Chapter 390: Will
Ji Sheng only realized that something was wrong after he arrived at the inner hall.
The child in Lily's arms hadn't made a sound since he stepped into Weiyang Palace until now.
When Lily noticed Ji Sheng's inquiring gaze, she couldn't help but hold the child in her arms tighter.
A normal child would have reacted to that intensity. Even if he didn't cry, he would have hummed. He was too quiet.
Ji Sheng suppressed his suspicions and turned his gaze towards the dragon couch covered by layers of curtains. "Father?"
Only Ji Sheng's voice could be heard in the inner hall. Chief Steward Zhu stood beside the dragon couch, and Lily knelt in front of the couch, motionless.
Ji Sheng waited for a moment, but the person behind the curtain still did not respond, and the strange smell mixed with the scent of powder became stronger.
After smelling it for a long time, Ji Sheng finally discovered what that stench was, the stench of a corpse.
Especially now that we are in a confined space, the smell becomes more and more obvious.
"Zhu Zhengchun."
Ji Sheng looked at Zhu Zhengchun and as soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Zhengchun knelt on the ground and cried, "Your Highness, the Emperor has passed away!"
Ji Sheng stood there, looking at the curtain, as if he was looking at the person lying behind the curtain.
He was well prepared, but when his guess was verified, Ji Sheng was still confused for a moment.
Just a moment.
Ji Sheng turned to look at Zhu Zhengchun and asked, "Why didn't you announce the death?"
Zhu Zhengchun cried, "I dare not, Your Highness! Your Majesty passed away before the edict was even finished. If I were to tell this news to others, the world would be in chaos!"
Logically speaking, given the emperor's age, there should have been a will to depose the crown prince.
But you think the emperor is old, but the emperor still thinks he is full of energy!
How dare you say to an old man, especially the ruler of a country: I don’t think you will live long, so you’d better find an heir as soon as possible.
It's not that someone hasn't mentioned this before, but the grass in front of the graves of those who have mentioned it is three feet high.
In fact, when it was discovered that the emperor was about to die, the normal procedure was to quickly summon the prime minister and the cabinet into the palace.
However, the relationship between eunuchs and court officials has become increasingly tense in recent years, and Zhu Zhengchun really does not want to hand over his last straw of life to the hands of a group of nobles who despise him.
He wanted to sell this opportunity and this favor to the most powerful King of Wei, Ji Sheng.
It was all because of his bad luck that the King of Qi he chose before forced the emperor to abdicate while he was still alive. Now he was imprisoned and lost the chance to turn things around.
Otherwise, he would have been very happy to have the King of Qi, who was disabled like himself but had children, ascend the throne.
A rootless person ascending the throne, isn't this a slap in the face to those high-sounding ministers in the court!
So it's really a pity.
Ji Sheng only believed one-third of what Zhu Zhengchun said. He looked at Zhu Zhengchun and asked, "Where is my father's will?"
"In my hands."
This was the first time Lily opened her mouth since Ji Sheng came to the inner hall.
Ji Sheng looked at the pale Lily and said, "The Prime Minister is in the side hall..."
"Your Highness!" Lily raised her voice unconsciously.
She looked at Ji Sheng with bloodshot eyes and said, "His Majesty said he wants to make my son the crown prince."
Ji Sheng looked at Lily indifferently and nodded nonchalantly, "I heard about it."
Lily swallowed hard. Just as she was about to propose her terms, Ji Sheng said coldly, "Whether it's true or not, it's all just rumors from the palace. Has your father ever told the ministers about this in the court? Is there an imperial decree?"
Lily's originally pale face now turned even paler, and her lips trembled slightly, "I, Your Majesty, he..."
"Even if what you said is true, let's not talk about whether the ministers and the royal family are willing to accept it." Ji Sheng's eyes fell on Lily's arms and asked, "Is the child in your arms still alive?"
Lily suddenly hugged the package in her arms tightly.
"He should have lived!"
Ji Sheng looked at her calmly, "That means death."
Don’t talk about whether he should or shouldn’t have been there. Even if he were alive, he would not have the chance to be crowned emperor.
An illegitimate child with an unknown father, does he really think that the court and the royal family are blind?
"It's all his fault!" Lily stood up, holding the package in her arms, her eyes bloodshot as she pointed at the man on the dragon bed. "If he hadn't forced me to take all kinds of elixirs while I was pregnant, my child wouldn't have died in my womb!"
Even though she knew that the child would be born to serve as medicine for the old emperor, she still hated him.
Ji Sheng looked at Lily, who was still quite agile in her movements. She didn't look like someone who had just given birth.
Seeing Zhu Zhengchun subconsciously blocking the dragon bed when Baihe stood up, Ji Sheng had some bad guesses.
Ji Sheng walked towards the bed, but was stopped by Zhu Zhengchun.
"Your Highness, Your Highness is still..."
Before he finished speaking, Ji Sheng directly pulled open the curtain.
When he saw the disfigured face, Ji Sheng's face became extremely gloomy.
This is just the wound that Ji Sheng saw.
Ji Sheng lowered the curtain, turned around and looked at Lily with a sinister look.
Even though he did not feel any closeness to his so-called father, his father was his father, and that was a fact that could not be changed.
Lily was frightened by Ji Sheng's gaze and took a step back. If she hadn't leaned against the wall, her legs would have gone weak and she would have knelt on the ground.
"Very good." Ji Sheng looked at Lily and said to Zhu Zhengchun beside him, "You are very brave."
"Your Highness, we are all doing this for you!"
Ji Sheng sneered. For him?
They just saw that the imperial guards had the entire palace under their control, so they held their father's body and the imperial edict to negotiate with them.
Yes, the leader of the imperial guards and the vast majority of the imperial guards are Ji Sheng’s men.
If Ji Sheng had not secretly promoted him, the current leader of the imperial guards would be just a captain in the northern border.
"Since it's for me, now that I'm here and the matter is clear, call the prime ministers in to announce the will."
Since the will is not finished, there is a lot of room for manipulation.
Ji Sheng looked at Lily curled up in the corner. It didn't matter if she had altered the will or added to it.
The people in the cabinet are no pushovers. They are very familiar with the emperor's calligraphy and can tell whether the imperial edict is real or fake at a glance.
Ji Sheng believed that they would definitely choose a suitable and satisfactory successor to add to the will and then announce it to the world.
Ji Sheng opened the door and waved his hand to ask the eunuch outside the hall to go to the side hall to call the prime minister. At the same time, he looked for his daughter in the outer hall.
When he saw Xixi's little hand being held in Cao Zhengxing's palm, his eyes were even colder than when he was in the inner hall.
"Xixi."
"Daddy!" Xixi let go of Cao Zhengxing's hand and ran towards Ji Sheng.
Cao Zhengxing clenched his still warm hands and followed Xixi towards Ji Sheng. As he walked towards him, Cao Zhengxing also glanced at the inner hall.
He smiled and said, "I've already said that there's no need to talk about it."
But Zhu Zhengchun and his friend just refused to believe it.
If Ji Sheng could be threatened by the two of them, he would not have been sent back to the capital by Ji Sheng.
However, not long after he returned to the capital, the emperor passed away. Cao Zhengxing even suspected that Ji Sheng had sent him back on purpose.
Ji Sheng ignored Cao Zhengxing, and Peng Xiang and the other man, who had learned the bad news, stumbled into the Weiyang Palace at this time.
The two men ran to the inner hall crying, wanting to check the emperor's remains to determine whether they were real or fake, but were stopped by Zhu Zhengchun.
Peng Xiang and Lin Xiang looked at each other. The young Peng Xiang hugged Zhu Zhengchun, and Lin Xiang quickly lifted the curtain.
Then, a wailing sound was heard.
To be honest, they were all prepared for the emperor's death, and they had made this preparation ten years ago.
But when they lifted the curtain and saw the disfigured emperor and his body, which had obviously been dead for several days, they were still angry.
"How dare you, the sycophants, blaspheme His Majesty and obstruct..."
Ji Sheng listened to the angry curses of the two prime ministers in the inner hall, looked at Cao Zhengxing with a relaxed look, and touched his daughter's little hand.
When the two gentlemen in the hall were no longer able to scold him, Cao Zhengxing, who had been pretending to be invisible, appeared at the right time and said, "Sir, why don't you announce the will first?"
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