They are all concubines, so of course they choose the future emperor.

Prince Jing did not return to the backyard for several days after that.

Jiang Wanyue was calm and composed. She knew that Prince Jing was planning something big, but no one else knew.

Guan Rou, in particular, had hoped to gain Prince Jing's sympathy through this incident, but Prince Jing only came once and never came again. How could Guan Rou be willing to accept this?

She sent her maid to the front yard several times, but was stopped by the people at the second gate every time.

Either the prince is not here, or he is dealing with important matters and has no time.

Guan Rou was both angry and annoyed.

Because of this anger, the fetus became a little unstable again.

Doctor Tan had to go to Liuyinyuan several times a day, and even though he had a good temper, he couldn't help but complain.

After seeing blood again, Guan Rou herself panicked, worried that she could not keep the baby.

Her future wealth and glory depend on this child.

Lu Qingshuang went to persuade her and also took the initiative to suggest that her mother come to the house to accompany Guan Rou when she gave birth. Only then did she calm Guan Rou down.

In the blink of an eye, it is the Ghost Festival on July 15th.

Early in the morning, Cui Yan asked the princess for permission and left the house with her daughter.

There are big sacrifices in the palace and small sacrifices in the government.

The palace mainly worshipped ancestors, and the emperor took the princes and relatives to the Taimiao to worship.

In Prince Jing's Mansion, the main purpose of worshipping Prince Jing's biological mother is to be sacrificed.

Prince Jing's biological mother was of low status. She was originally a maidservant beside the Queen and was presented to the Emperor by the Queen.

After the emperor favored her several times, she became pregnant. After giving birth to Prince Jing, she was given the title of Concubine, but she was not promoted for the next ten years.

Although her favor was average, she gave birth to a prince, so it shouldn't be that she didn't get promoted for ten years.

It is said that the empress wanted to adopt Prince Jing at that time, but the emperor did not agree and asked the imperial concubine to raise him herself. The empress did not dare to vent her anger on the emperor, so she took out her anger on the imperial concubine, and kept blaming her background to prevent her from being promoted.

The concubine was depressed and died of illness when Prince Jing was ten years old.

After her death, the emperor remembered her kindness and posthumously conferred the title of Concubine Rou on her.

Concubine Rou was a second-rank concubine, which was not bad, but still inferior to the four first-rank concubines.

For this reason, Prince Jing had the lowest status among all the princes, and few ministers were optimistic about him at first.

Even though Prince Jing's power has grown greatly, there are still people who criticize him.

Last year, a minister gave advice to Prince Jing, suggesting that he be adopted by the Queen. This way, he could not only legitimately seize the position of Crown Prince, but also win over a series of veteran ministers including the Queen's family.

The minister thought he had come up with a win-win solution and was very proud of himself, but he did not expect to be refuted by Prince Jing.

Prince Jing never felt ashamed of his origins, nor would he do something like recognizing a thief as his mother.

But this did not prevent him from using the queen to make a fuss.

After the Taimiao sacrifice was over, the clan members returned to their homes.

At night, the emperor took in a young and beautiful new beauty. Just as he was enjoying himself, he was startled by a loud noise.

The emperor was furious and called the chief eunuch.

Unexpectedly, the chief eunuch came in crawling.

"Your Majesty, Xunfang Palace is haunted!"

The emperor was shocked and his face turned pale.

He wouldn't do this at any other time, but today is the Ghost Festival.

The little beauty beside her was also trembling with fear.

Xunfang Palace is where she lives.

The emperor walked out of his bedroom and called the guards to protect the palace where he lived before he ordered someone to investigate.

There were many palace maids and eunuchs in Xunfang Palace, and they all spoke in a very clear and concise manner, saying that they had seen a ghost wearing vermilion clothes.

The emperor gradually calmed down and became suspicious, suspecting that someone was playing tricks, so he ordered the guards to continue investigating.

The guards interrogated the palace maids and eunuchs along the way, tracking the "ghost" from Xunfang Palace to Yuhua Pavilion, then to Fenglai Palace, and finally stopped at Qingluan Palace.

There are only six places in the palace that can be called "palaces". Among them, Fenglai Palace is the residence of the Queen, the East Palace is the residence of the Prince, and the remaining four are the residences of four first-rank concubines.

And in Qingluan Palace, lived Concubine De.

As the emperor listened to the guards' reports, his expression became increasingly grim, with suspicion in his eyes.

He didn't think of it at first, but when he heard Fenglai Palace, he suddenly remembered Xunfang Palace and Yuhua Pavilion... Aren't these the places the queen liked to go most in the past?

Could it be that the queen has returned as a ghost?

As soon as this thought came to his mind, the emperor immediately shook his head.

It has been many years since the Queen died.

The emperor didn't really believe that ghosts existed and still suspected that someone was playing tricks.

But what they didn’t expect was that after the guards chased to Qingluan Palace, a maid in the back hall suddenly went crazy, crying and shouting, “Don’t look for me,” “Every wrong has its perpetrator,” and “I was just following orders.”

After a burst of crazy talk, the gray-haired palace maid suddenly hit her head against the wall and died.

The incident happened so suddenly that the guards didn't have time to stop it and watched the palace maid turn into a corpse.

The ground was covered with blood, it was shocking.

Since someone died, even the emperor had to take it seriously.

He rushed to Qingluan Palace with a large group of people.

Concubine De looked haggard and knelt down to apologize, but she only said that she had not managed her subordinates well and did not even know that the palace maid had become crazy.

The emperor looked unhappy, but he did not punish Concubine De.

Indeed, the "crazy words" of a palace maid cannot be used as evidence.

But the palace maid's words were ambiguous and she didn't mention anyone by name.

But the emperor was in a bad mood.

He sent someone to Fenghua Palace to pass a message to the imperial concubine, asking her to deal with the matter of the palace maid.

Unexpectedly, the imperial concubine came after a long time.

She was wearing casual clothes and hadn't done up her makeup. As soon as she came in, she knelt down and apologized.

"I am sorry for being rude, Your Majesty, please forgive me."

The emperor was always gentle to his cousin, the imperial concubine: "Get up! It's the middle of the night, and I'm sorry for waking you up."

The imperial concubine shook her head.

"I didn't sleep. I was in the Moon Viewing Tower just now."

Halfway through her speech, she took a deep breath and her tone deepened.

"Concubine Guo had a miscarriage."

As soon as these words came out, the emperor's expression changed.

"What happened? Why did you have a miscarriage out of nowhere?"

Concubine De, who was kneeling beside her, was also shocked.

The youngest child of the emperor now is the thirteen-year-old Princess Li Yun.

In the past thirteen years, no concubine in the palace has been pregnant.

This Concubine Guo was found to be pregnant a few months ago, and the emperor was extremely happy.

One can imagine how the emperor felt when he suddenly heard that his child was gone.

This made him more angry than any imaginary "ghost".

The emperor immediately asked someone to investigate.

This time, he did not let the imperial concubine intervene and sent the inner guards.

Apparently, he even suspected the imperial concubine.

There were many talented people in the inner guards with great abilities. They found out the reason why Concubine Guo had miscarriage in just one night.

An inner guard presented a blue-white jade bowl to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, Concubine Guo took an overdose of safflower."

The emperor gritted his teeth.

"Why are there red flowers in the palace?"

The inner guard then replied.

"Someone soaked white swallows in safflower water to make fake blood swallows, mixed them with normal blood swallows, and sneaked them into the palace. Concubine Guo took the fake blood swallows and had a miscarriage."

"Blood Swallow? Go investigate further! Don't let go of anyone who has come into contact with her! I want to see who dares to reach into the harem!"

The emperor slapped the armrest and stood up angrily.