FID – Chapter 1117

Chapter 1117 — A Powerful Enemy, and Trapping the Godfather!

The Empress Dowager had also heard the news that Qian Wanjin had returned to the capital.

Although she had spent this entire period focused solely on the two little ones, with no time and no interest to pay attention to outside affairs, there was Feng Mohan in the palace.

In front of the ministers he acted like a profound, unreachable young emperor, but the moment he stepped into the Yangxin Hall, he transformed into a super chatterbox.

Whenever he had free time, he would run straight there. Once that mouth of his started talking, what was there in the palace the Empress Dowager didn’t end up knowing?

“Logically, since Qian Wanjin is back, Uncle and Aunt should have returned too. We’re still holding onto Badou and Hongdou as hostages. Why aren’t they anxious at all? Imperial Grandmother, do you think Uncle and Aunt plan to leave me here in the palace all alone?”

The Empress Dowager flicked her round fan and smacked it lightly against the young emperor’s forehead. Ever since she’d gotten experience knocking on his head earlier, the movement had become smoother and smoother for her. “Who’s a hostage? How are my Badou and Hongdou hostages? You’re the emperor, yet you speak with no propriety at all. What kind of behavior is this?”

Leaving him behind was exactly what they should do.

He wasn’t some precious treasure, after all.

Feng Mohan simply leaned his head even closer, letting the Empress Dowager smack away with her fan as she pleased. It didn’t hurt anyway.

What he was worried about was being abandoned by his imperial uncle and aunt. And honestly, that possibility was not far-fetched.

“I came to this conclusion after a thorough analysis of the facts. Didn’t Imperial Uncle do all that work just so he could take Imperial Aunt and retire early in Xinghua Village? That absolutely won’t do. Imperial Grandmother, you have to help me. If even you won’t help me, I really will become a poor little thing nobody wants.”

“You want to advance and retreat together with your imperial uncle?”

“Of course I do.”

“That’s very easy. Have a son, abdicate to him, and then you can go wherever you want.”

Feng Mohan’s face went stiff on the spot.

He was certain the Empress Dowager said that on purpose, choosing the exact sore spot to poke. She just liked seeing him unhappy. Her psyche was seriously twisted.

Have a son and abdicate? Easy for her to say.

Every single woman in his harem was incapable of laying eggs. Who was he supposed to have a child with?

Besides, having a child depended on fate. Even if one really did get pregnant, there was still the matter of whether the baby would be a boy or girl.

And even if he did manage to produce a son, wouldn’t he have to raise and educate the child?

By the time the boy grew old enough to inherit the throne, he himself would’ve been abandoned by his imperial uncle and aunt for at least ten years.

The Empress Dowager wasn’t offering him a solution. She was digging him a pit!

The Empress Dowager didn’t care what the young emperor was thinking. She simply pushed his big head away with her round fan, then reclined gracefully on the imperial couch. Half-lying beside the soundly sleeping Badou and Hongdou, she admired their sweet, peaceful little faces.

It was already mid-October. Autumn had arrived in the capital, the weather pleasantly cool, and the two little ones slept even better during the day.

Feng Qingbai and Liu Yusheng had been gone for half a year, and in that time she had raised the two beans until they were all plump and fair.

Every day when she woke up and when she went to sleep, the first thing she saw were their bright, smiling faces, and she could listen to their soft baby babbling. There was nothing more wonderful than this.

But that couple was about to return.

And once they did, it meant the two little ones would be taken away from her.

The Empress Dowager’s beautiful mood had plummeted to rock bottom the moment she heard the news.

Was there any way to stop those two from coming back? Or at least delay their return for a long, long time?

Should she send someone to intercept them? Impossible—she might accidentally harm Nannan.

Run away with the two beans? That wouldn’t work either. She was the Empress Dowager; leaving the palace without permission would violate the rules.

Unfortunately, that old bastard Qin Xiao wasn’t in the capital; otherwise, she could have consulted with someone and worked out a plan together. With Qin Xiao absent, she was left alone, panicking as if her hair were on fire.

What to do? There was no time to waste.

A heavy silence fell over the Yangxin Hall. The two little ones were sleeping soundly, while the old and the young each sat lost in thought, each with their own schemes.

When Qian Wanjin and Shi Xianrou arrived, the hall immediately took on a strange, tense atmosphere.

“Your Majesty, Xiao Feng’er, we’re here. What’s going on? So quiet? Did you two have a fight?” Qian Wanjin greeted them first thing, his eyes darting between the two, trying to find any hint of a quarrel.

“What fight? I’m already about to go gray with worry,” Feng Mohan rolled his eyes at him.

The Empress Dowager, holding her round fan, pointed to the other side of the hall. “Sit, granny will serve tea.”

Everyone understood. The low table was a bit away from the imperial couch so that their conversation wouldn’t wake the two soundly sleeping children.

“No rush, no rush. I just want to see my two godchildren first. It’s been half a year since I last saw these little ones,” Qian Wanjin said in a low voice, hurrying over to the couch and taking Shi Xianrou along.

“One and a half years old now, right? Tsk-tsk, they’re starting to look more and more alike. If it weren’t for Hongdou’s birthmark on the brow, I wouldn’t even be able to tell them apart.”

Shi Xianrou’s gaze also fell on the two little ones’ faces, and she nodded with a smile. “They really are starting to look more alike. Hmm, both of them resemble Nannan a bit more.”

That last remark was carefully measured. Shi Xianrou had glanced at the Empress Dowager’s expression before speaking, deliberately phrasing it this way to avoid her mood turning sour.

The two one-and-a-half-year-old children, raised by the Empress Dowager, were plump and healthy, especially Badou, whose chin had three folds.

Their facial features were becoming increasingly delicate, strongly resembling Feng Qingbai.

Of course, everyone knew the Empress Dowager’s emotional attachment, so when speaking in her presence, people always said things that would make her happy. At her age, she still deserved a bit of self-indulgence. Everyone respected their elders.

Qian Wanjin reached out and lightly touched a tiny foot that happened to be in front of him. Feeling the softness under his fingertips, smooth like lamb’s fat jade, he got mischievous, quickly grabbed the little foot, and gently bit it.

“Oy-oy! It even smells of milk. It’s so soft I almost can’t bring myself to bite!”

“Smack!” The tiny foot pulled back and kicked straight at his face. The force wasn’t much, but it was incredibly fast, too fast for him to react.

The hall went silent for a moment. All eyes turned to the little child on the couch. The baby had already woken up, rolling over to sit up, black eyes wide as ink, staring straight at Qian Wanjin.

“……” Qian Wanjin swallowed nervously, feeling inexplicably guilty. “Well, Badou, I didn’t bite you, I just nibbled a little. Look, there isn’t even a tooth mark on your foot. But the kick you just gave me; well, that was real revenge, really.”

“—Waaah! Waaah!”

“……”

Watching the tiny baby crying with a face twisted in heart-wrenching sobs, Qian Wanjin had the sudden illusion of facing a formidable enemy. When he had just nibbled Badou’s foot, Badou hadn’t cried at all. But once the child woke up, rolled over, glared at him, and only then started wailing… wasn’t that reaction a bit too delayed?

No—it wasn’t a delayed reaction. The child was strategically summoning reinforcements using its advantage.

A crying baby gets candy.

Qian Wanjin had known this principle since he was young.But Badou you’re only a few years old!

A formidable enemy!

A trap for your godfather!

At the baby’s first wail, both the Empress Dowager and Feng Mohan, who had been stunned by Qian Wanjin’s audacity in biting the tiny foot, immediately snapped back to attention.

The way they looked at Qian Wanjin was filled with murderous intent.