The crown prince knelt on the ground, trembling with fear, his mind blank. Fortunately, under immense pressure, he quickly managed to fabricate a few words:
"Father, please forgive me. I naturally love and cherish my mother, but I have been raised by her for many years. She has shown me both the kindness of giving me life and the kindness of raising me. If I were to betray her one day, wouldn't that be a failure of filial piety?"
He paused, then prepared to say that he would definitely pay proper respects to Empress Zhangde in the future.
The emperor, however, had no desire to listen to him any longer. Looking down at his kneeling son, he shouted sternly:
"Liar! Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parents, and Teacher. I am your sovereign and father, and you should obey me. What gratitude for giving birth to you? Consort Yan is already extremely fortunate to have given birth to you. When have I ever asked you to obey her?"
These words exuded the pedantry of feudal autocracy, yet Ling Xiao felt an urge to applaud the emperor.
Good heavens, ancient emperors were really unreasonable! They couldn't even change their mothers when they got old.
But she likes it, hahaha.
In the emperor's fury, none of his ministers or relatives dared to utter a word. The Duke of Yan, who had made such threatening remarks before entering the palace, was now practically banging his head against his crotch.
However, the Warriors soon appeared.
"Father, you've gone too far!"
Princess Jingning clenched her fists, her eyes slightly red as she looked at the emperor with resentment.
She didn't understand why things had suddenly turned out this way. Her father must have been out of his mind to suddenly decide to adopt his elder brother, the Crown Prince, to a dead man!
Doesn't he understand how heartbroken his mother and he will be? His elder brother is the Crown Prince! The future heir apparent! His father doesn't even care about his brother's feelings, scolding him like this.
The scene was so quiet you could hear a pin drop!
Everyone held their breath, afraid of attracting the emperor's attention and being implicated in his anger.
The emperor stared incredulously at his daughter, looking her up and down but finding no sign that she was joking.
So she—his most favored daughter—dared to speak so bluntly and contradict him.
The emperor should be very angry, but he felt utterly disheartened. After all, she wasn't Yue'er's daughter, so she was fundamentally flawed.
Ling Xiao commented aptly: This is a common problem for emperors; they never blame themselves, always blaming others…
No matter how much she resembled Yue'er before, she was nothing more than a packaged counterfeit—he had always known that Consort Yan was cultivating her daughter's personality to resemble that of the Empress in her youth.
Fortunately, Yue'er and his true darling appeared, softening the emperor's heart.
So he actually smiled and said, "Are you standing up for the Crown Prince and Consort Yan?"
Princess Jingning lowered her voice:
"Isn't that right? Empress Zhangde has been gone for so many years, why bother her and make everyone unhappy? Empress Zhangde was compassionate, she certainly didn't want this."
She finally realized what was happening and knew to use the Empress to shut the Emperor up.
Are you dead?
"Father, what did you say?" Princess Jingning asked in disbelief.
The emperor smiled and said, "I'm asking you if you've died once before, otherwise how would I know if the empress is willing?"
Consort Yan could no longer sit still. Fearing the Emperor might truly go mad, she wanted to send her daughter down to ask the Empress if she would be willing.
"Your Majesty, please calm your anger. The princess is young and doesn't understand. Please forgive her this time."
He then said urgently to the Crown Prince:
"I have received so much kindness from the Empress, a debt I can hardly repay. His Majesty has given us this opportunity out of consideration for us. My mother knows you are filial and is afraid she will be upset. Now you understand, go and apologize to your father."
Upon hearing this divine intervention, Ling Xiao gave Yan Fei a perfect score of 10.
First, she expressed her extreme willingness for the crown prince to have a different mother, then she flattered the emperor, and finally she portrayed the crown prince's behavior as being too filial to his birth mother, thus going against his true feelings.
But no matter how good you are, it's useless. Ling Xiao spread his hands.
The emperor is determined to cause you trouble, and even if you were to summon a golden lotus from the ground, there's nothing you can do about it.
The emperor sighed softly, seemingly saddened, and said to the crown prince, who was kneeling and kowtowing, wanting to speak:
"I have bestowed such a great favor upon you, allowing the Empress to be your mother, yet you dare to refuse. Truly, a mere illegitimate child is beyond redemption."
He meant it sincerely; in his mind, Empress Zhangde was pure, flawless, and incomparably noble.
Although he didn't really want the Crown Prince to change his mother, the Crown Prince's refusal was an insult to the Empress and indirectly an insult to the Emperor.
Consort Yan wept uncontrollably, feeling deeply humiliated by the thought of being a concubine's son!
If her own son was spoken to like that by his father, the emperor, what about her, the woman who gave birth to an illegitimate child?
But the emperor's heavy blows were yet to come. Seriously, when has he ever dealt with someone by just scolding them?
"Guards, draft the imperial edict."
The entire Yanfei faction was terrified. The Grand Secretary on duty rushed forward and knelt down with a thud.
The Emperor said in a deep voice, "Consort Yan has failed in her duty to raise her children. She is hereby stripped of her title and demoted to the rank of Talented Lady."
This was the first blow. Consort Yan, no, Lady Yan, was swaying and pale.
No one dared to remind the emperor that Consort Yan didn't actually have a title; her surname was simply Yan.
"The princess disrespectfully defied her father, and was stripped of her fief of eight hundred households."
Princesses of this dynasty enjoy preferential treatment. Upon reaching adulthood, they receive a stipend from the imperial family and are granted a fiefdom according to custom, typically consisting of one thousand households.
Princess Jingning was originally most proud of having a fiefdom when she was ten years old. Now that eight hundred households have been taken away from her, she can hardly imagine how many people will laugh at her in the future.
The emperor continued his relentless attack, coldly eyeing the crown prince:
"The Crown Prince is arrogant and disrespectful to the Emperor and elders. His title of Crown Prince is hereby revoked, effective immediately!"
Unlike the previous punishments for Consort Yan and the princess, this imperial decree was the most severe and ruthless blow.
Everyone present deeply felt the emperor's thunderous wrath.
The Grand Secretary who wrote the decree looked up in astonishment. The Crown Prince had been deposed just like that?
That was the crown prince of a country, whose name was to be reported to the ancestral temple and heard by the common people. When the crown prince was established, even the most remote people learned about it from the local gentry.
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