Empress Dowager Zhang was having breakfast when she heard the news, and she fell straight off her chair.
The palace servants panicked and quickly summoned their mother, Lady Jin, to the palace.
Xia Xueyi, who was resting in Kunning Palace during her pregnancy, also rushed over to serve her.
Looking at the emperor's indifferent expression, Madam Jin hesitated for a long time before finally speaking: "Your Majesty, I heard that someone cried out for justice at Dong'an Gate today?"
Lu Xingjian looked at Madam Jin and replied naturally, "Mm."
A single, simple word, yet it inexplicably evokes a strong sense of oppression.
Madam Jin flinched, her throat tightening: "What does Your Majesty intend to do?"
Empress Dowager Zhang tensed up, her eyes warily fixed on Lu Xingjian.
A strange bittersweet feeling welled up inside me.
If the late emperor were still alive, she wouldn't have to suffer this torment.
Even when the Zheng Wang seditious case caused such a huge uproar, the late emperor still firmly defended her.
Zheng Wang insisted that the Crown Prince was the legitimate son of the Empress, and that Zheng Wang was spreading false rumors and misleading the public.
The eunuchs involved were all sentenced to death by a thousand cuts.
Now it seems that those eunuchs were likely instructed by Lu Xingjian to use Zheng Wang to ask for a formal status for their birth mother.
Now that he has fully grown up, he has brought up the old story again.
No one can say how things will end.
Back then, Empress Zhou secured her position as Empress Dowager by virtue of being the birth mother of Emperor Xianzong, and stood on equal footing with Empress Dowager Qian, who was born an empress.
It took four or five years to defeat Empress Dowager Qian and send her to her death.
She didn't want to end up like Empress Dowager Qian.
In any case, she could not allow Zheng Jinlian, a palace maid, to truly become the Empress Dowager.
Xia Xueyi felt like the sky was falling.
She secured her position as empress thanks to the support and guidance of Empress Dowager Zhang.
Empress Dowager Zhang is now like a frightened bird, barely able to protect herself, so how could she possibly care about her?
Her hand involuntarily went to her lower abdomen.
He was trembling slightly.
One wrong step leads to another.
She felt the room was too stuffy, and she could hardly breathe.
Lu Xingjian happened to turn his head to the side and saw her movements.
"Is the Empress unwell?"
Xia Xueyi was surprised that he would suddenly care about her, and became even more nervous.
I didn't know how to answer for a moment.
Her little face turned pale, then red, then pale again. She murmured, her lips trembling, and finally said:
"I am well... Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."
Actually, she would rather he didn't notice her now.
Lu Xingjian said with concern, "The Empress Dowager is ill. Since the Empress is pregnant with the Emperor's child, she should take better care of herself and avoid overexertion."
Madam Jin secretly clenched her hand inside her sleeve.
The fact that the emperor did not answer his grandmother's question already speaks volumes.
The atmosphere in the room was extremely tense.
Apart from Lu Xingjian, everyone else looked rather unwell.
Lu Xingjian, however, calmly looked at Madam Jin and answered her question.
"I have ordered the Eastern Depot to arrest him and bring him to justice, and to investigate him thoroughly."
The words "investigate thoroughly" struck Empress Zhang's heart like a thunderbolt.
The purpose of a thorough investigation is to expose their fake mother-son relationship and grant that palace maid Zheng Jinlian the honor of an empress dowager?!
She immediately questioned him sternly:
"The late emperor already made a decision when he was alive. Does the emperor intend to go against the late emperor's wishes?!"
Lu Xingjian looked at Empress Dowager Zhang with a cold gaze.
"I haven't even said what that person's purpose is yet, why is Your Majesty so agitated?"
Empress Dowager Zhang met his gaze; both of them wore sharp expressions, neither willing to back down.
You can never truly love a child who isn't your own.
Moreover, he had been raised by the Zhou family for more than ten years.
Over the years, he has distanced himself from the Zhou family and obediently married Xia Xueyi as his empress, which made her mistakenly believe that he would truly be of one mind with her.
Unexpectedly, in less than three years, before he had even fully secured his throne, he began to challenge his stepmother!
Madam Jin and Xia Xueyi dared not move, for fear of getting themselves into trouble.
Xia Xueyi never expected that the Empress Dowager and the Emperor would not even bother to maintain a semblance of harmony.
Recently, she vaguely heard that there was a nanny named Zheng Jinlian in Qingning Palace who was the emperor's birth mother.
For some reason, the late emperor refused to acknowledge Zheng Jinlian's identity.
There was another piece of news that made her quite upset.
Zheng Jinlian was the wet nurse who raised Su Wanwan.
Su Wanwan's relationship with the emperor was far closer than she knew.
But she is about to face a deadly situation that could lead to a complete breakdown in their relationship.
One is her husband.
One is her mother-in-law.
Xia Xueyi couldn't afford to offend either side, so she could only try to shrink back and avoid becoming cannon fodder in their battle.
Empress Dowager Zhang turned her head and glanced at Xia Xueyi.
"Your Majesty already has children; doesn't he want to set an example of filial piety?"
Lu Xingjian's voice was cold and ruthless:
"Your Majesty is mistaken. I should certainly take good care of the people brought by Marquis Anren, Wang Jun, so as not to disturb my grandmother and fail to fulfill my filial duty."
"Your Majesty, please take good care of yourself. I will come to see you again when I have time."
Lu Xingjian flicked his sleeves lightly, his departing figure crisp and clean.
With the Empress Dowager as a living advertisement, it's not so easy to use filial piety to pressure him.
Silence fell over the room.
The standoff between mother and son has finally come to an end.
Madam Jin's face had turned completely pale, and she couldn't recover for a long time.
Empress Dowager Zhang straightened her back, a hint of hatred flashing in her eyes, and said through gritted teeth:
"I absolutely cannot allow that vile woman Zheng to be on equal footing with me!"
"Mother, you must have your younger brother make careful plans and schemes outside the palace. We can't let him succeed!"
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