Li Mei continued with her head lowered, pretending to be deaf and dumb. She was merely going there to have a good life and eat with all her heart.
All this time, she had been struggling to get food after she was sold by her father's family.
Ah, it wasn't that she was eating better before being sold. All she had eaten was the leftover food and nothing else. Sometimes, she wouldn't even be given enough food to feed her stomach, leading to sleepless and hungry nights.
If not for those servants working in the kitchen, she wouldn't even be alive anymore and would have long died of hunger. In a sense, Madam Li had probably long wanted her to die.
As Li Mei was thinking, she accidentally bumped her nose headfirst into the prince's tall and firm back, making her groan as she backed away and rubbed her nose. The man also turned his head and gave her a cold sidelong glance as he raised his brows at her.
Li Mei blushed slightly as she refused to spare him a glance and continued looking down.
At any other moment, Cao Haoran would have teased 'him', but he had more things to care about right now. For instance, his mother.
The Emperor in this era had several concubines, and the first two princes belonged to the Empress. Cao Haoran and Cao Liangjei were the sons of the second favorite imperial concubine, whereas the fifth lady was the youngest child of the Empress.
Other concubines weren't given any ability or choice to have kids yet since the Empress controlled the inner palace of the imperial concubines well enough to decide who would give birth to the Emperor and who wouldn't.
As a result, only one imperial concubine managed to climb up the ranks, Cao Haoran's mother.
And right now, the same woman was found standing before her eldest son, glaring at her furiously. Although already middle-aged, she still looked extremely stunning, with a bluish robe hugging her waist. The robe looked beautiful because of the intricate white carvings on the edges.
Her head was covered with a golden, intricate designer crown that held her hair above her head. Combined with the detailed make-up she had on her face, she looked extremely beautiful despite her age. It could be seen there was a reason why she managed to become the Emperor's most favorite concubine after so much competition.
"Cao Haoran! You dare to bring that slut here in front of me!" She brazenly pointed at Li Mei, making the girl frown, but she remained cold and distant, not speaking a single word. But her aura did turn colder, making people realize that 'he' had become displeased with the woman's words.
The imperial concubine's anger spiked up after seeing the youth's actions. Not only did this slut not bow in front of her, but he even dared to show her disrespect like this! How dare he?!
Her eyes flashed with traces of anger as she walked forward and pulled at the young man's collar, shocking Li Mei.
The latter didn't think at all that this woman would dare to grab her collar! Shit, if this concubine managed to find out she was a girl….
Ugh, Li Mei didn't even dare to imagine the capital offense that would be hung on her head for lying to the third prince. Her face paled a little, but she still managed to carry on that indifferent and cold look on her face, making her seem even more estranged and unruly.
The imperial concubine's anger only spiked up after hearing those words so much that her entire face turned red. She took a few deep breaths as she tried to control the traces of anger to the depths of her stomach, coughing as she said, "You, get out of here."
Li Mei released the breath she was holding. The imperial concubine seemed too angry to notice that the man she had grabbed was in fact a woman. She pursed her lips and said, "Your Highness…."
Before she could plead for her escape, Cao Haoran walked over and took his mother's wrist off her collar and said coldly, "Imperial mother, I don't need you to tell me who I like and who I don't. Please, just go away."
"You're my son!" The Imperial concubine was so angry that she fumed in anger as she felt a little dizzy in her head. If not for her servants holding her from behind, she would have fallen flat on the ground because of being too angry at her own son, disgracing herself even more in the public.
She had already been disgraced enough because of her son!
"Really?" Cao Haoran sneered. I thought I was merely an adopted son."
The entire place silenced at once. Everyone knew that this was a taboo topic for the imperial concubine.
Back then, the Empress wasn't selected yet, and thus, the current Empress and Cao Haoran's imperial mother were in a neck-to-neck competition to the point that they even competed on who would get pregnant faster. Unfortunately, the Empress became pregnant despite all the efforts the imperial concubine put in.
Thus, she left the palace in anger to find the best physician from her town. Of course, by the time she returned, she realized that the Empress had already been given a title and that she had birthed twins, majestic two sons at that!
Thus, the imperial concubine could only grit her teeth and ask the special physician she had called for to check on her.
Of course, she could have had the imperial physicians check her body, but she didn't really trust the Empress. Thus, after checking, the physician shook his head and said with a sad expression on his face.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness."
The imperial concubine's shoulders shook in anger and dismay as she looked at the doctor in shock. She couldn't believe her ears.
In anger, she called the guards, "Send him to the prison!"
After that, she did something so atrocious that even though everyone in her imperial palace knew about it, none of them dared to speak a single word about it—faking her pregnancy.
The entire time, she continued to live in her house, looking like she was in a house arrest, but she refused to see anyone for the fear that they would recognize her falsehood. Even when her "son" was supposedly born, she didn't show her face to anyone on the premises that her son was born extremely sick to the point that she couldn't lleven live if he were to step a foot outside the palace.
It wasn't until her "son" was supposedly two years old did she come out of her palace with a two year old following her with his head lowered. No one knew from where she got the third prince. Neither the servants of her palace opened their mouths nor the Emperor found out about Cao Haoran's truth.
But one thing was for sure, the imperial concubine didn't want to talk about this much. Once when a servant mentioned this behind her back. The next day, she was kicked out of the palace, and what's more, she never got another job by the influence of Imperial concubine and died bitterly out of hunger and thirst.
Thus, other than her own son, no one dared to mention this.
Ah, it was even more of a surprise that Cao Haoran knew about it and he would often use those words to irritate his imperial mother more often.