Chapter 396 That’s Really Pitiful
"That wizard was quite skilled after all. He was able to prove with a single test of a poisonous insect that Lao Deng was the late emperor's child. He then secretly killed the woman on the way back to the imperial city with her and her child."
The little girl held Buruo's hand and looked up and asked, "Doesn't Old Deng hate the late emperor very much? He killed his own mother who raised him for five years."
"If it were Bu Bu, anyone who dared to hurt my mother would be reduced to ashes and die a miserable death."
Bu Ruo touched the little chirp on the little girl's head and shook her head: "Not every child loves their mother as much as Bu Bu does."
"Old Deng was five years old at the time and understood things. He had witnessed his mother secretly entertaining guests at home to make a living, and he had also heard other people outside whispering about them. So he hated his mother very early on."
"But he never thought about where the clothes he wore, which were better than others, and the fish and meat he had for his three meals a day came from, or where the toys and candies he cried for came from. He only knew that he was being told what to do because of his mother."
"So, one night on the way back to the Imperial City, he saw with his own eyes the wizard secretly put medicine into his mother's water bag without telling her. As a result, his mother slowly passed away with symptoms of a serious illness a few days later."
"What he doesn't know is that although his mother did give birth to him because he was a dragon seed, and she had thought of relying on him to enter the palace and live a good life in the future, but in the five years she raised him and watched him grow up little by little, his mother really loved him."
"Furthermore, the day before he left for the Imperial City, his mother had secretly purchased a deadly poison. She was just waiting to see him safely settled in the palace before she took the poison and committed suicide. She was afraid that her status would have a negative impact on his future."
"But this old Deng, at such a young age, watched his mother die in front of him and remained indifferent, even relieved. It's really..."
Guo Lu looked at the palace servants running around busy putting out the fire and continued to ask, "Then how did he become the emperor? Could the ancestors bless such a selfish and heartless person?"
Bu Ruo chuckled: "Perhaps their ancestors in Beining were also quite helpless."
"Old Deng was already five years old when he was brought into the palace. Although his mother had enrolled him in a school, how could the teachings in schools outside the palace be the same? Moreover, his aptitude was the worst compared to the other two princes, even inferior to the princess who was only half a month older than him."
"But he was lucky... The eldest prince was born to the late emperor's empress, a legitimate son. However, when the empress was pregnant, she was assassinated due to a harem feud for favor. As a result, the eldest prince was born weak. Although intelligent and righteous, he still died at the age of nine from a lack of food."
"The Second Prince wasn't interested in those things; he just loved wielding swords and spears. He went to the battlefield at the age of eight, and at the age of twelve, he was seriously injured and sent back to the palace for treatment."
"At the time, ten-year-old Lao Deng already had aspirations for the throne. He secretly replaced the medicine the imperial physician was using for the Second Prince's injuries, which ultimately led to the Second Prince suffering from a persistent high fever and becoming an idiot."
The little girl nodded her head. "So that's how it is. No wonder Mom said that Old Deng has both luck and means."
"If the eldest prince hadn't been born with a deficiency, with his intelligence, he wouldn't have allowed Old Deng to harm him. The second prince holds military power, and if it weren't for Old Deng's assassination, he wouldn't have become an idiot. If either of these two hadn't been harmed, Old Deng wouldn't have been able to sit on the throne of Beining."
"What happened next? Did the late emperor have no other heirs but him?"
Bu Ruo sighed: "How could there not be..."
"The Second Prince's mother was also a noble concubine at the time. After the Second Prince became an idiot, she held a flower viewing banquet and collected many toys that children loved from the public. She invited the concubines to bring the princes and princesses to the banquet."
"Because it was summer, she sprinkled colorless and odorless poison into the mosquito repellent incense burners in every corner of the Imperial Garden. She also poisoned the tea to prevent any fish from slipping through the net."
"After the flower-viewing banquet, almost all the princes, princesses, and concubines were poisoned. Only Lao Deng, who had been punished by his teacher to copy books because he was not good at his studies and had no mother, and several young princesses who also had no mother, survived."
"Speaking of which, the Imperial Concubine was quite scheming. When she saw the poison was about to take effect, she invited everyone back to her palace, claiming the weather was too hot. Before the Imperial Physician arrived, she stabbed everyone who hadn't died immediately after the poison took effect. Then, looking at the corpses scattered across the ground, she laughed and drank the poisoned wine she had prepared."
Guo Lu opened her mouth wide: "Her son just became an idiot, how could she..."
Bu Ruo sighed again: "The reason she held the flower viewing banquet was because she had learned of her son's death."
"When the late emperor saw that the second prince had become an idiot, he sent him to the mountains to recuperate. At that time, there was a famine, and the victims, knowing that the prince was recuperating in the temple, took him hostage in exchange for some food."
"But at that time, the situation in Beining was even worse than it is now. There was no extra food to distribute to them. The late emperor personally went to comfort them, but when that failed... he ordered the killing of all the victims. Among them was the Second Prince, who had become an idiot. He personally shot him to death with a single arrow."
Guo Lu looked at Buruo in shock: "Master, are you saying...the late emperor...killed his own son with his own hands?"
"That's right." Bu Ruo nodded. "So after the imperial concubine learned the news, she killed almost all of the late emperor's concubines and princes and princesses before his return, just to avenge the late emperor and her son."
"When the late emperor learned of this on his way back to the imperial city, he vomited blood. After returning to the palace, he forcibly taught Old Deng the art of governing for six months before passing away."
"So... it's not that the late Emperor of Beining was optimistic about Old Deng, but rather that given his frail body and limited time, he only had Old Deng as a living prince."
"The founding ancestor of Beining overthrew the previous dynasty because he saved the people from disaster. Even his descendants were quite good and accumulated some merit."
"But the Beining royal family has been doomed to fail over time. Even with the protection of their ancestors' merits and virtues, this generation is still doomed to extinction."
The little girl sighed, not knowing what she was thinking. "Mother, can we not let my brother become the emperor? In the future, we can just let him adopt someone from the side branches. Otherwise, after he dies, we can merge the Great Zhou with Nanxia and give it to Second Uncle. Second Uncle will treat the people of the Great Zhou well."
"Oh, Bubu is really afraid that my brother will choose to become the emperor in the end. Not only will I have to worry about it, but in the end, his wife, son, and daughter will die. That would be too pitiful."
Bu Ruo: ...
Guo Lu: …
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