Touya Yaoyao

Bai Juncheng had not seen his wife for nearly twenty years—not his wife in name only, but the wife he had chosen from the beginning.

After their son went missing, their relationship improved somewhat, but because of lingering resentment, or perhaps because he was unwilling to accept it, things remained the same.

He was unwilling to be used by Zhao Hede like this, so he chose to leave, even though his son begged him to stay.

Zhao Guoan was only eight years old at the time. This little child had just experienced the terror of being kidnapped and was now facing the pain of being separated from his parents.

He didn't know how to resolve the situation, after all, he was just a child, so he could only resort to the most foolish method: running after Bai Juncheng's departing car.

"Daddy, Daddy, don't go..."

Cries of anguish rang in his ears. Even though his heart was breaking, Bai Juncheng hardened his heart and left. Bai Taoshi collapsed to the ground due to exhaustion, his hand suddenly raised and stretched towards Bai Juncheng, as if in doing so, he could keep his father and bring him back.

But there was nothing, nothing at all. In the end, it was his mother, Zhao Hede, who helped him up with a look of guilt, wiped the dust off his face, hugged him, and whispered words of comfort, telling him:

"Guo'an, I'm sorry, it's Mom's fault. If you want to hate someone, hate Mom. This has nothing to do with your father."

Occasionally, in the middle of the night, Bai Juncheng would dream of his son crying and running after his car, which would keep him awake at night.

Even though he knew Zhao Guoan was doing well, had friends and family, and was happy, he still felt heartache, sadness, and guilt every time he thought of the scene of their parting.

But he still couldn't face it. Even though his guilt towards his son and his longing for his wife had driven him almost mad, he was unwilling to come back, or rather, unwilling to bow down to Zhao Hede.

He knew that Zhao Hede could divorce him if he wanted to, and he also knew that if he had a relationship with someone else, Zhao Hede could use his infidelity as an excuse to set herself free.

But he refused. He didn't want freedom, nor did he want to pretend that nothing had happened, so he tormented himself and the other person in this way.

But what was Zhao Hede thinking?! When her son Zhao Guoan went missing, although she was terrified, she also used the opportunity to eliminate most of the Elders' Council's influence and even placed her own people in some positions.

Therefore, even after Bai Juncheng left, he and his mother were no longer puppets that the Elder Council could easily manipulate; they had gained a little bit of self-protection.

That's why she wasn't just a vine that could only rely on Bai Juncheng, but gradually grew her own branches to shelter her son Zhao Guoan from the wind and rain, and even fulfill his wishes.

She felt guilty towards her son, guilty for making him suffer so much at such a young age—being kidnapped, separated from his father, and even the little girl who saved him no longer remembering him. She kept all of this in her heart.

It was precisely because of this guilt that she decided from the beginning to pass her throne to her son legitimately. It was also because of this decision that Zhao Guoan was secretly sent out of the palace during his adolescence, so that he could experience the so-called trials that every member of the royal family who wanted to succeed to the throne had to go through in advance.

In the Zhao Kingdom's royal family, members who wish to succeed to the throne must go through three stages. The first stage is to prove their qualifications for succession through their own strength and ability.

This qualification allows members of the royal family who wish to succeed to the throne to leave the palace and transform from unknown figures into well-known individuals.

In the early years of the Zhao Kingdom, the emperors who succeeded to the throne all became constables, soldiers, or county officials, and made political achievements.

But that won't work now. Not to mention whether there are enough positions, even if the princes wanted them, the elders wouldn't agree, and would even obstruct them repeatedly.

For no other reason than that the members of the Elder Council are also members of the royal family and have the right to succeed to the throne. How could they possibly allow their rivals to easily take the throne?

The second phase involves winning the military exercise on Sakura Island. The so-called Sakura Island military exercise involves throwing the heirs of several continents, the imperial heirs, and the elders' heirs into Sakura Island and making them fight each other.

In this kind of struggle, there is usually only one victor. Only the ultimate victor is qualified to enter the third stage, which is the final stage: the struggle for command among the three armies.

This phase involves a military exercise between the heir and the current general on Sakura Island. If the heir wins, he will be designated as the next crown prince. If the heir loses, he will have to wait three years for another challenge until he wins.

Perhaps due to the stringent conditions of the succession system in the Zhao Kingdom, there were very few incompetent rulers, which is why the Zhao Kingdom lasted for a thousand years.

Because every monarch of Zhao Kingdom was almost elected by the people themselves, their strength, ability, and even reputation were top-notch. And a person who is always proper is usually rational and will not do anything stupid.

Ahem, we've strayed from the topic. This was the first time the couple had spent time together amicably in nearly twenty years, a rare moment of leisure for them. Such moments were frequent before that incident, but now they seem extremely rare.

Zhao Hede didn't think it mattered. She seemed to be bored out of her mind, but in reality, she was preoccupied with her son's succession. She really hadn't paid much attention to her husband.

What does Bai Juncheng want? Or what does he want to do? She had no mind to think about it, nor did she want to.

After he abandoned her and her child, she treated him as if he were dead, and apart from saving face, she couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.

This time, if it weren't for the fact that this guy almost embarrassed her, and if she didn't want anyone to know, she would never have gone to see him.

Unexpectedly, after she contacted him this time, he shamelessly clung to her. She originally wanted to refuse, but considering that he was still her husband in name, she didn't want to make things too ugly, so she half-heartedly went along with it. Who knew that this guy would take advantage of her kindness?

Bai Juncheng watched Zhao Hede sipping red tea and flipping through documents, his expression softening. However, the memory of that incident still lingered in his mind, so he frowned, looked at Zhao Hede, coughed a few times, and then casually asked:

"After all these years, have you... realized your mistakes?!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hede couldn't help but roll her eyes, and without even raising her head, she sneered:

"I was wrong. I shouldn't have chosen you. I should have chosen General Yu's son. At least he's more reliable than you and not so naive."

Upon hearing Zhao Hede admit her mistake, Bai Juncheng was initially somewhat smug, but the subsequent words became increasingly unpleasant and even unbearable.

So he stopped pretending, slammed his fist on the table, and roared at Zhao Hede:

"Zhao Hede, what do you mean??"

His shout ignited Zhao Hede's anger as well. Thinking of all the hardships she had endured over the years, and the injustices her son had suffered, she couldn't hold back any longer and retorted sharply without hesitation:

"What do I mean? How dare you ask me that?! Our son was kidnapped, and we finally found him. What did you do? He cried like that, and you still wanted to leave. What?! You think he shouldn't have come back?!"

Bai Juncheng was stunned by these words, but before he could explain, Zhao Hede continued without any hesitation:

"Do you know, he felt very guilty during that time, thinking that it was his coming back that caused you to leave, so he kept threatening to run away from home. It took me more than half a year to calm him down and make him understand that it wasn't his fault."

The more Zhao Hede thought about it, the angrier she became. She simply stopped looking at the document and tossed it aside, looking utterly annoyed.

Seeing his reaction, Bai Juncheng, though in the wrong, still stubbornly continued to criticize him:

"If you hadn't fallen for someone else, would I be like this?! And that's not all..."

But before he could finish speaking, Zhao Hede looked at him with an unfriendly expression and sneered:

"I like someone else?! So what if I like someone else?! Was it my fault that I didn't meet you in the first place?!"

"Of course it's your fault."

Bai Juncheng spoke with self-righteousness, his tone tinged with a hint of jealousy and resentment.

"I've only ever had you in my heart, but what about you? You have two in your heart, that's not fair."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hede looked at Bai Juncheng as if he were a fool, and said speechlessly:

"If you're not happy about it, go ahead and make one yourself. I don't mind."