Then, her questioning gaze shot towards the old woman like a sharp, gleaming sword.
The old nanny felt extremely nervous when she met his gaze. In the end, she had no choice but to lower her head, as if she dared not look at the majestic face of that high and mighty man again. She then recalled timidly and said, "Back then, this old servant was ordered by Her Majesty to accompany the Empress, who was about to give birth, to the Western Qin. This old servant knew that this matter was of great importance, and of course, I dared not delay Her Majesty's important matter."
He paused, seemingly reluctant, but finally feigned composure and said, "We originally planned to follow Her Majesty's instructions, and upon arriving in Western Qin, to see why the Empress was so insistent on returning. Then we would find an opportunity to eliminate the Empress and her unborn child. However, before we could act, we discovered a secret..."
Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager asked with great interest, "A secret? What secret?"
The old nanny thought for a moment, still seemingly quite shocked, and said, "One of the accompanying guards discovered that the Empress Dowager had secretly sneaked into the Western Qin Palace at night."
The Empress Dowager exclaimed in astonishment, "What? The Western Qin Imperial Palace? How could a pregnant woman with no background and no strength manage to travel alone to the Western Qin Emperor's palace at night without being stopped by the heavy guards in the palace? And what was she doing there?"
The old woman seemed puzzled even now, shaking her head as she tried hard to recall.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up, as if she had remembered something, and she said, "That's right, after the Empress arrived in the Western Qin Kingdom, she once went to the City God Temple in the south of the city to burn incense and met a monk there."
The Empress frowned slightly, puzzled, and asked, "A monk?"
The old nanny nodded and continued, "That day at the temple, this old servant and several other maids and guards were all standing guard outside the door, so we didn't really hear the conversation between the two inside. This old servant only vaguely saw that the monk seemed to hand the Empress a... bracelet!"
Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager was greatly shocked and asked repeatedly, "A bracelet? That monk gave that wretched woman a bracelet? Are you sure you didn't see wrong? What kind of bracelet was it?"
Thinking of that stunning beauty, the old woman would probably never forget her appearance for the rest of her life.
At that moment, without even thinking, she blurted out, "This old servant will never forget it in my life. It was a magnificent seven-colored jade bracelet with gold threads, and it looked extremely rare in the world!"
The Empress Dowager found it utterly unbelievable, and was secretly wondering if that vile woman was having an affair with a monk, and if they had some unspeakable secret between them...
Meanwhile, the old nanny's words still echoed in his ears: "Ever since we returned to the inn from the City God Temple, I have often seen the Empress Dowager holding that bracelet in her hand, lost in thought, as if she had just been crying. But as soon as she sees me enter, she hurriedly puts the bracelet away."
After a while, the old nanny suddenly realized something and said, "Could it be that the reason why the Empress can freely enter and leave the Western Qin Palace is related to this precious seven-colored gold and jade bracelet?"
Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted, but she asked dismissively, "How can you be sure that the bracelet wasn't a secret exchange between that monk and that slut?"
The old nanny said with a very certain tone, "I've seen plenty of eye contact between lovers in the palace. But look at that monk and the Empress... they don't seem to have that kind of relationship. It's like I've never seen anything like it before."
She paused for a moment, then, recalling what she had seen back then, the old nanny suddenly speculated, "This old servant was right outside the door, closest to the inside, and I vaguely heard the monk say something like, 'Return the item to its rightful owner, lest it be lost again.' So, this old servant believes that this bracelet originally belonged to the Empress, and the monk was simply returning it to its rightful owner!"
After saying that, he seemed to hesitate for a moment and then said, "However..."
He then pressed further, "But what?"
The old nanny said, "However, ever since the Empress returned from the Western Qin Palace, she has been even more worried, as if she has more unspeakable secrets. But no matter who asks her, she won't say a word."
After a moment's thought, he exhaled and asked, "And then what happened?"
The old nanny, recalling the past, seemed still somewhat frightened and unable to speak of it. Finally, she gritted her teeth and had to say, "One day, we happened to be passing through a dangerous place when we suddenly encountered a group of masked men in black. In the end, the Empress, in order to save a young man from Western Qin who seemed to be being chased by this group, risked her own life and that of her unborn child, and was forced off a cliff by the masked men. This old servant and everyone else were scattered by those masked men. Thinking, 'I must find her alive or dead,' I led people to search along the mountain path. Finally, in the ashes of a thatched hut burned down in the mountain stream, we found the skeleton of a woman and the gold hairpin that the Empress had worn at the time."
The old nanny, suppressing her immense inner pain, reached into her sleeve and pulled out an exquisite gold-inlaid jade phoenix hairpin, presenting it to her with both hands: "Your Highness, please take a look!"
At that moment, a maid standing beside the Empress came down the steps, took the gold hairpin from her hand, and returned to the Empress's side, handing it to her with both hands.
She then slowly picked it up and examined it for a while. It seemed somewhat familiar, yet she couldn't quite remember it for the time being. She murmured to herself, "Why does this hairpin look so familiar to me?"
The old nanny kneeling in the main hall answered with a clear memory: "This hairpin was a congratulatory gift personally given by Your Majesty the Empress when the imperial physician diagnosed that she was pregnant! It was originally a pair, and the Empress, remembering Your Majesty's help, was able to return to Western Qin. So, on the day of her departure, she personally presented one of the hairpins to Your Majesty. She said that when the two hairpins met again, it would be the day the Empress and her sisters were reunited. It's just a pity..."
Following the old nanny's words, the Empress suddenly became lost in memories of the past between the two sisters, unable to extricate herself for a long time.
Suddenly snapping out of his daze, he turned into a ferocious beast and roared at him, "You bastard, why are you spouting all this useless nonsense?"
Upon hearing this, the old nanny immediately fell silent.
While toying with the gold hairpin in her hand, the Empress casually said, "Unconsciously, so much time has passed. I really can't remember it at all. However, seeing that this gold hairpin is still so well preserved to this day, it is clear that you must have spent a lot of time and effort taking care of it to remember people."
After speaking, her gaze suddenly fell on the old nanny, who looked up in surprise and said, "Your Majesty, this old servant..."
Then she slammed her hand hard on the table beside her and angrily shouted at them without letting them have a chance to speak: "Idiots! Since we've already found that there are thatched huts in the mountains, it proves that people lived there at the time. And all you found was a female corpse and this piece of junk."
As she spoke, she hurled the gold hairpin she had been holding tightly at his face. The hairpin shattered into several pieces on the ground.
Still not satisfied, she continued, "Didn't you consider that it's highly likely that that wretched woman gave birth to a child after falling off the cliff and was taken away? Why didn't you eliminate the root of the problem and instead search for the child's whereabouts?"
The old nanny hurriedly explained, "At the time, this old servant also had some doubts, so I led people to search in the mountains for many days, but we found nothing, so, so..."
The Empress Dowager added, "So when you returned to the palace, you lied to me and said that the vile woman had fallen off a cliff and was smashed to pieces!"
The empress grew increasingly furious. After so many years, she had no idea that there was such a hidden story behind what happened back then. In a fit of rage, she raised her voice and ordered, "Guards, take this wicked servant away and behead him immediately!"
Immediately, two guards entered and dragged the old woman out. The old woman, her face filled with panic yet still clinging to a sliver of hope, pleaded repeatedly, "Your Majesty, spare me! Your Majesty, spare me..."
However, as he watched her being dragged away, he narrowed his eyes and said fiercely, "Now, only the dead can keep the secret forever!"
After a moment, she came to her senses and muttered to herself with great worry, "If that widow's child has truly been born, then one day, won't my Hao'er be..."
With this thought in mind, she gritted her teeth and said, "No, I absolutely will not allow, I absolutely will not allow anyone to steal the culmination of my life's work. Whether it belongs to Hao'er or Yuan'er, it cannot, it absolutely cannot..."
The room was silent.
Then she suddenly stood up, walked down the steps, slowly moved to the gold hairpin that had been broken on the ground, knelt down, picked up the pieces, and then got up again and went back to the bedchamber with a sad expression.
She sat down at the dressing table and reached out to open the bottom layer, which seemed to be a jewelry box that had been sealed for many years.
She then revealed an identical hairpin. She put together the other hairpin, which she was holding tightly in her other hand, which was exactly the same, but which she had just destroyed and was now in pieces.
He murmured to himself, "As you wished, after so many years, these two hairpins are finally reunited! But you and I..."
Memories, both sad and joyful, flooded his mind all at once...
Several days later, it was New Year's Day.
这日里，虽是冬天，但没有风，太阳又真不错，晒得人暖洋洋的，觉得全身骨头都快酥了，再加上宫里还有精彩的戏曲表演看，人人都觉得这真是人生最快乐的事也。
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