King Jin, with tears in his eyes, recounted what happened when he was twenty at the Ducal Residence—from being lured into a martial arts contest that left him infertile, to the gradual strategic manipulations that forced them to resort to a surrogacy arrangement to maintain their current status.
A step by step scheme, each move in this chess game was impeccably executed, all for the purpose of usurping the throne of Zhuzhao Country.
And he and his mother were merely the best two pawns they had used.
The Empress, after listening, was silent for a long time, initially unable to accept that her own natal family, which she had always relied on, harbored such intentions.
It was only after an indeterminate amount of time that she murmured in a daze, "I was wondering, how could they have thought of the idea of surrogacy, insisting on using the descendants of the Ducal Residence. Whenever I hesitated, Nurse Li would help persuade me, dispelling my doubts."
