"Although there are still some inconsistencies, but that would not be too far from the truth." Jun Wu Xie was fairly certain that her conclusion of the situation, regardless whether it was from the way the rumours were started or from Lei Chen's words from the interrogation yesterday.
"In order to get the final answer to that, we will need Lei Chen to tell it to us himself. And to make him willing to open up to us, only an alliance with him will work." Jun Wu Xie said, putting the cup of tea in her hands down.
Fan Zhuo nodded. "Hence, you first retreated to lure him in, and forced him to ally with you in the end."
After yesterday events, Jun Wu Xie no longer thought of severing ties with Lei Chen. In order for them to find the map, the only option available for them was through Lei Chen. Everything that she did, was to tug at Lei Chen's heartstrings to make him panic, making him see that he could not do without the Zephyr Academy.
Shortly after, Lei Chen came back in a hurry. And when he came in, he was holding a brocade box in his hand.
"What is that?" Rong Ruo asked.
The smile on Lei Chen's face had disappeared. He opened the brocade box and inside it, was a letter written in blood. The red characters on the blood letter turned his eyes red and he brought it right before Jun Wu Xie and the others.
Jun Wu Xie glanced at the item, and her eyes appeared quizzical.
And the inconsistencies that did not link up in Jun Wu Xie's and Fan Zhuo's discussion earlier was soon be cleared up by this blood letter before them.
"Who gave this to you?" Jun Wu Xie asked, as she lifted her head to look at Lei Chen.
Lei Chen smiled bitterly: "A serving maid of the Empress, or should I say….. my biological mother."
At Lei Chen's words, Qiao Chu and the others who had not seen the contents of the blood letter suddenly widened their eyes.
Lei Chen said: "It's rather funny to say it, but the Yan Country's Crown Prince is actually an illegitimate child who has no blood links to the Imperial Family. My mother was actually a palace maid serving the Empress from a very young age. The Empress had given birth to a boy at that time and my mother had an illicit affair with a guard in the same period and gave birth to me. The Empress had wanted to execute her then, but the boy that the Empress had given birth to die a premature death a few days after his birth. In order to secure her position as the Empress, the Empress took possession and adopted me, taking me in as her child. All these years, I had thought that the Empress was my biological mother, until….. my Fourth Brother appeared. It was only then that I found out that everything had been one big lie."
Lei Chen had not been born by the Empress. The Empress had only allowed him and his biological mother to remain alive to secure her position as the Empress. As he had been the only child she had, the Empress had in the early years showered Lei Chen with love and concern. Outsiders had always thought that the Emperor and the Empress shared a deep feelings for each other and no one knew that the girl the Emperor truly loved was in fact not the Empress, but a palace maid that had served the Emperor from young. After the Emperor ascended the throne, he transferred that palace maid into his harem as a concubine and showered her with favours and attention. That palace maid had then given birth to a boy more than ten years ago but she had died from complications in that difficult birth.
That baby boy had been adopted by the Empress in a highly generous gesture but her real intentions were actually to use the child to threaten the Emperor. Not long after that boy was taken away by the Empress, the Empress had soon drowned the boy in a lotus pond, and the current Fourth Prince Lei Fan, was in fact an illegitimate child, by the Empress and the Yan Country's Prime Minister…..
The Yan Country's Emperor did not know a single thing about it and had always thought of Lei Fan as the child he had with his most beloved woman. He had indulged and spoilt the boy from a young age and the Empress had seemed to like the boy as well, spoiling him equally. That had delighted the Emperor greatly which in turn made her position as the Empress more secure. However, with both the Emperor and the Empress' attention and hopes all focused on Lei Fan, Lei Chen who had just been a tool of the Empress to secure her position suddenly turned into an eyesore for two people!