CHAPTER 361: CHAPTER 361: HOW COULD IT BE?

Qu Fulan went to Aunt Li’s house to talk to He Hua about the Li family case.

She told her that the grievance of the Li family had been redressed.

The mastermind behind it was King Jie, and it was King Jie’s people who took her. King Jie was truly an evil person.

He Hua clearly hadn’t spent a day with the Li family, so logically her feelings shouldn’t be too deep, but upon hearing the grievances were redressed, her eyes couldn’t help but well up with tears.

Mrs. Li also prayed to the ancestors and Buddha, thankful that the Li family was wronged, and the Emperor was going to restore the Li family’s name. Truly, thank heavens.

Qu Fulan also mentioned that the Emperor would confer on her the title of County Princess. In any case, it’s a form of compensation, better than nothing.

"Tonight, burn incense for your parents, so that their spirits in heaven can rest in peace," Mrs. Li said with tears of joy.

Then, Aunt Li invited Qu Fulan to come for dinner in the evening, and Qu Fulan agreed.

Just because they found the real daughter of the Li family didn’t mean she wasn’t part of the Li family. What they call familial bonds are nurtured. Mrs. Li considered her as family, and she saw them as family too.

On this side, the family was warm and harmonious. In the palace, the Emperor lay on the bed, looking as if he had aged ten years.

Everyone lives with some kind of faith. The Emperor’s faith was to find his missing wife and daughter someday. He knew if his wife and daughter fell into King Jie’s hands, it would not end well.

So he worked hard to find them, promising himself that if he found them, he would make it up to them no matter what.

But King Jie said his wife was dead, and the daughter too...

This was unbearable for the Emperor. Years of yearning shattered, coupled with King Jie’s refusal to reveal his daughter’s whereabouts—it nearly drove him mad.

One must admit how cunning King Jie was. By not revealing the true princess’s whereabouts, he ensured the Emperor’s lifelong grief, making his own death worthwhile.

King Jie didn’t barter the true princess’s whereabouts for his own life. Among royal descendants, who is more sympathetic to one over the other? Even if he had revealed it, the Emperor would not have spared them. Even if spared, what kind of life would they have then? Being wasted away was worse than death. It was better not to say anything, so the Emperor would never know the whereabouts of his biological daughter nor where his wife died, tormenting him for life.

They say emperors are heartless, but even an emperor has someone unforgettable throughout his life.

The Emperor’s relationship with his wife, those who had seen it, only Nanny Lai remains now.

Only Nanny Lai knows she was a pure woman.

A woman of absolute purity.

Pure and clean, neither foolish nor stupid. There are people in this world with souls so pure that even if their appearance is frightening, they warm hearts, let alone one who was originally of heavenly beauty.

Such a person could only be sheltered by being born into a wealthy family. She was indeed a lady from a prominent family, who later met King Yue, and King Yue was irrevocably smitten.

A complex heart within a convoluted environment, upon encountering ultimate purity, could not remain unaffected.

Being with her, even doing nothing, brought feelings of relaxation and joy.

That was the most beautiful period in King Yue’s life. He soon married her—a princely heir and a local noble lady—ideally matched, a heavenly match.

Yet she couldn’t be added to the royal lineage, recorded in Jade Scrolls, which means she couldn’t be considered a royal wife.

The reason being, compared to the local nobility, they held no match to the nobles of Capital City. His mother wanted him to marry someone with a rich family background that could aid his bid for the throne.

His father also disapproved of his wife from the fiefdom, wishing to appoint him a Crown Princess Consort.

He resisted with all his might, insisting on the position of principal wife for her.

His father and mother had no choice but to compromise, yet they arranged numerous concubines for him, demanding he remain in the Capital City, and only once the situation stabilized could he fetch her.

When everything settled, he eagerly went to bring her back.

During that period, she became pregnant. He planned to wait until she safely gave birth before traveling, but when she was seven months pregnant, an urgent summons came from the palace. He had no choice but to return, but couldn’t leave her, as King Jie already knew she was his weakness. Leaving her in the fiefdom would mean certain death.

So he risked bringing her on the journey. Her large belly made them extra cautious on the way back to the city.

Yet unexpectedly, a sudden calamity struck, forcing them apart. To protect her, he left numerous guards with her, taking only a small detachment himself, traveling a different route to divert attention.

Unbeknownst to him, there was a traitor among the guards.

Nanny Lai was the witness. She took the Princess Consort to escape. In the end, to protect the Princess Consort, she hid her in some bushes and went to divert the enemy’s attention herself.

But when she returned, the Princess Consort was gone.

No one knows what happened afterward.

All these years, finding his wife became an obsession for the Emperor. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find her.

If she were alive, it would be impossible not to find her after so many years, so perhaps as King Jie said, she died, which is why she couldn’t be found.

She died—such a good person died, and he couldn’t even protect the daughter she left behind.

The Emperor’s internal anguish and remorse were beyond words.

Over the years, during the selection of concubines in the palace, he found people who somewhat resembled her—not the nose, then the eyes. But he never chose anyone who resembled her.

In his heart, there was only her, and no one could take her place.

"Bi’er..."

The ailing Emperor softly murmured.

There was no need to ask; the eunuch who had served him for years knew who he was calling.

The Empress Dowager saw the Emperor in such illness, feeling both angry and helplessly anxious.

"Back then, when he half-defied the Empress Dowager, I knew that woman held an unusual place in his heart. Alas, the biggest thing an emperor cannot afford is sentimentality, yet he is like this. Now, this suffering—does he intend to follow her to no man’s land?"

Nanny Lai consoled, "The Emperor has just learned the truth and will inevitably feel sad. He should recover after some time."

Not just the Emperor feels sorrow; Nanny Lai is sorrowful too. That was her lady, served from youth, and now her remains are nowhere to be found, and even the little lady’s whereabouts are unknown.

Indeed, only the Emperor and a few confidants know the truth. The Empress Dowager only heard that the child couldn’t be found.

Otherwise, if the royal heir had fallen to such humiliation, who could bear it?

"At this point, all we can hope for is to find that child soon. Otherwise, if the Emperor continues to despair day in and day out, it will really be unbearable." The Empress Dowager twisted the Buddha beads in her hand.

Meanwhile, Xiao Shiqing noticed the sachet on Pei Ji’an’s waist, the clumsy stitches resembling the one he had seen at the hunting ground before.

If the previous sachet was made by someone else or perhaps due to injury, it was temporarily made that way, how about this one now?

Xiao Shiqing wasn’t foolish. If Heir Pei wore a pouch at his waist, especially one that didn’t look particularly exquisite, it must have been embroidered by her; otherwise, he wouldn’t wear such a pouch.

So, whether it was the pouch back then or the one on Heir Pei now, both were embroidered by her. Is her embroidery skill actually like that?

Then who embroidered the pouch in his hand?

The fake Princess Zhuyu?

How is that possible?