Second Wife

Chapter Fifty

The imperial guards slaughtered the rest of the enemies now all the focus was on the royal father and son now that the palace has been secured.

Jing Yi's whole body turned cold, he thought he could get away with this. Kill the Emperor and the throne is his.

"Father Emperor you forced me to do this." Jing Yi replied.

What Jing Yi said could be counted as the truth, even a frightened bunny would strike back when cornered and that's what the Emperor did. The Emperor always knew his second son was up to no good. The Second Prince had no exemplary military or scholarly merits yet he had managed to amass the supports of various ministers.

The Emperor's plan started right after Feng Huang saved the First Prince. The Emperor hadn't dwelt further into the incident to give the impression that he thought that Chawania was behind the attack. Sending away the First Prince was a precautionary measure to ensure that the prince himself wasn't behind the attack.

The Emperor had begun to guess the Second Prince thoughts of rebellion after the gold mine saga began to surface and suspected his involvement with Chawania rather than Marquis Mo.

His spies were excellent and managed to link Marquis Mo and Jing Yi together, but didn't expose as he wanted to use the opportunity to reshuffle his court.

The Emperor's plan was to confine Jing Yi to his manor and use the moment to test his son's loyalty and foundation. If after all of his associates were arrested and Jing Yi was found guilty of the crimes, if he hadn't done anything and accepted the punishment the Emperor was going to let him off lightly.

The constant pressure of his crimes and the rumors of the Emperor appointing Jing Long as crown prince made Jing Yi's mind break and forced him to act desperately. Not saying that his sons can't aim for the throne, but the Emperor doesn't want a sword pointing towards him back while he's still alive and healthy.

"My son, what have this father forced you to do?"

"Father Emperor, you betray me first so you can't blame me for wanting to kill you." Jing Yi said. "You want to appoint First brother as your successor. You want to adopt Feng Huang as your son. You treated me unfairly. You forced me into this."

"I forced you into nothing!" The Emperor coldly replied. He stared long n hard into Jing Yi's eyes until the prince was forced to avert his eyes.

"I never treat any of you brothers any different. You all received the same treatment, the same education. All three of my oldest sons were giving crown prince upbringing. What this you want this Emperor to do? Coddle you, shower you with words of praise and glory? Grow up!"

Jing Yi's mind went numb. Looking back he and his brothers were treated equal by his father.

"Why did you arrest me then. Confine me and believed others over me."

All were beginning to think that the Second Prince's mind truly was damaged.

"Second son, all you needed to do was stay in your manor. You was never going to lose your title." Jing Yi was so focused on staying a Prince and being the Emperor that he didn't think.

Everyone was so focused on the royal family that the guards themselves failed to keep being on alert from the prince. Jing Yi grabbed the sword of a fallen black cloth assassin, parry the Emperor sword that was by his neck and stabbed at the Emperor.

Feng Huang had moved closer to the Emperor during his conversation and when he saw Jing Yi about to stab the Emperor he ran and pushed him out of the way.

The sword that was meant for the Emperor embedded itself in Feng Huang. Feng Huang felt pain near his side and fell to the ground beside the Emperor. The Emperor was shocked for a moment and with the sword still in his hand slashed at Jing Yi's second attack just in time for the guards to incapacitate Jing Yi.

"Feng Huang!" The Emperor roared. His heart leapt in his chest beating wildly as he felt an unimaginable pain there.

The Emperor closed his eyes and remembered the conversation he had with the Empress. It was just after the Empress had learnt of the attack on Jing Long and Feng Huang and their injuries. He had gone into her courtyard not liking her sudden interest in this young man.

"Coveting a man while married, my dear Empress?"

The Empress was frightened as she had not realized the Emperor had come into her courtyard.

"This wife wouldn't dare my Emperor. This wife is blessed to have a dragon as a husband."

"Then, what is it? Why do you clutch at that cloth and weep. Is our not alive?"

The Empress knew the Emperor was raging mad, He might seem calm and collected on the outside but was like a soup boiling over on the inside.

"That young man... Feng Huang is our son."

"You cheated?" The Emperor roared clearly missing the 'our son' part.

"No, never have I." She reassured him and began to explain to the Emperor what she had done.

She had made the midwife announced that she had given birth to one son; one because she wanted to support one son and prevent infighting between brothers and two, twins were seen sometimes as harbinger of sorrow and destruction. The Empress didn't want to choose between sons son she sent Feng Huang to the old Madam to be raised after learning of the Madam's son's death.

The Emperor looked down at Feng Huang, putting pressure on his bleeding wound.

"Where's the imperial doctor? Why isn't he here? See if I don't root up all nine generations of his family if I don't see him now."

Feng Huang wanted to speak. The Emperor was holding him. Why are you holding me?

"Don't you die, don't you dare die!"

The Emperor was and always have been after his conversation with the Empress trying to figure out a way to acknowledge Feng Huang as his son with the least amount of repercussion and hassle.

"Your Royal Majesty? " Feng Huang breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. Pain racked his body burning like fire. Black spots filled the edges of his vision and the only thing Feng Huang could hear was his own heartbeat.

"You care too much for this subject's life. Why is it so?"

It's true, he cared more than he should for a subject of the crown. When the words would not come, the tears did and the Emperor sank to his knees lifting Feng Huang head as he held him for the first time.

"Because, you are my son. You are this Royal Majesty's son."

"Feng Huang closed his eyes and tears of sorrow came from the Emperor. It was more than crying, it was the kind of desolate sobbing that comes from a person drained of all hope.