Was it... to save the Fourth Prince?
If Concubine Zhen hadn't arrived, would he have died when he lost consciousness that day?
Was it his obsession with the Fourth Prince, his desperate desire to find a good future for the Fourth Prince, that allowed him to transcend time and space, bringing Concubine Zhen here?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt this must be the case.
Without him, Concubine Zhen would have been killed by the small box that day. Without Concubine Zhen, he too should have died in this cold, unwelcoming palace.
They had saved each other.
Qian Sheng was old now, and had heard all sorts of strange ghost stories. He wasn't afraid.
Rather, he was grateful...
As long as he lived, he wouldn't let anything happen to the Fourth Prince.
"Your Highness, Sheng Gong has awakened and says he wants to bring the Fourth Prince to thank you."
The Xuanwu Emperor's hand paused as he was drinking water. Only then did he remember that he had a son here with Concubine Zhen.
Jiang Xinyue saw that he had completely forgotten about the Fourth Prince and offered him a way out: "Did Your Majesty come today for matters concerning the Fourth Prince?"
The Xuanwu Emperor cleared his throat, somewhat guiltily raising his hand to cover his lips, and mumbled vaguely, "Mm."
"In that case, Xique, summon them in."
Qian Sheng led in the adorably plump Fourth Prince. Although the two had only been staying in Hexi Palace for less than three days, their spirits were already completely different.
There's no need to mention Qian Sheng - he was just recovering from a serious illness, his face still somewhat pale, so thin that his clothes hung loosely on him, and he walked with a slight unsteadiness.
The Fourth Prince, however, had truly transformed.
His fair, chubby little face was tinged with pink, his delicate features more radiant than ever. When he smiled at Jiang Xinyue, his big eyes curved into crescents, so cute that one wanted to pinch his chubby cheeks.
Wang Dequan looked at the emperor, then at the Fourth Prince. Wasn't this just a miniature version of the young emperor?
When he had seen the boy being bullied before, dirty from head to toe, though he resembled the emperor, the likeness hadn't been so striking.
Even the emperor was shocked by the Fourth Prince.
Jiang Xinyue had seen the young emperor's face in her dreams. She beckoned to the Fourth Prince: "Come here to Concubine Zhen."
The Fourth Prince first ran over joyfully, but when the emperor worried he might bump into Jiang Xinyue's belly, he slowed his steps, walked to the chair, and softly called out, "Concubine Zhen~"
Jiang Xinyue's heart melted. She kissed his forehead and rubbed his cheeks: "Such a good boy."
The Fourth Prince's face turned red with shyness, and he squirmed a little uncomfortably.
The Xuanwu Emperor coughed twice. Jiang Xinyue whispered something in the Fourth Prince's ear, and he walked towards the emperor with adoring eyes. As the emperor stood there at a loss, the boy climbed onto his lap, hugged him, and planted a loud "mwah" kiss on his cheek: "Concubine Zhen says you're my father. Is that true? Grandpa Qian says a father is a grown-up who protects little ones. Will you protect me?"
His delicate neck was wrapped in his collar, but as he moved, it revealed purplish-black bruises and scabbed-over knife wounds.
The emperor frowned deeply and pulled open his collar. The Fourth Prince shrank back a little, not daring to move much, and soon the Xuanwu Emperor saw the bruises on his back and chest.
Although he knew the boy's life would be difficult, he hadn't imagined it would be this hard.
The Fourth Prince's birth mother, Zhou Yile, was a descendant of the last emperor of the Zhou Dynasty. If the Zhou Dynasty hadn't fallen, she would have at least been a princess.
But the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed, and Zhou Yile's ancestors were all sold into slavery in the Office of Music and Dance and the Imperial Harem.
Zhou Yile had bribed the manager of the Office of Music and Dance to be sent into the palace as a maid.
She must have learned of her heritage somehow and wanted to enter the palace to kill the emperor for revenge.
But how could a weak woman with no fighting skills possibly kill the emperor?
She couldn't even get close to that man.
Thinking she had some beauty to offer, she gave up all her savings to bribe a young eunuch close to the emperor, tasking him with revealing the emperor's whereabouts to her.
Where there's a will, there's a way. After a year and a half of careful planning, she finally found an opportunity to drug the emperor.
But she hadn't expected that the drugged emperor would be so ferocious that night. She was tormented to the point of exhaustion, let alone able to assassinate him.
The next day, her plot to drug the emperor was exposed, and the emperor had her locked in the Yong Alley.
Yong Alley was a place even more cruel than the Palace of Exile or the Criminal Servants' Prison.
To make matters worse, Zhou Yile soon discovered she was pregnant with the emperor's child.
The palace servants in Yong Alley, fearing they would be held responsible if the little prince died there, reported the matter.
The emperor despised this remnant of the previous dynasty who had plotted against him, but since she was carrying a child, he could only hand the matter over to the empress to deal with.
Empress Zhu arranged for her to stay in a remote palace near the Palace of Exile. Zhou Yile never saw the emperor again until her death.
As for the emperor, whether he had forgotten or truly didn't care, he had never even seen the Fourth Prince from birth until now, let alone given him any preferential treatment.
Qian Sheng had received kindness from Zhou Yile's father in his early years. To repay that debt, he stayed by the Fourth Prince's side, taking on the responsibility of protecting him.
Seeing the emperor's somewhat pained expression, he felt quite calm. Where was this concern earlier? Now that Concubine Zhen had saved the Fourth Prince, why was he putting on such an expression?
The Xuanwu Emperor smiled at the frightened Fourth Prince: "Your Grandpa Qian is right. I am your father."
He had no right to demand that the Fourth Prince not call a eunuch "grandpa." Although it was highly improper, he knew that during the five years of his absence, Qian Sheng had been the Fourth Prince's only emotional support.
"You're my father, so Concubine Zhen must be my mother!"
He happily squinted his eyes again, swaying back and forth on the Xuanwu Emperor's lap, looking both proud and clever.
The Xuanwu Emperor looked at Jiang Xinyue, his paternal instincts overflowing, unsure whether he should tell the boy that Concubine Zhen was not actually his mother.
"Forgive this slave, Concubine Zhen..."
Qian Sheng hurriedly knelt on the ground: "The Fourth Prince, since he was little..."
His voice choked with emotion: "Except for this slave, he has never been truly loved by anyone. So when Concubine Zhen was kind to him, he thought she was his mother. The Fourth Prince is still young, he doesn't understand anything. This slave begs Your Majesty and Concubine Zhen to give him a chance at life!"
He was already over fifty, with only a few years left to live, but the Fourth Prince still had his whole life ahead of him. He couldn't continue to be bullied and trampled under the feet of a bunch of slaves.
Seeing this, Jiang Xinyue burst into tears: "Your Majesty, I... I really like the Fourth Prince. Would it be possible for me to raise him?"
The Fourth Prince's lowly birth and questionable background, coupled with the Zhou Dynasty blood flowing through his veins, had already determined that he had no chance at the throne.
This was why none of the concubines in the entire harem were willing to adopt him.
Not only could he not become an asset, but he might even become a burden in the future.
Only a fool would be willing to adopt him.
Concubine Zhen was that fool.
