Song Qingshu had grown curious about the Empress, not merely because he had overheard eunuchs and palace maids privately discussing her when he entered the palace yesterday, describing her as breathtakingly beautiful. More importantly, when he had been investigating Murong Jingyue's whereabouts and suspected that he was hiding in the imperial palace, he had asked Xiao Zhonghui about it while rescuing her. After all, she had spent so many years in the palace and was more likely to notice anything unusual.
After he rescued her and Yuan Chengzhi, Xiao Zhonghui told him that she had always found one person in the palace highly suspicious: the Empress, mistress of the harem. From the moment she entered the palace, she had received the emperor's boundless favor. The harem had never been a kind place, and many consorts had secretly plotted against her. Yet every time, she emerged safely from danger. Even more astonishingly, the consorts who tried to frame her would soon suffer retribution, each meeting a miserable end.
As a result, all manner of eerie rumors gradually spread through the harem. Since the Empress was named Xiao Guanyin, people claimed she was the reincarnation of Goddess Guanyin. No one dared target her again.
"Xiao Guanyin?" Song Qingshu marveled inwardly. This Empress of the Liao Country was quite famous in history. She seemed to have been implicated in a case of adultery with a palace servant. Though the prevailing view was that she had been framed, others believed the affair was not entirely baseless.
I wonder who had that kind of luck. Song Qingshu thought gossipily. According to the palace servants' descriptions, the Empress was skilled in music and possessed peerless beauty, a true treasure among women. If a man could become her lover, even being executed afterward would make this life