*Crack…

The sound of a thunderclap reverberated in the Hall of Mental cultivation causing the otherwise occupied Emperor Gongxu to look outside the window.

He observed that the sky has turned tar-black and the large clouds were moving towards the forbidden city.

Emperor Gongxu sighed. It seems that a trip to the palace of gathered elegance would be an inconvenient one to take for the day.

He was about to continue working on a clock, his childhood fascination which developed into a hobby while in his self-imposed house arrest, when the doors opened and eunuch Wu stepped inside the room.

Eunuch Wu who has been beside the emperor since his enthronement at the age of 3, took furtive but brisk steps, signaling the urgency of the matter he was about to report.

"Huang shang, her highness, Empress Ruyi, has just been transferred to the birthing quarter."

Hearing this information, Emperor Gongxu's eyes widened as his heartbeat accelerated. He has been anticipating this moment since he learnt of the pregnancy. A pregnancy which, if he didn't know any better, arrived miraculously.

The last decade has been a nightmare to him and the imperial Qing. Beginning with their shameful defeat at the Sino-Japanese war, the scramble of concessions, the failed 100 days of reform which was performed in his bid for modernization through constitutional monarchy, the subsequent staged military coup which enabled the Empress dowager Cixui to ultimately hold all the reins of rulership in court, and just at the turn of the century, the boxer's rebellion which humiliatingly forced them out of the forbidden city.

Anyhow, after another disgraceful defeat, the Qing imperial court was forced to sign the Boxer protocol, a massacre veiled as a peace agreement but assured the Qing's continued reign in China.

Upon their return to the capital after the withdrawal of foreign powers, he sought to reclaim rulership in state affairs from the empress dowager, believing that her grave blunder would deem her unfit to rule further. However, to his utter disappointment, the case was not so.

Instead, his attempt only earned him the encouragement to spend more time in the inner court and to increase his efforts on sowing his seeds in hopes of him finally having a male heir. Initially, just to spite those cronies, he avoided contact with all the women in the inner court, old and new. However, this phase came to pass, and the long-term celibacy made him unintentionally double his efforts.

Numerous sets of new concubines were sent to him that he was kept busy almost every night. However, all stones thrown to the pond have not even made a ripple. Although he had 2 daughters, one sent to marry a Mongolian prince and the other died in her infancy, the present might not be the same as the past. Due to this, gossip run amuck that he has most probably grown infertile.

After a while, he too somewhat believed the rumors, and this dampened his enthusiasm. Meanwhile, his relationship with Fengwan, otherwise also known as Empress Ruyi who was a niece of the Empress Dowager Cixui, improved. In the past, he disliked her for she represented the empress dowager's influence in his life, so much so that he swore to never engage in physical intimacy with her.

Their improved relationship led from one thing to another. Then, in a twist of fate despite their advanced age, she got pregnant.

The news got him exhilarated though it did not escape his mind to think of the possibility that the non-pregnancy of his consorts and concubines must have had something to do with her and her aunt.

He suspected that his women in the harem were given concoctions to prevent pregnancy, while Fengwan was not given any because of her kinship with the Dowager.

However, having this thought and being able to do something about it were two different matters.

It did raise his resentment further but at the same time, he saw it as an opportunity.

Although there has been no physical evidence, he already knew from the beginning that Fengwan has been planted on his side by the dowager to act as her personal spy. The passage of time did not erase this knowledge, but it somehow blunted his sharp edges. Meanwhile, his powerlessness made him lower his guard.

Fengwan's pregnancy confirmed that she has always been in cahoots with her aunt, and though it agitated him and made him despise her again, he knew the fact that if Fengwan gives birth to his heir, it would likely secure and stabilize his position once more.

To safeguard his one-way ticket to power, he guised himself as a picture of a doting father and husband. He relinquished his presence in court, discharging his ceremonial duties with an excuse of wanting to spend more time with Fengwan during her pregnancy.

Surprisingly, or should it be unsurprisingly? No one pleaded for him to return to court. A reason might be because they were also looking forward to the birth of a prince, an event worthy of a grand celebration as there has been nothing even faintly remote to one in the whole of imperial Qing in the last decade.

Though, of course, he knew that it was largely because his presence or non-presence did not affect the court even the slightest.

*Crack… boom!

Another thunderclap resounded and shortly after, the pitter-patter tapping from the rooftop followed. It has started raining.

The rain and thunder brought an inexplicable ominous feeling to Emperor Gongxu. "Have you seen anyone, or anything strange on your way here?" he asked.

"Nucai have not…" Eunuch Wu answered then paused. As if recalling something, he furrowed his brows. Finally remembering, he could not stop himself from inhaling through his mouth before uttering in panic "N-Nucai saw head Eunuch Lui heading east on nucai's way back."

--

TBC

Glossary:

Huang shang- Lord Emperor

Nucai- A deprecatory first-person pronoun by Manchu male officials when addressing the emperor (and the imperial family). A term that can be translated to 'slave' or 'lackey'.

Hall of mental cultivation- residence of the emperor in the forbidden city

Palace of gathered elegance- part of the six western palaces, residence of empress in this story

Palace of eternal spring- part of six western palaces, residence of empress dowager