Chapter 595: Life and Death Together
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Empress Qin was a very thoughtful person. She had always been strong and never lowered her head. She was very strict with herself, and this strictness had also spread to the people around her, including the child who had been asserted that would not live past the age of eight. The pity in Empress Qin’s heart was also suppressed by her rationality. As a mother, how could she not feel sorry for her child? But other than feeling sorry for him, Empress Qin had never regretted having him.
If she could turn back time, she would do it again.
Facing the weak child at that time, Empress Qin would still treat him with the strictest attitude.
This dream brought Empress Qin back to the past.
In the dream, there was a child about a year old. He was wearing a thick coat and his face was very pale, especially his cheeks. They were especially thin and did have the roundness a one-year-old child should have.
“Stand up!”
This year, in February, there was a rare snowstorm in Wanning City. In the snow, the one-year-old child couldn’t stand steadily at all. His legs were trembling, as if he would fall to his knees at any time.
“Stand up!”
The young Empress Qin was wearing a red coat. She avoided the umbrella Hua Hong held up for her and only shouted at the child over and over again.
“Mother, I’m in pain… Mother, I’m cold…” The child collapsed in the snow and reached out to Empress Qin, wanting to receive his mother’s warm hug and pull him up, but Empress Qin was still unmoved.
“Child, Huai’er is still young. Why are you so strict with him?!” Duke Yong and his wife couldn’t stand it anymore and wanted to persuade Empress Qin.
However, Empress Qin said coldly, “He has to stand up. He can’t forget his identity!”
“But Huai’er’s body can’t take it anymore. Didn’t you hear the imperial physician say that?”
“He’s a descendant of the Qin Family of Jiangnan. He has to stand up. Other people can take their time to learn how to walk, run, and talk, but he can’t!” Empress Qin was still very insistent.
Then, she looked at the child with a cold gaze, hiding the heartache in her eyes and making her voice even colder. “If you don’t stand up today, you won’t have to call me Mother in the future!”
“How can you be so muddle-headed?!” Duke Yong’s heart ached terribly. His heart ached for his daughter, but also for his grandson. “Even when you were young, I was never so strict. Think about what a one-year-old child will know. He needs his mother’s care at this time. But you’re training him like a soldier? So what if he’s from the Qin Family of Jiangnan? Isn’t he a child of our Duke Yong Manor? If the Emperor finds out, his heart will ache!”
Empress Qin said calmly, “There’s no need for him to know.”
She only needed her child to know that he was a descendant of the Qin Family of Jiangnan and had to follow the Qin Family’s rules for the rest of his life.
There was no need to remember that he was a descendant of the royal family because the Qin Family of Jiangnan could hide him for the rest of his life. Whether it was staying away from the disputes of the royal court or living in seclusion, even if he wanted to become an official in the future, as long as his character was still there, the Qin Family would definitely not abandon him.
Just like the Emperor back then, even if they collapsed and fell deep into the swamp and were abandoned by everyone, the Qin Family of Jiangnan would still save those children with their bloodline and good morals.
In that case, even if Qin Huai left Duke Yong Manor in the future, he would still be able to live well.
At that time, Empress Qin only had such a simple thought in her heart. However, she did not expect Qin Huai to be brought to the verge of death so many times. Even the forces from all over wanted to kill him.
Therefore, when Qin Huai was one year and three months old, Empress Qin gave him all the Crimson Guards she had personally trained and asked those guards to protect Qin Huai with their lives.
At that time, the child, who was innately frail and had fainted countless times, had already vomited blood countless times.
Under Empress Qin’s strict training, he was still like an ordinary child. He could stand and walk, but it was difficult for him to run.
At some point, the person who stretched out his hand every day to let his mother carry him gradually stopped talking and stopped looking at her expectantly. That was the effect that Empress Qin wanted, but her heart still ached.
The more seriously the child was sick, the more she disliked Emperor Minghua. She went against him every day and only wanted Emperor Minghua to throw her out of the palace so that she wouldn’t have to see those schemes again.
However, Emperor Minghua acted as if he was blind and deaf. He ignored her various cold gazes and even helped her hide them.
It was precisely because she knew this that Empress Qin was certain that she was dreaming.
This was because Emperor Minghua was a cold person. How could he secretly instruct people to help her?
A half-truthful dream was the easiest to lose oneself in.
Empress Qin dreamed of that day again. Duke Yong wanted to bring Qin Huai to the battlefield.
At that time, Qin Huai was not even two years old, but he showed signs of early wisdom. However, his body was very weak and he couldn’t go to the family’s school. He could only study with the teacher in the house every day.
Coincidentally, the border of the Eastern Desert was unstable. There were occasional disputes and wars. No one dared to accept the post.
Duke Yong was willing to volunteer to fight, so Emperor Minghua agreed after weighing the pros and cons.
At that time, Qin Huai insisted on following Duke Yong.
However, when he told Empress Qin, it was Duke Yong who said, “In any case, you don’t like the child. Why don’t 1 bring him to the battlefield to train? The battlefield is the best place to train people. Don’t worry, 1’11 bring him back the way I brought him away!”
Empress Qin couldn’t stop him, so she recalled someone in the palace telling her that there was a Gu in the Eastern Desert Kingdom called the Shared Fate Gu. If she used it, she could tie the lives of two people, making both sides live and die together.
Empress Qin used it without hesitation and then informed Duke Yong.
“Father, if anything happens to him outside, you can come back to collect your daughter’s corpse.”
Duke Yong was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, but he still took Qin Huai away.
However, at that time, Empress Qin did not know that the Gu she had used was not the Shared Fate Gu, but a poison that would make both her and Qin Huai suffer great pain.
It was only when Qin Huai was six years old that Empress Qin found out about this matter. However, the poison had entered his lungs, and Qin Huai can no longer be treated with regular medicine.
Empress Qin knew that she had made a huge mistake and tried all means to get the real and last pair of Shared Fate Gu from Emperor Minghua. When Qin Huai wanted to leave Wanning City, she placed the Gu on him.
This was what happened before Qin Huai set off for Wangbei County.
However, in her dream, she did not discover that the Shared Fate Gu was wrong. Instead, she watched helplessly as Huai’er died of poison in front of her at the age of six.
She investigated crazily and found out that Huai’er was not born weak, but had already been poisoned in his mother’s body. The poison she had given him accidentally was the catalyst for the previous poison. The two fused together and completely corroded Huai’er’s body when he was six years old.
In the end, the murderer was actually Emperor Minghua.
In her dream, Empress Qin went completely crazy.
“Qin Zhi!” Empress Qin suddenly opened her eyes, unable to restrain her anger.
She lifted the blanket, pulled out the sword she had not used for many years, and walked out barefooted.
When Hua Hong and Lu Liu saw that Empress Qin was awake, they hurriedly followed her. “Your Highness, you’re awake? Where are you going?!”
“I’ll kill that bastard Qin Zhi!”
Qin Zhi was Emperor Minghua’s nickname that no one knew about.
However, Hua Hong and Lu Liu knew that this was the name the Empress often called in her boudoir when she and the Emperor were very close.
“Your Highness, please think twice!!!” Hua Hong hugged Empress Qin’s leg and knelt down.
When they arrived at the entrance of the hall, they saw two cute children standing under the sunny day.
The girl was wearing the clothes of a princess, and a young man stood beside her.
Ah Yu blinked and looked at Empress Qin, who was only wearing a shirt and had messy hair. “You’re Auntie Empress, right? You look so similar to Auntie Qin!”
The only difference was that Auntie Qin looked very cold and unapproachable. As for this Auntie Empress… she looked a little… silly?
Empress Qin:”…”