Empress Liu gazed at Ye Lingyue in front of her, as if she were meeting her for the first time.

At fourteen, this girl, younger than her own royal son, employed tactics far more sinister than her own and those of Noble Princess Consort Luo's kind.

Empress Liu would not admit it verbally, but her eyes betrayed her.

"Liu Empress, now you should understand why I am unwilling to marry the Sixth Prince. I, Ye Lingyue, am a spiteful and vengeful person. If the Sixth Prince were to marry me, he must forever be devoted only to me, and he can only have children with me. Do you still think someone like me is suitable to be your daughter-in-law, to be the future Empress of Daxia?" Ye Lingyue said with a smile.

Empress Liu's complexion changed.

She admitted that she had her own selfish motives.

She had initially chosen Ye Lingyue because Ye Lingyue and the Lan Residence could help Xiahou Qi. Empress Liu also saw in Ye Lingyue the decisiveness that the Sixth Prince lacked.

She firmly believed that Ye Lingyue could assist Xiahou Qi in governing Daxia well.

But it wasn't until today that Empress Liu admitted to herself that she had been mistaken.

If her royal son was an eagle, then Ye Lingyue was the Phoenix; the eagle could soar high and reign over the world, but the Phoenix could cry to the heavens.

Her own Qiqi could not suppress Ye Lingyue.

If the two were forcibly united, it would be her royal son who would end up getting hurt in the end.

After a long time, Empress Liu sighed.

"Ling Yue, I have made my decision."

"Empress, don't you understand..." Ye Lingyue had gone to great lengths to intimidate Noble Princess Consort Luo and had revealed her own secretive side, all in order to scare Empress Liu into abandoning the idea of matching her with the Sixth Prince.

If Empress Liu was still not enlightened, then Ye Lingyue would have to make the ultimate choice and choose new allies.

"I have decided to take you as my adopted daughter; from this day forward, you shall be Princess Ling Yue." Empress Liu took Ye Lingyue's hand.

If she was not destined to be Ye Lingyue's mother-in-law, then she would be her mother.

Empress Liu understood that with Ye Lingyue's talent and strategies, her future achievements would not be limited to just Daxia.

With this in mind, she might as well take precautions and establish a good relationship between the Sixth Prince and Ye Lingyue first.

If one day, Ye Lingyue stood at the pinnacle of the mainland, she could provide protection for Daxia.

When the Sixth Prince, Xiahou Qi, came to the palace, Empress Liu and Ye Lingyue were chatting and laughing together, showing great affection.

"My son, it is good that you have come. I have something to tell you."

Xiahou Qi glanced at Ye Lingyue, then at Empress Liu, who was all smiles, and felt joy in his heart. Could it be that his mother had persuaded Ye Lingyue, and she had agreed to marry him as his official wife?

"From today onwards, you have an additional sister. I have just acknowledged Ling Yue as my adopted daughter." The words of Empress Liu fell upon Xiahou Qi's ears like a sudden clap of thunder, causing him to lift his head in disbelief and stare at Empress Liu.

Empress Liu acknowledging Ye Lingyue as her adopted daughter meant that Ye Lingyue became his sister.

If he wanted to marry her, that would be a violation of moral principles!

Seeing disbelief, anger, and more so pain in Xiahou Qi's eyes, Empress Liu sighed inwardly.

She hoped that one day her son would understand her painstaking efforts. If blame was to be allocated, it was only that he and Ling Yue were destined but not fated.

Noble Princess Consort Luo was covered in blood when she was brought back to her sleeping quarters, and her appearance terrified Crown Prince Hong and the Chou Alchemist.

"Mother, what happened to you?" Crown Prince Hong had clearly heard from the palace maids that his mother had joyfully gone to visit Empress Liu at Chaohua Palace. Who would have thought that upon her return, she would be in such a state?

"The Noble Princess Consort... she has miscarried," the Chou Alchemist said upon checking Noble Princess Consort Luo's condition, dumbfounded.

A slap rang out, leaving the Chou Alchemist seeing stars.

"You damned servant, this is all your fault, that base woman Empress Liu wasn't pregnant at all, she feigned her pregnancy and secretly used the medicine you placed in her food on me, you caused the death of my child," Noble Princess Consort Luo was dragged back all the way here, with several palace maids by her side, none daring to utter a word.

At this moment, blood kept flowing from her lower abdomen, her condition perilously critical.

The Chou Alchemist was stunned by the slap and glanced at by the Crown Prince.

"What are you standing around for? Go attend to Mother's treatment."

The Chou Alchemist also acknowledged his unlucky fate, how could he have known that Empress Liu, who always seemed incapable of scheming, would employ such a malicious tactic this time?

It took over an hour, with Noble Princess Consort Luo oscillating between life and death in agony, and pot after pot of clear water being brought in only to be carried out as bloody water, until finally, her bleeding stopped.

This miscarriage nearly cost Noble Princess Consort Luo her life.

"Crown Prince," the Chou Alchemist, wiping his sweat, walked out of the sleeping quarters.

"How is Mother?" Crown Prince Hong, catching the scent of blood, felt his stomach churn violently. Suppressing the urge to vomit, he asked.

"The fetus, not even three months old and not yet fully formed, Noble Princess Consort's bleeding has stopped. However, the poison she had previously ordered me to administer... was particularly insidious, and I fear that the Noble Princess Consort will no longer be able to bear children," the Chou Alchemist said in a subdued voice, but as soon as he finished speaking, Noble Princess Consort Luo let out a wail from inside the sleeping quarters.

"Noble Princess Consort, Noble Princess Consort, what's wrong with you?"

The palace maids were thrown into chaos.

"You useless lot, are you not going to prepare some medicinal soup for the Noble Princess Consort?" After Crown Prince Hong and the Chou Alchemist hurriedly administered a few sips of ginseng soup to Noble Princess Consort Luo, her tightly shut eyes finally quivered and she came to life.

The first thing she did upon waking was to seize Crown Prince Hong's hand.

"Hong'er, you must avenge your mother. Avenge your unborn brother. It was Ye Lingyue, that vile wench, who orchestrated this poisonous scheme, causing me to end up like this." For a woman, being unable to bear children ever again is undoubtedly a fatal blow.

Although she had little affection for Emperor Xia, she had been wholeheartedly looking forward to the day Crown Prince Hong would ascend the throne and she could return to Beiqing to spend her days with her beloved.

Now that she had turned into this haunting ghostly figure, how could she have the face to return to Beiqing?

"Mother, calm down," Crown Prince Hong said, his head aching.

The child was merely two or three months old, nothing more than a lump of dead flesh, its gender undistinguishable, what unborn brother?

Besides, Noble Princess Consort Luo's miscarriage was ultimately her own doing.

After all, it was she who had procured the poison.

And the Chou Alchemist had acted under her secret orders to administer the poison.

If this matter were brought to Emperor Xia's attention, the first to be held accountable would have been Noble Princess Consort Luo herself.

Moreover, regarding the pregnancy of Empress Liu, the entire Imperial Hospital had already been consistent in their testimony. Who would believe Noble Princess Consort Luo when she claimed that Empress Liu's pregnancy was fake, when the Imperial Palace was no longer the domain of her and her son?

The Crown Prince was well aware that no matter how angry Noble Princess Consort Luo was, in the end, this incident could only result in her swallowing her grievances in silence.