Mo Xiangbin’s eyes fell on Mo Junyu for only a short while and made his heart beat fast, with cold sweat on his head. Then he looked away as if nothing had happened.
He turned to Ling Ruiyin and asked in a hoarse voice, “What happened?”
Ling Ruiyin wiped her tears and replied in a sobbing voice, “Your Majesty, Doctor Shen said that you were poisoned because you ate the damned elixir. I have told you before that the stuff came from nowhere and you couldn’t eat it. If you had listened to me, something like this wouldn’t have happened today.”
Ling Ruiyin complained and felt sad for her son.
What she said was sincere and made him feel sorrowful.
Even though Mo Xiangbin wasn’t used to being rebuked to his face since long ago, in front of Ling Ruiyin, he wasn’t displeased but moved.
Although he was blinded by the elixir-refiner because of oversight, he was not stupid.
Now he was feeble, and it seemed that all his strength was extracted in advance. He felt worse even than before he took elixir, and with Doctor Shen’s diagnosis, he knew what on earth had happened as he trusted this miracle-working doctor recommended by Mo Junyang.
Mo Xiangbin got furious in an instant and shouted, “Where is Han Ling?”
Ling Ruiyin was Mo Xiangbin’s biological mother and knew well about her son.
She patted Mo Xiangbin’s back to make him stop being angry and explained, “Don’t worry. I have ordered some people to bring Han Ling. It’s up to you how to deal with him.”
Mo Xiangbin coldly glanced at Han Ling who knelt on the floor and kept trembling, ordering directly, “Drag him out and behead him at once.”
He said mercilessly, as if he wouldn’t kill somebody but just told somebody to go out and cut a wax gourd.
All people were stunned, and then Han Ling screamed like a pig which was being killed. “Your Majesty, please spare my life. Please, Your Majesty. I was careless. I am sure to refine the elixir which can make you become stronger and live forever next time. Please give me another chance.”
Hearing that, the guards who came to drag Han Ling away didn’t do anything but looked at Mo Xiangbin hesitantly.
Mo Xiangbin snorted. “What? Haven’t you heard my order?”
He would really kill this man without mercy.
The two guards didn’t dare to delay after hearing that. They dragged Han Ling on both sides of him and prepared to pull him out.
“Father, please wait a moment.”
A clear voice cut in, and the guards stopped again. All people looked at the source of the voice.
It was the sixth prince Mo Junjing.
Mo Xiangbin stared at Mo Junjing and asked indifferently, “Junjing, what do you want to say?”
The others noticed Mo Xiangbin’s anger and didn’t say anything, as they feared that they would be implicated.
However, Mo Junjing wasn’t afraid of death. He didn’t notice the coldness in Mo Xiangbin’s words but stated boldly, “Father, although Doctor Shen said that you were in a coma because you were poisoned, he can’t explain what poison it is. If you kill Han Ling rashly before finding the truth, perhaps it will arouse the public opinion and influence your fame. I beg you…”
“What? Don’t I have the power to kill a person now?” Mo Xiangbin interrupted Mo Junjing coldly.
Mo Junjing was speechless and looked at Mo Xiangbin. He had nothing to say.
Mo Xiangbin pursed his lips again. “Speaking of which, if I am not brainless at an old age, you recommended Han Ling to me, right?”
Mo Junjing was unable to speak.
He had just wanted to show his face in front of his father and express that he was different, while what he said reminded the emperor. He couldn’t please Mo Xiangbin but got himself into trouble.
Mo Junjing was so anxious that he almost had cold sweat. He waved his hand repeatedly and stated, “Father, you get me wrong. I never want to harm you.”
“Really?” Mo Xiangbin leered at Mo Junjing with a faint smile. Nobody knew if he believed this son’s words.
Mo Junjing raised his hand and wiped the sweat on his forehead. Then he gritted his teeth and bit the bullet, continuing, “In the past, I just heard that you wanted to find a person to refine elixir, and I happened to know that Han Ling made great achievements in this field, so I recommended him to you. I didn’t know that he wanted to harm you. I really…”
“You recommended him to me before testing his capability. Is this your way to show respect to your father?” Mo Xiangbin expressed coldly and made Mo Junjing’s arguments stuck in his throat.
Mo Xiangbin didn’t want to say more to Mo Junjing. He just told the guards to pull Han Ling out and then expressed coldly, “Even if you don’t want to harm me, you are rash, and you should toughen yourself.
“I won’t blame you this time. You go back to your residence and reflect upon your mistakes. Don’t go out without my permission.”
What he said was shocking. Nobody had expected that Mo Xiangbin would put Mo Junjing under house arrest.
Mo Junjing looked at Mo Xiangbin in a daze, as if he hadn’t understood why he did it out of kindness but ended up with being locked up in the imperial palace, unable to get out.
However, Mo Xiangbin didn’t plan to give him a chance to explain. He waved his hand and told somebody to take Mo Junjing away.
It was weirdly quiet in the bedroom again. All people lowered their heads and didn’t dare to speak. They only observed Mo Xiangbin’s reactions out of the corners of their eyes from time to time.
After a while, Ling Ruiyin stated, “Your Majesty, you are unwell now. No matter what the reason is, you should pay attention to your health. The crown prince gave some suggestions just now, and I think that they are nice. What do you think?”
Ling Ruiyin repeated what Mo Junyu had said and intentionally stressed that this prince cared about his father.
Mo Xiangbin stayed silent for a while. In fact, he had heard Mo Junyu’s voice just now, and Ling Ruiyin’s repetition was not exaggerated.
When he raised his head and looked at Mo Junyu again, there was rare warmness in his cold eyes. “Junyu, you did a good job this time. Just do as you suggested.”
Mo Junyu was flattered and looked up at Mo Xiangbin, with surprise and confusion in his eyes which couldn’t be concealed.
From his childhood, Mo Junyu had seldom heard Mo Xiangbin’s soft voice, not to mention the praise like today. It was how only Mo Junhao was treated, so he could hardly believe it.
Mo Xiangbin noticed Mo Junyu’s expression and pondered for a moment. Then he understood what his first son was thinking about.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he was too harsh on his first son in the past few years. Otherwise, why did the young man show such an expression only because of his casual praise, as if he heard something shocking?
Mo Xiangbin sighed slightly. Although he felt guilty, he was used to being a boss. Even if he was really wrong, he wouldn’t apologize easily. He just raised his voice and told everybody, “The crown prince is thoughtful. When I am ill, I will let him handle everything at the imperial court.”
It almost meant that the crown prince would act as regent.
All the officials had different thoughts, yet they answered Mo Xiangbin respectfully on the surface.
Mo Xiangbin said a lot and started to feel tired. Then Ling Ruiyin suggested immediately, “Your Majesty, you haven’t fully recovered, so you should have a good rest and leave all the jobs to your subordinates. If you think that there is something wrong, just send somebody to tell me. I won’t disturb you now.”
After speaking, she got up and left the bedroom.
Mo Xiangbin waved his hand to dismiss all people. “Well. All of you can go away.”
All people left the bedroom one after another, but before the gate of the emperor’s residence was closed, Quan came over in haste and talked to Mo Junyang in front of everybody, “Your Excellency, don’t go away in a hurry. His Majesty told you to see him.”
Mo Xiangbin had just kicked all of them out, yet in just less than fifteen minutes, he summoned Mo Junyang alone.
No matter for what, only the fact that Mo Xiangbin regarded Mo Junyang highly aroused a lot of people’s comments.
Mo Junyang pretended that he hadn’t seen it. He glanced at Shi Qingxue and then nodded at Quan. Later, he walked back to the bedroom directly.
Quan didn’t follow him in but stood still at the gate like a door-god.
An official gave Quan a money bag secretly when there was nobody around. Then he showed a flattering smile and asked in a low voice, “Lord Quan, why did His Majesty summon His Excellency alone?”
Quan measured the weight of the money bag in his hand and then glanced at this official. He nodded with satisfaction in secret.
However, he still pretended to be cold and spoke in a loud voice, as if he would do official business according to official principles. “His Majesty summoned him, so he must have his reason. How can the servants like us make conjectures?”
He purposely said loudly to make the people inside hear it. At the same time, he winked at the man who had given him money, indicating that he didn’t know why Mo Xiangbin summoned Mo Junyang.
The two men in the bedroom remained silent for a while. When it returned quiet outside, they still looked at each other speechlessly.
It seemed that they competed on who would speak first.
In the end, Mo Xiangbin couldn’t control himself but stated first in embarrassment, “I was thoughtless…this time, so they took the opportunity.”
Mo Xiangbin admitted his fault first unprecedentedly, although he did it only in front of Mo Junyang, and in his words, he put the blame on others obviously and expressed that he was blinded.
Even so, Mo Xiangbin was an emperor, and it was not easy for him to say so.
However, Mo Junyang just uplifted his beautiful brows and didn’t make comments.
It seemed that he didn’t buy it.
“You…” Mo Xiangbin felt ashamed and annoyed and shouted, yet when he met Mo Junyang’s cold eyes, he shut up resentfully.
After all, he lacked confidence.
After a while, he finally sighed and continued with self-mockery and ridicule, “Among all people, perhaps only you dare to speak to me with this attitude.”
In fact, Mo Xiangbin was clear that Mo Junyang had such performances because he didn’t want anything from him or fear him.
Others feared him or wanted to flatter him in order to gain profit because of his status as the emperor, but what about Mo Junyang? This child had known his identity since long ago, so he didn’t need to worry that the emperor would do something to him. Compared with the other princes, Mo Junyang knew himself well enough and had never planned to fight for the throne.
However, because of this, Mo Junyang was the last person Mo Xiangbin was alert to. Even though the emperor didn’t fully trust this young man, when something happened and he couldn’t handle it, or when he wanted somebody to be a listener, as the emperor needed to vent his feelings, he thought of Mo Junyang first.
He sighed helplessly. “Kid, you are too calm. You are the crown prince’s assistant and have done so much for him, yet you always seem to keep out of the business. Even I can’t see through you. What will the crown prince think about?”
Mo Junyang frowned slightly and looked at Mo Xiangbin, without saying anything.
After Mo Xiangbin started the conversation, he didn’t care if Mo Junyang answered. Then he continued, “I am really aged. Recently, I think that my strength does not match my ambitions. I will give the throne to one of my sons sooner or later, but who should inherit my position after I die?”