Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

They escorted Grandmother Jia and the others into the palace walls, while Jia Lian, Jia Zhen, and others waited outside the inner palace.

Unexpectedly, Xia Shouzhong, the chief eunuch of the six palaces, came out and announced the imperial decree: "By imperial decree of the Empress Dowager, General Jia Lian, Second Rank, is hereby summoned to Weiyang Palace for an audience."

Upon hearing the Empress Dowager's summons, not only Jia Zhen and others, but even Jia Lian himself was filled with suspicion.

"May I ask, Elder Xia, what brings the Empress Dowager to see me?"

As the most honored woman in the world, the Empress Dowager's sudden summons would startle anyone.

Moreover, Jia Lian has never even seen the Empress's face, let alone the Empress Dowager.

As one of the most powerful eunuchs in the palace, Xia Shouzhong naturally knew a lot of inside information, but he would not tell Jia Lian. He just smiled and said, "General Jia, there is no need to be nervous. General Jia is very fortunate and his future is limitless. When the time comes, don't forget to help and take care of me."

"Let's go, this old servant will lead the way for General Jia."

Thus, Jia Lian could no longer ask any more questions. Amidst the shocked and suspicious gazes of Jia Zhen and the others, he followed Xia Shouzhong into the inner palace.

The layout of the inner palace was indeed quite different from that of the previous dynasty.

The buildings are densely packed, and the palace walls are deeply locked, making it appear much more desolate and secluded than the grand and open palaces of previous dynasties.

After following Xia Shouzhong and other eunuchs for an unknown period of time, Jia Lian guessed that they had probably traversed almost the entire Six Palaces and arrived at a relatively open area.

Seeing Jia Lian staring blankly at the magnificent palace walls in front of him, Xia Shouzhong smiled and explained, "That's Chonghua Palace ahead, where the old emperor and the empress dowager reside."

Jia Lian nodded; he did know that.

Who would have thought that the Forbidden City, representing the central imperial power, would suffer the same fate as the Rongguo Mansion!

The East Garden of Rongguo Mansion was once separated to become the East Wing Courtyard where Jia She lived alone, and the Imperial Palace, the latter half of the East Road, was also separated to become Chonghua Palace.

However, the Chonghua Palace was inhabited by the retired emperor, the empress dowager, and various imperial concubines, whose status was naturally incomparable to that of the east wing of the Rongguo Mansion.

Rumor has it that any eunuch from Chonghua Palace, also known as the Eastern Palace, dares to give the head eunuch of the six palaces a hard time, and the other eunuchs don't dare to do anything about it...

The devout and respectful demeanor of Xia Shouzhong when he spoke of Chonghua Palace at this moment was quite telling.

"Who goes there?"

The outer palace road of Chonghua Palace is guarded by imperial guards in imposing uniforms, with a sentry post every three steps and a sentry post every five steps.

"By order of the Empress Dowager, I led General Zhenyuan into the palace for an audience."

In reality, given Xia Shouzhong's status, he would normally not be questioned when entering and leaving Chonghua Palace. However, since Jia Lian was with him at this time, the imperial guards, who had received strict discipline, still checked him as usual before letting him pass.

Chonghua Palace is a huge palace complex enclosed by a separate high wall, and it is also divided into the front court and the inner palace.

However, Xia Shouzhong led Jia Lian through a side gate instead of the main gate to Weiyang Palace, thus avoiding the main hall of Chonghua Palace, which was the Emperor Emeritus's sleeping quarters.

Finally arriving at Weiyang Palace, the architecture and courtyard layout here are completely new. Compared to other places, it is less oppressive and solemn, and more refreshing and elegant.

Xia Shouzhong told Jia Lian to wait a moment while he went in to announce his arrival. Then another group of eunuchs came out and led Jia Lian to the main hall.

Jia Lian had been to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where Emperor Ningkang rested, so he had some knowledge of the interior decoration style. This place was slightly more fragrant than the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The servants were the opposite of those in the Hall of Mental Cultivation; there were more maids and fewer eunuchs.

Upon arriving at the main hall, Jia Lian could not clearly see what was inside through the dense beaded curtain, so he did not dare to look too closely. He bowed to the head of the inner hall and said, "Your humble servant Jia Lian greets Your Majesty the Empress Dowager."

Jia Lian's voice was broad and clear, slowly spreading through the quiet main hall of Weiyang Palace, so much so that both the palace maids who could see Jia Lian and those who couldn't knew that the visitor was a young nobleman.

Moreover, judging from their voices, they are mostly very handsome.

谷乸

But the palace maids only dared to peek up at the scene, not daring to make any other moves or utter a sound.

So, after Jia Lian's greeting, there was a brief silence.

After a while, a calm and melodious voice was heard saying, "Rise."

"Thank you, thank you, Empress Dowager..."

Upon hearing the Empress Dowager's voice, Jia Lian couldn't help but frown.

First of all, the Empress Dowager's voice sounds too young... Fine, there are women with nice voices even when they're older, but why does it sound so familiar?

Jia Lian, puzzled, took the opportunity of getting up to peek out from under the beaded curtain.

A pair of red embroidered boots peeked out from beneath the beautiful, precious, and flowing palace dress; apart from that, there was no other scenery to be seen.

Following the palace skirt upwards, a woman with a graceful figure, wearing a simple yet noble phoenix crown, was also sitting high up, looking him over.

Perhaps noticing his prying gaze, the woman's face darkened, and Jia Lian was startled, quickly standing up.

However, Jia Lian's heart could not find peace.

Sure enough, his guess was right!

It really was the woman I met at the Crown Prince's villa that day, that mysterious and beautiful woman, who was actually the legendary Empress Dowager!

Jia Lian found it somewhat unbelievable, because from beginning to end, he had never heard from any source or from anyone that the Empress Dowager was a young woman.

In the past few decades, this dynasty has only had one Empress Dowager, and this Empress Dowager is incredibly young!

Jia Lian found it hard to accept for a moment. After all, Emperor Ningkang was already fifty years old, yet his stepmother was still so beautiful.

This is a bit unscientific.

This woman looks to be twenty-five... thirty... forty?

Well, he can't guess.

I didn't really look at her properly that day. Perhaps I was just misled by her first impression and thought she was Princess Zhaoyang, so I didn't examine her closely. Maybe she's just well-maintained, and the wrinkles on her face might have been covered up by her superb "evil magic"—makeup.

Jia Lian, who was used to looking at these ancient people from a superior perspective, rarely encountered things that he couldn't understand, and his mind inevitably wandered into random thoughts.

He stood there blankly, not moving or speaking, but the Empress Dowager inside could see his expression clearly.

That brat must be secretly cursing me...

The Empress Dowager naturally remembered that on their first meeting that day, Jia Lian mistook her for the eighteen-year-old Zhaoyang.

Even if he later learned that Zhaoyang was someone else, he would probably only categorize her as one of the royal princesses.

Now that he's discovered she's actually the Empress Dowager, he's certainly not at peace. It's just unknown what he's thinking...

Thinking of this, the Empress Dowager couldn't help but smile slightly on her deliberately tense face, but she immediately suppressed it and continued in her usual voice, "Jia Lian, do you know why I summoned you here?"

"Your humble servant is unaware."

Jia Lian was a straightforward person. So what if she was the Empress Dowager? He would just treat her like the retired emperor who was being indecent and taking advantage of a young woman.

Anyway, he hadn't offended her that day; on the contrary, he had risked his life to save her. As long as the Empress Dowager wasn't mentally unstable, she shouldn't be able to do anything to him.

Ideally, they would offer some benefits!