“Crown Princess, Gu Siyi requests an audience,” Red Jade announced from outside just as Shen Xihe finished reading Shen Yueshan’s letter.

“Let her in,” Shen Xihe put down the letter and walked out, supported by Biyu.

Gu Zexiang hadn’t come alone. She brought several palace maids from the Imperial Wardrobe Service to take Shen Xihe’s measurements for new clothes. The Imperial Wardrobe Bureau was responsible for the clothing of imperial women. Since Shen Xihe was pregnant and her size changed monthly, their frequent visits raised no suspicion.

After taking measurements and deciding on styles, fabrics, and patterns, just as Gu Zexiang was about to leave with the palace maids, Shen Xihe spoke: “Imperial Seamstress Gu, I also make clothes privately. There are some patterns I’d like you to look at.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Gu Zexiang kept her head lowered and followed Shen Xihe to her sewing room. “Is Your Highness inquiring about the Late Empress?”

“Do you have any leads?” Shen Xihe asked.

Over the years, Gu Zexiang had firmly established herself in the palace, first in the Yeting Palace where criminals were held, then in the complex Six Bureaus and Twenty-four Divisions. She had proven resilient wherever she went, which was why Shen Xihe considered her a promising future Palace Matron.

“Your Highness, I met an old woman when I was in Yeting Palace,” Gu Zexiang recalled thoughtfully. “Sometimes she was deranged – there were many such people in Yeting Palace, so no one paid her much attention. But sometimes she was lucid, and I spent some time with her.

She told me she had served the Late Empress. The Late Empress passed away before His Majesty ascended the throne. Until the Crown Prince was three, there were still people from the Late Empress’s household by his side, but these people were later dismissed from the palace due to age, and their whereabouts became difficult to trace.

This woman was demoted to Yeting Palace for making a mistake while caring for the Crown Prince.”

“Where is she now?” Shen Xihe asked.

“She passed away from illness five years ago,” Gu Zexiang said, taking out a jade pendant. “In Yeting Palace, lives were worth less than grass. When people died, no one gave them a second glance. I was the first to discover her death. She was holding this jade pendant. Having come from an official’s family, I had some discernment and knew this was no ordinary object, so I kept it.”

Gu Zexiang handed the pendant to Zhenzhu, who passed it to Shen Xihe.

It was high-quality mutton-fat jade, carved with a peony in exquisite detail. The lifelike flower appeared to bloom, its petals translucent in the light.

Such an item would be rare not only for a criminal slave but even for ordinary official families.

“The Late Empress’s given name contained the character for peony,” Zhenzhu reminded.

Shen Xihe didn’t need the reminder – she already knew.

Holding the pendant’s tassel, Shen Xihe remained silent for a moment before asking, “Did she say anything else?”

Gu Zexiang shook her head. “She was usually incoherent and wouldn’t speak, just trying to bite anyone who came near. When lucid… she would just sit still, staring blankly at nothing.”

The only thing she had ever said was during New Year when Gu Zexiang brought her a bowl of prison gruel. She let slip that she had served the Empress in the Eastern Palace and had eaten far finer food than this.

She immediately realized her mistake and looked anxiously at Gu Zexiang, but Gu Zexiang pretended not to hear and continued with her work.

“What was her name?” Shen Xihe asked.

Gu Zexiang shook her head again. “I don’t know. She had already been in Yeting Palace for over ten years when I arrived.”

The Crown Prince at three years old – that was the third year of Youning, exactly twenty-one years ago. She died five years ago, meaning she spent sixteen years in Yeting Palace.

When Gu Zexiang entered Yeting Palace, this woman had indeed already been there for over ten years.

“I understand. You may go,” Shen Xihe didn’t keep Gu Zexiang longer to avoid arousing suspicion.

After Gu Zexiang left the Eastern Palace, Shen Xihe instructed Zhenzhu: “Investigate who from the Empress’s household served the Crown Prince back then, and when they were transferred away.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

It was quite easy to investigate because Shen Xihe had previously managed palace affairs and had access to all internal records. She had said long ago that she wouldn’t always hold onto palace authority – sometimes to better deceive enemies, one had to give up power.

Especially after Xiao Huayong decided to leave, Shen Xihe knew that without him, she would no longer be the Crown Princess, and continuing to hold palace authority would seem improper. When they had free time, Zhenzhu and others would make copies of certain documents.

The personnel change records from Youning Year 1 to Year 24 were critically important. Shen Xihe could discern patterns in people’s movements and, with Lan Shangyi’s help, map out palace factions.

They naturally made this their priority to copy.

Zhenzhu easily found the information but looked grave: “Your Highness, in Youning Year 3, there’s no record of anyone being demoted from the Eastern Palace to Yeting Palace.”

Not that there was no one – the record had been erased.

Tian Yuan quickly brought news about the list of palace maids who had served the Empress and their whereabouts.

“They’re all dead,” Shen Xihe said after a brief review.

Their deaths didn’t raise suspicion because they hadn’t all died in the same year – some from illness, some from accidents.

The last one died in Youning Year 8.

What a coincidental timing – Youning Year 8 was when Xiao Huayong was poisoned by tainted cherries in Mingzheng Hall.

“The person Zexiang met was probably an insignificant serving maid who must have received protection from one of the Empress’s clever senior maids,” Shen Xihe closed her eyes and theorized. “This senior maid…”

Opening her eyes, Shen Xihe looked at the register Tian Yuan had brought, focusing on the name of someone who drowned in the Eastern Palace in Youning Year 3.

She had been the Empress’s senior maid and became the female official in charge of the Eastern Palace after the Empress’s death.

The cause of death was recorded as slipping and falling into the Eastern Palace pond while getting up at night in winter.

Xiao Huayong was only three then, and Tian Yuan hadn’t even arrived at his side yet – they likely knew nothing about it.

The Empress died saving the Emperor’s life, and the Crown Prince was established in the Eastern Palace. The Empress’s maids couldn’t all disappear overnight without raising suspicion.

According to Shen Yueshan’s account, everyone with the Empress that day had died. This senior maid must not have been involved in the Empress’s plot against Princess Qianwang and thus wasn’t present that day. This saved her from being silenced immediately and dying with the others at the hands of “enemy troops.”

She naturally became the first choice to care for Xiao Huayong, but she must have discovered something she shouldn’t have. Finding herself helpless, she gave this relic of the Empress to someone she trusted most.

That person was demoted to Yeting Palace under a different name and forbidden from revealing her background, which allowed her to survive.

Perhaps she had been instructed to wait for the Crown Prince to find her, but Xiao Huayong never did, not knowing about any of this.

“This was the Late Empress’s possession,” Shen Xihe was certain at this moment.

Her deductions might have some inaccuracies, but as long as Gu Zexiang wasn’t lying, such an exquisite item must have belonged to the Late Empress.