“Mother, I know what I’m doing.” Ning Shu sipped her tea.

  “Lian Yi, show the empress,” Madam Fu said.

  “Yes.” Lian Yi lifted her foot and raised it above her head.

  Ning Shu remained expressionless as her body bent itself into a frightening arc. It was just like watching a talent show.

  “Your Majesty, Lian Yi is very flexible and she has been soaked in baths with various herbs since she was young,” Madam Fu said. “Because of this, she won’t be able to conceive.”


  “She was originally cultivated as the top courtesan by the head of the brothel. This subject paid a high price for her…But, Your Majesty, the harem already has so many concubines and consorts…”


  Madam Fu paused long enough for Ning Shu to speak to Qiu Ling. “Take Lian Yi to freshen up.”


  “Yes.” Qiu Ling left with Lian Yi.

  “Your Majesty, if you lead the wolf to expel the tiger, you’re likely to be bitten by the wolf,” Madam Fu said, her concern blatant. “Your Majesty should give birth to the emperor’s heir soon. Then those women in the harem couldn’t surpass Your Majesty.”


  Ning Shu pressed her lips together. Why had she looked for such a woman?

  Because she was all too aware of how men thought. They liked the new and hated the old. This woman might make Zhao Xu ignore Attendant Zhou for a while.

  And because she was not Fu Wanhui, she didn’t care about Zhao Xu at all. However, there were enough women in the harem already. Was she really going to get him another?

  “This woman has the tools and the skills for seduction. She was trained for this since childhood and has a deep understanding of the psychology of men. Because she understood her destiny, she said that she would rather serve the emperor than be at the mercy of ten thousand others in the brothel.”


  “Wanhui, such a woman is terrifying,” Madam Fu said. “They will do anything to survive. They’re not like us, who are bound by various rules. They have no dignity. If it means survival then they do anything and everything to please men.”


  Ning Shu sighed. “We all try to please men and we’re all dependent on men.”


  “All Your Majesty has to do is gain enough capital to stabilize your position. The emperor has no male heirs yet and, in this palace, children are more important than anything else. Empress, don’t put too much importance on who’s being favored.”


  Madam Fu looked at Ning Shu. “Your Majesty, knowing this, you should decide whether you want to keep Lian Yi.”


  Ning Shu placed her hand on her heart. The body was resisting, unwilling to accept Lian Yi.

  Women were truly-!

  “Then take her back,” Ning Shu said.

  “An excellent decision, Your Majesty,” Madam Fu said. “The girls in this harem all come from reputable families. They are well-chosen candidates, Your Majesty. Bringing in someone with such a bad reputation to attend to His Majesty would reflect poorly on Your Majesty as well. You are the mother of the country and a model for all women in the world. Every move you make is scrutinized.”


  “Mother, this daughter understands.” She carried the Fu family’s century-old reputation, and everyone in the harem watched her every move.

  In her position, there was just no way for her to have any sort of personal relationship with anyone.

  Fu Wanhui was a qualified mother of a country. Of two evils, she chose the lesser one. When forced to choose between sharing her husband with the women of the harem, or being divorced and sent home, Fu Wanhui chose to keep her reputation intact.

  Ning Shu originally wanted to pull Zhao Xu down from the throne but discovered a problem. Which was, she had borne no heir to the throne at all, and not a single concubine had a child.

  Ning Shu suspected that Zhao Xu purposefully avoided having children. If he had them too early and the children grew up, they could threaten his status. The consort who gave birth to a son could harbor sinister intentions.

  While Ning Shu hadn’t seen what kind of person Zhao Xu was yet, he was said to be a very capable emperor.

  Except in the face of Attendant Zhou’s love tactics, she hadn’t seen him open his heart to anyone. He saw most members of his harem as entertaining diversions and methods of release.

  The harem belonged to the emperor, but the harem must not arbitrarily control the emperor’s thoughts.

  His heart was as unpredictable as the sea. It seemed the saying that accompanying an emperor was like walking with a tiger had a grain of truth to it.