Consort Rong's words filled Yan Ning with envy. The Holy Emperor undoubtedly doted on Miss Yue. That's why he didn't want the empty title in the palace to confine her life. In the end, even the finest silks and delicacies in the palace couldn't compare to leaving the palace and finding freedom.

Yan Ning sighed and asked, "Then where is Miss Yue now?"

A silver-white cloak hung over Consort Rong's head, propped up by a flat cloth, making her look like a thin, bony infant. Her round eyes held a hint of sorrow. Combined with the silver-clad attire behind her, she exuded an air of refined elegance and unyielding pride, like a celestial being in the wind.

Having grown accustomed to her radiant smile, Yan Ning was so startled by this sight of Consort Rong that she took a few steps back.

Thinking of the infant, Yan Ning also thought of it. Consort Rong had no children. She was a member of the Hezhuo clan, a concubine who was different from both the Han and Manchu people. She stood firm in the harem because of her beautiful appearance and her gentle and humble nature.

Consort Rong, who had no children, was precisely the one who gained the Empress Dowager's favor.

The Empress Dowager used her personal belongings to elevate Consort Rong's rank to the head of the three consorts, yet she did not elevate her to the rank of Imperial Noble Consort. All of this was undoubtedly related to the Empress Dowager's fact that Consort Rong had no children.

In her later years, the Empress Dowager was filled with sorrow and regret; she also feared that her life was nearing its end and that Consort Rong would disrupt the proper etiquette of the harem. Therefore, she bestowed honors upon Consort Rong but did not grant her a formal title.

Without children, one has no one to rely on in old age.

The Emperor is already seventy years old, while Consort Rong is a few years shy of fifty. Within the palace, chanting "Long live the Emperor!" is both a way of honoring the Emperor and a way of comforting oneself. Consort Rong has no children, and after the Emperor's passing, she can live a lonely life in Cining Palace. However, with its brocade curtains, silver plates and jade ornaments, and the servants of palace maids and eunuchs, it will still be a good life.

If she were to go to the Cold Palace and keep company with the insane concubines, her life would be far worse than that of the Holy Ancestor's Lady Yue, who received the emperor's favor and never had to hear a palace maid say "Greetings, Your Highness."

Consort Rong tightened her slender fingers around the screen at her neck, blocking the cold wind from blowing against her fair skin. Immediately, a palace maid handed her a brocade sleeve, which she placed inside, and glanced at the vast, boundless sky.

She curved her lips into a smile, but there was no real laughter. "The world is vast; there's always a place for someone!"

Consort Rong's figure disappeared on the other side of the wooden bridge. Yan Ning finally came to her senses. Miss Yue was Emperor Kangxi's woman. Since she was a young lady, there were no records of her existence; one could only ask the elders in the palace.

But how could she easily encounter an old man in the palace?

She recalled the Empress Dowager's ethereal words when they first met: "You are just like her!"

The Empress Dowager must have seen Miss Yue. Could it be that the painting she found in Yirenxuan depicts Miss Yue?

Yan Ning pondered the matter without success, but dared not go to ask the Empress Dowager.

On the day Fukang'an came to greet the Empress Dowager and receive Wuchun, he knelt outside the curtain, his expression still calm as he smelled the strong musk burning in the Empress Dowager's bedroom.

Yan Ning served the Empress Dowager at her side.

The Empress Dowager did not allow Fukang'an to rise. Through a thin, gauze-like yet heavily draped curtain, she stared at Fukang'an kneeling outside.

A soft rustling sound came from inside the hall, and the Empress Dowager asked what the sound was.

The palace maid outside the curtain went out and then came back in to report, "Your Majesty, it's starting to drizzle outside."

Before the palace maid could leave, another palace maid entered and said, "Your Majesty, it is raining and snowing at the same time!"

Before the snow season was over, it started to drizzle again. It was supposed to be a day of cold snow, but the rain was pouring down.

The Empress Dowager was slightly angry. She slammed her hand on the short-legged table. Due to her old age and weakness, the sound was not loud, but it made the tassels on her neck bounce up and down.

"Are we going to go against the seasons? How long can winter rain last? It will eventually fall, but it will also turn into ice!"

Fukang'an remained silent with his head bowed, standing outside the curtain.

The Emperor's arrival dispelled the gloom in the Empress Dowager's palace. Palace maids drew back the curtains, causing them to sway and the broken beaded curtains on the carved beams to rustle.

He sat beside the Empress Dowager on her warm couch, his graying eyebrows trembling slightly with a faint smile. "If Your Majesty is reluctant to part with Lady Fucha, you can keep her for a few more days! As for Consort An, she is currently unwell, and keeping her in Your Majesty's palace would only cause you trouble. Let General Fucha take her back to his residence!"

After a long while, the Empress Dowager glanced at Yan Ning, closed her brown and transparent eyes, and granted Fukang'an permission to kneel and leave with Wuchun.

Fukang'an remained kneeling, refusing to rise. "I beg the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to grant me permission to bring Lady Fucha back to the mansion to rest during her pregnancy!"

The Empress Dowager's eyes were half-closed. Her suspicions were indeed true, but the crime of deceiving the Emperor was no small matter. Fukang'an had concealed his wife's pregnancy from the Empress Dowager, thus placing her in an unjust position.

How could the Emperor not be aware of such a framing of the Empress Dowager, and how could he not be furious if he did?

Whether the Empress Dowager had a conspiracy regarding the previous incident involving Wuchun is something that needs further consideration to find out.

The Emperor was somewhat angry. He looked at Fukang'an outside the curtain and asked, "Since you are pregnant, why didn't you inform us sooner!"

Since coming to the Yuanmingyuan, the Empress Dowager's old ailment had been aggravated by the exertion. The imperial physicians then used musk as incense, along with oral herbal decoctions, to alleviate the Empress Dowager's pain.

The musk scent in the Empress Dowager's palace was so strong, how could Fukang'an and Yan Ning not know it? The Emperor's eyes were as bright as flames, capable of piercing through the curtains.

Yan Ning stood beside the Empress Dowager, unaware of what had transpired. The Emperor's attitude towards Fukang'an had changed drastically. She had a gut feeling that the incense the Empress Dowager had been burning these past few days was not sandalwood, but something else entirely, though she neither knew nor had thought to ask.

Fukang'an bowed his head and replied, "The Imperial Physician Li of the Imperial Pharmacy has already examined my wife's pulse and recorded it in the Imperial Pharmacy's register!"

The emerald green ruyi in the Empress Dowager's hand fell to the ground, hit the hard base of the couch, and shattered into two pieces.

She opened her half-closed eyes and gazed at Fukang'an standing behind the curtain. After a long while, her aged and pale face moved, her wrinkled features revealing neither joy nor anger.

When officials from outside the palace request the presence of the imperial physician, it is recorded in a register. Imperial Physician Li arrived as ordered and brought the record book of his visit to the Fucha residence to examine Yan Ning's pulse that day for the Emperor to see.

After reading it, the Emperor slammed the book heavily onto the short-legged table. Without looking at the Empress Dowager, his dragon robe, adorned with coiled dragons amidst clouds, exuded an aura of supreme power, as he spoke, "If Your Majesty is truly still worried about the Old Madam Fucha and General Fucha, then I will simply order him to go to Jilin! I hope Your Majesty can settle down and recuperate!"

They were childhood sweethearts, destined for a happy marriage, but the Empress Dowager tore them apart. Fukang'an was raised in the palace under the guise of being outside the imperial family, already a hardship for him and his mother. The Empress Dowager's overt and covert ruthlessness further pushed Fukang'an and his mother to the brink of despair.

The emperor angrily tore off his dragon robe and left. The image of the old lady Fucha kneeling in front of the Yangxin Hall gate with tears in her eyes, begging him to save Fukang'an, lingered in his mind.

Now, Fukang'an also knelt before him, humbly trying to save his two children.

The Emperor looked at Fukang'an, who was kneeling with his head bowed, his proud spirit humbled. A sense of self-reproach welled up in the Emperor's heart. How could he, the Son of Heaven, not even be able to protect the honor of his own son and grandson?