NFBE Chapter 190 The Ruthless and Disabled Crown Prince (94)
Chapter 190 The Ruthless and Disabled Crown Prince (94)
In the end, the Empress did nothing to Lu Liruan.
Lu Liruan was not entirely unaware of this. Once, when she returned to the palace to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager gave her a hint.
Lu Liruan was quite shocked.
The Empress is now making enemies of everyone! Lu Liruan felt that since she returned to the palace, she could no longer suppress the hatred in her heart. Perhaps everyone was a part of her misfortune.
She seems to be trapped.
Lu Liruan didn't pity her. Given the chance, she would hurt others. If such a person were to rise to a high position smoothly, who knows what might happen to her.
"Tell me, if the Empress had won that day, what would the palace be like now?" Lu Liruan once asked Ji Shumin.
"I don't know." Ji Shumin waved his hand, signaling Lu Liruan not to move.
Lu Liruan sighed. Recently, Ji Shumin had been keen on painting people, so Lu Liruan was constantly being manipulated by him. Sometimes she would sit in one position for half an hour, and if she moved even slightly, she would be complained about.
"You won't even let me draw you!" Lu Liruan pouted.
“If Li Ruan’s paintings were preserved, people would think I was so ugly…” Ji Shumin chuckled.
"Then I want to know how I won Li Ruan's heart." He put down his pen, his eyes, as delicate as a fine brush painting, crinkling with laughter.
Lu Liruan felt guilty for a moment, but was distracted by his handsome appearance as he leaned in.
Ji Shumin was always handsome, but his good looks were completely overshadowed by his aura. In the past, people paid more attention to his power and talent than his appearance. After he lost power, they judged his character, saying that he was sinister and tyrannical, fearing that he was fickle and ruthless. Almost no one cared how handsome he was.
Ji Shumin didn't think so. It wasn't that he didn't know he was born with good looks, but for him, or for princes and powerful ministers like them, it was nothing important, just icing on the cake.
Until he met Lu Liruan.
Ji Shumin realized for the first time that his good looks were very tangible...
At the very beginning, when Li Ruan was finding fault with her, she would stare blankly at her own face.
Ji Shumin, who had been listless and devoid of interest, was amused by Lu Liruan's appearance.
The Crown Prince at the time was used to flattery and hypocrisy. When he suddenly saw such straightforward, silent yet undisguised praise, it was not because he liked or appreciated external things, but because it was something he was born with.
Ji Shumin never told Lu Liruan that he had indeed given up on himself because of his broken body, and it was Lu Liruan's unknowing gaze that helped him emerge from that state.
Lu Liruan thought that Ji Shumin didn't care about these things, but as a human being, how could he not care about his own defects? It's just that he has a strong spirit and can try to let go and ignore them.
But Li Ruan likes it, Li Ruan loves watching it...
"Why are you smiling at me like that?" Lu Liruan asked, moving her aching shoulders when she saw that he had stopped drawing.
Ji Shumin had her sit on his lap and massaged her intermittently.
"I painted Pear Ruan with joy in my heart. Whenever someone sees it in the future, they will know how much I love you."
Lu Liruan realized that Ji Shumin's mouth could be both good and bad. When he was good, the words he spoke could sweeten your heart, but when he wanted to upset you, the words he said could make you want to kill him.
By the time Lu Liruan was completely charmed by him, Ji Shumin was already able to paint without her watching.
The Empress looked down at Consort Rong's hysterical outburst and was reminded of herself back then.
I was in an even worse situation than her back then, isolated and helpless, asking everyone for help, but no one could help me.
Looking at Consort Rong now, the Empress showed no mercy whatsoever.
"Why are you crying like this? Buddhism teaches cause and effect, so this... can be considered retribution, right?" The Empress squatted down, took Consort Rong's hand, and let her touch the Buddhist beads on her wrist.
Although the Empress showed no fear, Consort Rong was so frightened that she retreated repeatedly. When she touched the string of cold Buddhist beads, she screamed in terror as if she had been burned, and crawled backward without any regard for her image.
Then it bumped into something.
Looking up, she was met with the stern face of Granny Ma. The palace servants who used to serve her had all disappeared. The Empress had already taken control of the harem.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I beg you, if you want retribution, then punish me! I was wrong! I was the one who did what happened back then! It had nothing to do with Lie'er! Lie'er... Lie'er doesn't know anything!" Consort Rong was terrified that the Empress would really do something to her child.
She has no way of getting any news about the Seventh Prince, and her heart feels like it's in an ice cellar; she's worried for a single second.
She could be indifferent to everything, but she couldn't be indifferent to her child. As long as the Seventh Prince was safe and sound, Consort Rong was willing to do anything.
"I want to see the Emperor! The Emperor will definitely not care about Lie'er! It must be you who has deceived the Emperor. How could the Emperor allow you to take Lie'er's life!" On Consort Rong's pale face, there was no longer any arrogance, only fear and pleading.
"Your Majesty... I have never stopped Your Majesty from coming to see you." The Empress raised her hand to wipe away Consort Rong's tears. The handkerchief was so soft, yet the Empress's force left a red mark on Consort Rong's face.
Consort Rong was in pain, but dared not resist at all, and kept muttering that she wanted to see the Emperor.
For so many years, Consort Rong has been the Emperor's most favored woman. She has become accustomed to relying on the Emperor. Now that the Emperor no longer cares about her, she is helpless and doesn't even have the ability to protect herself.
"Do you know that these princes are not only his sons, but also karmic obstacles that divide his fortune? The longer they live and the healthier they are, the more they will take away the emperor's dragon aura..." The Empress laughed, and what she said made Consort Rong feel incredulous.
"Tell me, will His Majesty cherish them as his own children and be willing to nurture them with his own dragon energy, or will he avoid having his dragon energy and fortune shared with them..." The Empress didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was already very clear.
"What are you saying? Are you...are you crazy?" Consort Rong murmured.
"His Majesty detests witchcraft the most, how could he possibly believe in this? You must be lying to me. His Majesty loves Lie'er the most. Ever since Lie'er was little, His Majesty has said that Lie'er is most like him!" Consort Rong spoke incoherently, repeating those few words as if trying to convince herself.
Actually, she wasn't completely oblivious.
After being the emperor's bedmate for so many years, how could she not sense the changes in him?
In previous years, the emperor had focused his mind on politics, but later he became increasingly suspicious, and even Consort Rong was unwilling to stay by his side.
But I never imagined that the emperor would have such thoughts about his own son.
Because she had a premonition, when the Empress mentioned it, Consort Rong said she didn't believe it, but in her heart she already believed it to some extent.
"No, how could His Majesty believe in witchcraft?"
"He naturally won't believe anything that's bad for him, but how could he not believe anything that's good for him..." the Empress mocked.
"Aren't you afraid I'll tell the Emperor what you said?" Consort Rong could sense that the Empress no longer had any respect for the Emperor.
"If you have such abilities, why would you be kneeling at my feet?" the Empress said disdainfully.
"If you want to try, you might as well. Guess whether your child will live longer under my care or under the Emperor's?" The Empress suddenly uttered this heart-wrenching question.
Consort Rong immediately broke down.
She wailed uncontrollably, not with tears streaming down her face, and no one appreciated her cries. She couldn't stop crying, as if her child would be alright if she kept running away.
"Have you chosen?"
At the Empress's signal, Granny Ma supported Consort Rong's lower back and lifted her up to face the Empress.
"Your Majesty, why don't you let me..."
"How exactly did Min'er's leg break? If you can tell me the whole story, perhaps I can consider it."
The Empress also asked Ji Shumin this question, but Ji Shumin said nothing.
The more he remained silent, the more the Empress wanted to know. The person who broke Ji Shumin's leg was also someone who opposed her, and she had to find out who it was.
"I don't know! I don't know!" Consort Rong dared not lie at this moment, lest she anger the Empress.
"Fine, I'll give you three to five days. If you can't make a choice, I'll choose for you." The Empress was fed up with listening to her crying.
Looking back, I realize how incompetent and weak I was, yet I made things so difficult for myself back then.
The reason was that she was too weak back then. The Empress stopped and listened to Consort Rong's howl, which was imprinted in her heart, reminding her not to fall into such a state again.
After the Empress left, the people who served Consort Rong reappeared silently.
Everything seemed as if it had never happened, but Consort Rong, in her own palace, felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, with no sense of security whatsoever.
It felt like everyone around him was staring at him!
She beckoned her trusted nanny to step forward, and the nanny, trembling, said, "Your Highness, the Imperial Concubine..."
"Go and invite the Emperor... no, forget it, don't go!" Consort Rong covered her face, her heart already tipped in one direction.
On the third night, the Seventh Prince's palace urgently summoned the imperial physician. The Seventh Prince had a high fever and was delirious. He suddenly went mad, climbed onto the roof, and jumped off.
One arm and one leg were broken, and the broken arm bone protruded directly from the skin and flesh, white and bare!
The scene was extremely horrific. The palace servants dared not move him easily and could only wait for the imperial physician to arrive. The seventh prince, dressed in a thin undergarment, lay on the ground where the snow had not yet melted, barely clinging to life for the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn.
When the imperial physician arrived and moved him back into the room, his exposed skin had turned bluish-purple, as if he had lost all vitality.
By the time the treatment was finished, it was already dawn.
Upon hearing of this, the Emperor granted Consort Rong the permission to lift her confinement and visit the Seventh Prince.
As Consort Rong stepped out of her palace gate, supported by her nanny, she looked at the leaden sky and was so dazzled by the white snow that her legs went weak and she was about to fall to the ground when her nanny caught her in time.
"Your Highness, please hold on! The Seventh Prince is still waiting for you!" the nanny whispered anxiously.
"Yes...yes! Lie'er is still waiting for me!" Consort Rong murmured. Her face, without any makeup, was completely different from the once dignified and domineering Consort Rong. For several days and nights without seeing the sun, Consort Rong was as if she had been subjected to cycles of freezing cold and scorching fire, which had completely drained her spirit.
When they arrived at the Seventh Prince's palace, the imperial physicians had already left, and the Seventh Prince had also chased the servants out of the room.
What Consort Rong saw was a dimly lit room where the Seventh Prince lay lifeless on the bed, his eyes wide open and unfocused.
"Lie'er!" Consort Rong rushed over, wanting to touch him, but dared not touch him anywhere, her hand outstretched, hovering in mid-air.
"Lie'er! Look at your mother!" Consort Rong covered her mouth, not daring to cry too loudly.
Finally, the Seventh Prince slowly turned his head and barely opened his mouth: "Mother...why?"
Consort Rong glanced outside the door and gestured to the Seventh Prince not to be so loud.
"Lie'er, please be well... I beg you! I don't ask for anything else, I only ask that you live well!" Consort Rong dared not speak loudly, for fear that there were spies here, so she could only repeat this sentence over and over again.
"Mother, who harmed me! Who!" The Seventh Prince suddenly roared, pounding his broken hand on the bed with such force that blood was drawn after just a few blows...
Consort Rong wrapped her hand around his hand and pressed him down forcefully.
"Lie'er...you need to focus on recovering now, okay? Your mother can't be here with you, so be good. Your mother won't hurt you! Your mother only hopes you can stay safe and sound!"
The Seventh Prince seemed to sense Consort Rong's helplessness and despair. He loosened his grip and let the pain wash over him, tears streaming down his face.
"Mother, my life is... over." His voice was hoarse and strained.
"No, Lie'er, you have your mother. Your mother will protect you!"
Neither of them mentioned the emperor; it seemed that in that short time, they had both understood something.
The seventh prince asked silently, "Why..."
Consort Rong could not answer either.
In the blink of an eye, everything changed!
Consort Rong could not stay for too long, so she had to leave, turning back every few steps.
The Emperor only asked a few questions about the Seventh Prince's situation and did not visit him personally.
He had grown a beard and looked thin, but his spirit was very vigorous, vaguely resembling that of a man in his prime.
The matter concerning the Seventh Prince shocked both the court and the public. There were only a handful of people with the status and ability to compete for the position of Crown Prince.
The second prince was rejected, and at this time... the seventh prince also became disabled.
Could it be that it is what everyone hopes for, or what destiny has ordained?
Could it be that a prince raised in a Buddhist temple truly has a connection with Buddhism and is protected by it?
The rumor seemed to be getting out of control, and it even reached Ji Shuqin's ears. Whether it was intentional or not is unknown, but Ji Shuqin frowned deeply after hearing it.
He headed towards the Phoenix Palace, but he didn't know what he wanted to say or do...