Chapter 10
Chapter 10
I knelt there, the sunlight spilling over me, yet I felt a sudden, inexplicable chill.
An instinct deep within warned me that this question was vital. One wrong answer would mean utter ruin.
I remained frozen for a long time before finally whispering, “No.”
The moment the word left my lips, I knew I had made a mistake. The Emperor lowered his gaze, a flash of undeniable disappointment crossing his eyes.
He let out a soft sigh, and his expression returned to its usual coldness.
“You may withdraw.”
He did not look at me again.
As I stepped out of the Imperial Study, the shadows of dusk were closing in.
Wang Fuhai was waiting for me at the door. I leaned on his arm as he escorted me back to the detached villa.
Once we were alone, I whispered, “Wang Fuhai, could you tell me more about the Emperor’s past?”
I hadn’t paid much attention to the Emperor before. I had assumed that, to Princess Xunyang, he was merely a stranger, so I had focused all my energy on the Empress Dowager.
But now, my intuition told me I was wrong.
“The Emperor is the grandson of Crown Prince Duanyi. The Crown Prince once offended Shizu and was stripped of his rank, reduced to a commoner, and exiled to Jiangzhou…” Wang Fuhai began to speak in a low voice.
It was a long history, but to put it simply, the Emperor came from the most destitute branch of the imperial clan.
His parents died young, and he had no servants left by his side, save for one fiercely loyal page.
When he was thirteen, he and the page traveled toward the capital. However, they encountered bandits at West Mountain on the outskirts of the city. The page died protecting him.
When the Emperor finally entered the city, he was alone, covered in dust and grime, carrying nothing but a tattered bundle.
This was a humble moment from the past that the Son of Heaven least wanted others to know about. Consequently, the elders who knew of this history kept their mouths shut.
If Wang Fuhai hadn’t told me, I likely would never have known this story.
I sat there, clutching my teacup, listening intently.
My gut told me that a crucial clue was hidden within this tale.
“The Emperor is a man of great sentiment and loyalty. After he ascended the throne, he even posthumously granted that page, who died for him, the title of a prince of a different surname…”
“Wait.” The teacup in my hand suddenly hit the floor. “Where did you say the Emperor encountered those bandits before entering the capital?”
“West Mountain.”
My body began to tremble.
A month before her death, Princess Xunyang had gone to a Buddhist temple in the outskirts of the capital to offer incense. It was during that trip that she contracted the plague, which claimed her life after she returned to the palace.
That temple was located at West Mountain.
That was why the Emperor had asked me if I had truly never seen him before.
Princess Xunyang had met the Emperor! There, at West Mountain, the humble youth entering the capital and the beloved little princess at the height of her favor had crossed paths.
Perhaps something profound had happened between them, but later, life and death had pulled them apart.
The moment I answered that I had never seen him, I had already lost the upper hand.
It was highly likely that Liu Ningshen knew this story.
As it turned out, my premonition was correct.