Chapter 61 A fleeting, morbid delusion quietly takes root...
The screen occupies half the length of the hall, divided into three small screens depicting different scenes. The embroidered threads on the screens glow, and in the dim light, they appear as if in motion. The embroidered figures are incredibly lifelike, and the three scenes are interconnected, deeply piercing Feng Tan's eyes.
She looked at each one. The scene on the first screen was clear. It was when Princess Yongle was born. Phoenix clouds hovered above Weiyang Palace, and the aurora borealis poured down from the sea of clouds. The sky above the palace was incredibly beautiful.
The day the Empress gave birth, she fell into a coma. Emperor Chongming was busy with state affairs and taking care of the Empress for several months, and had no time to take care of the newborn princess. So he entrusted her to Consort Qiao, the birth mother of Prince Chu, who was known in the capital for her gentleness and meticulousness. Prince Chu stood beside everyone, looking down at the newborn baby. This was a first meeting etched into his destiny.
Even through a screen, Feng Tingxiao's voice remained magnetic: "In the first year of Chongming, Princess Yongle was born. The Dowager Consort was ordered to take care of the princess, and I also entered the palace."
He had to enter the palace, firstly to gain a reputation for filial piety towards his mother, and secondly to obtain the map of the underground palace.
Feng Tingxiao had a distant family from a young age. He was born to a palace maid whom Emperor Jianming had forced upon him while he was drunk. Emperor Jianming never gave this illegitimate son a second glance. In fact, not only Emperor Jianming, but even his mother, Consort Qiao, had complicated feelings towards him, and her eyes would sometimes betray a hint of resentment. His father and mother did not love him, and his two brothers, vying for the throne, only saw him as an enemy, truly embodying the saying that the imperial family is heartless.
Consort Qiao was old and couldn't take good care of the little princess. She fell ill after only two days. He held the newborn Princess Yongle in his arms. The little dumpling in his arms could only babble, drink milk, sleep, and... cry. She would cry incessantly if he didn't hold her in his arms and comfort her. So Feng Tingxiao began to think carelessly about how to kill his brother's child in the future.
Two months later, the wrinkled little dumpling had grown up and become incredibly cute. She would laugh without any hesitation in his arms, but would cry incessantly if anyone else held her, only allowing him to hold her. After some more time, she could already call out "Huang Su" in her baby voice.
Princess Yongle's first words were "Royal Uncle," which made Feng Tingxiao happy. He corrected her, "Royal Uncle... not Su, but Uncle."
More than a year later, Feng Sangrou had recovered and came to the palace where Consort Qiao lived to take Princess Yongle back. However, Princess Yongle was a little timid that day and clung to the King of Chu's leg, crying and refusing to let go.
The first time he received such unguarded and wholehearted affection was from a one-year-old baby who was not very bright and might even forget this memory later.
Thinking of this, Feng Tingxiao gave a self-deprecating smile and said to Feng Tan, "Do you still remember the second screen?"
In the third year of Chongming, Consort Qiao passed away. According to the rules of Dahuang, Feng Tingxiao was to keep vigil for his mother for seven days. The night was deep, and the mourning hall was filled with white mourning clothes. Feng Tingxiao knelt before Consort Qiao's memorial tablet to show his filial piety.
Consort Qiao had been taking care of the princess for two years on the emperor's orders. So after she passed away, Empress Xiaoxian sent the princess's personal nanny, Shang Chunxiang, to lead the princess to the mourning hall to pay her respects. Princess Yongle had only been brought back to the empress's side for less than half a year. When she saw the Prince of Chu kneeling on the ground looking dejected, her eyes reddened. She timidly tugged at the sleeve of the man kneeling on the ground and said, "Uncle."
Feng Tingxiao looked up at her, his handsome face expressionless, and his voice was surprisingly hoarse, even to Feng Tingxiao's surprise, "Why is Yongle here?"
“I have come to pay my respects to the Dowager Consort.” Princess Yongle knelt down in imitation of him, kowtowed three times in a very proper manner, then tilted her head to look at Feng Tingxiao’s lifeless face, and slowly stood up and walked to him.
After being separated for almost half a year, she looked up at Feng Tingxiao, who was quietly gazing down at her, and slowly opened her arms to hug him, comforting him, "Mother said that the Dowager Consort will be watching over you from heaven. If you are sad, you can cry. Only I will do this, and no one will laugh at you."
After she finished speaking, she looked up from the man's arms and met Feng Tingxiao's eyes. He looked at the little dumpling who had grown a bit bigger and smiled slowly, but tears welled up in his eyes.
Consort Qiao transferred all her resentment towards Emperor Jianming onto him. She died, and he didn't really feel anything. But this little dumpling kept calling him "Imperial Uncle," and the sincerity in his eyes turned into swords and spears, piercing out all the complex emotions he had accumulated for Consort Qiao over the years.
He longed for Consort Qiao's love his whole life, but he could never win her love.
Feng Tingxiao wept silently, and Princess Yongle waited quietly for him to finish crying. Then, just like he used to wipe her tears, she tiptoed to touch his face and wiped away all the tears on his face. "Mother said that everyone is heartbroken when their mother passes away. If you treat Yongle as your mother, will you not feel so much pain?"
"..." Feng Tingxiao's tears stopped because the little dumpling started talking nonsense again. He looked at Princess Yongle with a mixture of laughter and tears, hugged her in his arms, and said, "You only have one mother. Whoever gave birth to you is your mother. No one else is."
Princess Yongle clearly didn't understand Feng Tingxiao's words. After hesitating for a long time, she said with great difficulty, "Wouldn't it make you feel better if we gave half of Yongle's mother to Imperial Uncle?"
Feng Tingxiao's temple throbbed, and he tightened his grip on her arm, saying, "That's called incest."
Incest.
The two words rolled through his throat, and a fleeting, delusional thought quietly took root in his mind.
......
Feng Tingxiao asked Feng Tan, "Do you remember the second screen?"
Feng Tan said, "Your Highness is joking. The mourning hall depicted on the screen looks like a palace. How would I recognize it?"
The two were separated by a screen, so Feng Tingxiao couldn't see Feng Tan's expression. He smiled and said, "That's right, Feng Tan doesn't remember, and Feng Qinghuang might not remember either."
As people grow up, they gradually forget their memories of being four or five years old, and few people remember things from their early childhood. Feng Tan would never say that she remembered, as that would expose her identity, and Feng Qinghuang had probably forgotten as well. Apart from him, no one would remember those two years, no one would remember that he had personally nurtured a newborn baby whose eyes were only for him.
Feng Tingxiao's rich and cool aura drew near. He slowly walked behind Feng Tan, and the shadow that loomed over him seemed to embrace the young man. "Take a look at the third one."
The third picture depicts a wedding scene of a couple. The hall is filled with festive red silk hanging from the carved beams. In front of the bright lattice windows, the handsome groom, dressed in a gorgeous scarlet robe, is smiling as he bends down to lift the bride's festive veil, which inevitably evokes a sense of wonder.
He carried a willow-leaf jade pendant, which was carved as a birthday gift for Princess Yongle when she was five years old. The jade pendant on the screen was exactly the same as the one on the person in front of him. Feng Tan did not know what his intention was and said, "Your Highness is newly married and in the bridal chamber."
The man behind her chuckled softly, his chest heaving. Feng Tan felt that the calm madness emanating from him had returned. After Feng Tingxiao finished laughing, he moved his arm, and the glass lamps on the ceiling suddenly fell, instantly illuminating the entire hall. When Feng Tan looked at the screen again, she found that the man had already removed the bride's veil from the third panel.
The face that came into view was extremely familiar... because it was her face. The only difference was that she had hidden the beauty mark under her eye to clear her husband's name, while the beauty mark at the corner of the bride's eye on the screen was still there.
The candle flames beneath my feet surge like waves, and the half-suspended screen overturns all moral order.
A wave of nausea rushed to Feng Tan's throat. She leaped up from in front of Feng Tingxiao and kicked the screen to pieces.
"Ah, what a pity," Feng Tingxiao said gently, his tone full of tenderness. "I had someone embroider it for a long time, my little niece."
Feng Tingxiao broke the tense atmosphere between the two, completely tearing apart the pretense of peace and revealing his long-lost cruelty and ferocity.
Feng Tan closed her eyes. As she expected, Feng Tingxiao had already seen through her identity. "When did you recognize me?"
Feng Tingxiao smiled faintly, the light from the crystal lamp casting a magnificent glow on his handsome face. "From the very beginning, I knew it was you."
No one can fool him about what the little dumpling he raised with his own hands must look like. Feng Sangrou is damned for secretly sending her out of the capital eight years ago. Look, eight years have passed, and his little niece is no longer familiar with him. She has become like a stranger.
Feng Sangrou snatched her from his arms, and he still expects her to thank them? On Mid-Autumn Festival night, he sent the Eastern Depot to carry out a false imperial edict to assassinate her, but it was all just a ploy to use Consort Su to get rid of her.
Feng Tingxiao walked through the mess and came to Feng Tan again. He looked down at her and chuckled, "You've been away from the capital for eight years. Did you want to rescue Feng Youming?"
This was a rhetorical question, and Feng Tan replied, "Yes, does the Imperial Uncle intend to interfere?"
The long-unheard address stirred subtle emotions in Feng Tingxiao's eyes. He chuckled lightly and said, "You've been back for so long, and apart from the Linzhang sea area where you insisted on going against me and suffered a bit, I haven't been willing to do anything else."
He spoke in a high-sounding manner, but he beat her half to death, and she had to recuperate for three months. When Feng Tan heard this, he couldn't help but sneer and said, "Then Your Highness is really merciful. Now that we've already spoken frankly, how will you give me the antidote for Hu Shu?"
"It's nothing," Feng Tingxiao's voice was languid and deep. He gently brushed his half-open robe towards Feng Tan's eyes, placing a white porcelain bottle in his palm. "Here you go. The Princess will take you to the palace later so you can watch her take the medicine. Is that alright?"
Feng Tan looked at him suspiciously, took the antidote from his palm, and asked, "Was it adulterated?"
Feng Tingxiao said, "There's no need for that. If I want her dead, why would I give you the antidote? Besides, I have a use for her."
Before she finished speaking, Feng Tan's short, sharp blade was already coldly pressed against his neck. Her eyes flashed with ruthlessness as she met his gaze and spoke clearly, "Feng Tingxiao, if you lay a finger on anyone around me, I will fight you to the death."
A fight to the death? Then he killed her mother, she should have fought him to the death long ago.
With a short, sharp knife pressed against his neck, Feng Tingxiao knew that Feng Tan was truly ruthless when she got angry. She was very close to him, her cold face reflected in her eyes, and her slightly warm breath hit his Adam's apple, giving him a strange sense of pleasure.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, somewhat amused, and said lightly, "A bird that has just taken flight doesn't know its own height. I want you to crash into it and bleed profusely."
Feng Tan's eyes flashed.
Xiao Yinshi said: I want to see your pitiful state when you have nowhere to go... and can only come to me for help.
Feng Tingxiao said: "A bird that has just taken flight doesn't know its own height. I want you to crash into it and get a bloody head."
They were all waiting to see what would happen to her, so they didn't stop her.
Nevertheless, she still had to keep moving forward.
She will never look back.
Author's Note: My darlings, please add my pre-order novel, "It's Impossible to Be PUA'd by the Emperor," to your favorites! The synopsis was written impromptu two years ago and will likely be revised, but it will definitely maintain a tone of intense conflict between the male and female leads (I can't help it, I love writing about them falling into despair amidst their battles, haha). Anyway, please add it to your favorites! Thank you all for your recent support with nutrient solutions, comments, and landmines! *bows*
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