1650
A little over a month later, in a small courtyard a few hundred miles away from the Capital City, a woman in her sixties knelt straight in the middle of the hall, forcing herself to remain calm, but dared not lift her head to look at the old man in the room.
The old man's expression remained unchanged, yet the bulging veins on the back of his hand, which gripped the armrest of the chair, betrayed his tension.
The old man didn't speak. His attendant coldly asked, "I will ask you again, in which year did the Queen of Cangming Country return to the Xilin Imperial Palace back then? Did she return by herself, or was she brought back by the Emperor of Xilin? Was there anything unusual when she returned?"
This elderly woman was once a little palace maid in Consort Lian's palace, the only survivor from her court. It took great effort to find her.
"I truly don't know!" The elderly woman's back was drenched with cold sweat, but she stubbornly held on. She really couldn't speak.
