The Empress's No.1 Lackey-Chapter 1228 - 654: Sibling Reunion
"I have never joked about serious matters, have I?"
This was indeed true... Xu Zhenguan finally nodded in skepticism, then felt a surge of unreality.
He had only been gone for four days, and the Liao people had already retreated... Even though he had prior knowledge of Zhao Douan’s capabilities, he knew Zhao was efficient, but this was too fast...
Zhao Douan finally played his trump card:
"There’s one more thing... In that battle, I successfully captured Xu Jianwen, and now Jianwen is in the palace, awaiting Your Majesty’s decision."
This time, the Empress truly lost her composure.
Xu Jianwen! He was captured and brought back?!
Xu Zhenguan’s breath quickened, and he stepped forward urgently, saying:
"Really? He’s in the palace?"
Zhao Douan nodded solemnly and said:
"Does Your Majesty want to see him now?"
After a moment of silence, the Empress nodded.
...
...
Zhao Douan walked out, leaving Xu Zhenguan alone in the study, feeling restless.
Even though she was already aware that Jianwen was alive, she couldn’t help but feel a tumult of emotions when facing the prospect of seeing him again.
But she was no longer the then Third Imperial Princess.
When Zhao Douan led Tuoba Weizhi in, the Empress had already regained her icy and authoritative demeanor.
"Are you Tuoba Weizhi?"
Xu Zhenguan looked down condescendingly at the Black-skinned Priestess, her eyes filled with a strange light.
Tuoba Weizhi bowed respectfully: "Greetings, Your Majesty."
Seeing an existence suspected to be the reincarnated Crown Prince of Qi Country, standing before her in the form of a woman, even seasoned as she was, Xu Zhenguan couldn’t shake the impression of unreality.
She nodded and said nothing more, only asking:
"Where is Jianwen?"
Zhao Douan gestured, and Tuoba Weizhi dropped a black bag to the ground, untied the mouth of the bag, and a man with closed eyes, like a "vegetative state," rolled out.
His eyebrows and eyes bore a resemblance to the Empress’s, and in his sleep, his brow was furrowed.
Second Imperial Brother..."Emperor Wen" Jianwen... Is it really you... Xu Zhenguan’s gaze was complex.
Zhao Douan sighed gently, waved his hand to have Tuoba Weizhi leave first, and then said:
"Your Majesty, should I wait outside?"
"No need." Xu Zhenguan took a deep breath, calming her emotions, then said:
"You stay."
Tuoba Weizhi pouted and left on her own again.
When the door closed, the "卍" symbol lit up again on Zhao Douan’s brow, releasing the magic seal restricting his five senses.
Xu Jianwen gasped suddenly for air, as if awakening from a long nightmare, rising from the depths of a dark ocean!
He suddenly opened his eyes, his hands fluttered instinctively, first in a dizzy haze, unsure of his surroundings.
All he vaguely remembered was being pursued by Zhao Douan, then losing all perception of the outside world.
Suddenly, he heard a faint voice:
"Imperial Brother, it’s been a long time."
The words "Imperial Brother" were spoken with great emphasis, devoid of emotion, only coldness and hidden resentment.
Xu Jianwen was stunned for a moment, his blurred vision gradually clearing, revealing his third sister looking down at him... No, it should be the Empress of Yu Country.
And he also saw Zhao standing beside the Empress, making him clench his teeth.
In an instant, Xu Jianwen understood everything. He fell into silence, then after a moment, he raised his head again, his face calm and even with a slight smile, as if wanting to maintain a semblance of dignity:
"Third Sister, it seems this time, I’m the one who lost."
In the Imperial Study Room, silence reigned.
The half-sibling pair stared at each other, and in this moment, Zhao Douan, as an observer, felt as if the air had even solidified.
After many years, they met again.
Relatives who were long past the point of no return, what form would this meeting take?
Xu Zhenguan’s heart was filled with mixed emotions. Since learning that Jianwen wasn’t dead, she had imagined countless times what she would say if they were to meet again in the future. Would she angrily scold him for fratricide and patricide? Cold-blooded sibling rivalry?
Or would she mock and disdain him for his meticulous scheming, only for it to end in vain? Or would she suppress him with force, employing myriad forms of punishment?
But when it came to this moment, Xu Zhenguan found herself emotionally unresponsive, the overwhelming anger and hatred seemed hollow, and she found herself disinclined to dredge up those old matters.
After resolving matters in her heart, all she wanted was for this "relative" before her to disappear. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
"Why aren’t you speaking?" Xu Jianwen smiled and said:
"To the victor goes the spoils. Now that I’m in your hands, don’t you have anything to say?"
Zhao Douan clicked his tongue and said:
"You keep smiling, do you believe I won’t hit you?"
"..." Xu Jianwen restrained his smile.
Xu Zhenguan took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them and said coldly:
"Why?"
At last, she could ask this question to his face:
"Why did you do it?"
Why initiate the Xuanmen Coup, why engage in fratricide, why cause the kingdom to crumble and the people to suffer?
Xu Jianwen’s eyes remained calm as he said: "Do you truly want the answer?"
"Speak." The Empress closed her eyes.
At this moment, Xu Jianwen’s eyes finally revealed a hint of mockery, though it was unclear whether he was mocking himself or the Empress:
"Little sister, are you truly so foolish, or do you already have an answer in your heart but force me to say it? Why? Why was I unwilling to be a leisurely prince and felt the need to seize power?
This answer, you should be asking our deceased father!"
The Old Emperor? Zhao Douan was surprised.
Xu Jianwen’s eyes were full of derision, as if he realized that his schemes had all come to naught at the end of his life, presenting himself in the manner of a hero at the end of his journey:
"The Great Yu dynasty has lasted for six hundred years, even if the National Treasury was exhausted, even if the local family clans were powerful, while our father was on the throne, the Royal Family’s authority remained unshaken.
He certainly wasn’t a wise ruler, but he was a master tactician. I ask you, if Father intended to pass on the authority peacefully to the Crown Prince, would I have the ambition or ability to launch the Xuanmen Coup?"
Xu Jianwen said self-deprecatingly:
"No! I couldn’t! I had no military achievements, no title, no team brought from birth, not even any outstanding cultivation talents, how dare I plot? How could I plot?
But I gathered a large group of followers, loyalists who were willing, when I beckoned, to join me in a life-threatening gamble, from Grand Tutor Zhuang to Qi Yuchun, willing to risk it all with me. Why?
Is it not because of our beloved father’s deliberate indulgence?!"
He sneered as he said:
"In those years, who in the capital didn’t see that the father was intentionally allowing me to build my own power base, deliberately allowing me to grow up, deliberately pitting me against the Crown Prince?
Could you not see it? Who couldn’t see it? Everyone understood!
They knew that according to the ancestral system, the Crown Prince should gradually assume part of the authority upon coming of age and succeed to the throne when our father aged.
But father might not have been willing; he only wished to be an emperor supported by the world, most apprehensive that someone would defy his authority and seize his power!
What was the Crown Prince doing? Acting like a benevolent ruler, winning people’s hearts everywhere, not even sparing a little eunuch like Ma Yan... Did Father truly enjoy seeing this?
Xu Jianwen shook his head in disdain:
"He wasn’t willing. So he supported me, openly and covertly, even hinting at wanting to depose the Crown Prince, favoring me, the second child. What could I do?
I could only do as he wished, compete with the Crown Prince so that Father would not worry about his son growing wings and forcibly seizing his power!"
"But did he ever care about my life or death?" Xu Jianwen coldly laughed with agitated emotion, his eyes filled with resentment:
"I was used as a tool to contend with the Crown Prince for years, and when he passed away, would he still choose to enthrone the Crown Prince, eliminating me for the Crown Prince to safely ascend?
Fine, even if he had a flicker of mercy, granting me a piece of land to banish me afar as Emperor Wen, would the Crown Prince be at ease? Spare me?!"
Xu Jianwen’s eyes were icy, and in this moment, despite his powerless slump on the ground, looking up at the Empress, he seemed like the one sitting on the Dragon Throne, cold and resolute:
"So, Third Sister, why must you seek an answer from me? Don’t you see these reasons for yourself?
From the moment Father put me in the spotlight, from when I first rode alongside Grandmaster Zhuang as a teenager, hinting to him this principle from that moment onward, I had no path of retreat.
Between the Crown Prince and me, only one could survive, so why should it be me who dies?!"
