Empress Wang flared with rage. "Tell him to get out!"
Her husband was dying. Yet as a son, the Second Prince's thoughts were not of his father, but of power.
Empress Wang had always considered herself virtuous, wise, and fair. She had taught all the princes and princesses well. Yet when nothing was amiss, each of them had been filial, brotherly, and respectful; the moment the Emperor fell gravely ill, all that former filial piety and reverence became a joke.
While the Emperor had yet to awaken, she had still managed to suppress her temper and hold the situation together. But once he woke, the Empress could no longer contain her rage.
They had been married as youths for twenty years—how could Zhu Qiyu not understand her?
He immediately pressed down on her hand and said to the eunuchs, "Dress me. Carry me outside."
The palace attendants within immediately sprang into action, dressing the Emperor and carrying him out in a chair.
The Second Prince was shoving Cheng Jing aside, clamoring to enter the bedchamber and see the Emperor.
"Father Emperor is gravely ill. I wish to attend to him in his sickness, yet you dare bar my way!"
He then shouted loudly toward the inside, "Mother Empress—Mother Empress—please allow your son to see Father Emperor! If you have any grievance, take it out on your son. Do not harm Father Emperor—"
Then he shouted again, "Eldest Sister and Third Sister are still waiting for Mother Empress in the inner palace. Mother Empress thinks of Eldest Sister and Third Sister too—they are Father Emperor's own daughters. Do not harm Father Emperor—"
"Your Highness, do not make such a clamor. His Majesty is perfectly well..." Cheng Jing was beside himself with fury, itching to raise a hand and strike him, but