The old woman stopped in front of the empress and greeted her. Ahh…now the empress remembered about this old woman.
She was Royal concubine Xi, one of the three most feared concubine belonged to the previous emperor's harem!
The empress suddenly sweating profusely, she subconsciously swept her forehead. This woman was her nightmare when she first entered the palace.
Together with the other two concubines, they were fearful bunch of imperial concubines in the previous harem who would rip the crown princess candidates apart.
She was lucky that she got their approval as soon as her husband who was a young man at that time seemed to be taken a liking on her. While the other two women had pass away, Concubine Xi was the only one who was still living till this day. Despite being blind, she was the scariest one out of the three of them. There was something resembled of otherworldly aura surrounding Concubine Xi that can hardly be described.
"Were you coming from the dowager empress��s room?" the old woman asked the empress nonchalantly. Despite coming from inferior rank than the empress, the woman seemed to be unperturbed to show any protocol respect toward her.
Well, probably because she knew that the empress was afraid of her.
"Yes. I just coming back from the dowager empress' place"
"How was the empress dowager?"
"Just like any other day. Her condition did not get worse nor that it's getting better neither"
"Hmpppp…" the older woman making unintelligible sound. "Human life are so fragile" She commented.
Again, the empress flinched when she heard the words coming out of the older woman's mouth. The imperial Concubine Xi that she remembered had always spouted nonsense about how despicable mortal had been living their life as if she was not part of the same species!
The sentence was so notoriously popular to the point that it became a joke among the servants that Concubine Xi was not a mortal.
'Well, they might have been right' The empress flaunting her imaginary smirk.
"I will be visiting her. So please excuse me Your majesty" The old woman then proceed to strut toward the dowager empress' room.
Both of her young maids follow after her. The maids were quite weird to the empress. They appeared quite familiar to the empress as if she had met them before. But it was impossible as the empress had not been seeing Concubine Xi for almost twenty years. One of them smile all the time while the other one appeared to be as arrogant as her mistress. However, both of them were extraordinarily beautiful.
The cold wind suddenly blew mercilessly. The door and windows flapped open consecutively they scared the empress to her bone.
Trying to shake off their presence from her mind, the empress hurried to left the place as fast as she could.
Back in the study room, the emperor was busy with his paper works when the empress finally entered after visiting the empress dowager.
"Greeting your majesty" The empress gracefully pay obeisance to the emperor.
" Stand up my empress" The emperor cued for her to sit closer to him.
"How was the empress dowager?" He asked while putting away his brush at far end of the table.
This was the second time someone asked her the same question. "Just like any other day Your majesty"
The emperor looked dejected. He lowered his gaze to the table. "It was delusional for me to think that royal mother's condition would get better right?"
"Don't be pessimist Your Majesty. There's still hope for the empress dowager to get better….even though she's actually ….. becoming more delirious today" The empress' voice went from highly uplifting to stuttering.
"Delirious? What did she imagined this time?"
"The empress dowager dreamed of the late emperor holding their child. I asked her whether Your Majesty was the child in her dream but she shook her head. She said the child was the one she carried in her womb" She reported about the dream to her husband.
The emperor looked at the empress with a concern look. "What happen after that?"
"Nothing happen. She did not elaborate more about that"
The emperor leaned back to his chair. His hand flew to his chin and he began to rub his long, gray beard.
"So, royal mother still remember about that" He mumbled the words under his breath.
Brimming with curiosity, the empress tried to probe further about the matter. " Is there anything that I didn't know?"
The emperor let out a heavy sigh.
"My royal mother used to get pregnant few years after she was officiated as the empress. But it was not long. She miscarried the baby when she was six months pregnant. After the incident, royal father never visited her again"
The emperor stared off the space while recollecting his royal mother's sad past.
"Why I didn't know about this?" The empress was shocked. All this time, she thought that the empress dowager was infertile. Well, couple with how little time the late emperor spent his night at her place. But it turned out to be that she used to get pregnant at least once in her lifetime.
"It was complicated. One of the scariest moment in my life. At that time, I thought I was going to loose her"
The empress threw a sympathetic look to her husband. Loosing his biological mother at young age, the emperor was very close to the empress dowager. His loved for her might have been greater than any biological mother and son relationship that the empress had ever witness.
When they were younger, the emperor used to stood against the late emperor for neglecting the empress. He was punished severely by the late emperor. It took them several months to have a civil conversation without having to bark at each other in every sentence in which thanks to the empress dowager's hard work.
As he was close to the empress dowager , it was dawn to him that his royal mother was severely neglected by his own father. He witness firsthand how dejected the empress dowager was when the late emperor decide to not visit her or how vicious the gossip circulated around the inner palace about how the empress dowager is not being favoured by her own husband.
Fortunately, the late emperor was - at least- respected his wife as an empress. Hence, no one dare to openly mocking her whenever the late emperor was within the sight.
"What happen at the time?" The empress was curious.
"She miscarried the child in her stomach and lost consciousness as she lost a lot of blood. She was in coma state for a few days. Once she gained her consciousness, she was so delirious and kept on saying she was trapped in an old woman's body"
"Trapped in old woman's body?"
"Yes! She was hysterical for few days. Luckily it was not long. She recovered quickly after consuming medicine and resting for days. But after that, she never speaks about the occasion ever again. She didn't even remember about her unborn child"
"That's weird"
"Indeed !" The emperor nodded his head. " Did you left her in good condition?"
He quickly asked the empress afterward.
"Ahh…yes Your Majesty. But, someone came to visit her after I left the place. It was concubine Xi."
"Concubine Xi? The one who resided by the royal temple in the countryside?"
"Yes."
"It's weird. I didn't received any message beforehand about her arrival to the palace. When did she arrived?If anything, she supposed to seek my audience first before visiting Royal Mother"
"I'm not quite sure about that. But , concubine Xi had never respected anyone in her entire life. Coming unannounced is expected of her" The empress muttered the words quietly.
"That was right" The emperor nod in agreement with the statement made by the empress.
" Your favorite grandchild seemed to inherit Concubine Xi's behaviour. Look at him! Secretly sneaking out of the palace for several months without even telling us. Now the crown prince needs to scavenged the entire kingdom to search for him" The emperor vehemently scolded their oldest grandson who was known to be a spoilt brat.
Suddenly the eunuch announced the arrival of a messenger. The emperor cued on the permission to allow the messenger to enter the study room.
A man clad in wet robe stride into the study room with a serious look. He greeted the emperor and kneel in front of him.
"Greeting Your Majesty. This servant is relying a message from the royal temple"
He pulled out a scroll and presented it in front of the emperor. The emperor took the scroll from the messenger's hand and began to unravel the rope that was used to tie the scroll.
The emperor's face distorted into a peculiar expression. "When was this?!" He roared loudly to the messenger.
The empress was astonished seeing his mood changed in mere second . what kind of message that he received just now?
"It was yesterday. This servant supposed to arrived last night. But the weather was bad and my journey was hampered by it"
"You mean to say that Concubine Xi passed away yesterday morning?!" the emperor shouted at the messenger.
"Yes, Your Majesty"
The empress let out a huge gasp. "Then, who was the person that I met at the empress dowager's place?"
The emperor clinched his teeth. "Someone!" he yelled for the guard who was stationed outside of the study room.
"Your Majesty" Both of the guard kneel to received the emperor's order.
"Bring a group of guard to the empress dowager's place. Ensure that these guards were all highly skills! The dowager empress is in great danger!"