I traveled through the Cretaceous period and farmed with the ever-changing dog egg.

"Son? What son?"

"How come I didn't know when I had a son with you?" Lin Chaoyan asked, her face full of confusion.

Ying Zheng smiled gently and mysteriously, speaking to himself without explaining Lin Chaoyan's question. "Go back! Ayan, the person you're looking for won't appear again. I'll tell you what you want to know someday..."

Just as she was waking from the dream, Ying Zheng's threatening voice rang in her ears again, "I will come to find you after the New Year, Ayan. If you dare to abandon your husband and children... you will bear the consequences..."

"I keep my word..."

Lin Chaoyan was stunned when she woke up. She had too much information and didn't know which one to question first.

"Huh? Son? Where did I get a son? Are we two seahorses? I give birth to him and he hatches him?" This bizarre statement made Lin Chaoyan scratch her head in bewilderment.

What the hell is this seahorse? Does Ying Zheng want me to be his sucker? "Abandoning my husband and children... We were just dating, we weren't married, so what kind of husband is he..."

"But! He finally used me... Could it be that he's serious?" I was planning to move after the New Year, but plans can't keep up with changes.

"Forget it! He obviously knows something... We can't leave in order to find out that person's identity..." Lin Chaoyan had to find out the identity of that mysterious man, otherwise she would not be able to eat or sleep in peace.

Xianyang City

Inside the Qilin Hall, after a sleepless night, the officials who entered the palace for the morning court the next day all suppressed their fatigue and cautiously looked around. There were far fewer people than usual, and everyone kept some distance from each other, for fear of being implicated and losing their lives.

Looking at the court, which was now nearly half empty, Ying Zheng spoke softly, "After being dismissed from office, Lü Buwei still showed no loyalty to the emperor, but instead held lavish banquets, formed cliques, and raised assassins, intending to rebel. His crimes are unforgivable. However, considering his many years of service to the Qin Dynasty, I will show leniency and exile him to Shu."

Ying Zheng had already dismissed Lü Buwei from his post and sent him home in October, but he hadn't done anything to him. However, this old man was determined to cause trouble, and he held a lavish banquet to contact court officials, which angered Ying Zheng and led to this incident.

When a dog falls into the water, everyone pushes it down. Most of the remaining people were either those who disapproved of Lü Buwei's usual arrogant and domineering behavior, or those who had been sidelined and unable to be given important positions by Lü Buwei. They began to list his crimes.

After Ying Zheng's ruthless methods, no one in the court was without fear, dread, and awe of the emperor in his high position.

After enduring much patience, Li Si finally got his chance, even if it was just a minor position as a chief clerk.

Inside the prison cell, Ying Zheng looked at Lü Buwei with a complex expression. Lü Buwei was dressed in prison clothes, his hair slightly disheveled. It was clear that this old man knew Ying Zheng was coming and had deliberately tried to maintain a semblance of dignity for himself. His former high spirits were nowhere to be seen.

"Your Majesty, you have won! I misjudged you; one wrong move and the whole game is lost..." Lü Buwei admitted at this moment that the child he had raised had grown up.

"Lü Buwei, I will spare your life for your service to the late king and the Qin Dynasty, but you will not escape punishment. You will be exiled to Shu tomorrow." Ying Zheng looked at Lü Buwei with a somber expression, his calm demeanor revealing no emotion whatsoever.

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty..." Lü Buwei's actions made Ying Zheng wonder if he had gone mad or was preparing some kind of big move.

With Lü Buwei's matter resolved, Ying Zheng began to deal with another matter.

Inside the Zhangtai Palace, Ying Zheng, holding the hand of a beautifully carved child, stood in front of a portrait, smiling with exceptional tenderness.

The portrait vividly depicts Lin Chaoyan dancing with a sword under a tree, her figure heroic and graceful, her beauty aloof and breathtaking, even without makeup. She wears a royal blue Warring States period robe, and her hair is adorned only with a white jade hairpin and a headband.

"Xu'er...this is your mother...your father has finally found her. After the New Year, I will take you to see your mother, and then our family will be reunited." If Lin Chaoyan were here again, she would really want to open Ying Zheng's head and take a look at his actions.

"Mother..."

Five-year-old Fusu was suddenly taken back to his father's side a year ago and raised by him. His father told him that the fairy in the portrait was his mother. The current Consort Zheng was merely his adoptive mother. On one side was the mother he had raised for five years, whom he called "mother" for all those years. On the other side was the portrait. How could Fusu believe it?

He had asked, "Father, she is my mother, so why do I have two mothers? Where is the mother in the picture?" Although young Fusu was reluctant to accept that Consort Zheng wasn't his mother, the person before him was his father; surely he wouldn't lie to him!

"Your father forgot about your mother, that's why he lost her! But your father has remembered her... and soon he will find your mother again..."

Now, Fusu is six years old. Looking at the portrait in front of him, he then looks at Consort Zheng kneeling tremblingly not far away. The same attire, the figure before him appears perfectly natural, as if it might step out of the painting and fly away at any moment.

The latter, despite imitating for six years, only resembled her in clothing and appearance. She had struggled and resisted, even using her child as an excuse on several occasions.

Ying Zheng deliberately made Fusu sick, and he would take time to see the child whenever he had a spare moment, but that was only to see the child and warn her.

"If you cannot be a good mother, I will not hesitate to take Xu'er away..."

She thought that being herself would make her forgotten and neglected. She had once been such a bright and flamboyant princess, but now she was just a shadow of that vile woman, and even her son had been taken away.

After a year of brainwashing, Xiao Fusu finally believes his father's words: the woman in front of him who has repeatedly risked her own safety to win favor is not his mother.

"Go!"

Ying Zheng watched as young Fusu bowed to the portrait of Lin Chaoyan, and looked at Consort Zheng's ugly face twisted with jealousy. Before leaving, he said to him again, "Xu'er, remember your father's words. Your mother is the person who loves you most in the world. You are her precious child, and she would never do anything to harm you..."

Consort Zheng, who had been holding onto Xiao Fusu's pleading hand, was so frightened that she immediately released him. Did the King know? He knew everything, which is why he took Xu'er away?

After gently seeing her son off, Ying Zheng looked at the portrait and stroked the cloth in his hand. The purse in his hand was already tattered, with only a small piece of cloth remaining.

"A lie is a lie. You gained everything by using her, yet you despise everything about her. The way you are makes me want to vomit..."

Even tigers don't eat their cubs, how dare you, a woman, be called a mother? Since you gave birth to her child, then Xu'er is her child…”

In 240, Consort Zheng, who had long been sidelined, received guidance from Consort Zhao and disguised herself as Lin Chaoyan, gaining favor with the emperor. In 41, she gave birth to Prince Fusu. Because she acted as a substitute, she enjoyed the emperor's favor for five years. Until last year, when she recklessly destroyed the purse, and Ying Zheng witnessed everything as her hair was burned inside.

The burned-out strands of hair transformed into tiny specks of light visible only to him and flew into his mind. Then, with a thud, he collapsed to the ground.

He was in a coma for three whole days, constantly calling out "(Ayan)". In his dreams, he was being chased by a masked man until he finally remembered everything and then let Ying Zheng go. He both loved and hated Lin Chaoyan and vowed several times to capture her and imprison her.

The masked man who took Lin Chaoyan away in the dream brought his soul to Lin Chaoyan's side.

Upon seeing that figure, all hatred vanished. Overwhelmed with emotion, Ying Zheng lunged forward to embrace Lin Chaoyan, but was pulled back by the mysterious man just before he could reach her.

This is why Lin Chaoyan always felt like someone was watching her during that period, which made her think that there was a ghost around her.

Lin Chaoyan, holding three sticks of incense, bowed repeatedly in all directions, calling upon every deity she could name. This left Ying Zheng both amused and exasperated, while simultaneously feeling guilty for having frightened her. "I beseech the Queen Mother of the West, the Jade Emperor, Laozi… all the gods and Buddhas of the heavens to protect me. This faithful woman vows to abstain from lust and never look at beautiful women again, and I vow to sever all ties with marriage and never marry…"

Just as she resolved to sever all ties with her future husband and never marry, Ying Zheng, in his haste, waved his hand to knock the incense away. He didn't knock it away, but the incense went out…

"Ahhh...a ghost!" Lin Chaoyan dropped the incense in her hand, quickly crawled into bed, and muttered incessantly. "Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor..."

I stayed by her side for three days, but finally couldn't bear to frighten her any longer, so I reluctantly left. Before leaving, I lay down next to her and slept for one night…

Upon waking, she saw Consort Zheng and immediately confined her to her quarters. She took the charred fragment of a purse from Zhao Gao, leaving only a small piece. After grieving for a while, she heard that her eldest son was ill again. She rushed over and saw his similar attire and affected manner, a hint of annoyance flashing in her eyes.

Without the aura of a substitute, Ying Zheng immediately summoned the imperial physicians to examine Fusu thoroughly. Seeing the bruises and welts on his back, Ying Zheng took the child away and raised him himself. He also placed Consort Zheng under house arrest and launched a thorough investigation into the truth behind Fusu's illness over the past five years.

Consort Zheng refused to admit it, and the palace servants and eunuchs around her could not withstand the severe interrogation. In the end, Ying Zheng cruelly took away her mother's identity.

"Guards! Consort Zheng, as the foster mother, has long abused the eldest son, Fusu. She is hereby confined to her quarters for life and forbidden from leaving. No one is allowed to approach her..." Kill her? Ying Zheng certainly wanted to, but considering his son and Lin Chaoyan, he ultimately refrained from doing so. After all, she was his birth mother and he couldn't cause trouble for Lin Chaoyan, lest they become estranged because of such a woman.

"...Your Majesty? I know I was wrong...Xu'er is my own son, whom I carried for ten months! I beg Your Majesty to consider that Xu'er is still young..." Before Consort Zheng could finish speaking, she was so frightened by Ying Zheng's gaze that she lost her voice.

"Zhao Gao, change out of that outfit... she doesn't deserve it."