After the Retired Emperor Abdicated - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Jiang Zhi, and I am the Imperial Noble Consort doted on by His Majesty above all others. Before I entered the palace, His Majesty once told me that the Retired Emperor was a lunatic and asked me to be a little more tolerant of him.

But I never imagined the Retired Emperor could be this unhinged. For example, right now, the little old man was smiling at me with a face full of fawning flattery, asking me to do him a “small favor.”

The moment he opened his mouth, he dropped a thunderbolt. “To be honest with you, Yun’er is not my biological child. Fortunately, General Pei is my illegitimate son. For the sake of the imperial bloodline, go have a child with him.”

When the Retired Emperor was on the throne, his line of heirs had withered away until he had only one child, whom he raised like a priceless treasure. No amount of affection ever felt like enough; he wished he could give that child every good thing in the world, including the throne itself.

The trouble only began after he abdicated. That was when the Retired Emperor discovered that the palace consorts of his generation had fought far more viciously than anyone realized. That child had been swapped out long ago.

But the Retired Emperor had personally raised His Majesty, and there was genuine affection between them. On top of that, if the fact that His Majesty was not of the imperial bloodline ever came out, those vassal princes eyeing the throne would have every justification they needed to rebel.

And so, for the sake of his beloved adopted child, and for the stability of the realm, the Retired Emperor came up with an absolutely brilliant idea: have me, the Imperial Noble Consort, bear a child for his illegitimate son.

That way, in terms of status and bloodline, everything would line up perfectly!

The Retired Emperor was practically bowled over by his own genius. Beaming with pride, his eyes narrowed until even his beard seemed ready to curl upward, he slapped the table and declared, “As the saying goes, a dynasty may change hands, but the clan remains; the medicine stays the same even if the soup is switched. Brilliant!”

Brilliant for him, maybe. I was about to be ruined.

Because this General Pei was none other than the little lover I had toyed with before entering the palace.

Calling him a lover was not entirely accurate. Strictly speaking, he should be considered a fish I once hooked-one I not only stopped feeding after I was done fishing, but also hauled out of the water, slapped twice, and tossed back in.

Faced with the Retired Emperor’s world-shattering request, I smiled from ear to ear and agreed on the surface. Then the moment I turned around, I laid all my cards on the table with His Majesty the Emperor.

After all, she was my direct superior. How good was our relationship?

Probably the kind where she could risk her head for me, and I would fight to put that head back on her shoulders. The two of us were sisters-in-arms who practically shared the same pair of pants.

That was not a slip of the tongue. Truly. The Retired Emperor, in his old age, might still not know that the current His Majesty the Emperor, Xuan Yun, was hiding secrets by the cartload. Not only was she not a prince, she was not even a man!

This bastard was a genuine woman through and through.

After hearing the Retired Emperor’s grand plan from my mouth, Xuan Yun sank into thought for a moment, then looked as if she had achieved enlightenment. “Right! How did I not think of such a good idea?”

Because the previous generation’s schemes had been far too outrageous, Xuan Yun’s start as Emperor could only be described as a disaster from the heavens.

Her identity was fake, her gender was the opposite of what everyone believed, the power in her hands was scattered, the ministers refused to obey, and the vassal princes were ready to rebel anytime, anywhere.

Using me as an excuse, Xuan Yun had left the rear palace effectively empty for three years, and to this day there was still no heir. The ministers were pressing harder by the day, and the vassal princes everywhere had long since begun itching for action. Of course, given the situation between the two of us, no matter how hard we tried, we were never going to produce a child.

So, in a sense, the Retired Emperor’s proposal was actually the best solution available at the moment.

I swallowed, looking at her as if she were an idiot. “Are you… serious?”

Logically speaking, it made sense, but this method of solving the problem was a little too difficult.

Out of the kindness of my heart, I reminded her, “You haven’t forgotten, have you? Three years ago, for your sake, I nearly had him hooked so hard his mouth curled. But the moment you ascended the throne, I rushed into the palace without stopping to become your Imperial Noble Consort, and that was when he left for the frontier heartbroken. If you’d said this earlier, I could’ve just married him back then, had a child, and sent it into the palace for you. Wouldn’t that have been perfect?”

Xuan Yun was also on the verge of collapse. “How was I supposed to know that Stinky Old Man was hiding such a romantic past? I didn’t know before either that Pei Jun was my half brother from neither the same father nor the same mother!”

Could her collapse possibly compare to mine? Three years ago, I deceived his feelings. Three years later, now that the strategy had changed, I was supposed to deceive his body too?

Back then, I had dumped him so thoroughly that if we met again and he did not kill me on sight, I would already be grateful. How was I supposed to do… this and that with him?

Xuan Yun had completely lost her mind. “So what if you hook him one more time? Just do it for me. You two have a child.”

I laughed out of sheer anger. What was this supposed to be now? An imperial decree to… have an affair?