Chapter 109: Intriguing Identity
Li Wei Yang nodded and said nothing. She wanted to comfort him, but he would not simply accept anything she said.
He smiled softly, revealing a dimple like a sweet, gentle spring. He said: “After I was born, the Princess went insane. I don’t know if she actually became crazy or if someone else drove her insane. She didn’t remember who she was or that the child was her own son and never looked at it once. The Emperor was worried that she would hurt herself and had her under close watch day and night, but no matter how well-protected she was, there was oversight. One day, they found her in the lotus pond, floating on the water surface. She died very strangely… The Emperor could not hold back. He killed many people in succession. He suspected everyone around him, thinking they killed the Princess, but no matter how many people he killed, the Princess could not come back to life. He became paranoid and felt nowhere was safe anymore. Moreover, he wanted to give the child a righteous identity, so he ordered the child to be handed over to a loyal subject. He ordered them to take the child to a remote village and sent many guards to wait until the child grew up and could be brought back. They went to the countryside to a village by the name of Dou Yi. The subject with the child stayed there and lived in that place for four years. In the end, that subject was killed, and only a single person out of all the original guards escaped. Everyone else was killed. Not only that, but in one night, all four year old children in the village were killed. Everyone, including the Emperor, thought the child was dead.”
Li Wei Yang said: “But you’re not dead, and you even reached Da Li. The moment I saw that man in gray uniform, I began to suspect your identity. This certainly wasn’t the first time they came looking for you. They already looked for you before, isn’t that right? They wanted you to come with them and return to Yue Xi, but you didn't want to. Why?”
Li Min De said: “If I said it was because I didn’t want to leave you, would you believe it?”
Li Wei Yang chuckled and said: “I believe… At first, I thought you deliberately kept this from me, but now I see it differently—you’re just foolish! You think saying this will make me soft-hearted?”
Li Min De said: “I never thought about wanting to make you soft-hearted.”
Indeed. He had always hidden his identity away, not because he wanted to evoke sympathy, but because he could not face it himself.
Li Wei Yang said: “You care very much about it? You’re concerned about your identity?”
Li Min De’s eyes immediately darkened, losing their cheerfulness: “No one in this world has such an unusual identity. I know it wasn’t their fault, but they weren’t normal, that kind of feeling wasn’t normal! I resent them, why did they have to give birth to someone abnormal like them…”
Li Wei Yang said: “Anyone can say that, but you can’t, because they are your parents.”
Li Min De lifted his head and looked up at Li Wei Yang. She smiled: “I used to hate my mother. I felt that she was incompetent and weak. If she couldn’t protect her daughter, then why would she let me be born to suffer? But later on, I realized that we cannot choose our parents, and although she could not even protect herself, she put in the last of her strength to protect me. How could I resent her? You’re no different.”
Li Min De looked to her, taken aback: “You aren’t disgusted by me? You know what I am—” A monster…
Li Wei Yang smiled: “No one reveals their scars to others, and no one wants their reputations tainted. I also have many secrets. Everyone in this world does. They have made a habit of hiding them, so no one else knows. You are just like me, a normal person. Why would I be disgusted by you? Aren’t you doing well right now? So let’s just leave the pitiful past behind us.”
Li Min De was dumbfounded at first, then he felt overjoyed. She wasn’t disgusted by him. It made him feel as if he was suddenly revived by a cooling spring amidst the dry desert. He gently put his head down in Li Wei Yang’s lap and whispered: “Thank you..” Not despising me for this, belittling me…
However, very quickly, his happiness and rejoicing mood was completely shattered by Li Wei Yang’s words: “But when the Third Furen adopted you, you were about a year old. Yet you said the child in the village was four years old… So, how old are you exactly? I remember once a traveling merchant said the Emperor of Yue Xi had a younger sister, but she died fifteen years ago, so you are sure you’re really her son…?” Li Wei Yang had a strange look on her face. If this rumor was true, then Li Min De’s actual age was not what she originally thought? She was a bit confused.