Long Yi ordered: "Search the Empress Dowager's bedroom, and all the rooms of the master and servants, especially to check for any poison." Pang Gaozhuo took the lead and bowed his hands in agreement: "Yes, Your Majesty." After saying that, he raised his hand and led the team to each room. While waiting for the results of the search, the Empress Dowager spoke up: "Concubine Ling is really good at pretending to be crazy and stupid. She even fooled me." Concubine Ling stood up and bowed her head, saying, "Please forgive me, Empress Dowager. If I hadn't pretended to be crazy, I would not be alive today." "You always say that you love the late emperor, but when he passed away, why didn't you follow him?" the Empress Dowager asked again. "Loving him is one thing, but whether to go with him is another." Ling Taipin said neither humbly nor arrogantly. The Empress Dowager smiled and said, "The late Emperor once said that he liked you. If he liked you, why didn't he rescue you from the cold palace? Does Concubine Ling know why?" "Did he really tell you that he likes me?" Ling Taipin asked excitedly. The Empress Dowager nodded and said, "Yes, I have said it more than once. Once was after the selection had already begun, and once was after the late emperor ascended the throne. Unfortunately, it was too late when I said it the first time, because you had already been favored by the old emperor."

As a mother, she knew it was not easy for her son to fall in love with a woman. Even if he wanted to help her at that time, it would be useless because the old emperor had taken a fancy to Concubine Ling, who was still a concubine at that time. What's more, the late emperor, who was the eldest son at that time, had to do everything well if he wanted to obtain the throne. How dare we let others catch us in our children’s love affairs? Concubine Ling then answered: "The late emperor did not come to the cold palace to save me. Even when I was in the cold palace for many years, he never came to see me once. That's because I know that as an emperor, he has a heavy responsibility. How can he be swayed by his children's love? What's more, my status with him means that we can't be together no matter what." The Queen Mother sighed, "What a twist of fate." Seeing this, Concubine Ling was puzzled: "Empress Dowager, what do you mean by this?" "The late emperor ascended the throne with the help of the royal family. The one who wanted you dead was not me, nor could it be the late emperor." "So it's the royal family, because I brought disgrace to the royal family?" The Empress Dowager nodded and said, "In order to save you at that time, there were two ways to go. One was to order you to leave the palace and become a nun to pray for Da Jing; the other was to banish you to the cold palace. If you leave the palace and become a nun, you will be far away from him. The late emperor once told me that as long as you are in the palace, as long as you are close to him, he will feel at ease. So I banished you to the cold palace. The late emperor never visited you, but you are indeed in his heart." Upon hearing this, Concubine Ling burst into tears, sat down again, and leaned her head on Concubine Yun's shoulder: "Sister Yun, the late emperor had me in his heart." "He has you. He has you in his heart." Concubine Yun patted her shoulder. "It would have been great if you two had met earlier." "Life is a torment of fate." Concubine Ling stood up and bowed to the Empress Dowager. "Thank you for your care over the years. I thought it was you..." "It's all in the past." The Queen Mother smiled and sighed again, "The late emperor was not an emperor as he wished, and was restricted in many things. As an emperor, he has his own overall interests to consider, and he must take the welfare of the people as the criterion." As she spoke, the Queen Mother turned her gaze towards Long Yi. "Now that you are the new emperor, the heavy responsibility of the country falls on your shoulders." "I know you want to find out what happened back then, so let's find out." "No matter how small your family affairs are, as a royal family, they are also big things for the people. Once you have clarified the royal family affairs, you can concentrate on doing your duty as an emperor." Long Yi stood up and bowed: "I will follow my mother's instructions!"

The Empress Dowager hummed and told the truth: "The late emperor had no offspring. I was narrow-minded and thought that the late emperor and Shu Yun were both my children. They were born of the same mother. In this case, Shu Yun's children are the closest to the late emperor. Chi An's child has the surname of the emperor, which means he is a royal child. Now I have thought it through. Dajing's kingdom belongs to the Long family. In this case, it is natural that the children of the Long family will inherit it. Whoever gets the throne of our lineage cannot let the side branches of the royal family snatch it away." "Emperor." The Queen Mother raised her hand. Long Yi went over and held her hand tightly: "Mother." "I trust you." "It is my honor to have the trust of my mother." "Yes." The Empress Dowager nodded. "You also know that I was poisoned before. Since we are searching for poison today, let the guards search as well." "Yes." Long Yi then ordered Pang Gaozhuo to search more carefully. When the Empress Dowager saw this, she cursed the Empress Dowager in her heart. The old woman said so much just to bring up this point. What a frank statement. It's because Long Yi has ascended the throne as emperor, and the old woman cannot change that. So she is only saying nice things at this moment. I only dared to say these words in my heart and never out loud. Once it is spoken out, the crime is confirmed. Thinking of this, he looked at Gu Zhong with threatening eyes. Gu Zhong understood, knelt down and kowtowed, gritting his teeth and admitting: "Empress Dowager, Your Majesty, it was me who pretended to be a eunuch and came to the Empress Dowager's side. In the process of getting along with the Empress Dowager day and night, I fell in love with her. All of this was done by me alone, and it has nothing to do with the Empress Dowager." "Did you do all this alone?" Yan Funing shook her head. "Yes, it was done by me alone." Gu Zhong kowtowed and said, "In order to win the favor of the Empress Dowager, I thought that she loved her niece, so I came up with a plan to get rid of the Empress, who was then the Princess of Jin, to make room for Empress Ling. Since the Emperor, who was then the Prince of Jin, loved the Empress, who was then the Princess, very much, I thought of a way to poison the Empress." "It is indeed as the princess said. The poison did not take effect immediately, so I chose to set fire." "In fact, I originally wanted to stab you." "When I entered the courtyard with a knife, I unexpectedly saw the emperor and the queen arguing, and then the emperor flicked out the lamp and started a fire. Although the fire was put out, it gave me an idea, that is, stabbing with a knife is not as quiet as setting a fire, and there will be no clues afterwards." "No!" Yan Funing shouted out sharply, "Stabbing with a knife, this idea was not what you had in mind at the beginning." Gu Zhong's eyes narrowed, and he lowered his eyes to hide his panic: "I dare not lie again." "What you said at this moment is half true and half false." Yan Funing said word by word, "The Empress Dowager ordered you to poison and set the fire. Before setting the fire, you had already drugged my father and mother." "After arguing with my father, my mother was so angry that her blood flowed too fast and she passed out early." "My father went to drink to keep quiet. Because you drugged him, he woke up in a daze in the middle of the night." "This is why the father my husband saw was cold and icy." "Gu Zhong, you are about to die, but you still want to protect this vicious woman." Yan Funing pointed at the Empress Dowager, "Do you know that she treats you as an abandoned child at this moment?" (End of this chapter)