But Emperor Jingxi was different—the harem consorts were all his ministers!
The ministers in front helped him rule the world; the ministers in back managed his household and bore his children.
All were his ministers!
The Empress slowly dug her nails into her palm.
She thought with bitter irony, as Empress, she too was merely a minister managing the harem for him.
Used, calculated, guarded.
At this moment, incense curled through the bedchamber.
Lu Yunjian took a deep breath, struggling to compose himself.
He lifted his eyes and said, “Your Majesty, there’s a major matter lately.”
The Empress: “What is it?”
Lu Yunjian’s gaze was icy, but his voice remained calm as he spoke to the Empress.
It turned out that at the end of the year, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works had suddenly gone to Qingjiang Shipyard.
The Qingjiang Shipyard was directly under the Ministry of Works, responsible for building ships for canal transport.
Lu Yunjian, who had always kept an eye on the shipyards, had someone watch it, and sure enough, discovered that Qingjiang Shipyard had produced a batch of new-style warships—at least three hundred in the first batch.
The Empress: “New-style?”
Lu Yunjian: “Warships equipped with double-deck cannon batteries.”
The Empress’s eyelid twitched.
“What does that mean?”
Lu Yunjian: “Your Majesty knows about the Red Barbarian Cannons?”
The Empress frowned.
Lu Yunjian: “These new warships are equipped with Red Barbarian Cannons, Frankish cannons, and some can be armed with up to thirty-six cannons.”
As he spoke, he handed a sheet of paper to the Empress.
She unfolded it—it was a drawing of a warship, but lacking detailed schematics, just a rough outline, clearly obtained through some covert means.
Yet even this rough drawing showed the warship’s gun decks, iron plating, leather curtains on the sides, a ventilated area for operating the cannons in the middle, and oars on the lower deck—at a glance, there were over twenty.
Such ships would be formidable in naval warfare.
The Empress stared hard at the drawing for a long time, then tore it up bit by bit.
Afterward, she narrowed her eyes and said, “He’s getting restless. He’s about to make his move.”
Lu Yunjian raised his long lashes, his gaze falling on the Empress’s face.
“Your Majesty, make your decision early.”
The Empress: “What do you mean?”
Lu Yunjian’s voice was low and cold.
“You have been husband and wife for years—how much affection is there? If one day he strikes ruthlessly, why should you die here? Better to make plans early.”
The Empress was surprised by his words.
She looked deeply at Lu Yunjian, her expression gradually softening.
She pressed her lips together and gave a light laugh.
“How rare, to hear you say such a thing today.”
If the Emperor grew enraged, Zhen’an Marquis Manor had its own plans.
With a thousand warships and control of an island, they could maintain their own power.
The tangled interests of the eastern sea islands would give them a way out.
But the Empress was different.
She was in the deep palace—if things changed, she’d have nowhere to run.
Lu Yunjian looked at the Empress and gave a bitter smile.
“Sister, why do you say that? Step by step, have I ever wronged you? If not for you, would I be where I am today?”
The Empress saw the bleakness in his eyes and understood his thoughts.
She stared at him and asked, “She carries the Emperor’s blood. Do you care so much?”
Lu Yunjian pressed his sharp lips together, lowering his delicate brows, his expression cold and distant.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
But the Empress suddenly grew angry.
“You don’t want to talk about it? Do you think I want to? Some people can have children, but I never had the chance in my whole life! Do you think I want to talk about it?”
Lu Yunjian’s expression froze, then he clenched his fist stiffly and turned away.
The Empress said, “Now you want me to leave? How am I supposed to leave? Can I even leave?”
She stared at Lu Yunjian, speaking each word clearly.
“If I leave, he’ll immediately send troops. Zhen’an Marquis Manor will be branded as rebels, do you understand? Only with me here will he hold back. Only then do you have time, do you have a chance!”
Lu Yunjian pressed his lips tightly, unable to respond.
The Empress: “So, I was sold by my own father long ago—sold to this place!”
She was the hostage Zhen’an Marquis Manor gave to the royal family—a pledge of allegiance!
And she was especially useful, because she couldn’t bear children, so the royal family never needed to worry, never needed to fear that her family would control the future heir, never needed to worry that Zhen’an Marquis Manor would join the struggle for the legitimate heir.
In short, how perfect!
The Empress nearly broke down.
“You can never understand how I feel. Yet you blame me—are you blaming me for breaking you two apart?”
Lu Yunjian heard this, looked at her deeply, then said word by word, “Sister, coming this far, I blame myself. No one owes me, but I owe everyone.”
He lowered his brows in dejection.
“So, it’s me—I deserve a thousand deaths.”
***
Walking among the layers of palaces, Lu Yunjian felt numb.
He wasn’t a true-born son of the Lu family, but they raised him, and early on decided their legitimate daughter would marry him—she was the Empress.
Back then, the Lu family hadn’t yet decided to send her into the palace as Empress.
Later, when he was ten, he encountered a storm at sea.
The Empress, trying to save him, nearly lost her life.
Though she survived, she could never bear children again.
The Empress was actually two years older than him.
At that time, she was in great pain.
He knew it was his fault and vowed to marry her when he grew up.
He was still a child—ignorant, not understanding the future, but he owed her a promise.
Later, the late Emperor’s health declined.
Before his death, Zhen’an Marquis Manor sent the Empress into the palace as a consort, preparing her for the Eastern Palace, and at the same time secured a Jade Tablet from the Emperor.
The Jade Tablet was given by the late Emperor, as compensation and remorse.
As he grew up, even though he harbored many dark thoughts and some resentment, he thought he’d eventually move on.
But the Empress gradually became stubborn.
He wanted to marry, but she wouldn’t let him touch her.
He had A wu, and she hated it deeply.
Lu Yunjian thought, maybe this had nothing to do with love.
When she entered the palace as Empress, he was only twelve, still a child—how could there be any love?
What she needed most was a promise.
That year, she lost the ability to bear children for saving him.
He promised to marry her, which meant being childless for life.
He should have given up his own future for her.
But she entered the palace, and after that, she and Emperor Jingxi were never close.
She couldn’t give the Emperor children, so she felt that her sacrifice at twelve was never repaid or compensated—she bore it alone.
So she resented it and wanted to drag him down with her.
Lu Yunjian had no complaints about this.
He accepted it.
He owed her and should repay her.
A wu, of course, was innocent.
To appease his guilt, to calm the Empress’s anger, and also because of his own dark thoughts, he sacrificed A wu.
Because he was unworthy—unworthy of having the one he loved!
He deserved a hopeless life, deserved to live in despair.
Only then could he atone, could he repay a little.
But… learning that A wu was carrying Emperor Jingxi’s child, his heart ached again.
Before, he could pretend not to care.
A wu was a heartless person.
Even if she had relations with Emperor Jingxi, she might not care for him in her heart.
She was cold and unfeeling.
He always subconsciously believed that even if she had another man, he and others were different.
But now, she was going to bear another man’s child.
What did that mean—
Lu Yunjian couldn’t bear to think about it.
The more he thought, the more it hurt.
It meant that another man had loved her time and again at night, possessed her, planted his essence within her, and from that, a child had taken root and grown!
She should have been his, wholly his, but now, she belonged to someone else.
And that man was Emperor Jingxi—he felt both jealous and heartbroken!
He even recalled A wu’s words from before: “Others are older than you, stronger than you. Only after leaving you did I realize how vast the world is—what a real man is.”
So… it was Emperor Jingxi?
A twisted, unspeakable pain stabbed through him, like a sharp knife thrust into his heart.
His tall figure trembled, and his hand clenched unconsciously in his sleeve.
He couldn’t control himself, endlessly recalling the delicate A wu, the tender A wu, imagining her being ravished by Emperor Jingxi.
So that extraordinary man would erase every trace of him, wipe away all memories he left in A wu, and fully, completely possess her.
Lu Yunjian thought bitterly, A wu must be thrilled now, her heart filled with sweetness, eagerly anticipating giving birth to that man’s child—because he was the supreme Emperor, and she would cling to him with all her heart.
He remembered the past, how they’d once been happy, but she abandoned him for her childhood sweetheart, cast him aside.
He hated it, couldn’t believe she could be so heartless.
He always foolishly hoped she’d love him, but she never did!
He was in too much pain then, his heart oppressed, unable to move forward or back, with nowhere to let out his feelings.
He trembled at the thought—if not for this, how could he have hated her so much, lost his reason, and even agreed to the Empress’s plan?
One wrong step led to another, and now, he couldn’t go back.
He would be completely forgotten by her, not even a trace left in her heart.
He stared blankly at the clouds in the distance, standing numbly beneath the palace wall, his gaze empty, unable even to move a step.
Never before had Lu Yunjian felt so utterly, completely that he had lost A wu.