When Ye Jingchen regained consciousness, all he felt was splitting pain in his head and a throat as dry and hot as fire.
But when he saw the Emperor’s exhausted and worried face, guilt welled up inside him.
Last night, while feverish and dazed, he had vaguely sensed that the Emperor was also beside the bed.
In the novel, Shengping Emperor Ye Shengping was selfish, suspicious, arrogant, and narrow-minded. Perhaps he was not a good emperor, but he was truly a good father.
It was the original Ye Jingchen who had failed to appreciate how fortunate he was.
Now that he had become Ye Jingchen, he would certainly maintain the father-son bond with the Emperor and protect this blessing.
“Imperial Father… cough! Cough!” Ye Jingchen had just begun to say something emotional when his own throat stabbed him in the back, and he broke into a fit of coughing.
“Quick, bring water!” the Emperor ordered urgently.
A palace maid handed over the warm water that had been prepared. The Emperor took it and personally fed it to Ye Jingchen.
His mouth was dry as fire, and Ye Jingchen could not care about anything else. He sat up and gulped down the water in great mouthfuls.
“Slow down. Be careful not to choke,” the Emperor said as he fed him water and patted his back. His movements were surprisingly practiced, showing that this was clearly not the first time he had done such a thing.
“Imperial Father, your son was unfilial and made you worry again,” Ye Jingchen said quickly once he could finally speak normally.
“It’s not Chen’er’s fault. It’s those imperial physicians who are useless, which is why Chen’er suffered such a disaster. And those servants in your palace too… they must have neglected their duties, which is why you developed a high fever. They all deserve severe punishment!” the Emperor said angrily.
Whenever the Emperor flew into a rage, the palace attendants had to kneel and beg for forgiveness. Soon the bedchamber was filled with kneeling figures.
Ye Jingchen was speechless inside. He realized the Emperor was somewhat split in personality… one face for his son, another for the palace attendants.
Still, it was understandable. In a feudal dynasty, to an emperor, palace attendants really were just servants. In their eyes, those servants’ lives might not even count as lives. That was simply the environment. He would not easily be molded by this era, nor would he rashly try to change their mindset.
However, he knew very well that last night’s high fever had been entirely his own fault. It had nothing to do with anyone else.
“The Imperial Father is right. They really do deserve punishment! Your son hates medicinal food the most, so why not punish them by making them eat it for three days? No, three days isn’t enough. Seven days! Make them eat bitter medicinal food for seven straight days!” Ye Jingchen said indignantly.
A child using what he believed was the cruelest method to punish others should not arouse suspicion, right?
The people kneeling in the hall, especially the palace attendants of the Eastern Palace, had already braced themselves to lose a layer of skin even if they survived. They never expected the Crown Prince would only make them eat medicinal food for seven days.
Though bitter, medicinal food was harmless and beneficial to the body. Some people could not even get to eat it if they wanted to.
Never before had they felt the Crown Prince was so cute. So incredibly cute.
The Emperor’s originally intended punishment really had been a severe one… thirty strokes each or something of the sort. After all, if the punishment were not heavy, they would not learn their lesson. But he had always doted on the Crown Prince. Since the Crown Prince had spoken up, he was naturally willing to go along with him.
This punishment that was not really a punishment had been proposed by the Crown Prince, and the imperial physicians and palace attendants would naturally remember his kindness. They would surely be even more loyal in the future. That was not necessarily a bad thing.
Thinking this way, the Emperor swept his gaze over the people kneeling below. Only after some of them had begun to tremble did he magnanimously say, “Since the Crown Prince is speaking up for you, we’ll punish you like this! But eating medicinal food for just seven days is too light. Zhang Shunde, issue the order… double the coptis in the medicinal food!”
With a single light sentence, the Emperor doubled the suffering these people would have to endure.
But this kind of suffering could be endured. It was still much better than being beaten with a rod and suffering flesh wounds.
“Thank you, Crown Prince!” The survivors hurriedly kowtowed in Ye Jingchen’s direction in gratitude.
“Imperial Father, I’m fine now. You should go and rest well. You even have dark circles,” Ye Jingchen said with deep concern.
If Ye Jingchen had not said it, the Emperor would not have noticed. But the moment he did, a wave of deep exhaustion surged over him, though what he felt more strongly was warmth and comfort.
Since falling into the water and waking up again, his Chen’er had not only been willing to draw close to him, but had also become considerate and caring. His Majesty the Emperor felt deeply comforted.
Then, inevitably, he thought of that old bastard at morning court who had slandered Chen’er, and his hatred grew even stronger.
On the way from the Eastern Palace back to Chengqian Palace, the more the Emperor thought about it, the angrier he became. He immediately summoned the dark guards and sent them to that old bastard’s residence to carry out the plan.
He would make that old bastard taste the agony of having his heart cut out!
In the Eastern Palace, once the Emperor was gone, Ye Jingchen also sent everyone in the hall away on the pretext that he wanted to rest a little longer, leaving not a single person behind.
He got down from the bed and stretched.
Last night’s fever had not been entirely a bad thing. At the very least, his body now had more energy than it had yesterday.
“Chenxi.” Ye Jingchen called out into the air.
He only heard a whoosh behind him. Turning around, he saw Chenxi standing there silently.
“Do not tell Imperial Father about what happened in the bath yesterday!” Ye Jingchen ordered.
What happened yesterday really was embarrassing. He did not want the Emperor to know, but that was not the main issue. The main issue was that if the Emperor learned he had developed a fever because he had bathed alone for too long and choked on water, he would certainly punish the Eastern Palace’s palace attendants.
He had to pay for his own stupid mistake. He could not drag others down with him.
“I am your dark guard,” Chenxi said coldly.
Ye Jingchen was somewhat surprised.
Were the royal dark guards trained to be this professional?
One woman does not serve two husbands, and one dark guard does not serve two masters?
Ye Jingchen was very satisfied.
He stood on tiptoe and tried to pat Chenxi on the shoulder, but unfortunately he was too short and Chenxi was too tall. Watching him tiptoe and lift his hand, the wooden-faced man did not even bother to bend down. Ye Jingchen had no choice but to pull his hand back in frustration and walk away a few steps.
But Chenxi followed and handed him a thick stack of papers.
“Is this what I asked for?” Ye Jingchen asked excitedly.
“Yes.”
Ye Jingchen took them, sat down at the desk, and immediately began flipping through them.
Perhaps because this was a novel world, although it was a feudal dynasty, the writing here was simplified Chinese and no different from modern script. Thankfully it was simplified characters, or Ye Jingchen would probably have been illiterate.
This stack of papers recorded in detail the names, positions, duties, and birth backgrounds of all the palace attendants in the Eastern Palace.
Especially the birth background column… it had been so thoroughly investigated that even their ancestors for eighteen generations had been dug out.
Although the Eastern Palace had only one master, there were several hundred palace maids, eunuchs, and guards in the palace.
With so many people, naturally not everyone was clean.
The original body was still young and had not yet had time to cultivate his own trusted aides. Among the people in the Eastern Palace, a small portion were old servants left behind by the former Empress. Most had been carefully chosen for him by the Emperor. Others had been inserted by the consorts of various palaces, the prince mansions, aristocratic families, and high-ranking ministers, though those people were usually only peripheral figures.
Of course, these were the people the dark guards could investigate. Among the palace attendants, there were certainly some hidden far more deeply, too deeply for even the dark guards to uncover.
Chenxi had always felt that the Eastern Palace was as solid as a fortress, but when he saw this information, he fell silent.
Moreover, the reason they had made such a major effort to investigate everyone in the Eastern Palace this time was that the Crown Prince suspected something fishy about this drowning incident. Chenxi had not taken it seriously at first, but after investigating it, he really had found some things.