When Pei Yu had just ascended the throne, there were still many voices of discontent in the court, and plenty of people who still supported Pei Zhao and Pei Cheng.
To maintain the dignity of the imperial family, the late Emperor had continuously exerted pressure to cover up the fact that these two had committed incest and murdered their own biological mother. Most of the people who knew about these events were buried alongside the late Empress in her mausoleum.
However, after so many years, most of those supporters had lost their voices; either Pei Yu had dealt with them in secret, or they had changed their minds and begun to accept the young Empress.
Yesterday’s classified report stated that there was unusual movement around the two former princesses, and there was a high probability they would attempt a jailbreak.
The imperial city was heavily guarded, so how could a jailbreak even begin? It was nothing more than a desperate gamble for mutual destruction.
Since Jiang Wu had already seen the classified report, Pei Yu had no intention of hiding it from her. She brought Jiang Wu along when heading to the dungeons, using the opportunity to force her into taking a stand.
The Prime Minister was an old official from the late Emperor’s reign. Over the years, she had never taken a side, seeming increasingly satisfied with Pei Yu one moment, yet constantly considering how to pull her down the next, fickle and utterly exasperating.
The Alpha still wore a bite-lock on her face, a black mask of cold metallic texture stretching across her fair face, revealing only a pair of Phoenix eyes filled with lingering sleepiness.
Her head hung low, dense and feathery eyelashes blocking out the midsummer sunlight spilling in, casting shadows at the bottom of her eyes.
Extraordinarily gloomy, extraordinarily pitiful.
Grievous over missing breakfast, grievous over being rudely awakened from a deep sleep, and grievous over the uncomfortable contraption on her face.
Why did this little puppy have so many grievances day in and day out? She was as spoiled and delicate as a toddler.
Pei Yu withdrew her gaze as the sedan chair stopped before the dungeon. As they drew closer, a chilling, ghostly cold emanated from within.
She instinctively placed a hand over her lower abdomen, frowning faintly.
Her last visit had been a long time ago. The older she got, the less enthusiasm she felt for torturing her two imperial sisters.
She had completely forgotten that the dungeons were damp and bone-chilling, and given her current pregnancy, it was probably unsuitable for her to enter.
Last night’s pheromone replenishment had been exceptionally effective; the child was no longer acting up so violently. In a mother’s womb, vulnerability was replaced by a sense of reassurance and stability that could truly be felt.
She paused for a moment, but ultimately stepped inside anyway. Jiang Wu was stopped outside, watching her with hopeful, puppy-like eyes.
“Let her in.” Pei Yu’s voice fell slowly.
The person who had been blocked outside, her eyes already brimming with moisture, instantly curved her lips. Her obsidian pupils shone brightly, and the whole creature obediently nuzzled up to the side of Pei Yu’s hand.
Pei Yu glanced sideways and did not stop her. Although Jiang Wu was weak and utterly useless, having her accompany her at a time like this gave her a bit of a safety buffer.
The prison cells had no ventilation year-round, leaving the air sticky, humid, and smelling of moss and crawling insects. Jiang Wu wrinkled her nose, and her mint-scented pheromones automatically released, wrapping around her Omega.
In truth, mint mixed with the stench of the dungeon made for an even worse combination.
However, Pei Yu couldn’t be bothered to quibble with a puppy that was eager to show off.
In the innermost cell, two disheveled figures with hair like wild grass and white prisoner uniforms stained heavily with dust and mud were bound to wooden posts.
The one on the left lifted her head upon hearing movement. Her turbid eyeballs trembled, darting back and forth between Pei Yu and Jiang Wu, before she suddenly spat out a mouthful of saliva that landed on the ground right at Pei Yu’s feet.
She parted her lips and let out a dry, wheezing laugh.
“My good imperial sister, I thought you were so capable. Aren’t you just bringing an Alpha along? Enduring it for all these years, days without an Alpha to soothe you must have been terribly hard to bear, right?”
Pei Yu stepped back, wanting to get away from the saliva on the ground, and tumbled straight into the soft body behind her. The Alpha wearing the bite-lock lowered her head, mistakenly believing the pregnant Empress lacked a sense of security, and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her flush against her embrace.
This was the Empress’s private matter; by all rights and reason, she shouldn’t have spoken up. But since the other person had brought her along, she couldn’t just stand there like a block of wood.
Being in Jiang Wu’s arms was indeed comfortable. The Alpha carried the faint fragrance of begonia petals from last night’s bath, mingling with an extremely light trace of mint pheromones. It was certainly much more pleasant than the air outside.
Above all, Jiang Wu’s body temperature offered a degree of protection against the bone-chilling cold of the prison, helping to soothe the child.
After finding plenty of justifications for herself, Pei Yu finally settled comfortably into that embrace.
Realizing belatedly what Pei Cheng had just said, Pei Yu parted her thin lips, a faint curve touching them.
“Being infatuated with your own biological sister, both of you being Alphas unable to mark one another, with your pheromones repelling each other, bound together side by side, unable to even use your fingers, Imperial Sister must have had it much harder to bear.”
AO equality had been established for many years, but the late Emperor was an old diehard who unconsciously favored the two Alphas more, especially since they were born to the late Emperor’s primary spouse.
She doted on them so much that even when her two precious daughters colluded in incest, murdered their Omega mother, and slipped her chronic poison, she only ordered their banishment upon her deathbed.
The little puppy, who had just witnessed a massive drama, silently let out a breath.
She knew this trope: deliberately letting someone you hate overhear a secret, and then killing them off under the pretext that you know too much.
In her arms, the woman glanced down at her.
Was this foolish dog freezing? Why was she shaking?
Even so, the dungeon truly was an uncomfortable place. Having only been inside for a short while, she could feel her lower abdomen contracting faintly, though it hadn’t reached the point of pain yet.
Coming here today was merely intended to see Pei Zhao and Pei Cheng one last time. Tomorrow, the two of them would be escorted to the frontier regions, only to encounter assassins along the way and unfortunately perish.
Her gaze finally rested on those two wretched shadows. She turned around, ready to leave, when the other person bound over there, who had remained silent all this while, parted her lips, dropping a raspy voice that sounded as though it had been ground across rough gravel.
“Surely Her Majesty has already received the classified report.”
“Her Majesty must have been living without a single care for far too long, lacking even this basic level of vigilance. Naturally, we could never escape, but Your Majesty, musk has been lit in this cell.”
Pei Yu’s figure suddenly staggered, her breathing turning abruptly heavy as her entire body went limp in the embrace of the person behind her.
“Your Majesty?” Jiang Wu inquired tentatively. She didn’t know what musk was, but the person in her arms offered no reply, trembling uncontrollably instead.
Finally realizing something was wrong, Jiang Wu turned anxiously. In her field of vision, the woman’s face was deathly pale. One of Pei Yu’s hands clutched Jiang Wu’s sleeve, while the other pressed tightly over her lower abdomen.
“Get me out of here.”
The corners of her eyes were tinged with red, and each breath came heavier than the last. Jiang Wu scooped her up and ran toward the outside, the woman’s repressed cries of pain echoing faintly near her ear.
Just as she burst through the doorway, Qingyue, who had been standing guard outside, rushed forward, attempting to take Pei Yu from her arms. Jiang Wu sidestepped her and carried Pei Yu straight onto the sedan chair.
The woman’s face was drained of color from the pain. Amidst the crowd, every single groan of agony was pressed tightly between her trembling lips.
“Let Qingyue accompany me.”
Compared to someone she had just met, the other parent of her child, she trusted Qingyue, who had grown up alongside her, far more.
Jiang Wu lowered her gaze. The woman’s eyes were half-open; within those pretty peach-blossom eyes, even the roots of her lashes were flushed with red. The stray hairs at her temples were soaked with sweat, sticking to her cheeks. Her red lips parted slightly in a narrow gap, her breaths hot and humid.
The ache of heartache welling up in her chest had yet to be processed before she felt her arms grow light. The curled-up Empress was scooped away by someone else and carried toward the sleeping quarters on the sedan chair.
The system light sphere’s notification chimed belatedly.
“Congratulations to the host for successfully feeding the mission target folic acid and cooking a meal for her, earning ten merit points!”
The folic acid had been crushed and mixed into the porridge.
Ten merit points. Jiang Wu felt as though her breath was laced with the despair of the iris pheromones from earlier. While quickly chasing after the sedan chair, she tapped open the system store with trembling fingers.
Pain-relieving and prenatal-protection potion: exactly ten merit points.