Quick Transmigration: What to Do When the Male Supporting Character You Saved Becomes Obsessed with

Chapter 224 The Ruthless and Disabled Crown Prince (124)

Ji Shuqin stood still, his back ramrod straight. He faced his past directly and no longer evaded reality.

"Qin'er, your mother has never...never thought of this!" The heavy hairpin on the Empress's head, a symbol of her noble status, made her feel uncomfortable. She grabbed the hairpin, removed it, and threw it aside.

"Clang-"

The hairpin smashed the large vase, scattering shards all over the ground. The Empress pointed at Ji Shuqin, her calm and composed expression finally crumbling: "Do you think I like this palace?"

"If I hadn't entered the palace, my life would have been completely different! After entering the palace and becoming Empress, I have never relaxed for a single day. I have managed the harem diligently and conscientiously, and have helped the Emperor to have more children..." The Empress's description was disordered, revealing hysteria.

“But what have I gained? I was framed, I was rejected by the Emperor, and he even… he even wanted to kill me! He didn’t kill me when I was training with my father to fight the enemy, but I almost died here…”

The Empress smiled bitterly: "I gave birth to you and took care of you day and night, which exhausted me, but they forced me to give birth to your younger brother."

After all these years, the Empress finally spoke out the hatred she had buried in her heart: "When I gave birth to your younger brother, I heard the nanny next to me say happily: 'It's a healthy prince.'"

She stared intently at Ji Shuqin: "Do you know what they said next? They said that even if the eldest prince dies young, my position will still be secure! They thought I couldn't hear them, but I heard them perfectly clearly!"

"Everyone is watching your brother, no one comes to see you, no one cares about you, not even the Dowager Consort! The Dowager Consort even gave your brother a longevity lock! The Dowager Consort also told me that she had a master monk consecrate it and perform a ritual to wish him a long life!"

The Emperor laughed sarcastically: "Hahahaha! How ridiculous! When I was pregnant with him, I felt no joy at all. Every time I saw my belly, I only felt hatred! I was carrying him, but what about your father? He never came to see me once. He doted on those few things all day long... letting them come and show off in front of me!"

When the Empress recalls those events, the humiliation feels as if it's being relived, and it hasn't faded at all over the years; on the contrary, it's only intensified...

"He wasn't unaware; he knew perfectly well! He did this to humiliate me. Because of me, the An family is also being ridiculed. By having me have this child, he is warning me that he can do whatever he wants. How can I not hate him!" The Empress practically spat out the words through gritted teeth.

Ji Shuqin had never seen the Empress so emotionally exposed and broken. The face that had always been as calm and serene as a Bodhisattva was finally shattered.

“I’ve thought about getting rid of that child countless times… but someone is watching me, threatening me. Every time he moves in my womb, I want to strangle him. I wish he were born dead!”

The queen suddenly pounded her abdomen, as if reliving that moment...

"Mother!" Ji Shuqin rushed forward and grabbed the Empress's hand. The Empress was so strong that she made him stumble.

Ji Shuqin wanted to call for help, but there was not a single palace servant in the hall. They had all been sent away by the Empress, as if she had already anticipated that Ji Shuqin's visit would lead to a confrontation and a break with her.

A mother and child are of one heart, but in this situation, it appears both comical and tragic.

The Empress broke free from Ji Shumin, her hair disheveled, no longer befitting her dignified demeanor. She pointed at Ji Shuqin's face: "But he was still born! How can he be so resilient? If he's so resilient, what use is he to me? I'll see just how long he can live!"

"Why do you believe in him and pity him? Why don't you share my heart?" The Empress looked at Ji Shuqin as if she were looking at a rebellious child, filled with disbelief and resentment.

Ji Shuqin never imagined that the Empress's hatred for Ji Shumin was so unfathomable.

How much effort did she put into hiding and concealing herself from me for so many years? I couldn't see through her, I couldn't discern her true nature. Was it because my mother was too clever and meticulous, or was I just stupid and foolish...?

"Mother...you shouldn't have wished for my death..." Ji Shuqin uttered with difficulty.

"Why can't I! He was born of me, I can let him live, why can't I let him die! After I gave birth to him... the Emperor actually came to my bedchamber!" The Empress staggered and couldn't stand up, then sat down again with a mad expression.

"He actually came to see that bastard who was just born and whose eyes haven't even opened yet! He didn't even go to see you! You're lying right next door... Qin'er, you're so sick you can't even cry... You're so thin, just skin and bones. When I hold you, it's like... like holding a little raccoon dog. I'm so afraid, so afraid that if I don't look at you, you'll be gone!"

The empress crossed her arms over her chest, as if she were holding a baby in swaddling clothes.

"You don't know how carefully I held you, afraid that my embrace would make you uncomfortable, that your mother might be cold... The charcoal fire in the bedchamber isn't burning very brightly, will Qin'er be uncomfortable, will Qin'er leave your mother..."

She murmured softly, as if she couldn't distinguish between reality and the past. For so many years, she had been drifting through life, never truly waking up from that night in the palace.

"Mother..." Ji Shuqin's eyes stung so much that his heart trembled. He tried to hold back, but with a blink, the heat finally flowed down his face.

There was no one else in the hall. Ji Shuqin raised his hand to cover his face, burying his face in his palm, letting the tears drip through his fingers, falling onto his dark blue clothes, blending into the texture of the fabric and disappearing.

"Mother, I know your good intentions, I understand... Mother and I have a deep affection for each other!" Ji Shuqin stepped forward and knelt before the Empress, his forehead resting on her knees. He didn't know how long it had been since he and his mother had been this close!

When the Empress's cold hand gently stroked his cheek, Ji Shuqin could no longer hold back and cried out in sorrow. No matter what the Empress had done, no matter how clearly he knew how absurd his mother was now, Ji Shuqin still could not overcome his dependence on her. They had been together for so many years.

A child doesn't despise its mother for being ugly, and a dog doesn't despise its home for being poor. This proverb, which has been passed down for countless years, is both simple and profound.

He was raised and protected by his mother, like a fledgling bird or a kitten, and was taught by her. Year after year, he was lovingly held in her arms. No amount of writing can fully express the mother's kindness.

No matter what, Ji Shuqin could not resent her. It was like a scar on his heart, bleeding all the time, and the pain was felt by him.

"Mother...Mother..."

Ji Shuqin choked up, only able to call out "Mother" like a child, unable to say anything else.

For a moment, the Empress seemed to be lost in affection for Ji Shuqin. In the dimly lit palace, she lowered her head, just as she would in front of a Buddha statue in a mountain temple, and reached out to smooth the hair of the child on her lap.

The child from back then has long since grown up, tall and handsome, as graceful as a pine tree or the moon, but in his mother's heart, he is no different...

"Qin'er, your mother hates you!" Her eyes narrowed again, her tone chilling.

"After that bastard was born, he smiled while you cried. He was kept by the Emperor's side and doted on, but what about you? The Emperor didn't even glance at you..."

Back then, the emperor doted on Ji Shumin, and for so many years it seemed that he had always regarded him as his most valued son, but that was not the case. The empress hated him, and he also loathed the empress.

His attitude towards Ji Shumin was not about how he treated Ji Shumin, but rather an explanation to the court and the harem, a way for him to stabilize the situation and appease the people.

If the Empress were willing to think about it, she could understand. The old lady from the An family had even come to the palace to persuade her, but the Empress stubbornly refused to listen or pay any attention. She needed a place to vent her frustrations, a place to keep herself from going crazy, a place to keep going...

She had been driven mad by the palace and the power it wielded; she had gone mad in a lucid way.

"Anyone can mock me, but I don't care. All I want is for you to live well, to outlive that bastard!" the Empress said coldly. "You're all I have left, and I can only take you with me..."

"I can't swallow this insult! I can't forget when you were dying and I couldn't summon the imperial physician, I can't forget when you were seriously ill and that bastard ran back from the Emperor's place to tell you what he ate and did that day..." The Empress not only hated Ji Shumin herself, but she also hated Ji Shumin on behalf of Ji Shuqin.

In her mind, it was only right and proper for Ji Shuqin to hate Ji Shumin along with her.

"Mother, that was what Min'er said to me on purpose to ease my pain on my sickbed..."

"Do you know how much grievance Min'er suffered when he was young, at the Emperor's place and in the palace school? Do you think only we were hated and tormented... Wasn't Min'er the same? At such a young age, didn't he also suffer grievances and face many difficulties in the palace?"

Ji Shumin, who was still so young at the time, had not yet developed his current personality, and he could only talk about it secretly with his sick brother.

Ji Shuqin remembered that once he woke up from a deep sleep and there were no palace servants around. Only his younger brother was sitting quietly at the foot of his bed. He was a small bundle with a maturity and composure that was beyond his years.

Ji Shuqin felt that he wanted to say something to her, but the old woman outside rudely chased him away.

Ji Shuqin was too weak to speak or stop him. He only saw his younger brother frown, say nothing, and quietly leave.

Then, a few days later, he left the palace with his mother. Over the years, Ji Shuqin had always wanted to ask his younger brother what he wanted to say to him that day.

I couldn't listen to him back then, but whether it was back then or now... I'm always willing to listen to him.

It seemed that this had been forming a callus in his heart for a while, always there, and he would feel it whenever he touched it, but he never actually asked Ji Shumin about it.

Perhaps his younger brother has long forgotten? Ji Shuqin would think of this whenever he was worried, and he would laugh at himself for it.

The Empress looked over blankly. Ji Shuqin's words could not move her in the slightest. Over the years, her feelings for Ji Shumin had become fixed, and she felt neither guilt nor remorse.

"I taught you and took care of you, but did you really think I did it all for myself? I came back not because of the prestige of the Empress's position! What's so great about the Empress's position? I don't care for it! I've been Empress for so many years, and not a single day has been pleasant!"

The Empress threw away one by one the ornaments that hung from her ears and neck, which symbolized her status and were only allowed to be worn by the Empress!

Her face showed signs of aging. In Ji Shuqin's memory, his mother had always been quiet and serene, but now she appeared old and crazy, almost like a completely different person from the one Ji Shuqin remembered.

With his father's fate uncertain and his mother so old, Ji Shuqin suddenly felt, out of place, that time was merciless and that they had unknowingly reached this point in their lives.

Children who have parents to care for them, no matter their age, have a string of time in their hearts. Usually, it is silent, but when it is suddenly plucked, the whole person will freeze because of the heavy aftertaste of that string.

Ji Shuqin couldn't say anything. He felt that his hands and feet were completely bound, and even moving them was difficult.

"I want you to sit on that throne. I want everyone to see that the eldest prince, who was exiled and ignored back then, can now become a wise ruler. I have raised you very well. I want to watch you... become an emperor who makes no mistakes. Surely, the absurd things that happened to me back then will not happen in this palace!"

"Qin'er, if you become the emperor, I will help you manage the harem. Qin'er, you listen to your mother the most, how could your mother harm you..." The empress anxiously hoped that Ji Shuqin would nod in agreement.

But Ji Shuqin felt a chill run through his body. In just a few words, the Empress's desire for control and manipulation was already impossible to conceal.

Ji Shuqin couldn't imagine what would happen if he, with his indecisive nature, actually took that position.

"Mother, you're having a nightmare..."

Ji Shuqin tidied his appearance with a handkerchief and slowly stood up from the ground.

The Empress looked puzzled, as if she didn't understand why Ji Shuqin had been so emotional and tearful just now, but now he wouldn't agree to her request.

"Qin'er..."

"Mother, you have said so much. Is it true or not? I am willing to believe that you are sincere. I can never repay you for the kindness of giving me life and raising me. But I will never do anything to harm others or harm the world for the sake of this kindness that I owe you."

Ji Shuqin distinguished things clearly, one by one. He was extremely resolute, and as long as he did not confuse himself, no one could deceive or guide him.

"Qin'er, don't go—"

"Qin'er! Stop right there!"

When the Empress saw Ji Shuqin bow deeply to her, she suddenly felt uneasy.

This time, it seems, is different from all the previous ones!

Ji Shuqin remained calm as he strode into the night, never turning back to answer the Empress's call.

In the days that followed, the Empress felt uneasy and wanted to see Ji Shuqin again, but she never managed to summon him.

Only when the news reached the Empress's ears did she learn that His Highness the Crown Prince had agreed to ascend the throne and assume regency!

The Second Prince's faction has temporarily lost out in this struggle...