May you achieve your wishes soon and preside over the land as a mother.
Dugu Wu leaned on his crutch, returning to Feng Bailing’s side.
"Let’s go ho."
The man’s voice was low and firm.
Feng Bailing acknowledged with a sound and helped him walk back, while Dongfang Lianhua’s face overflowed with a smile, seeing the couple following the "husband leading and wife accompanying" pattern.
Nalan Yan’er watched the two leave, feeling that this ti, Dugu Wu was truly leaving her behind.
Even though what Dugu Wu said was exactly what she had long hoped for, why did she feel like her heart had been split open?
"Feng Bailing, don’t be smug."
Nalan Yan’er’s words were poisoned with resentnt.
Who knows where Feng Zao had gone, but the couple did not take a horse carriage and instead walked by foot back to Prince Shun’s Mansion.
Dugu Wu did not speak throughout the journey.
"Actually..."
Both spoke at the sa ti; Feng Bailing tripped over her tongue and hurriedly said.
"You go first."
Dugu Wu’s voice was deep.
"Actually, I want to say, this blood test for kinship is not reliable."
Seeing Nalan Yan’er’s utterly heartbroken appearance, Feng Bailing wanted to set off firecrackers in celebration, but after weighing the situation, she decided to tell the truth.
Dugu Wu’s eyes darkened.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Dongfang Yu and Dongfang Jin might not be father and son, and similarly, the two of you might not be non-relatives."
Feng Bailing curled her lip slightly.
"Make it clearer."
"As an example, human blood can be divided into types A, B, O, and AB, just like there are people with Wuji Seal, Wenhua Seal, and ordinary people. Blood of the sa type, or type O blood encountering other types, can all fuse. The blood types between parents and children might be the sa or different, so there could be compatibility or incompatibility. Taking the people of Great Chu as an example, the possibility of the four blood types is about the sa. A blood test can’t confirm the blood relationship between people."
Feng Bailing didn’t worry that Dugu Wu wouldn’t understand; were he in the modern era, he would be a super athlete and an unrivaled top student, others might not get it, but it wouldn’t be an issue for Dugu Wu to comprehend.
Dugu Wu, after listening, had a solemn face, and Feng Bailing couldn’t fathom how much he understood.
"Are you saying that blood that doesn’t fuse could still be that of father and son?"
Dugu Wu understood.
But his tone was chilling to the bone.
"There’s a fifty percent chance that you and Dongfang Jin might actually be blood-related."
Feng Bailing said in a low voice.
As they spoke, they had arrived at the entrance of Prince Shun’s Mansion.
Feng Bailing pushed Dugu Wu through the gates, planning to send him to the study.
"Go to Bamboo Court."
Feng Bailing was stunned for a mont.
Bamboo Court was the residence where Prince Shun lived before his death. Since she married into the family, she had never seen Dugu Wu visit Bamboo Court.
In fact, Dugu Wu’s daily life was very monotonous. After taking off his armor, he was either in the study of Wu Courtyard, or he was going to the Ministry of Revenue for work. Only after having two children did he occasionally take them to play and practice martial arts in Prince Shun’s Mansion.
Feng Bailing accompanied Dugu Wu to Bamboo Court.
Inside Bamboo Court, everything was set up as it was the day she married in, with the Princess Consort Shun’s servants routinely cleaning the place.
Among several side rooms, there was one study and a small martial arts training ground with a few targets. It did not at all appear like the living place of the late Emperor’s most favored Prince.
"When I was ten, I was brought into Prince Shun’s Mansion. For a while, I lived with Prince Shun in Bamboo Court. By that ti, Lady Dugu had been gone for several years. Before I was ten, I lived in the Imperial Palace, raised by the Empress Dowager, with Nalan Yan’er and Dongfang Jin being my only two playmates. I left the Imperial Palace because I had fought with several Princes."
Dugu Wu stared fixedly at every scene and object in Bamboo Court, identical to how it had been during Prince Shun’s ti.
He could even rember the man’s sitting position when he taught him military tactics, how to judge the tis and situations, and the ways of conducting oneself in life.
However, now that he had co to understand military tactics and the art of strategizing, that man was no longer there.
"The reason for the fight was that they called a son of a whore. They said I was a bastard, that I wasn’t really Prince Shun’s son, that Prince Shun was a cuckolded turtle."
Those noble sons from the most exalted place in Great Chu, despite their young age, already knew how to utter the world’s most venomous curses to call him a bastard.
Yet those Princes of noble lineage, along with a group of eunuchs — three or four of them — still ended up beaten by him, bruised and swollen-faced.
They ran to cry and complain to their Queen Mothers and Father Emperor.
Dugu Wu was expelled from the Imperial Palace. He would forever rember the way Prince Shun apologized to Emperor Yongye.
"I stayed in Prince Shun’s Mansion for three years before Prince Shun died. Before his death, he smiled and told that he could finally go and visit Lady Dugu."
At the ti, Dugu Wu didn’t understand why a man on his deathbed could still shine with such light in his eyes.
"After he died, I joined the military and fought wars, expanding the territory for Great Chu, because I promised him that I would be loyal to Great Chu in this life and never beco an enemy of Emperor Yongye. While Emperor Yongye was alive, I was his subject. After Emperor Yongye passed, I remained a subject to Emperor Yongye’s son."
Dugu Wu fulfilled his promise.
These years, no matter how great his accomplishnts or high his cultivation, he was still only second in command.
"Do you know why?"
Dugu Wu’s gaze was piercing as he looked at Feng Bailing.
For the first ti, Feng Bailing truly t Dugu Wu’s eyes.
The man’s heterochromia, brown and blue eyes, were astonishingly bright at this mont.
"Because, I am not Prince Shun’s son, I am the son of Lady Dugu and Emperor Yongye. Back then, Emperor Yongye and Prince Shun both fell in love with Lady Dugu. But for the throne of Great Chu, Emperor Yongye married the Empress and gained the support of the Xiao Family. Lady Dugu was already pregnant with at the ti, and in a fit of rage, she took , still in her womb, and left. Emperor Yongye found her, and he promised that once he beca Emperor, Lady Dugu would definitely beco the Empress. But after I was born, he found out I had heterochromia."
Both Lady Dugu and Emperor Yongye had black hair and black eyes. Enraged, Emperor Yongye suspected Lady Dugu of infidelity and that Dugu Wu was a bastard.
Ignoring Lady Dugu’s objections, he used the blood test, and indeed, the blood of father and son could not rge.
"He took advantage of Lady Dugu’s weakness after childbirth and abandoned . I miraculously survived, picked up by my wet nurse, and it was not until a few years later that Prince Shun found . Prince Shun rescued Lady Dugu who had been placed under house arrest and, in order to give legitimacy and to disillusion Emperor Yongye, he adopted as his son against public scorn and the late Emperor’s opposition."
As Dugu Wu spoke of the past, his voice was indifferent, as if he were speaking of soone else’s experiences.
After the death of Prince Shun, these matters were never ntioned by him to others again. They were an old scar at the bottom of his heart, seemingly healed, but once torn open, it was evident that the wound had already bled and festered, beyond healing.
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