"So... you are actually using us...?" Yao Ying asked. He didn't blame the man, but he still felt uncomfortable nonetheless. They deemed themselves as clever youngsters, but under the sly old fox's plan and arrangement, they felt so stupid ah~!
Feng Yong Rui laughed and answered them without feeling any guilt whatsoever, "How could you say that? The fact is... all of you were helping me ah~! Without your plan, I didn't think I would be able to achieve my revenge. Besides, I never coerced you to plan revenge too..."
When others thought about it, it made sense. Feng Yong Rui never asked them to do anything!
Feng Yong Rui honestly thought that way. Their plan was the catalyst that made everything go in the right direction --- for him, at least. If they didn't come up with this plan, it would take him a few more years before the realization of his plan. Who would have thought that the Han Emperor was that treacherous? If Han Xiang didn't tell Xiao Fang, no one would know about it.
The wicked concubine was really hiding herself deeply. One of his people was her closest maidservant, but she didn't know about this matter at all! The first time Feng Yong Rui knew about this matter, he was surprised as well.
Rong Qiu laughed and talked as a mediator, "Not really... In actuality, all of you were helping each other out!"
Feng Yong Rui nodded his head in agreement while looking at the funny-looking youngsters. Honestly, their expression was quite hilarious --- it was a mixture of surprise, annoyance, and anger.
"Wait... Wait... Wait..." Qi Hao quickly cut them off. He was still in surprise so his reaction was quite slow just now. "Father... how long have you planned this?" He couldn't help but ask out of curiosity. He also saw his father's influence ah~!
"Right after your mother has broken down and asked me to get revenge... After that, I slowly made a plan and planted a lot of people inside the palace," Feng Yong Rui admitted. After looking at his pitiful wife, he couldn't help but start to hate the Han Emperor as well. His selfishness turned his life into h.e.l.l --- his wife's condition had never improved at all! Seeing her in a vegetative state was really painful.
Her last words were still echoing inside his mind until this day. It became his only source of power fo revenge.
If he had no children, he would prefer to go into seclusion just like Rong Qiu. He needed to think of their future as well while thinking of a method to deal with the Han Emperor --- besides, his wife's medication and treatment needed a lot of money, so he could only provide it when he was an official. Thus, he had to endure and continue pretending to be loyal to that s.h.i.+tty Emperor.
The Han Emperor was sacrificing people for the Emperor's t.i.tle and the power behind it. Thus, the greatest payback for this type of person was by taking that power away while the Emperor was still alive to see it. Feng Yong Rui wanted to see the despair in his eyes!
"Why didn't you tell us?" Xiao Fang asked in a sad tone.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you. At my weakest moment or even when I failed, I really wanted to tell both of you... But..." Feng Yong Rui sighed and answered hesitantly.
"But what? Because you didn't trust us, right?" Qi Hao asked in a blaming tone.
"No! Of course not! How could I not trust both of you?!" Feng Yong Rui looked at Qi Hao in surprise. How could that be? That thought had never crossed his mind ah~!
"Then, why?" Qi Hao pushed for an answer.
"I want both of you to live a happy and carefree life... It's enough that I'm alone who shoulder this burden... It was really exhausting and made me feel frustrated a lot of times. If it wasn't for you both and your mother, I would have long given up on this plan..." Feng Yong Rui explained.
"Father..." Qi Hao didn't know what to say because he would never think that his father did it for them --- they cared about them too much to involve them in his revenge plan.
Feng Yong Rui patted both of his children's heads lovingly.
Yao Ying couldn't blame him when he knew the real reason. That s.h.i.+tty Emperor was really cruel and it seemed like karma had finally found him.
"How do you control the Empress?" Yao Ling asked out of curiosity. Without a good relations.h.i.+p, it would be impossible for the Empress to give the imperial power to Feng Yong Rui just like that. The Empress' maiden family used to be so powerful but they were sitting on the opposite side of Feng Yong Rui from the information that they had gathered.
"It was actually thanks to the Han Emperor's behavior himself. He only trusted that one wicked concubine and abandoned the others. I also wondered what kind of seduction that the wicked concubine had done --- she was able to make the Han Emperor totally under her palm. In the end, just like what had happened to my wife's maiden family, he dealt with the Empress' family because her maiden family was too powerful and hard to control. How could the Empress not hate him when he killed the Empress' maiden family down to the root? He only left the Empress with an empty t.i.tle without power just to be called as a benevolent person by the commoners.
In the end, it gave me a way to make a deal with the Empress... The truth is... the Empress' maiden family was totally loyal to the Han Emperor. His wrong judgment to women and combined with the crazy decisions that he had made over time... led to his downfall. He shouldn't blame another person but himself!" Feng Yong Rui told them honestly.
It was true... if he treated his loyal followers well, no one would betray him. However, this Han Emperor seemed to make a lot of people feel disappointed in him!
"He's really crazy," Xiao Fang muttered to himself. "I wonder how could he become an Emperor with such lousy personalities...? What kind of stupid people who helped him become an Emperor?!"
Feng Yong Rui, "..."
Didn't I already tell them that he was a part of the people who made him the Emperor? Did Xiao Fang forget about it or she deliberately dissed her own father? This young la.s.s dared to call him stupid ah~!
"I'm one of them..." Feng Yong Rui admitted while pouting at Xiao Fang.
Xiao Fang merely covered up her mouth and laughed out loud. "I'm sorry, Father! I forget ah~!"
Her naughty expression made him understand that she was actually teasing him which made Feng Yong Rui rolled his eyes in annoyance. He had never tried to make his children afraid of him, but instead, they always talked like friends --- unlike other officials' household. This made their relations.h.i.+p was closer than ever.
"Nonsense!" Feng Yong Rui scolded her in a soft tone.
The others shook their heads and laughed as well --- it broke the previous tense atmosphere.
Qi Hao's nonsense was even more bizarre than Xiao Fang. He sighed in relief while patting his own chest looked like he had just gotten a big fright, "That's good to hear. That's good to hear... I even thought that you have an illicit relations.h.i.+p with the Empress for a moment."
Feng Yong Rui, "..."