The blood throughout Yuchi Yan’s body was about to be ignited.

He wasn’t some inexperienced young man, nor was he usually someone who indulged in feminine charms to the point of being unable to extricate himself. Yet today he felt unprecedented excitement, wanting only to possess this person completely, to make her submit before him, to ensure that from now on, her eyes could see only him and her heart could think only of him.

Yuchi Yan held her tightly, pressing closely against her soft delicate body, placing wet, heated kisses beside her lips, on her cheeks and neck. Rough gasps escaped his throat as he murmured in a low voice:

“Yi’er, you are mine, you can only be mine. That man surnamed Pang is nothing but a crude brute—what good is he? If you think of him, that would be treason! Do you know what crime treason is? Yi’er, if you change your mind now, I will certainly let bygones be bygones, and I will also…”

Before he could finish speaking, Yuchi Yan suddenly felt something ice-cold against his neck.

He supported himself on his arms and straightened up, looking in shock at the person lying on the ground. Her smooth, lustrous black hair was scattered all over the floor, and the silver hairpin she had used to arrange her hair was now gripped tightly in her hand, its sharp, cold tip pressed against his throat.

Yuchi Yan’s desire was instantly extinguished by fright, followed by uncontrollable rage as he gritted his teeth and hissed: “What are you trying to do! Do you actually want to commit regicide!”

Qin Yining’s left arm was pinned down by Yuchi Yan, so she could only grip the silver hairpin with her injured right arm. With this movement, the wound on her shoulder tore open even more severely, and blood quickly soaked through the fabric.

Yet even such pain didn’t make her lower the hand holding the hairpin.

She gasped for breath, saying word by word: “If you force me again, I will kill you, then kill myself!”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Yuchi Yan stated coldly.

“This humble woman’s life is worthless—already degraded to such a state, do you think I still want to live ignominiously?”

“Aren’t you afraid of implicating your maternal clan!”

The look in Qin Yining’s eyes as she gazed at Yuchi Yan changed from anger to despair, from despair to mockery.

“It seems I overestimated Your Majesty.” Her vision began to darken again, her head felt as if an entire opera troupe had been crammed inside, buzzing and clanging incessantly. The hand gripping the “weapon” finally lost its strength and fell limply.

Yuchi Yan watched as her originally bright eyes that had been shooting out anger and hatred gradually became unfocused. Her long eyelashes trembled as her eyes slowly closed, immediately frightening him out of his wits!

Not caring about the disheveled scene in the hall, Yuchi Yan tremblingly checked her breathing. Confirming she was still alive, he immediately gathered her into his arms, calling out anxiously: “Yi’er, wake up! Someone come! Imperial physicians! Imperial physicians!”

Those waiting outside heard Yuchi Yan’s panicked voice and rushed in, seeing the Emperor sitting on the ground holding Qin Yining with her hair in disarray, his face pale as he repeatedly called her name. Everyone was thoroughly frightened.

“Your Majesty, please lay the patient down so this humble physician can examine her.”

The four imperial physicians stepped forward to pay their respects.

Yuchi Yan immediately carried Qin Yining to the thousand-work bed.

Nanny Jiao, Xing Yu, and Fu Xue then came to the bedside to help.

Seeing so many people surrounding the bed, Yuchi Yan paced back and forth anxiously.

Soon the physician came before the Emperor.

“What’s wrong? Speak quickly!” The Emperor urged before he could finish his greeting. “What’s wrong with her? Why did she faint?”

“Your Majesty, Miss Qin’s knife wound is very deep and once injured blood vessels. She had already lost too much blood and lacked proper care. Additionally, with the hot summer weather, the wound became infected and healed slowly, and Miss Qin is still running a high fever. Carelessly, the barely healed wound tore open again. This humble physician believes the rotted flesh in the wound must be scraped away and sutured anew. Miss Qin’s constitution is already delicate—with her injury recurring, plus high fever and blood loss, this is why she fainted.”

The old imperial physician actually hadn’t said everything. Besides the above reasons, the main cause was acute anger attacking the heart—she was angered into this state.

But how many heads would the physician need to dare say such a thing before the Emperor?

Yuchi Yan bit his lip, immediately feeling heartbroken.

If not for his rashness, how would her injury have flared up? How would she have lost blood?

Just moments ago, seeing her rosy cheeks, he had thought it was blushing from shyness.

Now thinking back, her lips were pale and bloodless, with only her cheeks showing an abnormal flush—what else could it be but fever?

How hateful that he hadn’t noticed! And he had almost forced himself on her!

Yuchi Yan wanted to slap himself hard.

“You must cure her, otherwise don’t bother keeping the heads on your shoulders! Whatever medicinal materials are needed, just report to Little Luzi to obtain them. Ginseng, cinnamon—don’t be stingy with anything that can be used.”

“Yes.” The physicians trembled as they bowed in acknowledgment.

Eunuch Lu at the side carefully said: “Your Majesty, you still have state affairs to handle. Leave this to the physicians to treat.”

Yuchi Yan scratched his head, finally waving his sleeves in irritation: “Return to Yangxin Palace.”

“Yes. His Majesty departs!”

Eunuch Lu then supported Yuchi Yan as he left Yucui Palace.

Li Yanyan and Gu Chang, who lived in the eastern and western side halls, only had time to come to the courtyard and bow to the Emperor.

Because Yuchi Yan’s mind was preoccupied with Qin Yining’s condition, he didn’t even glance at the two women, merely waving his hand casually before striding away.

Li Yanyan’s expression remained unchanged as she rose to return to the eastern hall.

Gu Chang, however, snorted coldly and said in a low voice: “Who knows what tricks that woman surnamed Qin is pulling to bewitch our Emperor like this. Didn’t she have very close private relations with Great Zhou’s Prince Zhongshun? How does she still have the nerve to put on such an act now? How truly despicable!”

Li Yanyan glanced at Gu Chang indifferently and smiled: “Miss Gu certainly knows quite a lot. But coming from a family of scholarly tradition, you should at least maintain some virtue in your speech, lest you damage your Gu family’s reputation.”

Gu Chang smiled without warmth: “Is that so.” She had thought to pull an ally together to deal with that Qin woman, and after Qin fell they could compete against each other later. Who knew this woman surnamed Li wouldn’t cooperate at all.

Gu Chang snorted coldly in anger and returned to the western hall.

Dark clouds obscured the moon as torrential rain fell on the quiet military camp, washing the black gleaming armor of the Huben Army guards on duty until it was spotless.

Hearing that Mu Jinghu had come to visit the army, Pang Xiao immediately went to greet him personally, bringing him into the commander’s tent with only Huzi beside him, ordering the other elite Tiger Guards to carefully guard the surroundings and not allow anyone to approach and eavesdrop.

“Mutou, why have you returned? Has something happened in the capital?”

Mu Jinghu said directly: “Your wife has been taken by someone.”

“What?”

“Your wife is going to become Empress.” Mu Jinghu repeated seriously.

Pang Xiao’s expression remained calm as rainwater slid down his black gleaming armor, dripping to the ground and moistening several small puddles.

“Tell me the details. What happened?”

“Your wife lost too much blood and damaged her foundation. These past few days she’s also been worrying about revenge matters. Now that she’s calculated her great revenge and it’s been achieved, she was already mentally and physically exhausted. You also know about their national affairs—the foolish emperor abdicated, the new emperor ascended the throne. First he adopted Prince Ning’s grandson as his son, then was determined to have your wife become his empress. Today the new emperor sent people to the Qin household and forcibly took your wife away despite Uncle’s obstruction. Uncle had me come give you the message. Fox, what exactly are you thinking? Do you still want this wife or not?”