Transmigrated Female Official

The baby boy in Aunt Hong's arms must look extremely similar to the Eighth Princess when she was a child, otherwise the Empress wouldn't have been able to condemn the Eighth Princess at a glance.

This situation was quite advantageous for Chu Qingluo and her group. After all, unless absolutely necessary, Chu Qingluo didn't want to resort to a completely unscientific method like blood-drop paternity testing.

Because she had been kneeling for a long time, Li Yan's knees had long since lost feeling. She couldn't help but shift her body before saying to the Empress, "In order to ensure that Princess Xile would have a daughter, Lady Longkui has long planned a scheme to switch the baby with a girl. If the princess gives birth to a girl, everyone will be happy. If not, as arranged beforehand, Lady He Yujie's men will put the baby boy in a specially made medicine box and take him out of the palace, where I will meet him."

At this point, Li Yan's voice unconsciously softened considerably: "As it turned out, Princess Xile gave birth to a baby boy that day. Lady Longkui ordered me to kill the baby boy outside the palace, but I found him so adorable that I couldn't bear to do it. Furthermore, I remembered that my relative, Aunt Hong, only had one son, so I thought it would be better to secretly entrust him to her to raise."

Fortunately, she did not follow Long Kui's instructions to kill the baby boy, otherwise her head would have been the first to fall to the ground in this hall today.

"Snapped!"

The Empress was so enraged she could no longer control herself; her brows and eyes were furrowed together. She went down and slapped the Eighth Princess hard across the face! "Even tigers don't eat their cubs! You're worse than an animal?!"

The Eighth Princess instinctively covered her flushed cheeks with her hands, looking somewhat dazed. Her eyes wide, she crawled to Li Yan's side, shook Li Yan's shoulders vigorously, and demanded, "What did you just say?! Long Kui told you to get rid of the baby boy?!"

Seeing the Eighth Princess's astonished expression, Li Yan realized that the Eighth Princess herself did not know how Long Kui had dealt with her own son. "Lady Long Kui said that this baby boy cannot live in this world."

Upon hearing Li Yan's answer, the Eighth Princess was even more stunned. She sat blankly on the floor, looking lost and disoriented, as if she had suddenly become stupid.

At the time, Longkui only told the Eighth Princess that the baby would be sent to a faraway place to be raised, and which family he would be raised in was a secret she would never reveal until her death. Unless the Eighth Princess one day ascends to the throne, there would be no possibility of her bringing him back as an adopted son.

Now, Li Yan's statement is to show that Long Kui lied to the Eighth Princess from the very beginning, and that she would never have let the child live!

Thinking of this, the Eighth Princess suddenly burst into tears. She truly hadn't intended to kill her own child. This was her first child; she had endured ten months of hardship during pregnancy, and the delivery had nearly cost her her life. How could she possibly be so cruel as to harm her own child?!

Longkui saw this clearly, which is why she kept her completely in the dark!

Seeing the Eighth Princess's frantic and out-of-control state, the Empress waved her hand and snorted coldly. She then asked Li Yan, "You just said that it was Lord He's men who smuggled the baby boy out of the palace. Was Lord He also involved in this?"

"Your Majesty, Lord He has been assisting Lord Longkui from beginning to end," Li Yan affirmed.

This He Yujie almost caused Li Yan's death in prison with just a bowl of chestnut porridge! Now is Li Yan's time for revenge! No one will escape, not a single one will be spared!

"Excellent! Excellent indeed!" The Empress's voice was as chilling as an ice cellar. "Just how far has Long Kui's reach extended? How powerful is she? I will uproot her completely!"

Beneath the imperial city walls, how could the Empress allow anyone to wield power and influence in her presence, or to turn the tide of history?!

The Empress strode back to her high throne and questioned the still weeping Eighth Princess: "Xile! What do you have to say now?!"

The Eighth Princess's face was streaked with tears and snot. She turned to look at her child in Aunt Hong's arms and said with heartache, "I really didn't mean to kill him! I really didn't!"

"Even if Long Kui deceived you, you are still culpable!" The Empress's heartache at this moment was far stronger than that of the Eighth Princess! "I simply cannot imagine when you became like this?! To inherit the throne, you and Fu Lin actually had to climb over the corpses of your own sisters?! You both disgust me!"

Faced with the Empress's disgust, the Eighth Princess, while crying, actually laughed: "Your Majesty, didn't you also climb to this position by stepping on your sisters' heads?"

The Empress also had several sisters; some died peacefully, while others perished in the struggle for power. In the Eighth Princess's eyes, the Empress was also a ruthless and decisive person, whose hands were no less stained with blood than her own.

"Insolence!" The Empress coughed in anger, and only after she stopped coughing did she roar, "I am the heir to the throne chosen by the late Emperor! Anyone else who covets the throne is a traitor! Everything I do is righteous!"

Seeing the Eighth Princess's defiant expression, the Empress continued, "Right now, I have not yet designated anyone to inherit the throne. None of you three are the rightful heir! Even if you fought amongst yourselves, I could turn a blind eye. But you've gone so far as to be so ruthless, even risking your lives!" The Empress grew increasingly angry, her hand trembling as she pointed at the Eighth Princess. "You are the most rebellious! You'd even abandon your own flesh and blood! Tell me, what wouldn't you dare to do now? Huh?! Is your next step with Long Kui to push me off this throne?!"

The Eighth Princess shook her head vigorously, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Your Majesty, please spare my life!"

At this moment, Ryan rushed in from the outer hall and knelt down at the Empress's feet, pleading, "Your Majesty knows that Joy is not inherently bad. He has made a grave mistake because he was misled by others!"

The commotion in the Phoenix Palace was so great that all the other palaces had heard a bit about it. Rui'an was uneasy and had been pacing around the entrance of the Phoenix Palace for a while. When he heard the Empress's angry roar again, he could no longer restrain himself and barged in.

"Ryan! Get out of my sight!" The Empress glared at Ryan and ordered him to leave.

Ryan still wouldn't leave, continuing, "Your Majesty, Xile is Ryan's and Your Majesty's daughter. Please forgive her! If Your Majesty insists on blaming her, Ryan is willing to bear all the blame for her!"

The Eighth Princess's defenses had long since crumbled, and seeing the Empress's unwavering compassion only deepened her despair. At this moment, only the cold tears on her face confirmed her survival. "Father, it's all too late." To be continued.