Chapter 23: Deposed Prince!
The news that the prince knelt in front of the Zichen Palace again spread out of the palace in less than an hour. The officials in the capital were all puzzled. The members of the prince's party came to persuade him repeatedly, but failed to shake Xiao Ji at all.
Once the gate of Zichen Palace was opened, Xiao Ji would request loudly, but still got no response. He watched the sun set, the clouds dyed with sunset glow, and the moon rise over the top of the head, and finally waited for Bai De'an, the eunuch beside the emperor, to come.
Even though Xiao Ji was extremely tired and in pain, numb from the pain, a glimmer of hope still appeared in his eyes when he saw Bai De'an appear, "Eunuch Bai..."
But Bai De'an just shook his head gently and advised: "Your Highness, you should go back. His Majesty will never change his mind."
Even without asking, Bai De'an knew what the emperor was thinking. Taifu Yao must leave the court this time, not only because of the prince, but also because of Taifu Yao himself.
As the chief eunuch who has been by the emperor's side for more than 20 years, he has witnessed the emperor's ascension to the throne until now. He has accompanied the emperor in almost every court session, so naturally he knows how Taifu Yao has served as an official for so many years.
It is true that he is devoted to the country and is an utterly loyal minister, but he is also too outspoken. Every time His Majesty makes a mistake, Taifu Yao will point it out in public, which really does not give the king face.
When His Majesty was young, he was impressed by his prestige and qualifications. But His Majesty is now over fifty years old, a grandfather, and has been sitting firmly on the throne for twenty years. How could he be willing to have someone suppress him and tell him what to do?
His body was old, but his pursuit of power was at its peak. He was already the master of the world, and no one was more powerful than him, so he naturally wanted to be arbitrary and dictatorial, and no one could say anything to him.
If it were just that, it would be fine. The emperor could have tolerated it for the sake of Yao Chongchun's status as a veteran minister of three dynasties. The bad thing was that he became the prince's teacher and increasingly valued the prince.
Yao Taifu was well-read throughout his life and was a pure civil official. Since he took on the role of the emperor's teacher, he took it as his responsibility to teach the prince. It just so happened that the prince was the legitimate son of the empress dowager and was extremely talented, so it was natural for him to hope that Dayu could be handed over to the prince smoothly.
The old emperor, the young prince, and the young kings, the emperor no longer looked at them as a father looking at his sons, but as traitors plotting to seize the throne from him. Yao Chongchun was naturally among them, and he was the first to bear the brunt.
Bai De'an lowered his head and looked down at the prince kneeling on the ground, and sighed softly: "Your Highness, please go back. You should take care of your own health first."
But how could Xiao Ji give up so easily? The teacher was old, and exiling him three thousand miles away would most likely kill him. How could this be any better than being poisoned to death? The teacher was born in the capital, and they say old people return to their roots. How could he go back a thousand miles away?
Looking at the embarrassed young prince lying on the ground, and seeing the stubbornness in Xiao Ji's eyes, Bai De'an felt a trace of pity in his heart. He thought for a moment, walked closer to the prince, leaned over and whispered something, then took a step back and whispered, "Your Highness, please be cautious about what I said."
Xiao Ji's eyes lit up slightly, but only for a moment. He nodded solemnly, then looked towards the door in front of him and whispered, "But I still want to try again."
This trial lasted until the moon was setting in the west and spring raindrops began to fall. Zhao Tong hurried over, holding an oil-paper umbrella, and cried, "Your Highness, you should go back. The imperial physician says you can't kneel anymore. If you don't take good care of yourself, you may never recover."
The young prince continued to stare at the closed door without blinking. After a few breaths, he sneered and whispered, "It's raining. That's great..."
In this case, would the emperor be willing to see him again out of pity for him?
But the moment this sentence came to his mind, Xiao Ji himself wanted to laugh.
In fact, he was no longer kneeling on the ground. He was sitting on the ground. In order to prevent his broken leg from being pressed down, his buttocks were under tremendous pressure. Now his blood circulation was blocked and he was numb, not to mention how painful and bruised his broken leg was.
He naturally knew that this was extremely detrimental to his leg injury, but now he was doing it not only for his teacher, but also for himself.
He wanted to know whether his father still loved him, and whether he would lose his father after losing his mother.
In addition to Xiao Ji's investigation into the prince's fall from a horse, the emperor naturally also sent people to investigate. However, after several days, there was still no news at all.
Xiao Ji knew that he was very emotional at that time and was suspected of not being able to control the horse well, but Zhuifeng was his BMW that he had raised for three years and was very human. How could he suddenly raise his body so that he couldn't control it?
A veterinarian examined the horse afterwards, but found no problems with it. Apart from the deliberate words that Prince Ning said to him, everything seemed to be an accident.
If Xiao Ji wanted to forcibly put the blame on Prince Ning and accuse Prince Ning of deliberately provoking him to fall off the horse, that would be fine, but Xiao Ji was unwilling to do so.
No matter what Prince Ning's purpose was, it was a favor for Xiao Ji that he told his teacher that he was given poisoned wine. If Prince Ning had not told him... the consequences would be something Xiao Ji dared not even imagine.
But as long as Prince Ning is not implicated, the case will remain at a dead end for several days?
Xiao Ji felt it was both funny and sad.
At this moment, he heard the sound of the palace servants closing the windows, and also faintly heard the old man coughing with all his might, which seemed to be particularly loud because there was phlegm in his throat.
Everything indicates that the ruler of the world inside is not asleep, his father has not fallen into a deep sleep, and he should also know that it is raining outside.
Xiao Ji couldn't help but feel a little hope in his heart, and he concentrated on looking at the closed door.
He calculated that if his father wanted to see him, he should be dressed by now and walked past the landscape screen in the inner hall. The lower half of the screen was made of wood, and the upper half was made of colored glaze.
When he was young, he often played hide-and-seek with his father here. He hid behind the screen, thinking that no one could see him, and his father often looked for him behind the screen.
When he grew up and taller, he realized that he could easily see the figure behind the screen from above, and that all this was just his father teasing him.
There was a hint of water in Xiao Ji's eyes as he continued to think.
After passing through the screen, he had to pass by two large vases, which were the best products of the official kiln in the past ten years. The vases were originally a pair of identical ones, but he later broke one of them out of mischief.
When his mother beat him with a stick, he cried bitterly. It was his father who stopped his mother and took the rest of the beating for him. He thought his father was in great pain, so he vowed to be filial to him when he grew up.
Thinking of this, Xiao Ji couldn't stop the tears from falling anymore. The tears blurred his vision and gradually blurred his heart.
He just kept thinking about it, and he thought of every possible route the emperor would take. Xiao Ji even thought that he would come out from the back hall and catch him off guard, but he didn't.
The coughing had long since died down and it was late at night.
The rain was drizzling, and although it didn't fall on him at all, Xiao Ji felt that it was sinking into his heart bit by bit. The cold and moist water vapor wrapped around his heart, making his whole body stiff and unable to move.
The young prince stubbornly looked at the red and golden door through the rain, hoping that his father would appear from it, even if it was just to look at him.
But not even a single glance.
He seems to have no father anymore...
The moment the midnight bell rang, Xiao Ji finally gave up and let Zhao Tong carry him back.
Before leaving, Xiao Ji took a deep look at the Zi Chen Palace and never looked back.
On the third day, the criminal Yao Chongchun was kidnapped as soon as he was exiled from the capital.
The emperor was furious in the palace, and the prince was summoned to the palace to be questioned, but he refused to admit it.
On the fourth day, at the morning court, the emperor announced the dethronement of the crown prince.
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