When this thought emerged, Emperor Jingren was dazed. Fortunately, he was a rational person. He understood that, when his own memories were blurry, any number of first night cloths could have been faked.

The first night cloth and the wedding clothes were inconclusive. If he wanted to determine what had actually happened, he would have to investigate in more detail. Fortunately, a record had been made of everything the empress had done since coming to the palace, big and small. Finding it would be no trouble. He would have to take the time to perform a detailed investigation before he could understand whether the empress had been a man upon coming to the palace, or whether there had been a swap afterward.

Both were deceptions that amounted to treason, but to Emperor Jingren, their significance was different.

If this person was the empress who had come to the palace originally, then what had happened was that Marshal Xiao had for reasons unknown raised a boy as a girl. Perhaps there were some family secrets involved, or maybe Marshal Xiao himself didn’t know that his daughter was actually a boy, and there were difficulties that prevented the empress from saying anything. But if there had been a swap later, then the current empress was a schemer, and the Xiao family was disloyal.

Emperor Jingren sincerely hoped it was the first option. This way he could try to understand the empress.

Thinking back to how they had lately been sleeping in the same bed every night, waking up to train at the rooster’s crow every day, how he had cherished and doted on the empress, Emperor Jingren felt anguish. His feelings for the empress weren’t the worthless temporary affections of an emperor; this was a profound esteem that came from the heart. Emperor Jingren yearned to spend the rest of his life with this present empress, and he wanted his children to belong to their shared bloodline, but now…

Emperor Jingren silently put the phoenix robes and the first night cloth away and went through the records of the empress’s activities since coming to the palace bit by bit, from monthly medical records to daily meals, every little thing; this represented the empress’s time at the palace.

As he read, night fell. Emperor Jingren hadn’t slept the night before, and he was exhausted now. Sitting at his desk, with his head on his arm, he slowly fell asleep.

The imperial guardsman on duty tonight quietly entered the imperial study and lit the incense burner.

As the scent of incense spread, Emperor Jingren thought dazedly that he was having a dream, yet the dream also seemed to be reality. He couldn’t tell which it was. He struggled to open his eyes to see what was in front of him.

A tall figure walked over, dressed in the uniform of a guard. Emperor Jingren didn’t see his face, only the clothing, which reminded him of how the empress had looked when they had gone hunting together. Swift and decisive, valiant and heroic. He had held a sword in one hand and rocks in the other. In the blink of an eye, all the assassins had died by his hand.

Emperor Jingren had been sitting on horseback then, in a daze, while the empress had leapt down behind him, put his arms around his waist, and said, “Your servant will protect Your Majesty.”

Yes, the empress has always protected us, Emperor Jingren thought a little absently.

The figure helped Emperor Jingren to his feet and said in his ear, “Your Majesty, it’s time to rest.”

Emperor Jingren couldn’t tell whose voice this was. He shook his head and said, “Proceed to Kunning Palace… No, it had better be Chengqian Palace. We are weary tonight and do not need anyone to attend us.”

“As Your Majesty commands.” The owner of the voice supported Emperor Jingren with one hand. With the other, he picked up the incense burner and held it under Emperor Jingren’s nose, making him breathe the scent in deeply.

Emperor Jingren was helped into his sedan and carried all the way to Chengqian Palace’s Zichen Hall. Someone laid him down and started taking off his clothes.

This person was dressed in a guard’s attire and wasn’t one of the eunuchs or maids who usually waited on him.

Emperor Jingren raised a hand to feel this person’s chest. It felt…quite different from the empress’s.

He was alarmed, but he couldn’t open his eyes. He seemed too tired for that. Yet he also felt as if he had opened his eyes but still couldn’t see anything. In his confusion, his clothes had been removed, and a rather rough large hand was touching his chest here and there.

Eunuch Lian’s voice seemed to come from a distance. Emperor Jingren couldn’t tell what he was saying, but he was slightly annoyed. As the Master of Buildings, Eunuch Lian was very valuable to him. Why was he letting such a clumsy person wait on him?

Emperor Jingren wanted to push this person’s hand away, but his arm felt so limp that he couldn’t lift it at all. He tried to speak and managed to say in a thin voice, “Who are you?”

“Your Majesty doesn’t need to know,” the voice said with a soft laugh. “I’m nearly out of the running already. I’d rather make a last desperate attempt than sit and wait to die. Maybe after tonight, Your Majesty won’t blame me. And even if you do, I won’t be the loser. The worst that can happen to me is death. I’m not afraid of that.”

This voice was extremely familiar. Emperor Jingren thought that this must be someone he saw often. But his mind was sluggish from the incense. He couldn’t remember who it was.

Incense… The scent of this incense was very familiar. He had smelled it while with the worthy, honest, pure, and virtuous consorts, and then there were Imperial Concubine Lin and Lin Boyuan… These people, this incense… Since hitting his head, he couldn’t remember these people’s faces, but he remembered this incense.

The men whose faces he didn’t remember were—the empress, Eunuch Lian, Little Shunzi…

“Yan Xu!” Emperor Jingren’s eyes flew open, and he got a clear look at the person’s face. This was the commander of the Imperial Guard, but he was dressed in the uniform of an ordinary imperial bodyguard. Clearly he had used his authority to sneak into the palace!

There was a lecherous smile on Yan Xu’s formerly always upright face. “I mixed in some soporific with the incense, and increased the dosage. Your Majesty shouldn’t have woken up. Please go back to sleep, Your Majesty.”

Emperor Jingren’s wakefulness lasted only an instant. When it was past, he once again became disoriented. He fell powerlessly back onto the bed and through narrowed eyes saw Yan Xu removing his own clothing. “Yan Xu,” he warned him, “if you dare do me any injury, I’ll make you wish you were dead!”

But Yan Xu said carelessly, “I don’t care about any of that. All I want is to spend a night in Your Majesty’s imperial bed. When Your Majesty wakes up tomorrow morning, if you can bring yourself to do it, you can punish me. If you can’t, I might still make a profit.”

Emperor Jingren thought that Yan Xu seemed like a completely different person from before. His head was fuzzy now, and he couldn’t tell what was feigned and what was true. He only did his best to keep his mind clear. He watched Yan Xu take off his clothes and lie down. When Yan Xu bent down, he even put his hand over Emperor Jingren’s eyes.

“Sleep, Your Majesty.”

The world went black before Emperor Jingren’s eyes. He couldn’t tell if what he experienced was real or a dream. He felt at once that he had experienced a night of bliss and also as if he had been violated. In his daze, unspeakable things seemed to happen between him and Yan Xu. He was disgusted, yet it felt good.

Emperor Jingren didn’t know how many times this happened. When he woke, his whole body seemed to ache, yet it also seemed as if only his head ached. He opened his eyes. It was broad daylight. He had clearly missed court today. Beside him lay a man whose upper body was bare, sleeping in a rather ungraceful posture, with his head buried in his pillow, revealing only pitch-black hair.

When he saw this person, Emperor Jingren was enraged. Yan Xu was so bold! After doing such a thing to him, he dared to sleep in his bed till the sun was high in the sky!

Emperor Jingren wanted to summon his guards to seize this insolent person, but remembering that he was now completely exposed, he clenched his teeth and reached for a robe to cover up…

Wait! He was already dressed. But hadn’t his clothes been removed last night?

This question made Emperor Jingren look more closely at the person lying next to him. He thought that the firmness of that chest was peculiarly familiar, so he gave the person a shove.

The person beside him rolled over, revealing his face. It was the empress!