“I’m not eating.” Yan Tongshu’s muffled voice came from beneath the covers.
“Huh?”
Pearl was terribly worried. Ever since the young master had returned that morning, she had sent Jinbao to wait outside the imperial palace gates and watch for any unusual developments, then locked herself in her room. Now she would not even touch her favorite roast goose. She had to be ill.
Pearl asked anxiously, “Young Master, should I fetch a physician?”
“No!” Yan Tongshu shouted. “Pearl, I’m fine. Just let me be alone for a while.”
Pearl was still deeply concerned. “Then... I’ll send the people from Kaifeng Prefecture away first.”
“Send them away. All of them. Tell them I’ll return to duty this afternoon.” Yan Tongshu clutched her head.
Damn Li Fulin.
She had only missed half a day, and he would not even let her have a moment of peace.
He really was Li the Skinflint!!!
After a while, Pearl returned. “Young Master, the kitchen has made braised pork. Are you sure you won’t have even a little? There’s also spicy chicken and honey-glazed chicken wings.”
Yan Tongshu said nothing.
After some thought, Pearl added, “Young Master, please eat something. You haven’t had a bite since you came back at dawn.”
Then... maybe just a little?
Yan Tongshu lowered her head and touched her stomach.
She was starving.
After that much exertion, she had been hungry for ages.
Yan Tongshu threw back the covers. Her face was flushed from being stifled beneath them, her dark hair clinging to her cheeks and neck, her whole body damp with sweat.
She looked toward the mirror. The reflection staring back at her was utterly disheveled.
Then, without warning, images from the night before rose in her mind.
Qin Yi’s eyes had been covered with a sash. His face had been flushed, his breath scorching. One hand gripped the bedpost, the muscles in his arm taut, veins standing out as though they might burst.
Beads of burning sweat had dripped from his jaw.
At the time, his ink-black hair had clung to his face and chest just as hers did now.
She could see it—see her own fallen hair tangled with his.
Yan Tongshu could not help wondering: Qin Yi had looked like that when he was overcome with desire... so what had she looked like?
She could not possibly have been any less of a mess.
At the same time, a faint sense of relief surfaced in her heart.
Fortunately, Qin Yi had not been able to see.
Otherwise, she would probably be so mortified now that she would want to jump off the city wall.
Yan Tongshu’s fingers tightened around the quilt. Her voice was unusually hoarse. “Pearl, go to the dining hall and have the food served. I’ll come over in a moment.”
When she finished speaking, her throat ached a little.
She had cried out too much last night.
She covered her face with both hands.
There had been so many eunuchs and palace maids outside the Funing Hall.
What on earth had she done?
It was all that damned aphrodisiac’s fault!
And Prince Ming, too.
She was going to kill that bastard!
Yan Tongshu washed her face, tied her hair up again, changed into clean clothes, and opened the door.
The cold wind struck her, easing some of the heat in her face. Her wildly unsettled heart calmed somewhat as well.
After finishing her meal, Yan Tongshu considered matters from every angle before finally deciding to pretend she remembered nothing.
Yan Tongshu set down her chopsticks. “Pearl, has Jinbao sent back any news?”
Pearl shook her head.
Yan Tongshu mulled it over. If Jinbao had not returned, that meant there had been no disturbance at the palace.
So what exactly had happened?
Had Qin Yi dealt with that woman?
Given that woman’s IQ, she probably couldn’t dig up anything especially damaging about her.
Besides, even if she did expose the fact that she was a eunuch, Qin Yi would most likely help cover it up.
After all, a eunuch serving as an official had no children or family to complicate matters. It wouldn’t affect her position as acting prefect.
That afternoon, Yan Tongshu returned to the Kaifeng Prefecture office for duty. Faced with Zhang Jiu’s concern, she shot Li Fulin a vicious glare.
Li Fulin grabbed Zhang Jiu and said, “Look at how Lord Yan treats me! She skipped work for no reason, then came back and started giving me attitude.”
“You pushed Lord Yan too hard. If Lord Yan didn’t come in, she must have had her own reasons,” Zhang Jiu said sternly.
Li Fulin was stunned. Pointing at Zhang Jiu, he said, “Well, well, Zhang Jiu. Where did your fairness and impartiality go?”
Zhang Jiu’s expression was utterly sincere. “I am answering you from the standpoint of fairness and impartiality.”
“You—you—” Li Fulin held it in for ages before finally squeezing out three words: “Shameless bastard.”
Yan Tongshu sat in her office and began reviewing official documents.
Just as she was trying to figure out how to brush off what had happened the previous night, Jinbao suddenly came rushing over in a panic.
“Young master!”
“What is it?” Yan Tongshu demanded urgently. “Has something happened at the palace?”
Jinbao panted as he replied, “No, there’s nothing going on at the palace. Everything is calm. But, Young Master—the Emperor is here. H-he-he, His Majesty came with Eunuch Lu Xi. They’re already at the entrance!”
He had actually come all the way to the Kaifeng Prefecture to demand an explanation!
Yan Tongshu tossed aside the document in her hand and bolted.
“Young Master, why are you running?” Pearl asked, baffled, though she still ran after Yan Tongshu.
Jinbao stayed behind to stall for time.
Before long, Qin Yi entered.
He looked around, then turned his gaze on Jinbao. “Where is she?”
“Y-Young Master?” Jinbao was terrible at lying. His voice trembled as he answered uncertainly, “Young Master went out on an inspection.”
“An inspection?” Qin Yi raised a brow and advanced on Jinbao step by step. “You saw me from afar just now, so why did you run? Did Yan Tongshu send you to warn her?”
Jinbao shook his head frantically. “No, no, absolutely not. Your Majesty, our young master goes out on inspections every so often—to mingle with the people and learn about their hardships.”
What utter nonsense.
Qin Yi didn’t believe a word of it.
He walked over to the desk. An official document lay there, only half reviewed. Freshly ground ink sat in the inkstone beside it, and the brush had been left directly on the tabletop. Clearly, she had fled in a hurry.
Qin Yi turned back, his sharp gaze slicing toward Jinbao like a blade. “Which way did she run?”
Jinbao continued shaking his head.
In any case, he would not say. Not even if it killed him.
Qin Yi’s brows drew together. “Do you know the punishment for deceiving the emperor?”
Jinbao dropped to his knees, lowered his head, and still refused to speak.
Fine. Fine.
Qin Yi was both amused and enraged.
The people around Yan Tongshu were just like her—stubborn as oxen, utterly unafraid of death.
Hmph.
He would find her himself!
Qin Yi strode off, searching room after room.
He refused to believe he couldn’t find one Yan Tongshu.
Aahhh!
Yan Tongshu was about to lose her mind.
Didn’t that dog emperor have memorials to review?
Why was he so free?
And he had come personally to catch her?
If he couldn’t find her, that meant she didn’t want to see him!
Yan Tongshu hid in Zhang Jiu’s room.
Zhang Jiu looked at Yan Tongshu, who was hiding beneath the writing desk, with deep bewilderment. “Lord Yan, this seems rather improper.”
Yan Tongshu raised a finger to his lips. “Shh.”
Bang!
The door to Zhang Jiu’s office was thrown open. Qin Yi glanced inside. “Where is he?”
Zhang Jiu asked, “Whom does His Majesty mean?”
“Yan Tongshu.”
Zhang Jiu’s gaze drifted toward the southeast, outside the door. Qin Yi turned and went after him.
Yan Tongshu let out a sigh of relief. “Zhang Jiu, Zhang Jiu. I never knew you could lie.”
Zhang Jiu’s expression was solemn. “Lord Yan, this subordinate did not lie. When His Majesty asked, I merely glanced elsewhere. Before I could answer, His Majesty had already left.”
Yan Tongshu understood at once, and used one precise word to describe Zhang Jiu’s behavior:
“Clever.”
Zhang Jiu pressed his lips together in a smile and reached down to pull Yan Tongshu out from beneath the desk.
Yan Tongshu did not ask what had happened, and Zhang Jiu did not ask either.
No matter when or why, he would always stand unconditionally on Lord Yan’s side.
Qin Yi failed to find him and left.
Yan Tongshu breathed a sigh of relief. After finishing his paperwork, he went home happily when it was time to leave work. But the moment he opened the door, he saw Qin Yi.
Qin Yi was sitting in a chair, holding a cotton doll and examining it carefully. “Yan Tongshu, this strange little thing looks awfully familiar. Why is that?”
Yan Tongshu: “…”
Lu Xi hurriedly picked up the half-finished memorials from the table and retreated, stopping Pearl and Jinbao as they came over. He closed the door from the outside.
Qin Yi slowly spoke. “This is… me?”
“What part of it looks like you?” Yan Tongshu asked from the bottom of his heart.
It was a cotton doll.
Its face was round, its eyes were round, and it had short little arms and legs. Its body was plump, round, soft, and cuddly.
Aside from the fact that they both had black hair, black eyes, and fair skin, how exactly had Qin Yi recognized himself?
It made no sense!
Qin Yi gave Yan Tongshu an even more nonsensical answer.
“Intuition.”
He pointed at the mark on the cotton doll. “And the imprint of a fist.”
Yan Tongshu: “…”
Qin Yi patted the cotton doll, making it even fluffier and cuter, then placed it back on the bed so that it could sit properly.
After completing this series of actions, he turned around and stared fixedly at Yan Tongshu. Step by step, he advanced toward him.
“Yan Tongshu, you’re irresponsible.”
Yan Tongshu was stunned. “Me? Irresponsible?”
Qin Yi accused him, “You slept with me and then ran off.”
“I did not.” Yan Tongshu instinctively took a step back.
Qin Yi continued forward. “You even trampled the dignity of an emperor beneath your feet, tied me up, blindfolded me, and forced yourself on me.”
“I forced myself on you?” Yan Tongshu grew furious. “Let’s be scientific about this. You’re nearly six foot three and built like a warrior, while I’m barely five foot seven and hate exercising. I’d taken an aphrodisiac at the time and was barely conscious, with no strength in my hands or legs. Do you honestly think I could have pushed you around or dragged you anywhere? If you hadn’t been willing, how could I have forced you?”
One meter ninety, trained in martial arts since childhood, versus one meter seventy, with no love for physical activity.
Even without the aphrodisiac, Yan Tongshu could never have pushed him.
“An aphrodisiac?” Qin Yi was the one left confused now. He asked, “Does such a thing even exist?”
Yan Tongshu froze.
N-No? There wasn't?
“Was there?” Qin Yi asked again.
His gaze was stern and his expression earnest. He didn’t look like he was joking.
“Then... what drug was I given?” Yan Tongshu asked blankly.
Qin Yi said, “The anesthetic had been mixed with something that causes fever. They may have added it to create the illusion of arousal.”
Yan Tongshu stood there dumbfounded, as if struck by lightning.
The room fell into deathly silence.
A moment later, Qin Yi also realized what had happened. “Yan Tongshu.”
He cornered her at the doorway, bracing both hands against the wall on either side of her. The heat of his body swiftly invaded the small space between them, leaving neither of them any room to retreat.
He asked, “Don’t tell me you’ve read too many trashy romance novels and let them make you stupid?”
Yan Tongshu came to her senses with a start and suddenly understood.
No wonder she hadn’t reacted that violently at the time. She had only felt uncomfortable.
Yan Tongshu was furious with herself.
Trashy dramas were dangerous.
All those stories about someone being drugged and ending up in a one-night stand...
When she saw that woman’s manner at the time, her first thought had been that it was an aphrodisiac.
That was right.
How could a drug like that even exist?
If it did, whoever invented it could make a fortune treating impotence alone.
She was a physician. How could she have been led astray by some over-the-top drama?
She clearly knew that no such drug existed in the real world, so how had she mistaken it for an aphrodisiac?
Ahhh!
Yan Tongshu was about to lose her mind.
She was going to throw herself off the city wall right now.
This was mortifying!
And at that moment, Qin Yi actually started laughing.
Laughing shamelessly, he asked her, “Yan Tongshu, don’t tell me you read those vulgar little books sold on the streets, decided you’d been given an aphrodisiac and were about to die, and that’s why you forced yourself on me?”
Yan Tongshu’s face flushed scarlet with embarrassment.
But she stubbornly argued, “I didn’t force myself on you. You were willing.”
The dog emperor was six feet two, while she was only five feet seven. She had also been drugged at the time. She couldn’t have pushed him away, much less forced herself on him.
Qin Yi narrowed his eyes and asked sharply, “How do you know I was willing?”
A flash of lightning streaked through Qin Yi’s mind.
“You knew I was willing when you pushed me away?”
Yan Tongshu regretted it all over again.
Today, every word she said was wrong. The more she spoke, the more mistakes she made.
Qin Yi pressed her again. “Tell me. When did you realize what I was thinking?”
Yan Tongshu clamped her mouth shut and lowered her eyes, looking determined to resist him to the very end.
“Yan Tongshu.” Qin Yi bent down and lowered his head, staring straight into her eyes as though he intended to see all the way into her heart. He asked, “Did you know all along and just pretend to be clueless?”
His gaze left Yan Tongshu with nowhere to hide. She answered in a small voice, “W-Well, it’s not as if I’m stupid.”
Qin Yi’s voice deepened. “How did you figure it out?”
“Well... you made it too obvious.” Yan Tongshu tried to escape, but Qin Yi blocked every possible route.
Qin Yi insisted, “You’re not allowed to run until you explain everything today.”
Yan Tongshu was furious. Why was the dog emperor so domineering?
Yan Tongshu threw caution to the wind. “You can’t pin this on me. You were being so obvious. I’ve never heard of friends hugging when they say goodbye! What kind of ridiculous request is that? And what emperor casually asks his minister to call him by name… Of course, those were only vague suspicions. I wasn’t sure whether you even knew what you were doing or saying. I only became certain when… when…”
“Hmm?” Qin Yi prompted, a questioning sound rolling up from his throat.
“That time on horseback—what you were thinking, how your body reacted—did you really think I didn’t know? If I still couldn’t figure it out after that, would I be an idiot? And that time at the Stargazing Terrace—what else could ‘taking our friendship a step further’ mean? Do you think I’m stupid? So!” Yan Tongshu shoved Qin Yi away and raised her head to confront him, finally losing her temper. “Don’t just make excuses when you can’t find anyone else to blame. You… you…”
“…You were willing. I didn’t force you.” By the end, Yan Tongshu’s voice had dropped to a whisper. Her cheeks were burning, and she did not dare meet Qin Yi’s eyes.
Qin Yi was hardly any better.
He had thought he’d hidden it well.
Who would have guessed he had given himself away long ago?
He carefully went over the memories. Had he really been that obvious?
He had already been careful and restrained. Had he still startled her by being so blatant?
Qin Yi coughed awkwardly, the tips of his ears burning. “Then you shouldn’t have left first thing in the morning. That was irresponsible.”
Qin Yi accused her, “Putting on your trousers and refusing to take responsibility—that’s something Chen Sizhen would do. You personally tried Chen Sizhen’s case, Lord Yan. You wouldn’t want to become Chen Sizhen the Second, would you?”
“You!”
Yan Tongshu raised her head, just about to retort, when Qin Yi lowered his head and kissed her.
She froze, stunned.
“You—”
Before she could finish the word, Qin Yi kissed her again.
Yan Tongshu covered her mouth. “What are you doing?”
“I couldn’t help myself.” Qin Yi’s eyes held a smile as warm and limpid as spring water. “I just realized something.”
Yan Tongshu asked blankly, “What?”
“Yan Tongshu.” The corners of his mouth curved upward. “You were conscious last night. You chose me of your own free will.”
“I didn’t—”
Yan Tongshu had just lowered her hand when Qin Yi kissed her again.
One kiss after another, without end.
Yan Tongshu clapped both hands over her mouth. “No more kissing.”
Her face was flushed and burning hot.
“Talk properly,” she said.
“You. Do. Not. Get. To. Shift. The. Blame.” Qin Yi enunciated each word.
Yan Tongshu protested, “But we’re not suited for each other.”
Qin Yi asked, “How aren’t we suited?”
Yan Tongshu thought about it. “You’re obsessed with chess, while my skills are mediocre. We won’t have anything to talk about.”
Qin Yi: “…”
Yan Tongshu continued, “You practice martial arts and are skilled at fighting. I don’t know any martial arts, and I can’t beat you.”
“Why would we need to fight each other if we’re getting along perfectly well?”
“Regardless, I can’t beat you…” Yan Tongshu had just taken her hand away when she immediately covered her mouth again. “Besides, your complexion is a little dark.”
The first two points could be set aside for the moment.
Qin Yi demanded angrily, “Where am I dark?”
He was famous for resembling his mother, Empress Duanxiaoxian. He was even fairer than his elder brother.
Yan Tongshu pursed her lips. “Your face darkens at the slightest thing. It gets all gloomy and black. That’s why your face is kind of dark.”
Qin Yi ground his teeth. “Yan Tongshu!”
“All those things that aren’t suitable were what you used to say… mmph…”
Before Yan Tongshu could finish, her hand slipped free, and Qin Yi kissed her again. This time, it was no brief brush of lips. It was a long, deep kiss that left Yan Tongshu no room to breathe.
One hand cradled her face while the other gripped her waist, his arm hard as iron.
Their scorching breaths tangled together.
Every muffled sound was swallowed between their lips.
Yan Tongshu’s skin looked as though it had been steeped in steam, flushed with a faint pink.
After a long while, Qin Yi finally let her go, resting his chin on her shoulder as he panted heavily.
His warm breath brushed against her neck, making Yan Tongshu tremble faintly.
Her lips were slightly parted as she leaned against the door, weak all over.
Just like last night.
The more they kissed, the more terrifying the aphrodisiac’s effects became.
Her body instinctively wanted to respond.
“You…”
Yan Tongshu reached out to push Qin Yi away, but he caught her hand, pressed it against his chest, and clasped it tightly in his.
His voice was burning and hoarse. “Yan Tongshu, you let something slip again.”
She had listed countless reasons and excuses, yet not once had she said that she didn’t like him.
She had known all along, yet she hadn’t stayed away from him. She had even given him a bracelet she’d made herself—and hugged him first.
“Wha…” Yan Tongshu looked up, her soft pink lips glistening as though coated in honey.
Qin Yi lost control and kissed her again. Compared with the stormy urgency of the last kiss, this one was gentler, more considerate, and more lingering—yet it stirred Yan Tongshu’s emotions even more deeply.
He brushed his tongue over the corner of her lips, coaxing her between kisses. “Yan Tongshu, you have to take responsibility for me.”
“I… I haven’t decided yet.” Yan Tongshu lowered her eyes, avoiding Qin Yi’s gaze. “What exactly do you mean by ‘take responsibility’? What do you want me to do?”
Qin Yi said, “Marry me.”
“No.” Yan Tongshu refused without thinking.
She had no intention of entering the harem and becoming a caged canary—losing her freedom, her sense of self-worth, losing everything, and living only by relying on a man’s affection.
Besides, publicly, she was still a man.
What man entered an emperor’s harem?
Wait.
Yan Tongshu’s kiss-dazed mind started working again. Qin Yi hadn’t mentioned it—did that mean he still didn’t know she was a woman?
Was that it?
Yan Tongshu did not want to lose her freedom or enter the harem, so she refused decisively.
Qin Yi thought she simply didn’t want to take responsibility. His voice darkened. “Yan Tongshu! You heartless bastard!”
Yan Tongshu pressed her lips together. “You’re the emperor. You’ll have a whole harem someday; you can marry plenty of people. There’s no need…”
“There won’t be.” Qin Yi’s answer was firm. “I only like Yan Tongshu. There won’t be anyone else for the rest of my life.”
Yan Tongshu asked, “How can you guarantee that?”
“Yan Tongshu!” Qin Yi snapped. “If I wanted a harem full of women, would I have waited until I was twenty-six without a single woman by my side?”
“Who knows,” Yan Tongshu muttered, head lowered.
Qin Yi’s teeth itched with frustration. This brat simply didn’t want to take responsibility!
He said stiffly, “I command you: you have to take responsibility for me. If it comes to it, I’ll make do and be your…”
“Command?” Yan Tongshu was furious now. “You’re actually using your position as emperor to intimidate me?”
“I…” Qin Yi was about to explain that he was only so afraid of losing her that he’d let the words slip. But Yan Tongshu lifted her foot and stamped hard on the top of his.
Command her?
So what if he was emperor?
Go on, kill her. Kill her right now.
Once she’d let off steam, she opened the door and kicked Qin Yi outside.
“I…” Qin Yi knocked. “I spoke without thinking. I promise I won’t do it again.”
The door stayed firmly shut.
Qin Yi raised a hand and touched his lips. Yan Tongshu’s warmth still lingered there.
“Yan Tongshu.” Qin Yi knocked again.
There was no answer.
He’d accidentally hit a nerve.
So… could he still kiss her in the future?
The door swung open with a bang.
Qin Yi stepped forward, but Yan Tongshu raised a hand to stop him. “That woman last night…”
“It was Dowager Consort Ning,” Qin Yi said. “After confessing that the Empress Dowager had ordered her to do it, she couldn’t endure the torture and killed herself. The Imperial Guards found out that Prince Ming’s wife had visited the Empress Dowager in the palace a few days ago.”
“Oh,” Yan Tongshu replied.
So that meant she hadn’t been exposed yet.
Qin Yi stepped forward. “Yan Tongshu, listen to me. I didn’t mean what you think I meant just now. What I meant was, I could be your…”
With a bang, Yan Tongshu shut the door in his face again.
He hadn’t managed to explain himself and had only earned another door in the face. Qin Yi had no choice but to leave for now.
In the carriage, Qin Yi kept touching his lips, pressing them together, then propping his head on one hand and grinning like an idiot.
Lu Xi kept sneaking glances at him from the corner of his eye.
Had His Majesty gone simple-minded?
Back at the palace, Qin Yi summoned an embroiderer. Using the cotton doll at Yan Tongshu’s home as a model, he sketched out a design and handed it over, ordering her to make one for him too: a cotton doll version of Yan Tongshu, to keep him company in bed.
The embroiderer studied Qin Yi’s drawing over and over. What a strange thing.
It was a little girl made of cloth.
A round head, big eyes, a cherry-red mouth, long hair, and a high-waisted ruqun. Plump, soft, and squishy.
She’d never seen anything like it.
The embroiderer didn’t understand, but she followed the imperial order.
Meanwhile, even though Qin Yi had left, Yan Tongshu felt more flustered than ever.
How had she let a handsome face get the better of her?
Yan Tongshu grabbed the cotton doll of Qin Yi and punched it several times.
Hugging the doll, she couldn’t help but think things over.
Dowager Consort Ning had taken her own life without revealing the misunderstanding that Yan Tongshu was a eunuch.
The Empress Dowager and Prince Ming had been trying to frame her.
Then who was that bearded Liao man from last night?
The Liao people liked to wear beards, and plenty of men in the envoy had them. With a beard and a hat hiding half his face, it really was hard to tell what he looked like.
If he was in league with the Empress Dowager and Prince Ming, could they be scheming something in secret to sabotage the peace talks?
Uneasy, Yan Tongshu finally decided to visit the post station tomorrow and take a look.
Night had fallen. She set the cotton doll aside and was about to go to sleep when she turned her head and saw its hateful face.
She punched the cotton doll in the face.
That dog emperor—shameless beyond belief.
He actually resorted to a honey trap.
Hmph.
Yan Tongshu turned over. Finding it awkward to sleep without something in her arms, she summoned Yuanzi and hugged it as she drifted peacefully to sleep.
...
That night, at Prince Ming’s residence.
The study floor was littered with shattered porcelain.
That whelp has gone too far!
Prince Ming’s face was livid, and he was already on the verge of an outburst.
His elder sister had been placed under house arrest in the imperial harem. The wife he loved most had been forced by the emperor to write a letter of divorce with his own hand. The son he had raised himself—whom he was powerless to protect—was now to have his grave moved a thousand miles away.
Such a blood-deep hatred—he would never let it go!
Pfft—
Prince Ming spat out a mouthful of blood.
He wiped it away with a handkerchief, took a sip of hot tea, then felt an itch in his throat and broke into another violent coughing fit.
Just then, there came a knock at the door.
Prince Ming hid the bloodstained handkerchief, gulped down two mouthfuls of hot tea, and suppressed the discomfort in his throat before saying, “Come in.”
Wu Jue entered and dropped to his knees. “Your Highness, our men found an inscription left by Dowager Consort Ning beneath a table in her palace. It says... it says...”
“Why are you stammering? Speak.” The worse Prince Ming felt, the sharper his voice became.
Wu Jue said, “Dowager Consort Ning must have lost her mind. She... she said Lord Yan is a eunuch. How could that possibly be true?”
After Wu Jue finished speaking, silence fell over the study.
A moment later, Prince Ming suddenly laughed. “No. What she meant was not that ‘Yan Tongshu is a eunuch.’ What she truly meant was that Yan Tongshu is a woman.”
“A woman?” Wu Jue asked. “But she doesn’t bind her chest.”
Prince Ming tapped his fingers lightly against the table. “I remember that the late emperor was fond of Yan Tongshu’s father. When he learned that the man had been blessed with a son and had recovered from a serious illness, he specially issued an imperial decree to inquire after him. I happened to be at the Yan residence at the time. When the decree arrived, Lady Yan’s expression was rather telling.
“Later, when Yan Tongshu took the provincial examination at the age of eleven, I heard that Lady Yan had punished her under the family rules. I gave it no further thought then. But now, taken together with Dowager Consort Ning’s final message... If Yan Tongshu is a woman, then everything makes sense.”
