Chapter 60 The Truth (First published on Jinjiang Literature City)
The two walked silently toward the main hall. As the hall came into view, Zhou Xiaoyan suddenly spoke up: "You guessed it, didn't you?"
Fu Mingzi was taken aback, looked at Zhou Xiaoyan's back, and realized that the question was directed at him.
"I've guessed some of it," Fu Mingzi replied cautiously.
He dared not show too much emotion in this matter, because he was also afraid of hurting Zhou Xiaoyan. After all, if he were to follow his own ideas, then the emperor would truly have no fatherly affection for Zhou Xiaoyan whatsoever.
Zhou Xiaoyan suddenly chuckled: "You don't need to do this. I actually knew all along."
Fu Mingzi pursed his lips. He had guessed it too. After all, given Zhou Xiaoyan's prophetic abilities, he must have known this long ago. However, he felt a little sad. Zhou Xiaoyan's situation was truly too tragic.
Zhou Xiaoyan stopped walking, and Fu Mingzi stopped as well.
He did not turn around, but continued to look at the main hall in front of him.
“Do you know?” Zhou Xiaoyan’s tone was slightly dismissive: “When I was very young, my father liked to come to my mother’s place. At that time, my mother was a favored concubine in the palace. I was always proud of that and thought that my father must like me very much.”
At this point, Zhou Xiaoyan gave a bitter smile: "But later I realized that it was all a scam."
“Father doesn’t like me, he likes Fourth Brother. And the person who came to see us isn’t Mother, but Consort Wu.”
“Every day when he came, he would hold me and sit on the warm bed on the west side of the hall, but his eyes would always be looking out the window, just because Consort Wu lived in the side hall on the west side.”
“Every time he came, he would have Zhao Defu call over Fourth Brother and Consort Wu under the pretext of paying his respects. When he looked at Consort Wu, his eyes were full of tenderness, and when he looked at Fourth Brother, his eyes were full of affection. But in the end, he always praised me, and he always praised Mother Consort for being good at raising children, even though I was not as good as Fourth Brother in my studies, and even though my mother Consort did not care about me much.”
"The reason he later turned cold towards his mother was because she saw through his scheme and tormented Consort Wu because of this. He was afraid that if he continued to favor her, he would really harm Consort Wu. So he promoted Consort Luo, who looked similar to his mother, to divert his mother's hatred."
"Later, she even turned Consort Luo into Imperial Concubine Luo, just to take revenge on her mother for tormenting Consort Wu."
"As for me..."
Zhou Xiaoyan finally turned around and looked at Fu Mingzi: "Since I was ten years old, I have never been close to him, nor have I ever been summoned by him. His past care has become my obsession. If I did not know these past events, I might have been overjoyed by his current high regard for me, and even blinded by it, and used by him."
“But now that I know, what do you think I should do?” Zhou Xiaoyan stared intently at Fu Mingzi.
Hearing these words, Fu Mingzi felt extremely heartbroken. He had never seen such an irresponsible and narrow-minded person in his life, and yet such a person had become the emperor.
If you like someone, you should love and protect her properly. But he just likes to set up a target and deliberately neglect the person he loves. This kind of person is extremely selfish and disgusting.
"Of course, we should repay our grudges and settle our scores!" Fu Mingzi said coldly, "Since His Majesty has no fatherly affection for His Highness, why should His Highness care about this fatherly bond?"
“If the father is not a father, then the son is naturally not a son.” Fu Mingzi said bluntly.
Zhou Xiaoyan slightly curled his lips: "Only you could say such treasonous things."
Fu Mingzi smiled nonchalantly: "If I really followed etiquette in everything, why would I need to serve His Highness? I'm afraid he wouldn't be sitting on the throne now."
Zhou Xiaoyan lowered his eyes: "I understand what you mean."
After saying that, he smiled again and said, "Let's go back to the main hall. If we delay any longer, I'm afraid His Highness the Crown Prince will also become suspicious."
At this moment, he seemed to have let go of some burden, and his whole body felt much lighter.
Fu Mingzi didn't know what he was thinking, but she was also relieved that he was happier. She nodded and followed him into the main hall.
**
When they returned, the Crown Prince was talking with a few people, while the Fourth Prince was drinking alone. When he saw the two of them come in, he paused slightly in his hand holding the wine cup, and then smiled at Zhou Xiaoyan and Fu Mingzi as if nothing had happened.
Neither of them paid him much attention and went straight back to their seats.
The Crown Prince glanced at them, then raised his hand to stop the person speaking to him, and said, "It's getting late, you may all leave if you have other matters to attend to."
Those sitting below had wanted to leave for a long time, but seeing that the Crown Prince was still there, they could only stay. Now that the Crown Prince had said it was time to end the event, they naturally wouldn't refuse, so they hurriedly got up to say goodbye.
The crown prince stood on the steps, watching the ministers below leave one after another. Several princes also stood up, but dared not leave with the ministers.
After all the ministers in the hall had left, the Crown Prince slowly looked at Zhou Xiaoyan and said, "Fifth brother, congratulations on being granted a title. It seems that Father still values you highly."
Zhou Xiaoyan lowered his eyes and feigned fear: "Father, you flatter me. I am truly unworthy of such kindness."
The crown prince looked at him quietly, as if trying to see through whether this was the real him or just a disguise.
After looking for a long time without finding any flaws, he could only slowly withdraw his gaze: "Fifth brother is too modest." He said in a light tone.
Zhou Xiaoyan pursed his lips, not daring to speak.
When the Crown Prince looked at the Fourth Prince, his gaze was much calmer than when he looked at the Fifth Prince. After all, the Prince of Chu was not as outrageous as the Prince of Jin.
"My fourth brother is also overjoyed today."
The fourth prince bowed and said calmly, "Your subject dares not."
The Crown Prince smiled and said, "Although you have all been granted the title of king, you are still not married. The day for the selection of consorts has arrived again. I will remind my father that if there are any good ones, he will definitely keep them for you."
The Crown Prince's words served two purposes: firstly, to reprimand them for their illegitimate acquisition of titles, and secondly, to establish his own authority, demonstrating that as the Crown Prince, he could even interfere in the marriages of his brothers.
The fourth prince's expression froze for a moment, then he instantly regained his composure: "Thank you, elder brother."
Zhou Xiaoyan didn't take it seriously at all, but still put on a grateful expression: "Thank you, brother."
The Crown Prince was somewhat satisfied: "Alright, everyone go back now, it's getting late."
Upon hearing this, Fu Mingzi clearly felt the Third Prince beside him breathe a sigh of relief. Indeed, as the Second Prince's lackey, it was fortunate that he hadn't become the Crown Prince's target today.
"Your subject takes his leave." The princes bowed one after another before departing.
When they left the main hall, Wei Baocheng had already returned. He had just gone back to release Xiao Li and clean up the mess he had left behind, so he was a little late in returning.
"Your Highness, it's all taken care of." Wei Baocheng hurriedly stepped forward to bow when he saw Zhou Xiaoyan come out, his voice very low.
Fu Mingzi glanced at Wei Baocheng. The bruise on his face had disappeared, as if it had been covered up with powder. This man was indeed careful and cautious.
"Let's go." Zhou Xiaoyan didn't seem to care and waved his hand dismissively.
The Fourth Prince stood by the door, watching Zhou Xiaoyan and the others walk away. He frowned slightly. Where was Little Li? Had he failed?
The fourth prince was filled with complex emotions, but at this moment the sixth prince came up to him: "Fourth brother, Father is too biased towards the fifth prince. Why was he made the Prince of Jin? Does he think that writing about strange and ingenious skills is so appealing?"
These words struck a nerve with the Fourth Prince, who grew impatient: "Sixth Prince, stop saying such things. If you envy Fifth Prince's success, you should learn from him. What are you doing always gossiping behind people's backs?"
The sixth prince's face turned bright red, but he dared not say anything more. Although he came from a good family, he was weak-willed and dared not argue with people. Otherwise, he would not have spoken ill of others behind their backs.
After saying this, the Fourth Prince realized his mistake and quickly reassured him, "It's not that your Fourth Brother is criticizing you, I'm just doing this for your own good. Now that things are settled, if you say anything more, people will think you are dissatisfied with Father. Sixth Brother, your Fourth Brother is in a bad situation right now and there's not much I can do to help you. You have to fight for it yourself."
Upon hearing this, the sixth prince's initial anger immediately turned into gratitude: "Fourth brother, it was my fault."
The Fourth Prince looked at the Sixth Prince with a hint of disdain in his eyes. What a fool.
"Sixth Brother, there's no need for that. Only when we brothers are of one mind can we achieve great things. We must always remember this principle," the Fourth Prince said gently.
The sixth prince nodded emphatically, deciding that he should also take a good look at those books about carving, perhaps he could win his father's favor.
Regardless of what wrong path the Fourth Prince had led the Sixth Prince down, he still needed to quickly ascertain what had happened to Little Li.
**
By this time, Fu Mingzi and Zhou Xiaoyan had already walked quite a distance. Fu Mingzi turned back to look in the direction of the Fourth Prince and couldn't help but ask, "Your Highness, does the Fourth Prince know His Majesty's thoughts?"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Xiaoyan's eyes flashed with disdain: "Of course he doesn't know, but given his personality, even if he did, he would hate Father Emperor."
Fu Mingzi smiled and said, "You can't blame the Fourth Prince for this. His Majesty's skill in doing this kind of thing is to please neither side."
Wei Baocheng listened with trepidation, cold sweat breaking out on his brow. What were these two talking about, that they even brought up the emperor?
However, he was smart enough not to ask any more questions. He just slowed down a few steps and moved further away from Zhou Xiaoyan and Fu Mingzi, because whatever they were saying was something he couldn't bear to hear.
Fu Mingzi noticed Wei Baocheng's movement, chuckled, and whispered, "This Eunuch Wei is quite sensible."
Zhou Xiaoyan glanced at him sideways: "He's always been like this."
He was the one who conspired with Fu Mingzi to take the place of someone else, and as soon as the deed was done, he took his own life, ostensibly sacrificing himself for his master. Even though I was reborn and returned to the present, I couldn't be angry at his self-destructive actions.
Fu Mingzi was unaware of these intricacies and simply said, "I roughly know what His Majesty is thinking now, but I wonder if the Empress, Consort Luo, and the Crown Prince know?"
Fu Mingzi also thought of Fu Yunjia's dream in which the Empress and Consort Luo conspired to kill the Crown Prince. Now that she thought about it, could it be that the Emperor did it and then framed the Empress and Consort Luo to remove all obstacles for his beloved Fourth Prince?
The moment this thought crossed Fu Mingzi's mind, a cold sweat broke out on his back. If it were true, the emperor was indeed ruthless.
“I don’t know about the Empress. Since Consort Luo has been Father’s bedmate for so many years, she should know. As for my elder brother…” Zhou Xiaoyan hesitated for a moment: “He probably doesn’t know at the moment.”
When Fu Mingzi found out later, her heart skipped a beat. Perhaps the reason why the Crown Prince died was because he understood this point and it was very possible that he had turned against the Emperor.
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Author's note: Sorry for being a little late~
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