In the morning, Emperor Jingren watched the sunrise with the empress. Bundled in a quilt and half awake, he saw the new year’s sun and received a lengthy kiss.

Emperor Jingren had never been in such a predicament in his life. Only after he had experienced the reality did he fully appreciate that everything that had come before had been only a dream. Dream and reality were two completely different things. Emperor Jingren didn’t know whether he ought to lament that with all the beauties in his harem, he had remained untouched, or to lament that all his imperial dignity had dissolved beneath the empress’s warm kisses.

He…didn’t think he really minded. The empress had been extremely gentle last night, so gentle that, as a man himself, Emperor Jingren had serious doubts about whether he had been able to take a man’s pleasure from it. Emperor Jingren himself had been very uncomfortable at first, but later, little by little, he really had felt a subtle gratification.

However, whether at the start or during the course of events, had Emperor Jingren wanted it to stop, the empress would by no means have done anything he wasn’t willing to do. But on a winter’s night when the room remained freezing no matter how strong the heating and the braziers burned, the empress’s embrace had been much too warm, so snug that Emperor Jingren couldn’t even think of wanting to leave it.

He had never thought that he would love someone so much that he could temporarily set aside his dignity as a ruler, that he wouldn’t even care whether the mother of the nation was a man or a woman. Actions so contrary to his principles left Emperor Jingren unsure what lengths he would go to for Xiao Jinyi’s sake.

Concerning things that had yet to come to pass, Emperor Jingren did not intend to be like the man of Qi fearing that the sky might fall. He only thought that after last night he finally understood that all the charms of the harem had been illusions. He felt that he had been very happy last night, and that this morning’s first sunrise had been incomparably dazzling. This was enough.

After sunrise, Emperor Jingren took the empress by the hand, and the two of them went to pay respects to the empress dowager. He himself, of course, would be receiving Prince Huainan’s respects.

In reality, the emperor and empress were not the only ones who had not slept last night. Prince Huainan had tossed and turned restlessly. He was perhaps a bit of an idiot, but he wasn’t a total simpleton. While he might not have worked out what had happened at first, he still got there in the end. He understood that Emperor Jingren had used him as a spear; Emperor Jingren had truly been ruthless in intimidating the officials at the New Year’s Eve banquet last night.

Because he had not slept, he got up bright and early and went to wait outside Cining Palace, looking forward to the empress dowager being able to clear up his doubts. The empress dowager was elderly and slept lightly. She was awake before the sun rose. Seeing her younger son looking all at sea, she smiled tenderly.

“I have heard a little of what transpired last night.” With so many eunuchs, maids, and matrons in attendance, the empress dowager had learned what had happened at once. “You and your brother have done well. I’d thought at first that His Majesty was being too inflexible in sending his own little brother to prison, but it turns out that the two of you planned it together. I know of His Majesty’s difficulties at court, but it is customary for the harem to stay out of politics, and your grandmother, my mother, gave strict orders to her family not to forget their stations simply because they were now related to the imperial clan, so my kinsmen have little say at court. Seeing His Majesty’s difficulties all these years, as his mother, my heart has bled for him, of course. But now you’ve grown up, and the two of you can work together. That gives me comfort.”

Prince Huainan was stumped.

He couldn’t ask any of the questions he had meant to ask. He had no choice but to join the empress dowager in silently chanting sutras.

The empress dowager chanted one hundred sutras each morning before sitting down to breakfast. Prince Huainan hadn’t slept; hearing the empress dowager’s droning voice chanting incomprehensible scripture, his head began to nod drowsily.

When the empress dowager was finished with her hundred recitations, she said to her son, “Give instructions for the meal to be made ready. You are also hungry, my son?”

After a pause, Prince Huainan’s head shot up. There was drool trickling from his mouth, and he looked completely lost. “Yes! What?”

She couldn’t hit her own son. Lips twitching, the empress dowager said nothing, but stood and led Prince Huainan out of the temple. He made a good prince; his thoughts were simple, and he wouldn’t stab his imperial brother in the back. It was for the best that the brothers work together.

Emperor Jingren had arrived to pay respects some time ago, but he couldn’t disturb the empress dowager in the temple, so he had waited in the hall. When the empress dowager came out with Prince Huainan to see the emperor and empress, she noticed Emperor Jingren’s blooming face; it was clear to her at a glance that he’d had a good time last night, so she smiled in satisfaction.

Wait. Wasn’t it usually the consort who had been favored with a nighttime visit from the emperor who could be seen at once to be looking fresh and rosy the next day? Something was off. The empress dowager quietly regarded the unflappable empress, considered the empress’s sturdy physique, opened her mouth to say something, but finally said nothing.

The harem was so peaceful that no trouble ever found its way to her. That must have been due to the empress. With an empress like this, the palace was truly quiet.

While inwardly reflecting on this, on the surface she peaceably continued receiving her son and daughter-in-law’s new year’s greetings, and invited the two of them to eat with her.

This time Prince Huainan gave the proper bows to his brother and his brother’s wife. Yesterday’s complete defiance of convention was gone. Emperor Jingren felt some satisfaction.

Following a meal replete with fraternal harmony, the pleased empress dowager left her two sons to have a private talk. After the feat they had pulled off last night, they were sure to want to discuss the next step. The empress dowager understood the situation well; though she had missed her younger son, she still left them alone.

The empress dowager did not wish for the disturbance of receiving well wishes from the consorts, but the empress had no choice but to accept them. After breakfast, he returned to Kunning Palace to see those women who were no longer any match for him, while Emperor Jingren returned to Zichen Hall with Prince Huainan.

As soon as they entered the hall, Emperor Jingren said coldly, “Kneel.”

Last night’s bold and vivacious Prince Huainan had turned docile. Receiving this order, he fell to his knees at once.

“Do you know why we told you to kneel?” Emperor Jingren asked.

Prince Huainan didn’t really know. Though this had been the tenor of events ever since he had been arrested upon entering the capital, today, reasonably speaking, Emperor Jingren ought to have praised and reassured him. But it was clear that Emperor Jingren was truly angry at him, implacably so. A very unpleasant notion came into Prince Huainan’s mind, but he thought that Emperor Jingren wasn’t very likely to have discovered that; so, thinking it was impossible, he raised his head nervously.

Seeing Prince Huainan still trying to forge ahead, Emperor Jingren really wanted to give him a good, hard smack. He ordered all the retainers to withdraw. Once the hall was quiet, Emperor Jingren said, “We suppose that you have heard of the attempt to assassinate us at the hunting grounds?”

At this, Prince Huainan, who was completely incapable of concealment, bowed his head in shame. The reason he could face Emperor Jingren candidly was that he had sent those people simply because he wanted to bring Emperor Jingren back to Huainan; he hadn’t meant anything else by it. And he’d really had no other way out. He had come later than the rest, and when he arrived, he was already the vassal prince of Huainan. He’d never even seen what Emperor Jingren looked like! Unlike the others, say Eunuch Lian, who at the very least had a chance to see Emperor Jingren, he only received imperial decrees, and those were vanishingly few.

Fortunately, he knew that the original novel’s Prince Huainan really had wanted to usurp the throne and had kept a private army, and later had even tried to steal Su Huailing from Emperor Jingren. He himself wasn’t interested in usurping the throne. All he wanted was to use the plans put in place by the original to kidnap Emperor Jingren. Once he had him, depending on the situation, there were two options: first, allow some Stockholm Syndrome to develop, or, second, make an appearance midway to rescue Emperor Jingren, so the two of them could flee perilously through the mountains, allowing feelings to develop.

Even if the kidnapping attempt failed, he could be arrested and shoved into a cell by Emperor Jingren. It didn’t matter which one of them was being held in the cell; Prince Huainan didn’t object either way.

But he couldn’t have predicted in a million years how smart and meticulous Emperor Jingren was. Everyone else had seen Emperor Jingren intimidating the officials last night; only Prince Huainan himself knew that Emperor Jingren had also been intimidating him.

Following last night’s events, though Prince Huainan understood very well that this person was only an NPC, he still couldn’t help being awed by him.

“I have committed a wrong.” Prince Huainan couldn’t explain anything. He could only press his head to the ground.

He had underestimated this world, underestimated Emperor Jingren. It was inevitable that he would fall out of the running.

“You have indeed,” Emperor Jingren’s solemn voice pronounced above his head. “But we are willing to give you a chance to explain.”

This meant that whether Prince Huainan was out or not would rest on his explanation.

Another person might have racked their brain for a perfect explanation, a convenient way for him and Emperor Jingren to put this behind them. But, having learned the lessons of the past few days, Prince Huainan knew that Emperor Jingren couldn’t be fooled. His options were to tell the truth, or to say nothing at all. Trying to lie his way out would only get him into more trouble.

He still had a chance! In Prince Huainan’s long-paralyzed mind, an idea suddenly emerged.

So, still hugging the ground, he said, “I have been confused.”

Ordinarily, something like this would have been an indication that Prince Huainan was disloyal. Saying it ought to have been enough to cost Prince Huainan his life. But Emperor Jingren thought there was something else to it, so he asked, “In what way, confused?”

Prince Huainan gritted his teeth and took his courage in his hands. “I have been in charge of my fief for two years, unable to see you, Imperial Brother. I have missed you, longed for you, until I couldn’t control myself. I came up with this stupid scheme to kidnap you so that we could live in a world apart, just the two of us.”

Emperor Jingren was speechless.

Prince Huainan’s bomb left him utterly shattered. He, who was always orderly and precise, now felt emotions he was incapable of putting into words. He ought to have simply given his benighted little brother Shen Junyi a thrashing, but after his own absurd experience last night, he couldn’t help detecting a hint in everything Prince Huainan said, so for the moment it was beyond him to recover his composure.

Not hearing a roar of fury from above, Prince Huainan slowly raised his head and saw Emperor Jingren staring at him with a grim look. He thought that it made no difference whether he died now or later, so he might as well go for broke, risk it all!

So he looked right into Emperor Jingren’s eyes and said candidly, “It’s just that I yearn for you, Imperial Brother. A single glimpse of you makes me happy. I spent two years and seven months ruling my fief, over nine hundred days and nights, so I…couldn’t help myself. I knew that my feelings were wrong. After the hunting grounds, I didn’t dare come to the capital to see you. I was too overjoyed to contain myself when I received the imperial decree, but I could hardly bring myself to obey. That’s why I dragged out my arrival.”

Emperor Jingren was silent.

Still saying nothing? Still not ordering him to be expelled and beheaded? Prince Huainan thought he was getting somewhere, so he dug around in his brain for all the eloquence he could command and desperately continued his confession. “I am aware that this is wrong, but this love eats at my bones, and I cannot control myself. I only ask that you grant me a swift death, Imperial Brother, so that I can be entirely rid of this absurd evil notion. This love, this devotion, can be extinguished by nothing save death.”

“Really?” Having recovered his calm over the course of Prince Huainan’s endless confession, Emperor Jingren continued, “It does not strike us that death is the only way to resolve this problem. We have merely been remiss. We thought only of leaving you free to wed the woman of your heart’s desire without considering that you had already reached an age to marry. We will notify the empress dowager and the empress at once; during the upcoming harem selection, they can choose a princess for you, as well.”

Prince Huainan was thwarted.