Tang Xia looked into the distance scornfully with a sneer and went to the altar with Lyuyou.

When Tang Xia arrived at the bottom of the altar, people called as expected, “Here comes the empress!”

Then almost everyone fixed their eyes on Tang Xia angrily as if they lost the baby, instead of Lengmei.

“She is the empress! What a beauty!”

“So what? She is so vicious.”

“Right!”

“The empress must be a malicious woman as she has done such a cruel thing!”

“Agree! It will bring bad fortune to a family with such a cruel hostess.”

“So His Majesty…”

“His Majesty is enchanted by her beauty!”

“Right, no one is perfect!”

Common people discussed when they saw Tang Xia. Then favorable statements were for Lengmei as expected while Tang Xia was universally condemned.

Looking at those who were ignorant of the truth, Tang Xia sighed in her mind, “Forget it. There is no need for me to get angry with those ignorant people.”

Then Tang Xia looked at Lengmei who was standing on the altar and looked back. When they made eye contact with each other, they both sneered with dislike and scorn.

Lengmei fixed her cold eyes on Tang Xia with the thought that she would definitely win. Although she wanted to laugh out, she could not do that as she was standing on the altar and needed to complete her acting.

Hence, when Lengmei looked at Tang Xia, she burst into tears suddenly and said,

“Your Grace, do you have any qualms about killing my baby? My baby was so young that he was even not born and did not see me for once!” Then Lengmei started to cry, covering her face with hands.

Tang Xia remained silent and just looked with a poker face at Lengmei who pretended to be crying.

As the common people noticed Lengmei who was crying on the altar and Tang Xia who wore a calm look as if there was nothing to do with her,

they favored Lengmei more and condemned Tang Xia who was cruel and vicious.

At this time, there was a stir among the common people. When Tang Xia and Lengmei turned around, they found that another group of people came. There were a larger number of common people for the moment.

As Lengmei noticed there were more and more people, she felt quite pleased and fixed her cold eyes on Tang Xia, covering her face with the wide sleeves. And she thought, “Humph, how dare you tussle with me! I’ll see how you will end.”

However, things did not happen in the direction which Lengmei had imagined. After an uproar rose among the common people,

they became quiet for a while. Then those negative comments against Tang Xia disappeared and compliments arose.

“What? What is going on? What happened out there?”

Lengmei thought on the altar and noticed that people began to put in a good word for Tang Xia and raised their heads to look at her fiercely, which somewhat made Lengmei flurried.

It turned out that people just came here in the nick of time were those who had been helped by Tang Xia. They heard that the empress made one imperial concubine have a miscarriage.

And that imperial concubine redressed an injustice on the altar. They all believed that the kind empress who had provided them with food to help them survive would never do such a cruel thing.

Hence, they gathered up spontaneously to go to the altar and righted a wrong for Tang Xia. They said to other common people,

“The empress is so philanthropic that she provided food outside the town for several days!”

“Right! Our family could survive thanks to the empress! We all appreciate her great kindness.”

“Don’t you dare to slander Her Grace!”

“Agree! Her Grace must be the reincarnation of Bodhisattva! There is no such kind person who suffers so much!”

“Her Grace must be the reincarnation of Bodhisattva who descends to the world to suffer.”

All of a sudden, those who had condemned Tang Xia dared not to say anything and remained quiet. At this point, someone said,

“As the master of the imperial harem, how could Her Grace do such a thing! I can understand this although I’m not educated. So Her Grace must have been framed!”

“Right! In my view, it is probably possible that Lengmei on the altar envied Her Grace so that she framed Her Grace in this way!”

“Definitely! As far as I’m concerned, Lengmei must be a malicious woman according to her bad conduct.”

“What a vicious woman! How could she slander Her Grace in spite of her reputation and face!”

“No wonder that she is in the imperial palace. In my view, everyone among the imperial concubines except for Her Grace is rather scheming!”

“I see. I shouldn’t have favored Lengmei! She is so vicious!”

“Right! If Her Grace is no longer the empress, Lengmei will be the only one who can get benefit from it!”

As people were putting in a good word for Tang Xia, Lengmei noticed that she was no longer in the ascendant and ordered a maid to check out what was going on.

After Lengmei’s maid listened to what people were talking about and knew the whole story, she rushed to the altar and told Lengmei what she had heard.

“Your Grace, what should we do now?” Lengmei’s maid knew the seriousness of the matter and became quite terrified because she, as Lengmei’s trusted subordinate, would not end well if Lengmei fell from power.

Lengmei became more flurried after hearing what her maid had said. As she looked at the common people, she did not know what she should do next.

At this point, Chu Tiankuo came to the altar with the imperial physician who had diagnosed that Lengmei was pregnant.

As Lengmei looked at Chu Tiankuo, she noticed the imperial physician, too. Hence, she turned pale immediately and her body could not help trembling. Then she staggered and fell to the ground with a dull look. Suddenly, Lengmei burst into tears desperately.

Chu Tiankuo fixed his cold eyes on Lengmei on the altar then looked at that imperial physician. Then he said, “Since all the ministers and people are here, tell them!”

After wiping off the cold sweat on his forehead, that imperial physician knelt on the ground and said in a loud but trembling voice,

“Actually, Lengmei is not pregnant! I was told by someone who threatened my families and offered me a large sum of money to lie that Lengmei is pregnant.”

That imperial physician refused to explain any more. Chu Tiankuo looked at the bold imperial physician and became a little impatient. Then he said to the imperial physician,

“You haven’t told us who told you to do so! Hurry up! Don’t waste my time. Tell us everything!”

As Chu Tiankuo fixed his eyes on the imperial physician, he was about to say out forced by Chu Tiankuo’s stateliness. However, he froze for a while as if he had thought of something. Then he chewed off his own tongue and died.

Looking at the blood gushing out of the imperial physician’s mouth coldly, Chu Tiankuo felt no sympathy for him, thinking that even death would not expiate all his crimes.

All the ministers and common people heard what the imperial physician had said, so they knew the truth and those who had condemned Tang Xia blushed with shame. Then they started to curse Lengmei.

No matter what, the whole things came to obvious. Lyuyou released a sigh of relief and said to Tang Xia happily, “That’s great! Your Grace, you don’t need to be punished!”

“That’s right!” Chu Tiankuo added, “You don’t need to be punished, what’s more, you are my only empress. No one can replace you.”

Chu Tiankuo said looking directly at Tang Xia while Tang Xia was also fixing her eyes on him and blushed. As Lyuyou looked at them, she knew that they finally got back together and felt truly happy for them with a secret smile.

However, Lengmei on the altar was not that lucky.

Chu Tiankuo looked at Lengmei coldly as if he were looking at a dead woman. After a while, he said,

“Deliever my decree: Lengmei was so daredevil that she slandered the empress. What’s more, she lied that she was pregnant and bribed the imperial physician to make false testimony for her. Her sin cannot be forgiven. Lock her up in the prison and sentence her to death another day.”

After hearing what Chu Tiankuo had said, Lengmei could not stand straight anymore and sprawled on the altar desperately. “I… I should have been the empress! Why! Why!”

As Lengmei thought so, she stared at Tang Xia fiercely as if she would imprint Tang Xia into her soul.

Since Tang Xia had proved herself innocent, she did not care about Lengmei anymore and was about to leave with Chu Tiankuo.

At this point, Tang Xia heard a loud noise. Hence, she turned around and found a bloody corpse below the altar. The corpse widened her eyes, which was quite terrifying.

It turned out that Lengmei suddenly fell from the altar and died.