Chapter 2372: The Young Man’s Identity
Chapter 2372: Chapter 2372: The Young Man’s Identity
Shu Yu let out a breath of relief when she heard that; as long as he was fine.
Qi Lie was all smiles. "This time you two have rendered great service."
With the matter off her mind, Shu Yu relaxed, and at these words she immediately arched a brow. "So that boy—what exactly is his identity?"
"What do you two think?"
Shu Yu and Meng Yunzheng exchanged a glance. The latter pondered and said, "Liu Jie is the second-in-command of the Southwest Black Market. He personally disguised himself as an exile to protect that boy, even willing to throw his life away. Aside from the Second Prince, no one could make him show that kind of loyalty. So what is the relationship between this boy and the Second Prince?"
It wasn’t as if they hadn’t analyzed it these last few days; they already had some guesses. But without hearing the answer, they ultimately didn’t dare be certain.
Qi Lie chuckled. "You’re right, he does have close ties with the Second Prince. Strictly speaking, he’s now the Second Prince’s only son."
The two of them wore an expression of "just as we thought."
But soon they were puzzled again. "Where did the Second Prince suddenly get such a big, full-grown son?"
Such a big, full-grown son??
Qi Lie’s mouth twitched, and he took two more sips of water. "To put it properly, this is the Second Prince’s The ones locked outside’s son. The Second Prince, you see, is the same sort of creature as his father Gong Qiu. Back then, Gong Qiu forcibly took Yunzheng’s Mother as The ones locked outside. The Second Prince also took a fancy to some girl, and regardless of her wishes, he bought a residence outside his manor and kept her there. The only difference is, Yunzheng avenged his mother, whereas this boy... personally killed his own mother."
Shu Yu suddenly knit her brows tightly. "Killed her with his own hands?"
"Yes."
The boy’s name was Yuan Ye, twelve years old this year. The Second Prince was three or four years older than Meng Yunzheng, but he had started "enlightening" a good ten years earlier than him.
He married his principal wife at sixteen. The Second Prince’s consort was very plain-looking; he married her purely for her natal family’s power.
Different from the Third Prince, whose mother, Noble Princess Consort Xiao, had the Xiao Family behind her and devoted all her efforts to planning for him.
The Second Prince’s mother’s maiden family, the Liu Family, had suffered that assassination over twenty years ago; the Liu Family lost many lives and many were wounded. Song Xin had escaped from the Liu Family during that assassination, and from then on she stayed away from Gong Qiu’s sphere of influence, living a peaceful life for more than ten years.
But as the main target of that assassination, the Liu Family slowly declined afterwards.
The Second Prince wanted to fight for that position above; aside from Gong Qiu, he still needed support.
Marriage was the first step. Therefore, under the arrangements of his mother and Gong Qiu, he sought an Imperial Decree early on to marry the Second Prince’s consort.
In order to make the Second Prince’s consort’s family utterly devoted to him, he always presented himself outwardly as a man who would take only one wife to heart. Not only did this make others think he was single-minded, the Second Prince’s consort and her family all the more firmly believed him to be a reliable man.
How could they know that just in the second month after he married his principal wife, the Second Prince was already keeping The ones locked outside outside, and that The ones locked outside had even given birth to a son early on.
When the Second Prince’s consort first married into the imperial clan, she became pregnant in just three months. But struggles within the royal family were unavoidable. The other Princes, seeing the Second Prince gaining an heir so early, naturally were unwilling to accept it. Through deliberate scheming, the Second Prince’s consort miscarried and damaged her health; for several years she couldn’t conceive again.
The Second Prince’s consort and her natal family felt deeply guilty toward the Second Prince, yet he didn’t take any concubine or concubine at all, and still lived only with the Second Prince’s consort.
It wasn’t until several years later that the Second Prince’s consort finally gave birth to a daughter.
However, the good days didn’t last long. When this Little Princess was only four years old, Gong Qiu’s affairs were exposed, and the Second Prince’s entire family was confined to a quiet separate estate.