Chapter 73

Song An walked in and saw the person on the couch open his eyes. He immediately forgot everything else and turned around to shout, "The Sixth Prince is awake!!!"

He had surely never run this fast in his life. As his voice fell, the imperial physicians who had practically lived in the Ten Thousand Springs Hall for the past two months jolted awake, nearly forgetting to grab their medicine boxes as they rushed into the hall.

The person on the couch had his eyes open, seemingly still dazed, staring at the warm sunlight streaming into the room. It wasn't until the physicians called out that he snapped out of the long nightmare and looked at those around him.

"Quick, inform His Majesty!"

"And the Empress Dowager, and the Empress—"

The noise pulled him back to his senses. Ying Fusheng could feel the stiffness in his body. As people gathered before him, his sluggish mind slowly began to function. He only remembered the situation in the northern mountain camp at the end, and thinking of the unfinished plan, he slightly opened his mouth to call for Song An. But as soon as he spoke, his voice was so hoarse he couldn't form a single word.

"Your Highness, don't speak for now."

"Get some water to moisten his throat... Waking up is good, very good!"

Ying Fusheng looked at Song An warily, disoriented.

Wasn't he at the Northern Mountain hunting grounds? When did he return to the Ten Thousand Springs Hall?

"Your Highness, it's already April now," Song An reminded him.

April?

Ying Fusheng was stunned.

The physicians quickly began examining the Sixth Prince. Over the past period, precious medicines like Poison-Expelling Pills had been continuously sent to the Ten Thousand Springs Hall, but the Sixth Prince's body was far too weak. No matter how good the medicine was, it could only patch him up but couldn't replenish his depleted constitution. Imperial Physician Chu had exhausted his lifelong medical expertise to save him. Fortunately, Miss Chen, a poison expert, was also there. The palace had nearly resigned itself to arranging a funeral while he was unconscious, but fortunately, the Sixth Prince was blessed with good fortune and had finally awakened!

Song An helped Ying Fusheng sit up. The current situation was beyond his expectations. What happened later at the Northern Mountain hunting grounds? Did Qi Hanzhou finish the cleanup? Had Shen Changcun and the others handled the aftermath?

His mind instinctively churned, but a sudden pain cut his thoughts short, and his face turned pale.

The dull pain came intermittently, draining his ability to concentrate.

The Empress Dowager arrived to see the youth pale-faced. Compared to the past days when he was unconscious, being able to sit up now was already a blessing to her. "Waking up is good, waking up is good."

Behind her was another person.

The person wore plain clothes, her hair white, standing hesitantly at the door, unable to come in for a long time.

It was Empress Xu.

Seeing her, the Empress Dowager slightly made way by the couch, allowing her to step forward a few paces. She seemed to have run in a hurry, still slightly out of breath when she arrived, but as she approached the couch, she seemed hesitant, afraid to get closer.

Ying Fusheng noticed that her once black hair had turned white.

Empress Xu looked at the child before her. The youth had been asleep for many days, his complexion still bloodless, but compared to his previous unresponsive state lying unconscious, his eyes now moved, and he had the strength to look at her. It was as if he had truly returned from the brink of death.

Just a little more, just a little more... She couldn't help but approach, reaching out to touch the youth's hand.

The scent of incense lingered around her nose. Empress Xu carried the usual smell of incense. Ying Fusheng looked at the hand resting on his own—pale and clean, an entirely unfamiliar touch. This strange contact made him uncomfortable, and he instinctively recoiled and withdrew.

The tremor of his fingertips was like a sign of distance. Sensing Ying Fusheng's retreat, Empress Xu silently withdrew her hand and stood up at a loss: "Imperial physician, how is he?"

The youth sat quietly, and no one around spoke. The shocking secret of the swapped child could not be spoken without the Emperor's permission. The Sixth Prince seemed not to have expected Empress Xu to be here, nor did he know why she approached. The momentary fluster was seen by others as a kind of bewilderment toward the unknown.

Ying Fusheng forced himself to calm down. He was almost in opposition to the Xu family.

Logically, Empress Xu should not be here. Ying Fusheng unconsciously began to think, then suddenly looked down at his hand, where the faint sensation of Empress Xu's touch still lingered. Had something gone out of control?

The Eighth Prince should not have been harmed. With the Emperor's ability, he would notice signs from the Deposed Crown Prince's side. How far had Qi Hanzhou gone? He had indeed acted rashly at the Northern Mountain hunting grounds—because he was certain the mastermind cherished the Eighth Prince, he overlooked the danger of poisoned arrows. That was indeed a misstep, and it could easily turn his existing advantages into disadvantages.

Ying Fusheng had to consider the possibility that the mastermind had set a trap.

The Xu family was rotten to the core. With so many years of financial and power transactions, a facade of incorruptibility—if the Emperor found out about the Deposed Crown Prince's collusion with traitors from a former dynasty, the Xu family would have no chance of recovery. Thus, bringing down the Xu family was necessary, but given how much the Emperor valued the Xu family's power, he would keep Empress Xu and the Eighth Prince to stabilize part of the court.

A throbbing pain shot across Ying Fusheng's forehead. He looked up at Empress Xu.

Seeing her reddened eyes, his train of thought abruptly halted.

A palace maid handed him a warm cloth.

"Let me do it." Empress Xu took it and, with extreme care, gently wiped his face.

Ying Fusheng watched calmly. Each stroke of the cloth felt like scraping, making him more acutely aware of the strangeness. This unfamiliar concern led him to a possibility—she knew.

At the Northern Mountain.

Two lifetimes had passed—far too much time. In his previous life, when he learned the truth and desperately sent a letter to Kunning Palace, he received no reply. The entire court was clamoring about the Xu family's failure to act. Whether she heard it or not was something he could never verify. Ying Fusheng knew that Shuang Yue was by her side, and some things were beyond her control. From start to finish, she was a victim of the child swap.

But these twists of fate, her indifference and coldness, repeated disappointments, the Xu family's stance—these things piled up. He schemed against the Xu family, creating the current ambiguous situation.

Ying Fusheng found this contact unfamiliar. He couldn't understand.

After wiping, Empress Xu handed the cloth back to the servant. The physician was still examining him. He cooperated obediently until the fatigue of waking up overwhelmed him, and he quietly closed his eyes.

"It's fine, let His Highness rest," Chen Xuqiu said. "Since he's awake, he'll recover."

The news of the Sixth Prince's awakening reached the Qianqing Palace. The Emperor came over personally, but by then Ying Fusheng had already fallen asleep from exhaustion. He didn't say much, merely noticing Empress Xu standing nearby and saying, "Go rest. You haven't slept for a long time."

Empress Xu had to be supported to stand. When the Emperor said this, she knew she couldn't stay.

Lady Yu, who served the Empress Dowager, escorted her out and said softly, "Your Majesty, when the Sixth Prince first came to Cining Palace, he would stare for ages at any warm bed the servants prepared."

"Whenever the Empress Dowager gave him something, he would always repay it a hundredfold."

It was as if he was completely at a loss with all this, unable to openly accept others' natural concern.

Empress Xu was dazed. She thought of the child's rejection when he first woke up.

Since Consort Ning knew Ying Fusheng's true identity, how much had she truly raised or cared for this child over the years? To go so far as to poison a child—such a heinous act. What had her child endured under Consort Ning's care? Every night during these past days, whenever Empress Xu thought of this, she felt a piercing, uncontrollable pain in her heart.

She didn't dare to think about it. It was endless guilt.

Her child had grown up almost in a nightmare, with no one to love or protect him, had grown up with such difficulty.

Growing up... Empress Xu nearly lost her footing.

A maid helped her up. Empress Xu said she was fine, and when she looked back, she saw the child had fallen asleep again. She forced herself not to look back: "I'm fine."

She thought of the look in the Emperor's eyes just now.

The Emperor was purging the Xu family. Her father had been in the imperial prison for a long time. In the time she didn't know, the Xu family and the traitors from the former dynasty had too many unaccounted debts. She knew all too well what she had done for the Deposed Crown Prince. The Eastern Palace was one matter, but how many River Slope schemes did the Xu family have behind them?

If it weren't for the Xu family, with the Empress Dowager's love for him, he would have been the little prince of the Ten Thousand Springs Hall.

Even if he never becomes emperor, having the Emperor and Empress Dowager favor him would make his future go smoothly.

But if she acknowledged this child.

The Xu family, even other civil officials, would cling to him like a lifeline, just as they previously used Xiao Ba. He’d get dragged into this court mess again. This time he came back from the brink of death, but what about next time?

Empress Xu barely steadied herself. She felt an unspeakable hatred for this cruel twist of fate, but she knew that at this moment, every move she made mattered even more: "I’ve never done anything for him all these years. Now I can’t let the Xu family drag him down."

Word of the Sixth Prince waking up spread through the court and the land, and many officials breathed a sigh of relief.

Since the Sixth Prince's incident, the court had been in turmoil for too long. The Emperor’s purge of the Xu family and the Deposed Crown Prince was nearly complete. The Deposed Crown Prince was also thrown into the imperial prison, without even the option of being confined to another palace. As the emperor wielded his iron fist, the court fell into a state where everyone feared for their own lives.

The Xu family was nearly destroyed, and a series of officials were dismissed. Grand Secretary Xu’s late reputation was ruined, and he was sentenced to exile.

When some old cases from the Ministry of Works were revealed, the charge of manslaughter was pinned on him. When it spread to the common people, the common people were shocked. All those unsettled accounts turned into a never-ending stream of garbage dumped at the Xu family’s gate.

The Xu family was completely finished.

When Ying Fusheng was helped out of bed to start walking again, Shen Yunfei told him bit by bit about what had happened. Empress Xu came every day. Sometimes when she arrived, Ying Fusheng was asleep; sometimes he was awake. She would carefully try to show affection.

The official explanation, as put out by the Empress Dowager, was that Empress Xu was thanking him for saving Xiao Ba.

Ying Fusheng knew they were just words to pacify a child. His reactions were slow from the recent illness. The imperial physician privately said he might have brain damage. Ying Fusheng was sure he wasn't mad, but he didn't call out the lie.

In the current situation, being diagnosed by the imperial physician as mentally affected was better than being healthy and active.

His ties to the Xu family were obvious, and so were the Emperor’s suspicions.

The emperor needed a child who would not pose a threat.

……

The night was quiet, and the Wanchun Hall still needed attendants. It was only when deep night came that someone slid the window open. When Qi Hanzhou entered, he saw the person sitting on the couch fully dressed. The other seemed to have known he would return, looking up slightly as he entered.

After his long illness, he’d lost some spark, and his eyes had less slyness.

Qi Hanzhou stepped softly closer. The young man was still marked by illness. Ying Fusheng looked over slightly; he’d been awake for a while, waiting for him.

"I’ve slept enough, so I’m a bit more alert now." Ying Fusheng was weak and his voice wasn't loud. "The Junior General’s timing is perfect. About the North Mountain business, I put you to trouble, General. Miss Chen's matter was also helped by the Junior General."

He met Qi Hanzhou's gaze and said softly, "Don’t worry, I’m still clear-headed, not fried from the fever."

Ying Fusheng’s voice was still hoarse, not yet fully recovered. How could he not know that it was Chen Xuqiu who had saved his life at North Mountain just in time? After all, she was the medical officer he had brought into the palace. This would have exposed her and caused a lot of trouble. But now that she could appear normally by his side, it could only be that Qi Hanzhou had helped cover for her.

Qi Hanzhou looked at the person before him. He could only sit propped up against the bed. Over the past two months, Chen Xuqiu had studied the former dynasty’s secret medicines made from that alluring poison to detoxify him. The residual poison in Ying Fusheng's body was too dangerous; the slightest mistake would cause a deadly backlash. During this time, Chen Xuqiu had been secretly administering detox treatments every seven days, avoiding the imperial physician. But whether the person would wake up or not, Chen Xuqiu herself was not sure.

Now the person had woken, but his body seemed even weaker than when they first met.

He never seemed willing to rest, no matter the time.

Matters of the court, matters of the Xu family, matters of Empress Xu... so many things weighing on him, yet he seemed to take all this as a matter of course.

"Your Highness should rest now," Qi Hanzhou said.

Ying Fusheng looked up at him. "Did the Junior General come here just to tell me to rest?"

"I thought you came to tell me about Consort Ning. Hasn’t Father been visiting her often, squeezing a lot out of her?"

When Consort Ning was mentioned, Qi Hanzhou's gaze flickered slightly. Ying Fusheng had his hair loose around his forehead. When mentioning Consort Ning, his expression was almost indifferent, without the public act of motherly love and filial devotion. He murmured: "What a pity, I didn't get to see it in person."

"But it's not that regrettable either. She won't live long. Will Father give her a cup of poisoned wine?"

The baby swap—in his previous life, Ying Fusheng had tried to expose this. In his previous life, he had stirred up the baby swap secret across the whole court, but it had no effect on the False Crown Prince at that time. In others' eyes, it was just the delusion of a madman long imprisoned. Proving he was Empress Xu’s biological son was always a difficult thing. Blood testing was nonsense when both were of imperial blood. Unless there was concrete evidence, it was hard to prove the so-called baby swap.

That it was discovered through the fetal poison was totally unexpected.

Court news was not hard to inquire about; from Song An or Shen Yunfei, he could learn most of the news. At that time, he had set a trap at the North Mountain hunting grounds, intending to draw everything toward the Deposed Crown Prince, and then follow the clues to find the hidden agents still in the Xu family. He hadn’t acted, but thanks to a fetal poison, things accidentally achieved the same goal.

Keeping Consort Ning alive was precisely so that she could see all this.

It is simple for a person to die, but to live and witness all this before dying—that is true never-ending regret.

How fitting, matching her.

As Ying Fusheng was lost in thought, he saw Qi Hanzhou's gaze. "For the North Mountain matter, I thank the Junior General."

Cleaning up after the mastermind and hiding Shen Changcun—all done by Qi Hanzhou.

"This time, the Deposed Crown Prince’s assassins and secret contacts have all been dealt with," Qi Hanzhou said. "Cleanly handled. The military funds were pinned on the Deposed Crown Prince and the remnants of the former dynasty behind him. His Majesty took this opportunity to find a bandit den in Western Shu, where part of the military funds were hidden."

The Emperor's methods were faster than the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The spring hunt was originally the Emperor's test. This time, the Deposed Crown Prince touched the dragon's scales, and even the Xu family was implicated. From the moment assassins were found around the Deposed Crown Prince, the Emperor would rather kill wrongfully than let one go. Over the past month, those who should be jailed were jailed, those who should be executed were executed; some in the open, some not.

"But there is one thing I still don't understand," Qi Hanzhou looked at Ying Fusheng. "With the ability of the behind-the-scenes person, why would he support the Deposed Crown Prince?"

With the behind-the-scenes person's ability, what connection did he have with the Deposed Crown Prince that he would arrange assassins to help him without holding back.

From beginning to end, the motive of the behind-the-scenes person in supporting the Deposed Crown Prince has been too vague, or impossible to investigate.

Ying Fusheng looked at him. "You are doubting the identity of the Deposed Crown Prince."

"Not only me, but His Majesty also doubts why the former dynasty remnants support the Deposed Crown Prince." Qi Hanzhou had thought about this during his recent investigations. "But the timing of the baby swap is off. Even if Ning Wan took labor-inducing drugs, the fetus had to reach full term. To swap at such a time, it would only be possible if preparations were made from pregnancy to succeed in such a scheme."

The Ning family was unaware, and didn't seem in the know.

The behind-the-scenes person took advantage of this baby swap at the right time.

Qi Hanzhou could discern these things. The former dynasty remnants choosing the Deposed Crown Prince as the object of support, going to great lengths to arrange assassins around him, showed they were extremely deep and scheming. Such a person would be careful in everything. The Deposed Crown Prince's behavior was too foolish, and the North Mountain actions were clearly without interference. "If I were the behind-the-scenes person, and the Deposed Crown Prince was the one I intended to support, then from the root I would control everything, leaving no abnormality."

"Rather than saying he was supporting the Deposed Crown Prince, it's more like he was using Shuang Yue as a pawn, through the Deposed Crown Prince's power to encroach upon the Xu family." Ying Fusheng lowered his eyes and said softly: "I'm just guessing. If, a dozen years ago, the behind-the-scenes person accidentally discovered Consort Ning's movements, then he would have had a perfect opportunity to gain leverage over the Xu family placed right before him."

It is simple to insert one or two pawns in the Xu family, but to extend one's hand deeply into the court, into the Ministry of Works and even the Six Ministries to plant his own moles, he would need a suitable and proper reason. Given that the Emperor valued the Xu family for supporting civil officials, among all the princes, only the Xu faction's hands could most easily reach everywhere in the court and country.

Qi Hanzhou: "If it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to choose the son of the most powerful Empress Xu as the support object, then the Deposed Crown Prince should not have made such a foolish move."

"But if he had a different purpose, the situation would be different," Ying Fusheng said. "Is the Deposed Crown Prince truly the person the behind-the-scenes wanted to support? That the Eastern Palace tried to kill me clearly shows that the Deposed Crown Prince knew the truth of the baby swap."

The behind-the-scenes person told the Deposed Crown Prince the truth in order to control the Eastern Palace. The Eastern Palace had extensive dealings with the Xu family; through this hand, rallying or planting pawns in the court under the name of the Crown Prince would be very easy.

If the Deposed Crown Prince was truly the person he wanted to support, he should not have raised him to be so foolish. The remnants of the former dynasty should know that military power was still in the hands of the imperial power. The Qi family, moreover, was a sharp blade that protected the imperial power and would not be blindly loyal. If the new emperor ascended the throne without virtue, then the change would be exactly the same as in the previous life: the new emperor is abnormal, and the Qi family rebels.

But if it was intentional, then it would be different.

From the Deposed Crown Prince knowing about the baby swap to the deaf-mute matron from Kunning Palace, Ying Fusheng had already begun to suspect.

Because in the previous life, someone had placed the truth of the baby swap before him; it was that deaf-mute matron from Kunning Palace. Now he knew that was an identity of unknown background, controlled by the behind-the-scenes person. That person was deliberately placed by the behind-the-scenes person beside him—because at that time, someone was needed to stir up the matter of the baby swap identity.

In the previous life, he was also a pawn of the behind-the-scenes

This had truly happened in a past life.

"You would rebel. If the new emperor is deposed at this time, what will the Qi family do?"

Ying Fusheng gave the answer: "Select a suitable royal bloodline from the imperial clan and reinstate him as emperor."

It would be logical and wouldn't arouse suspicion. It could even use the Xu family's vast network to conceal all motives. Military power would fall to the new emperor endorsed by the Qi family. The Qi family, the empire's most loyal blade, would submit to him, silently and smoothly completing a true change of dynasty.

That was the true intention of the mastermind.

Ying Fusheng's expression shifted slightly. "Junior General, if we hadn't turned things around at North Mountain, which prince do you think would have benefited?"

The prince who would have benefited from the North Mountain hunting grounds—almost all the princes were implicated.

If the North Mountain plot had succeeded—with the Deposed Crown Prince failing to kill the Eighth Prince and Ying Fusheng dead—the court would inevitably be thrown into chaos.

The emperor would focus on protecting the Eighth Prince. The first to be swept up would be the First Prince and the Third Prince's faction—the two influential factions in the court. The Xu family would use the Eighth Prince as cover to lie low and rebuild their strength. The Former Dynasty Remnants would take this opportunity to plant new hidden agents, and the military pay case would be swept under the rug.

But if the mastermind's goal was to support someone else...

Qi Hanzhou's mind turned to one candidate who seemed to be caught up in it, but in reality, not a single wave had touched him.

"The Second Prince."