As the heir to a powerful conglomerate family whose roots stretched across several countries, Xie Shuishan had been subjected, from the hazy innocence of adolescence onward, to various desensitization trials conducted by specialists appointed by her family.
These trials encompassed every kind of temptation one might encounter in life, from the lofty to the base.
Most important of all were the many desires inherent to human beings: hunger, greed for wealth, ambition for fame, avarice, the thirst for knowledge, possessiveness, the desire for recognition, curiosity, competitiveness, and, most easily incited of all, sexual desire.
Many things—vague, ambiguous, unknown, or novel—could cloak otherwise ordinary objects and emotions in a veil of mysterious allure.
But once an elder guided you through them, stripped away the mystery, taught you firsthand how to indulge yourself and how to look down upon—or even trample—certain things with the aid of drugs and instruments, you would never again feel any satisfaction or longing for them.
From the time Xie Shuishan came of age, the companions in her bed had been people sent by her family to live with her. After her coming-of-age ceremony, she selected several of them, each of a different type and each one she found particularly interesting, in accordance with her grandfather’s expectations. They lived with her in the main residence.
Every one of those people was deeply grateful and willingly offered themselves. It was not merely because Xie Shuishan was exceptionally beautiful, but because once she chose someone, the resources of the Xie Consortium would, to an appropriate degree, be redirected toward that person’s family.
In truth, there was little difference between this and an ancient emperor selecting consorts.
When a “consort” entered the palace, it brought honor and benefits to the family, along with the promise of advancement.
Thus, Xie Shuishan had always sampled beauties of every kind. Among them were men, naturally, but there were women as well.
Seated upon that throne equivalent to the position of an uncrowned sovereign, every possible temptation was exposed and neutralized in advance. Even her experiments with women had been arranged by her grandfather.
By the time Xie Shuishan had tasted every desire known to humanity, she had indeed become a qualified head of the Xie family: neither aggressive nor brutal, neither benevolent nor partial. Over the course of more than a decade, she had led the Xie family in expanding its commercial empire into even broader territories.
So whether it was pleasure with women or the art of making anyone submit to her will, Xie Shuishan was equally adept.
Even when she felt nothing for the person she kissed, she could still make that person lose all reason and become infatuated with her.
Yet Xie Shuishan did not truly kiss the delicate and beautiful empress of this kingdom. She merely looked at her from an extremely close distance, watching her lashes flutter like butterflies and her breathing grow increasingly disordered, a youthful mist gathering in her eyes.
Xie Shuishan’s nose brushed lightly against the empress’s. Her face turned slightly, and unlike the empress, whose expression was steeped in enchantment, her own eyes remained clear and still as a tranquil lake.
Then, just as their lips were about to meet, she wrapped her arms around the empress, who was struggling to breathe, and drew her fully onto her lap, facing her. With an air of cherishing her, she traced from the woman’s forehead down across her brows and eyes, then pressed the tip of her nose against the empress’s.
Wherever her breath passed, it lit the “wilderness” in her arms, little by little, leaving no room for refusal.
Qian Xiangjun had lost the power of speech. She did not even dare open her eyes to look at her “emperor,” squeezing them tightly shut in shy, inexperienced embarrassment. As Xie Shuishan held her closer and pressed her more firmly against her, her pubic bone began to ache from the pressure.
Qian Xiangjun had once resentfully speculated that perhaps the emperor was incapable of intimacy with women. That would explain why, in the three or four years since the empress’s enthronement ceremony, he had never visited her chambers or gone to any of the concubines in the rear palace.
In the past two or three years, although the emperor had occasionally spent the night in the rear palace, he had never left any of the women with an heir. All these signs suggested that perhaps the emperor had some unspeakable difficulty.
But now she had confirmed it with her own body: there was absolutely nothing wrong with the emperor.
Xie Shuishan leaned close to Qian Xiangjun’s ear. Her coaxing words carried the weight of an order.
“If you’re afraid, cover your eyes and leave everything to me.”
With a sharp rip, a corner of the expensive gauze was torn into strips without the slightest hesitation, then lightly draped over Qian Xiangjun’s eyes.
Behind the gauze, Qian Xiangjun opened her eyes wide, but could see only a blurred figure.
The next instant, the world spun.
“Ah!”
She cried out briefly once more before being lifted away from the table by a pair of powerful arms.
To entrust herself entirely to her husband was something Qian Xiangjun desired wholeheartedly and had eagerly awaited.
Her body was as soft as water that could not be gathered into a shape, her limbs flowing naturally along Xie Shuishan’s arms, her curves graceful and alluring.
Most of the magnificent palace lanterns in the room were extinguished by the maids. Only Qian Xiangjun’s frequent, nervous breaths could be heard.
But soon, a sharp and urgent cry from outside the hall shattered the waves of spring stirring within.
“Your Majesty! An eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch has arrived from the Southern Province! The Chief Councillor of the Secretariat, along with several officials from the Ministry of War, has already entered the palace with the dispatch. This servant humbly begs Your Majesty to proceed to the Yan’ying Hall and pass judgment!”
Xie Shuishan halted mid-step, still carrying Qian Xiangjun toward the inner chamber.
The voice clearly belonged to a eunuch. And in the imperial palace, the only person bold enough to interrupt the emperor while she was favoring the empress was Jiang Yi, Director of the Palace Eunuch Office.
Xie Shuishan thought that Zhu Huan’s people had reacted far too slowly.
From the moment she crossed into this world, she had never concealed the fact that she was a woman.
Before meeting Zhu Huan during the day, she had bathed and changed in a side hall of the Taiji Palace. Every palace maid who attended her had seen her body.
Even though she resembled her mother in build and was not particularly full-bosomed, and despite having developed a layer of lean muscle across her upper body through practicing flexibility-based martial arts, she had made no effort to conceal what lay below.
If tonight’s visitor had been any other woman, the Empress Dowager would probably already have assembled the Sixteen Guards and gone to the Taiji Palace to catch Zhu Huan in a trap.
“Your Majesty… who is making such a disturbance outside?” Qian Xiangjun had also heard the sharp, urgent voice and struggled to get down.
In the emperor’s presence, she might be gentle and yielding, but she had been empress for a full seven years. With the Empress Dowager protecting her, she carried herself with dignity and authority before the consorts and palace servants alike.
If she discovered which blind fool had dared to make such a commotion at this crucial moment and ruin her good fortune, she certainly would not let the wretched servant off lightly.
Xie Shuishan nevertheless carried her all the way to the inner chamber and gently set her down.
Seeing that Qian Xiangjun had already pulled away the thin veil covering her eyes, with a trace of grievance in her gaze, Xie Shuishan lowered her head and kissed her brow, lingering there briefly.
Only then did she say softly, “It is late. Yue Nu, go and rest. An urgent dispatch cannot wait. I must go.”
Yue Nu was Qian Xiangjun’s childhood name. In ordinary times, only relatives and elders called her that. After she entered the rear palace, even her aunt rarely addressed her by it.
The grievance filling Qian Xiangjun’s heart immediately turned her cheeks red when Xie Shuishan called her Yue Nu.
How did His Majesty know her childhood name?
Could it be that she was not entirely absent from his heart? If so, why had he neglected her for more than seven years?
Qian Xiangjun’s thoughts spun in every direction, but she also knew that nothing would come of tonight.
She was unwilling to let the Emperor think her too petty to tolerate even matters of state, so she deliberately put on a generous air, rose to her feet, straightened her robes, and said softly, “I’ll see Your Majesty out…”
Xie Shuishan reached out and hooked a finger beneath her chin. “There’s no need. The winter nights are bitterly cold. It would hardly do for you to catch a chill and fall ill.”
Xie Shuishan pressed down on her shoulder and made her sit back down at the bedside.
Without looking at the disappointment in her eyes, she walked straight toward the outer hall.
Qian Xiangjun still followed her for a few steps. “Your Majesty… Someone, bring my white fox-fur cloak for the Emperor.”
“The wind is cold at night.” Qian Xiangjun smiled tenderly. “Your Majesty came wearing so little. It wouldn’t do for you to catch a chill.”
Xie Shuishan was naturally pleased by her concern, and allowed two palace maids to bring over the fox-fur cloak and drape it over her shoulders.
Qian Xiangjun came over as well and personally tied the cloak’s sash in front of Xie Shuishan.
Having received such kindness from the beauty, Xie Shuishan kissed her cheek once more.
Only then did she leave the outer hall of Changle Palace, surrounded by her attendants.
Outside the hall, Jiang Yi and a group of eunuchs had been waiting for some time. Whether from anxiety or the cold, their faces had all turned blue.
Xiao Hong, the senior palace maid of Changle Palace, had been personally trained in the Empress Dowager’s palace and was an exceptionally clever woman. She had a vague understanding of the opposition between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, and she also knew that the Empress Dowager hoped the Empress would conceive an heir by His Majesty.
Ordinarily, whenever the Emperor visited the harem, he favored lowly consorts—Cairen, Yuren, and the like. The lower their status, the less discerning he seemed to be. He had even favored a mere government maid.
To leave such a fine Empress without his affection was truly incomprehensible.
Now that Changle Palace had finally managed to receive the Emperor, Xiao Hong had shown Jiang Yi, the eunuch commissioner, not the slightest courtesy. She insisted that His Majesty and the Empress had already retired for the night and ought not to be disturbed. She had argued with him for ages and stubbornly refused to announce his arrival.
After all, no matter how “powerful” the eunuch commissioner was, if he wanted to seize and interrogate the senior palace maid of the Empress’s residence, he would still have to weigh the matter carefully. He would need the Empress’s approval, wouldn’t he?
Why should she fear Jiang Yi?
Thus, when Xie Shuishan finally sauntered out of the palace, she immediately saw Jiang Yi’s face, blue with suppressed frustration.
If he had not just now cast aside all dignity and shouted himself hoarse, Heaven only knew how the night would have ended.
Standing at the entrance to Changle Palace, Xie Shuishan felt the cold wind blow against her and briefly considered turning around and going back inside.
Why was winter in this world so cold?
Xie Shuishan had no intention of involving herself in the many entanglements of this world. Whether it was helping the male and female protagonists or exposing Zhu Huan’s condition, she had no interest in any of it.
She climbed into a sedan chair. The heavy curtains were lowered on all four sides, and the eunuchs began carrying her away in a swaying, rocking rhythm.
Absentmindedly, she wondered: Now that Zhu Huan had discovered she was a woman, would he have her killed?
Xie Shuishan leaned back against the sedan chair, her shoulders relaxed. Her eyes were vacant, and her expression was listless and bored.
Jiang Yi and a host of eunuchs in yellow ran and stumbled along both sides of the sedan chair, their densely packed footsteps making it clear that he had brought quite a number of people with him when he went to Changle Palace to find Xie Shuishan.
Although Changle Palace was not close to the Hall of Supreme Polarity, and the snowfall meant they would have to make their way carefully for quite some time, Xie Shuishan did not feel cold at all along the journey, thanks to the fox-fur cloak the beauty Yue Nu had given her.
The name Yue Nu was not something Xie Shuishan had gone out of her way to discover. After all, in this novel’s world, the beautiful Empress did not even qualify as a supporting character.
The only thing mentioned about her final fate was that, after Zhu Huan had descended into complete madness, he ordered someone to strangle her to death.
Xie Shuishan had seen her name in the register of consorts summoned to attend the Emperor’s bed. The register recorded the rank and title of every consort, as well as her date of birth, childhood name, and place of origin.
The fox fur was so thick and windproof that, after being wrapped in it for too long, Xie Shuishan even began to feel warm.
She lifted the heavy curtain a crack to let in some air.
The palace road was dim and gloomy.
At some point, however, the snow had stopped.
When they returned to the Hall of Supreme Polarity, the sedan chair was lowered smoothly to the ground. Xie Shuishan continued sitting there calmly, unmoving. Only when Jiang Yi, his face still blue, lifted the heavy curtain to see whether she had been frightened senseless inside did she finally rise.
She raised a hand and pressed it against Jiang Yi’s shoulder, using him for support as she leisurely stepped down from the sedan chair.
Jiang Yi: “…”
So she simply wouldn’t get out unless someone offered her a hand?
His face grew even bluer.
All he could do was silently repeat to himself: When Heaven wishes to destroy someone, it first drives them mad!
Xie Shuishan entered the hall. She needed no one to guide her and walked straight into the inner chamber.
However, she did not immediately approach the bedside where Zhu Huan lay.
When she thought of how he had coughed himself half to death after saying only a few words earlier, and how a gust of cold air had nearly made him cough until he passed out, she wondered: Who would kill her then?
Zhu Huan was propped up against the headboard, the lower half of his body covered by a quilt. His long hair spilled in untidy waves down his back and waist, and his face was pale and tinged with blue.
He looked even bluer than Jiang Yi.
Xie Shuishan could not help wondering.
Could someone with a body like this really live long enough to bring about the destruction of the world several years from now?
Zhu Huan looked toward Xie Shuishan, his expression solemn.
Xie Shuishan stood some distance away and met his gaze, still making no attempt to avoid looking directly at the sovereign.
Her eyes did not waver. There was, for some inexplicable reason, a hint of provocation in them.
Zhu Huan spoke. His voice was neither loud nor forceful. Because he was short of breath, it was even somewhat soft and languid, but there was no room for argument in his tone.
He ordered Xie Shuishan, “Take off all your clothes.”
Xie Shuishan had expected to hear, “Drag her out and beat her to death.”
Zhu Huan clearly intended to see with his own eyes whether she was male or female.
Xie Shuishan did not hesitate in the slightest. She raised a hand and undid the sash of the fox-fur cloak, though she did not simply let it fall to the floor.
After all, it was white, and it belonged to someone else.
She removed the cloak and casually handed it to Jiang Yi, who had entered the room after dismissing the attendants.
“Find some time to return this fox fur to the Empress.”
Jiang Yi accepted it instinctively. Once he understood what he had done, he very much wanted to throw it straight onto the floor.
But he pressed his lips together and glared daggers at Xie Shuishan. In the end, he did not throw it.
Xie Shuishan began taking off her clothes.
Zhu Huan held a memorial he had read only halfway and quietly watched her.
When he saw her swiftly undo her upper garment and toss it onto the floor, he was able to see her clearly almost at once. Dressed as a man, she wore no undershirt resembling a woman’s bodice.
Ordinarily, the people under his command would never have made such a serious mistake as failing to distinguish a man from a woman.
The trouble was that, at the time, this person had been bathing in a side hall. The palace maid attending her had seen how naturally she allowed herself to be helped with dressing and bathing, and assumed that Jiang Yi already knew her identity.
For that reason, the palace maid had not made a special report.
That was the first oversight.
The second came at Linde Hall. Since Jiang Yi looked down on this woman and had not bothered to give any instructions, the people there had drawn their own conclusions and treated her rather carelessly.
Neither Danqing nor the aunt, nor the female court official in charge of palace furnishings, had personally examined her from head to toe. At that moment, all of them were kneeling in the snow behind the Hall of Supreme Polarity.
The palace maid who had changed the woman’s clothes had indeed realized her identity. Unfortunately, she was timid and afraid of trouble. She too assumed that her superiors already knew the identity of the new puppet, so she had not dared to be clever and say anything.
By the time that little maid discovered the task of attending the Emperor’s bed had been handed to the new puppet and could no longer hold back from asking Danqing and the others about it, the woman had already been summoned to attend Qian Xiangjun. The sedan chair was long gone and impossible to catch.
Now, seeing the woman’s figure revealed before him, Zhu Huan finally understood the reason for his own poor judgment.
In all his life, he truly had never seen a woman so tall, with a waist and back so straight and supple.
Nor had he realized that a woman, just like a man, could have features that were not especially obvious.
Zhu Huan had already confirmed that the person was a woman, but he still did not call a halt.
After tonight’s shocking farce, he had to get to the bottom of it and see the truth with his own eyes.
Since the features that distinguished a single woman were not particularly obvious, then…
Xie Shuishan showed no hesitation or coyness. Her slender fingers fumbled a few times at her waist, and her lower garment dropped straight to the floor.
All the eunuchs in the hall, including Jiang Yi, had already lowered their heads, their eyes fixed on their noses and their noses fixed on their hearts.
Even the palace maids standing in neat rows along the side did not dare look up.
But just as Zhu Huan confirmed that the person sent by the Xie family was indeed a woman, something fell to the floor along with Xie Shuishan’s lower garment.
“Thunk!”
In the silent hall, where one could hear a pin drop, the impact of such a heavy object naturally rang out clearly.
Zhu Huan looked toward Xie Shuishan’s feet and saw a cylindrical wooden carving rolling out from beside them.
It was… a dragon’s head carved from wood, a little longer than the width of a palm?
Strangely, Zhu Huan felt that it looked familiar.
At that moment, the sound of the heavy object hitting the floor was so loud that Jiang Yi’s eyes involuntarily turned toward the wooden carving rolling across the ground as well.
He thought back to how Xie Shuishan had insisted on pressing down on his shoulder when getting onto the sedan chair.
Now he suddenly remembered that the dragon-head carving on the sedan chair’s armrest seemed to be missing…
Jiang Yi blurted out, “Why did you break off the dragon-head carving from the sedan chair? Are you planning to use it as a weapon to assassinate His Majesty?!”
Jiang Yi did not dare look at Xie Shuishan’s body. He kept his head lowered as he questioned her, but even after the words left his mouth, he felt that something was not quite right… Thus, the words “Protect His Majesty!” that had already risen to his throat ultimately went unshouted.
She shook off the lower garment tangled around her ankles, gave the wooden carving a casual glance, and walked toward the bed with perfect composure. Then she asked Zhu Huan, “Has Your Majesty seen enough?”
“Would you like me to come a little closer?”
Zhu Huan had only just withdrawn his gaze from the section of wooden carving rolling on the floor when he suddenly saw the woman come so close. His heart jolted.
He instinctively drew in a breath—
“Cough, cough, cough, cough… cough, cough, cough…”
Once again, he began coughing uncontrollably.
But as he coughed, he finally understood why the broken dragon-head carving from the sedan chair had ended up beneath the woman’s lower garment. The corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably for a moment.
Then he began laughing helplessly even as he coughed.
“Cough, cough, cough… heh-heh-heh, cough… hahahaha… cough, cough, cough—hahaha… cough…”
