kingnovel Chapter 290 Forget the Past
Chapter 290 Forget the Past
Could Yun really be a monster? Ji Anni didn't dare to believe it, nor did she want to believe it.
She was not afraid of monsters, but she was afraid that Yun Zhen would lie to her. If Yun Zhen was a monster, had he been lying to her all along?
The person I trusted the most suddenly turned out to be full of lies. I was shocked and heartbroken, and it seemed as if the world had collapsed.
"Yun Zhen, why do you carry a magical instrument that can suppress evil spirits?"
Ji Anni's words actually stunned Yun Zhenwen.
"Yun Zhen, are you also using a magical tool to suppress something? ...Why were you able to pass through the seal?"
The topic returned to the night in the cave, which was the starting point for Ji Anni to be sure that Yun Zhen was not an ordinary Taoist priest.
Why is it that Yun Zhen can move forward unimpeded in the face of a seal that even Taoist Yuan Rong cannot break?
Seeing Yun Zhen's eyes suddenly become evasive, Ji Anni became even more worried. She rushed forward and grabbed his sleeve, holding her hand tightly as if she was afraid that Yun Zhen would suddenly disappear from her sight.
Seeing Ji Anni making a fuss, Yun Zhen shook his head and suddenly laughed, but he didn't know if the laughter was bluffing or not.
"My queen, you wouldn't suspect that I'm a monster, would you?" Yun Zhen directly saw through Ji Anni's thoughts.
Ji Anni stared at him without saying anything, but her firm gaze gave Yun Zhen a positive answer.
Yun Zhen gently brushed Ji Anni's hand off her sleeve and asked, "My queen, think carefully, who are your and Prince Ming's parents, and who are my parents? ... Humans give birth to humans, and monsters give birth to monsters. The reason why you and Prince Ming are both fox monsters is because you inherited the bloodline of fox monsters and are the children of fox monsters. But my parents are both human, how can I be a monster?"
Yun Zhen's father is Yang Jingtian, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture. His mother passed away many years ago, but she was also a human being.
Two humans shouldn't give birth to a monster, right?
Ji Anni was also confused, wondering whether the common sense of this world was consistent with her own common sense.
However, seeing that Yun Zhen was sincere in what he said, Ji Anni believed it as if she was bewitched.
Yun Zhen smiled and asked, "My Lady, do you have anything else you want to ask?"
Ji Anni shook her head slightly, her eyes falling on Yun Zhen's toes. At this moment, she was a little afraid to face Yun Zhen's gaze.
Because that look with a gentle smile would always interfere with her judgment and disrupt her calmness...
She couldn't help but want to believe the owner of the gaze.
However, I still feel like something is wrong... Yun Zhen must be hiding something...
He must not want to tell me the secret, otherwise he wouldn't be going around in such a roundabout way to deal with his problem.
"My lady, please stop being suspicious. I admit that I have concealed something, but I am definitely not a monster."
As if he couldn't bear to deceive Ji Anni, Yun Zhen confessed a little of his secrets.
As he spoke, he took out another necklace and handed it to Ji Anni, saying, "By the way, Madam, this is what I found at the entrance of the cave when I returned to the woods yesterday. You should wear it."
Ji Anni took it and looked at it, and found that it was the sound transmission gem that Yan Niang had thrown at the entrance of the cave that night.
It was because of the lack of this stone that Ji Anni and Yun Zhen lost contact in the cave.
Because of this, Ji Annie almost got angry with Yan Niang, but fortunately she has got her revenge now.
Ji Anni held the gem tightly in her palm, as if she had regained her absolute trust in Yun Zhen.
"My queen, it's not that I don't want to tell you the truth, but..." Yun Zhen hesitated and finally said it after repeating it several times, "Because it is something that even I want to completely forget, there is no need to tell others and let others help me remember it... My queen, I hope you can forgive me..."
After hearing Yun Zhen admit that he had concealed something, Ji Anni felt relieved.
She looked up and smiled at Yun Zhen, and suddenly felt that it didn’t matter whether Yun Zhen was a human or a monster, as long as he was by her side.
#
On the other hand, Concubine An and Long Mohan also left Prince Ming's room, and the two talked in low voices in the quiet courtyard.
"Your Majesty, do you hate me?" Concubine An deliberately sounded serious and chose the strong word "hate" because she wanted to hear Long Mohan's negative answer.
As expected, Long Mohan shook his head gently. No one would cruelly say the word "hate" to a woman who took care of his child and showed love to him.
"Your Majesty, I think you probably have long forgotten who I am, but I will always remember you."
Concubine An's sudden words confused Long Mohan. From what Concubine An said, it seemed that they had known each other for a long time. But no matter how hard Long Mohan tried to recall, he could not find any images of Concubine An from his memory. He was sent to the Qi Palace as a hostage when he was seven years old. If there had not been a new prince born, Long Mohan would probably still be stranded in a foreign country with no hope of returning home, right?
"Your Majesty, do you remember where this wound came from?" Concubine An suddenly raised her hand and pointed at Long Mohan's right arm.
Through the dragon robe, there were indeed a few shallow scars on Long Mohan's right arm at the place where Concubine An pointed.
However, Long Mohan had long forgotten the origins of those scars, and became even more confused when asked about it by Concubine An.
He subconsciously covered the shallow old wounds, lowered his eyebrows and stared at Concubine An's smile which suddenly became a little sad.
Long Mohan's expression of having forgotten everything made Concubine An's heart ache. She held back the pain and asked slowly, "Your Majesty, do you still remember the Queen's Palace fifteen years ago?"
The Queen's Palace fifteen years ago, this is a very distant memory for Long Mohan.
Fifteen years ago, Queen Wang was the one living in the Queen's Palace. But ever since Long Mohan's mother, Concubine Hui, became pregnant, Queen Wang kindly took her to the Queen Mother's Palace to recuperate.
At that time, Hui Fei was just a maid of Tang Yuyu Guifei. Queen Wang was worried that Yu Guifei would harm the pregnant Hui Fei, so she took Hui Fei into her own palace. For many years thereafter, Hui Fei lived with Queen Wang in the Queen's Palace.
So Long Mohan's childhood was the same as that of Prince Ming, with a "mother" Concubine Hui and a "same mother" Queen Wang.
He was raised by two concubines.
Although his biological mother, Concubine Hui, was of humble status, Queen Wang treated him as her own son and loved him like a mother and son.
Long Mohan, who spent his childhood in the Queen's Palace, was just like a real prince. It was not until the Emperor ordered him to be sent to the Qi Palace as a hostage that his biological mother, Concubine Hui, suddenly realized that Long Mohan was not the prince, but just an insignificant chess piece.
At that time, Long Mohan was still young and didn't understand why the court sent him to a distant capital. Later, when he grew up, he discovered that all this was a political conspiracy.
Some people were jealous of him and Concubine Hui. If he was not driven out of the palace early, he, who had grown up in the Queen's Palace, might really become an important prince in the palace in the future.
The person who was jealous of Concubine Hui was either the current Queen Mother or Concubine Yu from Xian Palace.
Among them, Concubine Yu is more likely to be the one, because Concubine Hui was a palace maid beside her back then.
However, when Long Mohan returned to the Holy Heavenly Blessing Dynasty, the situation in the palace had changed drastically. The imperial concubine had become a nun, some had gone mad, and now even the precious concubine was dead...
In the harem, the only imperial concubines left over from the previous dynasty were the current empress dowager and the insane Imperial Concubine Yu in the Xian Palace.
Long Mohan, who was obsessed with his biological mother, Concubine Hui, who committed suicide by jumping into a well, was able to conduct very little investigation under the Queen Mother's nose, so he took advantage of Shui Furong and promised to make her a royal concubine as long as she pretended to be pregnant.
This would not only divert Concubine An's hostility towards Zhao Ji, but also grant Shui Furong the qualification to enter the Li Palace for investigation.
Although the murder of Concubine Shui Cong and Concubine Hui's jumping into the well happened one year apart, they were both related to the little prince born to Concubine Shui Cong...
Maybe the murderer of these two mysteries is the same person.
If Shui Furong could successfully find out the truth about the murder of Concubine Shui Cong three years ago, and if the murderer was really the Queen Mother...
Maybe he could use this as an opportunity to bring An to court, and then overthrow An and get rid of An.
Long Mohan has been frowning recently because there has been no progress in the investigation of the mystery. He is of noble status and his every move is under the surveillance of everyone. He has long been eager to find a confidant to help him investigate the case. But he has just returned to the palace and has no one to confide in. Fortunately, he discovered Shui Furong's secret and knew that Shui Furong and he were investigating related cases. So it was natural for him to reach an agreement with Shui Furong to fake pregnancy and make her a concubine.
Concubine An's words triggered Long Mohan's memories of his childhood and made him think deeply about the current situation.
Concubine An called Long Mohan back to reality: "Your Majesty, the Queen's Palace fifteen years ago was where we first met."
This is what Concubine An wanted to say. She just wanted to tell Long Mohan about their past encounter.
Then, Concubine An led Long Mohan into a room.
The room was filled with antique paintings and calligraphy, jade flutes and musical instrument strings; it looked like a place to display collectibles.
Concubine An brought Long Mohan to a wooden shelf displaying jade artifacts, and she took down a black lacquer box from the top shelf.
Although the box is old, there is not a speck of dust on the lid, which suggests that this lacquer box is often taken down and touched.
"Empress An, what exactly do you want to show me?" Long Mohan became more and more confused.
"Your Majesty, do you still remember such an item?" Concubine An asked as she opened the lacquer box and held it in front of Long Mohan, allowing Long Mohan to take a good look at the contents of the box.
There was a piece of iron gauntlet in the box. This was a protective gear worn on the hands during sword practice, covering the back of the hands to prevent being scratched by the sword.
Gauntlets usually come in sets, but now there is only one gauntlet in the box.
The gauntlet was polished very finely. It was not the protective gear used by ordinary soldiers, but an exclusive item for princes and nobles.
The most incredible thing is that this gauntlet is extremely small, so small that it is less than one-third the size of a normal gauntlet. You can tell at first glance that it is for a seven or eight-year-old child.
"Empress An, what on earth is going on..."
Long Mohan's head began to ache slightly, a slight pain caused by a deeply buried memory that was about to surface.
Concubine An smiled sadly, stroked the armor in the box, raised her eyes and asked, "Your Majesty still can't remember?"
Long Mohan subconsciously covered the old wound on his arm, and a few vague fragments seemed to slowly emerge in his mind...