This sudden order to punish a subordinate was very unreasonable. Su Huailing looked at the guardsman who had been called forward and at last couldn’t resist speaking: “Your Majesty, it isn’t the Embroidered Guard’s fault that Yan Xu won’t talk. Please don’t punish them!”

She had been standing in a corner to observe Yan Xu’s torture. Her presence had been easy to overlook. Once she spoke, everyone’s eyes went to her at once.

Emperor Jingren looked coldly at Jing Xixian. Jing Xixian hurriedly said, “Your Majesty, the Embroidered Guard is mainly suitable for teaching criminal law. Where the rules of the palace and the court are concerned, we are regretfully less capable than we would wish. But she has already studied most of criminal law.”

Emperor Jingren nodded, accepting Jing Xixian’s explanation. Commander Jing surreptitiously wiped the sweat from his brow and shot a glance at his subordinates. One guardsman shot forward to stuff Su Huailing’s mouth, tie her up, and toss her in a corner. Actually, the best thing to do in such a situation would have been to send Su Huailing away, but Emperor Jingren himself had ordered this woman to come here to learn the rules. If Emperor Jingren didn’t send her away, no one else would dare to drag Su Huailing out.

The guardsman who was supposed to have the greatest tolerance stepped forward. Another guardsman took up a needle and made to prick him. Emperor Jingren said, “Lift your head, let us get a good look at your face.”

Once Su Huailing shut up, no one else dared to question Emperor Jingren’s orders. The guardsman raised his head. An ordinary face entered Emperor Jingren’s field of vision.

His colleague began applying the torture. Because of Emperor Jingren’s order, he didn’t dare to go easy. The was force behind each prick of the needle. This kind of pricking didn’t leave visible wounds, and there would be no lingering symptoms once it ended, but it was extremely painful.

The guardsman was indeed a brave man. After several applications of the needle, he still kept his teeth clenched, not making a sound. Emperor Jingren saw sweat beading on his forehead. He ordered them to stop and said to the guardsman, “Did it hurt?”

The guardsman was an honest person. He nodded and said, “Very much.”

“But you didn’t cry out,” said Emperor Jingren.

“I held it in,” said the guardsman.

“Understood.” Emperor Jingren nodded and turned to Jing Xixian. “Administer the torture to Yan Xu. Lift his head and let me get a good look!”

Jing Xixian complied. He strung Yan Xu back up, cleaned off his face, and raised him to face Emperor Jingren. Then he commenced the torture. This time it was harsher than before. What that guardsman had endured was only a scratch compared to this, but Yan Xu was unfazed. He still didn’t make a sound.

“Enough,” said Emperor Jingren. “There is no further need to torture Yan Xu.”

The Embroidered Guard stopped, but everyone was doubtful. They had no idea why Emperor Jingren had done all of this.

Emperor Jingren said to Yan Xu, “Stop looking like you would welcome death. We understand why you are so fearless. Yan Xu, you can’t feel pain, isn’t that right?”

“How did you know?” Yan Xu couldn’t hold out any longer. He blurted it out.

“That guardsman has immense willpower, but while he kept himself from crying out, there was sweat on his forehead from the pain, and his skin tensed as the needle touched it. What about you?”

While Yan Xu looked wretched, there had been no change in his expression. Under such dreadful torture, he hadn’t even frowned. This wasn’t the appearance of someone bravely enduring pain; he couldn’t feel pain at all!

No one spoke in the cell. Su Huailing was filled with regret. She had beheld the imperial countenance a number of times, and each time, in her heart, this emperor had appeared as the personification of coldness. Perhaps he was a wise ruler, but he wasn’t a kind man. He had made her innocent foster brother suffer in the cold palace, where he was gravely ill with no one to care for him; he had removed the innocent guards at the cold palace, the palace gates, and the hunting grounds from their posts; earlier, he had vented his anger upon an innocent guardsman. But now, Su Huailing was finding that perhaps Emperor Jingren wasn’t as cruel as she imagined; this ruler’s vision was keener than that of others.

“There’s no need for further torture,” Emperor Jingren said to Jing Xixian. “Having committed such a crime, Yan Xu likely doesn’t care about dragging down his family, or about death. And he certainly doesn’t care about torture. Perhaps there is nothing in this world that Yan Xu fears. We have nothing further to ask of him.”

“Your Majesty,” said Jing Xixian, “not being afraid of pain doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t afraid of anything else. I have an idea. The criminal Yan Xu has a number of injuries now. If we drop him in a pit of leeches and let the leeches crawl all over him, his blood will be drained bit by bit. Of course, I won’t let him die. At intervals I’ll take him out so he can replenish his blood, then put him back in when he has recovered. If the leeches don’t work, then I can try other means. Everyone is afraid of something. It might just take some time to find it.”

“Jing Xixian!” Yan Xu screamed in terror, no longer looking so resigned to death as he had before. “I’ve been good to you all these years. How can you be so vicious!”

“I am only aiding His Majesty.” A smile appeared on Jing Xixian’s grim face. “And judging by your attitude, it seems you are indeed scared.”

While he couldn’t feel pain, Yan Xu could still feel other things. The sensation of leeches crawling over him, of his blood ebbing bit by bit, was more unendurable than pain.

Emperor Jingren looked placidly at Yan Xu and said, “No need. We have a feeling that even then we would get nothing out of Yan Xu. His crime is irredeemable. Apply the penalty dictated by law.”

According to the law, Yan Xu ought to die the death of a thousand cuts, and his family be sent into exile, his clansmen not to be employed within the next three generations.

Having dealt with Yan Xu, Emperor Jingren wished to spend no more time in this grim place. Before leaving, he took a glance at Su Huailing, who had now been untied, and said calmly, “Subject Jing, what do you think we should do with this woman?”

Jing Xixian had previously been a vice commander in the Imperial Guard. Naturally he was aware of Su Huailing’s unnatural good fortune. He said, “I have it in mind to train her.”

“Oh?” Emperor Jingren gave Jing Xixian a look.

“Good fortune can be put to use at certain times. I have tried sending her into the capital made up to look like an old woman, carrying prohibited weapons like swords and spears, and no one noticed the whole time. It isn’t that she’s especially skilled at altering her appearance. This woman’s fortune is simply unnatural. Whatever she wants to accomplish, she will always succeed in an unbelievable way. Using her as a spy, one can learn a lot without taking much trouble. Actually, the Embroidered Guard has been bringing her along on investigations recently. Even if they have no avenue whatsoever for investigating a case, whatever she happens to touch will turn into an opening.” Jing Xixian sighed feelingly.

“Then, just as you wish, we will leave Su Huailing for you to handle. She will henceforth belong to the Embroidered Guard. But before you let her out to work, make sure she learns the rules.”

“As Your Majesty commands.”

Upon leaving the Embroidered Guard’s prison, Emperor Jingren was silent as he rode in his sedan. The empress hadn’t said anything all day. He had only silently stood guard over the young emperor.

When they returned to the palace, the empress immediately took over the work of the eunuchs and maids. He helped Emperor Jingren undress, and even made him a cup of tea and rubbed his temples. Just as before, he took meticulous care of Emperor Jingren.

Emperor Jingren looked at him for a while, then asked, “Empress, we will only ask you once. Can we trust you?”

The empress’s hands stopped in the middle of pouring tea. He put down the teapot and looked directly at Emperor Jingren. “Naturally.”

“Then is there some secret that you are unable to speak to us of? That no matter how we ask, you won’t be able to say?” Emperor Jingren went on to ask.

The empress thought about it, hesitated for a while, and finally answered, “There are some things that I am not so much unable to say as simply incapable of saying.”

“We understand.” It was unclear just what Emperor Jingren had understood. He said to the empress, “Jinyi… Xiao Jinyi could equally be a man’s name or a woman’s. Is it your real name?”

“Since coming into this world, your subject wife has had no other name than this,” the empress replied.

“Then we will go on calling you Jinyi. Sit next to us.” Emperor Jingren patted the spot beside him.

Xiao Jinyi came over and sat right next to Emperor Jingren. Actually, Emperor Jingren hadn’t asked him to sit this close.

Emperor Jingren glanced at him and didn’t tell him to back off, letting him stay where he was.

“We are a little frightened,” Emperor Jingren said suddenly. “Recently we have found that we do not understand ourself very well. Our memories are not accurate. Our impressions are not accurate. Even the people around us have taken on new aspects. We used to think that the empress would always be the empress and wouldn’t change, but it turns out that you are also not what we thought.”

“Your Majesty…” Xiao Jinyi took Emperor Jingren’s hand, but he didn’t know what to say. He had thought originally that the position of empress was a high one, with many subordinates for him to use, convenient for action. It didn’t matter to him whether it was a male or female role. But now, he wished fervently that he could have been the lowliest of common guards, because then he couldn’t have hurt the young emperor so deeply.

“We trust you because you are the empress that our eyes now see. You have never concealed yourself in front of us. We were extremely foolish, unable to see even such an obvious distinction between male and female. We should have known it from the start. You have never covered up your neck. Have we always seen but chosen to ignore it?” Emperor Jingren raised his hand and touched the empress’s neck. The prominence in his throat trembled under his fingers. He seemed to feel the empress’s nervousness.

“As a man, it must be difficult and ridiculous for you to dress as a woman, no?” Emperor Jingren asked.

“It’s all right,” the empress answered after a pause. “I was able to meet Your Majesty, so it doesn’t matter how difficult or ridiculous it might have been.”

“We are also very happy to have been able to meet you. We are deeply pleased to have your company in the palace.” Emperor Jingren smiled faintly. All conflicts and questions seemed to resolve in this smile.

Xiao Jinyi was moved by the sight and wanted to bend his head to kiss that smile. But Emperor Jingren turned his head aside, avoiding him.

Emperor Jingren sighed. “We wish you could be our only wife and share our realm with us. We wish that our beloved children could all come from you, and our realm be inherited by the product of our two bloodlines combined. But, in the end, you are only a man. However much we might want it, we cannot make it come true.”

The empress clenched his fists and looked searchingly at Emperor Jingren.

“In the spring of next year, we will hold a selection to choose women to bring into the palace. We will choose one woman in a low position, without the authority to raise her own children, to give birth to an heir, who will be raised by you,” Emperor Jingren said. “You will still be the empress, our first wife.”