In the Zen room, the sandalwood incense was curling, but it was eerily quiet.

The Queen Mother sat on the couch, her fingertips tightly gripping the Pisces jade pendant, her knuckles turning white.

The head nanny gently supported her shoulders and whispered, "My Lady, please don't be anxious..."

But how could the Queen Mother not be anxious?

She closed her eyes, and thoughts flooded in like a tide——

Twenty years ago, because of her stunning beauty, she was favored by the late emperor when she first entered the palace and everything went smoothly for her.

She begged Prime Minister Feng to bring her sister's family to the capital. Prime Minister Feng wanted to use her to consolidate his position at that time, so he did not refuse. He also wanted to have something to hold against her, so he arranged for the Su family to move from Jiangnan to the capital.

Being in the harem, the Queen Mother was very cautious and took every step carefully, for fear that people would find out that she had been married and had children.

She didn't dare mention her daughter, not even dare to call her name in her dreams, she could only miss her secretly.

It was not until three years later that she was canonized as a concubine and the late emperor allowed her to visit her parents.

That day, she finally saw her daughter - a three-year-old girl, hiding timidly behind Mrs. Su, her almond-shaped eyes rolling around, but she didn't look like she did when she was just born.

"Girls change a lot when they grow up. Naturally, they are different from when they were little." Mrs. Su said with a smile.

The Queen Mother, with trembling hands, unzipped the child's collar—the plum blossom mark on his shoulder was still there.

That was the mark she cruelly burned with a silver hairpin before she left Jiangnan.

She suffered a difficult labor when giving birth to a daughter and was injured. After entering the palace, she did not give birth to any sons or daughters. Her only thought was about her daughter outside the palace.

Because she loved her daughter, she helped the Su family from a humble beginning to become a royal family, giving her brother-in-law the title of Lord and sending all the good things to the Su family. But how much could her daughter actually use? She made up for it with her mother's heart.

The Queen Mother was born with a pair of outstanding almond-shaped eyes. Even in her old age, she was still extraordinarily beautiful. Tears filled her eyes and her voice was choked with sobs, but she still carried an unquestionable majesty.

"You—tell me more in detail! If you dare to lie even a little, I will kill your entire clan!"

Aunt Wang kowtowed, her forehead resting on the cold floor tiles: "I dare not lie..."

With a trembling voice, she recounted the events of the past one by one.

How she worked as a wet nurse in the Su family, how she resented Madam Su's withholding of money, and how she abandoned her child in front of the Sheng family's medicine shop...

"I hid in the dark, watching the eldest son of the Sheng family carry Miss Luan'er inside... I left with peace of mind.

A few days later, I secretly went to the Su Mansion to inquire and learned that the Su family had already left for the capital. At that time, I thought - Miss Luan'er is missing, what should Madam Su say to you? "

"I am guilty... I am willing to die to atone for my sin..."

The Queen Mother suddenly covered her heart with her hands, and tears finally burst out.

"My daughter...has been wandering around..."

She suddenly gasped violently, her vision went dark, her body went limp, and she fainted!

"Madam! Madam!" the head nanny screamed, terrified. "Quickly call the imperial physician!"

Ruan Niang hurried forward: "Let me do it!"

She knelt beside the empress dowager and patted her shoulders and back with her palms with moderate and even force, stimulating the meridians and blood circulation through vibration.

After fifty strokes, the Queen Mother finally slowly opened her eyes.

"Your Highness!" the head nanny cried with joy. "You scared me to death!"

The Queen Mother suddenly grabbed Ruan Niang's wrist with astonishing strength: "Where is my daughter... now?!"

Ruan Niang took a deep breath and said softly, "My Lady, your biological daughter...is now sitting on the Phoenix Throne."

"Boom—"

Thunder exploded outside the palace and heavy rain poured down.

The Queen Mother's tears fell like beads from a broken string. "Are you talking about Queen Sheng Xiyan?"

Ruan Niang nodded, "That's right, Xiyan herself didn't know she was a picked-up child. Look at this."

Ruan Niang presented a few paintings. "At that time, my father would ask a painter to paint Xiyan's portrait every year, saying that if her biological parents came to look for her one day, they would be able to see what she looked like as a child."

The empress dowager's trembling fingertips stroked the delicate little girl in the painting with her hair hanging down to her ears. She had a pair of big eyes with naturally upturned corners, a slightly upturned nose, and pouty lips... She was smiling innocently.

Ruan Niang said, "Then something unexpected happened in the family. My father passed away, and the portrait painting stopped. That was the year we came to the capital, when Xiyan was twelve years old."

"Patta, patta!" Tears fell on the portrait in his hand—

The Queen Mother found it hard to accept that this was the person she had always targeted, the person she constantly scolded, and the person she had even intended to kill.

——It turned out to be her daughter.

The Queen Mother could no longer hold back and burst into tears.

Twenty years of longing, twenty years of guilt, twenty years of forbearance...

Her Luan'er has never been by her side, and she has always been a loving mother to others.

She...repeatedly tried to take her child away...

*

It was a rainy day and the Empress Dowager stayed at Baiyun Temple tonight.

She needed to calm down and return to the palace to continue being the graceful empress dowager, but her heart was already in such a mess that she couldn't sort it out.

Leaning on the soft couch in the Zen room, clutching the portrait of Sheng Xiyan's childhood in his hand, his fingertips trembling.

My daughter...

The head nanny served the ginseng soup and said softly, "Your Majesty, take care of yourself. Now that you've found your true daughter, you should be happy."

The Queen Mother raised her eyes, her vision blurred by tears: "I am sorry for her... I am too embarrassed to recognize her... How foolish I am!"

She closed her eyes, and memories came flooding back.

Eight years ago, Sheng Xiyan first entered the palace.

At that time, she only felt that this woman had some spiritual energy, but she never thought...

That is her flesh and blood.

That day in the Cining Palace, the mother and son were in a state of panic amidst the sidelong glances and contempt of the crowd, and she, as their biological mother, was high and mighty and took the lead in making things difficult for them.

The Queen Mother cried inconsolably. My daughter and grandson must have been so scared at that time, but I bullied her like that.

In order to vent Concubine Jia's anger, she punished Sheng Xiyan by making her kneel down and copy Buddhist scriptures. However, the child actually saved her from her sudden back injury.

In her heart, she just thought of her as a lowly widow with a child, a poor creature with no family to rely on.

She was sarcastic and made things difficult for him, but Sheng Xiyan remained neither humble nor overbearing...

"The Su family..." The Queen Mother clenched her fists fiercely, the jade armor digging into her palms. "If they dare to deceive me, I will not let them go! ...This matter should not be made public."

The head nanny understood that the empress dowager was afraid that Concubine Jia would find out and the Su family would get wind of it and flee the capital.

At this time, the candlelight in the Yangxin Palace was warm.

Xuan Ling held Sheng Xiyan's face and gently stroked her lips with his thumb: "Well, the cold is gone, and your lips are rosy again."

"A kiss from my husband."

Sheng Xiyan turned her face away and said playfully, "No kiss."

Xuan Ling narrowed his eyes, grabbed the back of her head with his big hands, and turned her back forcefully: "Yan Yan, if you dare not kiss me, I will yao——"

He lowered his voice and said, "Don't blame me for loving you."

Sheng Xiyan's white and tender hands hooked around his neck, her eyes shimmering with a charming light: "Then I will love you too, can I?"