In her attempt to support her adopted son’s rise, Empress Dowager Xiao had gone so far as to harm the Empress, causing her to be poisoned and nearly miscarry. The news reached Chenliu Wang’s residence immediately. The couple hurried to the palace, first to Xuanhe Hall. They didn’t see the Empress, only her head maid, Chunyue, whose eyes were red from crying. Chunyue said she had accompanied Her Majesty to the Empress Dowager’s palace; all had been fine at first, the Empress Dowager even offered her wine. But after one sip, everything went wrong.
Could it really have been the Empress Dowager’s doing? Chenliu Wang’s already pale face turned ashen. He grasped his wife’s hand, speechless, until she found her voice and asked after the Empress’s condition. Of course, the Empress was fine, it was the decoy who’d taken the poisoned wine. But there was no need to tell them that; they only needed to understand what the Empress Dowager had intended.
Chunyue described the “Empress’s” poisoning as truthfully as she could. Hearing that the Emperor had been there the whole time, the couple dared not intrude on him and decided to visit the Empress Dowager instead.
Chenliu Wang was filled with regret. The day before, the Empress Dowager had made her position clear, she wanted to crown a royal younger brother, and showed little regard for the Empress’s pregnancy. He had found that troubling and tried to advise her. Later, upon seeing his brother and sister-in-law, he had thought to warn them, but hesitated, family harmony mattered most, after all. The Yuwen clan had so few members left; if they turned against one another, what would be the point? Never had he imagined the Empress Dowager would act so quickly, and so ruthlessly.
What was so special about that Mingyue? Worth offending her own son for him?
Anger surged as Chenliu Wang reached Zhaoyang Hall. Seeing the Empress Dowager not only unrepentant but faintly disappointed that the Empress had survived, he was chilled to the bone. “Royal Mother, you’re delusional. For a b*stard child, you’d go against your own son? Have you forgotten who gave you everything you have today?”
“That is your brother, not a b*stard.” Empress Dowager Xiao glared at him. “Everything I have today is because of your imperial brother, but everything he has now was fought for by me. When he was five, I risked everything to send him away from this man-eating place. Every year I sent your uncle great sums of silver, so he could raise your brother well, hire tutors, send him to scholars. Have I ever wronged him? If anything, it’s thanks to me he even survived! And now he has everything, but what about Mingyue? His very birth is questioned. You don’t help him gain his rightful place, and instead you cause trouble? I’m not asking for much, I don’t want to depose the Emperor now. He can rule in peace all his life. But after a hundred years, he should pass the throne to his brother. What’s so unreasonable about that?”
She thought she was being perfectly fair. Why, then, did her eldest son look so pained?
Chenliu Wang knew she loved the adopted son more than her real ones, but not this much. His face hardened. “You make it sound simple. But my brother and his wife love each other. They can have children of their own. Why should the throne go to his little brother? If he doesn’t agree, you’ll just force him? Even poison the Empress?”
“I didn’t poison her.” After all, the child she carried was her own grandson. Even a tiger doesn’t eat its cubs.
“So instead you meant to take the poison yourself and blame her for it, so you could control her afterward. Isn’t that right?”
He knew his mother too well. Wicked, but never completely, softhearted, yet blind in her affections. That was how she’d once lost to the Wang sisters. Seeing her guilty expression, he knew he’d guessed correctly.
“There’s no need to say more. Hand Mingyue over to me. That person must not stay. If you must hate someone, hate me. We three, you, me, and my brother, have come too far to let anyone tear us apart again.”
Empress Dowager Xiao was utterly shocked, but she quickly steadied herself. “If you want to kill your brother, then you’ll have to kill me first.”
That resolute expression, born from a mother’s instinct to protect her son, was something Chenliu Wang hadn’t seen in a long time. Only now did he suddenly understand: Empress Dowager Xiao had long since given her maternal love not only to the emperor but also to Mingyue. As for him, the son who had always been by her side, he was never as important as that adopted child she clung to for survival. Mother and son parted on bad terms.
***
A strange rumor spread throughout Great Zhou: the emperor and the Empress Dowager had fallen out over an adopted son. It was said that this adopted son was also the late emperor’s child, though his birth mother had been a lowly palace maid serving the Empress Dowager. Fearing that the Empress Wang sisters might harm the infant, Empress Dowager Xiao had hidden the boy away since birth. Only after she became Empress Dowager did she reveal his existence to the court.
That alone wasn’t so shocking. What truly astounded people was that the Empress Dowager treated this adopted son even better than her own. She even wanted her biological son, the emperor, to name the adopted son as Crown Prince. To achieve this, she went so far as to harm the pregnant Empress, poisoning her and nearly causing her to miscarry.
After much struggle, the Empress barely managed to keep the child, but the Empress Dowager still refused to relent. She raised a clamor to grant the adopted son a fief and a princely title. The entire court objected, including her eldest son, Chenliu Wang, but the old lady was determined. She frightened both her son and daughter-in-law to the point that the emperor finally fled the capital with the Empress.
Yes, fled. They escaped to the Changchun Villa, a hundred li outside the capital, leaving the Empress Dowager to do as she pleased in the imperial city.
Whoever heard of this royal scandal couldn’t help but say the Empress Dowager had gone senile. Why throw away a peaceful life, all for some adopted son who’d appeared out of nowhere? Even if the boy had been raised by her and shared a deep bond, he could still enjoy endless glory and wealth as a titled prince under the protection of his two elder brothers. Why must he be made the Crown Prince? Of course, since Prince Mingyue had never appeared in public, no one could say for sure whether he was the one being greedy, but since all this chaos stemmed from the Empress Dowager’s favoritism toward him, he could hardly be blameless.
Some thought the Empress Dowager was in the wrong, but there were also those who sympathized, seeing it as a mother’s natural bias toward her younger child. In any case, everyone in the capital had their own opinions.
Meng Guqing didn’t care about any of it. She had endured all this play-acting only so Xiao Shuo could withdraw safely with public sympathy on his side. Now that they had escaped, what did the rest matter? Her only worry was one thing: “The Empress Dowager won’t reach out to former ministers and try to depose you in favor of Mingyue, will she?”
“The Empress Dowager doesn’t even know any of those ministers,” Xiao Shuo said. “And they’re not fools. I’m still sitting on the throne, without legitimacy or proper backing, even if they pushed my brother up, it’d be useless. Let alone any other stray cats and dogs.”
So long as there wouldn’t be a coup, Meng Guqing let out a sigh of relief. She clipped off a blooming crabapple flower and dropped it into the basket Xiao Shuo was carrying. Smiling, she said, “Then let’s just live here from now on. Everyone already knows we don’t get along with the Empress Dowager, so even if we don’t return, they’ll understand.”
“You wouldn’t let me kill anyone and made me go through all this just to live outside the palace, didn’t you? Fine. We won’t go back.”
“So what if we went in circles? I’m very happy with how things turned out, no one died, and everyone can see your grievances. When word spreads, the people will think of you as a filial and benevolent ruler.” That, after all, would be a great boon for the realm.
“What grievances do I have?” he muttered. The ones who could make him feel wronged, grass had already grown three feet high on their graves.
“Then I’ll feel wronged for you.” Meng Guqing leaned gently against him. The golden autumn sunlight poured over her smooth, radiant face. Looking at her like that, he felt his heart fill with a tender warmth.
Thinking back to the man he’d been just a year ago felt like looking across a lifetime. In all his twenty-some years, he hadn’t done many things he could say were truly right, but taking her away was the one decision he never regretted.
Of course, such thoughts were best kept to himself; saying them aloud would only earn him one of her eyerolls.
Xiao Shuo couldn’t help the slight curve of his lips. Ever since being with her, he’d found himself smiling more, and for the first time, those smiles were real.
Fortunately, there would be many such moments still to come.
End of the story.
Another novel completed!!! Thank you to all the readers who joined us on this journey and supported my translations, it really does mean a lot!!! <3 If you enjoyed the translations and the novel, please make sure to give the novel a good rating and review on Novelupdates or donate on Ko-fi or Paypal <3P.S. Go check out the other amazing novels being translated on this site :))
Thank you for all hard work 🩷🫶