A congratulatory gift?
The Empress Dowager had a gut feeling that this was not a good thing.
She dug her nails into her already injured palms and said with suppressed anger, "Qianhua Palace has already sent birthday gifts. I am not greedy and do not need you to send them again."
"This is not up to the Empress Dowager."
The Ninth Prince coldly said into the air, "Bring the person here."
A man dressed in black, his face veiled by a dark mist, quietly landed with someone in his arms.
He was a teenager.
He was thin and frail, with a sallow complexion and average appearance. He had a light stubble on his chin, wore coarse clothes, and had a timid look in his eyes.
Standing inside the main hall, the boy trembled with fear and asked, "Where...where is this?"
During puberty, a person's voice can be rough, even harsh, and not very pleasant to hear.
He opened his eyes wide and looked around at his surroundings in fear.
The room was so big and beautiful, and the people standing in front of him were dressed in gorgeous and beautiful clothes.
His gaze fell on the Ninth Prince's face, filled with both fear and envy.
How can there be such a good-looking person in the world?
etc……
The little girl in the man's arms was looking at her with big, bright eyes, full of curiosity.
She has very fair skin and a delicate complexion.
He had never seen such a beautiful little girl in all his life...
Seeing that the young man was staring at Yuan Yao, the Ninth Prince turned his body slightly.
He used his wide sleeves to cover Yuan Yao with displeasure, and asked coldly, "Tell me, what's your name?"
The cold, indifferent voice startled the boy, making him tremble.
He tugged at the slightly short hem of his coarse cloth coat and timidly began, "My name is Yin Cai, but the people in the village all call me A-Cai..."
Yin Cai?
Yin?
Upon hearing this surname, the Empress Dowager seemed to have thought of something, and her eyes widened suddenly.
Yin was the surname of the man she deeply loved...
Her face was pale, and her lips, painted with red lipstick, trembled violently: "Who...who are your parents?"
When Yin Cai saw the extremely beautiful old lady suddenly change her expression, he was so frightened that he immediately knelt on the ground and said in a tearful voice, "I...I have no father or mother, I am an orphan..."
Orphaned and surnamed Yin?
The Empress Dowager took a deep breath and collapsed onto the chaise longue.
She gripped the handkerchief tightly in her hand, biting her lips so hard they were almost bleeding.
After a long while, the Empress Dowager finally spoke with difficulty: "You... come forward and let me take a look at you."
My dear wife?
I heard from the people in Zhuangzi that in the Great Qi Kingdom, there can only be one person who can be called "Aijia" (哀家).
This beautiful old lady is the Empress Dowager!
Yin Cai was so frightened that he kept kowtowing, his words slurred: "This humble subject...pays respects to Your Majesty the Empress Dowager..."
"Get up!" The Empress Dowager raised her voice, almost cracking, "Come forward!"
Yin Cai was so frightened that his face turned pale, but he still stood up and walked towards the Empress Dowager in fear.
He lowered his head, staring at his toes, not daring to straighten his back, let alone look up at the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager's lips trembled: "Raise your head and let me see you!"
Yin Cai mustered up a great deal of courage before he looked up.
Those features, that appearance...
The Empress Dowager suddenly stood up.
"Splash..."
The Empress Dowager's wide, ornate sleeves swept across the tea table.
Teacups and tea bowls all fell to the ground, splashing tea and broken porcelain shards everywhere.
The Empress Dowager's reaction was far too intense.
Yuan Yao tugged at the sleeve of the Ninth Prince and looked at the face of the boy named Yin Cai.
Could it be...?
A thought flashed through her mind.
However, she quickly shook her head, rejecting the idea.
Beside her, the emperor spoke first: "A-Yuan, this young man, could he be...?"
The emperor was utterly shocked.
The Ninth Prince nodded: "That's right."
Yuan Yao: "?"
According to Your Excellency, this young man is indeed the Empress Dowager's child?
But wasn't it said that the Empress Dowager had a miscarriage back then?
The emperor was equally surprised.
As he scrutinized the boy, the emperor said, "I remember you said back then that the child couldn't be raised..."
The Ninth Prince coldly replied, "If you pamper them, they certainly won't survive. But if you raise them poorly, they'll grow up, won't they?"
Raising a child poorly?
Yuan Yao's gaze fell on Yin Cai.
The boy looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old.
In the capital, the young masters of high-ranking officials and noble families, at this age, are studying and practicing martial arts at the Imperial Academy...
Yin Cai, though not short, looked malnourished by his complexion.
They certainly don't look like they were raised in a wealthy family...
At this moment, the Empress Dowager asked Yin Cai in a trembling voice, "What year and month were you born?"
Yin Cai said timidly, "The fifteenth of the seventh month in the second year of Yong'an."
The second year of Yong'an?
Now, it is the fourteenth year of Yong'an...
The Empress Dowager leaned against the chaise longue, almost forgetting to breathe.
She stammered, "It matches, it matches..."
In the early years of Yong'an, amidst the loneliness of the deep palace, she met Yin Yuan.
The man was more than ten years younger than her, just a lowly guard, yet he dared to defy the world and be with her.
Before long, she became pregnant.
As time went by, her pregnancy became more and more obvious. In July of the second year of Yong'an, when the child was seven months old, Yin Yuan was killed, and she was terrified...
When she opened her eyes again, almost half of the palace servants in Huining Palace were dead. The remaining servants told her that the child... was gone.
She had seen that stillborn baby back then.
"No!" The Empress Dowager pointed at the Ninth Prince, her voice shrill: "You're lying to me! My child clearly died young!"
This child, you found him to deceive me!
Yuan Yuan, what exactly are you trying to do?
"Now that things have come to this, do you think you still have any value that I would want to deceive?" The Ninth Prince scoffed.
"You've lied to me!" The Empress Dowager was furious. "I am the Empress Dowager. Without me, Jiang Xian's throne would be illegitimate!"
The emperor's name was suddenly mentioned. He frowned and said in a hoarse voice, "Empress Dowager, I have been emperor for more than ten years."
Even without the Empress Dowager, I am still the rightful emperor.
"you……"
The Empress Dowager's eyes widened in anger, her wrinkles deepening.
Yes, it is now the fourteenth year of Yong'an.
The emperor is no longer the naive and clueless prince he once was...
The Empress Dowager, fidgeting, turned to look at Yin Cai: "I need a blood test!"
"Alright," the Ninth Prince said indifferently.
The guard disappeared silently, and a moment later, he brought in a bowl of water.
The Empress Dowager looked at the bowl of water and sneered, "How would I know if you had tampered with this water?"
"If the Empress Dowager doesn't believe me, that's fine." The Ninth Prince said lightly, "I will simply kill this man."
kill?
Kill him?
Yin Cai turned pale with fright and was about to kneel down to beg for mercy: "Please, spare me... I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."
The Empress Dowager clenched her fingers into a fist.
Back then, Yin Yuan also knelt on the ground in the same way, begging for mercy from the Ninth Prince.
At that moment, the Ninth Prince severed his carotid artery with a single sword stroke...
Now, the Ninth Prince no longer needs a sword to kill.
He killed this boy as easily as crushing an ant!
The Empress Dowager bit her red lips and said in a trembling voice, "I... will examine you!"
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