I Am This Type of Woman

90.2

"Who?" Ban Hua thought people closer to them were either the idlers who compared to them were even less informed, or military families whose status were not very high and thus had nothing important to pass on.

"Your fiance, Rong Junpo." Yin-shi produced a piece of paper and placed it in front of Ban Hua, "Have a look."

The writing was almost illegible, only 6 hastily written words.

'Incident at the Palace, be cautious'.

Finished reading, Ban Hua held the paper against a burning candle. After it completely turned into ashes, Ban Hua said, "Mother, at this moment we should still know nothing."

Yin-shi smiled, "You are correct. We should know nothing."

Ban Heng looked at Yin-shi, then at Ban Hua, his head was in the fog.

One moment of 'we should know' followed by 'we don't know', but also 'we need to be careful'. What does this mean?

—

Yes, what did it mean?

Ban Huai who was dragged out from his bed stood foggedly in the Palace, surrounded by the regular and familiar other idlers. In normal times, not all of them attended court sessions, but today everyone seemed to be here?

Actually the idlers were more surprised than him. Ban Huai did not like attending the court, and being in mourning should give him more excuse for not coming, why was he here now? But they were at the Court, it was not good to voice their question. Ban Huai signalled an 'up' to them without speaking.

The idlers understood, it was His Majesty's order.

Half a shichen later His Majesty was still not there, making everyone puzzled. It had been over half a shichen later than the normal court session time, how come His Majesty not arrived yet?

In the midst of everyone speculating, Rong Xia and the other three ministers appeared. Their expression was grave and their mouths were shut. The officials became more suspicious, but they still could not figure things out.

"His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!"

The crowd watched the Crown Prince entered followed by a eunuch. He was dressed in the crown prince robe embroidered with dragon stiches, with a crown of five dragons curling against a pearl on his head. The eunuch was the one everyone familiar with, His Majesty's chief eunuch Wang De.

"Imperial Father has ordered gu to take up the task of overseeing the country." The Crown Prince walked up the hall, sat down at the seating newly added underneath the dragon chair. "Imperial Father is currently unwell, and will take a rest for a few days. Thus for this period, gu asks that all darens can assist."

* gu 孤  = I, We (used by a crown prince or a regent), like how emperors used 'zhen' to call themselves.

Was His Majesty unwell to the point that the Crown Prince had to step up with governing the country?

"Chen all greet His Highness the Crown Prince. Long live the Crown Prince, thousands of thousands years."

Fine, as subjects, assisting His Majesty or assisting the Crown Prince made no difference. As long as the Crown Prince was sensible and refrained from anything crazy, subjects should put up with it.

What made everyone wondered was, in this critical moment, His Majesty summoned 4 ministers unrelated to neither Yan party nor Shi party. Was this implying that, both Yan Hui and Shi Chonghai had lost their positions in His Majesty's eyes, so only Count Cheng'an and the 3 others were summoned?

The Crown Prince was a gentle person and his foundation was not yet stable, his speeches and actions at the court was inevitably not up to the mark. Good for him that Yan party and Shi party had previously received some blows, thus their influence at the Court was not as strong as it used to be. With the help of Rong Xia and the others, the court session was adequately concluded, and the Crown Prince had even won a few praises from the officials.