Chapter 68: So, Love Can Be Faked Too

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: So, Love Can Be Faked Too

’Festering sores all over, cankers in the mouth, bones turning soft and weak...’

Cui Lingyao was startled by a sudden realization.

She remembered that the Empress had also been gravely ill, and with the exact same symptoms.

"The Empress believed you were the reason I refused to marry Li Wanrong. Because of that, she couldn’t tolerate your presence. She wanted you dead to make way for Li Wanrong. So, in turn, I decided I couldn’t tolerate Li Wanrong,"

Xie Jinbai let out a scornful laugh. "Since she was so desperate to marry me and no one else, then she could go die."

Using the method the Empress had prepared.

It was a warning to the Empress.

A warning from a biological son to his mother.

Cui Lingyao pressed her lips together and asked him, "Did you know back then that the Empress wasn’t your birth mother?"

"No," Xie Jinbai’s tone was flat. "If I had known, I wouldn’t have been so polite."

’He called *that* polite.’

Cui Lingyao fell silent, unable to stop herself from shooting him a sidelong glance.

The look in her eyes was hard to describe.

It was very... expressive.

A flicker of movement in Xie Jinbai’s eyes. He said, "I’m not lying. I really was being very polite."

To the outside world, he was the Empress’s only son.

But the Empress was never warm toward him.

Ever since he was a child, whenever he went to pay his respects, the Empress would mostly ask about his studies.

In his memory, there had never been a single tender moment between mother and son.

And he himself wasn’t a person of overflowing emotions.

Over the years, there was truly little affection between them.

In those two years, the Empress had repeatedly targeted the woman he loved, her reach extending even to the person who shared his bed. If he hadn’t believed she was his birth mother, would he really have been so "polite"?

Xie Jinbai said, "After poisoning Li Wanrong, I had originally planned to have a direct confrontation with the Empress. I was going to warn her not to overreach, not to cause you trouble again. But right at that moment, I heard about a long-buried secret."

His parentage.

Cui Lingyao reacted instantly, staring at him blankly.

Xie Jinbai lowered his head, leaning in a little closer. He asked with a smile, "Desperate to know?"

"..." Cui Lingyao was silent.

"Alright, I’ll tell you." Xie Jinbai couldn’t resist. He reached out and gently grazed her cheek, asking softly, "Have you heard of Consort Lian?"

Cui Lingyao nodded, letting out a soft "mhm."

The old Emperor was a diligent ruler. In the decades since his ascension, the number of concubines in his harem was not large. The only one who could be said to have been doted on was Consort Lian, who passed away in her prime many years ago.

It was said her favor outshone everyone in the six palaces, and no one dared to compete with her radiance.

After Consort Lian’s death, if you looked through the entire harem, you couldn’t find a single favored consort.

Even the Liu Family’s Daughter, who gave birth to the youngest Prince, couldn’t be considered particularly favored.

Having grown up in the Capital City, how could Cui Lingyao not have heard of the famous Consort Lian?

’She finally gave some reaction.’

Xie Jinbai wanted to kiss her again. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he fought the urge. He restrained himself and continued:

"Years ago, Consort Lian and the Empress went into labor at the same time. The Empress delivered a stillborn, while Consort Lian, in contrast, successfully gave birth to a Prince before dying from a postpartum hemorrhage. That day, my father, the Emperor, had me sent to Qixiang Palace, and I became the legitimate Prince of the Central Palace. Very few people knew of this matter. It was of grave importance, so when I first heard the news, I couldn’t be certain it was true."

But doubts had indeed taken root in his mind.

The musk incident came first, then the poisoning.

’What kind of reason would make a mother not want her own son to have a legitimate firstborn son?’

’Or even poison her son’s original, primary wife just because he wouldn’t marry her niece?’

’If it wasn’t because she had an extremely stupid and vicious personality...’

’...then the only other possibility was a question of bloodline.’

The Empress might be vicious, but she was by no means stupid.

If he were her biological son, no matter how much she wanted to promote her maternal family, she would never do something that would so severely damage the bond between mother and son.

Therefore...

Xie Jinbai said, "If she wasn’t my birth mother, then I couldn’t afford to rashly have a confrontation and make an enemy of her."

The consequence of making her an enemy would be more schemes, impossible to defend against.

This time, with the Frost Kiss, it just so happened that a military physician from the Southern Border under my command discovered it.

’But what if next time, the Empress found some other secret poison that my people failed to detect?’

She wouldn’t even need to rely on bestowing gifts to carry out her schemes.

At palace banquets or during routine greetings, the Empress held the Phoenix Seal and controlled the Inner Court. Plotting against a Prince Consort would be all too easy for her.

Xie Jinbai’s expression turned serious. He asked her, "At that time, the Empress had already made her move with the poison, and I turned her plot back on Li Wanrong. In that situation, upon learning she wasn’t my birth mother, what would you have done?"

’What would I have done?’

Cui Lingyao’s lips trembled, but she said nothing.

Xie Jinbai waited a moment. Seeing her look as if she wanted to speak but was holding back, he said, "Outwardly, the Empress was eager for a Sun. Every five days, she would dispatch an Imperial Physician to take your pulse for a wellness check. Whether you were poisoned or not couldn’t be hidden for long. To stop her from making another move, I had to make her believe you were already poisoned."

This way, the Empress would back off and wouldn’t look for another opportunity to poison you.

It would also buy me time to thoroughly investigate my own origins.

’If the Empress was my birth mother, then all would be well.’

’But if she wasn’t...’

’...then Xie Jinbai would have to determine whether the Empress’s previous actions made her an enemy or an ally.’

’Many things had to be considered with a long-term plan.’

’I couldn’t act rashly and alert the enemy.’

He needed time.

And to make the Empress certain that Cui Lingyao was poisoned, I needed a physician’s report of a case of Frost Kiss poisoning.

That was the real reason Li Wanrong entered the household.

After all, Li Wanrong was the one who was actually poisoned. Her physician’s report could be used to deceive the Empress.

Cui Lingyao finally understood.

’So, that was how it was.’

She understood all the twists and turns of the past.

Xie Jinbai, however, felt no sense of relief.

He said, "For Li Wanrong to enter the household, to me, was just a matter of supporting one more person. I could just stick her in some corner, out of sight and out of mind. I would never have let her disturb our life, and it would have had no effect on me. But that’s only from my perspective. I couldn’t ignore your feelings."

Xie Jinbai stared fixedly at the woman before him, his gaze obscure and difficult to read, tinged with something like bitterness and pain. "Husband and wife are one entity. We should share in glory and disgrace together. I never thought to hide these things from you. Back then, when I mentioned taking Li Wanrong as a concubine, I wanted to tell you the whole story. Do you know why I didn’t?"

The hand hidden in her sleeve clenched into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. The slight pain helped Cui Lingyao clear her head, keeping her from being swayed by the accusation in his words.

She composed herself and was about to continue denying her identity, but Xie Jinbai knew her too well.

The moment she opened her mouth, he cut in, "Because I suddenly realized... you didn’t seem to love me."

What he had believed to be mutual affection, a deep and abiding love, a marriage of one heart, a bond to last through life and death—it all vanished overnight like a popped bubble.

It was all an illusion.

All a misconception.

His misconception.

Just as his love for her grew day by day, to the point where he considered her in every matter and tended to her every mood, he was struck by the sudden realization of this fact.

Xie Jinbai could never forget her reaction that day when he said he was going to take Li Wanrong as a concubine.

Before that, his household had been completely free of other women. He never frequented brothels. His attendants and subordinates were all men. There were no chattering beauties, no understanding confidantes by his side. He had never even spared another woman a second glance.

He had never given her a single opportunity to feel jealous.

That was the first time.

He had wanted to see the woman he loved show that she cared about him.

And yet, without the slightest hesitation, she had readily agreed the moment she heard the words.

It was as if his taking a concubine was a relief to her.

Xie Jinbai was shocked to realize that love, too, could be feigned.

He had been utterly deceived by her.