The Emperor was afraid she would be angry, after all, she was carrying his child. He wanted her to be happy at all times, so he whispered in her ear, "You've probably never seen what a female ghost looks like. I'll take you to see one, but you have to promise me you won't get angry. If you get angry, it will break my heart."

Ning Yan blinked again without saying a word. Her adorable appearance made the Emperor unable to resist, and he kissed her hard on the cheek.

The sedan chair swayed and circled around Fang Chongrong. From last night until now, Fang Chongrong hadn't dared to rest for a moment. At this moment, her makeup was already a mess, and her originally exquisite dance was now like a wild dog running around, without any beauty at all.

To make his beloved concubine happy, the Emperor even pinched her to indicate that she could open her eyes. However, Ning Yan only glanced at them before the Emperor ordered the eunuchs carrying the sedan chair to leave immediately.

He's too ugly, really too ugly. He absolutely cannot be so ugly that it will affect his and his beloved concubine's child.

The imperial physicians rushed to Kunning Palace, and after taking the concubine's pulse, they unanimously said that the concubine was depressed and the fetus was unstable, so she needed to rest quietly.

The Emperor immediately issued an edict forbidding the Consort from leaving the palace and exempting her from paying her respects to the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager was furious, but she couldn't do anything for the time being and could only endure it.

Three days later, in the evening, the Empress Dowager and Consort Shu dined together. On the table was a dish of drunken chicken that tasted very good, and the Empress Dowager ate quite a bit.

After dinner, Consort Shu returned to the palace. The Empress Dowager, accompanied by two palace maids, went for a walk in the Imperial Garden to aid digestion. When they reached the pavilion in the middle of the lake, a palace maid asked the Empress Dowager, "Your Majesty, would you like to feed the koi?"

The Empress Dowager agreed.

The palace maid immediately replaced the fish food with fish food.

The Empress Dowager stood by the pond. She had just scattered a handful of fish food into the pond when she was suddenly pushed hard from behind.

She only had time to scream before falling into the water.

"Help! Help me!"

Then, a palace maid standing in the shadows took out a large pole and smashed it down on her head. In one blow, she was knocked into the water.

After a long while, the Empress Dowager finally surfaced.

The palace maid pressed the person down with a pole again, but the Empress Dowager did not react at all.

The palace maid cried out in panic, "The Empress Dowager has fallen into the water! Come quickly and save her! Your Majesty, grab the pole and I will pull you ashore."

Another palace maid cried and ran to call for the guards to save the person.

Finally, a guard ran over, jumped into the water, and rescued the Empress Dowager.

When Consort Shu arrived with the news, the imperial physician had already announced the Empress Dowager's death.

Consort Shu cried so loudly it shook heaven and earth, grabbing two palace maids who served the Empress Dowager and slapping them repeatedly. When the Emperor arrived, he immediately ordered the two maids to be taken to the Department of Strict Torture. "Torture them severely. You must pry their mouths open. I want to know whether the Empress Dowager fell into the water by accident or if someone murdered her."

Consort Shu also felt that the Empress Dowager's death was not an accident, and now that the Emperor wanted to investigate, how could he not find out?

She wasn't naive; she felt that the Miao family was incredibly powerful, with civil and military officials holding high positions. Even if the emperor was stupid, he wouldn't target her when the Empress Dowager had just returned to the palace, otherwise it would be too obvious.

The two palace maids were taken to the Department of Cautious Punishment, and after a short while, they were changed into a different set of clothes and sent out of the palace.

They were the Emperor's people. The Emperor had promised them that he would set them free once the Empress Dowager died. Moreover, the Emperor had also given them a thousand taels of silver. With this money, they could live well no matter where they were.

Seven or eight days later, news spread that the palace maid had committed suicide by biting her tongue after being tortured, and her body was hastily buried. In fact, there was no body at all.

Anyway, no one went to examine the two palace maids' bodies themselves.

Half a month later, a woman reported the case of Miao Changming, the heir of the Marquis of Chengen.

She directly struck the Dengwen Drum, and after rolling over the nail board, the Emperor personally tried the case.

Miao Changming was the Empress Dowager's nephew and served as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, a third-rank official.

Gan Xiaoxia's father, a senior official in the Ministry of Personnel, discovered that an official who couldn't even write properly had become a county magistrate, and he felt there must be something wrong with it.

They investigated carefully and just as they arrived at the Miao family's house, a group of bandits rushed in. Those people slashed at anyone they saw, and the entire Gan family, except for Gan Xiaoxia who had gone to her sister's house to visit that day, was killed!

The bandits searched the mansion thoroughly, but found nothing. In the end, they set it on fire and burned it down.

Gan Xiaoxia was eight months pregnant at the time. Upon hearing the devastating news, she suffered a massive hemorrhage and died.

Gan Xiaoxia lost her only sister and felt like destroying the world.

But she still had to deal with her family's funeral arrangements, so with her brother-in-law's help, she buried all of them.

Because my sister married a wealthy businessman, and her husband was a kind-hearted man, even though his wife was gone, their feelings for each other remained. He volunteered to help his sister-in-law renovate her house.

Gan Xiaoxia lived at her brother-in-law's house for half a year. Three years later, after the mourning period, she was seventeen years old. A matchmaker came to propose marriage. Her brother-in-law also went to investigate her and felt that she was a suitable marriage partner, so he arranged for her to be engaged to the other party's family.

The mansion was burned down, but the daughter's red wine that her godfather had buried more than ten years ago was still there. On the eve of her wedding, she dug up the daughter's red wine.

But they discovered that the Daughter Red wine box had an extra foot-long box.

She opened it and found that it contained evidence of crimes committed by court officials, collected by her father. So, without even getting married, Gan Xiaoxia immediately went to the palace and beat the Dengwen Drum.

The evidence was presented to the Emperor, and the Minister of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and several important officials in the court all reviewed it. They all wiped away their sweat. They had thought this case was just a minor matter of selling official positions, but they never expected it to be so far-reaching, directly involving most of the court.

The Imperial Guards arrested the man on the spot, causing panic in the capital, and the Miao family suffered the most severe losses.

Even several of the Miao family's in-laws were implicated.

When Consort Shu learned that all her relatives had been imprisoned, she knelt outside the Imperial Study to plead for their lives.

When the emperor refused to see her, she started crying outside.

Ning Yan was originally sleeping next to the Emperor, but she was woken up by her.

"Who is making such a racket outside? How annoying! Your Majesty, tell her to shut up immediately!"

The Emperor gave Jiu De a wink, and soon Consort Shu was gagged and sent to the Cold Palace.

A month later, the case of Gan Xiaoxia suing Miao Shizi was finally investigated and clarified.

Not only did Prince Miao sell official positions, but he also joined forces with his father, Marquis Miao, to defect to the Prince of Xiangyang and prepare for a rebellion.

The Prince of Xiangyang's mansion was besieged, and the entire Prince of Xiangyang's family was demoted to commoners. The Prince of Xiangyang's mansion and the Miao family were all sentenced to death and beheading.

Those who were connected with the Prince of Xiangyang or associated with the Miao family were all sent to the execution ground.

On that day, blood flowed like a river at Caishikou.

...

Seeing the Emperor so decisively execute such a large number of people, the Prime Minister thought to himself that they had misjudged him before and wanted to strangle the old man who had treated the Emperor like a lamb.

This isn't a little lamb, it's clearly a big bad wolf!

The emperor was not someone they could control.

This year, another special imperial examination was held, and the vacant official positions were quickly filled by the emperor's men.

Even he, as the prime minister, could no longer speak freely in court as he used to.

...

Ten months of pregnancy, one day of childbirth.

Regardless of the turmoil that arose in the previous dynasty, Ning Yan focused on her pregnancy and finally, the child was born. (End of Chapter)