Zhu Su still remained silent. As far as he knew, he had done his job with full of responsibility. Now it was time to relax, how could he not spend this free time to enjoy his hobby? Moreover, this hobby had a noble aim. Medicine could help many people, in fact, it was more worthwile than studying government since it could help the people not only from their own country, but also those from other countries.
So? Why did his father still complain him?
"If I still see you are too obsessed in medicine..." The emperor waved his hand. "You know the consequences you will face!"
Finally, Zhu Su could not bear it anymore. He replied, "At least what I am studying is the knowledge that aims to help many people, to provide healing for the sick! Far worthy than running a cruel government that only kills and tortures people!"
"You... what do you say?! How dare you say such nonsense things?! I'm doing this all because I truly love you, it's all for the sake of your future!..."
"And that's the point! Because you are an emperor, then you think, all of your sons should follow your step, to go deep into government affairs. Everyone has their own way of life, and so am I. Please understand what your children actually really need. Because I don't have the heart to run the government like you always do!"
"You!" The emperor became wrath. "Kneel down in the front yard as the compensation of your words!"
It was in the mid of winter. The temperature was below zero degrees, the air was so chilling as if it could pierce straight into the bone. The winter wind blew like a sharp knife. And Zhu Su had to kneel down only by wearing very thin clothes. How long he had been there, he did not know. He could not count correctly since a few minutes seemed like a year for him. His hands and feet turned stiff, and numb. He was in severe agony. However, there was something more painful from the physical pain he felt. It was his heart that really hurt.
The next day, just when the emperor found that Zhu Su had passed out, he by then withdrew his order, thus ordered the court ladies and eunuchs to warm him up on the bed.
From that moment on, Zhu Su did not intend to criticize his father even a word again. He chose to distance himself from medicine until he was sent to Kaifeng. But after he lived in Kaifeng, he still continued to keep the distance from his father. He also learned that plenty of cruelty had been performed by his father while ruling this country, but he decided to turn a blind eye to the dictatorship carried out by the emperor. Although he saw with his own eyes that his father sentenced many people to death during his reign, Zhu Su chose to turn his face away, unwilling to see it.
Because he was powerless to change it.
He was powerless to argue with his father. For everything.
He had also heard, after he was exiled to Yunnan, the emperor immediately carried out "Chan Wang Qi" - Destroying the Fan Wang's Aura - by demolishing a pagoda in his palace that once consisted of seven floors into three floors, and destroying the entire second floor of his palace. The formerly splendid Song Imperial Palace had now become smaller and its grandeur had also much diminished. And the reason was, the emperor had seen the clouds rolling very gorgeously and forming an "Aura of Dragon" above Kaifeng sky.
"The Emperor is worried that a new emperor will appear from Kaifeng, whereas he has already determined the legitimate Crown Prince to be the next Ming Emperor," Bian Tong, Chief of the Zhou Fan Wang Guo's household department, informed him.
How could Zhu Su not be devastated and become less affectionate to his father? For Heaven's sake, he had totally given up his ambition to become the Ming Emperor. Okay then, let's imagine that he would really become emperor, but then it meant that the throne was still inherited by the emperor's own son, didn't it? It still came into his kindred? But why was his father so reluctant? Why should his father be afraid of him? And exiled him cruelly like that?
So, how could he cry and feel lost by his father's death? His love for his father had even half gone from his heart.
"... Huang Ye Ye, you are a truly great leader. Expelling the Yuan invaders, liberating and even raising the status of Han ethnicity, suppressing every rebellion, overcoming people's economic problems, prospering the whole country..."
Fu Huang, are you really a great leader? After the cruelty you've committed all this time, will Heaven still consider you as a great leader?