708 Fortune-telling (5)
Perhaps because Emperor Wen Hui had been ill for a long time, his complexion had become extremely bad. Usually, when he flared up in the throne room, he had to exert all his strength to appear intimidating. After all, there were many people who were eyeing the throne. If he fell, the imperial court would probably be in chaos.
When the princes were young, he did not see them as a threat. When they were old, he realized that he was raising a group of wolves instead of sons. Now that the young wolves had grown up, they became uncontrollable.
“How’s the Crown Prince doing recently?” Emperor Wen Hui asked Eunuch Su.
Eunuch Su quickly replied, “The empress met the crown princess yesterday. The crown princess said that the crown prince’s condition has improved, and the imperial physician said that he will recover after recuperating for a while.”
Emperor Wen Hui shook his head and said, “The crown prince’s health is a problem.” As the most rightful successor to the throne, the crown prince was sick. Although he had a group of supporters and could still hold the fort in the early years, as Prince Zhou’s faction and Prince Li’s faction gradually grew stronger, the crown prince’s power would gradually be chipped away. Emperor Wen Hui felt a headache coming on. Fortunately, although the crown prince was sick, he had a son early. This way, even if Emperor Wen Hui passed away and the crown prince was sice, as long as the crown prince could hold on until his son was old enough to succeed him, he could step down and give the throne to his son.
Imperial Physician Su looked down, deliberately avoiding to look at Emperor Wen Hui. However, he knew pretty much what was going on in the mind of the emperor. The person Emperor Wen Hui thought the most highly of now was probably the crown prince. The reason was that firstly, the crown prince had the right to inherit the throne, and secondly, the crown prince’s health was not good, so he was the least of a threat to Emperor Wen Hui, unlike his other sons. Prince Zhou was arrogant and almost looked down on everyone. Prince Li looked kind, but he had many connections with many officials in private. Even Prince Ding, who seemed to be the least interested in power, became a wolf. How could Emperor Wen Hui trust them?
A cold wind blew in from the window, causing the paper on the table to roll up slightly. Seeing this, Imperial Physician Su quickly went to close the window, saying, “It’s late. Your Majesty, you’d better sleep early.”
At the same time, the crown prince was talking to someone. If anyone saw this, they would definitely be shocked. The person talking to the crown prince was none other than Prince Ding, Fu Xiuyi.
One of them was the rightful heir to the throne in Emperor Wen Hui’s eyes, and the other was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At this moment, they were sitting on two sides of the table, talking while drinking plum wine.
The crown prince said, “Ninth Brother, don’t take this matter to heart. Father misunderstood you because he believed the slander of a despicable person. When the misunderstanding is resolved, he will naturally treat you like before. Ninth Brother, why give up on yourself?”
Fu Xiuyi shook his head. “Brother, you don’t know how sad I am to be wronged and accused of doing something I didn’t do. I’m an idle person and don’t have interest in fame or fortune. I just want to live a carefree life. In the past, I’ve never interfered in anything else. However, after the Shen family’s incident, Father actually alienated me. This father-son relationship is too fragile.”
“Ninth Brother, be careful with your words.” The crown prince was shocked and quickly stopped Fu Xiuyi from finishing his sentence. “You’re also Father’s son. Father won’t do anything to you. If you want to blame someone, blame those despicable people who set you up.”
What they were talking about was the matter of the Shen family being executed a few days ago. Although Emperor Wen Hui hid it very well, the princes all had spies in the palace, so they knew the real reason why the Shen family was wiped out. It was precisely because of this that the princes looked at Fu Xiuyi differently. Originally, the princes were competing for the throne and fighting each other to the death. They thought that the Ninth Prince was not ambitious and just wanted to be an idle prince, so they did not deliberately target Fu Xiuyi. Unexpectedly, as soon as this matter was exposed, they realized that there was a wolf hiding in the dark. When fighting, the hidden enemy was the scariest. Especially when it came to the battle for the throen, it was a matter of life and death. Prince Ding had been watching the battle in the dark for a long time. Perhaps he wanted to benefit from it.
