Mysteries of the Great Zhou Dynasty

Chapter 216 Life experience
The emperor coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of dark blood: "You...you've rebelled!"

Yan Mingzhang composed himself, feeling a lump in his throat and a deep despair in his heart. He recited the words from his memory: "On the 21st day of the tenth month of the sixth year of the Divine Scripture, my son was born in a desolate temple, with a bird-shaped birthmark on the back of his neck. Before he was a hundred days old, war broke out, and to save his life, I tearfully abandoned him. His mother thinks of him day and night, longing only for his return. —Xiao Yunxi"

"Don't think you can pin this crime on me by making up some rumors!" The Emperor stood up, leaning on his desk, his whole body trembling.

"Your Majesty, Empress Xiao Yunxi of the Khitan was in distress when she gave birth to you in a dilapidated temple!" Yan Mingzhang's lips curled slightly, his eyes were red, and his throat was hoarse!
"Don't talk nonsense!" The emperor said, but he had no confidence at all. It concerned his background, and he had naturally found out about it clearly a long time ago. However, it was a different matter if others said it.

When Empress Xiao Yunxi of the Khitan fell into distress and wandered to the Central Plains, the Great Zhou Dynasty was still in chaos, with various warlords vying for power. After giving birth to her child in a dilapidated temple, Xiao Yunxi was being hunted down and, fearing that she would implicate her child, entrusted him to a farmer.

Unexpectedly, the farmer's son-in-law started a rebellion and succeeded. Meanwhile, the farmer's daughter became pregnant and gave birth, but tragically, the child died shortly after birth. The elderly couple, fearing their daughter's devastation and that their son-in-law would abandon her, decided to use the newborn child as a substitute.

Originally, this matter was perfectly concealed and no one knew about it.

However, after many twists and turns, Xiao Yunxi returned to the Khitan and successfully seized power. She wanted to return to find her son, but the peasant family had vanished without a trace. From her neighbors, she learned that their son-in-law had long since become a powerful ruler, declaring himself emperor of the Zhou dynasty—the founding emperor of the Great Zhou, Emperor Taizu.

The farmer's family did not adopt any children; their daughter had given birth to a son.

Xiao Yunxi is no ordinary person; naturally, she wouldn't let this go easily.

So they continued their investigation and discovered that their son had been made crown prince. Emperor Taizu's other sons had either died young or died in battle, leaving only this one son.

Faced with the choice of ruining his son's future by acknowledging him or giving him a future by not acknowledging him, Xiao Yunxi chose to give her son a future first, and then acknowledge him.

So when the late emperor passed away and her son ascended the throne, she sent a Khitan envoy with a jade bottle to the Great Zhou, hoping to reclaim her son.

Xiao Yunxi was cunning and calculating, but she couldn't understand people's hearts. Her own son decisively killed the messenger, and the jade bottle ended up in the hands of ordinary people.

Later, the jade bottle eventually came into Yan Lizhuo's hands, and then the emperor killed him to silence him, refusing to acknowledge his mother.

Yan Mingzhang closed his eyes, and tears finally fell: "Do you know what my father said when he received this jade bottle?... He said that if the new emperor is benevolent, what does it matter who is emperor! He never intended to expose this lie, but you didn't believe him and killed a loyal man!"

The Emperor completely broke down, collapsing to the ground, unable to recover for a long time: "What exactly do you want? To kill me?" "No, I don't intend to do anything, just like my father did back then!" Yan Mingzhang wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and continued.

"Why..." The emperor was very puzzled. After all that trouble, he had no intention of achieving anything.

"I really want to kill you. Do you think I'm doing it for you? No, it's for the people of Great Zhou, to protect them from the ravages of war! If Great Zhou wants stability, it needs an emperor of pure blood!" Yan Mingzhang glanced at Changfeng. "And the Zhang family, they were bewitched and killed my parents, then they were silenced. Yes, you just gave orders to your confidants to carry them out, how could you care about the fate of us ants! Moreover, your current fate, every day you live from now on, is the best punishment for you. Our Great Zhou needs an emperor who dies peacefully in his old age; the transfer of power cannot be problematic. So, that's enough, pack your bags and leave with dignity! We will bury you with imperial honors, you're getting off easy!"

Yan Mingzhang's words were quite blunt: he didn't not want to kill the Emperor, but whether or not he did was meaningless. The Emperor was now poisoned to the bone marrow, and his days were numbered; death was only a matter of time. Moreover, when Imperial Physician Zhuang said that progress had been made in developing an antidote, it only meant that the golden needles could alleviate the pain caused by the Dream Eater Flower poison, not that they could actually cure the poison.

"You...you...you have wolfish ambitions! Wolfish ambitions! Outrageous and treasonous!" The emperor slammed his fist on the desk, his forehead dripping with cold sweat, furious and exasperated.

"If the world knew that you are not only not a citizen of our Great Zhou, but also a Khitan, I believe no one would think what I just said was treasonous!" Yan Mingzhang looked at the emperor's face, feeling no satisfaction at having avenged his great enemy, only exhaustion. Truly, he was utterly exhausted; hatred was truly tiring. All Yan Mingzhang wanted now was to go home and get a good night's sleep.

"Let's go back, I'm tired." Yan Mingzhang turned and gave Rong Wanyin a weak smile, as if if he were any slower, his tears would fall, he was about to collapse. Why had he been entangled with such a person for so long? It was so not worth it for his parents to die for such a person!
"Okay, let's go home!" Rong Wanyin smiled at him, her eyes full of heartache. Her nose tingled and her eyes reddened. Rong Wanyin quickened her pace to catch up with Yan Mingzhang, took his hand, and intertwined her fingers with his.

Rong Wanyin raised her head and looked at Yan Mingzhang's face. Yan Mingzhang looked down at Rong Wanyin and forced a smile. His smile was more like crying than smiling.

No one even glanced at him, and the emperor, who was slumped on the ground, also got up and left.

The once bustling Imperial Study suddenly became eerily quiet, so quiet it was almost unsettling.

The door to the Imperial Study creaked open again, and a man dressed in a python robe and wearing a golden crown stepped across the threshold and entered. It was none other than the Third Prince, who had now been appointed Crown Prince. In just a few days, he had won the hearts and minds of all the officials. Clearly, the Third Prince possessed considerable ability.

"Greetings, Your Highness!" The guard at the door finished his greeting and closed the door, seemingly oblivious to what was happening inside.

Upon seeing his son, the Emperor, as if grasping at a last straw, could no longer stand. He scrambled forward, clutching the Crown Prince's robes tightly: "Heng'er, Heng'er, it's your father! You've come to save me, haven't you? Where's Physician Zhuang? Where's Physician Zhuang? Didn't you say Physician Zhuang already knew how to cure the Dream Eater Flower's poison? Why won't you let him come to see me!"

The Crown Prince pulled his robe from the Emperor's hand, squatted down, and looked the Emperor in the eye: "Father, how can you be so naive? Back then, when my sixth brother tried to poison my mother, I knelt in the rain and begged you to send a physician to examine her. You were unmoved. If it weren't for Physician Zhuang's kindness in saving my mother, she would probably be dead by now. Unfortunately, due to the lack of timely treatment, my mother still went blind. Do you remember what you said back then?"

The emperor looked completely bewildered, unable to recall what he had said.