Capital City.
The Imperial Palace.
Imperial Study.
Gu Xiangnan's gaze was grave. She held a memorial in her hand and skimmed through it ten lines at a glance, finishing it all.
The entire Imperial Study contained only her.
"Your Majesty, someone requests an audience."
A palace maid knelt outside the Imperial Study, her voice brimming with deep respect.
Gu Xiangnan turned a deaf ear, her cold voice ringing out:
"Didn't I say so?"
"Until Duke Ji's case is resolved, I will see no one."
"The visitor claims his surname is Wu and carries Your Majesty's waist token."
The palace maid hesitated before truthfully reporting.
Thud.
The memorial slipped from Gu Xiangnan's hand and landed on the desk.
A flicker of panic visibly crossed her face.
Then, forcing herself to calm down, she rose and went to the bronze mirror to straighten her clothes, every movement completed in one fluid motion.
"Let him... enter."
Gu Xiangnan herself failed to notice that her voice, usually unruffled in the face of any crisis, now carried a trace of tremor.
"Yes."
Tap, tap, tap...
Footsteps sounded.
Gu Xiangnan's hands clenched tightly together.
Yet her face still retained its calm.
She swallowed and pursed her lips.
"Greetings, Your Majesty."
A familiar voice.
Gu Xiangnan tried her utmost to appear composed:
"No need for formalities."
Zeng Anbian grinned as he raised his head, his gaze resting on Gu Xiangnan's face.
His second wife was still his second wife.
Beautiful!
Every time he saw that face.
Zeng Anmin would marvel inwardly.
She was simply too beautiful.
Across both his past and present lives, he had seen only one woman capable of rivaling that face.
Princess, his first wife.
The two women's beauty was evenly matched, each possessing her own incomparable charm.
"Wu..."
Just as the Empress was