Xue Hongwen's deeds, though extremely secretive, were not difficult to investigate.
When Shi Zhou first entered the Imperial Palace, she acutely sensed that everyone in the palace who had seen her face was afraid of her.
The nanny Gui beside the Noble Consort was, as was the Empress.
There were also those who weren't afraid of her, such as the Noble Consort herself, who would remind her not to appear before His Majesty.
With so many clues laid out before her, it was hard for Shi Zhou not to suspect her own identity.
Or perhaps, the seed of doubt was planted on her very first day in the capital city because on that day, at the city gate, she had seen Li Tianze once.
This encounter didn't signify much, yet it shocked her to realize that she could see the shadow of her mother in Li Tianze's face.
Piecing together the various unusual encounters in the Imperial Palace, she had roughly guessed her mother's identity, including her own.
