Everyone turned around and saw Lu Hong walk in.
"Father!" Lu Junyuan was shocked. This was the biggest secret of the Lu family. Revealing it would be tantamount to handing over the fate of the entire Lu clan.
“Yuan’er, the Regent and the Queen are so worried about Dapu, they won’t harm him.” Lu Hong said, looking at Xiao Yanchu as if waiting for a promise.
Xiao Yanchu calmly looked back at him without saying a word.
Seeing his father's resolute attitude, Lu Junyuan sighed and began to tell the truth.
"A hundred years ago, a national advisor in Xiaoyue predicted that a hundred years later, a wise ruler would emerge in Xiaoyue, making the country prosperous and the people strong."
The founding emperor asked the imperial advisor how to determine who the wise ruler would be. The advisor only calculated that the wise ruler would have heterochromia (different colored eyes), then vomited blood and died. This became a closely guarded secret of the Xiaoyue royal family.
Upon hearing this, Su Ruojin and Xiao Yanchu exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of surprise in each other's eyes.
They only knew that the other party was looking for someone with heterochromia, but they didn't expect there to be this reason. No wonder they didn't harm Yuan Hong and Da Pu.
Lu Junyuan continued, "In the following hundred years, no child with heterochromia was born into the Xiaoyue royal family."
Thirteen years ago, Consort Yun, who already had a daughter, became pregnant again. At that time, Empress Wu had no children and would never allow any concubine in the palace to give birth to a prince before her. All concubines who were pregnant with princes would miscarry due to various accidents.
Three months after Consort Yun became pregnant, Empress Wu asked the imperial physician to examine Consort Yun's pulse.
Whether intentionally or through misdiagnosis, the imperial physicians at the time said that Consort Yun was pregnant with another princess, and Empress Wu then spared the unborn child in Consort Yun's womb.
Unexpectedly, the child was born to be a prince, and with heterochromia, which shocked Empress Wu.
At that time, the late emperor was leading troops to resist the invasion of the Northern Li and was not in the palace.
Empress Wu sent men to kill the young prince. When the young prince's wet nurse learned of this, she swapped her own child for the young prince and fled the palace with the child overnight.
But she was just a wet nurse. Sooner or later, Empress Wu's people would find out that the child in the palace was not a prince and would chase him out of the palace.
The wet nurse had no other choice but to place the young prince in a wooden tub, put it into the Lanchuan River, and entrust the child to fate.
Lanchuan?
Su Ruojin's eyes flickered. "How did you find out about this?"
After hearing Lu Junyuan's account, it was clear that only the person involved should know the truth, or more precisely, only the wet nurse. Given Lu Junyuan's age, how could he possibly know?
Lu Junyuan glanced at Dap lying on the bed and gave his answer, "Because I've seen this wet nurse before."
He paused, then continued, "A few years before the late emperor passed away, for some unknown reason, he began to listen to Empress Wu in many matters, and even invited Empress Wu's cousin into the palace to become the national advisor."
Many ministers in the court were opportunistic and followed the lead of Empress Wu and the Imperial Preceptor. Some ministers even submitted memorials to remind the late emperor to be wary of interference from the empress's relatives in politics. As a result, these ministers who submitted memorials were eventually dismissed from their posts, had their homes confiscated, or were exiled for various reasons.
Not long after the Imperial Advisor entered the palace, the Empress gave birth to the Crown Prince.
As the crown prince grew older, he became increasingly cruel. To please him, Empress Wu sent him many kittens and puppies, each of which he tortured to death. Skinning, pulling out tendons, cutting off heads, and breaking legs were common occurrences.
Besides abusing animals, the crown prince also beat and verbally abused people in the palace, and many people died as a result of his abuse.
When he was three years old, he would take a knife and cut the flesh off a little eunuch's body to play with. If he was not allowed to cut, he would cry loudly. The little eunuch was covered in wounds and almost died. All of this was suppressed by Empress Wu.
If such a child becomes the ruler of a country, how can the people of Xiaoyue have a good life? The country will cease to exist.
My father, who was then the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, was already disheartened and was preparing to retire and return to his hometown, far from the court's intrigues. But then something happened that changed his mind.
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