Chapter 631 - 634: The Past

Chapter 631: Chapter 634: The Past

Hua Manman was sleeping soundly when she suddenly heard a cat’s meow.

MEOW!

’Manman, someone’s coming!’

Hua Manman was jolted awake.

She opened her eyes to see Little Flower crouching beside her head, its two ears pricked high, looking very wary.

Hua Manman opened a hidden compartment, took out a dagger, and hid it in her sleeve. Then she reached out to push open the carriage door.

The door opened slowly, and she saw Ah Qi standing beside the carriage.

Ah Qi’s right hand was still hovering in mid-air.

He seemed taken aback that the door would suddenly open. After a brief pause, he explained.

"I saw your husband and father-in-law go into the woods just now, but I haven’t seen them return. There are many wild beasts in there. I was worried they might be in danger, so I came specifically to tell you."

Hua Manman stuck her head out to look.

A quick glance confirmed that Li Ji and Li Liao were nowhere in sight.

Just then, Yue Niang woke up too.

She sat up, her eyes half-open, and asked.

"What’s wrong?"

Hua Manman said, "It’s nothing. You can go back to sleep."

She grabbed a cloak, draped it over her shoulders, and jumped down from the carriage.

She planned to send someone to find Li Ji and Li Liao and see where they had gone.

At that moment, Yue Niang also got out of the carriage.

Hua Manman turned her head and said to her, "Didn’t I tell you to go back to sleep?"

Yue Niang tightened the outer robe around herself and said helplessly.

"Now that you’re awake, how could I possibly sleep soundly?"

Hua Manman said to Ah Qi.

"Thank you for the warning. I’ll have someone look for them right away. It’s getting late, you should get some rest too."

Ah Qi nodded in agreement.

Hua Manman turned with Yue Niang and started walking in Bian Ziming’s direction.

But the next moment, Hua Manman felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck, as if something had pricked her.

Then her vision went black, and her body went limp, slumping to the side.

Ah Qi swiftly caught her.

Yue Niang’s face drained of color. "Madam, what’s wrong?"

Ah Qi said, "I’ll help her back to the carriage. You go find her husband."

Yue Niang was completely flustered, and she quickly agreed upon hearing his words.

She scurried off to find Bian Ziming, wanting him to dispatch men to find the Regent King immediately.

Ah Qi scooped the unconscious Manman into his arms.

However, he didn’t carry Manman back to the carriage. Instead, he strode toward the resting area of the Xiliang Delegation.

...

「In the forest.」

Li Liao slowly revealed a secret he had hidden for many years.

"The truth is, you are not the biological son of myself and the Commandery Princess."

Li Ji was about to say he already knew.

But he quickly realized the subject of that sentence wasn’t just Li Liao, but also Princess Rouwan.

In other words, not only was he not Li Liao’s son, but he also wasn’t Princess Rouwan’s biological son.

Li Ji stood frozen to the spot.

Unable to accept this reality, he forced a stiff laugh.

"What kind of joke is this?"

But Li Liao wasn’t joking at all.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked at the grown-up Li Ji before him and spoke unhurriedly.

"This story goes back twenty-one years.

Back then, Crown Prince Li Shu was framed for treason and rebellion.

Everyone in the Crown Prince Mansion, over three hundred people, was arrested. They were either killed or exiled.

Even the Crown Prince’s birth mother, Empress Ji, was forced to commit suicide by self-immolation in Chaoyang Palace."

Li Ji had heard of this incident.

Back then, the family of Li Ying’s birth mother had been implicated in Crown Prince Li Shu’s rebellion case, which led to their family being shattered and ruined, triggering that whole series of tragedies.

Li Ji frowned. "What does this have to do with me?"

Li Liao gave him a deep look.

"After the Crown Prince learned his doom was inevitable...

He fled Shangjing with the Crown Princess Consort.

The Crown Princess Consort was heavily pregnant at the time, about to go into labor.

To protect the Crown Princess Consort and their unborn child, the Crown Prince used himself as a decoy to lead the pursuers away.

In the end, the Crown Prince was captured and died a miserable death in prison.

The Crown Princess Consort suffered a difficult birth with massive hemorrhaging. She gave everything she had to deliver a son before she passed away."

As he spoke, Li Liao could almost see the poignant yet resolute expression on the Crown Princess Consort’s face before she died.

She had gripped Li Liao’s sleeve with her blood-soaked hands, pleading desperately.

"This is the Crown Prince’s last descendant. I’m begging you, you must take good care of him."

Only after Li Liao tearfully nodded and promised did the Crown Princess Consort finally let go, closing her eyes in peace.

Hearing this, Li Ji’s mind went completely blank.

He opened his mouth and asked, almost mechanically.

"Are you saying I’m actually the son of the former Crown Prince Li Shu?"

Li Liao gave an affirmative reply.

"Yes."

Li Ji struggled to remain calm. "If what you’re saying is true, then what about your and Princess Rouwan’s child?"

Li Liao closed his eyes and said gravely.

"The Commandery Princess took an abortifacient while she was pregnant. Although it didn’t terminate the pregnancy, it caused great harm to the fetus in her womb.

On top of that, she gave birth prematurely, and the baby was extremely frail.

The child stopped breathing as soon as it was born."

Li Ji never could have imagined this was the truth.

Li Liao continued.

"At that time, I was vexed, unsure of how to place you.

Your identity was too sensitive. Once it was exposed, it would surely bring about a fatal disaster.

It just so happened that the Commandery Princess’s child had died, so I had you take the child’s place.

This way, not only would the Commandery Princess be spared the pain of losing her son, but you could also grow up safely in the Duke Zhen Country Mansion."

And everything did indeed develop just as he had expected.

No one knew Li Ji’s true identity. Under Li Liao’s meticulous tutelage, he grew up into an outstanding young man in every respect.

Li Liao had fulfilled his promise to the Crown Princess Consort.

Li Ji asked numbly.

"And the siege at Ghost Wind Castle? Was that real?"

Li Liao’s tone was filled with guilt.

"I had actually long since detected a spy in my ranks.

But at the time, the Saint was already suspicious of me.

Even if I had won the war and returned to the capital safely, the Saint would never have allowed me to die a natural death.

So, I decided to play along with their scheme, pretending to be trapped by the enemy, and then faked my death to escape."

Li Ji was silent for a long time, then suddenly burst out laughing.

He laughed louder and louder, until tears streamed down his face.

"HAHAHA, so even the father I trusted most has been deceiving me!"

Back then, he had risked his life to flee back to Shangjing, kneeling alone before the palace gates in the ice and snow, crying and begging the Emperor to send troops to rescue Duke Zhen.

In all the years that followed...

To avenge his father, he fought on the battlefield as if his life were on the line, doing everything in his power to grow stronger.

In his heart, his father was a great hero.

He took every word his father said to heart.

But he never expected...

The father he had admired and trusted most since childhood was the biggest liar in the world.

Li Ji asked, still laughing.

"Have you ever told me a single true word?"