After spitting out a mouthful of blood, the Emperor no longer tried to maintain his composure. Eunuchs and imperial physicians rushed forward to attend to him.
Chu Zhao and the others all stepped back.
Xiao Yu also stood beside Chu Zhao again, holding her hand.
“Don’t be afraid,” Chu Zhao said, lowering her head to comfort him.
Xiao Yu nodded. He didn’t seem particularly frightened—perhaps he had already been scared numb.
However, the eunuchs and physicians were quickly driven away. The Emperor was much more dispirited than before, but still half-sat up, looking at Chu Zhao and pressing, “You tell me—how can I not be angry!”
“Your Majesty,” Chu Zhao bowed in acknowledgment of her fault. “This commoner girl is guilty. When I said ‘Your Majesty, don’t be angry,’ I didn’t mean for Your Majesty not to be angry.”
The Emperor looked at her and asked with a cold laugh, “Then what else could it mean?”
Chu Zhao said, “It meant I felt heartache for Your Majesty.”
Heartache for His Majesty? The Emperor froze. Deng Yi beside them glanced at Chu Zhao, pressed his lips, and lowered his head.
“So many things have happened, and all involving Your Majesty’s closest relatives. How could Your Majesty not be angry? But anger is useless and will only harm yourself,” Chu Zhao continued. “This commoner girl is helpless and can only say futilely, ‘Your Majesty, don’t be angry,’ hoping Your Majesty will take better care of yourself.”
Helpless, hoping His Majesty would take care of himself—yes, was that the meaning? The Emperor looked at this girl, his expression changing for a moment, then suddenly smiled.
“If you can’t speak properly, speak less,” he said. He also lost the inclination to rebuke further and glanced at Xiao Yu beside Chu Zhao. About to say something, in the end he didn’t.
It was meaningless.
“Take A’Yu and leave.”
Chu Zhao was stunned. “Leave? Go where?”
The Emperor looked at her. “Go to the border commandery. Go find your father. You now know how capable your father is, so take the Young Highness there.”
To actually—Chu Zhao couldn’t help but look toward Deng Yi.
Deng Yi met her gaze. “Miss Chu, what I said at the gate tower wasn’t ill will toward the Young Highness. My telling you to take the Young Highness and leave is the best choice for him. The Young Highness staying here is not safe.”
Chu Zhao looked at His Majesty again. “Your Majesty, the Young Highness is safest with you.”
The Emperor made a sound of acknowledgment. “I’m going to die. When I die, if he’s beside me, will he still be safe?”
Chu Zhao was stunned. Going to die?
She indeed knew the Emperor would die, but—
“I’m about to die very soon,” the Emperor said, looking at the girl’s expression and pointing at the bloodstains remaining on the floor. “I’ve been poisoned. I’m about to die very soon.”
So it was poison. Chu Zhao had a sudden realization. Her expression was melancholy as she stared blankly at the blood on the ground, hearing the Emperor’s voice in her ears.
“When I die, if A’Yu is still here, will he be safe?”
Chu Zhao raised her head. “Your Majesty, when you die, if A’Yu is not in the imperial city, he will be even less safe.”
He knew she wouldn’t give up. Deng Yi no longer spoke or rebuked, remaining silent.
The Emperor looked at Chu Zhao, his eyes turbid, his expression between a smile and not.
“He is the Crown Prince’s son, your eldest grandson. If he leaves the imperial city, he becomes nothing. In this world, there will be no place for him,” Chu Zhao said.
The Emperor’s gaze turned to Xiao Yu, his expression indifferent. “He is the Crown Prince’s son, my eldest grandson. The Crown Prince is dead, I will die—he truly will be nothing.”
The small child probably couldn’t comprehend at all what it meant to be nothing. He just held Chu Zhao’s hand motionlessly, waiting for others to decide his future.
The doting gaze of his imperial grandfather could no longer be seen, and having glanced once, he looked away.
As if this child had no connection to him whatsoever.
The Emperor’s gaze returned to Chu Zhao.
“A person who is nothing—hide far away. Isn’t your father very capable? Go find him.”
Having said this, his strength seemed exhausted. He slowly lay back down, not wanting to say another word.
Hearing this, Chu Zhao finally understood completely. At this very moment, not only had Deng Yi chosen Xiao Xun, the Emperor had also chosen Xiao Xun.
Why?
In that previous life, it was one thing. But in this life, the Young Highness was still alive.
“Your Majesty,” she asked directly. “The Young Highness is still alive. The Crown Prince is gone, you will be gone—he won’t be nothing. He will be the master of the imperial city, the master of the realm.”
The Emperor looked at this girl and laughed heartily, reaching out to point at Xiao Yu.
“Miss Chu, the Crown Prince is gone, I will be gone—he can be master of this realm and imperial city? Miss Chu, if he truly becomes this master, that will be a dead end.”
Deng Yi looked at Chu Zhao. “Miss Chu, in matters of family and state, there’s no room for emotional decisions. His Majesty knows what he’s doing. Take the Young Highness and leave. Go find your father. This is the Young Highness’s best path to survival.”
Chu Zhao looked at them. She actually understood the Emperor and Deng Yi’s decision. In the current world, Prince Zhongshan’s heir was the most suitable successor, and also the inevitable choice. Xiao Yu, this six-year-old child—even with legitimate bloodline, without the Crown Prince, without the Emperor, Prince Zhongshan and his son could swallow him whole in one gulp.
Rather than being eliminated and having the throne seized, it was better to withdraw early and still obtain a path to survival.
Indeed, for Xiao Yu, this was the best path.
In this life, she also wouldn’t marry Xiao Xun again. She would take Xiao Yu and leave the capital, flee far to the border commandery, and from then on live freely.
Wasn’t this what she had always wanted—to go back and see Father?
Thinking of Father, Chu Zhao felt very happy, yet also heartbroken.
“Your Majesty,” she said. “My father is also going to die.”
Silence in the hall.
The Emperor on the dragon bed looked at her, his eyes momentarily blank. Yes, he remembered now. It seemed someone had said Chu Ling was ill.
It seemed he had even written a letter saying he was going to die, bidding farewell to His Majesty.
Where had that letter gone? Probably thrown into the incense burner and burned.
The Emperor lowered his gaze and said indifferently, “Even if General Chu dies, he will arrange things well for you.”
Father would certainly do so. In that previous life, she had been able to live so long because of Father. Though Father had died, he still protected her life for so many years.
No, that wasn’t right.
Chu Zhao raised her head. Father was very capable, but precisely because Father was capable, how could Xiao Xun spare her?
The Emperor would die, Father would die. If she took Xiao Yu to the border commandery with the Longwei Army beside them—Xiao Xun as Emperor would never let her go.
Not just Xiao Xun, but also the Xie clan—Xie Yanfang.
The Crown Prince died violently, Xiao Xun ascended the throne—how could Xie Yanfang accept his fate? In that previous life, even without Xiao Yu alive, he still rebelled.
In this life, with Xiao Yu alive, how could he let it rest?!
In this world, she couldn’t escape.
“Your Majesty,” she raised her head to look at the Emperor. “Since you believe my father can protect the Young Highness safely in the border commandery, why can’t you believe he can protect the Young Highness to sit firmly on this throne?”
Deng Yi glanced over. However, these words weren’t particularly strange. Having brought Xiao Yu into the palace, Chu Zhao must have the goal of having the Chu clan protect the throne. With such great merit, who would willingly miss it?
That was why he hadn’t approved of her entering earlier—because this goal was impossible.
The Emperor looked at the girl, amused by her words. “Didn’t you say yourself that he’s going to die? How can he protect the throne?”
“He may die, but as long as the world sees his heart to protect the throne, it’s as if he still lives,” Chu Zhao said.
The Emperor shook his head. “How can they see?”
No one saw him while he was alive—how would they see when he’s dead?
Chu Zhao lowered her head to look at Xiao Yu. The blank child immediately noticed and raised his head to look at her. Without speaking or asking questions, he only tightened his grip on her hand.
“Let me—” Chu Zhao raised her head and said, “be the Young Highness’s Empress.”
A bolt of lightning seemed to flash through the hall.
Deng Yi looked at this girl, momentarily slightly stunned.
So it could be done this way.
……
(End of this volume)