Chapter 232 - Stuck In The Mud (2)
Chapter 232 – Stuck In The Mud (2)
Yu Fangzhu blankly stared at the letter in his hand. It didn't contain any other hidden messages aside from these few words telling him to come to a cave in the mountain. Of course, any sane man who was capable of suspecting he was being messed with will try to ignore these words and start his day like nothing happened.
But Yu Fangzhu knew he couldn't ignore it. The message was vague but to him, it was filled with hidden messages. After all, there were only a few people who knew of the cave in the mountain.
Aside from the Tianli cave that his family has been trying to hide from everyone else and covet, there was another cave that his mother found when she was younger. At that point, his mother wasn't married to the emperor and was in love with another man. That man was just a budding soldier and because of that, her family forbade her from further interacting with him.
However, when one loves another too much that they could forsake anything and everything else in the name of love, Concubine Min continued her forbidden love with the soldier and eventually, they became lovers for a few years.
Yu Fangzhu often listened to his mother's bedtime stories when he was younger.. And one time, she spilled some of her stories from when she was younger and told her a mind blowing truth while she was drunk after being ignored by the emperor for a long while. Yu Fangzhu initially didn't want to believe in her stories and treated it as nothing but fiction created by his mother's imagination.
But the cruelty of the truth was soon revealed by his mother herself to him. It was on his sixteenth birthday and as a gift, Concubine Min took him to a cave that was near a waterfall in the mountain.
That cave was originally where Concubine Min and her lover would frequently hide when they wanted to see each other. And that cave was also the place where she conceived Yu Fangzhu.
"I shouldn't be telling you this but the thought of him not being remembered once I'm gone is crushing me." Yu Fangzhu could still remember her words ringing in his ears while his mother toured him inside the cave. She proudly showed him the things that she and her lover used and lived in for a short time. "It fills me with guilt when every time I see your face and it reminds me of him. That is why, forgive me, my son. It is your birthday but all I can give you is the truth of your birth and the man who is really your father."
Yu Fangzhu remembered that after hearing her mother saying that, he saw a human skeleton lying on the wall in the innermost corner of the cave. The skeleton was stripped off his humanly look and only his bones and a knife stuck in his heart remained. The young version of him screamed in terror and cried for days when they returned back to the palace.
But this wasn't what was bothering him.
He knew the reason why his mother did that on his birthday. It was to make him stronger and determined to take the throne from the emperor. However, he didn't know how any other person could have this knowledge when everyone else who was told of this secret was already dead.
One of them was his mother. And the other was the sickening concubine that killed his mother.
Hence, it didn't make sense that anyone could have found the cave and know of its existence. Even use it to threaten him when no other person knew of the truth behind it.
"Guards!" Yu Fangzhu called out. Immediately, the two guards standing outside of the study came rushing in.
:"Your highness." They respectfully bowed their heads.
"Has anyone entered this room?"
The guards looked at each other in silent confusion before they shook their heads to indicate no one had entered the room aside from the prince. They knew that Yu Fangzhu never let anyone enter his study unless permitted them to enter thus, they had no clue who would dare to barge in his study without fear of his own life.
Yu Fangzhu narrowed his eyes into slits and pressured them. But seeing that they were being completely honest, he believed their statements.
And just when the doors closed behind the two guards, a whistling noise that was quite like something was ripping through the wind was suddenly heard. Yu Fangzhu turned his head to the side where the noise was coming from but it was too late for him to react.
Soon, a hot searing pain shot through his arm and when he looked down, Yu Fangzhu saw that his sleeve was cut and his arm was bleeding. He quickly sidestepped and covered his wound. However, he paused in the middle of his actions as he saw that another arrow was shot.
This time, it wasn't targeted at him but it pierced through the surface of the table.
The arrow stood diagonally erected on the table with a letter tied around the shaft of the arrow.
Yu Fangzhu glared at the arrow and frowned. Who could possibly infiltrate his residence and dared to shoot an arrow at him? What was more concerning was that his guards didn't even notice that their master was being attacked.
Throwing his questions aside, he reached out towards the arrow. He untied the letter tied around it and spread it wide.
There, another message was sent to him as a warning.
"Yu Fangzhu. If you don't want to lose everything you built. Come to the meeting place tonight and alone."
Yu Fangzhu stared at his name and tore the paper into pieces. He recognized the handwriting of the person who wrote this letter. But he had no idea how this was possible.
That concubine should be dead! No, she was definitely dead and he clearly watched her last moments in the dungeon before throwing her corpse outside for wolves to eat it.
Then, how was it possible that the exact penmanship only unique to her was being used to write this letter?
A flame burned in Yu Fangzhu' eyes as he became desperate to know who sent him the letter. If it finds out that someone else was messing with him, he will make them think that dying was much better than living.
And if it was her spirit coming after him…
Yu Fangzhu promised that he will come to find her corpse again and step on it to show how miserable she became and how she cannot reach him in this life.