Consort Qian's voice was gentle: "It's the Empress Dowager who wants me dead. What use is there in pleading with her?"
"Noble... Noble Qian, I didn't know this tea was—"
Rong Miaoyan bit her lip and looked at the tea cup on the table in front of Qian Ruohua.
Just now, following the Empress Dowager's decree, she had come with a palace maid to deliver a pot of winter tea to Qian Ruohua.
Although Qian Ruohua was only a noble now, she was, after all, the biological mother of the Second Prince. Miaoyan believed the Empress Dowager had her deliver the tea to warn others in the harem not to trouble her too much.
However, just as Miaoyan entered, Zisu, by Qian Ruohua's side, suddenly struck, killing the Empress Dowager's maid with a single blade.
Then, tears in her eyes, Zisu looked at her and said sharply, "The Empress Dowager can't wait even a moment longer to eliminate the mistress?"
Only then did Rong Miaoyan understand the true intention of the Empress Dowager.
