Chapter 162: The casualties of war 2 (2/2)
Zhongshan Ling glanced at her shaky eyes, full of fear. It was all he needed to understand what happened but before jumping to conclusions. He needed to be sure, he looked her straight in the eyes and asked
”Was my mother poisoned?”
Nanny Chu couldn't withstand the heat of his gaze, maybe it was because of the guilt that had silently eaten deep into her soul all these years. Her mistress had suffered all those years in the palace and although the Empress didn't pull the trigger. To her, Empress Lu was as responsible as the other concubines. Why did the Empress turn blind eyes to her mistress suffering, if the Empress's had stepped in maybe her mistress won't have died.
She looked away from the Crown Prince and bit her lips, she was tired of keeping quiet on the events of that year. It has been over two decades, the Crown Prince deserved to know the true conditions of his mother's death. Nanny Chu also felt like this would give her much needed closure.
It was not like she would be lying, things had gone down this exact way. She looked at him and once again the face of her poor young mistress flashed. He looked a lot like his mother, which made this more painful for her. 'Please forgive me for not keeping my promise mistress' she thought looking up silently.
”Your highness is right, the young mistress was indeed poisoned before she died but you must remember that this is normal in the Imperial haram. No one can escape that”.
His heartbeat stilled for a second as he heard that, he had unknowingly hoped that it would not turn out to be true but in the end it did. At least this proved that one out of the two accusations made in the anonymous letters is true now to find out if the second point made is true.
”Who poisoned her?”
Nanny Chu looked up eye wide as her heartbeat quickened, the scene she had experienced the night her mistress died immediately popped up in her head. She suddenly wished that she had kept her mouth shut about the poisoning. Maybe she wouldn't be forced to put the Crown Prince in a bind like this.
The Empress wasn't someone that he could easily cross, the Empress's grudge with her young miss was already very big. This crown Prince position was a position he got thanks to her mistress's sacrifice if the Crown Prince crosses the Empress. It could be disastrous and it would end with him losing both his title and the protection the Empress offered him.
Her silence made Zhongshan Ling more convinced that his earlier suspicion was right. He pressed her further by saying, ”please tell me what happened to my mother. I have been seeing her in my dreams recently. Which made me feel very uneasy, don't I deserve to know this much?”
Nanny chu bit her lips gently, she couldn't help but remember the promise she made her young mistress. She intended to carry this secret to her grave but present circumstances made that impossible for her. With her grandchild's life in the line, there is no way she could keep her promise. The cost of doing that was too high for her to pay.
”Young Mistress was poisoned by the Empress, she had been poisoned for years.”
”If the Empress poisoned my mother how come she still took me in?”
”Because your mother begged her to during the last few days of her life. The Noble consort knew that she won't survive the illness, the imperial physicians had told her several times. The Empress just lost her child and was grieving, our young miss knew that the Empress was kind and would never hold anything against a child. So she begged her to adopt you, your mother was willing to relinquish her rights over you just to keep you safe.
”She knew that the empress had complications after giving birth and couldn't survive another pregnancy. Out of the other Imperial concubines, she was the best option because she needed a son and unlike the rest, she had a strong family and could offer you protection the Tong family can't.
”Young Mistress also thought that since the Empress had no son, you could be made the Crown Prince. According to the traditions of northern Wei, only the son of an Empress or an imperial Noble consort can be made the Crown Prince. It was beneficial to everyone dividing the Lu family, a few days after Empress Lu accepted to adopt you. She sent over a bottle of fast-acting poison and instructed your mother to take it.”
Zhongshan Ling remained silent for some seconds as he tried to process all that he had heard. He came here convinced that he could accept whatever he discovered but now that he heard it all he still couldn't bring himself to believe.