Chapter 678 - To See But Not to Recognize
In Feng Yulei’s heart, Beauty Ling had been his real mother, the mother who had truly given her undivided attention to him and protected him with her life. He had hated the person who had killed Beauty Ling from the bottom of his heart and sworn that if he had the chance to know the truth in the future, he would definitely kill the enemy. Even if this person was the current Empress, it did not matter.
However, he did not expect this person to be Imperial Noble Consort Wen, who had always been quiet and gentle. Furthermore, she was his biological mother. How could Feng Yulei accept this? His biological mother had killed Beauty Ling who had been protecting him. Even though Imperial Noble Consort Wen said that she did it all for him, he would not be able to bear it.
It was Beauty Ling in his innocent childhood memory that fitted Feng Yulei’s image of his mother. She was loving, gentle, and took good care of him. At that time, he was very happy. Although others said that his mother was not favored by the Emperor and his Eighth brother’s mother was the most favored person in his father’s heart, he did not care. At least his beautiful and gentle mother accompanied him, and he had nothing to worry about.
Then, Beauty Ling was poisoned to death, and Feng Yulei fell from heaven to hell. To a prince who lost his mother’s protection, life in this palace was very difficult. Because he was young, he was bullied by eunuchs and palace maids in the palace. Sometimes, he was even ignored. Even little eunuchs dared to make fun of him. They pushed him to the ground, making him unable to get up, and then they laughed and left.
At the thought of this, Feng Yulei could not accept Imperial Noble Consort Wen calmly! When she excitedly told him what happened in the past to prove that she was his biological mother who wholeheartedly protected him, Feng Yulei rushed out of the door and refused to look at the merging of the two drops of blood and Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s expectant eyes. He was even more unwilling to think that Imperial Noble Consort Wen was his biological mother.
“Venomous as snakes and scorpions”, he could not think of any other words to describe this woman.
“Lei’er, how can you treat me like this? Beauty Ling treated you well because she thought that you were her own son. If she had known that her son died because of you, how could she have allowed you to live? Lei’er, I am the only one who is sincere to you. Do you think that a mother can be willing to give up her son and watch him call another woman mother?”
Imperial Noble Consort Wen shed tears and looked at Feng Yulei sadly. She cried mournfully and stretched out her hand as if she wanted to touch Feng Yulei’s clothes. However, her hand fell powerlessly under his cold and disgusted eyes. Everything had gone the way she planned it.
She and Beauty Ling were due within just a few days of each other. Under normal circumstances, Beauty Ling would give birth to a child about half a month earlier than her. She noticed Ding General Manor and the Empress behind Beauty Ling. The Empress had no children, and if she wanted to adopt a child, she would choose Beauty Ling’s child as Beauty Ling was closest to her by blood.
If it weren’t for the Empress and Ding General Manor behind Beauty Ling, with her gentle and useless character, how could she be able to give birth to a prince safely? Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s family was powerless, and she knew that it was her weakness. So she came up with this idea to replace Beauty Ling’s child with her own son.
When Beauty Ling gave birth, she used drugs to hasten parturition in her palace and secretly gave birth to a child. She bribed the nanny beside Beauty Ling and replaced the son Beauty Ling gave birth to with her son. Then, she smothered the child that Beauty Ling had just given birth to.
After that, she pretended to be bumped by the imperial consort who had always gone against her. Because of the heavy bump, the child was born early; and due to difficult labor, the baby had been dead in her womb. When the baby was born, he was dead. Beauty Ling’s new born son came in handy. On the surface, Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s son died, but she did not blame the consort who bumped into her.
Imperial Noble Consort Wen had a good reputation in the palace. Even the Empress Dowager and the Emperor thought highly of her. She was even promoted, which was against the rules. Later, because of her good reputation, she was given the title of imperial noble consort after giving birth to the Sixth Princess. She became one of the most powerful consorts in the palace. Although she had always kept a low profile and had no son, no one in the palace dared to look down on her.
She knew that Beauty Ling would agree to let the Empress raise Feng Yulei, but unexpectedly, Beauty Ling loved her son so much that she did not agree. That was why Imperial Noble Consort Wen poisoned her to death. Once Beauty Ling died, Feng Yulei, who had lost his mother, would definitely be adopted by others. The Empress, who had been wanting to raise Feng Yulei, would definitely interfere with it.
As long as the Empress demanded to raise Feng Yulei, his status would rise. Even if he was not really adopted by the Empress and was not the Empress’s legitimate son, the Empress and Ding General Manor would definitely support Feng Yulei. Furthermore, if she were to add fuel to the fire in the harem, it would not be a problem for Feng Yulei to ascend to the throne.
By then, she would be able to be the Empress Dowager and suppress the entire harem. So what about the current Empress? Her blood was running through Feng Yulei’s veins. He was her biological son. Blood was thicker than water. She did not believe that her son would be on someone else’s side after he was raised by another woman for some time. Furthermore, she noticed that Feng Yulei did not treat the Empress like a family.
However, no one could predict what would happen next!
It was supposed to be something in the bag. But due to the intervention of the Empress Dowager and King Ning, Ding General Manor was wavering. They did not stand behind Feng Yulei wholeheartedly. Then, because the daughter of Ding General Manor had married into King Chu’s Manor, they had an ambiguous connection with King Chu, Feng Yuxuan. So far, more people thought that Ding General Manor valued King Chu more.
After he got married, Feng Yulei always had accidents for no apparent reason and thus was hated by Emperor Zongwen. After that, Feng Yuxuan was the only one to be popular, and Feng Yulei was more and more suppressed. Even King Ning, Feng Yuzhen, could marry Princess Caifeng of the Southern Barbarian Lands and seek power for himself. However, Feng Yulei only got the daughter of a minister of the Southern Barbarian Lands, which made Imperial Noble Consort Wen anxious and nervous. It was as if she could only watch the throne slip from her son’s hands.
How could she be willing to accept it?
Therefore, she had to tell Feng Yulei the truth first. Originally, she thought that the mother and son should work together to deal with others. However, she did not expect that Feng Yulei was unwilling to recognize her. If she had not pleaded with him repeatedly, he would not have seen her. How could Imperial Noble Consort Wen not be heartbroken? All she did was for her son, but why did her son not understand?
Feng Yulei did not want to argue with her on if Beauty Ling was really good to him, so he frowned and said impatiently, “Imperial Noble Consort Wen, did you sneak out of the palace today just to show your affection for me? If you have anything to tell me, just say it. I still have something to do. If Father finds out that I have a secret meeting with a consort, neither of us will come to a good end.”
If a consort was found to meet with a prince, the penalty was death. Feng Yulei would have no future, and Imperial Noble Consort Wen would not be able to live. Hearing Feng Yulei’s words, Imperial Noble Consort Wen immediately sobered up. She instantly cleared up the motherliness for her son, wiped her tears with a handkerchief, and nodded. “Lei’er, no matter whether you recognize me as your mother or not, I’m your mother. You can ignore me, but I have to consider for you. Your sister is going to marry into the Southern Barbarian Lands. Do you think it will help you? If yes, I’ll help make it happen. If it is not helpful, I will also help your sister ruin this matter.”
Imperial Noble Consort Wen had not been able to make up her mind for the past few days. On the one hand, she felt that it was good for the Sixth Princess to marry into the Southern Barbarian Lands. At least, it could be considered a powerful connection with the Southern Barbarian Lands. In the future, when Feng Yulei tried to snatch power, he might get help from it. On the other hand, the Southern Barbarian Lands was too far away for them to reach. Even if the Sixth Princess gained power, she would not be able to do anything for them.
Furthermore, Imperial Noble Consort Wen did not know what was going on over there. What made her most dissatisfied was that the Sixth Princess was supposed to marry Crown Prince Xieyue. How could she be about to become Third Prince’s legal wife for no reason? Not to mention that the status was lower than Crown Prince Xieyue’s wife, it would not be possible for her to become the Empress in the future. It would not be of much help to Feng Yulei.
After thinking about it for a while, she couldn’t figure it out. So she thought of a way to call Feng Yulei out and wanted to hear his opinion directly. Although she was good at enduring and was vicious, she was just a woman who had been staying in the palace. She had too little help from outside and was ill-informed.
“Feng Xuehe wanted to marry into Mingguo Manor, but her method was too low and she was too greedy. She wanted to kill several birds with one stone. She didn’t see if she had the power. I thought she was smart, but unexpectedly, she is as stupid as you. In the end, she couldn’t marry into Mingguo Manor, but fell into the trap.”
Feng Yulei did not hide the disdain in his words. He felt angry when he thought that Mingguo Manor had almost been dragged into a whirlpool because of Feng Xuehe’s random actions. Mingguo Manor was his greatest help right now, and only Mingguo Manor had always stood firmly behind him.
He thought more highly of You Yuecheng and the Mingguo Manor behind him than his greedy sister.
“Xuehe miscalculated. Who knew that Consort Xuan would be so experienced at such a young age? She not only turned the situation around, but also trapped Xuehe in it. When you take that position in the future, you must seek revenge for your sister. No matter what, you have to cut that woman into pieces.”
Imperial Noble Consort Wen had ignored the strong mockery in Feng Yulei’s words.
Mo Xuetong, who was sitting on the roof and looking at them, could not help but smile. Imperial Noble Consort Wen really thought of herself as the Empress Dowager who was in power. She spoke of murder casually, as if she had held dominion over life and death. But actually, their plan hadn’t started yet… She was really anxious!
Feng Yuran stared coldly at Imperial Noble Consort Wen with his devilish eyes as a hint of evil and hatred flashed across his eyes. His lips curled up and a sinister and cold smile appeared on his face. “She wants to kill Tong’er? She is courting death!”
“Imperial Noble Consort Wen, I can’t make the decision if Sixth sister should marry into another country or not. Haven’t you done everything very carefully? Do you need to ask me when you want to do something? If you have time, you’d better work hard on Father. It has little to do with me if Sixth sister accepts the engagement or not. But now that the engagement has been settled, it’s easy to get into an accident if there is another dispute. It’s better to let Sixth sister wait for the wedding.”
Feng Yulei ignored Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s change of topic and did not look at her ferocious face under the light. There were some things that he did not want to say, but when he saw Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s eyes that looked as if everything she did was for him, he felt disgusted. The woman always thought highly of herself and believed that she could decide others’ fate.
The marriage was a big event for the two countries. If it was really destroyed because of the Sixth Princess, how could the Sixth Princess end well? She thought that she had played a trick in Mingguo Manor for a while and made things worse. Then she cried and shouted that she refused to marry into the Southern Barbarian Lands at this time. How could things be so simple? She really lacked knowledge and experience.
After saying that, Feng Yulei didn’t want to be entangled with Imperial Noble Consort Wen anymore. He turned around, opened the door, and strode away, as if he didn’t hear Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s low cry behind him at all!
Since she had tried so hard to give him to another woman back then, the affection would not come back as easily as she wished…