The Empress Dowager already laid the groundwork, but she was slightly annoyed at how Emperor Lin could not understand what she meant. Her expression became a bit more serious as she hesitated, “Empress Mother suspects that someone might have harmed Honourable Lady Xiao Lan, causing her to give birth prematurely and also indirectly resulting in the 6th Prince’s mental impairment.”
The Empress Dowager said quietly, “It was just suspicious to me, so I summoned the imperial doctors that had treated Xiao Lan that year.”
Emperor Lin said anxiously, “Did Empress Mother manage to uncover any information?”
The Empress Mother replied,”Not yet, but the imperial doctor said that Xiao Lan was very healthy during her pregnancy and there shouldn’t have been a premature birth,” She looked at Emperor Lin and said with a grave tone, “This matter needs to be investigated; causing harm against an imperial child is no small crime.”
Emperor Lin was originally already feeling a little guilty for neglecting Xiao Lan and the Little Fifth Princess for so many years. After learning that whatever occurred in the past might have been caused by an underhanded scheme that resulted in Xiao Lan’s premature delivery and his son’s mental impairment, wouldn’t that mean that he was indirectly toyed with all these years?
I knew it; with the Little Fifth Princess’s intelligence and creativity, how could it be possible for her brother to be this dense!
How outrageous!
Seeming to have found a catharsis for his guilt, Emperor Lin suddenly felt rather relieved. However, he was furious as he said in a deep voice, “Empress Mother, rest assured; this matter is indeed suspicious. I will get to the bottom of this incident no matter what!”
She nodded in response. Listening to Lin Zhanyuan’s happy and brisk laugh, the corners of her mouth also lifted, curling into a small smile, “Yuan Er has been through so much suffering and agony for so long. As his Emperor Father, don’t wrongfully make him suffer even more.”
Emperor Lin nodded solemnly.
After returning to the Yangxin Palace, Emperor Lin was lost in thought for a while. Then, he summoned all of the imperial doctors who had been called by the Empress Dowager to question them again, ordering them to take out the cases that were recorded in the past and examine them in detail. He also ordered Peng Man to go to the Imperial Household Department to retrieve every available information in regards to the palace staff who served Xiao Lan back then. He wanted to see where each and every single one of the staff were currently working.
The news of the Emperor going through the older files was not kept discreet.
Both the Imperial Household Department and the Imperial Hospital were busy with this matter. Naturally, the news couldn’t be concealed very well.
The people in the harem were soon aware that His Majesty seemed to be looking for the truth about the premature birth of Honourable Lady Lan.
Premature birth wasn’t really considered a big matter. In addition to Xiao Lan, several concubines in the harem also gave birth prematurely. However, unlike Xiao Lan, who very luckily still managed to give birth to her child with the two of them remaining alive and healthy to this day, the other concubines had given birth to babies that died prematurely.
But looking back on this, was it really okay to say that Xiao Lan was ‘lucky’?
If her child died that day, she might not have lost her imperial favour from the beginning; in fact, the Emperor would definitely sympathise with her even more. Perhaps he might even promote her rank in the harem and the possibility of her becoming pregnant with another royal child would be rather high as well.