The Fourth Prince was the lifeblood of Queen Fang. She and Emperor Longqing had become estranged and no longer had the love they once had. The only person she could rely on and count on was this son.
After the fire in the Imperial Observatory and the incident of calling a horse a zebra and saying that the Fourth Prince was the reincarnation of the First Prince, her relationship with Emperor Longqing reached a freezing point.
Although she succeeded in bringing the fourth prince to her side, she was ultimately unable to reverse the situation.
Emperor Longqing had five princes to take care of him, and Concubine De had always been fond of him. Even Concubine Lin Shu, whom he had always valued, was pregnant and about to give birth. His patience with Empress Fang and her son was really limited.
When the dispute over the succession in the court was in full swing, the gap between Emperor Longqing and Empress Fang and her son was further deepened - although he was old, what he feared most was being told that he was old.
The harder something is to get, the more you want to hold on to it.
When he was young, he suffered enough from being out of favor. After he finally seized power, he was able to stand out among his brothers and decide their life and death. He was reluctant to step down from this position.
Even if this person is his biological son, it won't work.
However, Empress Fang seemed quite anxious about the dispute over the succession, so he became more and more distant from her.
Before the Fourth Prince got into trouble, he had not set foot in Fengyi Palace for more than half a month.
But he never expected that this time when he stepped into Fengyi Palace, he would see his son's corpse.
It is true that he did not like the Fourth Prince as much as he did the Fifth Prince. Recently, because of his bad temper and his mother, Queen Fang's growing ambition, he had developed a certain disgust towards the Fourth Prince.
But no matter how much he hated it, he was still his son.
And the number of his sons is really small.
He has always loved his daughter like a treasure, let alone his son.
The moment he saw the Fourth Prince, his eyes almost froze. Looking at the Fourth Prince lying motionless on the bed, he felt as if something was blocking his throat, and it was neither going up nor down. It made him feel like there was something stuck in his throat, and he felt so uncomfortable that he almost wanted to vomit.
Queen Fang no longer knew how to cry. She hugged the Fourth Prince tightly and refused to let anyone get close to her.
Even when Xiao Gu cautiously approached her and wanted her to put the Fourth Prince down, she was scolded by her.
Emperor Longqing was already somewhat unsteady on his feet. With the help of Eunuch An, he could barely walk to the Fourth Prince's bedside. He touched the Fourth Prince's already purple lips and asked Empress Fang with barely enough sanity, "What happened?"
Empress Fang's eyes were dull. She turned a deaf ear to Emperor Longqing's arrival and seemed not to hear his questions. She just hugged the Fourth Prince and refused to let go.
It was Xiao Gu who came forward and spoke out crying.
The Fourth Prince was with the Fifth Prince. When the two went to the West Garden to see cheetahs, the Fourth Prince wanted to get close to the leopard. The eunuch accidentally let the leopard break out of the cage.
The fourth prince was immediately knocked to the ground by the leopard.
He already had epilepsy, and after being frightened like this, his limbs began to twitch and he foamed at the mouth.
Later, although the eunuchs rushed forward and drove away the leopard together with the nearby Jinwu Guards, the Fourth Prince was dying.
The imperial physicians treated the patient promptly, but it was still of no use.
After struggling for a while, the Fourth Prince finally had difficulty breathing, his face flushed, and he died soon after.
Emperor Longqing's feet swayed a few times, and he fell on the edge of the bed. Looking at the pale and thin face of the Fourth Prince, he was unable to utter a word for a while.
He recently built an arena in Xiyuan, and when he had nothing to do he liked to go there and watch the tigers and leopards.
The leopard they were talking about was recently presented to him by the governor of Zhejiang as a birthday gift, which was said to be an auspicious sign.
The leopard was snow-white all over, and after hearing what the Zhejiang Governor said in the memorial, even he himself felt that this might really be an auspicious sign from heaven, which should be on this leopard, so he liked it even more.
He also specifically told them to take good care of it.
But who would have known that in just such a short time, such a big thing would happen.
He recovered and stared at Eunuch An with lightning-like eyes, almost gritting his teeth and asking: "Who are the people following the two princes?! Catch them and interrogate them! Interrogate them thoroughly!"
Emperor Longqing was really angry.
That night, the palace urgently summoned Prince Zheng and others into the palace, and there was no further movement until the evening of the next day.
At the same time, everyone was immersed in the great shock of the death of the Fourth Prince, so much so that something that should have equally shocked the world was temporarily drowned in this huge wave.
The Wucheng Bingmasi rescued a group of people trapped in a burning house in Beijing Hutong, but what was shocking was that among them was Chu Jingxing, the prince of Linjiang Palace.
What is even more shocking is that...
When Chu Jingxing was rescued, he was still naked.
The commander of the South City Army immediately recognized Chu Jingxing, whose face had been blackened by the smoke. He was so shocked that he didn't know what to do for a moment. Chu Jingxing had inhaled too much smoke and was unconscious. There were too many onlookers, so he had to disperse the people and call a doctor.
The most important thing is that the runners under him have pointed out that there are four fire points and there are traces of kerosene, which means it was arson.
Since ancient times, murder and arson have been two of the most unforgivable crimes, not to mention that the fire also burned down many houses next door. Although the people living in Beijing Hutong were not very noble, the terrible thing was that many scholars loved to live here.
Several censors from the Censorate lived here, and their houses were affected. Either the walls were blackened, or the screen walls were burned down by the fire. Some of their daughters' embroidery towers were even burned down. The censors were not easy to deal with, and they had already sent their servants to come and inquire about the news.
The commander of Nancheng has always been the one who is most afraid of causing trouble, so he had to tell the truth and said that someone had set fire to the house. The specific details could only be inquired after the prince of Linjiang Palace woke up.
Everyone was confused and shocked for a moment.
The Linjiang Palace is located in the imperial city and has nothing to do with Beijing Hutong. Logically speaking, the Crown Prince should not appear in such a place. How could the fire be related to him
The censors all seemed to have sensed something and urged their servants to investigate more diligently.
One of the people whose houses were burned was the prince, and the fire also killed several people. The commander of South City did not dare to be negligent and ordered his men to conduct a thorough investigation. Soon, someone said that the male owner of the house was not there and no one knew where he had gone.