When Gu Qiang arrived at the Gu Family, she found that the once-grand mansion was like being deserted with only a shell left. There was dust on the gates. Clearly, they hadn’t been cleaned for days.

It was impossible for a family as powerful as the Gu to fall quickly. Besides, Gu Zhihua had married the Emperor and was a consort.

Nobody knew why Shen Zhongbai suddenly made her the consort, as he had never liked her.

Perhaps it was because he only had two wives, so he didn’t care about their titles.

The guard leaning against the gate seemed drowsy. He looked around and saw Gu Qiang, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.

Then he woke up instantly. He had heard a lot about the things that happened recently.

Gu Qiang must be no longer able to carry on herself, or she wouldn’t have come home.

As a lean camel is bigger than a horse, the Gu Family could still give her a better life even though it was no longer as powerful as before.

With such thinking, the guard chose to ignore the Empress; he just opened the gate for her and went back to sleep.

Once getting in, the Empress found that there were much fewer maids in the Gu Family, and the central yard was no longer packed with people. Ye was drinking tea at the end table in the main hall, with two maids serving aside.

Raising her eyes, Ye saw the Empress who had parted the family for so long walking into the hall.

But her expression was completely ignored by the Empress, who sat down at the table directly and asked, “Is Prime Minister Gu home?”

Ye got such a shock that she nearly spitted blood. Prime Minister Gu? Wasn’t he her father? How could a girl call her father that way?

She had learned nothing even after all these years away from home.

“What are you talking about?” asked Ye coldly, holding the teacup in her hands. “How could you call your father by his name?”

The Empress responded with a glance as sharp as a knife, and Ye quivered.

Ye had never been so afraid of Gu Qiang like this before, but seeing how she had changed from an insidious woman to someone who openly did evil things, she must learn to be careful.

She had become as wicked as she could be since Shen Qianshan passed away.

She wouldn’t let go of anyone that offended her, no matter how trivial the matter was.

As a matter of fact, she didn’t have enough power to do that, but somehow there seemed to be a great source of staunch support backing her up, even though she didn’t have any skills at all.

How could a girl from a falling family still be useful? Why would anyone still be willing to help her?

That’s the charisma Ye would never have. There hadn’t been a man willing to sacrifice all he had for her, so how could she figure out that question?

“It seems you still don’t know me. I am here to pay a visit to the Prime Minister. I have no time to bother about the rules. Besides, you need to know that I could ask someone to kill you at any time, without bearing any consequences. So you’d better watch your mouth,” retorted the Empress coldly.

She had taken them as her family when she married and went into the palace, but now she had seen through their nature.

That was quite a scare. Knowing perfectly well that the Empress was not joking, Ye tried her best to stay still. This woman had changed completely since she left home.

Before Gu Qiang finished her tea, she saw Prime Minister Gu drawing near with many men behind him.

He walked straight to her, sat down, and took her hands. “Qiang, are you ready to marry His Majesty?” asked him in a very respectful tone.

What was going on? This old man now had no dignity left in front of his own daughter.

“No, I am not. I am just here to see what a wretched situation you are in that can only be saved by selling me to the Emperor,” answered the Empress, smiling.

Yes, she was here to have a good laugh at the Gu Family. Prime Minister Gu would have never known that he ended up like this after years of scheming and planning.

This man was so self-righteous that he thought he could have everything in his way, but he was wrong.

Prime Minister Gu’s face suddenly went grim, as if he finally came around and understood the reason why the Empress was here. He had lost his last hope.

“Qiang, are you going to give up on our family? Whatever happened, this was the place where you grew up. Don’t you think you are too ruthless?” said the Prime Minister.

No matter how much the Empress had changed, the was still a bit of kindness remaining in her heart. And Prime Minister Gu was planning to use it to change her mind.

Putting her cup back onto the table, the Empress raised her eyes, “Very good, you’ve got me. In return, I have one last question for you. How did my mother die?”

Prime Minister Gu and Ye felt a shiver run down their backs. Why did she ask this?

Her mother had died years ago. In Prime Minister Gu’s opinion, there was no use in playing the blame game now. Or it was simply because he wanted to forget it.

After all, it had been his mistake. The Empress would regret her decision if she learned the truth; she didn’t know what had happened back then, nor would she forgive them if she did.

She would only wish all of them from the Gu Family to die.

“Why are you asking me that? You know it better than me. She died of illness,” said Prime Minister Gu. He took the teacup with his hand shaking.

The Empress just sat there watching him. Why did he try to cover it up when he was feeling afraid of being found out? Didn’t he know that he had been given away by each of his movements?

“If that is your answer, I will leave the Gu Family to its fate. After all, what can I do? I am only a woman.” Finishing the words, the Empress stood up and left. She had given them a chance, but they didn’t take it.

Prime Minister Gu turned to look at Ye, wishing to learn about her opinion. But Ye was still looking down at the table as if she hadn’t heard anything.

The Empress had already gone far. She didn’t intend to threaten the Prime Minister, but to make an excuse for her unwillingness to save the Gu Family.

She had never doubted the death of her mother, Jiang Rou. Losing the most valuable part of her memory suddenly made her at loss. When she was finally able to get her life back on track, more unexpected things happened.

Back then, she had no spare energy to care about the Gu Family as she could barely sail through the hardships in the imperial palace herself. Shen Zhongbai’s love was like slow poison. For some time, she even lost herself to it, and everything was too late when she was finally able to wake up from it.

She returned to the mountain where she woke up that night.

This was a very grand palace, revealing the wealth of its owner.

Fu Ling was waiting for her at the entrance down the mountain. She found the Empress quite strange today, different from every time she saw her before.

She had never liked the Empress, not even before she lost her memory. And now, the Empress didn’t want her company and would stare at her coldly if she insisted.

Even though Fu Ling could easily take down the Empress by force, she knew that it was something she could never do, or her master would kill her.

Walking up to the Empress, Fu Ling wished to say something. But the expression on the Empress’s face made her change her mind.

The Empress paid no attention to her and directly walked into the gate. When she walked past the main hall, she saw the man sitting there enjoying his tea, leisurely and carefree, as she had expected.

At the sight of her, Bai Su stood up. He patted the chair beside him and said, “Take a seat.”

But the Empress didn’t do as he said, she just nodded and headed to her room. Not all things could be changed.

She must find the diary if it was still there. She must stop Gu Qiang, and make Shen Qianshan and Gu Huaian come back to life.

The room remained the same as it was in the morning. She kept searching in there carefully, inch by inch, and knew she was only doing it in vain. The diary was right under her pillow. She opened it but only to find it was still blank.

She almost wept tears of joy. Sitting on the bed, she tried so hard to think whether there was anything different that had happened today but failed.

But she didn’t give up.

When night fell, she sat in front of the desk and wrote down a sentence on the diary after long consideration, her hands trembling.

“How are you doing?”

On the other side of the diary, Gu Qiang was also sitting on the chair, her body stiffened, and her lips dry and cracked. She kept staring at the book.

Gu Qiang almost shed tears when she saw the words appear on the paper. She could even hear herself swallowing saliva and her quick heartbeats. She had waited for this moment for so long.

“No, I am not doing well. I can’t remember anything,” wrote Gu Qiang instantly.

Her reply gave the Empress a sting. It seemed Gu Qiang wanted to do something but have no clue about where to start.

It’s time to tell her what she would do. If things couldn’t get changed still, she doubted there would be another chance for them.

“Protect Shen Qianshan and Brother Huaian, don’t let them die,” the Empress wrote it down quickly.

Suddenly, the door was opened. Fu Ling walked in with something in her hand. But the Empress didn’t bait even an eyelid, she just said, “Out.”

Fu Ling went furious. She had just put the things down. “What do you mean by this? Are you taking yourself as the hostess here already?”