Chapter 687 A Mother's Strength (Bonus Chapter)
Falling from such a height would leave you crippled, if not dead.
The Crown Prince was surrounded by secret guards, so of course they couldn't let him get hurt. The guards, who were hiding nearby, used their lightness skills to fly over and catch the Crown Prince. They then launched instinctive attacks on anyone who posed a threat to the Crown Prince.
He struck the Crown Princess with a palm strike.
The crown prince's expression changed drastically: "Stop!"
It was too late; the palm strike had already been delivered. The Crown Princess was struck by the guard's palm strike, first crashing into the stone table and then falling heavily to the ground, a trace of blood even spilling from the corner of her mouth.
"master!"
A startled cry came from not far away from the palace maid.
It turned out that a young palace maid couldn't find the Crown Princess in her bedchamber and, worried that she might wander off and cause trouble, hurried out to look for her.
She also notified several eunuchs patrolling nearby, so a total of five people came.
The five of them didn't see how the Crown Prince fell, but they did see the former Crown Princess cough up blood after being struck by a guard from the Crown Prince's side.
Everyone was stunned. What was the Crown Prince doing? Why did he order his guards to injure the former Crown Princess? And why did he dismiss all the palace servants around him? Was he planning to secretly deal with the former Crown Princess?
If they hadn't come looking for her, would the former crown princess have already been murdered by the crown prince?
They thought of the attack on the Crown Princess at the imperial mausoleum; could it be—
"You..." The Crown Prince looked at her coldly, "Shangguan Yan, you're ruthless!"
...
"That's how it is," Gu Chengfeng said to Gu Jiao. "The Crown Princess has amnesia; she can't even remember her own son's name. One minute she's calling him Zhang Qing, the next Li Qing, and she changes the name whenever someone asks. I don't know what she did to provoke the Crown Prince this evening, but he actually attacked her in the palace. Originally, no useful clues were found regarding the attack on the Crown Princess. In other words, the Crown Prince's people were too clean; they didn't leave a single trace. But now that this has happened, the Crown Prince's suspicion has suddenly increased!"
"Is the Crown Prince such an impatient person?" The King is sitting in the palace, and the Crown Prince dares to come so openly. Why did he even arrange an assassination in the first place? Does the Crown Prince think he hasn't exposed himself enough?
Gu Jiao felt that something was amiss.
"Who goes there!" Gu Jiao's eyes sharpened.
"It's me!"
Xu Fengxian's voice came through.
"Come in." Gu Jiao withdrew the crabapple blossom needle from her hand.
Xu Fengxian awkwardly pushed open the door, carried in a plate of fresh, chilled fruit, and said with a smile, "Just cut."
She placed the fruit plate on the table and said, "If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."
"Wait a minute," Gu Jiao called out to her.
Xu Fengxian turned around and smiled obsequiously, "What are your orders, young master?"
Gu Jiao asked, "What do you think of what happened just now?"
Gu Chengfeng glanced at Gu Jiao in surprise.
Xu Fengxian quickly waved her hand: "What happened just now? I didn't hear a word!"
Gu Jiao pulled out a small knife.
Xu Fengxian was so frightened that her legs went weak, and she braced herself on the table with her hands: "I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything!"
Gu Jiao cut a slice of fruit and looked at her with a strange expression: "Hmm?"
Xu Fengxian looked at her knife, then at the thinly sliced fruits and vegetables, and was instantly dumbfounded.
You...you just wanted to cut the melon? I thought you were going to cut me up!
Now that the truth has been revealed, there's no point in hiding it anymore.
Xu Fengxian wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief and said with a dry laugh, "I didn't hear much, just that you were talking about the Crown Princess and the Crown Prince. If you ask me what I think, I think it was the Crown Prince who did it."
"Would the Crown Prince be that stupid?" Gu Jiao asked.
"Of course the Crown Prince isn't that stupid, but didn't the palace servants all see it? It was indeed the Crown Prince's guards who injured the Crown Princess." Although Xu Fengxian also felt that it didn't fit the Crown Prince's usual calm and composed nature, the facts speak louder than words, and what one saw with their own eyes could not be false.
Gu Chengfeng stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "Could it be a ruse by the Crown Princess, such as deliberately attacking the Crown Prince to provoke his guards to defend her?"
Having read so many of the old chief priest's stories, he practically knows the Thirty-Six Stratagems by heart.
Xu Fengxian shook her handkerchief: "You all don't know this, but I'd rather believe the Crown Prince lost his composure than that the Crown Princess used a self-inflicted injury ruse. Because—"
At this point, her expression suddenly became solemn. "She was the proudest woman in the entire Great Yan."
She was the Crown Princess who did not beg for mercy even when she was publicly executed.
Countless whips fell upon her body; she was beaten until her skin was torn and bleeding in the imperial palace, subjected to the gaze of civil and military officials and the mental torture of being slowly sliced apart. Despite the dual torment of her body and soul, she did not shed a single tear, did not cry out that she was wronged, and did not utter a single word of complaint, "Father, I am so aggrieved."
If she had been willing to bend her pride and kneel down to beg the king for forgiveness, how could she have ended up in such a miserable state?
She could not be the Crown Princess, but at least she could be a princess. However, she would rather be deposed as a commoner and imprisoned for life than bow her head and show weakness.
This is the Crown Princess.
Xu Fengxian sighed, "How could a princess like her resort to a self-inflicted injury scheme? It's a method she would never stoop to. For her to break her own pride would be worse than death. You might not understand what I'm saying, and I'm at a loss for words. In short, if she really did that, then she... must have something she desperately wanted to protect, something more important than her life and dignity."
...
The pavilion in the southwest corner of the palace.
Shangguan Yan didn't leave. She just sat on the stone bench for a long time. The little palace maid anxiously served her and earnestly advised, "Master, let's go back. You're injured. At least go back and lie down. Someone will come to investigate you later."
Shangguan Yan remained silent.
The palace maid was frantic: "Then, then go back and eat your meal before coming back, okay?"
Shangguan Yan remained silent.
The young palace maid scratched her head, unsure of what to do: "Alright, alright, I'll go get the food. Master will wait here for a while!"
The palace maid went back to her chambers to fetch food.
Shangguan Yan sat quietly in the pavilion, gazing in the direction of Fengqi Palace and also in the direction of the Xuanyuan family.
The night breeze carried a hint of coolness, brushing against her hair.
Suddenly, a delicate, beautifully sculpted figure scrambled up the steps and onto the pavilion.
She peeked out from behind the pillar with an adorable little head: "Huh? Who are you?"
Hearing the child's tender voice, Shangguan Yan regained her senses and turned to look at the other person.
Seeing that it was a beautiful little girl dressed in palace attire, she smiled slightly: "I am Shangguan Yan, who are you?"
"Oh." Children have an instinct to distinguish malice. The little princess sensed the kindness from her and then stepped out from behind the pillar. "I am Shangguan Xue, and they all call me the little princess."
"Little Princess," Shangguan Yan called out as well.
The young princess climbed the stool.
However, the stool was too high, and she couldn't climb up.
Shangguan Yan helped carry her upstairs.
After she sat down, she said seriously, like a little adult, "Thank you! By the way, you also have the surname Shangguan. Are you a princess? Or are you a county princess like me?"
She might not ask this question outside, but the women of the Shangguan clan in the palace were generally members of the royal family.
Shangguan Yan said, "None of them."
"Hmm?" The little princess tugged at the corner of her dress, clearly puzzled as to how there could be a woman from the Shangguan family in the palace who was neither a princess nor a county princess.
But children's logic is different from adults'.
No, it's not.
The young princess said "Oh," and then asked, "My father is Lord Yanshan, who is your father?"
Shangguan Yan looked at the young princess with a look of sudden realization: "So she's Ninth Uncle's daughter."
The young princess was a clever child; upon hearing this, she quickly realized what was going on: "You call my father Ninth Uncle, so I'm your little cousin! But why haven't I seen you before? Which uncle's child are you? Why aren't you speaking? Could it be—"
Several of her uncles have passed away due to their advanced age.
The little princess frowned seriously, climbed onto the stone table, reached out her little hand, and patted Shangguan Yan's shoulder reassuringly: "Don't be sad."
“I’m not sad. I haven’t seen him for more than ten years.”
Even after returning to the palace this time, he did not summon her, nor did she take the initiative to pay her respects; the two remained in this stalemate.
The young princess understood immediately and stopped bringing up this painful topic.
"Little Princess!"
"Little Princess!"
"Where have you been, little princess!"
"Oh dear, they're here! I can't play with you today." The little princess slid off the stool and waved to Shangguan Yan, "Goodbye, cousin!"
...
The young princess was taken back to the king's bedchamber by the palace servants.
Yeonsan-gun was the posthumous son of the Queen Dowager and the late Emperor. He was more than 20 years younger than the King and was raised by the King as his son.
The king had the affection for Yeonsan-gun as if he were his son, but he did not have the expectation that a son should have for him to succeed. Without expectation, there would be no disappointment, which made Yeonsan-gun a very favored younger brother of the king.
The young princess was therefore especially favored.
The young princess went directly to the king's study.
The study was a sacred place, where even princes and princesses were not allowed to enter or leave at will, but to the young princess it was just a small vegetable garden.
She can come and go as she pleases.
The tyrannical ruler of the Great Yan, who was feared by all, was looking at the memorial in his hand with an icy expression. When he saw the little guy come in, his expression softened slightly, but it was still quite frightening.
The young princess simply couldn't sense the horror of it.
"Where did you go today?" the king asked the young princess.
"Your Majesty, Uncle." The little princess first gave a dignified bow, then raised her head and said honestly, "I went to play in the pavilion. I met a cousin today."
The king picked up his teacup and took a sip.
The young princess sighed sadly, "Her name is Shangguan Yan. She's so pitiful. Her father has been dead for over ten years!"
The king spat out his tea.
The princess kindly reminds you: votes will be cleared at the end of the month, so ladies, please cast your votes as soon as you have them!
(End of this chapter)
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