My enemies became my companions

Chapter 311 Can we be mother and son again?

In the dark sky, Chen Yi's face was reflected by the candlelight. The dim palace was unfathomable, as if there was an invisible Buddha, shrouding him.

The woman looked pale, but she was still smiling.

After a while, the woman who was half-lifted in the air gently touched the ground with her feet.

Queen An's steps swayed slightly, and she stroked her neck with her slender hands. After a while, she finally stood up. Then she raised her eyes and looked at the minister who had been promoted with her own hands with a smile.

Chen Yi stood there expressionlessly, light and shadow interweaving on his face with the candlelight, and no one knew what he was thinking.

However, Queen An could see that Chen Yi's hands seemed to be trembling slightly.

"what are you saying?"

After a long time, the minister finally spoke.

"If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't be able to get here."

Queen An responded calmly:

"The two masters of the Magpie Pavilion are both fourth-rank, and they work together perfectly. Even if you have three heads and six arms, you will die in front of this palace."

As he finished speaking, Chen Yi looked around, and there was no trace of any warriors, whether in the light or in the dark.

The Jingren Palace was almost completely undefended.

Queen An slowly stroked her Yan Ju crown and robes, the bright yellow color of which was so prominent, and a teardrop-shaped pendant of her shawl hung in front of her belly, with cloud and dragon patterns on it. She slowly walked to the table and waved her hand. A prepared imperial edict floated down in front of Chen Yi. Chen Yi looked up and saw that under the cover of the imperial edict, the yellow and red dragons on her shawl were entangled, pouring down like lightning.

The imperial edict fell into Chen Yi's hands like a cloud, and he lowered his eyes to look at it.

It turned out to be an imperial decree to confer a title of nobility, and the name was not given after a place but a beautiful name, namely "Marquis Wu'an".

Chen Yi stared at the imperial edict in his hand, then slowly put it down and looked up at the woman standing in front of the desk.

An Hou placed his hands flat on his abdomen, slowly walked down the stairs, and said calmly:

"Wu Qingsheng should have told you before that I want to confer you the title of Marquis. Now that you have seen the imperial edict, do you understand what it means to keep one's word?"

Chen Yi hesitated for a moment and said:

"How do I know this isn't just a pretense?"

"Because I am the real thing." Queen An said loudly.

Chen Yi remained silent, and Queen An had already walked up to him. She looked at Chen Yi, staring at his eyebrows, nose, and lips. Her gaze was long, as if this face was born from her.

Queen An smiled suddenly, charming yet dignified, and said:

"Inside and outside the capital, many traitors have used the fact that I have no children to slander me. But now look, if I had a few more children like you, I'm afraid they wouldn't even be able to slander me."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yi stared at An Hou and slowly said:

"I am not your descendant."

"Whose descendant are you?" An Hou asked calmly, "Tushan clan?"

Chen Yi did not answer, as if he agreed.

Queen An turned around and said quietly, "Then how do you know that I am not from the Tushan clan?"

Chen Yi was stunned.

She turned her head and looked at Chen Yidao out of the corner of her eye:
"She left a trace of her soul in my body."

Chen Yi's pupils shrank slightly, his hands were behind his back, and he couldn't stop trembling slightly.

Queen An had already moved and slowly walked out of Jingren Palace through the side door.

Chen Yi turned his head and followed belatedly.

An Hou was walking on the corridor in a bright yellow long skirt that reached the ground and was printed with erratic cloud patterns. Chen Yi followed closely behind her, and he glanced in the direction of Zhou Yitong from time to time.

"Don't worry, no one will die."

Queen An seemed to notice it and said calmly.

Chen Yi turned his head and looked at Queen An. What caught his eye was her hair bun with golden forks, which glowed softly like peach petals. This woman was the mother of the ruler of this country.

What the hell is she thinking?
Queen An walked in front, and soon she passed through the palace gate. The palace maids on both sides knelt down to salute. Chen Yi looked around and found that he had unknowingly entered the inner court harem.

When they reached a certain place, the female official Su Xin came towards them from a distance. She raised her head and glanced at Chen Yi, then quickly lowered her head and stood by Queen An.

Chen Yi didn't care.

But for Su Xin, this was the first time she saw this man who did not want to be mentioned by the Queen Mother but who made the Queen Mother obsessed with him.

In the first few days after returning from the underground palace, the Queen Mother stated several times in a half-asleep state that she wanted to kill this beast.

Beheading the child, dismembering him with five horses, cutting him into pieces... Su Xin had drafted similar decrees countless times. The punishment and the corresponding crime were different each time, and the Empress Dowager's hatred for this child was obvious.

Just when the female officials in the Shangshu Neisheng suspected that Chen Qianhu, who had made a great contribution to saving the emperor, might not live until the end of the year, the Empress Dowager mentioned this person less and less.

It seems like the indifference of ordinary people, and also like the cold-blooded use of things by the rulers.

The female officials tried to guess the emperor's intention, and so did Su Xin, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not come up with a corresponding answer.

But no matter what the Queen Mother's intention was, since she no longer mentioned this person, it meant that the matter had come to an end.

The palace also relaxed its control over this name.

But for some reason, as Captain Chen became more and more famous, he was mentioned more and more often in the palace, and the Empress Dowager, who had originally ignored him, began to avoid him like the plague.

No one in the palace was allowed to mention this person again. Although there was no explicit order, there was an implicit implication, and many palace maids and eunuchs suffered as a result.

Up to this point, Su Xin thought that the matter was settled.

However, just a few days before the foreign king completely withdrew his troops,

The Empress Dowager returned to the palace with a gloomy face and sat in Jingren Palace for a whole half day. During this time, she dismissed everyone and did not allow anyone to disturb her.

When the Empress Dowager came out, there was a copy of calligraphy on the table, with a line of Buddhist verses written in official script: [If one’s mind is inseparable from falsehood, where is the truth?], followed by four words: “It is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood”.

When Su Xin saw this calligraphy, she didn't care much at first. After all, the Empress Dowager was well-versed in Buddhist scriptures, and this line of calligraphy was just her understanding of Buddhism.

However, after that... the Empress Dowager claimed that she was suffering from hysteria. She first summoned the imperial physician from the palace. After the examination failed to produce any result, she suspected that it was a ghost, so she summoned the Taoist priest from the Imperial Observatory.

At first, the Taoists tried divination and cup-throwing repeatedly, but to no avail. As a result, there were many different opinions. But after a few days, they gradually sorted out the situation and found out that it was the residual spirit of Tushan who caused the harm.

Tushan's ghost lingered on, and for some unknown reason a trace of her soul remained in the body of the Empress Dowager.

While Su Xin was thinking, the Queen Mother looked straight ahead and never looked back.

When they reached the depths, Queen An stopped and slowly asked Chen Yi:

"Why did you enter the palace today?"

Chen Yi said calmly:
"Min Ming's matter."

"Oh, it seems you care about her. I thought you didn't." Queen An said playfully.

Chen Yi did not answer.

No matter what, he couldn't possibly tell the woman in front of him that he entered the palace because of Min Ning.

"Since you care so much about her, why don't you take her as soon as possible? I have been playing the villain for so long."

Queen An pointed to a small building not far away and sighed:

"When I saw her there, she was shaking violently. After so many days of teaching, she was still so afraid. It shows that her understanding is really average. According to the Buddhists, she really has no wisdom."

Chen Yi casually replied: "She naturally doesn't have wisdom."

"Then tell me, what does she have?" Queen An asked with a smile.

"..." Chen Yi hesitated for a moment and then said, "Idiot?"

Hearing these unprecedented words, the woman in phoenix robe was stunned at first, but after she realized what was happening, she couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Good words, good words..." After laughing, Queen An sighed twice and said:
"Although it was an insult, it hit the nail on the head for this prostitute who only had the looks for sex."

Following this conversation, the tense atmosphere between the two was completely eased, but there was still some stiffness.

Seeing this scene, Chen Yi adjusted his mood a little and said:

"I care about her, from the beginning till now, but I only care about her looks.

As for her personality, she's not necessarily unpleasant. If I marry her, she'll definitely be a good wife and mother. But she's been trapped in a brothel for years, so her knowledge is too shallow. She's very different from me, and she's tripped me up a few times, so I don't think I really care about her that much."

Queen An nodded slightly and said approvingly:

"Very good, you can just play with this kind of woman."

Chen Yi agreed with a tone that was half true and half false: "Of course it is."

"Lin Wanheng is the same, so you can just play with him for fun." Queen An said again.

Chen Yi didn't know why she mentioned Lin Wanheng, maybe it was because of the underground palace, but he still responded: "Of course."

As soon as the voice fell, Queen An said: "Princess Annan, you can just play for fun."

"Of course..." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Chen Yi reacted and suddenly changed his words: "Of course not."

Queen An laughed again, covering her mouth and said:

"You still want to hide it from me? I know exactly how many worms are in your stomach. Yi'er, from the day you appeared in front of me, you can't escape from your mother's Five Finger Mountain."

As they spoke, a slightly chilly breeze blew past. The Jingren Palace in the distance stood still, and the loose Yanju crown and robes also stood still.

Su Xin, who was standing by, saw this scene and tactfully lowered her head, standing upright like a log. Having served the empress dowager in this palace for many years, she already knew what to listen to and what not to listen to.

Then, Queen An turned around, her eyes were gentle, but she sneered:
"The princess looks very similar to me, doesn't she?"

Chen Yi did not answer and lowered his eyes.

"I really don't know how King Annan would react after he knew about your affair with her. But in the final analysis, it's not something you can make public, and you don't care about her that much." She became more and more gentle as she spoke.

Chen Yi pondered in silence.

"If you don't care, then why do you associate with her? Is it to replace the real thing with a fake one?" Queen An paused and said in a gentle voice, "Why bother?"

Chen Yi suddenly raised his eyes and moved his lips slightly, but it seemed that the key point was hit and he was speechless.

Empress An's voice became more and more slow as she continued, "To make friends with traitors is to confuse the false with the true. This is detrimental to one's integrity and righteousness."

Chen Yi's eyes narrowed.

Queen An had already leaned over, and raised her fingertips slightly, wanting to touch that familiar face.

Having said this, she no longer concealed anything, and said tenderly while holding her phoenix robe:
"Yi Er, let's stop quarreling and be mother and son again, okay?"

Chen Yi lowered his head, and after a long while he finally said:

"But you are the fake."

"..."

It was as if the wind had stopped, and the phoenix face under Yan Ju's crown and robes became dull and visibly stiff.

Is she a fake?
Chen Yi in front of him curled his lips and smiled, and asked:
"Would you like to pretend to be the princess back then and let me call you 'mother' a few times?"

An's back was as white as paper, and the phoenix robe that had been standing still began to tremble.

Chen Yi's face was filled with a friendly smile.

After an unknown amount of time, the phoenix robe stopped trembling, and she smiled again. There was no urgency in her smile, but a leisurely and contented one:

"You only dare to mention the princess, not Tushan. What are you afraid of?"

This time, after the words fell, Chen Yi's smile froze slightly.

Queen An looked at Chen Yi for a long time, and then she looked contented.

She turned around and pointed to the small corridor:

"Why don't you come up and have a chat?"

After thinking about it, Chen Yi nodded slightly.

So Queen An led Chen Yi upstairs and casually waved to the female official Su Xin. The latter immediately understood what she meant and turned around to order the palace maids to prepare wine and food.

As the emperor's mother and ministers sat down on the second floor, the palace maids brought up the stairs one dish after another, while Su Xin personally held a pot of the best "Jia Qing Niang" and started to warm it over the iron net.

After a while, the wine glasses between Chen Yi and Queen An were filled with hot wine.

Queen An picked up the wine glass, shook the wine slightly, raised the glass and drank it all in one gulp.

She looked into the distance and said:
"I still remember how you protected me in the Temple of Heaven in the Underground Palace."

After hearing this, Chen Yi paused with his hand holding up the wine glass.

At that time, Queen An was possessed by Tushan, so it is understandable that she now remembers the events of the underground palace...

But... hearing her tone,
Is it true, as she said, that a trace of Tushan's soul remains in her body?

Queen An said slowly, "I still remember it clearly. The previous emperor was addicted to mystical cultivation, so I entered the palace for many years but had no children. I never knew what it felt like to be a parent. I finally understood it then. Even after so long, every time I think of you destroying yourself, my heart aches. Do you understand what I mean?"

Chen Yi was stunned for a moment, not looking at her, staring at the wine in the glass and said, "I don't understand."

"You can't explain it, but you know it in your heart, but you just don't want to face it. I have checked and found that you came to Dayu alone and never mentioned your parents. I think you didn't know your parents when you were young. Because of this, Tushan treated you sincerely and regarded you as her own child, and you also regarded her as your mother."

Queen An smiled gently and pointed out calmly:

"What if I say I want to treat you as my son?"

Chen Yi raised his head suddenly, his pupils shrinking slightly.

The palace maid came forward to pour the wine, and Queen An took it. She was already a little tipsy, but still drank it all in one gulp.

After a while, she said slowly:

"Now that you can no longer see Tushan, you must be missing her terribly. I have been suffering from heartache these days, and I want to adopt you as my adopted son to relieve my stress... Although adopted sons and adopted mothers are fake after all, when fake becomes real, real becomes fake.

What's more, Tushan left a trace of her soul in my body, so it can't be considered fake."

After Queen An finished speaking, her face flushed slightly, as if she was talking nonsense due to being drunk.

Chen Yi's lips moved slightly, not knowing how to answer.

An Hou's eyes were sincere, and she chuckled and said:

"In the end, maybe you and I are just keeping each other warm. You were recognized as Qi by Tushan, and she was regarded as your mother, while I have no children and no one to rely on. Now that Tushan has returned to the underground palace, you and I can just be mother and son."

Chen Yi finally said, "…What do you mean?"

"Don't you want to understand?"

The palace maid came forward to pour wine, and Queen An raised her glass again. Then she trembled all over and shook her head, as if she was fighting for control with someone.

Chen Yi stood up subconsciously. This scene was almost exactly the same as the one when Tushan possessed An Hou and the two souls were fighting for the body.

After a long time, Queen An slowly calmed down. She stared at Chen Yi and said softly, "Qi, do you really not want to acknowledge your mother?"

That's Tushan's tone!

As these words fell, Chen Yi's eyes widened, and his lips buzzed and shouted: "Mom..."

Then he seemed to react immediately and said quickly: "Madam..."

Queen An took in the entire scene and seemed to have finally settled her mind.

But she didn't expect,

Chen Yi secretly laughed in his heart:
She said that there was still a trace of Tushan's soul left in her body...

But why did she call him Qi?
(End of this chapter)