My Lord, the princess doesn't want you anymore.

Mei Xueer and Li Mo walked with difficulty in the mud.

"Not far ahead should be the home of Xiaobao and Shi Laosan." Mei Xueer pointed ahead.

Li Mo already knew that silly Xiao Bao had once saved Mei Xueer's life, so he was naturally worried about his benefactor's safety and said, "Shall we take them to Wangyou Valley together?"

Mei Xueer suddenly stopped and looked up at Li Mo, "The father and son are helpless here. I originally had this idea, but I was worried that you would be embarrassed. After all, the two of them... Mo, I..."

Li Mo put his hands on Mei Xueer's shoulders, turned her body over, stared at her face which was slightly stained with dirt, and reached out to gently wipe it off for her, "Xueer, why do you miss me so much?"

Mei Xueer was so ashamed that her eyes turned red and she almost cried.

She suddenly threw herself into Li Mo's arms, "Mo, I was wrong, please forgive me this time, I was wrong, I'm sorry..."

Li Mo hugged the woman tightly in his arms and patted her back. "Xue'er, I have kept many things from you before. I also had many concerns about our future. I even wanted to let go and let you and Cui Hongjing be together, as long as you can be happy... So, we are even, okay? Don't cry, let's go and find our benefactor."

"Yeah." Mei Xue'er wiped the tears from her face and poked her head out from Li Mo's arms, "It's not far ahead.

But she walked around and couldn't find Shi Laosan's house.

"It should be nearby." Mei Xueer muttered in confusion.

Shi Laosan's home was originally at the end of Xuanyuan Street.

The width of a street is the dividing line between the rich area and the slums.

But this place is located right downstream of the Xiangxi Dam. After the flood, no matter rich or poor, it is all muddy now.

Even the magnificent buildings on Xuanyuan Street in the past have been razed to the ground.

The boundary between wealth and poverty no longer exists.

Mei Xueer panicked. She only knew that the terrain here was low-lying and she was mentally prepared for the worst. But when she actually saw the scene before her, she was really panicked.

"Don't worry!" Li Mo knew that Mei Xue'er was a little directionally challenged. She looked around and pointed to a dilapidated wooden building not far away and asked, "Look, that's the Pig Intestine Restaurant. If you use that as the coordinate, do you know where it is exactly?"

Mei Xueer looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, there was a dilapidated building covered with mud not far away.

That is, the Pig Intestine Restaurant?

She could not see any of the former luxury and grandeur of the Pig Intestine Restaurant, but if Li Mo said it was, then it must be so.

She recalled, "From there, turn left and take a carriage for about a quarter of an hour to the end of Xuanyuan Street. Then turn right and walk for about a cup of tea to reach Shi Lao San's home."

"Okay, come with me." Li Mo took her hand and left.

After a while, Li Mo said in a calm voice: "It should be around here."

Mei Xueer looked around and saw that the disaster here was many times more severe than that on Xuanyuan Street.

This is a slum area and most of the houses are shacks. How can they withstand the raging flood?

Suddenly, she saw a dilapidated wall beside a puddle.

Half of the brick wall collapsed, and the shadow of the house could still be vaguely seen behind it, but it was just a half-person-high remnant of the wall.

She felt like her breathing was about to stop, and she gritted her teeth and uttered three words - "Cui Hongqi".

She recognized the wall.

At first, she wanted Shi Laosan and Xiaobao to move to a place near the Prime Minister's Mansion so that they could be taken care of more easily, but Shi Laosan refused, saying that it was inconvenient to sell pork and he was not used to the bustling downtown area.

Mei Xueer couldn't persuade him, so she had to have his home renovated on the original site and build this brick house.

Looking at the entire slum, only Shi Laosan's house is a brick and tile house, which has left some ruins after the flood.

Her eyes went dark, and after a brief pause, she quickened her pace.

The gate of the wall had long disappeared, and she stepped over a collapsed area and came into the yard.

At this moment, a cold voice sounded:

"Miss Mei, we have been waiting here for a long time."

……

***

"I will never allow Cui Qimo's flesh and blood to ascend the throne," Cui Hongjing's words shocked Cui Hongxiao.

What do you mean? Could it be that I...?

After the frenzy, Cui Hongjing quickly regained his composure. He walked up to Cui Hongxiao and said calmly, "Yes, you are right. You are not the emperor's son. For so many years, Aunt Wan has treated you like a stranger, and that is why."

"You mean, my mother is someone else? Who is my father?" Cui Hongxiao, who is always calm and unusual, had an unnoticeable tremor in his voice.

Cui Hongjing sat down at the small table again, poured a cup of tea and drank it all, then refilled it and motioned Cui Hongxiao to sit down. "I didn't want to tell you about this, but it's unfair to keep you in the dark forever."

Seeing Cui Hongxiao sitting down and looking at him silently, he continued, "I rescued Eunuch Fu from the dungeon of the Ministry of War. I originally wanted to learn from him the real cause of my grandfather's death and take care of him until his death. But he told me something else. He said that when my grandfather was alive, he was always confused about one thing, but doubts are doubts after all. Until his death, he still didn't understand what was going on."

In the year when Cui Hongxiao was born, at a palace banquet at the beginning of the year, the late emperor was so happy that he drank a few more cups and was a little tipsy. However, he could not bear to dampen everyone's mood, so he went to a side hall to rest, intending to come back later to continue the fun with his ministers.

After the palace maids helped the emperor lie down, they waited outside the palace waiting for orders.

The late emperor lay on the couch and soon fell into a drowsy sleep.

In a daze, he had a dream.

In the dream, he did some unspeakable things with a woman.

Afterwards, the woman disappeared.

He woke up immediately and couldn't help but smile bitterly, wondering why he had such a dream.

He stood up and was about to continue attending the palace banquet, but was horrified.

Because he discovered that there was indeed something wrong with his body.

He is the emperor, so he naturally has no shortage of women. No matter what, he would never believe that he would be so hungry and thirsty that he would have such a erotic dream that only young people would have.

Then he saw that his clothes were in disarray and the bedding on the couch was in a mess.

He then realized that this was not a dream and that a woman had really come here.

But from beginning to end, he couldn't see the woman's face, and didn't know who she was or what she looked like.

"For the Royal Grandfather, this matter is undoubtedly a great humiliation." When Cui Hongjing said this, Cui Hongxiao's fists in his sleeves were clenched tightly.

"Go on, I'm listening."

Cui Hongjing sighed, "When I left Changguo, Aunt Wan also told me something."

After hearing this, Cui Hongxiao had nothing left to understand. He had already guessed that the woman that the Emperor's grandfather was talking about was most likely his mother, Concubine Wan.

Under his calm exterior, there were already turbulent waves. "Just tell me, I can bear anything. I just want to know why, why did mother do this."