Rebirth: Pampered by the Lord

Imperial Palace.

Due to the sudden death of the Empress Dowager, both inside and outside the palace were adorned with white mourning banners.

Of course, this so-called death from illness was a lie devised by The Emperor to conceal the true cause of her death. Everyone in the palace knew the truth, but they could only pretend not to know and keep the secret of the Empress Dowager being hanged in front of The Emperor’s room buried in their hearts.

After Long Rui and Xuexue alighted from the carriage at the palace gates, there was already a sedan chair waiting for them inside. They got into the sedan chair, and after approximately two hours, the sedan chair finally came to a halt.

Xuexue reached out to open the curtain of the sedan chair, looked around, having never been to this place before, asked: "Prince, what is this place?"

Long Rui held her hand, carefully helped her down from the sedan chair, and said: "This is the side hall. The Empress Dowager’s funeral will be held here."

Xuexue: "Oh!"

After getting off the sedan chair, sure enough, they saw many ministers and numerous harem concubines also present; it seemed Long Rui was right, the Empress Dowager’s funeral was indeed held here.

The Emperor was wearing mourning clothes, looking utterly exhausted, his face covered in stubble; it seemed the death of the Empress Dowager had hit him hard.

It was, of course, his own birth mother hanged in front of his room, a great provocation; as the sovereign of a nation, not knowing who the culprit was until now was a great humiliation.

Furthermore, the sudden sight of the Empress Dowager’s corpse had also frightened him.

Long Rui and Xuexue entered a side chamber. The Emperor, without any expression, stayed woodenly by the Empress Dowager’s side, ignoring them.

Long Rui couldn’t be bothered with him; today he came to the palace not specifically to mourn the Empress Dowager but to avoid Gu Lingqiao’s pestering and prevent Xuexue from becoming upset.

In the past, he had many women and never cared about who was happy or who was unhappy. But since meeting Xuexue, his thoughts were entirely on her, afraid to make her unhappy.

The Second Prince, dressed in mourning clothes, came forward and greeted him, then kneeling obediently nearby without a word.

The body of the Empress Dowager lay nearby; having been dead for so long before discovered, the body was completely stiff, unable to wear the shroud, which had to be laid over her. Her eyes, originally wide open like a Copper Gong, were now closed, though a thick layer of makeup was applied to her face, it could not conceal the deep strangulation mark on her chin.

Due to the Empress Dowager’s death, the Empress was exceptionally released from the Cold Palace and, together with Noble Consort Wang, led the concubines to kneel and mourn beside her.

The Empress, freshly released from the Cold Palace, didn’t know what had transpired; she thought the Empress Dowager had truly died from illness and cried very sorrowfully, hoping to seize this opportunity to impress The Emperor so he might release her from the Cold Palace permanently.

Noble Consort Wang glanced at her, thinking that for the Empress to rise again would require her death; thus, she also cried sorrowfully, even louder than the Empress.

With the two leaders of the harem putting so much effort into mourning, the other concubines also cried out loud, and suddenly the side hall was filled with cries.

Tomorrow was the Empress Dowager’s funeral day, and all her palace maids were to be buried with her, a tradition handed down from the ancestors. However, on the day of the Empress Dowager’s demise, nearly all her palace maids had already died.

To fill the numbers, The Emperor selected fifty to sixty young and beautiful palace maids from the palace to be buried with the Empress Dowager.

At this, not only the side hall was filled with cries, but the selected fifty to sixty palace maids washed their faces with tears every day.

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