Chapter 24: The Illegitimate Son

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As his low question fell, Lu Shuyao emerged from behind the folding screen with graceful, lotus-like steps.

She bent her knees in greeting, head lowered, her gaze gentle and timid. Her slender figure and elegant bearing swayed like a delicate flower in full bloom.

She watched Ye Yanchen’s expression carefully, concern in her voice. “Your Majesty does not look well, and you still have court today. It must be hard on you.”

He had already put on his trousers, shoes, and inner garments; only his outer robe remained.

Lu Shuyao breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, all that remained was the final step.

If she had been expected to do everything from the beginning, she truly would not have known what to do.

She only wanted to show weakness. She had never intended to humble herself and do everything for him.

She took the golden outer robe from the eunuch and helped Ye Yanchen put it on.

He was tall and imposing, making her appear especially petite by comparison.

In truth, she was considered tall and willowy among women.

Lu Shuyao slipped her hands around his waist and tied his belt, then straightened his robes and adjusted his crown.

He lowered his head and watched her in silence.

She had clearly failed to rest well the previous day. Against her flawless, pale skin, the dark circles beneath her eyes were especially conspicuous.

She attended to him with earnest care, her movements gentle.

Just as she was about to withdraw her hands, Ye Yanchen seized her fair wrist.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

Lu Shuyao looked up at him. Her delicate, pale face still held the faintest smile. “Your Majesty has asked me that twice already. I’m not afraid.”

That was true enough.

After what had happened the previous day, she had still dared to reach out and support him. She had even refused to leave.

“Then why were you skulking behind the screen just now?”

Lu Shuyao bit her lip. Without a trace of makeup, her bare face looked even more charming than when she was dressed in full finery. “Because I was afraid Your Majesty would tell me to leave again.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she threw herself into his arms and wrapped them around his lean waist.

“Your Majesty, you are my husband. Why should I be afraid of you? But you mustn’t casually tell me to leave again.”

She buried her head against his chest with a sob. “I’m afraid of leaving you.”

She seemed unable to restrain her emotions, speaking in a coquettish, almost childish manner as she made a fuss.

Her soft voice trembled with suppressed sobs. Soon she was crying in earnest, and Ye Yanchen could not tell whether she was wiping her tears and nose all over the dragon robe he was to wear to court.

The palace attendants serving them had not yet withdrawn, leaving Ye Yanchen feeling absurdly embarrassed. His body stiffened, and the tips of his ears grew hot.

This woman…

She truly had no regard for where she was.

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Yet despite her behavior, he felt not the slightest anger.

Remembering the previous night, his gaze darkened. He waved a hand, dismissing the palace maids.

“That’s enough.” His chest rumbled as his rough fingers wiped away the tear at the corner of her eye. “What sort of behavior is this?”

“Where did you sleep last night?” he asked in a low voice, staring at the tear on his finger.

“I rested in the warm room over there.” Lu Shuyao looked at him with her lip between her teeth. “Your Majesty looked unwell yesterday. When I came over, I happened to see the imperial physicians leaving. I was worried, so I stayed.”

“Your Majesty still looks pale. Is there anywhere else that feels uncomfortable?”

“It is nothing serious,” Ye Yanchen replied indifferently.

“Your Majesty clearly needed me yesterday, yet you drove me outside.” She looked pitiful as she pressed close to him again. “You frightened me so badly that I spent the whole night worrying and couldn’t sleep.”

With no one else in the bedchamber, he drew her into his arms.

For a long while, he said nothing. Complicated emotions passed through his heart.

Whenever she looked at him with those almond-shaped eyes, it was as though a pool of spring water lay within them—direct and unwavering, yet filled with tender feeling.

It was enough to leave a person dazed.

He gently pinched her cheek. “It will not happen again.”

The two of them shared breakfast in the Hall of Mental Cultivation before Ye Yanchen finally went to court.

Once he had left, Lu Shuyao returned to the Jade Pearl Palace.

After drinking a bowl of ginger soup, she went back to sleep.

By the time she awoke, it was already after the midday meal.

“Lady Lu is awake.” Ruhu and Ruqi helped Lu Shuyao rise, dress, and arrange her hair.

“Mm.”

“His Majesty came by earlier. Seeing that you were asleep, he did not disturb you.”

“He left?”

“The Empress Dowager summoned him to her palace.”

Lu Shuyao did not seem to care in the slightest. “Oh. I’m a little hungry. Is there any lunch left?”

“We kept everything for you, my lady.”

…

Within Sweet Spring Palace, Consort Xian’s screams were unbearably shrill, each cry louder than the last.

The Empress Dowager held a string of prayer beads in her hands, eyes closed as she murmured prayers beneath her breath.

Shen Rushuang sat to one side, her face deathly pale, as though witnessing childbirth for the first time had frightened her.

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Shen Rushuang did not dare look at the Empress Dowager. Instead, she carefully digested what she had heard from Consort Xian.

The imperial physicians had originally predicted that the child would be born in half a month. No one had expected the birth to come so early.

That morning, Shen Rushuang had encountered Consort Xian on her way to pay her respects. The two had barely exchanged greetings when Consort Xian’s waters broke.

Shen Rushuang personally escorted her back to Sweet Spring Palace.

Because the situation was so urgent, the palace had descended into chaos.

The Empress Dowager had not yet arrived.

At first, Shen Rushuang alone had remained at Consort Xian’s side.

Consort Xian clutched her hand. Her face was contorted with the agony of her contractions, yet she still leaned close and whispered, “Beware the Empress Dowager.”

Shen Rushuang could hardly believe those words had come from Consort Xian’s mouth.

Everyone in the palace knew that the Empress Dowager had returned to the Shen family estate to select Consort Xian. From the moment she entered the palace, the Empress Dowager had shielded and supported her, enabling her to win the late emperor’s favor and conceive the precious imperial prince in her womb.

Indeed, the entire future of the Shen family had been built around this prince who carried their bloodline.

“Why… why would you say that?”

“The child in my womb is not the late emperor’s son at all. It is the bastard child of some unknown beast.”

Consort Xian gripped Shen Rushuang’s hand so tightly that it seemed she meant to tear the flesh from it.

“It cannot survive. The day it is born will be the day it dies!” Consort Xian’s face twisted with madness. She appeared to be in tremendous pain, yet there was also a hint of release in her expression.

Thinking of the Shen family’s plans, Shen Rushuang frowned. “No. You cannot kill it.”

“It has been dead for a long time!” Consort Xian began to laugh crazily. “It stopped moving two months ago. Once this bastard is gone and the new emperor is deposed, you will be the one to bear the next child!”

After those words, palace maids entered carrying various instruments for the delivery, and Shen Rushuang was pushed out through the palace doors.

From that moment onward, she had been turning those words over and over in her mind.

A bastard child?

She did not dare imagine what agonizing ordeal Consort Xian had endured behind those three words.

Nor did she dare think about what Consort Xian had meant when she said that Shen Rushuang would be next.

“His Majesty has arrived!”

A eunuch’s announcement rang out from outside. Shen Rushuang trembled for no apparent reason before forcing herself to stand.

The Empress Dowager glanced over at her. “Rushuang, were you frightened? If you are tired, then after paying your respects to His Majesty, return to your palace and rest.”

The Empress Dowager’s face was filled with maternal warmth, and her voice overflowed with concern.

But when Shen Rushuang recalled that the Empress Dowager treated Consort Xian with precisely the same kindness, a chill rose throughout her body.

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