The Empress was sitting in a pavilion in the imperial palace, her eyes glancing around; everything here looked very interesting. It seemed she had forgotten how long it had been since she came here last time.

That dream-like life made her feel she was totally in a mess, but she still found a way to get it through.

When she turned her head, she noticed a palace glittering not far away. Her eyes turned grim; she knew what that place was, the Weiyang Palace.

The place she used to live in looked cold and deserted like no one was living in there. She felt some part of her heart was now breaking into pieces; she could almost hear the noises of this place in old times.

Shen Zhongbai hadn’t seen Gu Qiang for years. When he rushed to the gate, he found her sitting in there, the whole person covered in sadness.

He had been in love with Gu Qiang for ages, but he only considered the feelings for her as being possessive.

All he had done so far was just trying to prove himself, to prove that Gu Qiang had been wrong in refusing to marry him. She could deny it, but not the fact that he could outcompete Shen Qianshan.

Of course, Shen Qianshan had died at an early age, or he wouldn’t have become the Emperor so easily. He should have been grateful for him for this.

The Empress seemed to have wasted away. She had always been a skinny girl, and now he could even find the traces of time on her. Although she had lost her innocence, she looked quite intelligent, which made her more attractive.

He still couldn’t resist her?

After a long stop, Shen Zhongbai finally moved up to her.

Raising her eyes, the Empress saw Shen Zhongbai standing in the flowers; he was looking at her amiably.

He didn’t change; the past suddenly flooded into the Empress’s mind, making her a bit headache.

“Long time no see,” said the Empress in an icy tone. She stood up, as calm as the still water in the pool.

Shen Zhongbai’s heart was beating very fast, and it nearly exploded when he heard her words.

For a moment, he even thought he would cry. Gu Qiang was forever his weakness.

“Yeah, long time no see,” said Shen Zhongbai. He had never been this emotional before. To calm down, he took some water and reminded himself that he shall never suffer the torment again, and before that, he must get Gu Qiang.

The Empress was still in quietness, which seemed a bit scary.

He had faced such kind of Gu Qiang many times. But this time, it was her who volunteered to visit his place, which meant she must have made some decisions, or she wanted to declare something.

Declaring something? What a funny thought! As the Emperor, he was fully capable to adopt an aggressive posture, showing her that everything in this country, including her, was in his control.

“You’ve made up your mind, right? Or you wouldn’t have come here. Tell me what you think, and I will give it a thought.” Shen Zhongbai forced out a grin, the skin on his face had been tense for so long that he needed some movement to relax it.

The Empress was as still as ever. She pointed at the Weiyang Palace, and asked quietly, “Who is living in there?”

Shen Zhongbai paused, then he felt a bit awkward. The question seemed to be from a woman who was fighting for his attention. Weiyang Palace had been the Empress’s place since ancient times, so her true intention hidden in this sort of simple question was that she wanted to know who the current Empress was.

“You can live there if you want,” said Shen Zhongbai after a long pause. He didn’t answer her question directly because he thought she had known it.

The Empress responded with a sneer, her face looked scary. She was an adorable woman, but the darkness around her made her quite intimidating.

“Shen Zhongbai, I just want to ask you one thing. Do you know what love is? Or to say, are you just trying to get me because you don’t want to see yourself miss something that everybody else has? Even if it is something you don’t like?” asked the Empress shortly after the sneer.

Shen Zhongbai didn’t answer her. Everyone in this world knew his feelings for her, so how could she not know?

“You have nothing left now. Your brother, Shen Qianshan, and even the Gu Family who hated you were all gone. You must know that only by marrying me will you have a good life.” Shen Zhongbai had repeated this many times, but no one could understand him, especially Gu Qiang.

Perhaps she thought there were still chances for her, but there were not. It had been six years. Had she got any chance, she would have turned the tide already. There was no chance left for her.

Everyone was persuading her into accepting his proposal, but she just kept saying no.

“Really? You might forget that there is a saying that goes ‘better death than dishonor’, which means if I don’t feel like living, I can choose death,” said the Empress plainly.

But she knew she could never do that, for it would make everything Gu Qiang did at the other side of the diary in vain.

She couldn’t give up hope for life simply due to the hardness at present, which would be unfair to everyone.

The reason why she came here was to tell Shen Zhongbai that she was not an underdog as they imagined.

Like she had expected, Shen Zhongbai became a bit nervous. He knew Gu Qiang had always been a woman of her words. If she hadn’t been sure about everything, she wouldn’t have come.

“You know we are not there yet,” replied Shen Zhongbai, he still tried to make her listen.

“Then you’d better behave,” smiled the Empress. Different from the sneer beforehand, she was now beaming like he was her valentine.

Shen Zhongbai suddenly got stunned; he had never seen her smile like this before. Then he lowered his head, also with a smile on his face, but uttered no more words.

It seemed that marrying Gu Qiang couldn’t be achieved in days; it was a long-term project. But he could wait. He had been waiting for so many years and now she finally got a bit softened. That was progress.

The Empress walked past Shen Zhongbai. He wanted to stretch out his arm to make her stay but he knew it would not help, so he just stood there, capturing the slight scent of fragrance left by her, which was as same as ever.

Walking along the winding road, the Empress felt extremely helpless. No one could help her, not even the Gu Family, the power of whom was only for self-protection. Actually, the power Prime Minister Gu had was very limited and he should feel lucky if it was enough to save his own head.

But everyone knew that if he had lost his chips one by one, it would be like a big tree losing its branches, without which it would only be dead.

Gu Qiang and Gu Zhihua were all his branches, but he had never been aware of that.

In other words, Prime Minister Gu couldn’t help Gu Qiang with his power, or perhaps he had been controlled already.

Who would have known the Prime Minister of a country ended up like this? The Empress smiled; she had never agreed with her father’s doings, or to say, she had no hope for her family. All she wanted was to save her life, as well as Shen Qianshan and Gu Huai’an’s.

Chrysanthemums were blooming along the road; they were the only flowers that could survive this season, the white and yellow color of which made the surroundings so desolate.

A woman showed up at the corner; she was wearing a yellow outfit, very poor taste. Gu Qiang recognized that it was the outfit for the Empress that no one else could wear. If any consort dared to wear it, she would lose her head for that instantly.

The moment their eyes met, the Empress froze, and then she couldn’t help trembling. That woman’s face had shown up in her dreams so many times. It’s Shen Qiangwei.

She gritted her teeth, recalling that she had met this woman once or twice during the time she dwelled in the imperial palace. Hadn’t been her, her child would have lived happily in this world by now.

One life for another; Shen Qiangwei should have died long ago.

But now the woman approached, she greeted the Empress with a grin. “It’s been quite a while, Infanta Luoping, you must have forgotten who I am.”

How could she forget her? She quickly sorted herself out, and replied, “So you are the Empress now?”

Shen Qiangwei was stunned, then she forced out an awkward smile despite a sense of happiness in her heart.

Though the treatment she got from Shen Zhongbai hadn’t been nice these years, it was good enough when compared to what Gu Zhihua got. She had never expected that she would be the Empress one day, but she did it.

Everyone knew what she used to be before, no matter how hard she tried to cover it up.

Although she had never had other guests except for her first man, Shen Zhongbai, she could not erase her past as a prostitute.

No one cared about what hardships made her into this, nor did the public would like to see a prostitute become the most honorable woman in this country. What people remembered was only her past.

But why did she have to bother? Although she couldn’t get Shen Zhongbai’s whole heart, she had made Shen Zhongbai try. The thought that she, once a prostitute, now became the Empress could make her laugh in her dreams.

“If you hadn’t been so determined, you would have been the Empress now, Miss Infanta.” Shen Qiangwei’s smile was very sincere; it looked as if she could give her place to Gu Qiang right away.