First annul the engagement, then sever ties with the empress; the empress reigns supreme.

Emperor Sheng blinked, and Mu Lingye took it as a tacit agreement.

Mu Lingye fiddled with his hands, seemingly asking a casual question.

"Tell me, why do you suddenly hate me so much since Mother died? You sent me to Yan as a hostage for so many years, have you ever regretted it?"

His voice trembled slightly when he spoke of regret.

It is clear that Mu Lingye actually cares a great deal about Emperor Sheng's true attitude towards him.

People who appear cold on the outside are actually very love-starved and crave family affection.

Mu Lingye is just like that.

Time passed slowly, the night grew deeper, and the wind grew stronger.

Gu Junxi stood outside the hall, hugging herself tightly, glancing back into the hall every now and then, trying to find out what was happening inside. She guessed that Mu Lingye was about to come out.

After about fifteen minutes, Mu Lingye finally came out of the inner hall.

His face looked terrible, and his shoulders were slumped, suggesting that his conversation with Emperor Sheng had not gone well.

Seeing this, Gu Junxi felt a pang of anxiety and quickly went to meet him, silently taking Mu Lingye's hand in an attempt to comfort him.

Mu Lingye took Gu Junxi's hand and kissed it gently, his voice low and cold: "Could you walk with me for a bit?"

Gu Junxi followed Mu Lingye all the way to Fengyi Palace.

This was Gu Junxi's second visit to Fengyi Palace. Besides this time, the only other time was when she stole the imperial seal and left the palace. Before she and Mu Lingxuan broke off their engagement, she also frequently visited the palace. However, Fengyi Palace has always been a forbidden area, and no one is allowed to enter lightly.

Mu Lingye led Gu Junxi through the vermilion gate into the palace, and finally sat down under a sycamore tree.

Mu Lingye looked up at the paulownia leaves under the starlight and said with emotion, "Axi, when I was little, my mother loved to hold me and sit on the swing under this paulownia tree. The paulownia tree is still here, but my mother will never come back."

The dead cannot be brought back to life, and the pain of being separated from the living is something that only those who have experienced it firsthand can truly understand. Gu Junxi felt she was just talking without experiencing the pain herself, trying to comfort Mu Lingye.

So she simply kept quiet and stayed by his side without saying anything.

Only when Mu Lingye rested his head on Gu Junxi's shoulder did Gu Junxi gently stroke Mu Lingye's head as if coaxing a child.

"Ah Ling, what exactly did you say to Father Emperor in the palace just now? Can you tell me? Tell me about your pain, and I will share your burden, which will reduce your pain by half."

Ultimately, this is still a poorly worded way of offering comfort.

With Gu Junxi by his side, Mu Lingye, whose mood had improved somewhat, was still amused by Gu Junxi.

After a brief smile, his mood turned somber: "I asked him why he hated me so much. Do you know what he said? He said that because my mother didn't love him, even though I was his biological son, his first son, he didn't like me. He said that if it weren't for the need for someone to go to Yan as a hostage, he would have killed me long ago."

"Haha, so my mother didn't die of illness, but was killed by him. He just knew she didn't love him. But he didn't seem to love her that much either. There were so many women in the harem, why should he expect her to love him?"

By the end, Mu Lingye had lost control of his emotions, his body trembling with rage. Who knows how much willpower he used to maintain his composure from the moment he left the inner palace until now?

What an absurd reason!

When Emperor Sheng married his late empress, he was attracted by her background and her beauty and talent. After bringing her home, Emperor Sheng naturally developed feelings for her because of her virtue and excellence.

He somehow received information that the late Empress had admired him before she married. He took it seriously, kept it in his heart, and from then on, he truly developed some genuine feelings for the late Empress.

He lived peacefully for several years, but then he discovered that the late empress had always been too cold towards him.

This made him very dissatisfied.

Once, it was clearly agreed that he would spend the night at Consort Li's residence, but in order to surprise the late Empress, he went to Fengyi Palace instead. It was then that Emperor Sheng discovered the late Empress gazing at him with longing.

It turns out that the late empress had always been in love with Emperor Sheng's deceased elder brother.

Emperor Sheng was furious, convinced that the late Empress was promiscuous and had betrayed him and deceived his feelings.

Emperor Sheng had already secured his throne with the help of the late Empress's family and no longer needed their influence. So he began to set a trap, causing the members of the late Empress's family to "die of illness" one by one, until finally the late Empress herself was involved.

After dealing with the late empress, it should have been Mu Lingye's turn to "die of illness," but the Yan Kingdom's request to take a prince hostage saved Mu Lingye's life.

"Ah ah ah ah."

Rewind to half an hour earlier, after explaining the reasons for his dislike of Mu Lingye, Emperor Sheng cruelly told Mu Lingye...

The late Empress was the shame of his sincere feelings being betrayed, and Mu Lingye was the mark of his foolish shame. Therefore, only Mu Lingye's death could completely erase that unbearable mark.

As an emperor, he should be completely innocent and without any blemishes.

Mu Lingye wrapped his arms around Gu Junxi's waist, as if only in this way could Gu Junxi give him strength: "Isn't it ridiculous? Just because Mother had someone she liked before her marriage, he broke down to the point of killing his wife and children, saying that Mother and I were his stains."

And what about him? He swallowed poisonous pills to make elixirs of immortality. With half his body nearing the grave, he still indulged in daily revelry to prove his resilience. Dying for this isn't a stain on his reputation.

"This is not your fault, it is Father Emperor's narrow-mindedness." Gu Junxi gently patted Mu Lingye's back.

The world is vast and full of wonders; the Emperor Sheng's petty-mindedness is truly an eye-opener.

Thinking this, Gu Junxi felt even more sorry for Mu Lingye, thinking that Emperor Sheng was almost comparable to Gu Yuanbai: "A-Ling, you are not a stain on my record. You are like the sun, always warming me when I am lost and sad."

"Really? Then will you hate me?" Mu Lingye's dark, unfathomable eyes flickered.

Gu Junxi promised, "Never."

"Really? That's great." Mu Lingye exhaled, and a scene seemed to be reflected in his dark eyes.

After Emperor Sheng said that the late Empress and Mu Lingye were the stains of his stupidity that should be completely erased, Mu Lingye couldn't help but take action.

He no longer cared about Xu Decai's pleas and violently pulled Emperor Sheng off the bed. Emperor Sheng rolled several times on the ground before stopping.

Xu Decai was anxious and wanted to call for help, but Mu Lingye stopped him.

Mu Lingye ordered that no one was allowed to help Emperor Sheng tonight, or they would be killed.

Mu Lingye kept this from Gu Junxi, not daring to tell her, because given the Emperor's physical condition, if he fell off the bed and no one took care of him all night, there was absolutely no way he could survive for three more days.

He killed his own father with his own hands.

He certainly didn't want Gu Junxi to know about his darker side. In fact, he never wanted Gu Junxi to know.

Since Emperor Sheng did not treat him as a son, he himself did not want to acknowledge him anymore.

Moreover, as a son, how could he not avenge his mother and his father and grandfather?

At that time, several of my maternal uncles died one after another. My mother thought it was because she had offended a plague god and even asked someone to exorcise the evil spirits. She also suspected it was a hereditary disease and even thought that someone had poisoned her. She asked Emperor Sheng to send people to investigate.

How ridiculous, letting a thief catch another thief.