Gu Qiang closed the notebook, stood up, and started to touch every inch of that wall. After a while, she finally felt something unusual of a palm-size. She pressed it down and felt a strong resistance like a spring. Then a drawer showed up, and Gu Qiang saw an ordinary notebook lying inside.

The notebook had a dark blue cover, bound neatly. She picked it up and sat back beside the table.

She cut the candlewick a little bit. Under the dancing candlelight, she opened the notebook nervously but saw nothing on it. Immediately, she felt like she was fooled. Talke to her future self? How?

She thought about it for a few seconds and said to the notebook in a low voice, “Hello?”

As she expected, there was no response. She fell into thought again and then said, “I’m Gu Qiang. Are you me?”

Ting Feng and Chui Xue were cleaning up in the living room. Hearing the noise coming from Gu Qiang’s room, they walked closer and saw Gu Qiang talking to her notebook through the slightly opened door. A cold shiver was sent down their spines suddenly, and even the air felt colder. Ting Feng and Chui Xue looked at each other in shock, speechless.

After the two maids fell into silence for a while, Chui Xue pulled a long face and talked to Ting Feng without making any sound, “Ting Feng, I want to quit my job. The lady is so scary now.”

Ting Feng was scared too, but she suddenly started to giggle after hearing Chui Xue’s words. “The lady should meet something strange too. Don’t overthink it. Just do your job.”

The two maids left while talking and making jokes with each other.

Meanwhile, Gu Qiang was still observing the notebook in front of her carefully. As she expected, there was still no response. Feeling like a fool, she closed the notebook, but suddenly, words started to show up by themselves.

She could tell it was her writing, the same as the style in the other notebook. However, the words were written more neatly and swiftly.

It was pretty much written at the same speed as her reading.

“I couldn’t keep the baby. Can you try your best to save the baby?”

Baby? Whose baby? Gu Qiang was more confused about the content than the weird way that the words showed up.

She lifted her brush pen, thought about it for a while, and then wrote, “I’ve lost my memories. I don’t know much about my past. If you need my help, please clarify the situation.”

The empress on the other side of the dairy took a deep breath in shock after seeing the words show up. She did lose her memories once, and during that time, Gu Huaian died. Her amnesia also made Gu Zhihua lead a comfortable life.

But as she remembered, her amnesia happened much later. How come it happened ahead of the original time so much? In this crucial moment, the empress felt an invisible net on top of her head, ready to trap everyone inside.

They were all trying to get out, but they couldn’t do anything against the huge net.

“To save the baby, you have to kill one of Shen Qianshan’s servants called Sun Linhua,” wrote the empress. Then she added, “Be careful with Ye and her daughter. They poisoned you to cause your amnesia. Find the evidence and get rid of them.”

After finishing writing, the empress let out a sigh of relief. Shen Qianshan, sitting next to her, felt a bit relieved too. As long as they could keep in touch with Gu Qiang through the diary, they could still have a chance to save the baby.

When Gusu Liang walked in, she felt happy seeing the empress and the duke sitting together intimately. After they lost the baby, their relationship seemed to be fixed a little bit, more like the one they had before. However, the loss of the baby was still a crack in their bond.

It was a wound that none of them was willing to touch, but they had to face the pain.

Gusu Liang didn’t understand why these two showed an attitude that they had some kind of method to revive the baby. But the baby had already died, and the physician said the empress couldn’t bear another baby again. Even so, they still didn’t want to give up?

Gu Qiang sat on her chair, looking at the notebook in front of her, lost in her own thoughts. With the candlelight crackling, she had made up her mind that she needed to trust whoever wrote those words on the notebook. If it was really from herself in the future, it must be something vital.

The next day’s weather was sunny and bright. The sky was clear blue, and there was only a little bit of cloud. On the morning of this late-autumn day, Gu Qiang dressed up formally and took a carriage to the imperial palace. The Empress Dowager had urged her many times since she was anxious to see if her lovely granddaughter was doing well.

If those things didn’t happen to the Prime Minister Mansion, the Empress Dowager would definitely send a sedan to take her to the imperial palace.

The high wall of the imperial palace somehow exuded an aura of depression. Gu Qiang lifted the curtain and saw the back garden of the imperial palace. The weather was getting cold in the late autumn, but all kinds of flowers and plants were still growing lively.

In a pavilion, the Empress Dowager put down the teacup on the table where desserts were served. Those desserts had a fragrance of flowers. Gu Qiang knelt on the ground, with her head lowered. She didn’t like the aroma, but it was okay since she could still bear with it.

The Empress Dowager helped her up, looked at her amiably, and said in a soft voice, “Qiang, I hear you were sick. How come you didn’t take good care of yourself? Why did you let other people hurt you?”

Her tone sounded a bit cold, but Gu Qiang could tell her genuine concern behind her words.

Why did she become the Empress Dowager’s granddaughter? By the looks of it, the Empress Dowager truly liked her and trusted her. Gu Qiang was a bit impressed by her old self’s competence.

“I don’t know about it too much. I need some time to find out the evidence or the cure for the poison. Thank you for your concern, Grandmother,” Gu Qiang said respectfully. She indeed felt the Empress Dowager’s care for her, but after all, she didn’t know how her relationship with the Empress Dowager was before, so she chose to behave carefully.

The Empress Dowager was still smiling. Gu Qiang could see some of her hair had already turned grey. No matter how much care the Empress Dowager gave to her hair, she still couldn’t fight against time.

As they were chatting, a group of people came from the distance. The four people walking at the front were two men and two women. Gu Qiang couldn’t be more familiar with the two men – Shen Qianshan and Shen Zhongbai. She was impressed by those two’s acting skills. When they met before, they acted like they wished to kill each other immediately. However, in the imperial palace, they turned back to two loving brothers.

As for the two women, she didn’t recognize their faces.

Seeing the Empress Dowager sitting here, the four walked up to greet her. All of them sized up Gu Qiang carefully and then sat down.

The younger woman asked Gu Qiang smilingly, “Miss Gu, did you forget about all of us? I’m Ziyan. It’s been a while since I saw you last time. You seem even older. Hahahahaha.”

Everyone else was amused by her laugh and burst out laughing with her. The Empress Dowager said, “Ziyan, you are a grown-up woman now. Don’t be so careless. You should learn from Qiang’s elegant manner when you are with her. Otherwise, no one will want to marry you!”

Ziyan smiled, turned around, and gave Shen Qianshan a glance while the latter didn’t show any expression on his face, lost in her thoughts.

The Empress Dowager knew well about the youngsters in the imperial family. She knew that Ziyan had had feelings for Shen Qianshan for a while. She didn’t mind these two being together. In fact, she even hoped that they could choose each other. However, the relationship was not like painting or writing, where people could shape it as they wanted.

Ziyan was still a child who couldn’t hold back the joy on her face. The Empress Dowager smiled and turned to talk to Shen Qianshan, “Qianshan, how’s your wedding’s preparation with Miss Su?”

A wedding with Miss Su?

Gu Qiang thought she heard it wrong. Didn’t this man tell her that he was her man? How come he was getting married to another woman a few days after he told her that?

She felt odd about it, but she couldn’t ignore the sorrow in her heart. She tried hard to suppress it, not understanding why she felt so sad. She didn’t remember anything between her and that man, so she shouldn’t feel anything.

Everyone stared at Shen Qianshan quietly. Shen Zhongbai was gloating over his pain; Ziyan looked sad while Princess Changning, who hadn’t talked yet, showed a look of sympathy.

Shen Qianshan avoided Gu Qiang’s confused gaze and said in a flat tone with his head lowered, “Mother, does it have to be like this?”

No one knew how much he suffered these few days, and no one knew what happened after he rescued Miss Su. However, everyone was waiting for the day when he married Su Shuangning.

What an ironic and pathetic situation!

“Qianshan, this is what the emperor wants. Miss Su is fond of you, and the imperial family so happen to need her family’s support,” the Empress Dowager’s voice was calm as if she was talking about something more than usual. However, her words were like a pebble thrown in the water, causing many ripples.

Shen Qianshan showed a bitter smile and didn’t want to accept what the Empress Dowager said. He held his hands together and said, “I will go talk to the emperor about it. No matter how powerful the Su Family is, they shouldn’t get to the point of affecting the imperial family’s decisions.”

The Empress Dowager took a sip of her tea, enjoying the pleasing aroma. “You are a smart child, and this is the simplest way right now. If you want to go around with it for your own happiness, that’s fine. But you have to promise that you won’t ruin it.”

Everyone wanted to sacrifice Shen Qianshan’s happiness for the empire’s peace. However, he could only accept to make contributions but not sacrifices.

He never asked anything from the imperial family, so he didn’t want to help them at the cost of his own happiness. But he was still a member of the imperial family. If he resisted in public, they would get rid of him naturally.

“I know,” Shen Qianshan said in a flat tone. The Empress Dowager felt pleased and nodded at him. Then she stood up and said, “I’ll leave the space for you youngsters. I need to have some rest now.”

Then she left with her maids as Gu Qiang and the others bowed to her. After the Empress Dowager left, Shen Zhongbai straightened up first and said to Shen Qianshan, “Qianshan, is what you said to Qiang about protecting her just a straight-up lie? I heard Miss Su is a peerless beauty. You are so lucky this time.”

Shen Qianshan didn’t utter a sound. Gu Qiang found the situation too odd and didn’t want to say anything either. Then Shen Zhongbai stood up lazily and said with a beam, “Since there’s nothing else, I will leave first. Qiang, don’t be too upset about it. Men’s words are not worth your trust.”

“Well, I think you made a good point there, Third Prince. Now I understand why you ignore my younger sister but seemingly love that courtesan from the brothel so deeply. You are one of those men, too.” Gu Qiang was expressionless, and her voice was calm as if she was just telling a joke. But her sharp words made Shen Zhongbai speechless, who dropped his jaw in shock.