Chapter 15
Chapter 15
The letter of divorce I sent to the palace was suppressed by my Empress Mother.
Then, with overwhelming speed, she issued an imperial decree marrying Kangle into the Wuling Prince’s Mansion.
The Prince of Wuling had fought alongside Taizu to conquer the realm; he was a renowned Iron-cap Prince.
This time, Kangle had gone too far, and my Empress Mother was truly enraged. No matter how much Kangle threw a tantrum in the palace, she was ignored. When Kangle threatened to take her own life, the Empress Mother countered by threatening Wei Zhao’s life.
Kangle did not understand.
“Zhao Ziyu already agreed to it! Why won’t you?”
“You keep saying you love me, but you’re clearly favoring Zhao Ziyu!”
Kangle finally demanded an answer.
My Empress Mother responded by giving her two solid slaps across the face.
These reports trickled out of the palace bit by bit. I didn’t know if the Empress Mother was letting me hear them on purpose as a gesture of goodwill, or if that was simply how things were.
Regardless, I didn’t care in the slightest.
I had many things to attend to.
The Emperor didn’t want me to live, but I very much wanted to live myself.
On this day, my Imperial Father summoned me to the palace.
The moment I entered the Imperial Study, a paperweight came flying toward me.
I tilted my head, dodging it.
A paperweight that large hitting my forehead would have left me disfigured.
It would be such a pity to ruin a face as beautiful as mine.
My Imperial Father was livid, slamming his hand on the desk as he stood up.
“Kneel!”
I knelt on the ground, deciding to strike first.
“Imperial Father, why do you hate me so much?”
“What?”
He was stunned by my question.
Presumably, no one in this world had ever been bold enough to ask him that.
I repeated myself.
“Imperial Father, why do you hate me so much?”
“Kangle is clearly the one who did wrong. Why did the Empress Mother hit her, and why are you trying to hit me too?”
“Since you both loathe me so much, why did you let me return from the Buddhist temple?”
“Since you didn’t want to grant Kangle’s marriage, why didn’t you tell her clearly? Why did you make her hate me?”
“Am I even your biological daughter?”
A brief, agonizing silence followed. My Imperial Father gritted his teeth, forcing out every word.
“You! Shut! Up!”
I felt a secret joy in my heart.
It was an indescribable pleasure to tear away someone’s mask.
My Imperial Father still cared about his reputation, after all.
He truly lacked the courage to look me in the eye and say I wasn’t his daughter. The embarrassment of admitting he had raised someone else’s child for eighteen years was something an ordinary man couldn’t handle, let alone an Emperor.
Even though he hadn’t actually raised me.
But I did indeed hold the status of his daughter.
He refused to be swayed by me and coldly threw an imperial decree at my feet.
“Raid the Wei Family for me, and you will remain my daughter. Otherwise, you can live as a dog begging for scraps.”
I looked at the decree lying by my feet but did not pick it up.
I raised my eyes to meet his.
“Then I ask that Imperial Father strip me of my title as Princess Chang’an and demote me to a commoner.”
“You think I won’t dare?”
I didn’t answer.
How would I know if he dared or not?
After all, his logic had always been different from that of normal people.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to kill his brother and take his sister-in-law, raise the daughter of his enemy, and take down two Prime Ministers in one fell swoop.
I walked out of the Imperial Study feeling a sense of liberation.
No more acting for my Imperial Father and Empress Mother, no more taking the fall for them, and no more carrying the heavy burden of Wei Zhao. It felt wonderful.
With a life this grand, what did it matter if I was a princess or not?