Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“You still remember I’m your mother?” The woman in red asked coldly.
Frightened, Wuma Jun hurried to explain himself. Tears started falling down his cheeks. “Mother. What you said terrified me. The last thing I want is to fail you.”
The woman in red had no patience for him. “The alliance has already broken into the city. It’s time for you to show me what you’ve got. Don’t let me down!”
Being ordered around by the woman nurtured Wuma Jun’s secret grudge. On the surface, however, he still acted obediently, with the deepest love a son could show for his mother.
“I got it, Mother! I swear I won’t disappoint you!”
Several days ago, this woman had appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be his late mother, Wang Guifei.
Wuma Jun hadn’t bought it up front. Although he’d never met his mother, he knew that people were not supposed to come back from the dead.
The woman hadn’t bothered spending too much time convincing him with words. She had simply given him some medicine that had instantly cured his legs.
Considering the way the woman had easily fixed his legs and the way she had appeared from the thin air, Wuma Jun felt his heart pounding like a drum.
That was way beyond human capabilities. She must be some kind of celestial being.
Whether she was his real mother or not, with power like that, he would call her “Mother” all she wanted.
With the miracles created by this “mother,” Wuma Jun’s house had essentially been invisible to the enemy when they had broken into the city. He didn’t have to worry about anything and simply enjoyed his life as always.
“Your father is dead. So are two of your older brothers. Now the only one who can compete with you for the throne is the third prince.”
The woman in red was standing in front of Wuma Jun, looking down at him. Her eyes were cold as ice. Her voice was full of arrogance. “With my help, the world will think that you were the chosen one. I fixed your legs, which should give you the basic means to pursue the throne. No one can beat you now. When it’s the right time, I will connect you with the Wang family to get their support, so you can actually keep your throne.”
Of course, the woman in red didn’t really plan to contact the Wang family. She had simply said that to reassure Wuma Jun.
The emperor was dead. The most qualified successor would no doubt be the emperor’s son.
Wuma Jun’s heart thumped like a drum. His palms were wet.
He had never thought that he would be so close to the throne, which he had only dreamed about before. It was almost his to take.
All this had only happened to him because of the woman in red, his mother.
“I appreciate so much what Mother has done for me. You have put in so much effort to make the plan work. When I become the emperor, I promise that you will become the empress dowager.”
If this had happened before, the woman in red might have actually cared about the title of empress dowager. But that was not the case anymore.
So what if she became the empress dowager? No matter how high-up a woman was, she was still a helpless widow. She could never be as free as the emperor.
“Your willingness to take care of your mother is all that matters to me,” she said.
Above her head there was a sword of Damocles “Liu Xi,” which might fall at any time to take her life.
All she really wanted was to break that sword!
Last time, she had been in disguise as a dancer and tried to assassinate her rival but failed miserably. The woman in red gritted her teeth as the memory came back to her.
Because of the failed mission, she owed the system a billion popularity points!
To pay the debt off as soon as possible, recently, she’d been streaming like crazy. She even agreed to a lot of explicit demands from the audience.
Her self-esteem had been trampled by her audience over and over again. Her hatred for Empress Chen had grown along with her disgust toward the audience.
Worse, she couldn’t take it out on the audience, since they were her patrons.
She later discussed with the system in-depth and concluded that to kill Liu Xi, assassination wouldn’t work.
But if her son, Wuma Jun, got the throne, she could take advantage of the new emperor to give orders and accuse Liu Xi of serious crimes, like contempt of the emperor.
Then, as long as she used a Level 9 Loyalty Talisman on Liu Xi, her plan would succeed.
If not for this plan, there was no way it would have occurred to her that she still had a useless son named Wuma Jun.
To cure Wuma Jun’s legs, she’d had to go deeper into debt and purchase panaceas by installment from the system.
At first she was reluctant, since the panaceas costed too many popularity points. She didn’t want to acquire more debt because of Wuma Jun.
Yet the chances for a prince with no functioning legs to take the throne were too slim. If he didn’t get it, the new emperor wouldn’t leave him alone, either.
So the system had eventually talked her into buying the panaceas.
On top of that, she had also used considerable popularity points to create hype for him. She had used an Invisibility Talisman and prevented any ordinary men from entering his place.
In this way, it wasn’t just that Wuma Jun was protected. A miracle was also created to suggest that Wuma Jun was the chosen one for the throne.
Besides him, who else could be more qualified to become the new emperor?
The ancient people were superstitious and ignorant. As long as she advertised it well, Wuma Jun would soon have a halo of destiny on top of his head.
Now, the alliance on the emperor’s side had already taken Chenzhou and defeated Prince Changshou’s forces. It was about time for Wuma Jun to show himself.
The weird duo of mother and son were both immersed in their imagination of their glorious future, as if the next moment they would be the ones on the throne.
What a shame…
“Wow, wow, wow… You’ve got nine lives indeed! Last time, I broke your neck, yet you still came back!”
Cynical comments came from outside the door. Both Wuma Jun and the woman in red were shocked. Their faces changed dramatically.
As they looked in the direction of the voice, they saw the unexpected guest. Their faces fell even more.
“Lanting?” Wuma Jun stared at Jiang Pengji with disbelief. He almost didn’t recognize her. “Is that really you?”
He had not seen Jiang Pengji for years and could barely tell if the young general in red clothes and silver gears was Liu Xi.
“Long time no see, Your Highness.”
Talking to Wuma Jun, Jiang Pengji concentrated her spiritual energy on the woman in red, so that she wouldn’t dare do anything reckless.
“You are my brother-in-law. We are family. You don’t need to act like a stranger, Lanting.”
Instinct told Wuma Jun that Jiang Pengji hadn’t come with good intent. But he didn’t know what she was up to, so he didn’t dare to do anything yet.
He tried to make small talk with Jiang Pengji, hoping she would let her guard down.
“Brother-in-law?” Jiang Pengji sneered. “Your Highness, I don’t dare take the honor.”
Wuma Jun looked puzzled. “What do you mean, Lanting?”
“What do I mean? You’d better ask this wild woman standing right next to you what she did many years ago.”
Jiang Pengji gazed at the woman in red with a smile, but her voice was cold and ruthless.
Wuma Jun turned to the woman in red who claimed to be his mother. He acted like he bought it, but he secretly found it suspect.
“Ask her about what?”
“Your Highness,” Jiang Pengji said. “There’s something you probably don’t know. Do you know why Liu Huan suddenly died from nonstop bleeding while giving birth? Rumor has it that Liu Huan gave birth to an evil baby with two heads that meant bad luck, and that she died after the delivery. But do you have any idea why the kid turned out like that? It’s because it was the result of brother-sister incest. How could the baby be normal?”
Eyes wide, Wuma Jun stumbled back in shock.
He couldn’t believe it.
It was beyond ridiculous.
Liu Huan was the daughter of Liu She’s concubine. How could she be his sister by the same mother?
“That’s bullsh*t!”
