Feiyun knelt beside the small bamboo table and added a piece of auspicious charcoal to the small red-gold stove used for boiling spring water. The charcoal immediately ignited. Auspicious charcoal is the finest of charcoal, glowing red-hot yet smokeless. Jian Gong Zhai has been burning this kind of charcoal since late autumn, and Yan Ning has never even smelled a trace of the scorching heat of burning coal.

Yan Ning had witnessed the old lady's aloof and proud spirit, as described by Consort Rong. She had seen it when she first met the old lady. However, that spirit had become increasingly diminished. She had simply assumed that she had gained the old lady's approval, never imagining that the old lady's temperament had changed drastically after her injury.

She looked at Consort Rong and asked, "What does Your Majesty mean? My mother does have a certain aloofness, but perhaps due to her age, it has diminished considerably."

Consort Rong smiled faintly; she saw Yan Ning's intention to protect the old lady. However, as the Emperor's bedmate, how could she not be bothered by the slightest disturbance?

She stood up, extended her right hand, and looked at Yan Ning to the side. Yan Ning immediately stood up and took her hand, and they walked slowly together into the apricot grove, while the other palace servants were ordered to remain outside the grove.

Aside from the withered blossoms, the apricot trees were covered with tiny, unripe buds, some already yellowed and sickly, which had fallen off. Yan Ning didn't know what the gardeners had done to the grove, but none of the apricot trees showed any sign of bearing fruit.

Consort Rong picked an apricot blossom that had already withered but hadn't yet fallen; the yellowed, withered petals slid off her fair fingertips. A faint, ethereal smile bloomed on her lips as she spoke softly to Yan Ning.

When the current emperor was still Prince Bao, he met Yehenara Wan Hui, who was verbally betrothed to Fu Heng but was still unmarried, on the Lantern Festival. She later became the Lady Fucha. At that time, the Lady Fucha was young and not yet of marriageable age, but her innocent and proud nature was completely opposite to the gentle and polite Lady Fucha of Prince Bao, which made the emperor feel fond of her.

During a selection of concubines after the Emperor ascended the throne, he intended to take Wan Hui into the palace. At that time, Consort Xian, who would later become the Emperor's second Empress, inadvertently learned of the Emperor's affair with Wan Hui. To please Empress Fucha and to prevent Wan Hui from entering the palace, she petitioned the Empress Dowager to grant Fu Heng a marriage alliance with Yehenara Wan Hui, with whom he was betrothed. She reasoned that this would ensure the Fucha Fuheng lineage would swear allegiance to the Emperor.

Because of the Fucha family's status and the fact that the Emperor needed their support after his ascension to the throne, the Empress Dowager personally granted the marriage. However, the Emperor intercepted the Empress Dowager's decree before it left the palace.

Wan Hui was pregnant with the Emperor's child, which enraged the Empress Dowager. She had also heard about Wan Hui's engagement to Fu Heng and believed that the child in Wan Hui's womb was not of the Emperor's blood. She even personally bestowed upon Wan Hui a red flower to induce an abortion.

Despite the Emperor's coldness towards the Empress Dowager, he still wanted to bring Wan Hui into the palace. However, Wan Hui harbored resentment towards the Empress Dowager and resolutely married into the Fucha family.

Consort Rong and Yan Ning arrived at the place where Consort Rong and the Emperor had dug up the apricot blossom wine in the spring. The mound was still there, but it had become low due to the rain, only one layer higher than the flat land.

Consort Rong stared at the mound of earth and sighed softly, "Because of the fact that Lady Fucha married Fuheng after the death of her son, His Majesty felt guilty towards General Fuheng and Empress Fucha, so he poured all his affection into Empress Fucha. But as time went by, he developed feelings for her and was moved by her frugality and gentleness. Even though Empress Fucha has been gone for so many years, no one in the palace can match even a fraction of her affection in His Majesty's heart. And that's only within the palace!"

A drooping apricot branch caught the peony jade hairpin on Yan Ning's hair. Consort Rong took it off her hair and stared at the hairpin for a long time.

"Lady Fucha loved peonies. This jade hairpin was made from a fine jade ruyi that the late Emperor had bestowed upon the Emperor when he was Prince Bao. She found a skilled jade craftsman in the capital to carve it for a month, destroying many beautiful pieces of jade in the process, before it was finally carved into this shape."

Yan Ning stood before Consort Rong, watching her brows and eyes, which seemed to be pierced by needle and thread, knotted together. She felt that these past events were like torture for her. Yan Ning wanted to stop her from continuing, but the curiosity in her heart made her remain silent.

"Since marrying into the Fucha family, the Dowager Lady Fucha had used various excuses to avoid attending the Eight Banners' palace banquets and to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager. Until that day, Empress Fucha felt this was impolite and personally summoned the Dowager Lady Fucha. The Emperor, drunk and unable to control his emotions, then..."

Consort Rong didn't finish her sentence, but Yan Ning knew what she hadn't said: it was about Fukang'an. Although Old Madam Fucha had married Fu Heng, the Emperor's favor towards Fukang'an meant he must have mistakenly believed it to be his child. The Empress Dowager, however, still suspected it wasn't the Emperor's child and didn't want him to be deceived by Old Madam Fucha.

Yan Ning watched as Consort Rong walked on, her gaze following her every move. Suddenly, a summer breeze blew through her silver silk cheongsam. Her lonely figure, entangled amidst the verdant greenery and dark branches, fell into Yan Ning's eyes, and her voice drifted softly from ahead.

"Before I fell in love with the Emperor, I considered harming him to preserve my own purity! Many days and nights I regretted it. That night, I almost severed the Emperor's neck with a dagger! In my nightmares, the image of the Emperor's blood-stained neck is so clear and haunting. Now, I have ended this life in a cold and desolate way, which is only the Empress Dowager's punishment for me!"

Assassinating the emperor was a capital offense; if the emperor hadn't spared her life, the Empress Dowager would likely have ordered Consort Rong's execution. The fact that the apricot trees in the grove didn't bear fruit was also a way for the Empress Dowager to remind Consort Rong of the day she harmed the emperor. No one in the palace had mentioned this matter, which meant the emperor must have covered up the assassination attempt.

Yan Ning hurried to catch up with Consort Rong, somewhat puzzled as to why Consort Rong had told her so many things. Consort Rong turned back and smiled at her, as if everything that had just happened was merely a dream in Yan Ning's mind.

The sun blazed fiercely outside the Hall of Diligent Governance and Kindness, casting white smoke from the carved blue bricks in front of the hall. Palace servants tried to walk in the shade of the eaves as much as possible, making the deserted and treeless area in front of the hall seem even more desolate and scorching.

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