The Empress Dowager walked down from the chair with a dignified manner and said to Gu Muqi, "Guru Mu, I wonder if I can accompany Ai's family to walk in this imperial garden?"

Gu Muqi was very surprised. She didn't know why the empress dowager was so abnormal today.

She quickly stood up, walked to the empress dowager, and held the empress dowager's hand hanging in the air, "Empress dowager, please." Gu Muqi said humbly to the empress dowager.

The Empress Dowager took Gu Muqi and walked out of the Shoukang Palace.

The spring afternoon sun shines on the magnificent rubble of the palace, making it look particularly dazzling. Gu Muqi looked up at the clear sky and couldn't help but sigh.

"This blue sky is so beautiful."

The Empress Dowager smiled aside, "Gui Ren Mu, do you know that for us women in the palace, the sky above your head is the only beautiful scenery you will see in the rest of your life?"

Gu Muqi couldn't help but feel cold when he heard this. The Empress Dowager looked for her today, and she really had something to do to her.

She didn't say anything anymore, and obediently followed the Queen Mother's slow steps and headed west.

West? Gu Muqi secretly suspected that the Imperial Garden was clearly in the southeast of the harem, so why did the Empress Dowager take her west? The west was a place she had never been to. Could it be that the Empress Dowager wanted to treat herself...

She didn't dare to continue guessing. She looked at the empress dowager beside her, and then looked at Madam Li walking behind them, and couldn't help but feel cold.

The group of people walked more and more towards the west of the imperial city. Although the things around were majestic and gorgeous, they inevitably showed a few desolate and decay.

In front of a gorgeous pavilion full of spider webs at the door, the Queen Mother stopped.

"Madam Li, go and open the door."

With the unpleasant "creaking", the heavy rusty door was slowly pushed open by Mama Li. Gu Muqi's eyes were a weed-covered Pavilion Garden. The dust that choked her and made her sneeze.

"Ah snee!" Gu Muqi covered his mouth and nose with a veil and sneezes hugely. "I am rude, please forgive me."

Gu Muqi knelt in front of the empress dowager.

The Empress Dowager waved her hand, slap the dust in front of her, and said to Gu Muqi, who was kneeling on the ground, "Go up, Guiren Mu."

Gu Muqi stood up from the ground obediently, stood next to the empress dowager, holding the empress dowager's arm, and followed the empress dowager's steps into the old palace that had been seen as no one was taking care of for many years.

"Does Guiren Mu know where this is?" The Empress Dowager stood in the middle of the desolate garden and asked Gu Muqi.

"I don't know." Gu Muqi replied softly.

The Empress Dowager smiled and took Gu Muqi into the palace lobby facing the two of them.

There are several broken yellow lucky paper sticking to the exquisite hollow golden silk door beam. At the top of the hall hanging beam that is several meters high, a pair of fairy white cranes flying high are hung. Two dust-covered red gems are embedded in the sharp eyes. The ground is covered with white jade lotus-shaped ceramic tiles. Some places are broken so that they cannot tell their original appearance at all.

Gu Muqi looked at the declining and luxurious place in front of him, and couldn't help but secretly wondering who was living here? What happened? It was the result of falling into such a field now.

The empress dowager was behind her hands, but she didn't stop for too long. She turned around, cleaned up the dust on the carved seats of the red sandalwood in the middle of the hall, and sat down.

She reached out and called Gu Muqi, "Guru Mu, come to Ai's house."

Gu Muqi carefully avoided the gap on the ground and walked over like the empress dowager.

"Gui Ren Mu must be very curious. What does the Ai family bring you to this place for?" The Empress Dowager asked Gu Muqi to sit beside her. She continued, "This palace was originally the place where the imperial concubine lived when the late emperor was alive. I wonder if you have heard of the palace of Changchun Palace?"

Changchun Palace, Gu Muqi heard the old maids around him talk about this name when he was very young.

It is nothing more than legendary places, saying that because the concubines living in this palace like peach blossoms, they often only bloom in spring.

In order to win the favor of this concubine, the late emperor tried all kinds of ways.

Finally, in each season, a large amount of manpower and material resources were used to transport the peach trees to this palace from different places.

The beloved concubine will dance on the branches of the peach tree whenever she sees the blooming peach blossoms, like colorful butterflies in the flower fields. Therefore, the emperor specially built it here like a garden in spring, so it was named Changchun Palace.

Gu Muqi lowered his head slightly and said to the Queen Mother.

"When I was young, I heard the elders at home briefly say something, but they were all legendary stories. I don't know what the details are."

The queen mother smiled, got up and stood up from the chair, walked to a dusty screen, stretched out her fingers to stroke the patterns on it.

"This Changchun Palace was my previous residence."

Gu Muqi was very surprised after hearing this. It was wrong. The legendary concubine turned into a butterfly and flew away. Looking at the empress dowager in front of her, she didn't look like the legendary character!

The Queen Mother did not look back and still used her hands to clean the screen, she continued.

"Since I entered the palace in my childhood, I have not been favored by the emperor, but I have been brought to the sign to sleep every now and then, and over time I became pregnant."

"But the good times didn't last long. The high-ranking and powerful concubines around were afraid that I would give birth to a dragon son and steal their position, so they attacked me several times, which eventually led to my first and second children being lost."

She looked calm, looked at Gu Muqi, and then told her story.

"At that time, I was extremely desperate. I wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the well and end my life. But when I was about to jump in, I saw my reflection in the water. I felt that I was so young and beautiful at that time, and I was tens of thousands of times more beautiful than these other concubines. I was unwilling to accept it. When I returned to my little house, I made up my mind to protect myself and my flesh and blood for the rest of my life."

Gu Muqi stood aside and listened quietly to the story the Empress Dowager told her.

The Queen Mother continued, "Since then, there are all the stories of competing for favor in the harem you can imagine. I spent two years trying to climb to the position of the imperial concubine. In the harem, everything except the queen was the best I got."

Gu Muqi raised his head and looked at the luxurious decorations around him.
Chapter completed!