The Valued Lady is Truly Dominant

Asking for a favor?

Emperor Chu signaled Eunuch Zhou to open the scroll, and his eyes froze when he saw a map.

This map was different from the map of Great Qing; it was from another place, or more accurately, of the sea.

Islands, coordinates, routes, and resources were clearly marked.

Emperor Chu looked at Chu Ze, his gaze filled with inquiry.

Chu Ze glanced at the scroll and said, ”I know you have never been able to let go of that boy with the surname Ning. This map, I spent these years creating it, based on my memory.”

”Your memory?”

Chu Ze lowered his eyes and said, ”When I was in Quanzhou, I befriended many seafarers and saw many nautical maps. The island that Ning Cabinet Minister once praised, I deeply understood it and even spent a fortune commissioning someone to draw a map of that small island.”

Emperor Chu’s expression tightened as he carefully examined the map, but he didn’t see the so-called island map, so he knew what the trade was and asked, ”What do you want?”

Before the other could answer, Emperor Chu squinted his eyes again and said, ”You want to protect Chu Hua?”

”Yes.”

Chu Ze looked up at him, a glimmer in his eyes, and said, ”This world, the only thing I can’t let go of is this child. Your Majesty...”

He gritted his teeth, threw off the blanket, got down from the bed, and stood barefoot on the cold tiles.

Eunuch Zhou was shocked: ”Commandery Prince, you...”

But Chu Ze waved his hand, knelt down before Emperor Chu, and said, ”Royal elder brother, forgive your minister for being bold and shamelessly asking you, not for forgiveness for my foolish ignorance and grand treason, but for you to pardon Chu Hua, to grant her peace and joy, free from the humble cautiousness caused by her parents.”

He prostrated himself on the ground, his forehead touching the tiles.

Emperor Chu said nothing, looking down at this paper-thin figure at his feet.

Even when the truth was revealed, he lost, he was confined, and he was suppressed, he had never really knelt to him, had never lowered his head.

Compared to Xia Houzhe, Chu Ze was prouder, more like a noble member of the Royal Family.

But now, he knelt before him and lowered his noble head.

This represented that he acknowledged his defeat to him.

All for a tender child.

This was also the only thing he could do for that child as a father.

”Help the Commandery Prince back to bed to talk,” Emperor Chu said calmly.

Eunuch Zhou hurriedly supported Chu Ze back onto the bed and pulled up the blanket. After the kneeling, the redness on his face faded even more.

He didn’t have much time left.

Emperor Chu looked at him and gave a slight smile: ”Chu Ze, you eventually have a weakness too.”

”Yes,” Chu Ze also smiled self-deprecatingly, ”As the saying goes, plans can’t keep up with changes. I never anticipated that someone like me would have such a weakness on my deathbed.”

This weakness softened his heart, warmed it, and made him reluctant to die, forcing him to cling to life for a few more years.

But he also knew that these few years of clinging on were just borrowed time, not lasting.

”Royal elder brother, despite having a weakness, I cherish it,” Chu Ze said. ”Apart from my youthful ignorance, this is the first time I ask you and the last, beseeching you as the emperor uncle to grant my niece a favor.”

”What if I refuse?”

Chu Ze said, ”If you refuse, that too is within my expectation, merely reverting to the worst-case scenario. Everyone has their destiny.”

He looked at Eunuch Zhou and said, ”At the bottom of that box is hidden the map of the island.”

Eunuch Zhou paused, then searched the box again and found a seam as thin as a hair. He pressed it, and the bottom of the box automatically popped open, revealing a piece of cicada-wing-like thin silk paper.