A year later, the Crown Prince of Yuexi was born. The Emperor named him Yin.

Yuan Yin was born extremely adorable—large eyes, a high nose bridge, a small mouth—loved by all who saw him. Unfortunately, though he was the Emperor’s first son and born of the Empress of the central palace, aside from the special honor of being conferred as Crown Prince at birth, the Emperor gave him not the slightest attention. Of course, the Pei family members were still very satisfied, because the imperial palace finally had an imperial prince carrying Pei bloodline.

In the Empress’s palace, Pei Huaizhen took the child from the wet nurse’s hands. Upon touching the child’s warm and soft body, she felt a strange warmth transmit from her arms straight to her heart. She lowered her long feathered lashes. This was her own son, but he had come with such difficulty. Subconsciously, she tightened her arms. Yuan Yin was startled awake at once and began crying loudly. Pei Huaizhen suddenly crashed into that pair of pure and flawless eyes. Her heart immediately shook. The infant’s eyes actually seemed able to shine into her shadow-filled inner heart.

“Take the child away.” After that brief shock, this was all she said.

Female Official Xin had originally thought the little Crown Prince could arouse the mistress’s tender affection, but she discovered that even while holding her own flesh and blood, Pei Huaizhen’s eyes merely rippled for an instant before quickly returning to calm.

“But Empress, the Crown Prince, he…” Female Official Xin wanted to persuade the Empress to become closer to the Crown Prince. However, the Empress had already handed the child to the wet nurse beside her.

Female Official Xin watched the wet nurse carry the Crown Prince away, her face showing a trace of reluctance. Since the Crown Prince’s birth, the Empress had not spent much thought on this child. Why could a woman be so cold and heartless toward a child she had carried for ten months and given birth to? Could it be she was naturally a cold-blooded animal without feelings?

Pei Huaizhen said faintly, “You think me heartless?”

Having her thoughts seen through at once, Female Official Xin was so frightened her entire face turned red. Unconsciously her legs weakened and she knelt on the ground. “This servant… this servant wouldn’t dare!”

A trace of indifferent smile crossed Pei Huaizhen’s absolutely beautiful face. “He is now the Crown Prince. In the future he will inherit everything of Yuexi. If he constantly stays in women’s embrace growing up, what achievements can he have? I’m doing this for his own good, which is why I don’t become close to him. How could someone like you understand?”

Fear swept through Female Official Xin’s heart. She repeatedly voiced agreement.

When the founding emperor of the previous dynasty, Xiahou Xuan, was seizing the realm, he was once surrounded by enemy troops. To escape, he could throw his own pair of children off the carriage four times. If not for his loyal subordinate general risking danger each time to bring the children back up, that pair of children would have long become crushed flesh. Xiahou Xuan was certainly a ruthless person, but when a person reached the point where they themselves could not survive, what did selling sons and daughters amount to? Those who achieved great things should not be constrained by small matters. Her own position as Empress was precarious—how could she constantly indulge in romantic sentiments? The consorts in the palace were successively becoming pregnant and bearing children. The Pei clan had made many enemies in court. In the future, the throne still didn’t know into whose hands it would fall. This child was born into the imperial family and was destined to live an unstable life. Though she could protect him for a time, she could not protect him for a lifetime. If she coddled and deceived him like a treasure, in the future he also could not sit firmly on the throne. What she needed to do was not give him spring breeze-like warmth, but teach him how to survive in cruel struggle.

Pei Huaizhen paid attention to every consort and the turbulent winds and rising clouds outside the palace. The children born by the consorts were after all not legitimate sons and didn’t have the Emperor’s favor. In the short term they were not yet cause for worry. The only person who needed consideration was Princess Qixia. Actually, Pei Huaizhen had always been very clear—the Emperor was extremely guarded against her, not hesitating to protect Princess Qixia’s Zichen Hall like an iron barrel, afraid others would disturb his most beloved woman. But how could she be someone who would easily give up? Being unable to enter Zichen Hall didn’t mean she couldn’t see Qixia.

Thus, Empress Pei fell ill. Because of long-term accumulated melancholy, she finally became bedridden. The consorts in the palace came one after another to visit. Regardless of whether it was sincere or false, she declined them all, patiently waiting until the sixth day, when Princess Qixia came.

Qixia’s appearance was as beautiful as before, only her cheeks had thinned considerably. A pair of clear eyes were deeply sunken inward. After performing courtesies, she sat there constantly in trepidation, her expression extremely uneasy.

“Princess has returned to the palace for a year already, yet this is still the first time walking out of Zichen Hall.” This sick person Pei Huaizhen looked several degrees more spirited than Qixia.

Qixia was extremely uncomfortable. She felt a sense of guilt. Previously she had promised the Empress that no matter when, she would never return to the palace, and moreover would not interfere with their marriage. But looking at the present situation, she had clearly broken her word and grown fat on it. Although she herself was completely helpless and had exerted her greatest efforts to avoid repeating past mistakes, unfortunately she could control herself but could not control that person’s heart. She could marry as wished, but could not stop his crazy love for her, though they both clearly knew this feeling would sooner or later take both their lives.

“Your Majesty, I am a person with guilt, so I should not walk about in this palace. But you’ve fallen ill. I know I have inescapable responsibility, therefore today I had to come. I don’t dare request your forgiveness, nor do I have the qualification to do so. I only want to request that you take good care of yourself.” Qixia spoke softly.

Pei Huaizhen glanced at Qixia’s wrist. Through the thin gauze she could see accumulated scars. This past year, she had become pregnant and given birth, while Qixia had constantly tried every means to commit suicide, even once using porcelain shards to cut open her own wrist. Unfortunately, the people the Emperor sent watched too closely. In the end she hadn’t succeeded.

“No need for pleasant words. You came because you need my help, isn’t that right?” The smile at the corners of Pei Huaizhen’s lips scattered bit by bit. Her eyes revealed bone-chilling coldness.

“Yes, I need Your Majesty’s help!” Princess Qixia’s pale face floated up a layer of sorrow. Her voice also trembled somewhat. “I know that Your Majesty knows everything in Zichen Palace, so…” She suddenly got stuck here. A thousand words were all stuck in her throat. The expression on her face was extremely awkward.

Yes, awkward. Pei Huaizhen had never seen such a quiet and gentle person as Qixia reveal this kind of expression.

“I’m already pregnant, a full four months. Originally this child should not be born, but the imperial physician said my physical condition cannot withstand forcibly drinking medicine to abort, so he insists on giving birth to this child.” Qixia finished speaking word by word with difficulty, her lips trembling ceaselessly. She had already entered the palace for a year, yet the pregnancy was only four months—the child could in no way be the prince consort’s. Admitting everything before the Empress was equivalent to stripping naked to stand there accepting the other party’s inspection. This indescribable sense of shame made her heart feel worse than death.

Pei Huaizhen narrowed her eyes slightly. Though the Emperor frequented the rear palace, that was merely to leave behind offspring. The rest of the time he stayed in Zichen Hall. At first, Princess Qixia carried a dagger on her person and wouldn’t permit him to approach. He actually used the method of harming himself, even self-abuse, to force the other party to compromise. This man’s infatuation had reached a nearly base degree. He would rather die than let go of Qixia. However, there were no walls in the world without cracks. The Emperor had placed under house arrest the imperial physician who treated Qixia. From that day on, Pei Huaizhen had faintly had a premonition.

“Things have already reached this point. What use is there in coming to find me? Do you expect me to help you beg him to release you? Do you know what he said to me? He said in this world he only loves you alone! Bearing an imperial son of Pei bloodline was originally the Pei family’s demand. If not for this, he absolutely would not touch even one of my fingers. On his bed I’m no different from a breeding sow—what kind of humiliation is this! Although the Crown Prince has already been born, he has never once held him or kissed him. This son is completely dispensable! And you? Whoever he’s with, the one he thinks of is you. As long as you have a headache or fever, the slightest disturbance, whether he’s in the council hall or in a consort’s bed, he unhesitatingly pulls away and leaves. Everyone up and down in the palace knows Princess Qixia is the Emperor’s heart’s treasure! Compared to you, I as Empress am merely the most superfluous person in your great love story, a complete and utter failure! And now you’re saying these things to me—is it to show off?” Pei Huaizhen spoke like rapid-fire cannons, her expression becoming even more ice-cold.

“No… no…” Princess Qixia hastily explained. “I truly don’t have such intentions. If I have even half a heart to show off, let heaven punish me with lightning strikes and no good death.” After saying this sentence, her expression slowly changed. “No, perhaps I was originally meant for no good death. Empress, please believe me. Qixia came today completely from sincere heart…”

Princess Qixia had already exerted all her efforts trying to completely break free from the Emperor, but he was too persistent, persistent to an almost crazy degree. She couldn’t forget their mutual identities, and even more couldn’t forget the prince consort’s hoarse roar before being taken away. Cui Jing had questioned her sternly—exactly what had he done wrong? Why had he fallen to the point of family destroyed and people dead!

He had done nothing wrong. The only mistake was marrying her.

Cui Jing worshipped her like a celestial maiden, but as her husband, he didn’t even have the qualification to enter her room. That handsome and gentle prince consort, under the Emperor’s oppression, gradually seemed to become a different person. She knew, she had always known—Yuan Jinfeng had used every method to humiliate the prince consort. Cui Jing was squeezed in court until he had no foothold. Meeting with friends would be crowned with the crime of plotting rebellion. Even the poetry and paintings in his study would disappear without a trace the next day. Living every day in trepidation, he could only vent the resentment and fury in his heart by tormenting her. She desperately wanted to help the other party, but the more she did so, the more that person became jealous and crazy. So she could only pretend indifference, not even daring to open her mouth to plead for Cui Jing. To preserve the lives of the Cui family members, she ultimately could only agree to enter the palace, becoming his forbidden possession. This was her own mistake. She must bear it alone and could not implicate the Cui clan.

Previously, her and the Emperor’s feelings only remained on the spiritual level. Qixia could still endure, after all they hadn’t crossed that bottom line. But after she returned to the palace, he seemed enraged and used forceful means to possess her, even making her pregnant. The sense of guilt began to expand infinitely, becoming a large stone, heavily pressing on Qixia’s heart, day by day forcing her nearly to madness.

If someone with ulterior motives spread the matter, inviting criticism and abuse from all under heaven—not to mention those with sinister intentions who had constantly been stirring restlessly in the shadows—their private affair would be used to scheme for the nation and realm! In the future it would be recorded as a stain in the historical records. The entire imperial family for generations upon generations would have to carry this infamy!

Pei Huaizhen’s eyebrows lifted slightly. She suddenly wanted to mock her. However, seeing Qixia’s pure face, she stopped.

Princess Qixia was already standing at the cliff’s edge. She could lightly blow a breath and the person before her would fall straight down, smashed to pieces.

“What do you hope—I will help you with?”

“Whether for him, for you, or for this child, I must die.” Princess Qixia said very seriously.

Pei Huaizhen took a deep, long breath. It seemed Qixia was not only beautiful but also intelligent. If she lived, she would become the Emperor’s lifelong stain and torment. Only if she died could everyone be liberated.

“Your Majesty, I’m very selfish. My purpose is only to let this child survive, at least not to have others point at his nose saying his biological parents violated human ethics…”

“So you’ve come to beg me to kill you?” Pei Huaizhen’s two eyes stared fixedly at the other party, as if gauging the truthfulness of her words. Princess Qixia’s purity and kindness were things she lacked and also the things she most detested. From childhood Pei Huaizhen had only been constantly taught to fight, to seize, to grasp—to be the most outstanding woman, the most intelligent woman. The education the family gave her was precisely this. Though she was absolutely gorgeous and supremely intelligent, she was also only an exquisite potted plant artificially pruned. Qixia was different. She was naturally born with the nobility and dignity of an imperial princess, yet grew up in a completely vacuum situation, like an exceptionally favored orchid grass growing with the wind—fresh and natural. Why? Qixia had clearly grown up in a filthy prison, clearly was a confined forbidden possession—why could she have such a peaceful heart? Why not hate? Why not resent? Why live even more cleanly than she, Pei Huaizhen!

“You clearly know what price making a deal with me will cost. You may have committed the most significant mistake of your life. Even so, does it not matter?” Pei Huaizhen’s chest roiled with surging blood and energy. Her beautiful face carried a trace of disbelief. If the other party had illicit relations with someone else, she fundamentally wouldn’t care. She might even have some sympathy. But Qixia precisely stole away her husband. The other party was her romantic rival! Now she actually came running to seek aid. This world was too crazy!

Princess Qixia’s face was so pale it was almost transparent. “In this imperial palace, only Empress can help me. Besides you, I have no other person I can turn to! For this path, please lend me your strength, Your Majesty. For this, I can pay any price!”

Pei Huaizhen gazed fixedly at Qixia. The depths of her eyes flickered uncertainly. Previously she had never admitted there was anything about Princess Qixia that surpassed herself. But today she finally recognized that the woman before her who seemed about to be blown over by a gust of wind possessed persistence not the slightest bit inferior to her own, could even be called tenacious.

There was a type of person—even if she did the most venomous thing under heaven, you still had no way to hate her. At least she had to admit that the kind of strength on Princess Qixia’s body that overcame hardness with softness—even if she, Pei Huaizhen, tried to learn it, she could never learn it.