"So, is Prince An your son, or is your daughter your daughter?" Jiang Yuanrang listened to Li Tianyou's words that seemed to favor an outsider and asked with dissatisfaction."You wretched boy, what nonsense are you speaking? Of course, Weiwei is my real daughter!" Li Tianyou felt that this kid must not have been beaten enough when he was younger.
Otherwise, how could he say such a thing?
"Zhou'er, listen to your father on this matter. That child Heming doesn’t seem like someone who would act recklessly." Lady Yao thought for a moment and then said to Jiang Yuanrang.
Jiang Yuanrang was helpless, but how could he just barge into Prince An's residence on his own?
Xu Heming had someone interrogate Ding Chen and Zhou Yuxin, and he quickly understood what the two were scheming.
Xu Heming looked at them with a sneer.
He hadn’t expected there to be a woman foolish enough to abandon the identity of Princess An, her newborn child, and fake her own death—all for a man who had accomplished nothing.
What infuriated him most was that the two gave conflicting accounts, but the matter of Xu Qingshi's true identity pained Xu Heming the most.
"Tie them up and throw them into the pond to drown!"
Xu Heming said this and then left.
"Your Highness, you can’t do this! I am the birth mother of the heir! You can’t treat me like this! When the heir learns of this someday, he will never forgive you!" Zhou Yuxin screamed in terror.
"Do you think that with a mother like you, he can still peacefully remain the heir to my Prince An's estate?" Xu Heming was furious upon hearing this.
"Qingshi is your child; you can’t be so cruel to him," Zhou Yuxin said, perhaps holding onto the last shred of conscience, a moment of awakening.
It made her realize that she was Xu Qingshi's mother, and she couldn’t harm her child.
"Why are you still standing there?" Xu Heming was about to order them thrown into a pig cage to drown when he spotted Xu Qingshi not far away.
"Father, what are you doing here?" Xu Qingshi blinked his big eyes and looked at Xu Heming with confusion.
The doubts about Xu Qingshi’s identity instantly vanished from Xu Heming's mind.
Xu Qingshi was his son.
Regardless of whether he shared his blood, the years of living together were undeniable.
From his first babble to now, running and jumping—everything had been taught by Xu Heming himself.
How could he let those two troublemakers sow discord and create a rift between him and this child?
"It’s nothing. So you finally remember to come back to the residence?" Xu Heming didn’t intend to dwell on Zhou Yuxin and Ding Chen's provocations, but he still held a grudge against the child for acting as a traitor and opposing his remarriage.
"Son, I am your father! Save us!" Ding Chen shouted loudly.
Xu Qingshi widened his eyes in surprise and looked at Xu Heming with confusion.
"Father, who is he calling?" Xu Qingshi turned his curious gaze toward the courtyard.
"Shi'er! I am your mother! Shi'er!" Zhou Yuxin also wanted to see her son at that moment.
For some reason, Xu Qingshi had a bad feeling.
He felt that the people inside might be calling him.
But wasn’t his father right in front of him?
And hadn’t his mother died long ago?
"Alright, let’s go," Xu Heming said, unwilling to discuss that troublesome pair with Xu Qingshi.
"Shi'er, I am your mother! When you were born, I only held you once. I wronged you!" Zhou Yuxin called out again.
Xu Qingshi turned to look at Xu Heming in shock. Though he was still young and didn’t fully understand, he felt that the woman inside was calling out to him.
"If you want to go see, then go. But you’re five years old now; there are some things you should know. Knowing might be better than not knowing. But have you thought it through? If you go, can you bear the consequences?"
Xu Heming looked at Xu Qingshi and didn’t stop him any longer.
Even if Xu Qingshi would hate him for it later.
Xu Qingshi, seeing Xu Heming’s grim expression, decided to go in and take a look.
"Your Highness, maybe we shouldn’t go?" Moyu said nervously, sensing the tense atmosphere.
"Let him go on his own," Xu Heming said.
Moyu, though worried, dared not move forward.
Xu Qingshi hesitantly walked toward the room.
The dark guards who had been stationed there stepped back when they saw Xu Qingshi enter, looking toward Xu Heming for orders.
Xu Heming nodded.
They withdrew.
Xu Qingshi looked in bewilderment at the old woman in the room and Ding Chen, who was dressed in tattered clothes.
He was certain he didn’t know them.
But what did their shouts of "son" and "Shi'er" mean?
"Who are you?" Xu Qingshi frowned at the two.
"Shi'er, I am your mother!" Zhou Yuxin looked at her delicate, jade-like son and shed tears of true regret.
If she had stayed in Prince An's residence, would she have been able to watch her child grow up?
Even if Prince An didn’t love her, he still treated her with respect.
How could she have ended up having to pawn her jewelry?
Ding Chen was utterly useless.
"You’re lying! My mother died long ago!" Xu Qingshi pursed his lips and stared at the woman who claimed to be his mother.
He thought to himself, she definitely wasn’t his mother—his mother had died giving birth to him.
Other children’s mothers didn’t look like her at all.
"Shi'er, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have abandoned you. I was wrong!" Xu Qingshi’s refusal to acknowledge her deeply pained Zhou Yuxin.
"Son, I am your father! Look at me! I am your father!" Ding Chen quickly chimed in, pointing at himself with a forced smile.
"You’re lying! I have a father!" Xu Qingshi denied it without a second thought when he saw Ding Chen’s appearance.
How could this man be his father?
His father was the mighty Prince An.
This person in front of him didn’t even seem as good as Uncle Qingsong, who served by his father’s side.
He couldn’t possibly be his father.
"That man isn’t your father! I am your real father!" Ding Chen insisted.
"If you don’t believe me, ask your mother—who is your real father?" Ding Chen said, turning a sinister gaze toward Zhou Yuxin.
But Zhou Yuxin, lost in her own sorrow, paid him no attention.
"Useless woman! I’m talking to you!" Enraged by her silence, Ding Chen kicked Zhou Yuxin.
He cursed inwardly, realizing that if Prince An didn’t spare them, their lives were as good as lost today.
Right now, only Xu Qingshi might be able to save them.
Ding Chen completely forgot that Xu Qingshi was just a five-year-old child, and everything he had was given to him by Xu Heming.
If Xu Heming wanted his life, no one could save him.
"Shi’er, you are Prince An’s son!" Zhou Yuxin couldn't let her son bear the stain of being an illegitimate child for life.
If she insisted that Xu Qingshi was Prince An’s son, no one could burden him forever with the shame of being born out of wedlock.
Xu Qingshi stared intently at the two, his eyes filled with panic and confusion.
Terrified, he ran back to Xu Heming’s side and asked cautiously, "Father, what they said isn’t true, is it?"
Chapter 499
6 min read