Perhaps because she was too worried, the Queen's eyelids kept twitching these past two days.
The Taiyuan Hospital sent people to look over and over again, and only prescribed two prescriptions to calm the nerves.
The Queen didn't want to pretend to be sick, but she really couldn't worry about the Emperor. After much thought, she simply claimed to be sick for a few days.
Zhu Weizhen came over to say hello. Seeing that she was very sick, he asked with concern: "What's wrong with my mother? The hospital clearly said that it's nothing serious, but you are still so listless."
The queen sighed and stopped talking.
When Zhu Weizhen saw that she was silent, he immediately called the imperial doctors. They took her pulse for a long time and only said that there was a deficiency of yin and internal heat, and the qi could not absorb blood.
After the imperial doctors left, Zhu Weizhen looked at his mother's sad face and said softly: "If you have something to say, you might as well say it directly. You are so depressed that I worry that if you don't say anything, it will distract the prince. Why bother?"
The Queen took a deep breath: "I want to meet your father."
Zhu Weizhen frowned slightly: "My father is seriously ill and it is not suitable to see people."
"Weizhen, you won't let me not even see him for the last time."
The queen burst into tears: "I don't force you to forgive him, and I don't force you to honor him. I just want to see him, even once."
Zhu Weizhen lowered his eyes, stroked the embroidery on the skirt with his thin white fingers, and said in a calm tone: "I just don't want my mother to be sad."
The Queen bit her lip and said, "I always want to see him one last time."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Weizhen agreed happily: "Okay, I will go with my mother."
The claustrophobic palace, dim light, layers of curtains, and gray everywhere.
The air was filled with a strong smell of medicine and an indescribable odor, as if something was quietly rotting in an invisible corner.
Zhu Weizhen raised his hand and opened a layer of curtains, allowing his mother to walk in.
She didn't follow him and turned around and left the inner hall.
Zhu Weizhen stood under the door, looking intently at the flowers, plants and trees in the yard. His eyes were full of green, full of vitality, and not at all sick.
After a moment, a shrill scream sounded, followed by the mother's mournful cry.
Zhu Weizhen closed his eyes and immediately ordered the palace maid to help the Queen out.
The queen's face was pale, and her heartbroken and grief-stricken expression said it all.
The moment she saw her daughter, she couldn't help but rush towards her.
Because she was so excited, the queen almost fell down and almost fell on her daughter.
Her legs were unable to support her crumbling body, but her hands firmly grasped the skirt of her daughter's clothes and said in a trembling voice: "Weizhen, it is better to give him a happy life than to live like this."
The person lying there was not her husband, just a living corpse.
Zhu Weizhen looked at his mother who was paralyzed at his feet and cried heartbrokenly. There was no wave on her calm face. She stretched out her hands to help her grieving mother and said in a calm tone: "Mother, my father is so ill. You will naturally be sad to see me. Come, I will take you back."
The queen cried all the way, and finally she lost her strength and fainted.
In the next few days, the Queen was so ill that she cried sadly when she woke up, and started to talk in her sleep when she fell asleep.
It was obvious that she was frightened.
Zhu Xuxing was inevitably anxious when he heard that his mother was so ill.
Zhu Weizhen stayed with his mother for several days, and he became very haggard.
"What happened to you and your mother?"
Zhu Weizhen poured him a cup of tea, his eyebrows lowered and his tone calm.
"It's my fault. I was too soft-hearted and showed her things she shouldn't have seen."
"Sister..."
Zhu Xuxing stopped talking.
"I will take care of it myself, mother, so you don't have to worry."
Zhu Weizhen said quietly: "My mother is a sensible person, and what she cares about most is you."
Zhu Xuxing frowned: "Eldest sister, don't say that. The queen mother may not be all sad for the father, she also feels sorry for you..."
Such a soft person turned out to be so hard-hearted.
"I did everything, and I will finish it off myself. What the prince carries on his shoulders is the livelihood of the people, and I hope that the prince will focus on political affairs."
Zhu Weizhen's eyes were deep: "When all this is over, I will give the prince an explanation to the world, an honest explanation."
"Sister!"
Zhu Xiuxing was instantly alert, and he smelled some decisive danger in her words.
Zhu Weizhen raised his head and looked at him: "Prince, please remember that even if I try my best, I will only have pure and kind thoughts towards you. You will always be my most beloved brother and the person I cherish the most."
"Eldest sister is also the person I cherish the most."
Zhu Xuxing's phoenix eyes twinkled: "I was raised under the guidance and care of the eldest sister. The eldest sister and I share the same blood. We are the same people."
Zhu Weizhen smiled sadly, his smile blurred: "I am no longer me, you are still you."
All wrongdoings were made by her, and all the consequences were suffered by her.
She wanted to take him out cleanly.
"Eldest sister... Actually, you can blame me. If I had fought to the death, maybe things would have turned around."
Zhu Xuxing's tone was trembling, and his eyes were full of sadness.
"There is no what if in this world."
Zhu Weizhen calmed down and patted his younger brother on the shoulder: "Father can't last much longer. No matter what, let's pass the New Year first."
It's night, and Zhu Xuxing has been sitting at his desk for a long time.
It looked like he was reading a memorial, but in fact he didn't read a single word.
Xu Zhihuai brought ginseng tea. Seeing his dim eyes, he couldn't help but ask softly: "Your Highness has been depressed tonight? Is the Queen seriously ill? I'll take An'er over to say hello tomorrow."
Zhu Xuxing came back to his senses and looked at her deeply: "Don't go. Neither you nor An'er should go there."
Xu Zhihuai nodded silently, then brought a chair and sat next to him.
Silent companionship is sometimes more useful than caring and cumbersome words.
Zhu Xuxing stretched out a hand, pressed it on the back of her soft hand, and said with a slight force: "After the new year, I will succeed my father and become the real monarch."
Xu Zhihuai was surprised to speak late.
"Huai'er, do you know what this means?"
Xu Zhihuai's eyes were complicated and he shook his head.
"This means that the eldest sister will have to bear the infamy of regicide for the rest of her life, and I am her accomplice."
"No, it's not."
Xu Zhihuai still shook his head and looked at him with a distressed look on his face: "Your Highness and the eldest princess have no choice but to face difficulties."
Zhu Xuxing laughed and looked sternly: "Huai'er, if it weren't for the protection of eldest sister, I wouldn't be where I am today. But I am obviously the prince, but no one can protect me. The eldest sister is like this, and the same is true for you."
"Your Highness, don't say that. Your Highness has always been my support."
Zhu Xuxing smiled bitterly, put his palm on her cheek, and rubbed it gently: "Huai'er, I can say from the bottom of my heart how much I like you and care about you. But the truth is that I didn't protect you well during those days in Fengdu. Your person is Wei Li."
Xu Zhihuai's pupils trembled, and before he had time to guess what he was thinking, he just heard him say again: "No one in the court is afraid of me, the prince, they are afraid of Wei Li. It is precisely because they are afraid of him that I need him. Even if I know him Whatever he has done, I still have to forgive him, reuse him, and trust him."
