Chapter 169: What Your Subject Seeks
“A Shan.”
A female voice called by his ear.
The Emperor struggled to open his eyes and saw Yang Tong sitting in the lamplight.
“Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?”
The Emperor opened his mouth but made no sound.
But Yang Tong seemed to hear his answer and smiled.
“A girl.” she said, shifting closer to his side, her eyes bright and sparkling, “Then what name should we give her?”
The Emperor’s lips moved, and this time he forced out a sound.
“Luo…”
“Your Majesty.” The female voice rang out clearly and brightly, “Your subject is here.”
Your subject.
The Emperor’s ears buzzed, the darkness before his eyes receded, and Yang Tong in the lamplight also dissipated.
The Emperor looked at the two young girls standing before him; the room was no longer lit only by the night light—the lamps were bright, illuminating the girls’ concerned expressions.
“Your Majesty.” she said softly, “We should still summon the imperial physician.”
Earlier, when the Emperor who had taken the jade pendant nearly fainted, the secret guards instantly stepped forward to draw their blades against these two young girls.
Fortunately, the Emperor held on with one breath and stopped them.
He also stopped them from calling the imperial physician, only allowing them to help him sit down.
“Let me catch my breath; I’ll be fine after that.”
“Go on, go on; she won’t harm me.”
The secret guards withdrew.
However, Yang Luo did not let her maidservant withdraw; the maidservant stood quietly behind Yang Luo.
The Emperor took a deep breath and looked at Yang Luo…
Earlier he thought this child was very much like A Tong, but there were some places not like A Tong.
Now he knew.
The places not like A Tong were like him.
These eyebrows, and these ears.
The Emperor’s eyes blurred with tears once more.
Heaven, she was his child too, his and A Tong’s child.
That child actually…
“Back then, they said the child had been beaten away.” The Emperor said choking up.
Yang Luo said softly: “Actually, I don’t know if I’m your child; my mother never told me. You can ask Duke Ding’an or someone else…”
“No need to ask anyone.” The Emperor shook his head, “Since your mother engraved your birth date on this jade pendant, it’s real.”
A Tong was a proud person; if it weren’t his child, she absolutely wouldn’t use this jade pendant.
His child!
The Emperor reached out to cover his face.
“It was I who was stupid.” he said choking up, “I once secretly went to see your mother and saw her holding a little infant, calling an accountant uncle father; I thought your mother and someone else…”
Yang Luo thought for a moment, let out an “oh,” and said: “Accountant Uncle, the infant you saw was probably Cai Die.”
Her expression held a trace of reminiscence.
“Accountant Uncle and his wife fled famine to White Horse Town, encountered a difficult birth, and Mother took them in. Cai Die is two years younger than me; a few years ago, Accountant Uncle’s family returned to their hometown.”
At this point, she smiled.
“Fortunately they left; otherwise, they would have died in White Horse Town too.”
The Emperor’s body stiffened.
Those people, those people killed A Tong.
Were those people real mountain bandits, or as that servant of Ji Ying said…
Marquis Yichun dispatched Ji Ying to do it.
His hand hanging at his side clenched, making creaking sounds.
This sounded absurd, the suppressed accusation he had always kept in his heart…
“Those people weren’t real mountain bandits.” Yang Luo said, then knelt on one knee in salute, “Please, Your Majesty, investigate the true culprit.”
The maidservant standing behind her also paid respects.
The Emperor reached out to help her up, then timidly didn’t dare approach.
“Don’t, don’t stand on ceremony; I am your father.” he said. Saying the word “father,” his throat ached, looking at this young girl.
Yang Luo, Luo…
“If it’s a girl, call her Luo Ying; Luo Ying is so beautiful, Princess Luo Ying.”
Luo, Ying.
This was the name he gave his child.
Did A Tong choose one character because there was only a mother and no father?
A Tong.
The Emperor raised his hand to cover his face as tears surged out.
His child.
He had even struck this child!
The Emperor dropped his sleeve and hurriedly stepped forward to look at Yang Luo: “I had them do palm strikes; your hand, your hand…”
Was it injured, was it injured.
Yang Luo smiled: “Your Majesty, you forgot: my maidservant and I swapped identities. I wasn’t injured—not just from the palm strikes, but other times too.”
Other times.
Yes, he had struck her, the Empress had struck her, the Empress even wanted to shoot her dead with a crossbow bolt…
The Emperor suffocated in an instant.
Duke Ding’an, Marquis Yichun, the Empress—they all knew about this child, and they certainly knew she was his and Yang Tong’s child.
They didn’t say.
They wanted to kill her, they hid it from him, they…
The Emperor’s chest heaved violently, but he suffocated and couldn’t breathe, his face flushed red, his whole body seeming about to explode.
Yang Luo couldn’t help glancing at Mo Zheng behind her, her eyes questioning…
Would he be angered to death?
Mo Zheng gave her a slight nod, signaling her to step forward and comfort him.
Yang Luo looked at the Emperor before her and slowly extended her hand to support his arm…
This was also the first time in her past and present lives she had touched a father.
Father.
“Your Majesty.” she lowered her eyes and said, “Don’t think too much.”
The Emperor looked down at the hand supporting his arm—his child’s hand…
The hand of his Princess Luo Ying, which he thought he would never have again, was now supporting him.
The Emperor’s tears slid down; he exhaled, then took a deep breath, looking at Yang Luo and nodding: “Yes, don’t think about those things now. The most important thing is to let everyone know about you, know that you are my daughter, my Princess Luo Ying.”
Yes, he would proclaim it to the world; this time, no one could stop him, no one could stop him!
The hand supporting his arm shook gently.
“Your Majesty.” Yang Luo said, “You’re still overthinking.”
The Emperor was stunned, looking at her.
“Your Majesty, you should still remember: my mother separated from you; she had no husband.” Yang Luo said softly, “So…”
She knelt slightly in salute.
“I won’t recognize you as my father.”
The Emperor’s vision went black again.
……
……
“Alright, Deng Shan, then I divorce you.”
“Deng Shan, from now on you and I are no longer husband and wife; there is no relationship between us!”
A Tong’s voice echoed in his ears.
The Emperor reached out to cover his face as tears slid down.
A Tong.
We can’t have no relationship; we have a child.
“Your Majesty, I know telling you all this tonight is very sudden.” The female voice was gentle; the soft hand also gently shook his arm again, “That you can fully believe it without questioning or verifying is also a great surprise to me.”
Is that so? She’s happy? That’s good, that’s good. The Emperor hurriedly took a deep breath, looking at the young girl before him.
“That you believe me is enough for me.” Yang Luo said, “I came to see you not to recognize kin, but to confirm if you wanted our mother and daughter dead. If you do, then we can die at ease.”
Die at ease.
So after asking that question earlier, she took out the jade pendant to reveal her identity.
If she got the opposite answer, she wouldn’t mention her identity.
No need to recognize kin with someone who even wants to kill his wife.
The Emperor closed his eyes, holding back the tears about to surge: “It was my incompetence, my fault, letting you suffer this calamity.”
The hand supporting his arm let go; Yang Luo stepped back.
“Since White Horse Town wasn’t your order, please investigate the truth.”
She said, kneeling slightly in salute again; Mo Zheng beside her also paid respects.
“To avenge the civilians who died in White Horse Town—that is my only request in coming to see you.”
……
……
The night was fading.
The Emperor paced slowly inside the temporary palace, occasionally looking down at his arm.
The arm his Luo Ying had supported.
Unfortunately, it let go soon after.
She didn’t recognize him as father and asked him to continue keeping it secret, not to expose her identity.
She didn’t seek to recognize her father.
What face did he have to make her recognize him as father?
What had he this father done to her?
He hadn’t raised her, and her and her mother’s calamity were all brought by him.
Without punishing the culprits to let A Tong rest in peace, what face did he have to hear her call him father.
The Emperor raised his hand and slapped himself; it rang loudly in the quiet temporary palace.
All around were only secret guards, quiet as the night.
But a report came from ahead.
“Your Majesty, Wei Jiao requests an audience.”
Wei Jiao?
Right, Wei Jiao was here—the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The Emperor entering the temporary palace couldn’t be hidden from them.
Good that Wei Jiao was here; just right to give him orders. The Emperor nodded in indication.
“Your Majesty.”
Wei Jiao came running from the night, wrapped in a cloak; with his movement, thin clothes inside were revealed, even half his shoulder and chest bare, seeming to have come in haste.
“Why did you come in the middle of the night?”
He asked anxiously and concernedly.
The Emperor said nothing, his gaze falling on Wei Jiao’s bare shoulder and chest; in the pale night, he could see large patches of blood seeping through the white bandages…
This wound…
The Emperor quickly stepped forward to meet Wei Jiao, reaching out to support his shoulder, looking at his wound, at the spreading blood.
This wound.
This wound almost landed on his Luo Ying.
Even if that maidservant took her place, this crossbow bolt was aimed at his Luo Ying!
Heaven, his Luo Ying would have been wounded this badly!
The Emperor supported Wei Jiao’s shoulder, tears streaming down like rain, while Wei Jiao shouted loudly by his ear.
“Your Majesty! So you’re heartbroken over my wound!”
“Your Majesty, you’re worried about me, came specially for me!”
“Your Majesty—”
Wei Jiao hugged the Emperor and burst into loud sobs.
“Your Majesty, though I have a dad, it’s as if I don’t; fortunately I have Your Majesty—”
Having a dad is as if not having one…
Yes, his Luo Ying was just like that. Hearing this, the Emperor’s vision went black again.
This time he finally couldn’t hold on and softly collapsed onto Wei Jiao.
“Heavens, Your Majesty fainted from heartbreak over me!”
“Quick, someone come, summon the imperial physician—”
