The old woman's withered palm moved slowly over his face. When she touched the wetness there, her clouded eyes filled with tender sorrow.
The longing for her daughter that she had held back for so many years finally burst its banks! Her brows knitted tightly, her facial muscles trembled, and her lips quivered incessantly.
So alike!
So very alike!
Though she had always been blind, she had often stroked her youngest daughter's face like this. Every smile and frown, every feature-through touch alone, she could sketch her daughter's likeness in her heart.
She thought that if only she could see, she would surely have witnessed her daughter's peerless beauty.
Now, endless regret and yearning filled her eyes. Her dim gaze seemed to reach across time and space, trying to glimpse the daughter in her memories.
"Yue'er, Yue'er!" the Empress Dowager called her youngest daughter's name, weeping as though her heart and soul were being torn apart.
Her body shook violently, her frail frame tipping backward as though she might collapse at any moment.
"Grandmother!" Xia Siheng's face filled with panic, tears welling in his eyes.
"Empress Dowager!" Everyone around them looked worried as well.
"Prince, I'm afraid the Eastern Empress Dowager's body is failing." After examining her, the army physician heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head helplessly. "You should make preparations."
The radiance in her face seemed like the final flare of a dying flame.
She would not live another two days.
Yet as the Empress Dowager of Eastern Lin, how could she not love this land and its people?
Her once-frail body now straightened, her face filled with resolve, her eyes revealing her deep affection for this land.
She did not want to leave with Xia Siheng!
"It is a pity that my eyes have never seen.