"Are you hard of hearing now?" Zhang Li asked with a brow raised. Wan Rong warned in a chill tone, " You'd mind how you speak to me, you... whatever you are."
" And you'd be sure to do so as well. Don't try to provoke me." Zhang Li warned as well. They both stood, staring down at each other without blinking an eye. Fei Yan rushed into the kitchen and met the tense atmosphere. She quickly grabbed Zhang Li's hand and sighed," You both stop this. We still have a lot to do."
" She started it. I was minding my own business." Zhang Li argued with a small voice. Wan Rong scoffed, " And who are you? The new girl's mouthpiece?"
Zhang Li scoffed in return, "Maybe you should tell me who or what those are behind you. I'm genuinely curious, who do you all think you are?"
"Want to find out?"
"Of course."
Wan Rong attacked first. She shoved Zhang Li in the shoulder with a swift palm stroke but Zhang Li barely moved. Wan Rong swung her fists this time and Zhang Li deflected the attack. Wan Rong narrowed her eyes, " She's only defending? How arrogant!"
Zhang Li thought, " She's not an ordinary slave girl. She is trained in martial arts."
Just as Zhang Li was about to attack, Cai Wei entered with a loud voice, " The both of you, stop this instance. How dare you all?!"
Fei Yan and Zhu Xin quickly held Zhang Li down with pleading voices while the other girls held Wan Rong down as she looked at her opponent in disdain. Cai Wei shook with anger, " What's all this? The inner Palace has been waiting and the Imperial Emperor is sick and you are fighting like some crazy, loose girls?"
Wan Rong's chest heaved up and down before accusing, " Maybe you should- "
"Guards? Guards!" Cai Wei called out and two guards rushed in. She instructed, " Whip them twenty strokes each."
"Twenty strokes?" Wan Rong's face paled. She continued in anger, " You can't do that. What'll happen to my skin?"
" Nobody cares about your skin. You should have thought about that before misbehaving." Cai Wei spoke with a wicked grin and huffed. Fei Yan quickly knelt down and held Cai Wei's dress ," Please forgive them. Zhang Li just arrived yesterday and is not yet familiar with the rules. Forgive them." Cai Wei just kicked her away in disgust.
"Whip them!!!" She turned towards the guards, fuming with anger. Zhang Li just scoffed as she was being dragged away while Wan Rong kept screaming and hurling insults at the guards.
One of the girls rushed to Cai Wei and laughed cautiously before asking, "Don't you think it's a bit too much?"
"Shut up and work!" Cai Wei responded and walked out of the kit hen with high shoulders.
.......
Wang Jin sat by the headboard beside the Emperor as he fed him the warm porridge from the small bowl. The Empress looked like she'd being crying while the Physician just stood there with his head down. The Emperor wheezed and asked rhetorically, " I'm going to die. I can feel it."
" Far from it, Your Majesty. We'll do our very best, even if it kills us." The Physician reassured but he himself wasn't sure of his own words. Wang Jin waved the man off and the Eunuch escorted him to the door. Taking the bowl from her son's hands, the Empress spoke, " Let me do it."
Wang Jin stood up without a word, bowed and walked out if the room and shut the doors. When he was out, he smirked at nothing as he smoothened his sleeves.
"Seems like the drug is beginning to take effect."
......
After about two hours, the door to his private study was open and the Empress walked in and sighed. Wang Jin looked up from the slip he was reading and smiled. Adjusting his official Cap, he said, " My dear mother, you shouldn't have troubled yourself to come here. There are people watching."
"What's wrong with entering my son's study?" She said with a smile as she walked closer before asking, " How did I do today? I think my performance was great overall. Cried so much, I think I'll fall sick."
They shared a brief laugh before Wang Jin's face turned all serious and sinister.
" Everything's going according to plan. I can't wait to actually sit on the throne. I'll have those three bastards beheaded or hanged. They've mocked me for so long." The cup on the table hit the ground and shattered as he flung it away in anger. The Empress raised an eyebrow subtly at the action before sighing, " I'm sure you've heard already."
Wang Jin looked up at her, " Heard what?" The Empress had her eyes blown open, " You mean you don't know?"
" Can you speak directly and stop beating around the the bush? I don't have all time for this." He snapped and she quickly composed herself and cleared her throat to deliver the news that shook the palace.
The Crown prince is in the capital. Wang Lei is back." The expression on Wang Jin's face suddenly paled but he soon got himself and asked, " Wang Lei? Isn't he dead?"
"Ah? You stupid child, who told you that?" The Empress looked really disappointed at what she heard. Wang Jin waved it off and continued, " If he's alive and in the capital, that just makes it four bastards to behead."
The Empress just gazed at her son. The boy who had matured into a man capable of taking decisions more than half of the entire people would accept. But she opened her mouth, cautious of her words.
"A-Jin, don't you think.... don't you think killing them all is a bit too much? You can just throw them out and strip them off their royal titles. You can even send them far away. Far, far from here even."
Wang Jin slowly turned to his mother and stared at her before bursting into a maniacal laughter. The Empress took a step backward as she watched him laugh like she had just said the most absurd things. Was this really her son?
When his laughter had died down, Wang Jin slowly stood up and asked, "Oh mother, how did it feel when you killed the former Empress?"
Her eyes quickly went wide. "W..what?"