Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2747 Still Vigorous in Old Age 131.0
"Simply put, the Empress Dowager is a very strong, strict, and absolute person." Xiao Fengqi looked at everyone, shrugged helplessly, and said, "To her, the late king was not her son, not even a person, but merely her appendage."

"An accessory? What does that mean?" Song Yaojia frowned slightly. "No matter what, he's still a person with his own preferences and ideas, isn't he?" He spread his hands. "No matter how powerful Empress Dowager Wang is, she can't control someone's mind, can she?"

"That's because you don't know the Queen Mother's methods. I heard from my great-aunt that the late king never enjoyed the Queen Mother's affection from childhood to adulthood. Whatever he liked to eat, the Queen Mother would never let him eat it. She would even put all sorts of disgusting things on his favorite food in front of him. The Queen Mother was capable of anything you could imagine and even things you couldn't imagine. On the other hand, whatever the late king didn't like to eat, the Queen Mother would make him eat it every day. If he didn't eat it or showed the slightest dissatisfaction, the eunuchs would hold him down and force-feed him."

"This is..." Song Yaojia hesitated for a moment, "My own mother?"

“Hmm!” Xiao Fengqi nodded. “Of course, this was when the late king was very young. He wouldn’t do that when he grew up. When he grew up, he would cry, make a scene, and threaten suicide.” He sighed softly. “The Queen Mother was very satisfied with the marriage by substitution because she disliked the princess. She believed that the princess’s appearance had taken the late king away from her and made her lose control over him, which terrified her.”

"Does this mean she likes concubines?"

“She didn’t like it either, but she could use it for her own purposes. Because the late king didn’t like it, she forced him to keep a concubine. The late king didn’t want any real contact with the concubine, so she used all sorts of means to force them to stay together.” Xiao Fengqi raised an eyebrow, sighed again, and said, “In short, whatever the late king didn’t like, the Queen Mother forced him to marry; whatever the late king liked, the Queen Mother tried to destroy.”

“It sounds suffocating!” Shen Cha frowned, looking at Chu Han, whose brows were also furrowed. “Living under the same roof as someone like that, seeing each other all the time, is terrifying to even think about.” She looked at Xiao Fengqi and said, “But, the Princess of Liao still married into the royal family as promised.”

“That’s right, because the late king said that if she didn’t let him marry the woman he liked, he would leave with the queen.” Xiao Fengqi gave a wry smile. “When my great-aunt said this, she gave the late king a thumbs up and said that he was a real man who dared to do what he did.”

"Does leaving mean giving up the throne?"

“Yes.” Xiao Fengqi nodded to Jin Miaomiao. “If there’s one thing the Queen Mother can’t tolerate the most, it’s the throne. She spent so many years and exhausted all her efforts to seize this throne. She can’t possibly allow the late King to be so willful and give it up for a woman.”

"But judging from this Empress Dowager's temperament, she probably won't compromise easily, will she?" Shen Cha snorted disdainfully and said, "She wouldn't have harmed the late Princess Consort, would she?"

"General, you are wise!" Xiao Fengqi nodded. "She did inform the Princess's family to teach the Princess a lesson, even if it ruined her reputation. If it could make her..." He was too embarrassed to say it aloud, "that would be perfect. Unfortunately, my great-aunt anticipated her prediction and brought her to our residence in advance, avoiding this wave of persecution. But the Queen Mother did not give up and even sent people to our residence to threaten my great-aunt. The Xiao family should think carefully about whether offending the royal family for such an unpleasant woman is a wise move."

"Queen Mother" Shen Cha and Jin Miaomiao exchanged a glance and said, "Which family is she from? There don't seem to be many people in this world who dare to speak like that." "A minor noble family, an unknown minor noble family." Xiao Fengqi smiled, "No one knows why she married into the royal family. It's just that my great-aunt never thought much of her and would summarize her in one sentence."

"what?"

“Coming from a humble background, their vision and perspective are limited,” Xiao Fengqi sighed. “Fortunately, the late King wasn’t actually very close to her. The older he got, the less he liked to have contact with her, because every meeting ended badly, especially after he became King, his attitude towards the Queen Mother worsened. Perhaps…” He paused, then said, “From that point on, the late King was no longer the late King?” He looked at Jin Miaomiao and said, “Lord Jin, what do you think?”

"I've basically sorted things out. Everyone, come and listen to what I have to say." Jin Miaomiao tapped the table and, seeing everyone looking at her, said with a smile, "Let's call the Liao Kings A and B for now. The original one was Liao King A, and the one that emerged later was Liao King B. Liao King A disliked everything the Queen Mother arranged for him, and even loathed the Queen Mother and everything she arranged. But he couldn't resist, and he didn't want to accept it. So, over time, he would run away. The result of this running away was that he would develop another version of himself, and this version of himself would accept everything that the Queen Mother forced upon him."

"In other words, Liao King A unconditionally dumped everything he wanted to escape onto Liao King B, leaving it all to Liao King B, while he could only enjoy what he liked. But when Liao King B appeared, Liao King A fell into a deep sleep and didn't know what Liao King B had done, right?"

“That’s right.” Jin Miaomiao nodded. “Moreover, he doesn’t consider Prince Yi of Liao as himself, but rather as someone else. That’s why he said that the two little princes were not his children.”

"This is really complicated!" Song Yaojia sighed and said, "Now that you mention it, he's a pitiful person, isn't he?"

“That’s true, but there’s always a reason why someone is pitiful. If he hadn’t been so cowardly, this ‘second self’ wouldn’t have been born.” Jin Miaomiao gently tapped the table. “He created another self, but he doesn’t acknowledge it. He’s constantly fighting with that other self, so it’s only a matter of time before he collapses.” She sighed softly and said, “Although I haven’t seen a patient like that, there are records in medical records. These patients usually end up taking their own lives, and the final outcome is often very tragic.”

After speaking, she looked at Shen Cha and Shen Haolin, who seemed to be deep in thought, and then at Chu Han, who seemed to be daydreaming and not listening to her at all, before tapping the table.

"What's wrong?" Shen Cha was the first to come to her senses. "What did you just say?"

"What are you all thinking? I wasn't even listening to you!" Jin Miaomiao said angrily, hands on her hips. "What were you thinking just now?"

"I'm wondering if there's a possibility," Shen Cha said, glancing at Chu Han and then at Xiao Fengqi, "that he's only 'A' when he's drinking and relaxing, and 'B' at all other times?"