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The Emperor noticed his abnormality and said, "Imperial Physician Li, speak freely if you have something to say."

Having been called out, Imperial Physician Li had no choice but to stand up.

"Your Majesty, to answer Your Majesty, last year I did indeed attend to King Jin, and it seemed... it seemed..." Looking at the Empress’s furious gaze, he ultimately did not dare to continue, scared to the point of breaking out in a cold sweat.

Thinking to himself: How unlucky can he get, why did it have to be him!

"It seemed what?" A sharp glint shone in the Emperor’s eyes.

Imperial Physician Li had no choice but to say, "At that time, I could tell that there was indeed something wrong with King Jin, he knew it himself as well, he didn’t let me speak of it."

The Empress staggered a step and finally fainted.

The room descended into chaos, the palace maidens supported the Empress onto a chair to lie down, Imperial Physicians checked her pulse and pressed her philtrum, all bustling about busily.

But the Empress just wouldn’t wake up; even with a bleeding philtrum from the pressing, she stubbornly refused to regain consciousness.

Gu Youyou felt she wouldn’t come to, using the tactic of feigning faint in front of so many Imperial Physicians, that really was quite ruthless.

Although everyone knew she was feigning unconsciousness, but as she would not awaken, there was nothing they could do.

No one dared to pinch her philtrum anymore after that, for what if she woke and started settling accounts?

The Emperor, feeling a headache coming on, said, "First, take the Empress back."

Jin Zijin watched them coldly and said softly in front of the Emperor, "I will not let this go just like that."

The words weren’t loud, but probably half the people in the room heard them, yet they could only pretend to be deaf.

This farcical scene, therefore, came to an end with the Empress, the instigator of the trouble, fainting away.

When everyone had left, the Emperor paused, passing by Jin Zijin he whispered to him, "Toppling her is easy, but toppling the person behind her is difficult, it’s not yet the time, a lesson is sufficient for now."

"Fine, I will give you the opportunity," Jin Zijin said with a cold laugh.

...

When the Emperor left, he took all the people brought by the Empress with him, and the Crown Prince Residence finally returned to calm.

However, the spies the Empress left behind weren’t so easy to dispel; they were all sent to the Ministry of Punishment’s Prison, regardless of confession or how they confessed, the outcome was inescapable death.

After this upheaval, by clearing out the unclean elements within the residence, at least it wasn’t at a loss, for now, whatever stirs within the residence, it would be difficult for the Empress to be informed.

Miss Du tidied herself up again, holding the child as she sat in the floral hall, with Cuiya standing by her side.

Cuiya’s face was swollen from a beating, still showing shades of purple and black.

Gu Youyou and Jin Zijin were also there, along with Lord Jie.

Lord Jie had only heard parts of the story from Searcy, not the whole picture.

He hurriedly asked, "What exactly happened?"

With a despairing demeanor, Miss Du stared blankly at the floor, tightly holding the swaddled infant in her arms.

While crying, Cuiya said, "To answer master, the child belongs to the Second Young Master; it was during our time in Xining, the Second Young Master once saved us."

"Then why didn’t you return to the Jie Residence, how did you end up in the Crown Prince’s consort’s place?"

Cuiya replied, "Miss was afraid you would take the child, so she dared not speak."

"What kind of talk is that? What does ’taking the child’ mean?"

"Miss wants the child to take the Du surname, to be considered part of the Du Family roots. It was the Second Young Master who forced Miss, she was unwilling."

With that said, Lord Jie understood.

But what could he say? The person was already dead.

Young people nowadays, he really couldn’t comprehend them; aside from grieving alone, he remained grieving alone.

He wanted to hold his grandson in Miss Du’s arms for a look, but he dared not.