When the Empress Dowager looked at her, her eyes were filled with disdain, and Gu Jiangru seemed somewhat at a loss.

"Your Majesty... what has happened?"

The emperor ignored her, seemingly unwilling to speak.

Gu Jiangli looked at the Empress Dowager with teary eyes, waiting for her to speak.

The Empress Dowager glanced at Gu Jiangru and said coldly:

"What? You didn't know? Consort Gu suffered a miscarriage."

"What?" Gu Jiangru was startled and immediately looked at her mother, Aunt Zhang.

No wonder my mother seemed so nervous and scared; everything she had said before had come true.

Gu Jiangli hid behind the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, only revealing half of her tearful face.

Gu Jiangru, however, saw a mocking expression in that half-face.

She didn't hesitate to use her own child to frame her mother; she's truly vicious!

Gu Jiangru gritted her teeth inwardly, but still put on a pained expression on her face.

"Sister...it's so heartbreaking. Please take care of yourself. I believe that with your past health, you can definitely have another child if you take good care of yourself."

She toned down her sharpness when she spoke, hoping they wouldn't blame the mother for the loss of the child.

But the more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong. The fact that the guards were so brazenly running around in the concubines' palaces must have been at the Emperor's behest.

His Majesty's actions must also be for the sake of Gu Jiangli's child.

It seems that Gu Jiangli did indeed do something behind the scenes.

She glanced at her mother again.

Aunt Zhang's hair was a bit messy, and heavy gold ornaments of all kinds were stuck in her hair bun, which made her so angry that she gritted her teeth.

Her mother still didn't listen to her!

She's probably already fallen into Gu Jiangli's trap!

She needed to know exactly how Gu Jiangli framed her mother in order to clear her name.

So she asked cautiously:

"Your Majesty, Empress Dowager, my sister has always been in good health. I wonder... what caused her miscarriage this time?"

The Empress Dowager snorted coldly:

“Gu Jieyu started losing her appetite more than a month ago, and you, as her younger sister, didn’t say a single word of concern. You know in your heart how the baby was lost.”

Gu Jiangru immediately sensed something was wrong.

The Empress Dowager clearly harbored resentment towards her, which likely stemmed from her own mother.

Has it been confirmed that it was Gu Jiangli's mother who caused her miscarriage?

Gu Jiangru hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, please understand. I am terrified. I only just learned about my sister's miscarriage. How could I have known what was going on? Is there... perhaps some misunderstanding?"

The Empress Dowager didn't want to give Gu Jiangru and her daughter even a second glance, and said coldly:

"Alright, stop pretending in front of me. We'll find out soon enough whether it's a misunderstanding or not."

"Just wait here. We'll find out what caused Gu Jieyu's miscarriage soon."

Gu Jiangru felt a chill in her heart.

She knelt down next to Aunt Zhang, trying to ask her how far things had progressed.

But Aunt Zhang's body was trembling, her eyes were lifeless, and her lips were pale, as if she had been greatly frightened and was unable to speak.

Gu Jiangru's resentment kept welling up inside her.

She didn't know what had happened, and dared not plead with His Majesty and the Empress Dowager. She could only wait quietly as the Empress Dowager had instructed.

After waiting for a long time, until her knees started to hurt so much that she could barely feel them, the so-called answer finally came.

A guard carrying a small black package approached the Emperor and Empress Dowager.

The moment the emperor saw that thing, his eyes immediately turned dark and ruthless.

"What is this?" the emperor asked.

Guard: "Your Majesty and Empress Dowager, this was found in Lanfang Palace. Because it was buried under a peach tree in the back garden, the search took some time. We apologize for keeping Your Majesty and Empress Dowager waiting."

Gu Jiangru was stunned: "What do you mean buried under the peach tree? I have never buried anything under a tree."

She didn't see what the guard was holding at all, but her intuition told her that it wasn't a good thing, and it was always better to deny it first!

But the Empress Dowager and the Emperor completely ignored her.

The Empress Dowager looked nervous and ripped open the black cloth covering the contents, revealing the true nature of the items inside.

A palm-sized doll, dressed in a red and green cloth outfit, with several small wooden awls stuck in its belly and a piece of paper with some words written on it pasted on its forehead.

Gu Jiangli, supporting herself, cried out in surprise the moment she saw the puppet. Pointing to the note on the puppet's head, she shouted:

"Ah! That's my...that's my birth date and time..."

Tears instantly streamed down her face, and resentment finally showed on her expression.

"Aunt! Why are you treating me like this! Since you entered the palace, I've treated you almost like my own mother... Why..."

She broke down in tears, and the emperor held her in his arms, gently patting her back.

Instead of comforting her with words, he used his body to shield Aunt Zhang and the others.

Gu Jiangli wept bitterly in his arms, her tears almost soaking the front of his shirt. The tears she shed now were even more intense than when she learned of the loss of their child.

"Your Majesty...that's our child..."

The emperor's throat bobbed, as if swallowing a bitter pill, and he suppressed his voice, "...I know."

Hearing this, Gu Jiangli didn't say anything more.

She knew that all she had to do at this moment was to sob peacefully in the emperor's arms, and she wouldn't have to worry about anything else.

The Empress Dowager, with an expression of "I knew it," strode quickly to Aunt Zhang and slapped her hard across the face.

"With witnesses and physical evidence presented, what else do you have to say?"

Aunt Zhang was stunned by the beating.

She had never seen the doll before, yet it felt so familiar...

She once placed such a doll under the mistress's bed, but instead of Gu Jiangli's birth date and time, it bore Ru'er's...

She shook her head blankly, as if she had completely lost the ability to think, "No...it wasn't me...I didn't do it."

"Who else could it be but you! You were the only one who handled Gu Jieyu's swaddling clothes. A piece of fabric was missing, and you were probably the one who cut it out and used it to make this doll's clothes! You inserted a wooden awl into her abdomen and pasted Gu Jieyu's birth date and time on it. With such evil magic, you caused Gu Jieyu to miscarry! Your crimes are unforgivable!"

Aunt Zhang kept shaking her head.

Gu Jiangru, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it any longer and quickly spoke up:

"Your Majesty is wise! My aunt treats my sister as her own daughter; she would never harm my sister's child!"

"There must be some villain trying to cause my sister to miscarry and then pin the blame on my aunt! If you, Your Majesty, really punish my aunt, you will be falling into the hands of evil people!"

"Shut up!" The Empress Dowager pointed a finger at Gu Jiangru's nose and said, "You're not innocent either! She's your mother, and the item was found in your Lanfang Palace! How could you be completely unaware of it?"