Prince Yu stared at her intently without speaking, then pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head. Tears streamed down his face, wetting Princess Rongqing's cheeks.

...

Even after drinking the tea, the emperor's anger remained unabated, and he was constantly on the verge of exploding. Seeing the thick stack of memorials on the table, he simply went over and sat down.

Perhaps reviewing memorials will help me calm down a bit.

The more he read, the angrier he became. The memorials written by these officials were long and tedious, with not a single sentence of substance.

The emperor threw the memorials out, and the tall stack of memorials was knocked down and fell off the table with a crash.

The emperor was about to kick all the memorials away when a glimpse of dark red peeking out from one of them caught his eye.

"What is this?" the emperor asked, frowning.

Huaifu immediately stepped forward and pulled the dark red stain from the memorial; it turned out to be a blood-stained handkerchief.

Huaifu was shocked and was about to deal with it when the emperor said, "Bring it here so I can see why there is such a bloodstained handkerchief in my memorial!"

Huaifu immediately took the handkerchief and discovered that there was a hidden layer inside. The emperor ordered him to cut it open with scissors, and a tattered piece of paper fell out.

The words written on it were: "Injustice! That man threatened me with the lives of his entire clan to frame the Crown Prince!"

The paper was yellowed, indicating that it had been soaked in water, and the writing was done with blood, not with a pen, but with something like a silver needle or hairpin!

After reading it, the emperor was shocked. Who was crying foul? And why was their tone so fervent? Who was being threatened with the lives of their entire clan? Was the crown prince framed? By whom?

One person popped into the emperor's mind: Consort Li!

Only the death of Consort Li was related to the Crown Prince!

Is this a blood-written letter left by Consort Li before her death? Its sudden appearance here suggests she was truly innocent.

The emperor's heart was pounding!

Just as Huaifu was about to calm the emperor down, he saw someone coming from outside. He quickly said, "It's someone from the Imperial Observatory. They may have made a new discovery. Your Majesty, would you like to summon them?"

The emperor swallowed hard. "Summon them!"

The officials from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau arrived and knelt before the emperor. By this time, the emperor had already drunk some tea and calmed down a bit, but the words from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau still made his hand tremble.

"Your Majesty, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling uneasy. I observed the celestial phenomena and found that a general star reappeared next to the Ziwei star, which corresponds to the birth star of the deposed crown prince."

"Furthermore, the dew on the bronze scepter of the Observatory has condensed into three characters for 'injustice.' Your Majesty, I am deeply apprehensive and have come to report this to Your Majesty immediately."

The emperor's face grew even worse. First, Prince Yu had a nightmare, then cinnabar appeared on the imperial road, then Consort Li wrote a blood letter admitting to framing the crown prince, now a general star has reappeared, and now there is the character "冤" (injustice) formed by dew.

All signs indicate that the Crown Prince has been wronged!

Could it be that the Crown Prince has truly been wronged?

Someone else was requesting an audience, so Huaifu went out to find out what was going on. When he returned, his face was even paler than before.

The emperor's heart tightened, but he feigned composure and asked in a deep voice, "What has happened now?"

Huaifu said tremblingly, "Your Majesty, before Consort Li's accident, a palace maid went out of the palace to visit her relatives and was spared from death. Now she has returned."

"She said that before she left the palace, Consort Li gave her a letter, instructing her to present the letter to the Emperor if anything happened to Consort Li or her entire family. Now... now that little palace maid has come with Consort Li's letter."