Chapter 27: Seeing You Off

"What?"

The Empress Dowager and Li Taifei spoke almost in unison.

A flash of disbelief and joy crossed the Empress Dowager's eyes, and she looked at Cheng Xi with a slightly trembling body, "Where is he?"

"I don't know." Cheng Xi shook her head, "Perhaps you could ask Feng Taiyi."

Upon hearing this, Feng Taiyi looked at Cheng Xi in astonishment, his expression changing repeatedly before he finally said, "Back then, Li Taifei ordered me to swap the child and kill the one that was replaced, but I couldn't bear to do it, so I raised him by my side."

"Where is he?" the Empress Dowager pressed further.

"Your servant feared Li Taifei would grow suspicious, so I raised the child outside. It just so happened that my wife was about to give birth, so I lied and claimed they were twins, bringing the child back to my residence."

"Feng Li! You dare betray this Palace, you deserve to die!" Li Taifei could not believe such a thing had happened; looking at Feng Li, she wished she could tear him into ten thousand pieces immediately.

Feng Li's mind was somewhat hazy; having endured dozens of strikes, his injuries were not light. He was merely a frail Imperial Physician and did not know if he could survive, but he could not let his family die along with him.

He looked at the Empress Dowager, bracing himself to say, "Empress Dowager, that child is named Feng An. Your servant chose this name hoping he could grow up in peace. He has a crescent-shaped birthmark on his back; I know the Emperor has one too, which can serve as proof."

"Your servant deserves to die ten thousand times for committing such a grave crime, but I beg the Empress Dowager, in consideration of the fact that I raised the Prince, to spare my family. They know nothing; even my wife has always believed the child was the son of an old friend of mine and does not know his true identity."

Although the Little Emperor was young, he was exceptionally clever and had now figured out exactly what was going on.

He very calmly had people carry Feng Li away for medical treatment. During this, he glanced at the Regent, and since the Regent did not stop him, he breathed a slight sigh of relief before looking at Li Taifei again.

Meeting the Little Emperor's gaze, Li Taifei no longer possessed her former kindness; her eyes were cold, and her shoulders and back were straight.

The Little Emperor was very uncomfortable with this version of Li Taifei; he pursed his lips and looked at the Empress Dowager again.

The Empress Dowager's expression was both sorrowful and joyful; she stood there, but her eyes kept drifting toward the outside of the hall.

The Little Emperor knew that his other biological younger brother was right outside the hall, living under the name of Feng Taiyi's second son.

There was one thing he could not understand. He looked at Li Taifei, feeling neither anger nor sorrow, and asked very calmly, "Why did you do this?"

Cheng Xi felt a bit bored and wanted to exit this melodramatic palace drama.

However, the matter of the blood-gu worms still needed to be wrapped up, so she could only wait.

Li Zhi'an sensed Cheng Xi's boredom, and he was also unwilling to get involved in these matters, so he simply stepped forward and said to the Little Emperor, "Your Majesty, these matters can be dealt with later. The most urgent thing right now is to force the gu worms out of your body."

The Little Emperor only then remembered this and looked at Cheng Xi, "Can you do it? What do you want?"

Cheng Xi looked at the Little Emperor, thinking to herself that being an emperor is not easy; he was so young, still just a child, and surrounded by wolves and tigers.

Li Taifei used him to deal with the Empress Dowager and also wanted his life to extend her own son's life. The Empress Dowager was entirely preoccupied with the frailer fake son, and with Li Taifei sowing discord, the bond between mother and son was extremely precarious.

He was still young and unable to control the court, with all power falling into the hands of the Regent; he was truly a lonely man.

It was truly a bit pitiful.

Cheng Xi's heart softened, and she smiled at the Little Emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager has already promised the reward to your servant, so you need not give anything more. After the mother blood-gu worm dies, the worms in your body will also die, so there is no need to worry."

Having said this, she paused slightly, "It is just that if the blood-gu worm is to be completely killed, the host it parasitizes cannot survive either."

The Little Emperor understood, "Then kill this fake Prince Ke!"

"Your Majesty!" Li Taifei lunged forward violently, "Your Majesty, he knows nothing, he knows nothing at all! Please, Your Majesty, spare his life—"

"You ask me to spare his life? Do you know that every day he lives, he is borrowing my life? Of course you know, since you did it with your own hands. You wanted me to die, so naturally, I can let your son die!"

"Someone, kill him!"

"No!" Li Taifei threw herself onto the fake Prince Ke like a madwoman.

The fake Prince Ke was already physically weak, and at this moment, due to the insect-luring incense causing the mother gu worm to backlash, his breathing was faint. He looked at Li Taifei, who had thrown herself upon him, a faint light in his eyes, and called out softly, "Mother Concubine..."

The Empress Dowager gritted her teeth. Fine, fine, fine. It seemed the fake Prince Ke had long known his relationship with Li Taifei, and she had been fooled by them like a fool.

At that moment, the Empress Dowager drew the sword from an Imperial Guard, gripped the hilt with both hands, and stabbed it fiercely into the fake Prince Ke's abdomen.

Li Taifei knocked the Empress Dowager away like a madwoman, clutching her son tightly, "Imperial Physician, Imperial Physician... quickly summon the Imperial Physician..."

Cheng Xi took a step back and said nothing.

"Without my order, who dares to summon an Imperial Physician!" the Empress Dowager shouted sharply, "Li Shi, I have not treated you poorly all these years. If it weren't for me, you would have died long ago. You ungrateful thing!"

Li Shi turned her head sharply to look at the Empress Dowager, her eyes staring fiercely at her. "Ungrateful? Back then, you wanted me to help you secure favor, but you didn't want me to give birth to the eldest imperial son before you, so you secretly poisoned me. Only after you gave birth to the Little Emperor did you grant me the favor of allowing me to conceive, but because I had been taking contraceptives for years, my constitution was cold, causing the child in my womb to be weak.

Why is it that your child can grow up healthy, while my child must suffer? I wanted to take revenge on you, so I lied about my miscarriage and used my son to replace yours; only then could he survive.

You ask me why? I just wanted my own child to grow up. If it weren't for you, why would my son have to suffer like this? I wanted revenge, isn't that justified?"

Li Taifei laughed out loud at this point. She looked at the Little Emperor, "Your Majesty, before you, do you know how many children the Former Emperor lost? Do you know how much blood is on the Empress Dowager's hands? This is all retribution, retribution!"

The Empress Dowager looked at Li Taifei with a livid face, "You don't need to distort the truth here. When the Li Family sent you into the palace, you were bullied and had nowhere else to turn, so you relied on me. I told you then that only after I gave birth to the Crown Prince could you have a child; this was something you agreed to yourself. Now you want to bite back? Someone like you is truly a wolf that cannot be tamed!"

Li Taifei held the now-lifeless Prince Ke tightly, not refuting the Empress Dowager's words, a string of tears falling from the corners of her eyes, "I had no choice. If I had..."

"If you had, you wouldn't have been sent into the palace by the Li Family in the first place. If you had, you would have killed me to become the Empress yourself. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit; accept your defeat!"

The Empress Dowager pulled the sword from the fake Prince Ke and turned to plunge it into Li Taifei's heart, "I will send you on your way one last time; go and reunite with your son in the underworld!"