A Son Brings Blessings: The Barren Emperor Finally Has an Heir

[Beautiful, mature woman vs. domineering emperor]

[Not mutually chaste + forbidden love + having a baby]

Everyone knew that Marquis Pingyang had a beloved woman on the side, while his wife was merely a figurehead he had been forced to marry at his parents’ command. In three years of marriage, the marquis had never even visited her rooms.

Because of this, the Marchioness became the laughingstock of the entire capital. People said that no matter how noble her birth or how exalted her title, she still couldn’t win her husband’s affection.

Yet the Marchioness, rumored to have remained a virgin throughout her three years of marriage, suddenly covered her mouth and retched in public at a banquet. The experienced ladies in attendance exchanged knowing looks as they watched the people from the Marquis of Pingyang’s household.

Could the Marchioness have had an affair and gotten pregnant with another man’s child?

After all, everyone in the capital knew that she and the marquis had been married for three years without ever consummating their marriage.

So the child in her belly surely couldn’t be his.

Just as everyone was speculating about the identity of her lover, the emperor himself stepped forward to claim the child.

“The child is mine. Stop making wild guesses!”

At that, everyone’s opinion of the Marchioness changed. Their former disdain turned to envy.

Everyone knew that His Majesty was thirty-five and had no children. Now that the Marchioness was carrying his child, the baby would naturally be honored above all.

The real victim was the Marquis of Pingyang. His wife had cuckolded him, but her lover was the emperor himself. Not only could he do nothing about it, he now had to spend every day wondering whether His Majesty would take revenge on him.