Chapter 486 How to Have High Hopes

Chapter 486 How to Have High Hopes

Ning Fengzhe was stunned and shocked, unable to believe what he heard.

"what?"

Gu Mengzhen's dragon eyes were gradually filled with deep affection.

"Besides my beloved son Gu Hao, I have no other children."

Ning Fengzhe's expression left me with some doubts.

Gu Hao?

Where did this prince come from in the palace?

Without waiting for him to ask, Gu Mengzhen confessed.

"Hao'er is the child of me and Hua'er. I raised him outside the palace and protected him very well. I, your subjects, am ignorant and no one else knows about it."

"Hua'er and I have known each other since childhood and are close friends. When we grow up, we are willing to be partners. We know and love each other and will be together forever. Apart from Hua'er, I don't want to get close to anyone else and I will never do anything to let Hua'er down."

"Therefore, I have found someone else and kept him at the other end of the secret passage of the Tongshitai, to take my place and favor my concubines."

"The so-called princes and princesses, including you and Feng Yihe, are all their children and have no blood relationship with me."

As if struck by a bolt from the blue, Ning Fengzhe knelt there, frozen in silence.

Gu Mengzhen sneered, with a hint of cruelty.

"You foolishly thought that I would take into account the relationship between father and son and not kill you, but you never expected that you, who had been smart all your life, would fall into my trap for a moment."

There was a hint of solemnity in his smile, which made him look particularly eerie and terrifying.

"Since you have changed your mind, you must be loyal to the Lord and have not concealed anything, right?"

"Do you remember what I said before?"

"Feng Yihe's life story is a secret. Anyone who dares to reveal a single word of it will be made to feel the piercing pain before his head and body are torn apart. You have seen the scene in the north side hall of the Disheng Palace, but you have never experienced it yourself. Today, I will give it to you, and I hope King Diyue will accept it with a smile."

The accident happened too quickly and Ning Fengzhe was caught off guard. In order to save his life, he could only lie.

"I have no regrets about dying, but please understand, Father. How dare I reveal any confidential information without your permission?"

Gu Mengzhen was skeptical.

"is it?"

Ning Fengzhe was extremely confident.

"I, your son, dare not deceive your father."

Gu Mengzhen recounted the previous events as evidence.

"If you hadn't informed me, how could Ning Yunxi have planned to drive Feng Yihe away from Dongshan and killed her so cruelly without caring about her life? If you hadn't exchanged your schedule that day, the people who were buried in Dongshan would not be Lord Lou, but Feng Yihe and An Xu."

He asked with humility and sarcasm, solemnly.

"I dare to ask King Diyue, what is the explanation?"

Ning Fengzhe remained calm and handled the situation with ease.

"It was my suggestion to exchange the itinerary."

"If they had different intentions, how could I have gone against their will and broken the situation to save them?"

"As the sun and the moon can attest, my son's ambitions were not changed at that time, so how could I leak the secret?"

He was very eloquent, and Gu Mengzhen had no way to refute him, so he just laughed at himself.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Ning Fengzhe secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you for your understanding, Father."

Gu Mengzhen found it interesting and started playing with it at will.

"You keep saying father, don't you want to know who this great father is?"

Saving life is the most important thing, Ning Fengzhe said one thing and thought another.

"I will never forget the kindness of my father in raising me, and I have no intention of exploring the unknown."

Gu Mengzhen held the teacup, drank tea comfortably, and enjoyed his show of weakness.

"How could Yuesheng, the most filial son, be like this?"

Ning Fengzhe's every move showed his genuine admiration.

"As a son, I am truly loyal to my father, but I am not worthy of the title of 'the most filial son'."

Gu Mengzhen was comfortable as usual and sat in a relaxed manner.

"To be filial and loyal to the emperor means to persuade him to abdicate?"

Ning Fengzhe was humble and modest, yet he remained magnanimous and noble.

"I am only conveying the order of Emperor Jin and Prince Yu. If your father does not wish, you can refuse it."

Gu Mengzhen relaxed his brows and opened his eyes, showing some pride.

"How can I refuse Lord Yan's order? If I disobey your order, the consequences will be severe. I am afraid that I cannot afford the punishment."

Ning Fengzhe was amiable and his tone was especially gentle.

"I, your son, will do my best to help you escape unscathed."

Gu Mengzhen put down his teacup slowly and smiled faintly.

"Do you think that coaxing someone into giving you a chance to survive?"

Feeling that the situation was not good, Ning Fengzhe exaggerated it and remained honest and true.

"Whether it's a lie or not, as long as your Majesty grants me a chance, I will be able to prove my innocence."

"I, as a son, came to the palace alone to seek an audience; I refused the throne of Emperor Yue and refused to surpass my father; I gained fame and presented it to my father. There are countless examples like this."

"You and I are father and son. Even if we are not blood relatives, we are not without affection. I am faithful and obedient, and I have an open mind. Your Majesty's heart is like a mirror, and he can see it at a glance."

"Peaches and plums do not speak, but people come to them of their own accord. I, your humble and humble son, hope your Majesty will not doubt my filial piety."

Gu Mengzhen was having fun and was in a good mood.

"I have never doubted your filial piety."

Ning Fengzhe listened attentively, trying to guess what he meant. There seemed to be an imperceptible viciousness in the laughter.

Just as Lord Du said, my father has already started to murder.

After thinking about it, he bowed his head and became more humble.

"Thank you, father, for your generosity."

He was just thinking about what to say when he heard his father ask a question.

"Have you ever heard of my Uncle Zhuang?"

Ning Fengzhe looked up at the man and observed his facial expression before answering him.

"Yes, I have heard of it since I was a child."

Gu Mengzhen gently stroked the brocade box containing the jade ring with his fingertips, as if he was feeling the warmth from Uncle Zhuang.

"Do you know his name?"

Ning Fengzhe answered in a low voice.

"Yes, my great uncle's honorable name is Zhuang Xihe."

When Gu Mengzhen mentioned his Uncle Zhuang, his features looked a little more haggard and sad, yet also a little warm and gentle.

"That was when I was re-registering my subjects to quell the rebellion of the Five Kings. I changed his name to convey a sense of meaning and express my feelings."

"In the early days, there are not many people left who knew him or were familiar with him. Among you young people, no one knows his original name."

Ning Fengzhe is curious and eager to learn.

"Please teach me, Father."

Gu Mengzhen's warm expression slowly cooled down.

"Uncle Zhuang, your name is Zhuang Zhe."

Ning Fengzhe's body suddenly shook, and all life left his face, turning pale.

“Zhe…”

There is a fragile spot in his heart that was trampled on and seriously injured. Gu Mengzhen's dragon eyes were filled with sorrow and deep emotion.

"You are a smart person. If you hear this, you will know how high my hopes for you are."

"When you were little, you often asked questions like why your nickname was different from other children's and why I didn't allow others to call me Zhe'er. Now, you should understand."

"Zhe'er, you are my stepfather, and I have given you a new life. How can I let you use that as a nickname? Gao Feng Zhuang Zhe, I must call you Feng Zhe. I am expressing my wish, hoping that everyone can respect my uncle Zhuang."

"I have told you many times about his kindness. Have you forgotten it?"

He gritted his teeth, asked this question, then slammed the table in a rage, like thunder.

"Uncle Zhuang, with a kind heart, was cunning and evil for me. Even though my ambitions were contrary to his character, he was willing to learn to change."

"And you? You are born cunning, yet you are loyal to others."

"I was blind to give you this name! You are disgracing my uncle Zhuang by having this name. You are not worthy!"

Ning Fengzhe was used to keeping his heart in peace, as he showed off the incomplete father's love in his childhood. However, he couldn't stop the tears from flowing in his eyes.

Am I not the same? I have a kind heart, but I have been cunning and evil towards my father.

My humble wish is just to have a little fatherly love.

However, he is indifferent to my efforts and doesn't realize their preciousness. He feels sorry for me for being filial to him for decades, worrying about my day and night, but in the end, he says, "You don't deserve it."