The Emperor went to sleep beside Lei Xing that night highly on edge. He kept jumping awake whenever he thought he heard a sound to check to see if she was awake, but was disappointed every time to find her quietly asleep.

The next morning, he went to court tired and highly irritable. When the ministers started having a disagreement, it set him off and he harshly scolded them for behaving like children and then stormed off. After that, he went to the royal study but found he was unable to concentrate and was feeling slightly agitated.

After a while, he got up and went back to Lei Xing's palace taking along his memorials. He met the head physician applying acupuncture on Lei Xing. He glanced at Lei Xing but not wanting to interrupt the treatment, went to sit on the side watching the head physician work on the unresponsive patient.

The Emperor watching him made the head physician feel nervous, so he turned to him and explained that the acupuncture is to help circulation and circulation will ensure proper healing. The Emperor did not say anything and simply looked down at the memorial in his hand.

The head physician gulped and went back to his work, feeling more stressed. He had not been able to rest for over twenty-four hours now trying to figure out the problem with the antidote. From his understanding, it should have worked. The pressure was immense and his head was on the line. He sighed and focused on the acupuncture.

Everyone in the palace was aware of Lei Xing's illness, not to mention the Emperor's irritable mood, and the Imperial physicians running around also created quite the chaotic scene. What's more, was the sensational rumor surrounding her illness that had been spreading around the palace.

The rumor went like this: Lei Xing and Prince Yi were secretly lovers before she entered the palace. Prince Yi wanted to marry her but Lei Xing refused and told him she would only marry someone who would be Emperor to fulfill her dream of becoming Empress.

Therefore, to gain his love Prince Yi suddenly changed his ways and started putting in effort in court to gain his father's trust in recent years, so he could become the Crown prince. Unfortunately for Prince Yi, upon his father's death, it was discovered that the Emperor had already secretly made an edict naming the fourth prince as crown prince. Thereby, crowning his younger brother as the next Emperor.

Lei Xing realizing she was with the wrong prince, subsequently dumped Prince Yi and changed her target to the new Emperor.

Poor Prince Yi lost his ambition and love. He was heartbroken and bitter and so picked on Lei Xing during the concubine selection to sabotage her either out of spite or in the hope that she would return to him. Unfortunately for him, Lei Xing had other ideas and used her brother, Lei Yong to persuade the Emperor into choosing her regardless. After entering the palace, she then used her beauty to trap the Emperor, but this apparently did not satisfy her.

Being at the flower field that day brought up fond memories for the two. It used to be their favorite meeting spot. Prince Yi still loved her despite her betrayal and could not help himself when she made advances towards him. So the two had run off to "roll around" amongst the flowers like usual but chose the wrong spot that day, and rolled on some flowers that resulted in their illness.

Poor Prince Yi is now on his death bed because of her, following her to suffer Heaven's wrath at her disrespect and disregard for the Emperor. And the poor Emperor, not knowing of her treacherous behavior worriedly watches over her while wearing a bright green hat.

The rumor obviously painted Lei Xing as a conniving seductress, an evil woman with no restraint or respect. The moment Eunuch Li found out, he went to inform the already irritable Emperor, who became even outraged and ordered for people to investigate and find the dead person who started this rubbish.

While the Emperor was still fuming over the rumors, with the added fact that Lei Xing was still unconscious, his mother arrived to further add to his irritation. The Empress dowager apparently came out of hibernation after hearing the rumors.

The Emperor begrudgingly went to meet her at Lei Xing's reception hall.?As soon as he walked in, the Empress dowager scolded, "Don't you have respect for yourself?!"

The Emperor ignored her question and went to sit down and then asked, "Why are you here?"

The Empress dowager frowned, "The question should be why are you here? I was glad you at least had the common sense to restrain yourself when it came to women, but how can your choice be so bad? How can you not know where to draw the line?! You should not be sitting here watching over her dying form! You should toss her out of the palace!"

The Emperor frowned then sighed and informed, "She is not dying and the rumors are false."

The Empress dowager scoffed, "Even if you want to deny the rumors, what about the fact that she did not enter the palace a v.i.r.g.i.n? I found out from the servants and you yourself should know the truth better than anyone!"

The Emperor raised his eyebrow and looked at her in confusion, then came to a realization and frowned, "That is because I haven't been with her..."

The Empress dowager blinked and then frowned, "Who are you try-"

The Emperor was out of patience and cut her off, "It's not your place to question what I do or don't do with my wife...I also don't understand why I am having this conversation with you. You of all people should understand how it feels to be the subject of a false rumor and how it can ruin your life."

The Empress dowager's frown deepened and then she quietly said, "This is not the same."

The Emperor sneered, "Of course it's not, she hasn't done anything to deserve it."

The Empress dowager's expression changed into a deep scowl, but before she could respond, the Emperor said, "I'm very busy. You should leave now." The Emperor dismissively said narrowing his eyes at the Empress dowager and waiting for her to leave.

When she just sat there scowling at him. The Emperor looked away feeling uncomfortable, then got up and walked out. He had probably said too much because of his bad mood, but he could not be bothered. After all, she started it herself.

The Empress dowager sat there alone, stewing as she relived the scene at the main hall when they had falsely accused her of killing the first Empress. When they could not provide evidence of her guilt, they asked her to prove her innocence.

She stood there as they ridiculed her with a list of her "misdeeds" and provided "witnesses". Some of them were truly her work, but they had compiled everything that ever went wrong in the palace and made it all her fault like she was the only living in the palace.

At that moment, she hated them all even more. Hated that demon, the stupid ministers, those stupid witches and the one she hated most was that stupid "Empress", who could not even accomplish the basic task of protecting her own life...Even in her death, she wanted to still wanted to make her life hell; always reminding her at every turn that she was the one who got in the way of their love story.

Even if she hated her, she knew where that demon's lines were and never thought to cross it. It always made her angry how he seemed to value that woman more than he valued his own life. He let her stab him as much as she wanted and never said a word when she dealt with other people, but when that woman got hurt he even threatened to kill her. Of course, in the end, he could not kill her and decided to keep her locked up instead.

The Empress dowager got up, annoyed with the reminder of that pathetic time of her life when she truly lost everything...Even the hope to live on.

{...Why should I have to worry about this ungrateful son?...}