"Oh, who's sick?"
"The son of Steward Qiu."
If the master of the Prime Minister's residence were to fall ill, he would surely come to the palace to invite the imperial physician; why would he bother to invite a common doctor?
Empress Dowager Wu laughed, "The people in the Prime Minister's residence are indeed arrogant. A mere steward dares to use the people of Shuntian Prefecture to fetch a doctor for him. It's alright, let them continue to be so arrogant."
She only feels comfortable using people who are arrogant.
"Princess Yuening has taken a fancy to a married man and is trying to force him to become her gigolo," Nightshade continued to report.
Empress Dowager Wu was somewhat troubled upon hearing this. "Yuening has been willful since she was a child. She is about to get married, yet she still doesn't know how to restrain herself. Tell her to be careful and not let anyone find any fault with her."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Also, Young Master Lu took Princess Yuening's antidote pills, saying he wanted to study medicine."
"A small antidote pill, fine. It's good that Lu Junyuan gave up his official career for Yue Ning and has some other hobbies. Go down and keep a close eye on things for me. Report back immediately if anything happens."
"Yes!" Nightshade stood up and withdrew.
"Your Majesty, this Prime Minister Lu is quite clever." Granny Hui brought a bowl of bird's nest soup to Empress Wu.
Although Empress Dowager Wu was a noblewoman, she was actually only in her thirties. Her red soft gauze dress, combined with her well-maintained fair skin, made her figure even more alluring.
Taking the bird's nest, Empress Dowager Wu took a sip and slowly said, "Lu Hong has always been a slick man with little ability, but he is loyal to me. He only sacrificed one son's future to bring glory to the entire Lu family. This old fellow has calculated this better than anyone else."
Granny Hui smiled and said, "The eldest son of the Lu family is quite good to the princess."
Empress Dowager Wu scoffed, "If he dares to treat Yuening badly, I will make sure he suffers the consequences."
Granny Hui said nothing more. As the Empress Dowager's confidante, she knew that Princess Yuening was the posthumous child of Emperor Taizu. Her birth mother died in childbirth.
Empress Wu, who was then the empress, took pity on her and adopted her in her palace. In a sense, Princess Yuening was raised by Empress Wu herself, and they were like mother and daughter.
At this moment, another palace servant came in to report, "Your Majesty, His Majesty was practicing calligraphy today, but he got a little irritable and smashed one of his study companions to death with an inkstone."
Empress Dowager Wu raised her eyebrows. "A person is dead, so be it. How is Your Majesty's calligraphy practice going?"
"I've practiced five pages," the palace servant replied truthfully.
"Hmm, not bad. Being able to persist in practicing five pages is an improvement. Tell the Grand Tutor to ask the Emperor to try to practice ten pages tomorrow."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The palace attendant withdrew.
Empress Dowager Wu rubbed her temples, and when Hui-ma-na saw this, she quickly came over and took her hands, gently rubbing them for Empress Dowager Wu.
"Your Majesty, the Emperor is still young. There's no rush. He'll be fine when he's older."
Empress Dowager Wu sighed, "I hope so."
When Empress Wu married the late emperor, she had no children for many years. She took countless medicines and prayed to Buddha countless times before finally giving birth to a son.
Ji Yanzhuo was made crown prince by the late emperor as soon as he was born, attracting widespread attention.
Unexpectedly, Ji Yanzhuo, despite being the crown prince, disliked studying, had a bad temper, and would hit or bite people at the drop of a hat.
Even when he was young and weak, he had already injured many palace servants.
As he grew older, he seemed to realize that no matter what he did, no one would dare to resist, so he became even more outrageous.
It started with hitting, kicking, and biting, but later it escalated to hitting with sticks and stabbing with knives.
Before the late emperor passed away, Ji Yanzhuo was restrained by him and at least dared not cause any deaths.
After the late emperor passed away, Ji Yanzhuo, who was only seven years old, ascended the throne and became even more unscrupulous. When he was in a bad mood, he would directly escalate from hitting people to killing them.
Having ascended the throne for only half a year, he had already killed more than thirty of his companions and servants. Everyone in the palace was afraid of this young emperor and secretly prayed that they would not be sent to the emperor's side.
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