
"Your Majesty, you are forcing me!" Zen Zhen couldn't stop hating me. "I don't want to love you, what's wrong with me?"
Why must she have to live under his oppression in her past and present lives?
"I love you, what's wrong with me?" he asked back.
Zen Zhen looked at him coldly: "Your love for me is wrong in itself."
He took a breath, then suddenly chuckled and said, "I'd rather be wrong to the end."
"But I don't want to make mistakes with you any more." Zen Zhen picked up the golden hairpin that had fallen to the ground and, with a terrified look on his face, pointed the tip at his neck. "Your Majesty, if you don't want to drive me to death again, then go back."
"Are you threatening me with your life?" Dark waves surged in his eyes.
Zen Zhen was fearless: "Then Your Majesty, are you afraid of my threat?"
After a long stalemate, he finally took a step back.
"You win," he tried to raise his lips several times but couldn't do it. In the end, he could only wave his sleeves and turn away. "I won't disturb your peace again."
After he left, Zen Zhen lost all his strength and collapsed limply to the ground.
"Your Majesty!" Lu Zhu saw His Majesty leave the palace in anger for the first time. She rushed into the house in panic to look for her. When she saw her collapsed on the ground, crying silently, she quickly took her in her arms. "Why are you crying?"
Zenzhen looked up at her in despair, and suddenly cried out "Wow" and threw himself on her shoulder.
Lu Zhu originally had many things she wanted to ask, but since she was crying so hard, she swallowed all the words back into her stomach and just tried to comfort her: "Don't cry, Madam. Your crying makes me feel so sad."
Zen Zhen cried until his voice was hoarse, and his heart felt as if a piece was missing, empty.
It was over. From now on, she would no longer suffer from the memories of her past and present lives, nor would she be forced by him anymore.
She showed an expression that seemed to be half crying and half laughing: "I have finally broken up with His Majesty."
Upon hearing this, Luzhu was shocked.
…
After Yuan Zhao's third-day bathing ceremony, Chan Zhen began to stay in the palace on the pretext of illness and refused to see any outsiders. He even handed over all the power in the palace to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and concentrated on raising his children in Fengqi Palace.
When everyone heard the news, they thought that the Queen was injured during childbirth and needed to rest. However, they did not expect that His Majesty, who had always loved the Queen so much, had not visited Fengqi Palace once after the Queen claimed to be ill. For a while, the news that the Queen had fallen out of favor spread like wildfire.
The concubines in the harem, whose fighting spirit had been suppressed to the point of being dulled, finally became restless again. However, due to past precedents, only a few of them were brave enough to take action.
Guo Kai entered the palace for the third time and reported: "Your Majesty, Yang Cairen requests to see you outside the palace."
Chen Dingyao was absorbed in government affairs, and without even raising his head, he said impatiently, "You are interfering with government affairs. Drag him down and demote him to a commoner."
"I obey your command." Guo Kai wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Even in such a hot day, he was still trembling with fear while serving, fearing that he might lose his life one day by accident.
Everyone in Fengqi Palace breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the news. It seemed that although His Majesty had a conflict with the Empress, he still cared about the Empress.
Chan Zhen just rocked Yuan Zhao's cradle gently, seeming oblivious to all this.
It was not until the day before Yuan Zhao's full moon banquet that Guo Kai came to Fengqi Palace with the imperial edict.
"...Chen Yuanzhao, the legitimate son of the Empress, is gifted with intelligence and a gentle disposition, the ideal choice of all. I hereby appoint him Crown Prince, to be announced to the world and to establish the foundation of the nation. I decree this!"
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