She had married the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, so why was she sharing a bed with someone else?
Jiang Qingke trembled with fury, her hands as cold as ice.
More than wanting to know who the man was who had been entwined with her night after night, at this very moment, she wanted to know why Li Xuanyao had done such a thing.
She bent her elbow and slammed it hard into the man’s chest.
Taking advantage of his pain, Jiang Qingke turned and dealt him another heavy slap across the face.
Yet from start to finish, the man neither resisted nor fought back.
Tearing off the silk cloth blindfolding her eyes, Jiang Qingke raised her voice in fury.
“Where is the Crown Prince?”
“I want to see the Crown Prince!”
Eunuch Cao, standing guard outside the hall, heard her and immediately pushed open the doors.
The man rose from the bed and walked toward the doors.
There was not a single ray of light inside the hall—only the faint glow of palace lanterns from the corridor outside seeped through.
Jiang Qingke parted the gauze bed curtains and gazed at the man’s retreating figure.
He had casually draped a moon-white robe over himself. His tall, straight silhouette was somewhat similar to Li Xuanyao’s, yet his frame was lean in clothing but muscular beneath—sturdy and well-built.
Just as he reached the doors, the man suddenly paused.
He tilted his head slightly, as if glancing at her from the corner of his eye.
Unfortunately, the light was dim and he was backlit, so Jiang Qingke could not make out his features—only the vague outline of his profile.
Not long after the man left, Li Xuanyao returned to his bedchamber.
Inside the brightly lit hall, Jiang Qingke and Li Xuanyao sat facing each other.
“I didn’t expect my Crown Princess to be so clever, discovering it this quickly.”
Li Xuanyao raised an eyebrow with a faint smile. His calm, composed face showed surprise and impatience—but not a trace of guilt.
He asked again: “How did my beloved consort find out?”
Jiang Qingke’s fury was about to blow the top of her head clean off.
Yet Li Xuanyao asked so casually, so lightly, as if having someone take his place in bed was nothing at all in his eyes.
Jiang Qingke nearly flipped the tea table over.
But remembering that the nine clans of the Jiang family didn’t have enough heads for the Lis to chop off, her restless hands could only grip the two corners of the table with force.
Suppressing her rage, she glared at Li Xuanyao with dark, brooding eyes and demanded.
“Why would Your Highness do this?”
Li Xuanyao smiled faintly and answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Why, of course… to have my beloved consort bear me a child or two.”
Bear a child?
While waiting for Li Xuanyao, Jiang Qingke had already considered many possibilities.
Li Xuanyao had someone else in his heart and refused to touch her.
Li Xuanyao didn’t care for women—he preferred men.
Li Xuanyao was impotent.
…
But “bearing a child” was the one reason she had never considered.
Yet why send another man to do it?
If he had someone in his heart and didn’t wish to have children with her, Jiang Qingke, then at worst he could bring that woman into the Eastern Palace as a secondary consort and simply ignore his Crown Princess. Why make her share a bed with another man?
If he preferred men…
Among the noble sons of the capital’s great families, those who played fast and loose were everywhere.
Even those who had married and fathered children—many still kept male lovers within their estates.
Besides, as a Crown Prince, even if he preferred men, it wouldn’t stop him from siring imperial heirs and securing his position as heir apparent.
The weight of such interests—what mattered and what didn’t—was something anyone who could take up residence in the Eastern Palace would naturally understand.
So there was only one possibility.
Jiang Qingke asked him directly: “Is Your Highness impotent?”
If he were impotent, then Li Xuanyao had no qualification to sit in the Eastern Palace.
They locked eyes for a moment. Li Xuanyao’s thick brows lifted slightly, and the smile curling at the corners of his lips carried a chill as cold as frozen ice.
“Why must my beloved consort see everything so clearly?”
“In this life, what matters is the rare blessing of being muddle-headed.”
Not denying it—that was as good as admitting it.
Jiang Qingke’s delicate brows knitted tightly.
“Is Your Highness mad?”
“To mix up the imperial bloodline—that is a crime punishable by death.”
Li Xuanyao was unconcerned, warning her in a slow, unhurried tone: “As long as my beloved consort keeps her mouth shut, your head… will stay right where it is.”
“As for the matter of the imperial bloodline…”
He gave a light snort and laughed with great ease.
“When the time comes, we can simply adopt a young heir from among the imperial princes of the Li clan.”
“It’s not the Jiang family’s empire, so why trouble yourself, my beloved consort?”
Rising slowly, Li Xuanyao patted her shoulder as he passed by her side.
“As long as my beloved consort obediently behaves, I guarantee you’ll be safe without a doubt.”
“Rest well today. Tomorrow I’ll send someone again to continue sharing your bed.”
Her hands clenched into fists inside her sleeves. Jiang Qingke was so angry she wanted to punch someone.
Suppressing her temper, she gritted her teeth and asked: “What exactly does Your Highness take me for?”
Li Xuanyao seemed to find the question childish and amusing. As he stepped across the threshold, he answered slowly.
“Which woman married into the Li family isn’t a useful pawn?”
Jiang Qingke rose and looked at Li Xuanyao, her eyes blazing with fury, sharp as knives.
She let out a cold, mocking laugh.
“Useful?”
“Which eye of Your Highness’s saw that I’m useful?”
“I’m afraid Your Highness doesn’t know—I, Jiang Qingke, have never been the meek, submissive type who lets herself be pushed around.”
“Is Your Highness not afraid that I’ll raise a fuss before the Emperor and let the whole world know Your Highness’s secret?”
Li Xuanyao’s expression did not change in the slightest, utterly unmoved by Jiang Qingke’s threat.
“If I don’t succeed, how could you, who’s been carrying on illicit affairs, possibly survive?”
His lazy tone carried a hint of arrogance as Li Xuanyao smiled thinly in threat: “We’re all grasshoppers tied to the same rope—why go to such lengths?”
“Don’t insult the grasshoppers. At least grasshoppers can reproduce on their own.”
Jiang Qingke was seething with anger and couldn’t feel comfortable without taking a jab at Li Xuanyao.
“If you ask me, this Donggong of yours ought to be renamed Dongchang.”
As if unwilling to waste more breath on Jiang Qingke, Li Xuanyao turned his head and gave a low command to Eunuch Cao.
“Escort the Crown Princess back to Fengluanxuan. Arrange the consummation again tomorrow night.”
Li Xuanyao spoke each word deliberately, making sure Jiang Qingke heard him clearly.
“If one month doesn’t work, then two months. If two months don’t work, then three months—until the Crown Princess conceives.”
“If she refuses to comply, there will be only one outcome…”
He left the sentence half-finished, but the smile in his eyes brimmed with murderous intent.
The meaning hidden beneath those words could not have been clearer.
The good temper he’d been feigning for days could no longer be maintained.
Jiang Qingke grabbed the teacup from the table and hurled it at Li Xuanyao.
“As if I’m afraid of you!”
She’d even reformed herself for Li Xuanyao’s sake, playing the part of a gentle, submissive wife for days on end.
Little did she expect that he’d been treating her like a fool all along—and now he was trying to pin the crime of adultery on her.
If not for her father’s earnest warnings before her wedding to Li Xuanyao—telling her to temper her ways once inside the palace, lest she court disaster and implicate her family—Jiang Qingke would have loved nothing more than to whip Li Xuanyao right now.
The teacup was knocked aside by Li Xuanyao’s sleeve, shattering into pieces on the floor, along with whatever goodwill Jiang Qingke had ever harbored toward “Li Xuanyao.”
…