Forensic Imperial Concubine by Erika Black

"I'm going to see him. Are you sure you want to stop me?" asked Harper bluntly.
"I'll lead the way for you, Your Highness," said Fernando hesitantly.
He then took Harper to the Imperial Study. As he was about to inform Rolando of their arrival, Harper stopped him. Sean, the
eunuch was also going to tell Rolando that they have arrived, but Harper shook her head and signaled him to leave. He hesitated
for a second but he quietly left.
Rolando was reading over the files carefully when he saw something that made his blood boil. His hand instinctively went for his
teacup, as drinking tea had always made him calm, but to his frustration, the cup was empty. He took in a deep breath to center
himself and decided to ask Sean to fetch another one. When he raised his head, however, he found that instead of Sean, Harper
was standing in front of him.
"Harper, why are you here?" Surprise and confusion colored Rolando's face. "What's happening? Are the servants not serving
you well?"
"Lilian was poisoned. Miguel just came to the Harmony Palace and begged me for help," Harper said, looking Rolando in the
eyes.
Rolando nodded, replying, "I see. Whether to save her or not, it's up to you. Don't feel obligated to it, however."
"Rolando, is Lilian really your consort?" Harper asked seriously. If Lilian was indeed Rolando's consort and was pregnant with his
child, Rolando wouldn't have reacted in such a calm manner. However, he did, and it seemed like Lilian was an irrelevant person
to him. Lilian was poisoned, and aside from not showing any kind of worry on his face, he even asked Harper to make the choice
herself and not to feel obligated!
"What do you think?" Rolando didn't reply but asked her the question. Harper wanted to ask if the child inside Lilian's womb was
his. Because if so, she found his lack of concern disturbing. A few seconds of silence followed that, and during that time, Harper
realized that she had no say in the matter and asking about it would be basically invading Rolando and Lilian's privacy. Upon the
thought, she turned her back to him to leave. "Harper!" Rolando called out as he tried to stop Harper from leaving. "Will you

attend the empress coronation ceremony?" Harper turned around to look at Rolando and replied, "I came here as a
representative of the Bright Dynasty to celebrate the coronation. Of course I would come."
A light flickered in Rolando's eyes. The coronation was still a go, but the candidate for his empress needed changing. To be
honest, Lilian was never meant to be the woman to sit beside him on the throne—she was just a disguise. He asked for Harper's
opinion just to see how she would react. The light in Harper's eyes, however, darkened as she once again headed for the door.
Rolando had just asked her whether she would take part in the coronation, which confused her. 'He is the emperor of this
kingdom. He should have known what I came here for,' she thought. When Harper returned to the Harmony Palace, she found
that Patrick had already come back. It stood at the table, holding the
fruit in its hand and biting it. The moment its eyes laid on her, it immediately threw the fruit away and ran to her. It excitedly
pointed at the stuff on the table. It was as if it was presenting Harper a treasure.
Harper had no choice but to walk over the table and have a look at everything that was on it. It was the Heavenly Book she had
handed to Matthew. "Where did you find Matthew?" she asked.
Patrick folded its arms across its chest, as if asking Harper for compensation first before it answered. It made Harper laugh. She
then pulled out a pill and Patrick chased after it. After eating it up, Patrick returned in front of Harper and reached out its claws,
threatening to scratch her if she didn't give it more pills.
"Where did you find him?" Harper drew a big circle with her finger, and asked. "In the city?" Patrick nodded. Yes, it found
Matthew in the city, not in the Imperial Palace! Squinting her eyes, Harper asked, "Who else did you see besides Matthew?"
Patrick's eyes narrowed as if wondering, 'Was there anyone else?' After thinking for a while, it concluded that it didn't meet
anyone else and so it shook its head.
Harper nodded. "OK. Nobody else, then. I understand."
Patrick continued to reach out its paws to scratch Harper to ask for more pills. With a chuckle, she threw a bottle of pills to it and
opened the three Heavenly Books, trying to find a way to unveil its hidden content. Unfortunately, she failed.

Frustrated, she looked at the Heavenly Books and said to herself, "I still couldn't see the hidden part of the Heavenly Books even
though I have collected all the three. Was I wrong? How will I be able to unveil that?"
"Squeak!" Patrick suddenly jumped onto the Heavenly Books and asked Harper to play with it. Harper impatiently asked it to go
away and continued to read the Heavenly Book in a daze.
"Squeak! Squeak!" Patrick was not pleased. It jumped onto the Heavenly Books again, stomping on them viciously. Harper just
couldn't be bothered and angrily waved her hand to get rid of it. Unexpectedly, Patrick bit her finger.
"Hiss!" Harper let out a soft yelp and pulled her finger back. After examining it, she saw that Patrick had bitten her badly, and that
her finger was bleeding. Soon, a bit of her blood dropped on one of the Heavenly Books. She hurriedly wipe it clean, making a
mental note to discipline Patrick some other time. While she was doing that, however, a strange thing happened: the Heavenly
Book with her blood started emitting a strange light.
Harper quickly realized what she had to do and put a bit of her blood on the other two Heavenly Books. Suddenly, the three
books integrated to form one book, with the hidden content revealing itself. Harper watched the scene unfold with wide eyes and
mouth agape. It turned out that the key to unravel the mystery of the Heavenly Book was her blood!
"Squeak!" Patrick was frightened by what was happening. It thought that it had made a mistake, so it hid itself in a corner, afraid
of what Harper would do to it if she caught it. But Harper was busy—she was intently staring at the Heavenly Book and what was
happening to it as if it was the only thing inside the room.