The Gilded Cage

A’Ning is Willing to Leave Here With Your Majesty. (3)

“I once asked my mother whether she resented my father’s cold treatment. I thought that no matter how open-minded my mother was during those few years of hardship, there would always be some resentment. But her eyes were dazed and unfamiliar. For so many years, the intimacy between my father and her was probably the day I was conceived. Later, he was still the high and mighty emperor, and my mother looked up to him the same way she did when she was a maid in the Yeting Palace. It made no difference.”

He carried her to the couch by the window, pushed open the half-closed window, and looked up at the stars dotted in the black night. His gaze was not melancholy but carried a touch of emotion.

She knelt beside him and couldn’t help reaching out to stroke his eyebrows. The slender fingers slid across the thick eyebrows, and he grasped them and began to play with them carefully.

“Later, I also saw many other people. They were trapped in the harem, living on the words of my father alone. Sometimes they would rejoice because of my father, but their joy was always short-lived. More often, they would feel sad and at a loss. At first, I didn’t understand why this was so, but later I gradually realized that it was all because of my father, who trapped them. In this magnificent palace city, they lived a life of luxury, but they had gone numb.”

They forgot what they were like, and gradually there was only room for the emperor in their eyes and hearts.

But the Emperor never stayed by anyone’s side for too long.

If his mother hadn’t devoted all her attention to his son because of her gentle and peaceful nature, she would have been like other concubines, sometimes fighting openly and secretly, sometimes complaining about herself, and finally passing away from depression.

Chu Ning was fascinated by these words and couldn’t help but think of her past self. She who was in the East Palace back then was probably no different from those concubines who were trapped in the palace.

“That night in Feishuang Palace, His Majesty asked A’Ning if she had thought about it for herself, and he didn’t want A’Ning to become like them?”

Looking back at this moment, many of his words and actions seemed to be deliberately awakening and pulling her back from the brink of numbness.

“Yes. At that time, I knew that my father was not a person worthy of any woman’s dependence, and I also told myself that I would never be that kind of person.” He touched her knees, sat face to face, and solemnly raised his hands to her shoulders, “After I met you, I thought that I would definitely not let you become like Mother in the future, or like those women I have seen in the past.”

Chu Ning’s breathing stopped suddenly. She stared blankly at his burning eyes and heard his deep and convincing voice ringing in her ears.

“A’Ning, today, he has already married another person. You don’t have to worry about etiquette and morality anymore. Are you willing to trust me and follow me to leave here and go to Ganlu Hall?”

She opened her mouth. Her eyes stung, and tears welled up, blurring her vision. A droplet of water condensed in the corner of her eyes, threatening to fall.

She used to always wonder why he was so different from others and kind to her. Even though she was moved later and understood his kindness, the deepest doubts in her heart were not completely eliminated.

Only today did sheI understand that his intentions were not entirely without reason. His past was so rough, and his father was so harsh, but he never had any resentment and gloom.

Compared with him, she has already gained too much in this life, and she only experienced a few setbacks later, so why should she hide herself so cautiously?

The moment tears fell from her eyes, she smiled and said softly, “Thank you for your love, A’Ning is willing to leave here with His Majesty—it’s the truth, just for my own truth.”

“Good.”

His tense expression froze at the moment he heard her answer, and then he suddenly relaxed. Immediately afterward, unconcealable joy appeared on his usual majestic expression.

“Liu Kang!”

He picked her up and walked straight out of the courtyard. He didn’t have to hide her appearance anymore, and even his tone was filled with joy.

“What are your orders?” Liu Kang had been waiting patiently. Seeing that the emperor was in such high spirits, he also became happy – in the future, he would not have to be so busy trying to hide the secret of the emperor!

“Prepare the palanquin, go back to Ganlu Hall, and send someone to clean up the things here tomorrow.”

The palanquin was quickly brought up, and the maids, servants, and even the female nuns who served the nobles in the Guizhen Temple all poked their heads to observe the situation here, as if to confirm the previous guess, discussing endlessly.

Seven or eight servants held lamps, illuminating every square inch of the place as if it were daylight so that everyone could see clearly.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Xiao Kezhi swaggered forward, led Chu Ning, who was still wearing a Taoist robe and a nun hairpiece, onto the Imperial palanquin, and set off to leave.