Forcing me to become a concubine? Remarrying the Ninth Prince, she'll be pregnant all over the

"The Crown Princess is no longer worthy of you. How about I make you Empress?"

Shen Huai'an leaned closer to Lin Wantang, his forehead touching hers, their breaths almost touching. His alluring voice, like a ghost, came unexpectedly: "You will be my Empress, sharing this empire with me, sharing this glory, a lifetime of wealth and honor, your name etched in history!"

Lin Wantang stared at him coldly, her eyes filled with deep hatred.

She simply couldn't comprehend how someone could be so disgusting and shameless as Shen Huai'an.

Just two days ago, on the night of the Zhuque Bridge mutiny, seeing his defeat and failing to coerce the emperor, he instead took her hostage, holding a sword to her neck, which is still wrapped in cloth. The wound constantly stings, reminding her not to forget.

At that time, Shen Huai'an showed her no mercy and showed no regard for their past relationship.

Lin Wantang had no doubt that he wanted to kill her back then.

But now... Shen Huai'an has changed his tune completely, using sweet words and constantly tempting her with empty promises!

"How are you, Tang'er?"

Looking into her hurtful gaze, Shen Huai'an's discomfort quickly shifted. He cleared his throat, pressing his fist to his lips: "Isn't this enough? I've given you everything I could, the highest, the best of everything. Isn't that enough? Then, Tang'er, on the very day I made you empress, I issued an edict restoring the title of Grand Tutor Marquis of Pingjin. How about that?"

"The title is hereditary and can be passed down through generations. I hereby grant your brother Lin Xiao the right to inherit the title of Marquis Cheng after the Grand Tutor's passing. Tang'er, you..."

Shen Huai'an paused, thinking of her inability to bear children, and then changed his words: "I will select one or two children from the offspring of my concubines in other places who are pleasing to your eye and well-behaved, and adopt them to be raised under your care, and make them crown princes. The rest will also call you Empress Dowager. You are the legitimate mother of all my imperial offspring."

Despite the awkward atmosphere, Lin Wantang couldn't help but laugh upon hearing this.

The laughter was cold, and exceptionally cruel.

Seeing Shen Huai'an's face darken once again, she laughed even harder: "Good! Excellent! Shameless and immoral, you're not even as good as a beast in human clothing. Calling you a pig or a dog is too filthy for pigs and dogs!"

"You'll make me your empress?"

Lin Wantang repeated, unable to suppress her sarcasm, while inwardly she felt a volcanic eruption of resentment, wildly exploding: "An emperor and an empress, you rule the world, I rule the harem, you possess the vast land, I am the mother of the nation, seemingly a phoenix and a dragon, enjoying boundless glory, but in reality? Don't I still have to depend on your whims, groveling and living a life of subservience?"

"Are you worthy? Shen Huai'an, who do you think you are?"

Lin Wantang's mockery vanished completely, replaced by a blazing fire of hatred in her eyes: "Do I need your pity and charity to make me empress and bestow this honor upon my family? Have you forgotten? The Imperial Observatory has long ago divined that my destiny, from the day I was born, is to be the mother of the nation, a phoenix soaring high as empress!"

The Imperial Observatory never conducted a detailed divination for her. It was only when she was young that an old monk begging for alms told Lin Rucong that he had a daughter with a noble destiny and the signs of becoming the empress.

But no one took it seriously. At this moment, Lin Wantang deliberately said these things just to anger Shen Huai'an.

She disregarded her own life and death, and did not want to be used by Shen Huai'an to coerce or threaten Wei Wujiu anymore, so she was naturally fearless and dared to say anything.

"You want to restore my father's title of Marquis of Pingjin? Don't you even know your own worth? Are you even qualified? My father was originally a marquis bestowed by Emperor Jing of the previous dynasty! We are a noble family. Our ancestors served under the emperor since the founding of the dynasty, and they made great contributions to the rise of the Lin family! The Lin family has a glorious reputation. Who are you, a filthy creature, to talk nonsense here?"

Shen Huai'an's indignant expression collapsed, and he could no longer bear to look at him.

His dark, ruthless eyes narrowed. "Lin Wantang!"

As he raised his hand high, it looked like he was about to slap her across the face, but Shen Huai'an gritted his teeth and stopped abruptly.

He couldn't bring himself to do it; after all, it was Lin Wantang.

She was the only woman who occupied the deepest part of his heart, Tang'er, with whom he had shared childhood affections and innocent friendships for many years...

"Don't be ungrateful!" He grabbed her and dragged her up, his cold voice carrying a heavy threat.

Lin Wantang's indifferent gaze grew even more malevolent, and she blurted out, "Shen Huai'an, you just said you wouldn't let me be the Crown Princess because I can't have children. Do you know why?"

Both of them were vengeful ghosts who had struggled and climbed out of the torment of their past lives. Now that they had spoken frankly and torn apart their differences, there was no need to worry about anything else.

Meeting his slightly surprised gaze, Lin Wantang sneered, finally uttering a piercing remark: "I can give birth. I'm perfectly healthy. You and I have both been deceived!"

"I'm one thing, but in my past life I was foolish and stupid, unable to tell the difference between a person and a dog. I mistook Chen Shi and Lin Qinglian for good people, and ended up being tricked into having my child by them. And you? You thought you were high and mighty and in control of everything, but from beginning to end you were just being played and manipulated by Lin Qinglian!"

Shen Huai'an's questioning gaze froze, and in an instant, his expression shifted from disbelief to indignation. He pinched her cheek: "Is what you're saying true? But I clearly..."

Before he could finish speaking, he had already come to his senses.

In her previous life, Lin Qinglian gave birth to four princes for him in two pregnancies, showing the signs of being a fertile mother. However, after the joyous celebration and lavish rewards, as the children grew up day by day, the four children's appearances became quite different.

He had already had his doubts, and there was another important one: Jiang Nianqi, that even more ungrateful woman, had actually heard from the midwife that she had given birth to a stillborn baby. He considered it bad luck and stopped paying attention to Jiang Nianqi.

But then, on the eve of his suicide after losing power in his previous life, he heard that Jiang Nianqi seemed to have gone mad.

Lin Wantang was banished to the cold palace, his limbs severed, and it was said that he bled profusely for a whole day before finally passing away. The Grand Tutor's Mansion was not allowed to interfere with his funeral arrangements, and he was hastily dragged to a mass grave to be devoured by the wind and snow and gnawed by wild dogs.

Shen Huai'an didn't know what he was thinking in the end of his previous life. He clearly held great power, and his loss of power was only temporary. There was still a chance to start over, but he couldn't care about anything and seemed to have given up everything for no reason.

He also contacted Xiao Renxiong, the commander of the Imperial Guards, to raise an army, but the preparations were too hasty, and he was quickly surrounded and pursued. He had many places to escape to: he could go to his relatives to make peace, he could go to his trusted ministers, and he could even go to see the emperor. With the empress pleading for him, his father would eventually spare his life. But he actually... led his remaining troops to the mass grave.

There were almost no exposed corpses; the nearby hunters, unwilling to desecrate the bodies, would secretly bury them. So Shen Huai'an dug and dug in the desolate, dilapidated graveyard… with a shovel, with a hoe, and finally with his hands, but none of them were her, none of them were…