“Mm,” Ruan Ning rubbed her eyes. “Has His Majesty finished his work?”
Yan Xuan smiled faintly. “No, still busy tomorrow.”
Yan Xuan, feeling irritated by Sun Taifu’s incessant remarks, thought about how he might deal with him someday.
“I’ll go take a bath; you sleep first,” he said, kissing her lips.
He entered the back room of the side hall, where a plum blossom-shaped pool was filled with hot spring water that carried a faint sulfur smell. Relaxing in it brought him comfort.
As he leaned against the white jade edge of the pool, he replayed Sun Taifu’s words in his mind:
“The late Emperor’s mausoleum is still not completed. As a son, aren’t you afraid of being criticized for being unfilial? Your Majesty ignores the harem concubines and only favors the Chen Kingdom princess. This is the beginning of chaos. The late Emperor wisely dealt with the threat posed by Princess Ning Yi to preserve the royal bloodline. You should follow his example.”
With a bitter laugh, Yan Xuan reflected on the late Emperor, his father, who had seldom been present in his life and now rested in a cold golden coffin. The idea of building a mausoleum for him felt absurd.
As he closed his eyes, memories from his childhood surfaced. He was not yet nine when he witnessed a fierce argument between his mother, the long-fallen Empress, and his father, filled with bitter conflict.
The late Emperor accused her of killing favored concubines, while the Empress claimed he was ungrateful, using her family’s power to rise to the throne and then betraying her.
They attacked each other with vicious language, exposing each other’s misdeeds without regard for their nine-year-old son’s ability to process their true nature. The hall’s candlelight flickered dimly as they argued, until the late Emperor suddenly drew his knife and stabbed the Empress.
Yan Xuan clearly remembered his mother knocking over the candlestick, letting everything sink into darkness. That act of tenderness seemed a fleeting thought, as she likely feared her son would witness the horror.
But he had already seen it, changing his life forever.
When he opened his eyes again, his face was cold.
Yan Xuan donned his sleeping robe, letting water droplets fall from his hair and body as he walked to the bedroom.
