Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Du Ziguo went to pay his respects to my Father Emperor, only to be met with a sharp command to “get out.”
He withdrew obediently, but was immediately summoned back by another shout: “Get back here!”
I don’t know what was said between them.
When Du Ziguo finally emerged, his eyes were slightly red, and he kept wiping them with his sleeve. That look of pure innocence made it seem as if he had suddenly regressed to the youth he once was.
This performance of a harmonious meeting between monarch and subject left me feeling thoroughly disgusted.
My Father Emperor’s favor for the Du Family remained as steadfast as ever. Even though the Du Family’s monopolization of power as imperial in-laws had reached a point that incited public outrage, his original devotion never wavered.
Our dynasty had once endured a period of domination by imperial in-laws; it took ten years of chaos before that rebellion was finally suppressed.
To prevent such a situation from recurring, all subsequent Empresses were chosen from commoner families.
My Empress Mother was the daughter of a minor ninth-rank official. Even after she was selected as Empress, my maternal grandfather was only promoted to a secondary fifth-rank position.
Noble Consort Du was different.
She hailed from the Yanling Du Clan. At the height of their glory, the clan had produced three high dukes in a single generation; her family’s influence was deeply entrenched and multifaceted.
According to protocol, she not only should have been barred from becoming Empress, but she shouldn’t have even been allowed to enter the palace.
Yet, as fate would have it, she and my Father Emperor fell in love and survived life-and-death trials together.
To gain entry into the palace, she even drank a bowl of medicine to render herself barren, using her fertility to bargain for the Empress Dowager’s permission to enter the harem.
Because of this, the bond between my Father Emperor and the Empress Dowager was severed. From that day on, they never saw each other again.
When the Empress Dowager passed away, she died facing the door, desperately waiting for one last glimpse of my Father Emperor.
However, he never came.
My Father Emperor stood outside the door, but he never crossed the threshold.
When the Empress Dowager breathed her last, Cining Palace was filled with the sound of wailing.
My Father Emperor was crying too, but he was hiding in Consort Du’s arms, weeping over his own grief and the psychological barrier he couldn’t bring himself to overcome.
I suppose this is what my transmigrator Father Emperor calls being a “love brain.”
In the original plot, my Father Emperor and I shared the same “love brain” lineage.
But observing all of this now as a bystander, I only feel a chilling dread.
It is impossible for my Father Emperor to be ignorant of the horrors of imperial in-laws seizing power.
During the Han Dynasty, when the Lü Clan held sway, more than half of the Liu Clan descendants were slaughtered.
After Empress Lü passed away, the Liu Clan retaliated by exterminating the entire Lü Clan, and even those Liu descendants who had been close to the Lü Clan were massacred in the purge.
My Father Emperor’s lineage is thin; he has only one son and one daughter.
I am the eldest.
Compared to the formidable Yanling Du Clan, we are insignificant.
I suspect that in my Father Emperor’s eyes, his two children are equally insignificant when measured against his great and loyal love.
Once the Du Family completely hollows out my Father Emperor’s authority, only death awaits us. My Father Emperor can afford to believe naively in his love, but I cannot afford to trust the Du Family.