vstars Chapter 102
Chapter 102
"So you were the palace maid who followed Lord Hua back then?"
The middle-aged man's face was full of fear, and he hurriedly knelt down.
"Yes, it is this old servant. My name is Wei Ru. Ever since the late Emperor brought Hua Shijun back to the palace, this old servant has been serving Hua Shijun."
Nalan Jingwen nodded. "I want to know, and there must be no concealment whatsoever regarding Hua Shijun and Prince Yin."
Wei Ru paused, as if recalling something, and slowly said, "When Lord Hua first entered the palace, he didn't like us. He always stayed alone in the palace and only called us in when he needed to. When he first entered the palace, Lord Hua was always threatening to die. He didn't want to stay in the palace and said that the palace was a cage. Once you entered, you would never be able to get out. Lord Hua said that even if he died, he wanted to be free."
Upon hearing this, Nalan Jing subconsciously glanced at Pei Yunche beside him.
As expected, Pei Yunche had droopy eyebrows and a lowered head, making it impossible to see his expression or what he was thinking.
Perhaps sensing Nalan Jingwen's gaze, he suddenly raised his head, met her gaze as if by telepathy, and then gave a silly grin.
Nalan Jingwen sighed softly and turned to continue listening.
"Lord Hua has a fiancée outside the palace. Every time His Majesty comes, he deliberately brings up his fiancée to anger His Majesty. Every time His Majesty is angry, he confines Lord Hua to the palace, and we servants are punished along with him. Lord Hua has repeatedly asked us to help him escape from the palace, but..."
Wei Ru frowned, looking extremely helpless.
“This is a serious crime! If we are discovered, no one in Jing’an Palace will escape. How dare we? We are just servants. No one will even plead for us when we die. Unlike our masters, we are powerless.”
"Later, when Hua Shijun realized that we would not help him, his temper became even worse. He often stayed alone in the palace, muttering to himself. He wouldn't allow us to light any lamps, day or night, so he would stay in the dark. Every time His Majesty came, he would smash everything he could in the palace. At first, His Majesty was angry and just confined him to his quarters, but later His Majesty stopped coming altogether. With so many beauties in the palace, how could there be lasting favor?"
"Before, because of His Majesty's favor, the servants did not dare to cut back on the food, clothing and daily necessities of Jing'an Palace. Later, when they found that His Majesty no longer came and had completely forgotten about Hua Shijun, they stopped sending things to Jing'an Palace. We became more and more difficult to live on. Many of the servants with connections went to serve other masters. As a result, there were very few people left in Jing'an Palace."
"But just at this time, Lady Hua became pregnant."
As he spoke, the helplessness on his face deepened, and he sighed.
“We servants are fine, we can survive on whatever we eat, but Lady Hua is pregnant and can’t do without nutrition, so we ask around for a little meat for her to eat so that the baby in her belly can get enough nutrition. Sometimes we can’t get meat, so we can eat a plate of vegetables for several meals.”
Upon hearing this, Nalan Jing felt a pair of warm hands pull her. She turned her head and saw Pei Yunche staring at her with a heavy expression, his eyes glistening with tears.
Nalan Jingwen patted his hand to comfort him, but the man gripped it even tighter.
Pei Yunche was pampered growing up and had experienced all kinds of hardships. The only hardship he had ever endured was probably the one inflicted on him by Nalan Jingwen, so he was naturally saddened to hear about it.
"When Prince Yin was born, he was tiny and skinny, with hardly any flesh on him. Heaven had mercy, and everyone was afraid he wouldn't survive. But unexpectedly, Prince Yin did survive. Babies always love to cry, and once they start, they cry endlessly. But Prince Yin didn't like to cry. It was as if he knew that Attendant Hua didn't like him. He was always well-behaved. Even when he was hungry, he wouldn't cry. He would just stay in his swaddling clothes with his eyes open. He was so well-behaved."
“Poor child. In ordinary families, children grow into chubby little ones by the time they are six months old, but Prince Yin is still thin and small. He is so small that he feels like he has no weight when you hold him. He always smiles when he sees people, with his big, round eyes. But the more well-behaved he is, the sadder we are.”
As Wei Ru spoke, she choked up and raised her hand to wipe away her tears.
"Lord Hua dislikes Prince Yin and rarely even glances at him. Even though Prince Yin is so well-behaved, he still doesn't like him. We thought that, no matter what, Prince Yin is Lord Hua's child, so even if he doesn't like him, he wouldn't hurt the child. But one time, we put Prince Yin next to Lord Hua so that he could see him, but we never expected that Lord Hua would try to strangle his own child! But just a moment ago, Prince Yin was smiling at him."
"Later, we dared not give Prince Yin to him again. Prince Yin grew up and did not understand why Lady Hua did not like him. Every time he went to Lady Hua, he would be driven away. He could only watch from afar, sitting at the door. The people in the palace were snobbish and did not like him. They always bullied him and no one played with him. He would always sit in the corner in a daze."
“It’s normal for a child from an ordinary family to be so dependent on his father at this age, and he should be carefree. But Prince Yin can only sit in the corner in a daze. I know that even though he is young, I know that he is sad. He has always been very well-behaved and easy to take care of since he was a child. He never cries or makes a fuss, and he is so sensible that it breaks my heart. Even when he eats coarse food, he never complains. He also helps us servants with our work. How can anyone not like such a good child?”
He suddenly paused, as if remembering something, and his sadness deepened.
"Later, when Prince Yin was three or four years old, Attendant Hua would always call Prince Yin into the palace. We could not enter without being summoned. Even if Attendant Hua was not favored, he was still our master, and we could not disobey his words."
"At first, we thought that Attendant Hua had come to his senses and wanted to treat the child better, so we were very relieved. We were initially wary, but we didn't see Attendant Hua do anything, so we let our guard down. However, we realized we were wrong. Attendant Hua started forbidding us from getting close to Prince Yin. If we dared to approach, he would commit suicide. We could save the child, but we couldn't stop someone who wanted to commit suicide at any time. We could stop him once or twice, but what about every other time?"
Humans cannot concentrate at all times, and given even the slightest gap, it is impossible to stop someone who wants to commit suicide.
"We can only compromise and watch helplessly as Prince Yin stays in the palace for several days. There's nothing we can do, and we can only deliver his meals to the door."
“Every day and night I can hear Prince Yin’s cries, I can hear him yelling in pain, I can hear him barking like a dog, I can hear him calling for his father. Yin’er was wrong, I will never dare to do it again.”
"Later we learned that Hua Shijun raised Prince Yin like a dog, making him bark like a dog and eat and sleep like a dog. Prince Yin was covered in injuries. He was completely raised like a dog, made to sleep naked in a cage, and even when he was sick, he could only force himself to get better."