The imperial palace.
Ever since Shen Yubai took the voodoo doll away to perform a ritual, Empress Dowager Lu's health has improved a lot and she has regained consciousness.
After she woke up, she learned from her close confidants what had happened during this period and was very angry.
"Go, bring the prince to me. I have something to ask him."
The palace servants received instructions and, after consulting Emperor Yong, brought the prince from the East Palace into the Cining Palace.
The Crown Prince had been imprisoned in the Eastern Palace for a long time and looked a little haggard. As soon as he saw Empress Dowager Lu, he knelt down:
"Grandmother, your grandson greets you."
Empress Dowager Lu half leaned back on the chaise longue, and without ordering him to stand up, she looked down at him and said coldly:
"I was ill for so long, and your brothers and sisters came to the Cining Palace every day to visit and tend to me, but you were the only one who was nowhere to be seen."
Upon hearing this, the prince quickly said:
"Grandmother, it's not that my grandson is unfilial and doesn't want to serve you, but he's been confined to the Eastern Palace and can't even step out of the gate! Even if I put aside my dignity as the crown prince and pleaded with the guards of the Imperial City Bureau to allow him to visit you in the Cining Palace, they wouldn't let him go!"
Seeing that he really climbed up the pole and started to bite the Imperial City Bureau, Empress Dowager Lu smiled sarcastically:
"According to you, it was the Imperial City Bureau who stopped you from coming to see my grandmother?"
The prince said sadly:
"The Emperor's grandson dares not lie! When you were most seriously ill that day, the Emperor's grandson was determined to leave the Eastern Palace. Even if the Emperor's grandson is later accused of disobeying the imperial authority, the Emperor's grandson will admit it.
However, just as the grandson left the palace, his father's imperial edict arrived, forbidding the grandson to serve in the Cining Palace.
Under the imperial decree of my father, the emperor's grandson dared not disobey and could only stay in the East Palace to copy Buddhist scriptures and pray for you."
Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke, but Empress Dowager Lu looked at him coldly, "So, you're saying that the Imperial City Administration, headed by your uncle Zhan, deliberately prevented you from coming to see me, and that your father forbade you from fulfilling your filial duties?"
When the prince heard this, he kowtowed and said:
"That's not what the Emperor meant. The Emperor would never dare to question his father. The Emperor simply..."
"You just want to put all the blame on your uncle Zhan."
Empress Dowager Lu sneered:
"I have already thought of what you are going to say next. It is your uncle Zhan who is obstructing everything and sowing discord in front of your father, causing your father to alienate and dislike you, the crown prince.
Even the fact that you and the Queen were confined to your homes was instigated by him, and you and your son are innocent, he just framed you, isn't that right?"
The prince's heart sank when she asked him this.
Judging from Empress Dowager Lu's tone, she completely believed Shen Yubai's words and was absolutely unwilling to take his words seriously.
What the queen mother said before was true. This daughter-in-law and grandson were indeed not as good as her own son. In her heart, Chen Yubai was more important than him, the eldest grandson.
In the eyes of his father, his wife and children were not as important as a few words from his younger brother.
With this mother and son as Shen Yubai's backers, Donggong and the Sun family will never be able to defeat Shen Yubai!
"What have you and your mother done? Do you really think that I and the Emperor don't know?! Why did your father confine you? And you still dare to play dumb?!"
Empress Dowager Lu became more and more angry as she spoke, and she stood up and said angrily:
"Ever since the incident between Concubine Shu and the Shu family, your mother has been busy all these years. She even managed to secretly support the Tianming Pavilion. Does she still consider herself a member of the Shen family?
Yes, her surname is Sun. She is a traitor. She wants to plot for her family. What about you? Your surname is not Shen either. You are not a descendant of the Dasheng royal family. Do you have the same surname as her, Sun?
As the crown prince of Dasheng, you knew that your mother's dirty deeds were treasonous, yet you didn't stop her and even profited from them. You are a traitor under the title of crown prince, yet you blame the Imperial City Office for investigating you?!"
The prince raised his head and said:
"Grandmother, Tianming Pavilion has nothing to do with my mother or me. This is all fabricated and framed by Prince Zhan with ulterior motives. You must understand this clearly!"
"You still dare to be so stubborn!"
Empress Dowager Lu was so angry that she was shaking all over and her heart started to ache again.
She gasped for breath and fell to the ground exhausted.
"Her Majesty the Queen Mother!"
The palace maids rushed in and quickly helped Empress Dowager Lu up. The prince, who was kneeling on the ground, looked at her, but there was no concern in his eyes, only coldness.
At this moment, another palace servant hurried in and said:
"Oh no! Something happened to the Emperor!"
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