Chapter 154: Emperor Hongzhi: My son, go back, the late Emperor has come to fetch me!

During the Hongzhi reign, within the deep recesses of the imperial palace.

Despite the meticulous care of the Imperial Hospital, the Hongzhi Emperor, whose condition had briefly improved, was now failing rapidly.

Zhu Youtang lay on the dragon bed, his breath as faint as gossamer. An unnatural, feverish flush would occasionally surface across his slumbering face, while his lips muttered unintelligible words.

At thirty-six years of age, he should have been in his physical prime, but after being repeatedly battered by illness, his weathered and withered appearance made him look as aged as a man of forty or fifty.

The guards stationed outside the grand hall stood motionless as statues. Seeing a youth approach, they immediately saluted: "Your Imperial Highness the Crown Prince."

Young Zhu Houzhao nodded. Instead of using the main entrance, he executed a sideways leap and vaulted right through the window with exceptional agility.

The guards paused briefly before resuming their rigid stances, showing no trace of surprise, having long since grown accustomed to this behavior.

Zhu Houzhao flicked his sleeves, crouched down before the dragon bed, and gently shook his father’s body while calling out in a soft voice, "Father."

Startled awake by the violent shaking, the Hongzhi Emperor, Zhu Youtang, turned his head and sighed helplessly, "My son, you always use far too much strength when waking your father. Sometimes your father has the subconscious urge to retaliate."

Zhu Houzhao withdrew his heavily muscled arm and laughed sheepishly, "This son will pay attention next time. Just after taking the medicine prescribed by the Imperial Hospital, how does Father feel?"

At these words, Zhu Youtang broke into a violent fit of coughing. After struggling to catch his breath for a long while, he said with a melancholic expression, "Well, my son, you might as well know—after taking this medicine from the Imperial Hospital, your father's waist no longer aches, his legs no longer feel sore, and even this heart of mine has almost stopped beating."

"My son, your father's words no longer carry any weight. Dismiss these eunuchs and palace maids."

The eunuchs and maids nearby, who had been keeping their eyes lowered and minds focused, hurriedly dropped to their knees in terror, crying out, "May Your Majesty calm your wrath! Your lowly servants dare not!"

"If you don't dare, then get lost!" Zhu Houzhao roared fiercely with a terrifying expression.

Though he looked tall and thin with a lean face, his bulging physique clashed somewhat with his facial structure, making him appear truly formidable.

Frightened out of their wits, the eunuchs and maids scattered in a flurry.

Within the vast, expansive hall, only the father and son, Zhu Youtang and Zhu Houzhao, remained.

After a long, heavy silence.

As if experiencing a brief surge of vitality before death, Zhu Youtang's frail voice grew increasingly resonant: "When your father was young, I did not like your grandfather, nor did I like Lady Wan. In your father's eyes, they were no good, they were bad. Therefore, the moment I ascended the throne, I dismantled all of your grandfather's arrangements."

"It was as if your grandfather knew I would do this. He looked at my stubborn expression, shook his head with a smile, and said only two things to me:"

"'If you do not wish to toil, then simply enjoy yourself. The inner treasury and state coffers left by your father are exceedingly abundant, quite enough to earn you the title of a benevolent sovereign from them.'"

"The other thing he said was that if I wished to accomplish things for the people of the world and prevent the common folk from being bullied with impunity by certain factions, I should summon back Wang Zhi early—that sharp sword once suspended over the heads of the court ministers."

Zhu Youtang's eyes brimmed with tears as he smiled and asked, "Zhao'er, do you know how your father answered your grandfather back then?"

"Your father scoffed at your grandfather's words, and while his condition was slightly improved, he took charge of affairs in the Wenhua Hall under the protective wing of the civil officials..."

"I did not listen to Father's words. I neither wished to be a benevolent sovereign who idly ate and waited for death, nor did I summon back Wang Zhi early. Now, it is too late."

"Your father does not regret it, but I have failed your grandfather. Should we meet beneath the nine springs, even with your grandfather's good temper, he will surely give me a sound beating."

With a serious expression, Zhu Houzhao held his father's hand, taking in every single word. As the emperor's only son, who had never suffered a grievance, his eyes filled with tears before he knew it.

Zhu Youtang wanted to say something more, but suddenly his expression froze, giving way to a serene smile: "My son, go back. The late emperor has come to fetch me."

Zhu Houzhao started, turned back to rub his eyes, and said in a dazed manner, "Father, it seems I also see someone who looks just like the portraits of Grandfather. Is Grandfather here to pick both of us up?"

Zhu Youtang was stunned.

Two figures approached. Zhu Jianshen wore an expression of suppressed anger and rebuked sternly:
"You unfilial brat, do you not even know how your father died? You dared to drink that bastard Liu Wentai's medicine? Do you take yourself for Shennong?"

This soul-piercing trilogy of questions made Zhu Youtang bolt upright as if experiencing a revival, and he blurted out in astonishment:
"Father? You're not dead?"

Immediately afterward, under the surge of intense emotion, Zhu Youtang's blood rushed upward, and the poison instantly coursed through his entire system, casting a terrifying, deathly ashen hue across his face.

"Imperial Great-grandfather, quickly save my father!" Zhu Houzhao cried out in utter dismay.

Zhu Jianshen furrowed his brows.

The symptoms were identical to those when Liu Wentai had poisoned him and the Minister of War Xiang Zhong to death. Zhu Youjian timely handed a medicinal pill to Zhu Jianshen.

While feeding the pill into his eldest son's mouth, Zhu Jianshen wore an annoyed expression and muttered under his breath, "That good-for-nothing Liu Wentai, after several decades, he still only knows this single prescription!"

The pill melted upon contact with the tongue, its potent medicinal efficacy flooding every limb and bone, driving the toxins straight to the throat.

Blech!

Zhu Youtang vomited a large mouthful of blackish-red toxic blood, instantly feeling as light as an immortal, thoroughly comfortable in body and mind, having traveled back from the underworld to the mortal realm.

Wiping the residual filthy blood from the corners of his mouth, he raised his head in shock: "Father, you really aren't dead? You're still alive?"

"Hmph, making a fuss over nothing! How is it that even though you are still young, you speak like a muddle-headed old man!" Zhu Jianshen retorted with exasperation.

Even when speaking in irritation, his tone remained mild and amicable; his temper truly was exceptional.

Zhu Youtang dropped to his knees in a slide, embraced his legs, and pleaded with a heavy, nasal tone: "Father, your child has been unfilial. Please punish me, Father."

What was unfilial about it?
It wasn't yet time for him to wait on his father hand and foot anyway.

Zhu Jianshen pondered for a long time, but could not bear to scold him, and instead said: "As long as you know your error, to recognize a fault and correct it is the greatest virtue."

Watching this scene, Zhu Youjian reflected that neither father nor son possessed a temper as fiery as their descendant Zhu Houzhao, and he briefly considered whether he should just call the Fortress Monarch back.

Yet, upon second thought.

At this point in time, the Fortress Monarch had been dead for forty years; there wasn't a single old minister left in the court who recognized him, and there was no telling if this group of civil officials might dare to commit regicide in broad daylight. So he dismissed the thought.

After all, judging by how Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao, upon ascending the throne in his third year, could not bear it any longer and established the Leopard House to curb the civil officials' control over state affairs, the civil official faction of the Hongzhi era was unprecedentedly powerful.

No one could easily bend them to their will.

However, Zhu Youjian was different. With a chuckle, he thought to himself: *I brought my gun.*

In the eighteenth year of Hongzhi, Zhu Jianshen's influence had been entirely swept away. Aside from Wang Zhi—who had inherited the true teachings of Lady Wan and managed to preserve himself in Nanjing—not a single confidant remained.

Even Jiajing would not be born for another two years. It was truly an isolated juncture, and no amount of influence could compare to the barrel of a gun.

"Is your grandmother still alive?" Zhu Jianshen specifically inquired.

Zhu Youtang blinked: "Last year, the Qingning Palace caught fire for the second time. After being startled, and under the meticulous care of the Dowager Empress, Her Imperial Grandmother passed away that very day at the age of seventy-five."

"Father, this matter was truly not done by this child! It had already been burned down once before, and I never use the same trick a second time!"

Zhu Houzhao was exceedingly cunning. He simply listened from the side without uttering a sound.

Apart from his mother and himself—the Crown Prince with the most secure position in the East Palace through the ages—his father held no affection whatsoever for either Grand Empress Dowager Zhou or Empress Dowager Wang.

That his father was capable of burning down the Qingning Palace came as no surprise to him at all.

He only regretted missing out on a firsthand opportunity to set fire to the imperial palace himself.