Empress Jian shuddered involuntarily at the thunderclap outside the palace. She looked up at her son across from her. Long Tingsheng, Crown Prince of Great Kang, seemed even paler and more haggard than she was. Just then, he too looked up at his mother, pressed his lips together, and said, "Mother..."
Empress Jian reached out and clasped her son's large hand. It was icy to the touch, though she was no different herself; she could scarcely feel any warmth in her own body. "It's all right... nothing will happen..." she whispered, comforting Long Tingsheng, but even more so herself.
"Mother, I keep feeling that something momentous has happened in the palace," Long Tingsheng said. They had been under house arrest here for seven full days. During that time, every maid and eunuch in Xinning Palace had been replaced. Neither mother nor son was permitted to take so much as a step beyond its grounds. He could no longer oversee state affairs, and Empress Jian naturally could not govern from behind the curtain either.
"I was such a fool," Empress Jian said. "I actually believed that eunuch scoundrel Ji Feihua's lies. He has a wolf's ambition-what he covets is the realm of our Long family. It is entirely my fault that we have fallen to this."
"Why blame yourself, Mother? This situation was never something you could change. You would not have joined forces with him if it hadn't been for me. I can only blame myself for believing that girl Qiqi so readily. Now that she has brought this disaster upon me, it is too late for regret."
At the mention of Qiqi, fury surged through Empress Jian. She gritted her teeth and said, "That little bitch is truly vicious. Who knows what she obtained from the Retired Emperor when