Chapter 293 - The Crown Prince Wakes Up

“Your Highness.” At night, the crown prince finally woke up in the Eastern Palace. As soon as he opened his eyes, the crown princess’s surprised and joyful voice appeared beside the bed. “Your Highness, you are finally awake.”

Before the crown prince answered, the crown princess turned her head and ordered, “Hurry up and go to tell the royal doctor to come and check His Highness’s pulse at once.”

The crown prince opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he felt thirsty. As soon as he made a sound, he felt scorching pain in his throat. The crown princess hurriedly turned to pour a cup of warm water on the table and served him cautiously to drink it. The crown prince coughed several times and then asked feebly, “How is Father?”

“He is safe and sound.” Noticing that his tone was flat yet he looked at her with disgust, the crown princess thought that he must detest her because she had poisoned him to be in a coma. She restrained her grievance and fear, adding respectfully, “Your Highness, please rest assured.”

“Really…” Hearing that, the crown prince seemed to heave a sigh of relief, while he glanced at the crown princess, with doubt shown in his eyes again. He just asked casually, “What about me? When can I serve Father?”

The crown princess forced a smile. “Speaking of which, I am going to apologize to you.”

While speaking, she put her arm on the bedside and knelt down, and her smile was replaced with restlessness. “I feared that you would be harmed by the empress and Aunt Daiguo if you entered the imperial palace, so I…put a sleeping pill in your drink without your permission, yet unexpectedly…”

She trembled slightly and seemed to still feel scared. “Unexpectedly, Han Ji took advantage of the chance and harmed you!”

The crown prince just looked at her indifferently and silently listened to her explaining how he was poisoned lately. He didn’t make comments but asked, “Where is Han Ji?”

Before the crown princess replied, he sneered. “She must have died and there is no testimony of witness, right?”

The crown princess pursed her lips for a moment and then smiled with self-mockery, saying peacefully, “Your Highness, if you don’t believe me, after you take a turn for the better and get out of danger, I am willing to explain to you.”

She paused for a moment and then added, “Hope that you can take care of Zhongling in the future for the sake of your kinship.”

She said that, which meant that she was willing to commit suicide to prove her innocence later. After all, they were a couple and she was his first legitimate son’s biological mother, and he was not heartless. After hearing that, he kept silent for a while and then asked, “Is Father really fine?”

Even though he didn’t say anything to comfort her, with this attitude, he seemed to plan to cover up for her.

Unfortunately, this question was difficult to answer.

The crown princess’s hand which was on the bedside tightened, and she hastily tried to find proper words. Fortunately, there were footsteps in the outer room and Shiwan knocked at the door in a hurry. “Your Highness, the royal doctor has arrived.”

“Come in quickly!” The crown princess heaved a sigh of relief in secret and ordered the royal doctor to come in and check the crown prince’s pulse. After confirming that he got much better, she told somebody to bring porridge and vegetable. Then she sat on the bedside and planned to personally serve the crown prince to have dinner. He raised his hand and blocked the spoon of porridge she gave him. “How is Father now?”

The crown princess put the spoon back in the porridge bowl and bit her lower lip hard before answering, “I got the message earlier sent by Mother in private that some people enter and come out of the Palace of Xuanming sneakily at night these days, but she doesn’t know who they are.”

Seeing that the crown prince looked impatient, she spoke faster. “Minister Jin and Minister He came out of the Palace of Xuanming just now and said that the empress suddenly summoned the director of the Imperial Academy of Medicine this morning. It seems that…Father has got out of danger…”

The crown prince sighed with relief obviously, and his face softened a lot, gesturing for her to continue.

“But, the two ministers noticed that the director looked weird. After they questioned him closely, he said…” While speaking, the crown princess looked gloomy and continued in a low voice after stuttering for a while, “The director said that Father’s life is out of danger, yet he can’t wake up for now.”

“What did you say?” The crown prince was so shocked that he almost overturned the small table on the bed. “Since his life is out of danger, how can he not wake up?”

The crown princess lowered her head. “I don’t dare to hide it from you, Your Highness!”

“…I am going to enter the imperial palace.” The crown prince gasped. After a long while, he stated decisively, “Since Mother said that some people enter and come out of the Palace of Xuanming sneakily these days, who knows if Father is in this condition because he was harmed by somebody? The empress and Father are a couple, and the Su Family from Qingzhou assist her, so it’s a matter of course that she is in charge of the Palace of Xuanming when Grandma doesn’t interfere. If I don’t stand out as the heir to the throne, will Father…be at the mercy of others all the time?”

He looked at the crown princess with his sharp eyes. “If you get involved in it again…”

“I don’t dare to!” The crown princess knelt down in front of the bed immediately and explained seriously, “Your Highness, I prevented you from going to serve Father earlier because I was worried about your safety. I thought that he concerns about all people and he and the empress love each other deeply as a couple while he always protects Aunt Daiguo, so even if the empress and Aunt have evil intentions against you, they will never harm Father. Now since I know that Father is in a dangerous situation, how would I dare to prevent you from serving him to show filial piety?”

Seeing that the crown prince’s eyes softened after he heard that, she took the opportunity and suggested, “However, you have just been poisoned by Han Ji. I will be worried if you enter the imperial palace alone. Please allow me to go there with you, Your Highness.”

“Forget it!” The crown prince shook his head without hesitation. “Firstly, somebody should be in charge of the Eastern Palace. Especially Zhongling and the others are still young. How can they have nobody to protect them? Secondly, I am not confident about this trip, yet as a son, how can I back off? If you go with me and… How would Zhongling and the others take care of themselves in the future?”

However, the crown princess stated calmly, “Your Highness, please allow me to say something unpropitious. Because Zhongling and the others are still young, I should go with you to the Palace of Xuanming. If both of us can’t come back after entering the imperial palace, and only the innocent young children are left in the Eastern Palace, no matter who will be the new emperor, he should well arrange for Zhongling and the others and at least give them a chance of survival in order to prevent all people from gossiping. What’s more, the empress is controlling the Palace of Xuanming now, and it’s said that Beautiful Lady Nuan and the other imperial concubines should serve Father in turn besides Xubai and the others. If you go there alone and happen to meet one imperial concubine, it will arouse suspicion inevitably, but it doesn’t matter when I am with you.”

Then she smiled with self-mockery. “Moreover, since I married you, I have never considered staying alive alone. Your Highness, please agree to my request because we are a couple.”

The crown prince stayed silent for a moment, which was long in the crown princess’s opinion. She sincerely wanted to go to the Palace of Xuanming with him, while her purpose was certainly not simply to live and die with him. It was mainly because she had known something and felt fearful for what she had done before.

She absolutely couldn’t miss this chance to risk her life with the crown prince.

If she didn’t atone for her guilt by devoted service now, what should she do when her father-in-law ended the play in the future?

Moreover, even if she guessed wrong, it might be not safe when she stayed in the Eastern Palace. It was better to gain a good reputation as she died with her husband, and she would fight for a chance to stay alive and receive preferential treatment for Commandery Prince Zhongling to the greatest extent. After all, more people would show sympathy for a child whose parents were dead than a child who still had a legitimate mother.

Anyway, the crown princess decided to achieve her goal no matter what he said.

In the end, under her uneasy stare, the crown prince expressed in a hoarse voice, “Let’s go.”

The crown princess heaved a sigh of relief in secret. Even though she tried her best to restrain herself, she still showed an overjoyed expression. The crown prince saw it and felt guilty as he didn’t know the truth. He had complex feelings and paused for a while. Then he closed his eyes. “You are right. We are a couple, and nobody is more important than you.

“I…I have complaints since last year. No. I feel grieved as Father let go of the Su Family and the empress easily. After all, they have gone too far. Till now I realize why Father indulged Aunt Daiguo in bullying Mother for so many years and didn’t interfere but he is tolerant to the empress and protects her so much.”

The crown prince smiled gloomily. “The empress and the Su Family must have stayed with Father without turning back when Shentu was favored those years, right? Of course Mother must have done the same, yet the Cui Family is not powerful, and what she and her family could do for Father must be less than the empress and her family. They supported him those years, so now he returns them more. I just considered for myself but ignored Father’s feelings. It was too selfish of me.”

He opened his eyes and looked at the crown princess, with unprecedent softness in his eyes. “Honey, I was not nice to you these years, especially after Jianlian came. Because she was my cousin and younger, I always thought that you should be tolerant to her. I indulged her in disrespecting you, and I was even distant to you because her intentional or unintentional incitement.

“I never expected that I loved her so much, yet she even disdained to give birth to a child for me. I hurt you, but you are willing to die with me in such a critical situation.”

He breathed out and lowered his head to conceal the tears in his eyes. Then he reached out his hand to caress the crown princess’s shoulder, adding in a deep voice, “If I can go through this trial, in the future, I don’t dare to say that I will stay away from all my concubines for you as Xubai did for his wife. After all, Xubai has few concubines, while those in the side halls have been my women for many years. However, I can promise you that I won’t have more concubines but will grow old along with you.”

The crown princess knelt beside the bed with tears covering her face. She didn’t dare to look up at her husband from beginning to end. The crown prince thought that his wife was too emotional, yet he didn’t know how complex her feelings were.

“If only I found the truth earlier and didn’t put poison in the medicine Han Ji fed him.” The crown princess raised her sleeve and covered her face. It seemed that she could hardly believe the sudden joy, while in fact, she just took the opportunity to conceal her strong feelings. “What should I do now?”

If she didn’t plan to poison him, she would be happy and hopeful when she heard her husband’s sincere regret and promise.

However, the crown princess just felt frightened now. Her father-in-law had pretended for more than half a year regardless of his identity as the emperor. It could be seen how much importance he attached to the crown prince, his eldest son that he had brought up, while the crown prince was moved by her so easily. Even if Emperor Xianjia wanted to forgive his daughter-in-law for the sake of Commandery Prince Zhongling, how would he feel relieved?

After all, no matter how kind the parents-in-law were, they wouldn’t like to see that their son couldn’t defeat his wife.

Especially the crown princess was not from an ordinary family but the Wei Family from Fengzhou, and she was a descendant of the direct line of the Ruiyu Hall.

On top of that, her parents’ family had shown a shaky will before.

Once the crown princess had an ambition, it was possible that she would collude with the people supporting the previous dynasty and make the crown prince lose power. Moreover, she was the biological mother of the crown prince’s first legitimate son. If she killed her husband and helped her son take the throne, she could hold the young emperor under the arm and command all people in the country.

If things went on like this, it was uncertain if the royal family would be the Lu Family in the future.

How would Emperor Xianjia leave such hidden trouble to his descendants?

Even if this hidden trouble was just his imagination, this saying was right, “Most of the time, the threat is not the ambition but the ability.”

“Can I do nothing but be left to God’s mercy?” The crown princess listened to the crown prince’s warm comfort and restrained her fierce emotions. She gently served him to eat porridge and thought, “No. I am reluctant. I made the choice because I was forced to. If it was useful to poison myself, how would I have poisoned His Highness? He treats me with special regard now, yet it’s said that the tea cools down as soon as the person is gone. If I am punished by my father-in-law, how would Zhongling’s future not be influenced? I have managed the Eastern Palace with effort for so many years and chosen a famous teacher for Zhongling, would I give up everything to others in the future?”

She pondered hastily and suddenly thought, “It seems that my mother-in-law hasn’t found that her husband may pretend to be unconscious.” The crown princess had a vague plan.