Without major rituals like ancestor worship or offering sacrifices to heaven, and with the disaster still unresolved, within the Imperial Palace, the Emperor did not attend the morning court but instead took a day off, leading many nobles and ministers to speculate privately, with various families secretly trying to obtain firsthand information.
But Emperor Chu fell ill in the middle of the night, and Eunuch Zhou was on strict guard immediately. After Song Zhiyuan arrived, the two guarded Yangxin Hall like an iron barrel, with no information leaking out. Outsiders could spread rumors however they wanted.
The absence of nine tolls of the mourning bell in a single day indicated that the Emperor was still alive, and even if there were speculations, nobody dared to act recklessly.
Thus, this firsthand information was exceptionally important, as it concerned families' future strategic decisions.
