"Your Majesty, after discussion, we still believe that this year's imperial concubine selection should proceed as scheduled. After all, only Consort Gu is pregnant in the harem, and the more imperial offspring the better. We urge Your Majesty to make the decision."
Several ministers bowed, waiting for the emperor to speak.
As soon as the emperor agreed, they immediately began to arrange the selection of candidates.
But they waited with their backs bent for a long time, yet they still didn't receive a reply from the emperor.
The emperor stared blankly out the door, his brows furrowed.
An uneasy feeling lingered in his mind, making him feel that something bad was about to happen.
He had only experienced this kind of anxiety once before, when he lost his child.
So many years have passed, and he has the same feeling again.
"Your Majesty?" a minister in the hall mustered his courage and called out.
The emperor stood up and said, "This matter will be discussed later. Court is adjourned."
He ignored the ministers' puzzled looks and walked out of the main hall alone.
He walked so fast that even the eunuchs behind him had to jog to keep up with him.
A eunuch brought him a sedan chair, but he resolutely refused.
He needed to walk on his own; only the cold touch of his feet on the snow could clear his mind.
The closer he got to the inner palace, the more intense the unease became, making his heart race and making it difficult for him to control himself.
In the distance, a woman's figure was running rapidly toward him.
As the woman drew closer, his breathing became more rapid, and the scene before him became increasingly blurry.
The woman collapsed in front of him, weeping as she struggled to her feet in the snow.
It's a lotus flower...
The lotus flowers beside Li'er.
Lotus knelt before him, her face streaked with tears, and choked out:
"Your Majesty...please go and see the young mistress...she..."
The emperor swayed, but the eunuch behind him quickly steadied him.
The moment he saw the lotus flowers, he seemed to have a premonition.
The emperor did not speak, but instead rushed toward Guangming Hall as fast as he could.
He desperately hoped things weren't as he imagined, but his wishes seemed to keep going against his expectations.
The emperor rushed to the outside of Guangming Hall, then suddenly stopped.
Palace servants came and went in the hall, each with a look of tension and fear on their face.
He slowed his pace and stepped into Gu Jiangli's bedroom.
The expressions on everyone's faces when they bowed to him along the way were so strange.
Outside the bedroom door, he could already smell the blood in the air.
Aunt Zhang came toward him carrying a basin of bright red blood.
The moment she saw him, she knelt down with a thud, along with the basin of blood, her body trembling like a leaf.
"Your Majesty, please... take care of your grief."
The emperor froze, his blood seemingly freezing in his veins.
"Consolation? Consolation for what?" The emperor's voice trembled without him even realizing it.
Aunt Zhang knelt on the ground, not daring to raise her head, and stammered:
"After her daughter ate breakfast, she suddenly had severe stomach pains. I rushed to summon the imperial physician... but by the time he arrived, it was already too late... the baby... was gone..."
The emperor didn't even listen to her finish speaking, ignoring her and going straight into his room.
Several imperial physicians surrounded the bed, performing acupuncture and pulse diagnosis.
The palace maids were busy changing the charcoal and water, so busy that they didn't even notice him.
His Li'er closed her eyes slightly, her face was so pale that it was almost bloodless, and the rise and fall of her chest was so faint that it was hard to detect.
She was so weak that she would break at the slightest touch...
He was perfectly fine when he went to court, how could things have turned out like this in just two hours?
He felt as if his feet weighed a ton, and with each step he took toward Gu Jiangli, his body and mind ached more.
Several imperial physicians noticed his presence, turned around, knelt down, sighed, and shook their heads.
"Your Majesty, please accept our condolences... We, your humble servants... have done our best."
The emperor sat down gently on the edge of the bed, brushed the stray hairs from Gu Jiangli's forehead, and his eyes brimmed with heartache.
"Is Consort Gu... alright?"
The imperial physicians sensed that the emperor had no intention of holding them accountable, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Your Majesty, Consort Gu's health still needs to be restored. A miscarriage is a great depletion of a woman's vitality."
"However, there are many rare medicinal herbs in the palace. Within six months, we will definitely be able to restore Consort Gu's body to its original state."
The implication is that Gu Jieyu may still be able to conceive again in the future.
Gu Jiangli opened his eyes at the opportune moment.
The moment she saw the emperor, tears welled up in her eyes.
"Your Majesty...our child..."
Her cries of grief moved everyone around her.
The emperor wiped away her tears with one hand and held her hand with the other.
His palms, which were once warm as fire, were now ice-cold.
Gu Jiangli stared at the emperor's face with tearful eyes. His pure black pupils were slightly red, but his cold face showed no extra joy or anger.
If it were anyone else, they would never have noticed that the emperor was heartbroken for this child.
But Gu Jiangli saw the emperor's inner collapse at a glance.
"Li'er, don't cry, it'll hurt your health."
Gu Jiangli slowly stopped sobbing, but her expression was still extremely sorrowful.
"My child... was perfectly fine... I failed to protect him..."
The emperor smoothed the wrinkles between her brows and said, "It's not Li'er's fault. I will find out."
He coldly asked the imperial physician:
"What's the reason?" He wanted to know the exact reason. "Gu Jieyu hasn't been able to eat for so long, and you all said her pulse was normal. But now? The baby is gone. What exactly went wrong?"
The emperor's voice had little variation, yet it inexplicably instilled fear in people.
The imperial physicians lowered their heads and secretly exchanged glances, but they all saw confusion in each other's eyes.
"Your Majesty... Consort Gu, we have done our best, but the child's passing was truly unexpected..."
"Yes, yesterday morning, I came to check her pulse. At that time, although Consort Gu's complexion was not very good, the fetus was in normal condition and there was nothing wrong with it."
"Your Majesty, today that Consort Zhang summoned us here. When we arrived, Consort Gu's fetus had already been lost. I could only temporarily stop the bleeding and regulate her qi, and protect her heart... But no matter how many times I examined her, I could not find the cause of the miscarriage."
"Yes, Your Majesty, it's too strange..."
The emperor scanned each of their faces, and found no trace of deception in them.
But children don't just disappear for no reason.
Everything has a reason.
Those of them who were imperial physicians didn't know, so he found someone who did and asked them.
"Bring Aunt Zhang in."
That woman, adorned with jewels, whose eyes constantly gleamed with greed.
As soon as Aunt Zhang entered, she saw the emperor's gloomy face and was so frightened that her legs went weak and she knelt on the ground, a hairpin falling from her head.
She was trembling with fear.
The emperor's icy voice came from above: "Aunt Zhang, do you know how Consort Gu lost her child?"
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