Xie Yu was silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"I don't care what kind of person she is. But I will not choose Shen Liuzhen."
"Oh, my dear child," the empress looked at her with deep affection.
"Who told you this was your choice?"
"This isn't a situation where two people both like you and you get to choose. Don't be so self-enamored, child." The empress took a sip of tea.
"Children your age often have this problem."
Xie Yu's face gradually flushed red. She felt ashamed and angry, but still tried to remain calm.
The empress observed every change in her expression and continued,
"The choice lies with Shen Changyin. She can choose not to share you—but then she will lose the support of the Jiangnan navy and turn them into her enemy."
"So now there's only one question." She guided her daughter patiently.
"Between you and the Jiangnan navy, which do you think is more valuable?"
From a moral or legal standpoint, whether rich or poor, every life is equal and priceless.
But in human interaction, everyone has a price.
When Xie Yu was at the police academy, she saw many numbers.
The amount that drove someone to murder in a fit of rage over debt might be only six hundred.
The price to hire a killer in rural areas might be fifty thousand.
In plane crashes, first-class passengers' families might receive compensation in the tens of millions, while economy class families receive only a few hundred thousand.
As long as one exists among people, one has a price.
Xie Yu knew very clearly—her price was not even a fraction of the Jiangnan navy's.
She did not answer. The empress did not press her. Instead, she changed the subject.
"Do you know that I actually loved your other mother very much?"
She sighed softly, sinking into memory.
"That year I went to Jiangnan on an incognito inspection. You know—I was born a princess, later became an empress. I never once lived as myself… until that year."
"She was a peasant woman, but she would occasionally make tofu to sell in town. Making tofu is truly exhausting work. On the day I saw her, she looked worn out and pale—because the night before, she had almost not slept at all while making tofu."
"But she was really formidable. There was an old woman who tried to take two extra pieces of tofu from her. She chased that woman halfway down the street. She would rather crush the tofu with her own hands than let anyone take advantage of her."
"I thought it was interesting, so I stood there watching the whole time. In the end, I couldn't help laughing. She turned around, saw me, and immediately started cursing me."
Xie Yu took a sip of tea.
"What did she curse you with?"
"'Did someone in your family die, that you're laughing so happily?'"
The empress quoted the original words and even mimicked her furious tone.
Xie Yu's eyes widened slightly.
The empress nodded.
"Her mouth was really sharp… that year, she scolded me until I lost all face."
"But coincidentally, someone in my family really had died."
"My mother and sisters were all dead. That was how I ascended the throne. So I didn't feel offended—I actually thought she was interesting."
"I started pursuing her. At first, I didn't dare tell her who I was, and I didn't dare give her expensive gifts either, afraid I'd scare her off. I could only stay up every night helping her make tofu."
"I was already much older than her. Staying up like that nearly killed me."
The empress laughed softly.
"So many princesses and nobles wanted me dead and failed—but she almost succeeded."
"Later, we were together, and she finally learned my identity."
The empress looked at Xie Yu seriously.
"She didn't want to return to the capital with me. She didn't want palace life. She only wanted a more ordinary life."
"But I had to return. I was the empress—how could I stay there? How could I abandon everything in the capital?"
"So we argued every day. She fell ill very quickly, and once she did, she never recovered. Medicine and food were useless."
"I knew it was heart sickness. If I had given up everything I had and lived as an ordinary wife with her, perhaps she could have survived."
"But I didn't."
"After you were born, she still couldn't muster the strength to live. She was gravely ill. I forcibly brought her back to the capital and even brought along thin-skinned peaches unique to Jiangnan, hoping that eating peaches from her hometown would make her feel better."
"The peaches rotted on the road. And she died on that road as well."
"I thought it was nothing. I buried her locally. But after returning to the capital, I fell seriously ill myself and nearly followed her in death."
The empress rubbed the jade ring on her finger. It had become smooth and glossy from years of wear.
"Today, when I speak of your mother, I'm not trying to show how deeply affectionate I was, nor am I reminiscing for sentiment's sake."
"I only want you to understand that compared to the dragon throne beneath me, what is known as affection is worthless."
"You are very much like her. I hope you won't make the same mistake she did—because Shen Changyin is very much like me."
After people grow old, their eyelashes become sparse and gray. The empress's lashes trembled twice, and she suddenly said, without context,
"If only she had known how to be an official… or how to command troops… if she could have helped me. How wonderful that would have been."
The study fell into complete silence.
The two attendants lowered their heads, making no sound, but sorrow was evident on their faces.
The scents of hawthorn jelly and pu'er tea mingled together, both seeming to carry a faint bitterness.
The empress remained trapped in memories of the past, unable to pull herself out of that emotion.
Melancholy harmed her body. She suddenly covered her mouth and nose and began coughing heavily.
Xie Yu calmly poured herself a cup of tea.
"Did you give birth to me?"
The empress froze for a moment, then said,
"Of course I did. All seven daughters are my children. I gave birth to all of them."
"You know I'm not asking about blood relations."
Xie Yu's expression was calm, like a massive white iceberg floating on the sea.
"What I want to know is—did I crawl out of your womb?"
The empress's expression gradually darkened.
"Everyone in the palace says that when you traveled incognito, you met my mother, and that she died from massive postpartum bleeding."
"But that doesn't match the logic of the story you just told. If she was already that ill, she shouldn't have been able to get pregnant in the first place. And she died on the road back to the capital—by then, I had already been born, hadn't I?"
"You could say I was born during the journey back to the capital, but that doesn't match the timeline of my engagement with the Shen family."
"Shen Liuzhen's birth chart and mine are not just compatible—they are practically heaven-made. This kind of match isn't something that can be found casually."
"So the real sequence should be: I was born in Jiangnan. You searched Jiangnan for a child whose birth chart matched mine and arranged the engagement for me."
Like investigating a case, Xie Yu carefully unraveled the timeline, her fingers unconsciously tracing lines across the tabletop to aid her thinking.
"After finding the matching child, you brought me and my mother back to the capital. On the way, my mother died from heart illness and grief."
"But the rumor of 'postpartum hemorrhage' wasn't baseless—because that year, the Imperial Medical Bureau did urgently send a large amount of blood-boosting, qi-nourishing, body-warming medicines to Jiangnan, many of which were specifically for women who had just given birth."
She suddenly turned to look at the empress, like an eagle perched at the edge of a cliff suddenly turning its head toward the camera.
"So someone really did suffer postpartum hemorrhage that year—
but that person was you."
"You were the one who carried me and gave birth to me. But you never dared to tell anyone. And the other six were not born by you…"
The empress suddenly flung the teacup to the ground. Porcelain shattered with a sharp, explosive crack.
She roared in fury,
"What are you still doing here?! Do you want to die?!"
The two attendants immediately dropped to their knees, repeatedly kowtowing and begging for mercy. One attendant's forehead struck a shard of broken porcelain, but she didn't dare stop. Blood streamed down her forehead.
"Your Majesty, spare us! Your Majesty, spare us!"
The empress was furious beyond measure, but forcibly suppressed it.
"Get out—go report to Hu Luhai!"
Hu Luhai was the chief attendant closest to the empress and the one she trusted most. The two attendants fled the study as if escaping death.
Only then did the empress turn back to Xie Yu. Her expression softened as she complained,
"You too. With this sharp mind of yours, couldn't you apply it to something else? Why did you have to figure this out now of all times?"
"Which part?"
Xie Yu only knew she had likely uncovered the truth of that year, but she didn't yet understand why this revelation enraged the empress so violently—like something deeply buried had been torn open.
The empress tapped her knuckles against the heavy wooden desk to focus her attention.
"Listen carefully. I'll only say this once."
"In this world, no one will allow an empress with many consorts to become pregnant. An empress should never have a child born from her own womb."
Xie Yu froze.
The empress gave her a look that urged her to think.
Xie Yu lowered her head, thought for a long time, then lifted it.
"You mean those officials—"
Before she could finish, the empress nodded approvingly.
The civil and military officials.
The nobles.
Especially the power blocs behind each consort.
They would never allow the empress herself to give birth to a child.
Ten months of pregnancy takes a tremendous toll on a mother. A mother is naturally biased toward the child she suffered to bring into the world. That would mean children born to other consorts would have no competitive chance at all.
Thus, through long-term balance and evolution, an unspoken rule formed: the empress must never personally bear a child.
This was not only the empress's will—it was the collective demand of the court's factions.
Everyone wanted the merit of backing a future ruler. Everyone wanted their own bloodline on the throne. And so they united to eliminate the greatest threat: a child born directly from the empress.
That was why the empress had lied, claiming that Xie Yu's other mother died from postpartum hemorrhage.
That was why she had exploded in rage just now.
Because this was a secret—
a secret that would shake both court and empire if spoken aloud.
At present, the factions supporting other princesses were still fighting openly and covertly—but with restraint.
Because they all believed they had a chance.
They believed the succession struggle was fair.
If they learned that Xie Yu was born of the empress herself, they would immediately turn their weapons in unison, cooperate madly to kill Xie Yu first—and only then resume fighting each other.
A chill shot up Xie Yu's spine, climbing into her neck and even her mind.
She had never felt danger so keenly.
She had never believed herself worth targeting, never thought anyone would scheme meticulously to harm her. That belief had been the foundation of her sense of safety.
But if this secret were exposed…
There would be countless people in the world who wanted her dead.
They wouldn't even hate her.
They would simply kill her for power .
At some point, cold sweat densely covered her forehead. When she touched it, her fingers came away icy and damp.
Seeing this, the empress instead softened her tone to comfort her.
"Don't worry too much. Your mother here has guarded this secret—and your little life—for over ten years. Until the day I die, I'll keep guarding it."
"I won't let you encounter danger. Remember that?"
She stared straight at Xie Yu.
Xie Yu nodded.
"But at the same time, I truly need you to stabilize your position as soon as possible. The Jiangnan navy is a necessary condition. Do you understand?"
Xie Yu didn't speak, but she clearly understood.
The empress was satisfied.
"Now think again about the question I asked earlier."
"Between you and power, who will Shen Changyin choose?"
"She will choose power," Xie Yu said, word by word.
The empress nodded.
"That's right. For power, she will choose to cooperate with the Jiangnan navy—and choose to share you with Shen Liuzhen."
"And alliances always reward the one who moves first with the greatest benefit and the loudest voice."
"You must reach a cooperative agreement with Shen Liuzhen before Shen Changyin does. Do you understand?"
Xie Yu understood. She nodded to the Empress, stood up, and walked out.
As she passed the group of Taoist priests outside the study, she didn't even glance at them, leaving in a hurry and leaving behind the Empress, who was sitting inside in quiet satisfaction.
At the palace gate, Shen Changyin was waiting for her in the carriage. Hearing her voice, she lifted the curtain, reached out, and pulled Xie Yu inside.
"What did you talk about?"
Xie Yu shook her head. "Nothing much. Just the ramblings people start spouting once they get old."
Shen Changyin paused briefly. "Alright. What do you want to eat later?"
"I want to eat the egg fried rice you make—the kind you used to make for me back in the village."
"Okay. I'll make it for you. I'll put in lots of eggs."
They returned to the prince's residence. After eating, Xie Yu said she wanted to go out for a walk to help digestion.
Shen Changyin nodded. "I'm swamped with official business, so I won't go with you. Have fun."
Xie Yu left the residence, mounted her horse, and galloped straight toward the southern outskirts of the capital, heading for the village where the special training camp and militia were stationed.
Jiang Fang was conducting her routine inspection of each squad's drills. Hearing the rhythmic sound of hooves, she looked up and was surprised to see Xie Yu.
"Why did you suddenly come?"
Xie Yu rode like the wind straight into the camp, leapt off the horse, and crooked her palm at Jiang Fang, signaling her to follow.
She strode into the commander's main house, sat down boldly behind the table, and said to the Jiang Fang who entered after her, "How much intelligence do we have on the Jiangnan Fleet, General Shen, and Shen Liuzhen?"
Jiang Fang hesitated. "Not much, but the special unit is very good at digging up this kind of information. What are you planning?"
"Send people to investigate immediately. I want everything on my desk by tomorrow night—no detail spared."
Jiang Fang didn't ask any more questions. She rushed out to make arrangements and only sat down to drink some water after returning.
"It's all been set in motion. Now you can tell me what you're really planning to do, right?"
Xie Yu explained the current situation to her piece by piece.
Jiang Fang sprayed a mouthful of tea, eyes wide. "You're telling me royal secrets like this?! Are you afraid my life's been too peaceful?!"
Then she added, "If you really were carried for ten months and personally given birth to by her, then what she said does carry some weight. She may not be deceiving you."
"The Empress wants you to marry Shen Liuzhen to secure cooperation with the Jiangnan Fleet. Have you told Shen Changyin?"
Xie Yu shook her head. "Don't tell her."
Jiang Fang froze. "You don't seriously plan to marry Shen Liuzhen, do you?"
"How could that be?" Xie Yu shot her a speechless look. "But I also can't be sure she would choose me over power."
Jiang Fang sighed. "That's true. Your partner really is…"
"Recently, I saw everything she's done. She's terrifyingly capable. Every scheme lands perfectly, and every move she makes tears a chunk of flesh off someone else."
"I'm not deliberately badmouthing her, but she really is a full-fledged monster of power."
"Honestly, I don't think she'd choose you. You've saved her multiple times, and I've never seen her risk anything for you."
"Then why do you want all this intelligence?"
Xie Yu lifted her gaze to Jiang Fang. Her amber eyes were calm and deep, empty of emotion—yet they suddenly made Jiang Fang feel like she was looking at a crocodile, a lizard, or some kind of monster.
"Shen Changyin might not choose me."
She smiled faintly at Jiang Fang. "But that's fine—because I won't give her the chance not to choose me."
Her demeanor was nothing like the gentle Third Princess Jiang Fang knew. It sent a chill down her spine.
Jiang Fang even felt that this expression was familiar.
Who did it resemble?
—
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