Can't save my Beloved Consort?

"Head imperial physician Shen enter." A eunuch's high pitched voice called.

The trembling head imperial physician entered the Emperor's study silently. He dared not breathe heavily and tried to silence his footsteps as much as possible. He was a man past his fifties, dressed in the imperial physician's uniform, with his graying hair tied into a knot atop his head.

"This lowly servant Shen Chongan greets your majesty, may your majesty live for tens of thousands of years." The head imperial physician said as he kneeled on the cold marble floor and did not get up.

"En." The Emperor just stared at the old man kneeling on the cold floor but did not bother telling him to get up, so he remained kneeling. The Emperor sitting at his desk, picked up the reports that he had put off for a half a month, as he was anticipating the birth of his child with consort Ning, but now his happiness ended with such bitter disappointment. A few week's worths of reports of everything going on in the Great Jin Dynasty was a lot, it added up to stacks on the Emperor's table.

The servants in the study could only remain silent. Their Emperor chose this of all times to work on his reports. It seemed he had the intention to let the head imperial physician kneel for a while, as servants to the Emperor, what could they possibly do?

The silence formed an oppressive aura that overtook the imperial study for two hours before the Emperor put down the report he was reading and said: "Head physician Shen, how many years have you been serving this palace?"

Head imperial physician Shen who could no longer feel his knees replied: "Your majesty, this servant has served for more than thirty years."

"You served my late Imperial father as well? I seem to remember my Imperial father died while under your care." The Emperor of Great Jin said in a moment of nostalgia. His Imperial father had died after he had his becoming of age ceremony at sixteen years old, leaving him, the oldest son to ascend the throne as the next Emperor.

A young Emperor was always the most vulnerable to be easily swayed by the old, sly ministers who were always trying to find fault within his reign. In order to make his own decisions, he had been ruthless and decisive toward those old ministers who have served multiple generations of Emperors. Soon, no one dared to control the young Emperor and he gained a reputation as a ruthless leader.

"Your majesty, I could have saved the late Emperor, it was just no one approved of my methods." He had once diagnosed the late Emperor with an inflammation of the stomach, for treatment, he proposed that the stomach be cut open, to find the source of inflammation, but no one had agreed to allow him to do it. The ministers had strongly opposed, in the end, the Emperor had passed away.

"How can you talk of cutting open the dragon body?" The Emperor asked. There had never been any predecessors who had come up with such an outrageous method of cutting one's body up in order to heal a person. Moreover, this was the body that was linked to the fate of the dynasty.

"It would have prevented his death." The head imperial physician said solemnly in a tone filled with fear and regret. Yes, his heart palpitated when he was in the same room as the Emperor, but when it came to medicine he could talk without regard to his life, he was certain that on that topic no one was better at it than him.

"Stop spouting your outrageous nonsense, tell Zhen why did Zhen's beloved consort die?" The Emperor was tired of the old man talking of such rubbish ideas and got straight to the point.

"Your majesty, consort Ning died due to unforeseen birth complications, the young prince had already died within the womb, there was nothing that could be done."

"How could this have happened? Were you not checking up on her pregnancy to ensure these complications would not happen?" The Emperor's gaze became more ferocious.

"The last time this lowly official checked, everything was indeed fine." Head imperial physician Shen said carefully, every word filled with caution.

"Then how could this have happened?" The Emperor repeated himself in a tone ever more dreadful.

"The prince died before his birth, as he was forced out of her body during labor, it caused internal bleeding to consort Ning, resulting in her death."

"Was there a way she could have been saved?" The Emperor couldn't help but ask.

"I could have tried the same method with the late Emperor." The head imperial physician bowed his head, even more, it seemed he had shrunken significantly, but what he spoke was the truth.

"Insolence! How dare you say such things. You could not save Zhen's imperial father, nor Zhen's beloved consort, why would Zhen keep such a useless imperial physician around? Guards throw Shen Congan and everyone who had a hand in consort Ning's death into the prisons."

"Yes, your Majesty." The guards saluted as they grabbed the shell-shocked head imperial physician and dragged him out of the imperial study.