Lose My Heart to the Lovely Kitten Princess - Chapter 56
Chapter 56 So-called family
Chu Yunshen frowned slightly when he suddenly heard the sound of voices and laughter coming from inside the hall.
Were imperial consort Su and Chu Hongyi there too?
Sure enough, he spotted Chu Hongyi leaning over the emperor’s table with a calligraphy brush in hand as he wrote on some paper.
The emperor stood next to Chu Hongyi, correcting him.
“Here and here.”
Chu Hongzhen circled a few spots on the paper with his calligraphy brush before patting Chu Hongyi’s head gently and chuckling as he said, ‘Do you get it now?”
“Oh! I do now!” Chu Hongyi shouted happily, “Father is simply awesome.”
“You’re the one who’s smart and understands right away!” praised Chu Hongzhen proudly.
Imperial consort Su stood by the side and prepared ink for them as she smiled and watched them.
They were such a picture-perfect loving mother and son.
Chu Yunshen sneered coldly in his heart. It seemed as though he was interrupting this happy family of three.
“Oh, Brother Yunshen!”
Chu Hongyi hastily raised his head when he heard footsteps. He exclaimed in shock at the sight of Chu Yunshen. Then he tossed his calligraphy brush aside and ran over to bow to him. “What brings you here?”
Although Chu Yunshen was here to pay respects to his own father, it felt as though he was a guest.
Frustration flashed through Chu Yunshen’s eyes quickly. He swiftly suppressed it and stepped forward to pay respects to Chu Hongzhen, “Greetings, Father.”
After greeting his father, he turned to bow to imperial consort Su. “Greetings, Imperial Consort Su.”
“Which dumb servant let you in? Get out!”
Chu Hongzhen glared coldly at Chu Yunshen before he lifted his brush and continued writing something on Chu Hongyi’s paper.
“Hongyi, you need to practice this more.”
“Father!”
Chu Hongyi glanced at Chu Yunshen before he slumped his head and walked back to Chu Hongzhen. Then he lowered his head to look at the radicals his father circled for some of the words he wrote.
“Hongyi, look at how careless you are. You have a lot to learn from Yunshen.”
“Yes, Mother,” replied Chu Hongyi as he raised his head.
Imperial consort Su placed the calligraphy brush Chu Hongyi had thrown onto the table back onto the brush rack as she spoke.
Then their father’s angry voice came instantly, “What could he possibly learn from him?”
Chu Hongzhen sneered coldly and slammed his calligraphy brush on the table. “Hongyi is way better than him. The only thing this unfilial son is good at is making me angry.”
“Your Majesty, there you go again throwing your temper.”
Imperial consort Su walked up to Chu Hongzhen’s side. She raised her hand to stroke Chu Hongzhen’s chest and appeased him as she said, “How can Hongyi compare to Yunshen? Yunshen is only three years older than him, but he has already proven himself on the battlefield. All his generals count on him. Now he has cracked a major case. The people have nothing but praise for him.”
“What do you mean by proving himself on the battlefield? He is clearly abusing his military power!” said Chu Hongzhen as he pointed at Chu Yunshen and criticized him severely, “If I didn’t order him to come back, he would have left the frontier citizens homeless and destitute. All the diplomatic ties I accumulated for 20 years almost got ruined by this unfilial boy!”
A look of agony flashed across Chu Yunshen’s eyes, but he continued standing there expressionlessly.
“Leave now. What are you standing around here for?”
Chu Hongzhen glared at Chu Yunshen.
Chu Yunshen concealed the emotions in his eyes and paid obeisance to Chu Hongzhen and said calmly, “Allow me to take my leave.”
Cheng Xiaoxiao had already entered the hall. Her lungs almost gave way from fury when she witnessed this scene.
She jumped in through the window earlier when no one was looking.
After Cheng Xiaoxiao came in, she shrank behind a tall vase by the corner of the wall and saw everything.
She couldn’t see anything at first since she was blocked by a screen that segregated the room into two sections.
Then a man dressed in a dragon robe with a woman in a yellow outfit beside him came to sight after Cheng Xiaoxiao went behind the screen.
She was dressed in a yellow silk dress with a phoenix embroidered in five-colored gold thread. Now she was praising Chu Yunshen for his accomplishments.
She had a flawless complexion, exquisite features with jewels adorning her hair.
However, the more Cheng Xiaoxiao listened to her applause, the more it sounded like she was implying something else.
Cheng Xiaoxiao glanced at the woman in yellow who was preparing ink with her back facing her. This woman was an expert at adding fuel to the fire.
With a word, the woman made the calm emperor throw such a fit at Chu Yunshen out of the blue.
Chu Yunshen said nothing after leaving Linde Hall.
Since the prince was unhappy, Xiaowu didn’t dare to speak. Instead, he followed closely behind Chu Yunshen.
Chu Yunshen headed towards the palace, which kept appearing in his dreams.
Xiaowu couldn’t help looking at Chu Yunshen worriedly when he realized Chu Yunshen wanted to visit his mother, Consort Shen’s quarters, Yihe Palace.
The prince had a lot of bitter memories of the place.
Xiaowu keenly remembered how understanding the prince’s mother used to be. She could always figure out what the emperor wanted because she was understanding.
So the emperor would sometimes even spend two consecutive nights at her quarters.
Each time the empress and imperial consort Su caught wind of this, his master’s mother would end up punished.
They found all kinds of excuses for Consort Shen to kneel outside for an entire day.
The prince would kneel with Consort Shen because he felt sorry for her.
Each time Consort Shen passed out from kneeling for too long, those women would send her back to her palace out of fear that things would get out of hand.
The empress and imperial consort Su hailed from powerful clans. The empress’ grandfather was the grand tutor of the late monarch. Her father was the reigning emperor’s teacher and might end up teaching the crowned prince as well.
Imperial consort Su’s family wasn’t as influential as the empress’. Fortunately, her older brother was General Huguo, Su Feiying.
The late emperor summoned the emperor into the palace when he was seriously ill with the intention of decreeing him the new monarch. The eighth prince unexpectedly dispatched troops to surround the palace. He wanted to force his father to abdicate so that he could become ruler.
However, imperial consort Su’s older brother, Su Feiying, charged into the palace with 20 000 troops at the crux and fought for several hours before he finally saved the late monarch and emperor.
After the emperor ascended the throne, he sent the eighth prince into life imprisonment in the imperial clan court. He also made Su Feiying, General Huguo, which was a first-rank official, and summoned his little sister to serve as consort.
At the same time, the emperor promoted his little sister to the rank of imperial consort. It was the highest rank in the harem only second to the empress.
Prince Jing’s grandfather was only a sixth-grade imperial censor’s assistant.
Why would the emperor provoke the empress and imperial consort Su because of Prince Jing?
So Prince Jing and his mother led a hard life in the palace.
Cheng Xiaoxiao kept following behind them. The more they walked, the more deserted the place became, and there wasn’t even a maid or guard in sight.
Where did Chu Yunshen want to go?
Chu Yunshen suddenly halted at a desolate palace just as Cheng Xiaoxiao pondered.
She raised her head to see a plaque hanging on the entrance: Yihe Palace.
The plaque was covered with cobwebs. It was evident the place was uninhabited for years, and no one was around to clean up.
Chu Yunshen opened the hefty doors with a creak.
“Master, be careful!” Dust came falling down, so Xiaowu hurriedly took off his outer robe and placed it in front of Chu Yunshen. “Those servants just sit around and do nothing! Why hasn’t anyone been cleaning the place after so long?”
Then Xiaowu realized he shouldn’t have said that, so he went quiet.
Chu Yunshen ignored him and entered the palace. He glanced around to see that all the furnishing remained just as his mother left them.
He gently pushed open the cobweb-covered door. Then his eyes landed on a glass bottle on the table, and his eyes turned slightly red.
He could vaguely hear the innocent voice of a child.
“Mother, mother. Look at the fireflies I caught you. They are absolutely beautiful. I put them in a bottle. Aren’t they lovely?”
“Shen’er, did you sneak out of the palace again?”
“No… no… I didn’t. Mother, come and see. They can light up the entire room if we put them on the table. Then we don’t have to worry about asking those stupid servants for candles!”
“Throw them away!”
“Why? Mother, I won’t! I didn’t even give them to Hongyi when he asked me for them earlier!”
“What? Did Hongyi know about you sneaking out of the palace?”
“It’s okay. Mother, Hongyi is much nicer than the other princes. He won’t tell on me.”
“Silly boy. Promise me that you won’t ever sneak out again! Also, you can’t be close to Hongyi.”
“Why, Mother?”
“Promise me!”
“Okay.”
Chu Yunshen stepped into the room and picked up the glass bottle. Back in the day, he naively thought that the fireflies could live forever and bring some joy to his mother’s dull life.
Instead, most of them died the next day unexpectedly. By the third day, all of them died and stopped shining completely.
He wanted to smash the glass bottle in a fit of anger, but his mother stopped him. She said the bottle looked good on the table. Since then, the glass bottle was always displayed on the table.
Why did he catch fireflies for his mother back then?
Chu Yunshen recalled hearing his mother’s maids, saying that her eyes had gone red from sewing new clothes for him in the dark to save candles.
Then he discovered that the stupid servants at the ministry of internal affairs had been holding back his mother’s allowance on imperial consort Su’s orders. He wanted to report it to the emperor, but his mother didn’t let him go.
She always kept telling Chu Yunshen that they could only win if they didn’t fight back.
He never understood it to this day. His mother never fought for attention all her life. She was perfectly healthy the day before she died. Why did she suddenly fall sick out of the blue?
“Master!” shouted Xiaowu worriedly when he saw Chu Yunshen staring at the glass bottle in a daze, “Why don’t I get someone to come and clean up?”
“It’s fine.”
Chu Yunshen put the glass bottle back on the table before he scoured the place and said coldly, “Get some water.”
“Huh?”
Xiaowu was stunned.
Chu Yunshen turned around to glance at him. Xiaowu instantly got his drift. Then he bowed and said, “Yes, Master! I’m on it.”
At the drop of his voice, Xiaowu walked out of the palace with the empress’ gift in hand.
Xiaowu placed the gift on the horse carriage. He came back with a basin of water and cleaning cloth only to realize that Chu Yunshen had already used a broom to sweep the cobwebs away.
“Master, why don’t you leave it to me?”
Xiaowu instantly put the basin on the table and took the broom from Chu Yunshen.
Chu Yunshen let go of the broom. He walked up to the basin of water Xiaowu came back and wrung the cleaning cloth before he wiped the table.
“Master!” Xiaowu’s heart was in his mouth. “How can you do menial labor like this?”
Xiaowu attempted to take the cleaning cloth from Chu Yunshen. However, Chu Yunshen didn’t let go and merely glanced at Xiaowu. Xiaowu was so terrified that he instantly let go.
“She is my mother, so it is only right for her son to clean her quarters. What’s wrong?”
Chu Yunshen took the cleaning cloth and carefully wiped his mother’s old dressing table.
“I overstepped.” Xiaowu stepped back before he quickly picked up the broom to help Chu Yunshen clean up.
Chu Yunshen ran his fingertips over the bronze mirror, and his slightly red eyes could be seen reflecting inside.
“Mother, why did Father refuse to believe me? Does he only like imperial consort Su, but not me?”
“Shen’er, that’s not true. Did you forget about the calligraphy pen he gave you previously?”
