SBCEJM -Chapter 30 The Devoted Lover Ends Up Raising Someone Else’s Kid!

【System, are there any hopeless romantics in this court besides my dad?】

After just finishing that bittersweet, melodramatic gossip about the Emperor and Empress, Feng Zexuan was feeling emotionally overloaded. She desperately needed some wholesome energy to cleanse her weary soul.

The system’s familiar youthful voice immediately responded.

【Ding!】

【Initiating ultra-fast search…】

【Target locked — Mighty General Chu Tiankuo.】

Feng Zexuan’s gaze instinctively shifted toward the head of the military officials.

It was a towering man.

Clad in heavy black iron armor, he radiated the murderous aura of countless battlefields even while standing perfectly still. His presence alone was enough to intimidate others.

【Wow, this General Chu looks terrifying!】

The system added helpfully:

【Mighty General Chu Tiankuo, thirty years old.】

【His late wife was his childhood sweetheart, Chen Qingyao.】

【Nine years ago, Chen Qingyao was poisoned to death by Northern Di spies.】

【Three years later, he personally led an army to flatten the Northern Di capital, stacking the heads of the enemy royal family into a massive mound to honor his wife’s spirit.】

【For the past nine years, he has never remarried, never taken concubines, and doesn’t even keep maidservants by his side.】

【His Majesty tried arranging marriages for him multiple times, but he always rejected them coldly with the words: “My late wife’s bones have yet to grow cold. My heart can hold no one else.”】

【Every year on his wife’s death anniversary, he locks himself in his study, drinks himself senseless before her portrait…】

【Calling her nickname over and over again—“A-Yao.”】

Feng Zexuan felt her heart ache.

Looking at Chu Tiankuo’s broad, steadfast back, she suddenly sensed that beneath his cold exterior lay endless tenderness and longing.

【Sigh… what an admirable and pitifully devoted man.】

Hearing her thoughts, many veteran officials familiar with Chu Tiankuo’s past revealed sympathetic expressions.

Just then, a shrill voice shattered the solemn atmosphere of the court.

“Your Majesty! This minister impeaches Mighty General Chu Tiankuo!”

Right Censor-in-Chief Wang Lang of the Censorate stepped forward holding his jade tablet, his sinister eyes resembling a mad dog that had caught the scent of blood.

“Though Chu Tiankuo is a high-ranking official of the empire, he has corrupted private morals and violated human decency!”

“He seduced a common woman, impregnated her, and fathered a son!”

“Yet afterward, under the guise of mourning his late wife, he refused to acknowledge his own flesh and blood!”

“Such conduct is deceiving the sovereign and fooling the entire realm!”

Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, the accusation exploded through the court.

The officials erupted in shock. Countless gazes—stunned, suspicious, contemptuous—shot toward Chu Tiankuo like blades.

Yet Chu Tiankuo stood unmoving, like a silent mountain peak.

He said nothing.

【Holy crap?!】

【Did the ship I just started supporting already sink?!】

Feng Zexuan nearly dropped her metaphorical melon from shock.

Seeing Chu Tiankuo remain silent, Wang Lang sneered darkly, convinced he had seized an even greater weakness.

“General Chu! Aren’t you tired of pretending to be a devoted lover?”

“Ten days ago, a woman named Liu Yan arrived outside your manor carrying a five-year-old boy demanding to see you!”

“That child looks exactly like your childhood portrait!”

“If you had nothing to hide, why would you agree to a blood test before the entire city?”

“Since the blood fused together, proving shared lineage beyond doubt—”

“What else do you have to say?!”

Chu Tiankuo clenched his fists so tightly that his armored gauntlets creaked under the pressure.

Still, he remained silent.

To everyone else, that was as good as an admission.

On the dragon throne, the Emperor slowly furrowed his brows, his gaze turning sharp.

【System! Quick! I need the full story!】

【Coming right up. Here’s the recap.】

【Ten days ago, a woman appeared outside the general’s manor with a five-year-old boy.】

【She claimed the child belonged to General Chu.】

【At first no one believed her, but the child looked identical to the general’s childhood portrait.】

【Chu Tiankuo came out personally and firmly denied it.】

【The woman immediately provoked him publicly, demanding a blood test and mocking him for being afraid because he had a guilty conscience.】

【Chu Tiankuo was far too proud to back down and agreed on the spot.】

Feng Zexuan instantly felt certain.

【The general agreed so readily—there’s no way the kid is his! This has to be a scam!】

The system continued.

【Host, you’re not the only one who thought that. The spectators at the scene felt exactly the same.】

【But… right before everyone’s eyes…】

【The two drops of blood merged together in the bowl of water.】

【Irrefutable evidence.】

【The general couldn’t defend himself anymore, so he temporarily settled the mother and son in an estate outside the city.】

Feng Zexuan’s head buzzed.

【Wait! System! I almost forgot!】

【This whole blood-test thing isn’t scientific at all!】

【As long as the blood types match, anyone’s blood can mix together!】

What?!

Blood… types?

The blood merging… was fake?

BOOM!

This knowledge, far beyond the understanding of the era, crashed into the minds of everyone in the Golden Throne Hall like a meteor from the heavens.

The worldview of the entire court was overturned.

Chu Tiankuo—who had been standing like a lifeless statue—suddenly lifted his head!

A terrifying light burst from his dim, ancient-well-like eyes.

There was hope!

So that was the truth!

The smug smile on Wang Lang’s face instantly froze, as though he had been slapped hard across the face.

【Thank goodness! I knew the general wasn’t that kind of person! Now he can finally clear his name!】

Feng Zexuan secretly rejoiced.

But the next second, the system’s cold voice extinguished every spark of hope she had.

【Host… don’t celebrate too early.】

【Even though blood tests are nonsense…】

【The conclusion itself isn’t wrong.】

【That child really is Chu Tiankuo’s biological son.】

Feng Zexuan: 【…What the hell?!】

Chu Tiankuo, who had just regained hope, swayed violently, nearly unable to stand.

The light in his eyes vanished even faster than it had appeared, leaving behind only dead ash-like despair.

It was over.

Even Little Lord Feng—the mysterious figure capable of perceiving heavenly secrets—had said so.

The Emperor Xiao Juechen’s gaze shifted completely from shock and doubt to icy disappointment and disdain.

The eyes of the officials changed as well, returning from uncertainty to absolute contempt.

Well done, Chu Tiankuo.

Who would’ve thought a stern-faced warrior like you could fool everyone so thoroughly?

The entire hall became suffocatingly oppressive.

For the first time ever, Chu Tiankuo’s unyielding back seemed slightly bent under the crushing pressure.

After recovering from his brief panic, Wang Lang was ecstatic. He prepared to step forward and deliver the final blow to the undefeated God of War.

But just as he opened his mouth—

An alarm blared inside Feng Zexuan’s mind.

【Wait! Host!! Alert! Alert! Emergency update to the plot database!】

【There’s an earth-shattering twist!!!】

Feng Zexuan nearly fainted from the blaring warning sound.

【…Can you stop pausing dramatically and just spit it out already?!】

This time, the system spoke like a rapid-fire machine gun.

【The child really is biologically his, BUT—】

【General Chu himself had absolutely no idea!】

【This child was conceived through a scheme against him!】