The Grand Secretary has no heir? His concubine gives birth to triplets.

Pei Zhang was terrified, his face covered in snot and tears.

"Brother Yan, I was wrong, I confess! I confess everything!"

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he recounted in detail how the emperor had secretly summoned him three years ago to monitor Pei Yan's every move.

Pei Yan stood by the window, his shadow cast on the ground like a silent knife.

It turns out that from the moment he became prime minister and entered the cabinet, the emperor had planted spies around him.

They were his blood relatives!

It felt like my heart was being pierced by a red-hot iron rod.

After a while, Pei Yan turned around, his expression having returned to calm.

"Go back now and pretend that nothing happened today. Do not disturb the Emperor in the slightest."

Pei Zhang felt as if he had been granted a pardon and nodded repeatedly.

"However," Pei Yan bent down, staring into his eyes, and said slowly and deliberately, "if I need you to deliver any message to the Emperor, you must not refuse."

Pei Zhang froze, meeting those unfathomable eyes, and shivered.

"...Yes, yes!"

"Get lost." Pei Yan waved his hand.

Xiao San untied him and put his dislocated jaw back in place.

Pei Zhang scrambled out of the study.

The study returned to silence.

Pei Yan rubbed his temples, only then remembering the person he had knocked unconscious by pinching his pressure point and left in the bushes.

He quickly walked back behind the artificial rockery.

Jiang Guo'er was curled up under the winter plum branch, her head resting on the stone, fast asleep.

Her hair was mostly loose, with a few strands sticking to her cheeks, and her lips, which were swollen and red from his kisses, were still slightly pouting.

Pei Yan's heart softened, and he squatted down, carefully picking the person up in his arms.

Just stepped out of the artificial hill...

"what?"

A clear female voice came from not far away, tinged with surprise.

Pei Yan's arm stiffened instantly, and he slowly turned his head.

Under the setting sun, Xue Lingyi, wearing a moon-white cloak and accompanied by Lüyi, strolled over.

His gaze fell squarely on the person in his arms.

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Favoring concubines is a major taboo in a newlywed marriage.

What if Xue Lingyi changes her mind and refuses to make Jiang Guo'er her concubine?

Pei Yan reacted almost instinctively, letting go of her hand, and the soft body in his arms slid straight down and fell onto the slightly damp muddy ground.

Jiang Guo'er fell heavily and groaned, her brows furrowed, but she still didn't wake up.

Xue Lingyi stopped in her tracks, her gaze shifting back and forth between Pei Yan and herself.

Pei Yan quickly adjusted his expression, his brows furrowed, his tone full of disgust.

"This girl has some nerve! She dared to steal my wine and get drunk here; it's utterly disgraceful!"

As he spoke, he glanced guiltily at Jiang Guo'er's mud-covered cheeks, then forced himself to look at Xue Lingyi.

"Madam, what do you think is the best way to punish him?"

Xue Lingyi gracefully curled her lips into a smile.

"Prime Minister, she's so drunk, how can we punish her? Let's take her home to rest first."

She gestured for Lüyi to come forward and laboriously carried the unconscious Jiang Guo'er back to the side room.

Before leaving, he gave Pei Yan a meaningful look.

Pei Yan subconsciously reached out to help, but his fingers twitched and then he quickly withdrew them back into his sleeve.

"I have important business to attend to tonight, so please don't wait for me, madam. Please rest early."

After saying that, he strode back to his study, looking rather embarrassed.

Fifteen minutes later, in the side room.

Jiang Guo'er slowly woke up, her head still a little dizzy.

She had actually woken up while Pei Yan was interrogating Pei Zhang in the study and had overheard their conversation.

She patted her chest in relief, thank goodness, thank goodness Pei Yan thought Pei Zhang had stolen the key.

If he finds out she was the one who stole the key...

That would be more than just moving things; it would be like sending poison.

Turning her head and seeing Xue Lingyi, Jiang Guo'er was startled and quickly sat up to explain.

"Lingyi, don't misunderstand, I didn't mean to take the Prime Minister for myself, I..."

"Why are you panicking?" Xue Lingyi held her hand, her smile warm.

"I'd be more than grateful if you could keep bothering the Prime Minister and making him come to my place less often."

Jiang Guo'er was completely bewildered, her face full of question marks: "Why?"

Xue Lingyi winked at Lüyi.

Luyi immediately understood, went to the door to check, and after confirming that no one was around, quickly bolted the door.

Xue Lingyi then slowly spoke, her voice trembling uncontrollably.

"Last year, at my maternal grandparents' house in Jiangnan, one night... a man broke into my room."

Jiang Guo'er's heart clenched instantly.

"If I hadn't struggled desperately and alerted Lüyi, I almost... would have lost my innocence."

From then on, she could no longer tolerate any man getting close to her.

"On my wedding night, I forced myself to drink the nuptial wine with the Prime Minister while suppressing my nausea."

Xue Lingyi smiled bitterly, her eyes filled with unbearable sorrow.

"If we really were to consummate the marriage... I'm afraid I'd throw up on him right there."

"But how can I explain this? That I was almost defiled?"

Even if the Prime Minister is an upright man and doesn't look down on me for this, what man wouldn't feel a prickling sensation in his heart?

She couldn't afford to gamble, nor did she dare to.

Jiang Guo'er suddenly realized: "So... you put something in that bunch of red dates you gave me?"

"I'm sorry, Guo'er." Xue Lingyi said with a face full of shame, "The situation was urgent at the time, and I didn't have time to explain. I had no choice but to resort to this measure. I'm sorry to have wronged you."

Jiang Guo'er breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was Ling Yi who administered the drug, not someone else.

But her heart immediately clenched again.

"Who is that damned beast? Have you found out?"

Xue Lingyi's face turned deathly pale instantly, while Lüyi, standing beside her, trembled with rage and gritted her teeth, saying:

"That beast dropped a jade pendant when he ran away! It belonged to my daughter's maternal grandparents' second cousin!"

"What?" Jiang Guo'er exclaimed, speechless. "Where's your maternal grandmother? Didn't she seek justice for you?"

Xue Lingyi's tears finally broke free, and she clutched her handkerchief, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Uphold justice? I begged my grandmother in tears, but she... instead accused me of having another bout of madness, just like my dead mother!"

"She confined me to my quarters for three months. If I hadn't pretended to be obedient and voluntarily given half of my mother's dowry to my cousin, my grandmother would have..."

"They want to marry me off to a local wealthy man in his forties as his second wife!"

"Outrageous!" Jiang Guo'er trembled with anger and slammed her hand on the table.

"And what about your father?! He's the Minister of Revenue! Would he just stand by and watch his own daughter be bullied?"

Xue Lingyi's mouth was full of bitterness, as if she wanted to pour out all the grievances she had held for more than a decade at once.

"When I was nine, my mother died. Her father claimed he was insane and married my aunt as his second wife. I became the 'jinx' of the family."

The father despised him, the stepmother praised him to death, and the servants trampled on him.

She can't even get enough to eat every day.

To save her life, she fled to her maternal grandparents' home at the age of ten, hoping to grow up in peace. Little did she know that it was a den of wolves and tigers.

The maternal grandparents, misled by the stepmother's instigation, outwardly showed kindness but secretly cursed her for causing their mother's death.

Until she grew into a beautiful young woman, her maternal grandmother, fearing that she would steal the marriage opportunities from her cousins, locked her in her room all day long.

Then, the incident that nearly ruined her life happened.

Xue Lingyi took a deep breath, wiped away her tears, and her eyes filled with overwhelming hatred.

"I have no choice but to escape, to escape back to the capital, and as quickly as possible, find a prestigious marriage to marry me off!"

"Having secured my position as the Prime Minister's wife, in the future, I will punish all those who belittled and hurt me—"

"Tread them all under your feet!"