Chapter 433

Chapter 433 "There's no need to thank Ben Gong. I only saved you once, but I cannot save your life." As Xie Run spoke, a hint of coldness crept onto her face. Xie Run rarely spoke harshly, but now she did: "The palace has just held three funerals, and you go out to make trouble in such freezing snow—are you afraid life is too peaceful, and you want me to prepare a fourth?!" Beauty Wu's expression shifted slightly, and she instinctively tried to explain: "Niangniang, this concubine..." Xie Run said coolly, "You went to secretly see the Seventh Prince, didn't you?" Beauty Wu was so startled she nearly fell off the bed. "Noble Consort Zhao, this concubine knows she was wrong, this concubine knows she was wrong. This concubine begs you not to tell Consort Jingshu." "Too late. I've already sent someone to summon Consort Jingshu." Beauty Wu's face turned ashen, her expression filled with helplessness, panic, and fear. Xie Run: "What's the matter? Are you that afraid of Consort Jingshu?" Beauty Wu had a grievance she couldn't voice, suspecting that Xie Run was deliberately taking this opportunity to get back at her. Xie Run: "You are the Seventh Prince's birth mother. It isn't wrong for you to want to see him." "But if you don't take care of your own health and go courting death in the dead of winter—is that true love for the Seventh Prince, or is it selfishness at work?" Beauty Wu stared wide-eyed at Xie Run, as if she didn't quite understand the implication behind her words. Xie Run decided to be more direct: "If you truly love the Seventh Prince, you should take care of yourself and live longer." "If you live, the Seventh Prince has a mother who dotes on him. If you die, the Seventh Prince becomes a child without a mother." "You've lived your whole life without understanding even this much?" If not for the fact that Beauty Wu was in poor health, Xie Run's words might have cut even deeper. "Now, taking a few extra glances at him does him no good at all—it only highlights your loving mother's heart and Consort Jingshu's coldness?" Beauty Wu listened in a daze, then suddenly burst into loud sobs. Beauty Wu: "It's not that this concubine is overly selfish, but this concubine truly has no other choice!" "The imperial physician said my body is depleted, and I may not survive this winter." "And Consort Jingshu keeps the Seventh Prince under her control, refusing to let this concubine see him, so this concubine had no choice but to resort to such measures." "This concubine only has these few days left to live. Now, every glance at the Seventh Prince is one more glance." "This concubine only hopes to remember the Seventh Prince's face before she dies, to at least fulfill the bond between mother and son." Beauty Wu wept bitterly, her body trembling with each sob. The next moment, Consort Jingshu lifted the curtain and entered, saying coldly, "So you go to such lengths, trying to exhaust yourself to death, so that the Emperor and the Six Palaces will think I am cruel—that I took your child from you and even caused your death?!" "People like you talk about deep mother-son affection, but you're utterly selfish!" "If you exhaust yourself to death, you'll make the Seventh Prince bear resentment at such a young age. If some schemer whispers a few words in the future and drives a wedge between him and me, then you'll be satisfied?!" As Consort Jingshu spoke, she almost wanted to laugh: "Sometimes I truly don't understand—are you the Seventh Prince's birth mother or his enemy? How can you bear to see him not have a single day of good life?!" Beauty Wu said in shame and indignation, "Consort Jingshu has already obtained the Seventh Prince—why must you humiliate this concubine like this?!" "This concubine carried him for ten months and nearly gave her life to bear the Seventh Prince. Naturally, she values him more than her own life!" "This concubine's rank is low, she is not favored, and she is not qualified to raise a prince—but Consort Jingshu's words cut too deeply." "Is this concubine now considered ungrateful just for wanting to visit the Seventh Prince?!" Beauty Wu could no longer hold back: "If Consort Jingshu hadn't obstructed me at every turn, why would this concubine disregard her own health and brave the wind and snow just to steal a glance at the Seventh Prince?!" Consort Jingshu curled her lips in mockery. "Oh? Then when you disregarded your health and braved the wind and snow to go to Yongning Palace—did you actually see the Seventh Prince?!" Hearing this, Beauty Wu grew even more sorrowful and humiliated. "Yes, this concubine did not get to see the Seventh Prince, and now she is at Consort Jingshu's mercy to be mocked in every way." "This concubine has fallen to such a state—is Consort Jingshu satisfied now?!" Consort Jingshu stared at her coldly for a long while before finally uttering a single sentence: "A selfish fool!" Even now, Beauty Wu still wouldn't listen to a single word from anyone else, still thinking Consort Jingshu was simply quarreling with her. Beauty Wu argued endlessly, trying only to prove that she was not a selfish person, that she was a poor mother who had her child taken away and was abused in every way. Knowing full well she wouldn't see the child, she still insisted on exhausting herself. Consort Jingshu merely cast her a sidelong glance, then turned her gaze to Xie Run. "Noble Consort Zhao summoned me here—was it just to have me argue with this fool?" Xie Run said calmly, "First, help Beauty Wu back to her bed." Then she said to Consort Jingshu, "Let's go to the main hall and talk." Consort Jingshu turned and left without looking back. Xie Run also walked away slowly. Beauty Wu watched the two figures retreat, feeling a growing unease in her heart, yet utterly powerless to do anything. Once outside the bedchamber, Consort Jingshu sneered with displeasure: "Noble Consort Zhao summoned me here—are you going to give me a scolding?" Xie Run raised an eyebrow. "Why would you say that, sister? Have you done something wrong that you think I need to scold you for?" Consort Jingshu: "...Since Noble Consort Zhao has nothing to say, Ben Gong will take her leave." Consort Jingshu made as if to leave, and Xie Run did not try to stop her, only slowly taking her seat. After walking two steps, Consort Jingshu turned around and strode back to stand before Xie Run. She was somewhat fierce in her manner, which startled Dantao and Xiaoshu. The two simultaneously stepped forward to block her path: "Consort Jingshu!" Xie Run: "Dantao, Xiaoshu, do not be rude. Step back!" The two immediately withdrew. Consort Jingshu glared at Xie Run. "Noble Consort Zhao summoned Ben Gong here today specially—to play the good Samaritan, to rescue Beauty Wu from the depths of her suffering, and to rebuke Ben Gong as a venomous woman who steals another's child?" Xie Run let out a faint sigh. "Why must Sister be so agitated? Ben Gong has not said a single word yet." "You have not said it, but you have already done it!" Consort Jingshu: "Seventh Prince cannot be raised by her—this is not Ben Gong forcibly seizing another's child, but the palace rules decree it so!" "If anyone is dissatisfied, let them go speak to the Emperor and to those who established the palace rules!" These words were aimed at Beauty Wu, but also at Xie Run. Consort Jingshu: "Ben Gong considers herself blameless toward Seventh Prince. When caring for him, she treated him as her own son, devoting herself wholeheartedly. Yet now, because of Wu's various antics, Ben Gong is burdened with a reputation of shame?!" She demanded an answer from Xie Run, but met only the calm depths of Xie Run's eyes, and suddenly felt a surge of mortified anger. "Ben Gong knows you think she should not have prevented her from seeing Seventh Prince." Consort Jingshu: "Noble Consort Zhao raises her own biological son, so naturally she cannot understand the hardships of a foster mother." "If you were Fifth Prince's foster mother, having raised her with painstaking effort and poured in countless blood and toil, and suddenly a birth mother appeared, jumping about and saying that she would be content just to see the child from time to time—would you not find it disgusting?" "Ben Gong has devoted herself wholly to him, and so he can only acknowledge Ben Gong as his one and only mother!" "If in the future, merely because she is his birth mother, he harbors lingering affection for her and remains half-hearted toward Ben Gong—how could Ben Gong endure that?!" In other words, Beauty Wu felt that Consort Jingshu was the one stealing the ripe fruit, and Consort Jingshu likewise felt that Beauty Wu was stealing hers. The child she had raised with all her heart—she would never allow him to hold two mothers in his thoughts. This was not about reason; this was human nature.