Chapter 481 Crown Prince Huizhao
The Golden Palace.
In mid-December last year, the Crown Prince passed away, and Emperor Jingwen was deeply grieved. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, he exempted all civil and military officials from coming to the palace to pay their respects. Everyone had not seen the Emperor for several days. Today was the first day of the morning court session after the New Year holiday, and everyone was somewhat uneasy.
When they saw Emperor Jingwen, they found that he was in relatively good spirits and seemed to be slowly emerging from his grief, which put the civil and military officials at ease.
After the court assembly ended, civil and military officials left the Golden Palace one after another.
Minister of Justice Yu walked up to Gu Jingxi, feeling a sense of relief, and said, "Minister Gu, you have no idea how scared I was that the Emperor had kept several ministers behind. Fortunately, the Emperor did not call our names."
Gu Jingxi glanced at Lord Yu. Lord Yu was already in his fifties, and should have been more composed than him, but he seemed even more cowardly. It seemed that he had been severely scolded by the Emperor for being useless and failing to find out the mastermind, and had developed a psychological shadow.
He reassured him, "Isn't this humble official accompanying you, Lord Yu? There's no need for you to be so nervous. Otherwise, with the court assembly held every five days, wouldn't you be nervous every five days?"
Lord Yu replied, "If it were someone else who was assassinated and the mastermind couldn't be found, I wouldn't be so nervous. But His Highness the Crown Prince is different; he is the Emperor's most valued son." As he spoke, he sighed softly, "In less than ten days, the Emperor has already grown even more gray hairs at his temples."
In fact, Emperor Jingwen was not yet forty years old this year. He did not have any white hair before the Crown Prince's incident, but he developed white hair after the incident, and his white hair increased after the Crown Prince's death.
It is said that there are no fathers and sons in the imperial family, but that depends on who the person is. His Highness the Crown Prince is the eldest son of the Emperor and his beloved wife. The Emperor dotes on the Crown Prince and trusts him greatly, and is generous in delegating power to him. Since the Crown Prince got married, some of the political affairs have been delegated to the Crown Prince.
Gu Jingxi said, "Lord Yu, please don't worry."
Lord Yu sighed again. How could he relax? He had suspects, but the other party was a prince. How could he investigate? He couldn't find anything by investigating secretly. Without substantial evidence, he dared not tell the emperor. When the emperor questioned him, he could only say that he was incompetent and that the case had made no progress.
A few days later, seeing that Emperor Jingwen seemed to have truly recovered from the grief of losing his son and that his emotions were stable, some officials wrote a memorial to the throne, urging Emperor Jingwen to establish a new crown prince.
Emperor Jingwen ignored all these memorials and did not respond to them.
Therefore, the civil and military officials could not figure out what Emperor Jingwen was thinking. At present, the most likely candidates to become the crown prince were the sixth prince and the second prince. The sixth prince was only seven years old, but he had the status of the legitimate son, being the youngest legitimate son of Emperor Jingwen and the empress. The second prince had a powerful background and was also quite intelligent.
Besides the two of them, there is another person who may be made crown prince, namely the Crown Prince's son. Although he is only two years old now, given Emperor Jingwen's affection for the Crown Prince, he might skip his son and directly make his own grandson, the only child of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, the Imperial Grandson.
At the court assembly a few days later, Emperor Jingwen issued two imperial edicts.
The first imperial edict posthumously conferred the title of Crown Prince Huizhao upon the deceased Crown Prince, and the title of Crown Princess Huizhao upon the Crown Princess.
The second imperial edict, which all the civil and military officials thought was to establish a new crown prince, was actually an edict to confer the title of Prince of Jin upon the crown prince's only child.
Emperor Jingwen didn't mention the matter of appointing a new crown prince at all, and since he didn't mention it, the civil and military officials didn't bring it up again for the time being.
Qi Yunwen whispered to Gu Jingxi, "Some people had previously speculated that the Emperor would bypass the princes and appoint the Crown Prince, but it turns out he only appointed the Prince of Jin."
Gu Jingxi replied, "Being enfeoffed as the Prince of Jin is fine; it will ensure my safety."
Qi Yunwen's expression froze, realizing his meaning. With the Crown Prince murdered, the Emperor likely had suspects. If the Crown Prince were to be established, it was questionable whether he could even grow up safely. There were instances where Crown Princes had successfully ascended the throne, but due to their uncles' immense power, some had their thrones usurped by their uncles.
Qi Yunwen asked in a low voice, "Yaoling, who do you think has a better chance, the Sixth Prince or the Second Prince?"
Gu Jingxi shook his head slightly: "It's hard to say. It's too early to say anything until the very last moment."
Qi Yunwen nodded: "That's true."
-
In early February, temperatures in Beijing had already begun to rise.
Meng Jinyao's belly grew bigger and bigger, her body became heavy, and she couldn't sleep well at night. Sometimes she would fall asleep, but would be woken up by hunger in the middle of the night. She also had back pain, felt tired and anxious, and was inexplicably irritable and prone to temper tantrums.
Gu Jingxi knew that her pregnancy was hard, so he was considerate of her and tried different ways to cheer her up, distract her, and ease her emotions.
One day, Meng Jinyao woke up hungry. She didn't call Gu Jingxi, but sat down next to him and stared at him. Seeing him sleeping so soundly, she suddenly felt envious of him. Then tears of envy streamed down her face like broken beads, hitting him in the face and waking him up.
Gu Jingxi was sleeping soundly, thinking he was dreaming of rain, but when he suddenly opened his eyes, he saw his little wife staring at him with teary eyes and a wronged look in her eyes. He was instantly wide awake and hurriedly asked, "Ayao, what's wrong?"
Meng Jinyao had been crying silently, but when he asked her that question, she immediately burst into tears, complaining, "The baby is hungry again, and I finally managed to fall asleep."
Gu Jingxi knew she was wronged and upset. Seeing her eyes red from crying, he felt heartbroken and quickly sat up, wiping her tears while comforting her, "Ayao, don't cry. What do you want to eat? We'll have the kitchen make it right away."
Meng Jinyao replied, "Chicken porridge."
Gu Jingxi immediately got up and went to instruct the maid to do so.
While eating porridge, Meng Jinyao said that Gu Jingxi must have been restless when he was in his mother's womb, which is why the child is restless now.
Gu Jingxi could only go along with her wishes and gently coax her.
After finishing a bowl of chicken porridge, Meng Jinyao's emotions had calmed down. She tugged at Gu Jingxi's sleeve and whispered, "Husband, I woke you up again tonight."
Gu Jingxi patted her head and said softly, "It's alright, but you can't cry next time. Crying too much will hurt your eyes. If anything happens, just wake me up."
Meng Jinyao lowered her head: "Husband, do you think I'm being unreasonable?"
Gu Jingxi disagreed, saying, "How is it being unreasonable? There's always a reason why you throw a tantrum. It's not something you do on purpose; it's just that you're not feeling well, which affects your mood."
Meng Jinyao stammered, "I will try my best to control myself in the future."
Gu Jingxi cupped her face in his hands and said solemnly, "No need to control yourself, no need to suppress it. Just let it out if you're unhappy." He chuckled as he spoke, "Actually, what A Yao was doing wasn't really throwing a tantrum, it was just nagging at most."
Meng Jinyao glared at him: "You were naughty when you were a child, so the child learned from you and was naughty even in the womb."
Gu Jingxi followed her words and said, "It is my fault that A Yao has suffered."
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