She had hoped to kill two birds with one stone: cause the Noble Consort to miscarry and have Lady Xia killed, thus reclaiming her supremacy in the Harem.
But now... If she didn't investigate, wouldn't that further show her own guilty conscience? The crowd below might not dare to say anything to her face, but who knew what they would say behind her back? The motherly image she had painstakingly built over the years was on the verge of collapse!
Thinking of this, the Empress felt a suffocating lump in her chest, unable to breathe, stuck somewhere between going up and coming down...
Just then, a Little Eunuch suddenly called out from outside the door, "The Emperor has arrived!"
This cry, like a beam of light in the pitch-black night, rescued her from the boundless darkness. The Empress breathed a sigh of relief, regained her composure, and quickly rose to greet him.
The Concubines below did not rise; they knelt on the ground and saluted, "Greetings to the Emperor!"
