Chapter 172 Dirty Origin
Was it... to save the Fourth Prince?
If Concubine Zhen hadn't come, wouldn't he have died when he fainted that day? Was it
because of his obsession with the Fourth Prince and his obsession with finding a good destination for the Fourth Prince that made him travel through time and space and bring Concubine Zhen here?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was the case.
If it weren't for him, Concubine Zhen would have been killed by the small box that day. If it weren't for Concubine Zhen, he would have died in this deep palace without warmth.
They redeemed each other.
Qian Sheng was old and had heard all kinds of weird ghost stories, so he was not afraid.
Instead, he was glad...
that he was still alive, so that nothing would happen to the Fourth Prince.
"Your Majesty, Eunuch Sheng has woken up and said he wants to bring the Fourth Prince to thank you."
Emperor Xuanwu paused while drinking water, and then
he remembered that he still had a son with Concubine Zhen. Jiang Xinyue saw that he hadn't remembered the Fourth Prince at all, and stepped over: "Your Majesty, is he here today also for the Fourth Prince's matter?"
Emperor Xuanwu cleared his throat, raised his hand to cover his lips with a guilty conscience, and replied vaguely: "Yes."
"In that case, Xi Que, summon them in."
Qian Sheng led the cute Fourth Prince over. Although the two had only lived in Hexi Palace for less than three days, their spirits were completely different. Qian Sheng
was not mentioned. He had just recovered from a serious illness, his face was still a little pale, and he was so thin that he couldn't even hold up his clothes, and he walked a little lightly.
The fourth prince has really changed.
His white and tender little face is tinged with pink, and his delicate features are becoming brighter. When he smiles at Jiang Xinyue, his big eyes are curved into crescents, so cute that people want to pinch his fat.
Wang Dequan looked at the emperor, and then at the fourth prince. Isn't this a replica of the little emperor?
When he was bullied before, he was dirty. Although he looks like the emperor, he is not so identical.
Even the emperor was shocked by the fourth prince.
Jiang Xinyue had seen the little emperor's face in her dream. She waved to the Fourth Prince: "Come to Empress Zhen."
The Fourth Prince ran over happily at first, but when the Emperor was worried that he would bump into Jiang Xinyue's belly, he slowed down, walked to the chair, and called softly: "Empress Zhen~"
Jiang Xinyue's heart melted, and she kissed him on the forehead and rubbed his cheeks: "So good."
The Fourth Prince blushed and turned away embarrassedly.
Emperor Xuanwu coughed twice, and Jiang Xinyue whispered something in the Fourth Prince's ear. He walked towards the Emperor with admiration, climbed onto his lap while the Emperor was at a loss, then hugged him and gave him a kiss on the face: "Empress Zhen said you are my father, are you? Grandfather said that fathers are adults who will protect children, will you protect me?"
His delicate neck was wrapped in a collar, but the purple to black squeeze marks and the scabbed scars from knife scratches were still exposed during the movement.
The Emperor frowned and pulled open his collar. The Fourth Prince shrank back and did not dare to move. Soon Emperor Xuanwu saw the bruises on his back and chest.
Although he knew that his life would be difficult, he did not expect it to be so difficult.
The birth mother of the fourth prince, Zhou Yile, was a descendant of the previous Emperor Zhou. If the Zhou Dynasty had not perished, she would have at least been a princess.
But the Zhou Dynasty perished, and Zhou Yile's ancestors were sold into slavery in the Jiaofangsi and the Ye Ting.
Zhou Yile bribed the manager of the Jiaofangsi and was sent to the palace to be a maid.
She probably learned about her life experience from somewhere and wanted to enter the palace to kill the emperor for revenge.
But how could she, a weak woman with no power, kill the emperor?
She couldn't even get close to the man.
Thinking that she was somewhat beautiful, she handed over all her savings and bribed the eunuchs around the emperor to reveal the whereabouts of Emperor Xuanwu to her.
Hard work pays off. After a year and a half of painstaking planning, she finally got a chance to drug the emperor.
But she didn't expect that the emperor was poisoned that night and was extremely fierce. She was tortured to the point that she had no strength at all, let alone assassinating the emperor.
The next day, her drugging of the emperor was exposed, and the emperor had her taken to Yongxiang.
Yongxiang is a place more cruel than the cold palace and the Xinzheku.
To make matters worse, it wasn't long before Zhou Yile found out that she was pregnant with the emperor's child.
The palace people in Yongxiang were worried that the little prince would be held accountable for his death in Yongxiang, so they reported the matter.
The emperor hated the remnants of the previous dynasty who had framed him, but she was pregnant, so she could only leave the matter to the queen.
Empress Zhu placed him in a remote palace near the cold palace. Zhou Yile never saw the emperor again until his death.
The emperor didn't know whether he forgot or really didn't care. He had never even seen the fourth prince from birth to now, let alone give him any good treatment.
Qian Sheng had received favors from Zhou Yile's father in his early years. In order to repay the favor, he stayed with the fourth prince and shouldered the responsibility of protecting him.
He looked at the emperor's slightly distressed eyes, and his heart was very calm. What had he done before? Now that Concubine Zhen had saved the fourth prince, why did he show this expression?
Emperor Xuanwu smiled at the frightened Fourth Prince: "Your grandfather is right, I am your father."
He had no right to ask the Fourth Prince not to call a concubine "ancestor", although it was very unconventional, but he knew that during the five years of his absence, Qian Sheng was the Fourth Prince's only spiritual sustenance.
"You are my father, then Concubine Zhen must be my mother!"
He squinted his eyes happily again, shaking his head on Emperor Xuanwu's lap, looking proud and smart.
Emperor Xuanwu looked at Jiang Xinyue, and his fatherly mentality was overflowing. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should tell him that Concubine Zhen was not his mother.
"Please forgive me, Concubine Zhen..."
Qian Sheng knelt on the ground in a hurry: "Since the Fourth Prince was young..."
He choked up and said, "Except for me, he has never been truly loved by anyone. So when Concubine Zhen treats him well, he thinks that you are his mother. The Fourth Prince is still young and he doesn't understand anything. I beg the Emperor and Concubine Zhen to give him a chance to live!"
He is already over fifty years old and has only a few years left to live, but the Fourth Prince still has a good time and cannot be trampled under the feet of a bunch of slaves and bullied.
Seeing this, Jiang Xinyue shed tears: "Your Majesty, I...I like the Fourth Prince very much, can you let me raise him?"
The Fourth Prince was born in a humble family and had a dirty background. The fact that he has the blood of the Zhou Dynasty in his body has doomed him to have no chance of becoming an emperor.
This is why none of the concubines in the harem are willing to adopt him.
Not only can he not be a helper, but he may even be a drag on himself in the future. Only
a fool would be willing to adopt him.
Concubine Zhen is that fool.