His head had been placed into a box and delivered to the late emperor, who had sat in his imperial study for an entire night, reading through a file until daylight arrived. After that came an imperial edict, ordering the Ministry of Rites to arrange Song Yuzhang's appointment as the new Downtrodden Mountain God. Only the head of his deity statue in the temple was gilded in gold, and that was why he was also known as the Gold Head Mountain God.0

Over twenty years ago, several elderly individuals in the Imperial Clan Court, which was responsible for keeping the genealogical records of the Song Clan, had perished. Several more had perished this year and the year before, and all of them had died from "natural causes." 1

The truth was that the previous group had been forced to perish under the late emperor's imperial edict, while the latest group had brought about their own demise, placing their bets on a prince with no foundation to speak of, supporting his claim to the throne just because he was technically the true eldest son.0

Song He departed, leaving the empress dowager to sip tea on her own with a myriad of emotions in her heart.0

Despite her decision to cast him away, Song Jixin or Song Mu was still her own flesh and blood, so how could she not have some type of emotional attachment to him?0

Her tears had been filled with eyes as she gazed upon her adorable eldest son, who had been wrapped up in swaddling clothes at the time, and she had murmured to him, "This is all because you're the elder brother. It's all because you were born in the Song Clan. It's all because you were unfortunate enough to have been given such a pair of cruel parents."3

The late emperor had been present at the time, but he hadn't been angry at her in the slightest.0

Ever since she was reprimanded by the late emperor for breaking the rules to access those secret files, she had completely lost hope and regarded her son as dead. 0

However, as time passed, more and more guilt accumulated in her heart, and she became afraid of facing Song Jixin, even afraid of hearing anything about him.0

She was even more afraid that Song Jixin would ruin the bright future that had been paved out for the "only son" that she had kept by her side.0

Song Yuzhang had a chance to not have to...0