As soon as Chu Yuanchen said this, Chu Yuanyi's expression changed slightly, visibly.

He looked innocent and asked, "Brother, what are you talking about? I don't understand."

Chu Yuanchen stared at him. Chu Yuanyi felt guilty and wanted to avoid his gaze. However, Chu Yuanchen just chuckled softly, turned around and left, leaving Chu Yuanyi standing in the hall with a gleam in his eyes.

Chu Yuanchen walked out of the Golden Palace and just as he stepped down the stairs, a deep voice called him.

"My Lord."

Chu Yuanchen stopped walking, and a sturdy general came up from behind and clasped his fists and said, "My Lord, I am here. Many years ago, I served under the King of Lingnan for three years. When the King of Lingnan was in trouble, I was also in the Lingnan Army. My Lord, if you are free, I would like to have a drink with you. What do you think?"

Shi An was about forty years old and was a brave general of the third rank in the imperial court.

"Of course." Chu Yuanchen smiled and nodded slightly.

Many generals in the Great Rong Dynasty had fought in Lingnan, Liangzhou, and Northern Frontier when they were young. Only after they had accumulated enough military merits were they gradually transferred to the Imperial Guards.

These generals are still far from retirement age, and most of them are still in charge of an army.

In the Golden Palace, Chu Yuanchen apparently obtained the title, but this was actually irrelevant. The most important thing was that he tore off the emperor's false disguise in front of all the civil and military officials in the court, revealing his true face.

Chu Yuanchen knew that there must be many people in the court who were still thinking about the princes, their achievements, and the blood they had shed for Darong.

Shi An's heart was beating fast, and he could hardly control himself. He raised his hand and said, "Your Majesty, please."

Shi An is the first one, and there will be a second one, a third one...

He was able to walk out of the sea of ​​blood and corpses and come this far, so he has no choice but to keep going.

Some things need to be done step by step and cannot be rushed.

Chu Yuanchen smiled and said, "General Zhang, please."

The court officials also came out one after another. Most of them had complicated, entangled, and even troubled thoughts.

If they had once truly believed that the emperor valued the Zhenbei Palace, today's incident completely shattered their original understanding.

Not only did the emperor want to get rid of the Zhenbei Palace as soon as possible, but Chu Yuanchen was also not a blindly loyal person.

Chu Yuanchen has the Northern Frontier Army and the current Mi Kingdom in his hands. It is conceivable that if Chu Yuanchen is pushed to the extreme, he will definitely rebel.

Forcing the emperor to abdicate and plotting rebellion, such a heinous act happened to Chu Yuanchen, which makes people feel a little pathetic.

If he had no other way out, given the loyalty of the Zhenbei Palace, he would never have come to this point.

And they didn't know what they could do now. Should they persuade the emperor not to force Chu Yuanchen anymore, or should they let the emperor cut the weeds and root them out as soon as possible?

One hundred thousand American troops are right at the border, which is a naked threat.

"It's the Second Master Chu."

Someone's low voice drew everyone's attention back, and they all looked at the thin young man who was walking out of the hall alone.

He lowered his head and had a scholarly air about him. At first glance, he seemed very gentle and polite, but when one thinks of what he did in the palace, this politeness became cowardly and pathetic.

Chu Yuanyi walked forward slowly without raising his head.

He didn't know where he should go. Originally, today, he should have become the King of Zhenbei, and returned with his father in glory, back to the Zhenbei Palace, and the whole family was happily together.

But now, he has nothing.

In his mind, Chu Yuanchen's words just now kept replaying, and he felt uneasy.

He hesitated for a long time, but still did not dare to return to Zhenbei Palace, and finally returned to the Jiang family.

Old Madam Jiang and Mrs. Jiang had already changed into their most colorful clothes and were waiting for good news with smiles on their faces.

As soon as they saw Chu Yuanyi coming back, they immediately went to greet him joyfully. Old Madam Jiang even glanced behind him and asked, "Brother Yi, where is your father?"

"Dad was taken away." Chu Yuanyi said listlessly.

"What?!" Old Madam Jiang was shocked, and the joy on her face disappeared. She said in fear, "How could he be captured? Weren't you named the King of Zhenbei by the Emperor? Why did they capture your father?"

Chu Yuanchen actually didn't understand the secrets of the court. He stammered, "The emperor said that my father forged my grandfather's memorial and ordered the three courts to investigate. When I came back, I heard that my father had been imprisoned in the Dali Temple."

Mrs. Jiang's hands and feet became weak, and she took several steps back, her lips trembling: "Locked, locked up in jail?"

Chu Yuanyi nodded.

Mrs. Jiang asked in a panic, "What about your eldest brother? Didn't your eldest brother plead for your father?"

Chu Yuanyi swallowed his saliva and replied: "Brother, don't care about him, and don't care about me..."

He felt uneasy and unconsciously tightened the purse hanging from his waist.

Old Mrs. Jiang slapped her thighs hard and cried, "This is too heartless. How could there be a person like your eldest brother who doesn't even care about his own father?"

She was fully expecting that she would be able to become the old lady of Zhenbei Palace from today on, and let Chu set the rules in front of her. However, who could have imagined that not only would she fail to become the old lady, but even her son would be captured.

"No." Old Madam Jiang said angrily, "I'm going to go find your eldest brother. He's his biological father. If he doesn't care, he's unfilial. I can sue him even if he has to go to the government office."

"But." Chu Yuanyi said hesitantly, "Dad has severed the relationship with my eldest brother."

Old Mrs. Jiang: “…”

Since the relationship has been severed, there are no longer any father and son. It is only natural for Chu Yuanchen to ignore it.

Old Madam Jiang stamped her feet fiercely, crying until her face was covered with tears and snot: "How could such a thing happen! My poor Ting'er. How could he raise such a damn son!"

Chu Yuanyi stood there silently, unable to utter a word.

"Mother." Jiang said in a panic, "We must save Brother Ting! He doesn't know if he can eat in prison. The weather is getting colder and colder, he will definitely freeze. Let's get some money and go in to see him."

Mrs. Jiang came to her senses and said, "Yes! Yes! Let's go now."

As she spoke, she hurried back to her room to get the silver hidden at the bottom of the box, then went out with Jiang, not forgetting to remind Chu Yuanyi to close the door at home and wait for them to come back.

However, they were unfamiliar with the capital, had no power, no connections, and it was not easy to use connections. They went out early and came back late for three days, and finally spent two hundred silver coins to ask the prison guard to allow them to go in to visit.

Seeing her son curled up in the cell with blood all over his face and head, Mrs. Jiang's heart almost broke.

Jiang kept calling him "Brother Ting" and cried like a pear blossom in the rain.

Jiang Ting was even more upset by Jiang's behavior. He had already fallen into such a state, what else could she do except cry? It was completely useless.

"That's enough!" Jiang Ting interrupted impatiently.

Jiang didn't dare cry anymore. She wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and sobbed intermittently.

Mrs. Jiang wiped her tears and asked, "Ting'er, how could this happen? Didn't you say..." Didn't you say it was a sure thing? !

"It was Chu Yuanchen," Jiang Ting gritted his teeth and said, "Chu Yuanchen wanted to sever his relationship with the Jiang family and deliberately harm me!"

Mrs. Jiang was going crazy and cried heartbreakingly: "How could he do this? You are his biological father. This is simply heartless!"

Jiang Ting's eyes were filled with a desire for life, "Now I can only rely on Brother Yi."

The wound on his forehead had stopped bleeding, and the dried blood covered his face, making him look even more hideous.

"Mother, listen to me. Yi Ge'er was raised by Jing Le. They have a special bond. As long as Yi Ge'er goes to Jing Le to ask for mercy, Jing Le will definitely be relented." Jiang Ting said pointedly, "Mother, please let Yi Ge'er go back and ask him to kneel in front of Jing Le."

"If you refuse once, you will kneel for a day. If you refuse for a day, you will kneel for three days."

"Mom, you must let Yi Ge'er go back. Otherwise, once Chu Yuanchen captures Jing Le, there will be no chance for him to return."

Old Mrs. Jiang agreed without hesitation. Her mind was like a tangled mess that she couldn't sort out.

Two hundred taels of silver could not make her look at him for more than a few seconds. After a while, the officials came and sent them away.

Jiang supported Old Madam Jiang and walked out of the cell weakly.

The setting sun dyed the sky red, and the cold wind was howling, bringing a sense of late autumn chill.

The two of them stumbled back home, and Old Lady Jiang asked Chu Yuanyi to return to the Zhenbei Palace.

Chu Yuanyi has been feeling uncertain for the past three days. He has no opinion of his own and no matter how much Mrs. Jiang tried to persuade him, he refused and just said he would wait for Jingle to pick him up.

Mrs. Jiang was reluctant to scold her grandson, so she advised him earnestly, "Brother Yi, your mother has always loved you the most. If you don't go back, won't your brother take all the advantages? Your brother is already the King of Zhenbei. If he continues to scare your mother, you won't even get a share of the family property in the future. Your brother is greedy, and he is deliberately trying to drive you away. Go back quickly and appease your mother."

Chu Yuanyi was still shaking his head.

He was afraid, he was afraid of Chu Yuanchen.

How could he not be afraid? That day in the Golden Palace, even the emperor was a little frightened when he saw his elder brother. He was just an ordinary person, of course he would be afraid too.

and……

"Grandma, my mother will definitely come to pick me up. She loves me the most." Chu Yuanyi told himself this over and over again. Even he himself seemed to be convinced. "Grandma, I will beg for mercy only after my mother comes to pick me up..."

As long as the time comes and he admits his mistake, mother will definitely forgive him if she doesn't want him to see father and he disappears from now on.

Old Mrs. Jiang was stunned for a moment, and felt that this seemed to make some sense.

She just didn't believe that Mrs. Chu could be so cruel as to give up her son. This was a son with a penis, and he took her surname Chu. She should cherish him.

"Well then..." Old Madam Jiang said reluctantly, "Then you must plead for your father and ask your mother to find a way to rescue your father."

Chu Yuanyi lowered his head and said almost silently: "Okay."

Chu Yuanyi didn't dare to go back. He was waiting for Jing Le to pick him up.

My mother must have known that my father had been in prison. She knew that I would be scared, so she would definitely come to pick me up.

Chu Yuanyi told himself this over and over again. His mother had always been the softest-hearted. When she came to pick him up, he would just beg and coax her, and she would no longer be angry.

"Mother! Mother!"

Jiang ran in ecstatically from outside. Before she even entered the house, she shouted, "It's the Zhenbei Palace. People from the Zhenbei Palace are here."

"Really?" Mrs. Jiang and Chu Yuanyi blurted out at the same time.

"It's the carriage from the Zhenbei Palace. It must be Princess Jingle who came in person." When talking about Princess Jingle, Jiang's face showed obvious jealousy, but she quickly concealed it perfectly, "Princess Jingle must be here to pick up our Brother Yi."

Old Mrs. Jiang was overjoyed, and her old face was smiling as if it was a flower.

"Brother Yi, you are right. Your mother is here to pick you up."

Chu Yuanyi was also surprised and happy. It turned out that his mother still couldn't bear to let him go.

As long as his mother protected him, his elder brother would not dare to do anything to him.

Chu Yuanyi quickly straightened his clothes and hair, looking like the elegant young man again.

He originally wanted to go back to the house to change clothes, but now he had no time to think about it and quickly followed Old Lady Jiang out of the main room.

The person who came was from the Zhenbei Palace, but not Princess Jingle.

"General Ji," Chu Yuanyi said shyly, "Did mother ask you to pick me up?"

Chu Yuanyi was a little disappointed that Jingle didn't come in person, but he couldn't afford to be petty now.

Old Mrs. Jiang also recognized Ji Mingyang; he had been here once before.

Mrs. Jiang cleared her throat and tried to pretend to say something, asking Ji Mingyang to go back and tell Jingle, but Ji Mingyang waved his hand and shouted, "Take them all away."

Old Madam Jiang was shocked and shouted at the top of her voice: "What are you doing?! I am your prince's biological grandmother..."

Ji Mingyang interrupted her coldly: "Our prince's biological grandmother has passed away for more than ten years."

When he looked at Chu Yuanyi again, Ji Mingyang's eyes were filled with disgust: "Take them all away."

Ji Mingyang brought four guards with him. The Jiang family only had women and children, so there was no suspense at all. The guards quickly controlled the three men. The servants of the Jiang family were all newly bought after they came to the capital, and they were not very loyal. Seeing this, they were all scared and huddled aside, not daring to move.

Chu Yuanyi said in panic: "Let go! Ji Mingyang, I am the second young master of Chu, Ji Mingyang!" There was no way Ji Mingyang would forget him.

In the past, whenever Ji Mingyang saw him, he would politely call him "Second Young Master" and would also teach him riding and archery. He had always been very nice to him. But how come all of a sudden, even Ji Mingyang changed his attitude?

"Second Young Master?" Ji Mingyang sneered, "What kind of Second Young Master are you?"

His smile gradually faded, and his eyes became sharp and cold.

Chu Yuanyi shuddered, and a very bad premonition came to his mind, as if a ferocious beast was approaching him step by step in the darkness, waiting for the opportunity to kill him with one pounce.

Ji Mingyang didn't say another word to him, only ordered: "Take it away."

"Someone come!"

"Someone was murdered in Zhenbei Palace!"

"We're going to report this to the police!"

The guards dragged the three members of the Jiang family out, and the annoying old lady Jiang and Jiang were all gagged.

The carriage stopped in front of the gate and the three of them were forced onto it.

The carriage started moving quickly, and the three people on it looked panicked.

They had imagined countless times how the Zhenbei Palace would come to pick up Chu Yuanyi, either Jingle would come in person, or they would send guards and servants to come with great fanfare, but they had never imagined that it would be like this now.

They were not invited to go, but were captured and taken back.

This is the imperial city. Does the Zhenbei Palace have no laws at all? !

With her mouth blocked, Old Mrs. Jiang kept sobbing, and endless fear surged in her heart.

Chu Yuanyi's face was dull and his lips were trembling.

Amid their panic and anxiety, the carriage kept moving forward. When it finally stopped, a guard stepped rudely onto the carriage and pulled them off one by one.

"Take it to Zhenghui Hall."

At Ji Mingyang's command, the guards dragged the three people towards Zhenghui Hall.

Zhenghui Hall is located in the front yard of the palace.

Jingle sat on the armchair, and below her sat Chu Yuanchen.

When the three members of the Jiang family were brought in, Jingle's face instantly became much uglier, with a mixture of hatred, disgust, grief, and other complex emotions blending together.

Chu Wuyi called out timidly: "Mom..."

He looked at Jingle who was sitting on the armchair with an innocent and intimate look, as if he had done something wrong as usual.

Chu Yuanyi knew that if he begged for mercy with such an expression, his mother would definitely soften her heart.

"Mom..." he sobbed, "I was wrong, please forgive me."

Jingle didn't say anything, which made Chu Yuanyi even more panicked. He hurriedly said, "Mom, I shouldn't have disobeyed you. I shouldn't have always been thinking about begging for Dad and making you sad. Mom, I was wrong..."

When she heard him say that she would not plead for Jiang Ting, Mrs. Jiang, whose mouth was blocked, suddenly turned her head to look at him, making a sobbing sound.

Chu Yuanyi no longer cared about these things and trotted towards Jingle.

"Stop." Jingle said expressionlessly, "Kneel down."

Chu Yuanyi was stunned. Jingle had never spoken to him in such a tone before. He became even more frightened and knelt down in grievance.

Jingle signaled with her eyes, and a maid came forward and took the handkerchiefs from the mouths of Old Madam Jiang and Jiang.

They breathed loudly a few times, and Old Lady Jiang said hurriedly: "Princess, what are you doing? We are a family after all..."

Jingle didn't want to listen to her nonsense, so she said coldly, "Slap her face."

A burly old woman came over, raised her big hand like a palm-leaf fan, and slapped him.

Old Mrs. Jiang was beaten so hard that her teeth were about to fall out. She covered her mouth and looked at Jingle in horror.

"From now on, you are not allowed to speak without my permission."

Jingle had no expression on her face.

In fact, her heart was already filled with shock and turmoil.

Ji Mingyang returned to Beijing more than an hour ago, and Chu Yuanchen told her about this at that time. At that moment, she really didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that the son she had raised since childhood was not her child. She was even more unwilling to believe that the child she had carried for ten months and gave birth to with great difficulty had been bullied and lived a miserable life for so many years.

But she also understood that since Chu Yuanchen said this to her, it must be the truth.

Jingle's smile was full of mockery.

Mocking herself, she had been blind for so many years and spoiled other people's children.

Her heart ached as if it were being cut by a knife.

Jingle sneered and said, "You and your family have really been deceiving me for twelve years and treating me like a fool."

After these words came out, Mrs. Jiang's eyes became a little uncertain. She covered her cheek that was hurt by the beating, and reluctantly pulled the corner of her mouth and said, "Princess, what you said..."

Jingle sat on the armchair, holding the armrests with both hands. She was almost unable to control her emotions, and her chest was heaving.

Upon seeing this, Chu Yuanchen clapped his hands lightly twice, and then a kind-looking abbot and an elderly woman were brought into the main hall.

The woman's eyes were evasive, and when they saw her, Old Lady Jiang and Jiang's faces showed obvious surprise.

Chu Yuanchen just said: "You guys tell me."

These two people were brought back by Ji Mingyang. One was the abbot of the temple where Jingle gave birth that day, and the other was the midwife who delivered her.

After hearing what Chu Yuanchen said, Jingle immediately sent people to the Jiang family to escort the person away. Later, she felt uncomfortable for a long time due to chest pain, so she has not seen them since.

The abbot recited a Buddhist mantra and calmly recounted, "Twelve years ago, a male donor brought a child to me. The child was just born, and because he was born prematurely, he was very weak..."

The abbot was skilled in medicine and saved the child's life. After the child's condition stabilized, the child's father took her away.

"It's a girl." The abbot said confidently, holding the Buddhist beads, "Back then, only Donor Chu gave birth to a child in our temple."

Temples are pure places for Buddhism, and women are generally not allowed to give birth in temples. However, the situation at that time was too critical, and they could not just watch someone die.

In the past ten years or so, only this one child had been born in their temple, and the abbot certainly remembered it very clearly.

Unfortunately, the abbot didn't know that when Jingle and his friends left, they took away a boy...

Jingle raised her head slightly, trying hard to control the tears in her eyes from flowing down. The grief in her heart almost overwhelmed her.

She took a deep breath and trembled, "Thank you, Abbot."

The abbot chanted the Buddha's name again. He had already heard the whole story and his face was full of sympathy.

After Chu Yuanchen thanked the abbot, he asked someone to invite him away.

Mrs. Jiang and Old Madam Jiang looked at each other, feeling panic in their hearts.

Jiang kept winking at the old lady, but she was already scared to death. She knelt on the ground and didn't even need Jingle to ask, she just said, "Back then, the princess gave birth to a girl, very thin. It was them, it was Lord Jiang who made me say that it was a boy, none of my business."

Jingle still remembers this midwife, as it was she who delivered her baby.

At that time, there was war and chaos everywhere, and she was willing to help. Jingle was grateful and moved to tears. But who would have thought that the help was fake and the calculation was real.

These people are plotting against her in a deliberate and calculating way.

Jingle took a deep breath, tried to keep her tone calm, and said, "Who gave birth to this boy?"

"Yes, it was Cao Caixia who gave birth to the baby." Grandma Wen said tremblingly, "I was also the one who delivered the baby. That child had a birthmark on the sole of his foot..."

Jiang had always considered herself the widowed sister-in-law. Jingle knew that her maiden name was Caixia, which meant that her surname was Cao, not Jiang.

The old lady kowtowed vigorously and begged for mercy, saying, "It was Lord Jiang who asked me to do this. Princess, please spare my life, please spare my life!"

"Princess!" Old Madam Jiang wiped her face and interrupted the old lady with tears in her eyes. She cried and said, "Princess, please listen to me... This is not, this is not... Doesn't the Zhenbei Palace need a boy?!"

She shrank her neck and said guiltily, "When you gave birth to a girl, we thought that there were too few boys in the Zhenbei Palace, and there was only Achen. What if Achen got hurt again? That's why we replaced him with a boy. Then the Zhenbei Palace would have one more boy. Anyway, they are all A Ting's biological children, so there is no difference."