The Empress's hand remained steady as she slowly picked up the book from the ground.
Its contents were damning—detailed accounts of her youthful misdeeds, listing those she had schemed against, the women she had caused to miscarry, and the innocents she had trapped in her web. Yet, the Empress felt no fear. The victims of her actions had long since perished, reduced to mere whispers of history buried deep beneath the palace grounds. The Emperor, she was sure, scarcely remembered such trifles, let alone would punish her now after more than two decades of shared rule.
But the disappointment in the Emperor's eyes stung in a way she hadn't anticipated. His gaze no longer held the faint admiration it once did. Recent years had seen the aging ruler grow distant, less inclined to indulge her. She had reconciled with the loss of his favor, but what truly concerned her was the potential fallout for the Crown Prince, their son.
Her hands faltered when she noticed a particular name on one of the pages. For the first time, her composure cracked. This was the reason for the Emperor's sudden, fiery reaction. The book had revealed the secret she thought buried forever.
The name belonged to her elder sister, the late Empress Yuan. Despite her death, Yuan's shadow lingered in the Emperor's heart, haunting his memories.
"What do you intend to do with this, Your Majesty?" the Empress finally asked, her voice steady despite the turmoil within.
The Emperor's expression twisted into one of disgust. Once, he had admired her calm beauty; now, her very presence revolted him.
"Are you truly asking me this?" His voice was heavy with anger. "The incident during Ah Yue's labor—do you still claim it was an accident? Or must I force the truth from your own mouth?"
The Empress sighed, her trembling hands smoothing the stray strands of her hair. "Since you seem to know everything already, why bother asking? Yes, it was me. I bribed the midwife out of jealousy. I intended for both mother and child to perish. But fate is cruelly ironic—the child survived."
The Emperor's hand shot out, delivering a sharp slap across her face. "Poisonous woman!" he spat.
The Empress laughed bitterly, the sound cold and devoid of warmth. "Poisonous? Yes, that I am! Li Yue—so perfect, so virtuous! But where did that virtue get her? Dead by my hand, while I rose to become Empress. My son is the Crown Prince, and hers? He rots away in a temple as a monk!"
The Emperor trembled with rage, his whole body shaking as he stared at the woman he had trusted for more than twenty years. For the first time, he realized he had never truly known her.
"Guards!" His voice thundered through the chamber. "The Empress has fallen gravely ill and will no longer receive visitors. Seal Huang Qi Palace immediately!" Without another glance at her, he stormed out.
The Imperial City was abuzz with tension in the following days. The Empress was confined to her chambers under the pretense of illness, while the Crown Prince faced restrictions tantamount to house arrest. The air was thick with unease, and whispers of impending change rippled through the court.
Then came the Emperor's stunning decree: the eldest prince, long exiled to Qianlong Temple, was to return to the palace.
For years, the eldest prince had been a forgotten figure, a relic of the past hidden away in quiet obscurity. Once the most revered of the Emperor's offspring, he had spent over a decade cloistered in the temple. His sudden return sent shockwaves through the court.
"Has the Emperor finally come to his senses?" General Jiang mused aloud to his wife.
Both understood the implications. The late Empress Yuan's death had been a wound the Emperor never fully healed from. Blaming her passing on their son, he had banished the boy to a life of isolation, denying him even the basic dignities afforded to palace servants. No amount of protest from loyal officials, including Jiang himself, had swayed the Emperor's decision at the time.
Princess Wencheng, standing nearby, sighed. "That poor child. He's endured so much all these years. Perhaps his suffering is finally at an end."