However, the pleasure in her eyes did not last long before turning into surprise and confusion. She looked at Huo Jin, who was still processing memorials, with astonishment.

"Why aren't you responding?!"

He shouldn't be like this!

how so?

Huo Jin should have gone mad, should have been kneeling on the ground howling in agony.

Why is this happening?!

Huo Jin didn't want to look at Chu Xiuning any longer. He lowered his head to deal with the memorials on the table, which read: "Your Majesty, have you eaten today? What did you eat? Was it good?" "I ate well. I ate two extra bowls of rice tonight. I hope Your Majesty also has a good appetite..."

Huo Jin: ...Being an emperor is really a headache.

Just then, a faint sound of the screen being pushed open rang out.

Huo Jin knew who it was. His head, which had been throbbing from dealing with the memorials, suddenly felt refreshed. When he looked up and saw her, he couldn't help but smile.

Bai Yan frowned: "I told you not to read memorials for too long at night, and you still did?"

Logically speaking, the emperor and empress should not share a room before their marriage, and Huo Jin had promised Bai Ruifeng this.

Besides being engaged, the two were also in a doctor-patient relationship. He needed to take his medicine every day, and Bai Yan would come to the palace once a day after finishing her studies.

She then placed the prepared tonic soup on the table, saying, "You drink the soup, and I'll help you organize the memorials."

Being an emperor isn't easy; you have to read the memorials from all the provinces and prefectures every day.

It wasn't that Huo Jin was careless; he already had a headache, and reading memorials all night made his head spin even more. Some memorials were about serious matters, but there were also many that asked, "Have you eaten?" He didn't even have time to read them all, let alone sort them out.

Under the palace lanterns, Bai Yan's slender and dexterous hands opened the memorials briefly before sorting and organizing them into a stack.

Huo Jin felt a sweet warmth in his heart. He drank his soup while watching her organize his memorials. Although neither of them spoke, the tender affection between them flowed naturally.

Ignored by the two, Chu Xiuning clenched her fists tightly. Huo Jin was an emperor, and memorials were part of the emperor's power. How could he let her read them so casually?

Her heart felt as if it had been pricked by tiny needles...

"Isn't it strange that Huo Jin didn't fall ill?" Bai Yan lowered her head and put the memorial aside before turning her gaze to Chu Xiuning.

She moved closer to Chu Xiuning, closed her eyes, and gently inhaled: "You're really amazing at using spices to influence people's emotions and temperament."

Huo Jin's will was undoubtedly strong; otherwise, he would have been driven mad by the mind-numbing spices long ago.

But everyone has moments of weakness, and when your will is at its weakest, the voices in your ears that wish you dead can be deadly...

Everything in Huo Jin's room, from the decorations to the paintings on the screen, was meticulously prepared by Chu Xiuning.

It is the outline of Consort Rou's death, the dagger her relatives brandished at her, and the late emperor's filthy corpse lying on the ground.

The herbal decoction was indeed a good one; bowls of calming herbal decoction temporarily soothed her nerves. However, when the next outburst occurred, her mind was subjected to an even more brutal torture.

Huo Jin was not stupid. How could a fool be an emperor with real power?

However, it was his trusted relatives who had planted a fatal seed of trouble in his heart since childhood.

Chu Xiuning's eyes flickered slightly, a bitter look flashing across them: "No wonder you wanted to expel Yan Jun from the palace..." He recovered; he actually recovered from that nightmare.

She shouldn't have been so soft-hearted.

"But Ah Jin... your brother died for you, is that true?"

Chu Xiuning's voice trembled slightly, and her eyes revealed a hint of sincerity: "After you returned to the capital and ascended the throne, the court was in turmoil. If it weren't for my support as the Crown Princess, do you think you could have ascended the throne so smoothly?"

"Do you think it doesn't hurt me to see you fall ill every year?" Chu Xiuning pointed to her chest: "But I am also the Empress Dowager, and Yan Jun's birth mother! You promised at my husband's sickbed that you would make Yan Jun the Crown Prince, and it was my husband who gave you the only antidote!"

"Have you forgotten all of these too?"

"If I had known that you would banish Yan Jun from the palace today and break your promise to my husband, I wouldn't have had to suffer such torment of conscience all these years!"

Huo Jin frowned, and Bai Yan, with her hand lightly on his shoulder, spoke up: "The promise was false, the lie was the truth, wasn't it? How could a sickly crown prince, whom the emperor suspected and sent to the battlefield to die, ascend the throne?"

"Oh... because he gave the only antidote to Huo Jin, because he was already dying and was willing to risk his life for the antidote—that's moral blackmail?"

"After you two deceived and exploited him, and he built this vast empire with his own hands, you expect him to obediently give way to your son?"

"Shut up!" Chu Xiuning covered her head and looked at Huo Jin. "Ah Jin, it's not like that. It's... my husband is dying. He's afraid that if he passes away, you will become too powerful and harm Yan Jun. That's why he asked me to play along with him."

"But he told me that once the throne was secure, he would order me to kill you directly, and I didn't!"

“Those spices were passed down from our Chu family ancestors, and your extraordinary experiences make it easier for me to control them.”

"If I really wanted you dead, how could you have survived until now?"

She looked at him with hopeful eyes.

Huo Jin looked at her coldly. His mind was unusually clear, so he understood perfectly: "If I die early, how can you and Huo Yanjun control the court? How can you control the army?"

The light in Chu Xiuning's eyes instantly went out. "You... think of me that much?"

This man has a tragic past, extremely handsome appearance, and exceptionally outstanding abilities. The age difference between the uncle and aunt is not large, and the widowed woman cannot help but fall in love with him, which is the source of her suffering.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!