"Second Prince! Second Prince! There is an urgent matter!" Hearing Tai Yuqing yell in a panic tone from outside the room, he stopped. Upset that he could not have Lin Ning, he had gotten up to hear what Tai Yuqing had to say.

"What is so urgent?!" Yi Qiao (Second Prince) angrily said from inside the room. Lin Ning pulled her shoulder part of the hanfu back up, covering the bite mark that stung.

"Your father was nearly assassinated! He asks that you come and see him and resolve this matter immediately!" Tai Yuqing was rushed over to inform Yi Qiao about the situation and bring the second prince as soon as possible.

Yi Qiao was more upset; he glanced at Lin Ning and then opened his doors, making a slamming sound. "Let's go!" He rushed ahead with Tai Yuqing noticing Lin Ning crying while tightly holding onto the chest of her hanfu. He had to follow the second prince soon after; things would be suspicious if he just went over to Lin Ning.

Lin Ning had shaken with fear from what had happened; she still had tears pouring from her eyes that soaked her blindfold. She managed to make it back to her room, where she summoned a physician to check on her. No maids or servants attended or bothered to check on her but left the physician to handle it when they arrived.

Lin Ning wanted to tear off the skin that Yi Qiao had bitten; she felt disgusted with herself. Feeling a scissor nearby, she was starting to feel the urge to harm herself. Holding the scissor in her hands, she felt her hopes of leaving that place slowly dying in her heart. Bringing the scissor closer to herself. "Young miss!!!"

Feeling someone hit the scissor out of hand, she didn't know who they were as they hugged her from behind and had her hands far apart, restricting her. "Leave me alone!!! Please let me die!!!" Lin Ning felt herself slowly shattering inside, trying to get them to let her go.

"Do you want to kill yourself and your child?!" The physician had shouted at her.

Lin Ning gasped, stopping her struggle, and fell slumped to the ground on her knees as the physician released her. "M-My... child..." Lin Ning's hand shook, laying her hand over her belly as she was in disbelief that she was pregnant.

The physician had knelt down in front of her, "I managed to feel the pulse just now. It is a strong fetus. Do you really want to end its life with yours? It is unfair for a child that hasn't even taken its first breath." Listening more closely to the physician, Lin Ning could hear a bit of a raspy voice as if they were an elderly woman.

"W-Who are you?" Lin Ning didn't know why they were there, but they posed no threat or harm to her.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself before. My name is Fen. I am your personal physician that the second prince sent." She told Lin Ning, who didn't want to hear anything about or related to the second prince.

"Thank you for taking action before I did something regrettable." Lin Ning was about to bow her head down when the old physician refused to let her do so.

"No need to bow your head. I am merely a servant who is supposed to take care of you, and by the looks of it." The physician had managed to come across Lin Ning in time to feel her pulse. "I will be taking care of more than just one." The physician told her.

Lin Ning had been taken to the washroom, sensing the old physician who led her there. "Why are you helping me so much?" She questioned, feeling as though what she had done earlier was reckless, but a physician helping her this much was stranger when they didn't know each other.

"I am merely an old physician, but giving a hand out to help someone like you isn't bad either. You don't seem to be someone who favors the second prince." She said, helping Lin Ning undress and enter into the bathtub. "You need to wash up. This mark will heal as well. I will be sure to apply the best herbs to ensure there is no scar." Fen told her.

Lin Ning nodded her head, allowing Fen to help her since she was still somewhat unstable from everything that had just happened.

***

Yi Qiao (Second Prince) arrived at the palace, seeing his father, who was comforted by his mother, the empress. "What does father wish for me to look into?" He was still displeased that his father summoned him when he was about to have his woman.

"Why are you so calm?! Do not see a dead man there?!" The emperor shouted, getting up to his feet while pointing at the corpse that lay on the far right in the throne room.

Yi Qiao stared at the corpse, seeing that they must have found that man to have some connection to the emperor's assassination. "Did you even question him before you killed him?" Yi Qiao asked in a calm tone.

"We tried, but as you can see, he is dead. None of us planned to kill him, but he took his life with his hands." One of the guards spoke up, telling the second prince the details.

"Hm, a man who was part or connected to the assassination would go so far as to kill himself from revealing who the real perpetrator is." Yi Qiao didn't know why the man would go so far to kill himself. "The person he must have been working for could be... powerful." He then said. His parents stared at him; they held expressions of worry on their faces.

"Second Prince, how do you know that it is someone powerful?" The guard asked.

"Who would be brave enough to try and assassinate my father? No common person nor bandit would want to. Seeing that this man would even kill himself to hide the truth, then it has to be someone powerful." Yi Qiao pointed out, looking at everyone in the room.

He then saw the look from his mother; he could see that she had an expression that said that she possibly knew who could be behind it. "I will investigate this matter. In the meantime, keep an eye on father and make sure that he doesn't stay alone all the time. Keep two guards with him at all times." Yi Qiao told everyone with the guards being sure to keep two to three guards at all times with the emperor. Yi Qiao went up to his mother when his mother was about to leave. "Mother, we need to talk privately." He said to her.

***

Tai Yuqing had gone back to listen in on Lin Ning, knowing that the old physician was there to help her. He worried about Lin Ning, who reminded him of his younger sister, who was no longer around. "Not only that, but your belly will grow and become noticeable. You cannot hide it forever." He heard from the physician. Surprised, he did not know that Lin Ning was pregnant and putting everything together; it was clear that the second prince was not the father of Lin Ning's child. 'What is going on?' He thought, recalling memories of his younger sister all of a sudden when she became the second prince's concubine and became pregnant. Remembering that he had his duty as the second prince's guard, he was about to go and report back to the second prince about what he had discovered when a hand-stitched handkerchief flew out of his pocket. Quickly grabbing the handkerchief before he could lose it, he stared down at the letters stitched on. He felt a sudden aching in his chest; he felt the urge to help and protect Lin Ning. 'Sister... are you trying to tell me something?' He questioned himself, looking at the last thing left of his sister.