Minghou's throat seemed to be blocked by a foreign object, and it was so swollen that it hurt.
After a while, he uttered a hoarse syllable, "Yeah."
He looked at Xu Zhao nervously, fearing that she would suddenly become ill.
Xu Zhao stared blankly at the child in his arms, tears falling down his face.
Her body was shaking violently, and her face was bloodless.
The little hands stretched out from the swaddling clothes were thin and red.
The five fingers of the palm are like duck paws, all connected together.
Su Ruotang stepped forward, held the child's hand and looked at it carefully.
The bones of all four fingers are complete, but only the little finger is undeveloped and has only a small phalanx.
She put down the child's left hand and gently squeezed out her right hand.
The right hand looks similar to the left hand, but the condition is much more serious.
Except for the thumb and middle finger, which have complete bones, the other three fingers are underdeveloped.
With a faint hope in his eyes, Minghuang asked cautiously: "The third prince's concubine, can it be cured?"
This is his child with the one he loves.
If it could be cured, he wouldn't want his child to be trapped here for the rest of his life.
Su Ruotang raised his eyes and looked at Minghuang and Xu Zhao, "If it can't be cured, will you just leave the child alone for the rest of his life?"
"No!" Xu Zhao hugged the child tightly and screamed suddenly, "My child must stay with me!"
She suddenly broke away from Kai Minghou's support, stumbled out and ran out with the baby in her arms, "Baby, don't be afraid, mother will protect you, no one can bully you..."
The Third Princess grabbed Xu Zhao and touched her sleeping point.
Xu Zhao's body softened, he turned his head to look at Minghuang in a sad and pleading manner, and slowly closed his eyes.
The second princess took the child from her hands and asked Su Ruotang, "Is the child... incurable?"
Over the years, too many children have been sent to Barren Mountain.
They are all children with disabilities, maybe only a few days in their lives.
Those children crawling and running around the courtyard are all people related to them by blood.
If possible, she sincerely hopes these children can be cured.
But she also understood that this hope was extremely slim.
Su Ruotang was silent for a moment and then spoke slowly, "I can only try. His right hand is missing all the fingers and his left hand is only missing the little finger. I can only separate his fingers that are stuck together."
Minghuo's eyes lit up: "If we separate it, will his hands become normal?"
Su Ruotang shook his head: "The missing finger bones cannot be replaced, but the appearance will look slightly better."
After she finished speaking, the light in the eyes of Minghou and Patriarch Ming suddenly disappeared.
After a while, Minghou smiled bitterly and said, "If he was born in an ordinary family, he might still be able to survive with this disability."
"But this is the Ming family..." The Ming family eats people without spitting out their bones.
Su Ruotang understood what he meant and remained expressionless without speaking.
People with physical disabilities in previous lives would be discriminated against, not to mention the ancient times where blood was highly valued.
Fu Beixian frowned: "As long as you are alive, what does it matter if you are disabled?"
"Most of those soldiers who survived after being injured on the battlefield were missing arms and legs, but they never gave up on themselves!"
"It's just that my body is disabled, why can't I live!"
Minghuang looked at him with red eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "Master Fu, do you think a person who is born with a disability is the same as a person who comes off the battlefield with a disability?"
Fu Beixian was startled, then said: "What's the difference?"
Minghou clenched his fists tightly.
His blood-red eyes were full of sorrow and sorrow, "Those people are doing it with honor!"
"And he..."
He looked at the ignorant baby in swaddling clothes and could not utter the word 'shame'.
The child was spitting bubbles, neither crying nor fussing, looking at the second princess with bright black eyes.
Su Ruotang raised her eyes and slowly glanced at everyone in the room.
She suddenly chuckled, and her ethereal laughter was extremely clear in the heavy atmosphere of the room.
Her smile did not reach her eyes, and she spoke slowly, "Chief Ming, who caused his tragedy?"
Her cold and lukewarm pupils met Minghuang's eyes.
Minghou felt a chill in his heart, and he swallowed back the word "god" when it came to his lips.
Su Ruotang's red lips parted slightly, and each word struck everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer:
"His tragedy is caused by you as parents!"
"You're talking nonsense!" Minghuo retorted subconsciously, "As parents, we all want our children to be safe and healthy!"
"Ha." Su Ruotang sneered, her voice getting colder and colder, "You do hope that your children will be safe and healthy."
"Because only safe and healthy children can compete for power for you."
"Children who are mutilated and abnormal are useless. Not only can they not help you, they will also become a drag on you."
"No!" Minghou retorted dryly, "I didn't regard him as an abandoned son..."
"You saw that he was disabled, so you sent him to a barren mountain." Su Ruotang's thick-faced facial features were extremely aggressive, and when he suppressed his smile, there was a chilling coldness about him.
Her ethereal voice had no trace of warmth, "You feel at ease that he has been cursed and punished by the gods."
"Send him to a barren mountain and have special people take care of him."
As she spoke, she slowly looked at Quan Hongying and others who were silent, "Do you think we didn't drown them when they were born, and instead had people take care of them?"
"You feel comfortable thinking that their disability has nothing to do with you."
"These children should be grateful to you."
Quan Hongying and others pursed their lips and remained silent.
That's what they think.
Instead of taking the lives of these children, they were fed and cared for.
They should be grateful, and their own shortcomings are due to their own lack of growth and have nothing to do with their parents and clansmen.
Su Ruotang continued: "It's not like you haven't thought about the reasons for all this."
"But you are not willing to admit that you have done something wrong."
She smiled lowly: "This is the bad nature of people. If you make a mistake, you will never think that you are wrong."
"Even if it involves gods, I still have to find a reason for myself to feel at ease."
Quan Hongying's lips trembled.
I want to talk, but I don’t know what to say.
Patriarch Xiao said: "You can't blame us. This pure bloodline is what our ancestors have been pursuing. Aren't we fine..."
Su Ruotang's eyes became more sarcastic: "Hey, so this is all your ancestors' fault?"
Patriarch Xiao: "...Not really."
"Oh, if I were your ancestor, I would have to lift the coffin boards to come up and see my filial descendants."
Chief Xiao Sansanran shut up.
The grace on Xing Yuhuang's face completely faded away, and she said expressionlessly, "Third Princess, there is no need for you to mock us here."
"Can this child be cured?"
