After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Before Wen Liangyu could finish speaking, the Empress Dowager grabbed something and threw it at him. The object landed, revealing itself to be a teacup filled with tea. The tea splashed all over Wen Liangyu, who remained kneeling with a mocking expression.

"Is the Empress Dowager so angry because she feels guilty?"

"Wen Liangyu, you thief, how dare you frame me!"

"Whether it's a frame-up or not, Your Majesty knows perfectly well." Wen Liangyu curled her lips into a smile. "There's a jade shop in the capital called Wangyu Zhai. You are all capable people; why not use your connections to investigate who owns Wangyu Zhai and where the jade in it comes from? Tingzhou may be far, but it's not as far as the ends of the earth. No matter how ruthless Your Majesty's methods are, there will inevitably be some who slip through the net. If there's one, there will be a second, a third. Your Majesty cannot cover up the massacre of the Wen family."

The Empress Dowager felt a tightness in her chest and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The Wen family was massacred, and Wen Liangyu escaped death. To avenge his family, he was castrated and entered the palace.

Twenty years ago, he was just a child, and he thought revenge was too simple. He believed that once he entered the palace, he could see the Empress Dowager and kill her to avenge his family. Only after entering the palace did he realize that the palace was far more complex and that seeing the Empress Dowager was no easy feat.

As a newly arrived eunuch, he was assigned to learn etiquette under a mean-spirited old eunuch. He endured all the hardships and punishments he was supposed to suffer, and all the punishments he was supposed to endure, and all the punishments he was supposed to suffer. In order to survive in that cannibalistic palace, and in order to get close to his enemy, he humbled himself and recognized the old eunuch as his adoptive father.

At the age of seventeen, he finally stood in the Empress Dowager's palace, but revenge was still a long way off. The Empress Dowager had secret guards by her side; even when she slept, she was watched. The small kitchen was heavily guarded, making poisoning difficult. He could only wait, and as he waited, the Empress Dowager's trip came around.

Lu Zhiyuan, feeling sleepy, yawned and asked, "What's different about this trip?"

Wen Liangyu smiled, staring directly into the Empress Dowager's eyes, a smile that sent chills down the Empress Dowager's spine. Suddenly, she remembered something and pointed at Wen Liangyu, "Yuqian, Yuqian was... you..."

“That’s right, I killed Yu Qian, and her body was buried under the plum tree in the Imperial Garden.”

The Empress Dowager staggered back two steps.

Her favorite tree was the plum tree in the Imperial Garden, a gift from Zhang Qi when she married the late Emperor. Perhaps due to the poor soil and water in the Imperial Garden, the plum tree had been half-dead since it was planted. If it weren't for the late Emperor's favor and his protection of the tree, it would have been dug up long ago. After Yu Qian disappeared, the plum tree seemed to have been revitalized, growing better and better, even blooming with tricolor plum blossoms.

It turned out that Yuqian's body was buried under that plum tree.

Wen Liangyu continued to laugh: "That letter, the one that the Empress Dowager asked Yuqian to deliver to her beloved, I hid in the Jade Guanyin. At the same time, I imitated the Empress Dowager's handwriting and wrote another letter to have delivered to your beloved. His death had nothing to do with General Xie; he was killed by you, Empress Dowager."

The Empress Dowager pointed at Wen Liangyu: "What did you write?"

Wen Liangyu stared at her, a half-smile on his face, and said, word by word, "I'll kill him!"

The Empress Dowager fell to the ground, and Wen Liangyu continued to stab her: "He wasn't murdered, he committed suicide. Whether or not those bandits escaped to Huguo Temple, he would have ended his life that way. In this matter, the only truly innocent one, the one implicated, is General Xie. He was ordered by Your Majesty to suppress the bandits. He was a rough man, without any cunning or scheming. How could he have known that those bandits would escape to Huguo Temple? Oh, right, Your Majesty, it was you who planted an undercover agent among the bandits, and it was you who had that agent incite them to go to Huguo Temple."

Xie Yubai narrowed his eyes: "Why would the Empress Dowager do this?"

Wen Liangyu said, "Because she wanted her beloved to take their child away."

The Empress Dowager collapsed to the ground; this was the biggest secret of her life, and she never expected it to be exposed at this critical juncture.

The fact that the Empress Dowager has a child with someone else is a huge secret. Everyone present, except for Lu Zhiyuan, Lu Yun, Liu Ying, Xie Yubai, and Commander Ma, wished they were deaf and blind.

Commander Ma touched his nose and whispered to Xie Yubai, "The Empress Dowager's illegitimate son, this is a very serious matter, does Your Excellency know?"

Xie Yubai replied, "How could I know something that even Lord Ma doesn't know?"

Commander Ma nodded: "What you say is true, sir. Royal secrets are probably unknown even to the one in the palace."

Xie Yubai made a shushing gesture.

Wen Liangyu pointed to the jade Guanyin statue: "This jade Guanyin was carved by my father for my mother. It has a mechanism inside, which no one else knows. Even if they did know, they wouldn't dare to touch it casually. After all, the jade used to carve this jade Guanyin is not ordinary jade."

The Empress Dowager said sternly, "Stop talking!"

Lu Zhiyuan, oblivious to her surroundings, walked up to the young monk holding the jade Guanyin and asked Wen Liangyu where the mechanism was. Wen Liangyu pointed to the head of the jade Guanyin. Lu Zhiyuan observed it for a moment, then gently twisted it, and the jade Guanyin made a "click" sound.

Everyone held their breath, but the jade Guanyin remained unchanged.

Lu Zhiyuan twisted it in the opposite direction again, and there was another "click".

The head of the jade Guanyin began to slide horizontally, revealing a hole the size of a thumb. Hidden inside the hole was a letter that the Empress Dowager had sent her personal maid, Yu Qian, to Huguo Temple.

The letter was well-preserved, and every word was legible.

After the late emperor's death, the Empress Dowager, overcome with grief, recuperated at a temple. Zhang Qi, the abbot, strictly adhered to the rules and never overstepped them, while the Empress Dowager, filled with sorrow, felt that with the late emperor gone, there were no longer any obstacles between them. She ordered someone to tamper with the incense, causing Zhang Qi to engage in inappropriate acts with her.

After this incident, Zhang Qi was devastated and blamed himself for everything. He secluded himself for three years under the pretext of spiritual cultivation. It was during those three years that the Empress Dowager gave birth to a child for Zhang Qi and entrusted the child to a farming family. After Zhang Qi emerged from seclusion, he ordered someone to send the child to Huguo Temple.

Zhang Qi adopted the child, taught him to read and understand principles, making him the most outstanding junior monk in Huguo Temple. He should have inherited the position of abbot, but Zhang Qi left him a message to go out and see the mountains and lakes of Beiliang, as well as other temples besides Huguo Temple, to learn more profound Buddhist teachings.

The moment Zhang Qi saw the child, he sensed something. It wasn't until he saw the forged letter from Wen Liangyu that he confirmed that the little apprentice he had adopted was indeed his child with the Empress Dowager.

Whether for the Empress Dowager or for that child, Zhang Qi was willing to die.

With red eyes, the Empress Dowager rushed to Wen Liangyu, grabbed her by the neck, and shouted, "It was you! You killed him! I planned everything, except for you. Wen Liangyu, you deserve to die!"

Wen Liangyu remained motionless, wishing the Empress Dowager would strangle him.

His death adds another crime to her list.