After spitting out a mouthful of blood, the Emperor no longer tried to maintain his composure. Eunuchs and imperial physicians rushed forward to attend to him.
Chu Zhao and the others all stepped back.
Xiao Yu also stood beside Chu Zhao again, holding her hand.
“Don’t be afraid,” Chu Zhao said, lowering her head to comfort him.
Xiao Yu nodded. He didn’t seem particularly frightened—perhaps he had already been scared numb.
However, the eunuchs and physicians were quickly driven away. The Emperor was much more dispirited than before, but still half-sat up, looking at Chu Zhao and pressing, “You tell me—how can I not be angry!”
“Your Majesty,” Chu Zhao bowed in acknowledgment of her fault. “This commoner girl is guilty. When I said ‘Your Majesty, don’t be angry,’ I didn’t mean for Your Majesty not to be angry.”
The Emperor looked at her and asked with a cold laugh, “Then what else could it mean?”
Chu Zhao said, “It meant I felt heartache for Your Majesty.”
Heartache for His Majesty? The Emperor froze. Deng Yi beside them glanced at Chu Zhao, pressed his lips, and lowered his head.
“So many things have happened, and all involving Your Majesty’s closest relatives. How could Your Majesty not be angry? But anger is useless and will only harm yourself,” Chu Zhao continued. “This commoner girl is helpless and can only say futilely, ‘Your Majesty, don’t be angry,’ hoping Your Majesty will take better care of yourself.”
Helpless, hoping His Majesty would take care of himself—yes, was that the meaning? The Emperor looked at this girl, his expression changing for a moment, then suddenly smiled.
“If you can’t speak properly, speak less,” he said. He also lost the inclination to rebuke further and glanced at Xiao Yu beside Chu Zhao. About to say something, in the end he didn’t.
It was meaningless.
“Take A’Yu and leave.”
Chu Zhao was stunned. “Leave? Go where?”
The Emperor looked at her. “Go to the border commandery. Go find your father. You now know how capable your father is, so take the Young Highness there.”
To actually—Chu Zhao couldn’t help but look toward Deng Yi.
Deng Yi met her gaze. “Miss Chu, what I said at the gate tower wasn’t ill will toward the Young Highness. My telling you to take the Young Highness and leave is the best choice for him. The Young Highness staying here is not safe.”
Chu Zhao looked at His Majesty again. “Your Majesty, the Young Highness is safest with you.”
The Emperor made a sound of acknowledgment. “I’m going to die. When I die, if he’s beside me, will he still be safe?”
Chu Zhao was stunned. Going to die?
She indeed knew the Emperor would die, but—
“I’m about to die very soon,” the Emperor said, looking at the girl’s expression and pointing at the bloodstains remaining on the floor. “I’ve been poisoned. I’m about to die very soon.”
So it was poison. Chu Zhao had a sudden realization. Her expression was melancholy as she stared blankly at the blood on the ground, hearing the Emperor’s voice in her ears.
“When I die, if A’Yu is still here, will he be safe?”
Chu Zhao raised her head. “Your Majesty, when you die, if A’Yu is not in the imperial city, he will be even less safe.”
He knew she wouldn’t give up. Deng Yi no longer spoke or rebuked, remaining silent.
The Emperor looked at Chu Zhao, his eyes turbid, his expression between a smile and not.
“He is the Crown Prince’s son, your eldest grandson. If he leaves the imperial city, he becomes nothing. In this world, there will be no place for him,” Chu Zhao said.
The Emperor’s gaze turned to Xiao Yu, his expression indifferent. “He is the Crown Prince’s son, my eldest grandson. The Crown Prince is dead, I will die—he truly will be nothing.”
The small child probably couldn’t comprehend at all what it meant to be nothing. He just held Chu Zhao’s hand motionlessly, waiting for others to decide his future.
The doting gaze of his imperial grandfather could no longer be seen, and having glanced once, he looked away.
As if this child had no connection to him whatsoever.
The Emperor’s gaze returned to Chu Zhao.
“A person who is nothing—hide far away. Isn’t your father very capable? Go find him.”
Having said this, his strength seemed exhausted. He slowly lay back down, not wanting to say another word.
Hearing this, Chu Zhao finally understood completely. At this very moment, not only had Deng Yi chosen Xiao Xun, the Emperor had also chosen Xiao Xun.
Why?
In that previous life, it was one thing. But in this life, the Young Highness was still alive.
“Your Majesty,” she asked directly. “The Young Highness is still alive. The Crown Prince is gone, you will be gone—he won’t be nothing. He will be the master of the imperial city, the master of the realm.”
The Emperor looked at this girl and laughed heartily, reaching out to point at Xiao Yu.
“Miss Chu, the Crown Prince is gone, I will be gone—he can be master of this realm and imperial city? Miss Chu, if he truly becomes this master, that will be a dead end.”
Deng Yi looked at Chu Zhao. “Miss Chu, in matters of family and state, there’s no room for emotional decisions. His Majesty knows what he’s doing. Take the Young Highness and leave. Go find your father. This is the Young Highness’s best path to survival.”
Chu Zhao looked at them. She actually understood the Emperor and Deng Yi’s decision. In the current world, Prince Zhongshan’s heir was the most suitable successor, and also the inevitable choice. Xiao Yu, this six-year-old child—even with legitimate bloodline, without the Crown Prince, without the Emperor, Prince Zhongshan and his son could swallow him whole in one gulp.
Rather than being eliminated and having the throne seized, it was better to withdraw early and still obtain a path to survival.
Indeed, for Xiao Yu, this was the best path.
In this life, she also wouldn’t marry Xiao Xun again. She would take Xiao Yu and leave the capital, flee far to the border commandery, and from then on live freely.
Wasn’t this what she had always wanted—to go back and see Father?
Thinking of Father, Chu Zhao felt very happy, yet also heartbroken.