Chapter 76: Don't Dare to Let Your Thoughts Wander!
“Come here.”
Zhu Yuanzhang beckoned tenderly, and the Emperor Jing, panting for breath, obediently walked over. Old Zhu gently took his hand and patted it, sighing,
“You’ve suffered, child.”
Zhu Qiyu’s eyes immediately reddened, choking back tears.
Even old Zhu Di and Zhu the Fourth cast envious glances his way; an honor neither had received themselves, yet this child gained it with just a few words of grievance.
Truly, the child who knows how to cry gets the milk.
Hmph!
Beside them, Zhu Qizhen’s eyes were also red, sniffling and looking thoroughly exasperating. The Emperor Xuande, gnashing his teeth from the pain, gave him a hard kick and hissed,
“Go call your mother!”
“I shall, Your Majesty,” Zhu Qizhen bit his lip, raised his head, breathing deeply in an effort to force the tears back, scrambled up and tried to dash out.
His righteous demeanor momentarily stunned the emperors and crown princes, unsure if he was genuinely clever or simply feigning.
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, “Bring him back! Give him a proper beating!”
“Yes!” The Emperor Xuande, itching with anger, charged after him with his two hefty fathers.
“No, don’t come near, quickly, quickly fetch the Empress Dowager from Ren Shou Palace!” The Crown Prince cried out in terror, clutching his head.
“Ah~”
With his father’s heavy fists raining down, the Crown Prince’s shrill cries rose and fell, echoing incessantly.
In truth—
Ren Shou Palace was not far from the Gate of Heavenly Offering. Knowing her son was to launch a restoration of the Southern Palace today, Empress Dowager Sun had not slept soundly the entire night, sending people at dawn to gather news.
Inside Ren Shou Palace,
The young eunuch Shunxi rushed in, flustered. “Your Majesty…”
Empress Dowager Sun anxiously asked, “How is it? Has the Emperor succeeded?”
Shunxi, trembling, knelt and reported, “Your Majesty, when I arrived, the officials had just entered the Gate of Heavenly Offering. I heard Grand Scholar Wang Wen defying imperial authority and confronting the Emperor, then… then… I heard the Emperor’s voice wailing inside…”
“What! The Emperor is being beaten at the Gate of Heavenly Offering?”
Empress Dowager Sun was stunned, then slammed her bejeweled, aged hand on the table, furious. “How many bear hearts and leopard gall bladders have the civil and military officials consumed to dare such audacity, defying heaven! Defying heaven!!”
She never considered whether Zhu Qiyu might have ordered it. In Empress Dowager Sun’s eyes, the civil and military officials were always bolder than the Emperor.
“Hurry, prepare the carriage for the Gate of Heavenly Offering. I want to see which reckless soul dares to bully my son!” Empress Dowager Sun immediately rose, commanding.
“As Your Majesty commands.”
The attendants bowed in acceptance.
…
Soon after,
Empress Dowager Sun’s carriage stopped at the Gate of Heavenly Offering. The attendants respectfully helped her down, serving at her sides.
Hearing her son’s cries continuing from within, she panicked.
Still being beaten?
From Shunxi’s report to her arrival, her son had been beaten all the way!?
How could this go on!
Empress Dowager Sun hurried in, rushing forward in small, anxious steps, crying out,
“Stop beating him! Please, stop beating him…”
Her voice cut off abruptly.
“The late emperor?”
Empress Dowager Sun entered and saw the late emperor, sleeves rolled up, striking the Crown Prince. She rubbed her eyes, exclaiming in disbelief.
The man before her—how could he look identical to Emperor Xuanzong from twenty years ago!?
And behind him, the distinctive physique of Emperor Renzong, the unique aura of Emperor Taizong…
Her gaze dropped—
Good heavens!
Two Zhu Gaoxus were sneering, exuding an elusive scent of meat, leaving this Empress Dowager who had lived through five reigns utterly dumbfounded.
A long-lost familiarity swept over her…
What on earth was happening!?
Empress Dowager Sun shook her head, dizzy: All she’d done was miss a night’s sleep, and now she was hallucinating!
Huff!
The Emperor Xuande, Zhu Zhanji, was panting from exertion, glancing at this flamboyantly dressed old woman with a sense of discomfort.
“Sun?”
Zhu Zhanji frowned.
Only days before, they had shared a bed, spent a pleasant night together, and now she appeared so aged—he found it hard to accept!
Having faced the terror of life and death, Emperor Xuande’s feelings for the woman who had betrayed her vows had long cooled, especially since her guidance had saddled him with the title of “Emperor of the Floor Tiles” father.
It made him unable to raise his head before his imperial grandfather, and he was often scolded by his imperial grandfather, while his hefty father constantly urged him to practice with more “junior accounts.”
“Your servant, your servant greets Your Majesty, and pays homage to the sacred spirits of the ancestors of Ming!”
Empress Dowager Sun curtsied, her gaze quickly sweeping the scene. Though deeply shocked, she composed herself and managed a tearful, trembling appearance.
“Sob…sob…”
She cast a loving look at Emperor Xuande, quietly weeping. “Is it truly Your Majesty? Your servant has missed Your Majesty day and night, tossing and turning on my couch, tears soaking the sheets with longing. To see you today, my wish is fulfilled—just this one glance, your servant—your servant would die without regret, forever…”
“Enough, enough!” Emperor Xuande, Zhu Zhanji, clenched his teeth, interrupting her. “The ancestors are present. I have no time for your lamentations. Kneel aside!”
“You—yes, I mean you. Go outside the Meridian Gate and summon the officials. The Grand Ancestor has an edict!”
“As Your Majesty commands!”
Xing’an, stunned, immediately accepted the command and hurried to the Meridian Gate to announce the decree.
Empress Dowager Sun stood helplessly to the side. How many years had it been? Since Emperor Xuanzong’s passing twenty-two years ago, her every action as Empress Dowager affected the court and the world. Everywhere she went, she was the center of attention.
Never before had she been so openly spurned and scolded.
For a moment, she felt psychologically unbalanced, but after forcing herself to calm down, she obediently knelt to one side, not daring to disobey.
Only then did Empress Dowager Sun notice a figure lying on the ground, seemingly her eldest son. She tentatively called,
“My son, is that you?”
“Mother!” The Crown Prince spat out two blood-stained teeth, his words whistling through the gaps, wailing, “Mother, you must avenge me! They’ve beaten me, it’s too much!”
“Don’t talk nonsense, child! Your father does this for your own good.” Empress Dowager Sun, enduring the stares of the emperors, forced a smile.
“My body aches, but my heart aches even more!” Zhu Qizhen clung to his mother’s arm, sniffling and sobbing, smearing her with tears and mucus.
Empress Dowager Sun grew anxious and scolded, “Zhu Qizhen, you’re nearly forty! As king, how can you cry like this?”
“Your son, your son understands.” Zhu Qizhen wiped his tears and nose, pitifully, “I’m just so sad, mother—I miss Wang Xian…”
“No!”
“You do not!”
“You dare not even think it!”
Empress Dowager Sun was terrified, quickly pinching the Crown Prince’s swollen mouth.
If this wretched eunuch let the late emperor and ancestors know, not only would he be in trouble, his mother might not escape a beating either!
…