In ancient times, she gave birth to seven daughters and was divorced by her husband's family.

She understood what the Queen Mother meant.

The emperor summoned Pei Huizhou, not just to ask him a simple question.

It was a Hongmen Banquet.

What awaits Pei Huizhou is death.

The emperor chose the crown prince over Pei Huizhou.

Bai Lu breathed a sigh of relief, "If he dies, then..." Then she and her daughter can live a happy and ordinary life.

The appearance of Pei Huizhou brings too many variables.

......

It was late at night, and the palace was brightly lit, dyeing the glazed tiles of the palace buildings a warm yellow.

In the imperial study, the scent of sandalwood wafts through the air.

The emperor sat behind the dragon table, looking calmly at Pei Huizhou who was standing below.

Pei Huizhou was dressed in a crimson official robe, his figure standing tall and straight like a pine tree. His handsome face looked a little pale in the candlelight.

Those eyes, which always had a gloomy look in them, were now staring at the emperor in front of them.

The emperor did not ask him to kneel down, nor did he give him a seat, but just asked him to stand quietly.

After a long time, the emperor finally spoke.

"Hui Zhou, I called you here today because I want you to choose your own fate."

Pei Huizhou's body stiffened slightly.

He raised his head and looked at the emperor in shock.

The emperor's gaze shifted from Pei Huizhou's face to the table beside him.

There were three things quietly placed there.

A white silk, a pot of poisoned wine, and a dagger.

The emperor's tone did not change at all, as if he was talking about something very ordinary.

"Hang, drink poison, or commit suicide. I let you choose, so that we can fulfill our...father-son bond."

These words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Pei Huizhou's mind.

The color drained from his face instantly, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

Emotions of shock, astonishment, and disbelief overwhelmed him like a tide.

He suddenly raised his head, staring at the emperor with his eyes, and his voice became hoarse with excitement.

"why?"

His throat was dry.

Pei Huizhou couldn't believe that the emperor who had always doted on him and treated him like his own son would be so cruel as to let him choose death...

The emperor looked at him with a complex emotion in his eyes.

Seemingly sad.

But what is more of it is the emperor's indifference and determination.

"You colluded with the Turks and intended to sell out your country."

The emperor's voice hit Pei Huizhou's heart hard.

"You covet the throne of the Eastern Palace and repeatedly frame the Crown Prince!"

"Which of these two crimes isn't punishable by death, with the confiscation of property and extermination of the entire clan?"

"Letting you die now... rather than immediately when your merits are being reckoned with, is already a mercy!"

"If you die now, I will tell everyone that you died suddenly, and I can still leave you with a good reputation! Otherwise, in history... you will be infamous!"

After the emperor finished speaking, he stopped talking and just looked at him quietly, waiting for his reaction.

The imperial study fell into deathly silence.

Pei Huizhou's breathing became rapid and his chest heaved violently.

His shocked expression slowly faded, and he clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms, causing a stinging pain.

The pain made his confused thoughts a little clearer.

"Colluding with the Turks?"

Pei Huizhou's voice was low. He took a step forward, his eyes as sharp as torches, staring directly at the emperor sitting on the dragon throne.

"Isn't everything I do just to gain your approval?"

"I need military merit! I need to prove to the entire court that I, Pei Huizhou, am no worse than anyone else! No worse than the Crown Prince!"

"Yes! I admit that I harmed the prince."

He did not hide anything and frankly admitted what he had done.

"But why is that?"

His eyes were filled with pain.

"Why?"

Pei Huizhou's voice trembled. "We are all your sons. Why was he born the crown prince, the true son of the dragon, the future heir to the throne?"

He pointed to his chest.

"And I can only be an adopted son... an adopted son without any proper title or reason!"

"I never dared to aspire to that position, I just wasn't willing to accept it!"

The grievances and resentment in his heart completely erupted at this moment.

He felt like a joke. No matter how hard he tried or how he behaved, he could not change his innate identity difference.

The emperor listened to his accusations quietly, with no expression on his face.

Those deep eyes were calm, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking at the moment.

When Pei Huizhou saw that the emperor didn't say anything, his resentment grew even stronger.

He felt that the emperor's silence was a kind of acquiescence and a disregard for all his efforts.

"You are biased!"

Pei Huizhou almost shouted this sentence.

His eyes were red, like a trapped beast forced into a desperate situation.

"You are not only partial to the prince!"

There was a hint of sob in his voice as he mentioned another name that bothered him.

"Even Bai Lu is living a better life than me!"

When it comes to Bailu, Pei Huizhou's heart is filled with complicated emotions.

There is admiration, jealousy, and even deep hatred.

He looked at the emperor, his tone full of sarcasm.

"Who is she? She's just the daughter of your Bai Yueguang!"

Pei Huizhou's face showed a trace of sadness, "And what about me? I am your biological son! A biological son with the same blood as you!"

He is the emperor's illegitimate son, the child born to the emperor and a woman who cannot be mentioned...It is precisely because of this that he has so much resentment and hatred.

All the injustices I have suffered are due to this unrecognizable identity...

Why...

Is origin so important?

"..."

The emperor still said nothing.

In the imperial study, the only sound left was Pei Huizhou's heavy breathing.

After an unknown amount of time, the emperor finally sighed slowly.

He raised his eyes and his gaze fell on Pei Huizhou again. This time, there was a hint of pity in his eyes.

"Hui Zhou, you are wrong."

The emperor's voice was very soft, "You are not my illegitimate son."

This sentence shocked Pei Huizhou more than any previous one.

The anger and resentment on his face froze in an instant, replaced by confusion and disbelief.

"What did you say?"

Pei Huizhou's voice was dry and he wondered if he had heard it wrong.

The emperor looked at his distraught look and did not keep him in suspense, but slowly began to tell the story.

"Many years ago, when Zhao Bingyu was still in the capital, she found an abandoned baby boy in the imperial manor."

"That abandoned baby is you."

Pei Huizhou's body shook violently and he subconsciously took a step back.

"I know about this... Isn't this just one of your excuses to the outside world? Actually, I am your child..."

The emperor ignored his reaction and continued.

"The identities of your biological parents are unknown. I have sent people to investigate, but there are no clues."

"At that time, Bingyu's child, Bai Qingze, had just been born. She said she wanted to accumulate merit for her child, so she asked me for help in raising you in the palace."

The emperor's eyes softened.

"I promised her."

"Later, I adopted you as my son and carefully nurtured you, hoping that you would become the Crown Prince's right-hand man and assist him in governing this great land."

The emperor looked at Pei Huizhou with a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

"So, I adopted you as my adopted son."

"I want to give you a legitimate identity so that you can gain a firm foothold in the court. I also want to train another trustworthy minister for the Crown Prince."

"My intentions are good."

Pei Huizhou stood there blankly.

He is really not the emperor's son, he is just an abandoned baby?!

All his resentment and ambitions were based on a wrong perception.

This made him feel extremely absurd and ridiculous.

The emperor said again.

"It was my negligence. I didn't expect the Queen to think too much."

There was a hint of helplessness in his tone.

"She thought you were the child of a fleeting romance I had outside, and she harbored a grudge against you."

"I explained it to her, but she didn't believe me. Later, these rumors reached your ears."

The emperor's eyes grew sharper.

"I once told you the truth myself, but you no longer believe it."

Pei Huizhou moved his lips, but no sound came out.

Yes, he doesn't believe it.

When he heard those rumors from the gossip of the palace people, he began to secretly send people to inquire and verify them.

All the clues found seemed to confirm that guess.

The emperor's favor towards him, the queen's indifference towards him...all of this made him more convinced that he was the emperor's illegitimate son who was left behind.

From then on, he refused to listen to anything the emperor said to him.

He stubbornly lives in his own imagination!

The emperor looked at his pale face and continued.

"I have indeed been good to you. I watched you grow up, taught you how to read and write, and taught you how to be an official. I have high hopes for you."

"However, I find you so stubborn that you won't listen to any advice and insist on living in your own fantasy."

The emperor's tone gradually turned cold.

"I have no choice but to use you as a stone to sharpen the Crown Prince."

"Aren't you willing to compete with the Crown Prince? Then I'll let you go and compete with the Crown Prince. I'll pamper you and flatter you to the point of you being incompetent!"

"That General Shi... do you think he follows you because of your biological parents? Actually, that's not the case! He's mine!"

"..."

"Whetstone?"

Pei Huizhou muttered to himself.

For the first time, his eyes were filled with despair.

He had never felt so desperate before, in the Heavenly Prison or among the Turkic army.

He finally understood.

It turned out that all his struggles and efforts were just a joke in the eyes of the emperor.

He was a joke used to sharpen the prince's teeth...

The emperor nodded and admitted it without hesitation.

"Yes, the grindstone."

"I will play along with you and pretend to make you believe that your identity is in doubt, so that you will believe that you are truly my illegitimate son."

The emperor's voice was cold and emotionless.

"I allow your ambition to grow, letting you fight, snatch, and struggle."

"I want to see how the prince will respond to your relentless pressure."

"I want to use you to sharpen his character, train his skills, and make him a qualified crown prince!"

After hearing the emperor's words, Pei Huizhou felt a surge of blood rushing to his head.

He was shaking all over and almost going crazy.

I see......

It turns out that all this was just a trap set by the emperor...

He is not a chess player.

Not even a chess piece.

He is just a stone used to sharpen a knife.

When the knife is sharpened, the stone loses its value.

Can be discarded at will.

"So... I'm just... a rock?"

Pei Huizhou's voice was hoarse and full of disbelief.

"But I am clearly a living person..."

“Why am I a stone?”

"Why... am I a stone?"

A surge of hatred surged in his heart.

I hate the emperor's ruthlessness.

I also hate my own stupidity.

His life, his ambitions, his love and hate, in the end, are all just a joke.

A complex emotion surged in my heart.

He thought of the Bai family.

He has always regarded the Bai family as his enemy, not only because they are the prince's maternal family, but also because he is jealous of Bai Lu, who can receive the emperor's unreserved love.

He opposed Bai Lu everywhere and even went so far as to frame the Bai family.

But now, he learned that it was Bai Lu's mother Zhao Bingyu who saved him.

If Zhao Bingyu hadn't picked him up from the imperial farm, he might have frozen or starved to death in the wilderness.

It was Zhao Bingyu who gave him a second life.

But he repaid kindness with enmity and harmed the Bai brothers and sisters for so long.

Satire.

What a huge irony!

Pei Huizhou showed a sad and bitter smile on his face.

He looked up at the emperor, and a cold expression appeared on the emperor's face, which looked very much like the prince.

At this moment, he was like an emperor.

Ruthless and cold-blooded.

At this moment, Pei Huizhou finally saw the man in front of him clearly...

He is not a loving father, not the foster father who would smile gently at him...

He is the emperor.

He is the master of this world.

Therefore, it wasn't that the emperor was confused, nor was it that he couldn't bear to kill him because of their old friendship...

All of this was intentional.

The emperor knew from the beginning that he was colluding with the Turks and that he was framing the prince.

But he didn't stop.

He just watched coldly as he walked step by step towards the abyss.

Because he wanted to see what the prince would do.

He wanted to see how his heir would respond and fight back against such an ambitious "brother".

As it turned out, the prince did not do a good job.

A hint of disappointment flashed in the emperor's eyes.

The prince was no match for Pei Huizhou.

If he had not taken action at the last moment, the throne of the Eastern Palace, and even the entire kingdom, might have really fallen into Pei Huizhou's hands!

This whetstone is too sharp.

It was so sharp that it almost injured the person holding the knife.

Therefore, this stone must be destroyed!

"We've said everything we need to say... Let's get back to the boat... Let's get on our way."

Pei Huizhou looked at these three self-destructive things, laughed at himself, and felt hopeless.

"I choose poisoned wine."