The male lead went insane after the female supporting character gave birth to the main villain'

Qin Yan's ruthless methods made the court officials fear him.

The policy of reducing the number of land parcels exempted from taxation for officials was implemented smoothly.

As compensation, Qin Yan increased the salaries of all officials.

Of course, instead of distributing grain, they distributed silver.

Next, Su Yan suggested that Qin Yan disperse those aristocratic families, feed them the unique poison of the Crane-Drawing Technique from the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons, and control them to teach poor and peasant children to read and write in schools throughout the Great Zhou Dynasty, so that those aristocratic families could make amends for their past mistakes.

This solved Qin Yan's immediate problem.

Because most of the officials in the imperial court came from aristocratic families, Qin Yan arrested half of the aristocratic families of the Great Zhou and imprisoned them, but he didn't know how to deal with them.

It wasn't that they didn't know, but Qin Yan wanted to exile all those aristocratic families, put their wealth and grain into the national treasury, and make multiple copies of various ancient books and their annotations and insights, placing them in the official schools he had set up in various places a few years ago, so that ordinary peasant children and poor children could read and learn from them.

But those officials kept opposing it.

They even joined forces to blackmail him by threatening to resign together, and the matter remained deadlocked.

Su Yan's suggestion allowed Qin Yan to successfully deal with the aristocratic families in prison and also opened the door to a new world for him.

He felt that those who had committed crimes in the past, whose entire families were either executed or exiled, were a waste of their potential!

So he brought back those who were well-educated, skilled in martial arts, and good at strategizing, who had been exiled, poisoned them, and sent them to teach students in government schools set up in various places.

He also sent people to monitor them day and night. If they taught their students to oppose the court or him, the emperor, he would tell the local people and have their entire family paraded through the streets as a warning.

People all hope that their children and grandchildren can achieve academic success, pass the imperial examinations, and change their family's fortunes.

If one's descendants are taught to be rebels who oppose the court and the emperor, it will only bring utter disaster to the family!

Therefore, there is no need for yamen runners or soldiers to guide them. As long as there is such a person, the common people will insult the person who has corrupted their descendants and throw dirty things at him.

Even his wife, children, and elderly parents would be scolded, splashed with excrement, and hit with rotten vegetable leaves. Qin Yan's people would record it and have it drawn into a comic strip based on Su Yan's teachings, which would then be spread throughout the world.

With poison and this insidious punishment that would make them infamous for eternity, those people were incredibly honest and diligent in teaching the children of farmers and poor families to read and practice martial arts.

Qin Yan was indeed a very capable emperor. Even without Su Yan's reminder, he had already thought of selecting capable talents from poor families and peasant families several years ago, before Su Yan returned.

He also set up examinations for children from poor farming families, allowing them to enter the court as officials without the need for official recommendations.

This was the prototype of the imperial examination system!

Now that those aristocratic families have their own collections of books and annotations by their talented and famous figures throughout history, those from humble backgrounds and farming families have even more books to study. Qin Yan has already begun to establish a more formal and rigorous imperial examination system.

Su Yan didn't need to interfere with these matters; Qin Yan had his own ideas.

Furthermore, Su Yan's ideas may not be suitable for this era, so often she only puts forward a vague concept. Whether it can be used and how to use it are left to Qin Yan to think about before deciding whether to use it.

Two months have passed since those offending families were dealt with, and Su Yan's health has improved considerably, making her ready to conceive.

Unable to bear Qin Yan's nightly revelry, Su Yan decisively chose to take a fertility pill.

Pregnancy can only be detected at least a month later, so during this month, Su Yan still couldn't escape the fate of being tossed and turned every night until she was completely drained.

While Qin Yang was imprisoned in the dungeon, he would send his guards to Qin Yan every day to tell him that he wanted to see Su Yan. However, Qin Yan intercepted them each time, preventing the news from reaching Su Yan's ears.

While Qin Yan was busy guiding the people to weaken the remaining powerful families during the day and squeezing Su Yan at night, one morning a month later, Su Yan suddenly fainted after finishing her breakfast.

At this time, Qin Yan was still attending the morning court session.

Upon hearing the news reported by the junior eunuch, the chief eunuch dared not delay for a moment and ran to the dragon throne to quietly report to Qin Yan.

Qin Yan suddenly stood up from the dragon throne, not even bothering to say "Dismiss the court," and ran away.

He left the Taiji Hall through the side gate and used his lightness skill to fly back to the rear hall. The chief eunuch behind him chased after him after announcing the end of the court session, but he didn't even see a shadow of him.

Inside the inner palace, Su Yan lay pale on the bed, while the imperial physician knelt beside her, taking her pulse through a silk handkerchief.

He seemed to be experiencing very rare symptoms; his brows were furrowed so deeply they almost formed a "川" shape.

Qin Yan rushed into the palace and went straight to the bed, "Yan'er?"

Seeing Su Yan lying on the bed with her eyes closed, Qin Yan was so frightened that sweat beaded on his forehead. "What happened? Why did the Empress suddenly fall into a coma?"

The palace servants immediately knelt down and recounted in detail what Su Yan had done and eaten that day.

Su Yan's daily life is very simple. She spends most of the day sleeping, and in the afternoon she reads storybooks or sets up plays based on Qin Yan to promote Qin Yan's reputation and have them performed by opera troupes to enhance Qin Yan's prestige.

In the evening, she dined with Qin Yan and soaked in the hot spring with him. Qin Yan made passionate demands on her, and she finally fell asleep in his arms.

Normally, Su Yan eats mostly warming and hot foods, and very few cold foods.

Qin Yan went through the matter in his mind but found nothing suspicious. He then looked at the imperial physician, whose brows were furrowed and whose forehead was sweating, and asked, "Can you tell what's wrong with the Empress's health?"

The imperial physician noticed it.

But he didn't dare say it!

Good heavens, how could the Empress be pregnant?

The whole world knows that His Majesty was given a drug by his birth mother, Empress Dowager Liu, that would prevent him from having children, making it impossible for him to conceive.

Where did the Empress's pregnancy come from?

The only explanation for her pregnancy is that the Empress cheated on His Majesty with another man!

He stumbled upon the Empress's secret affair and learned that His Majesty had been cuckolded by her. He's probably going to lose his head today.

He has an eighty-year-old mother to support and a three-year-old son who was born when he was still young. He doesn't want to die!

The imperial physician dared not tell the truth, so he withdrew his hand from Su Yan's wrist and knelt down to kowtow to Qin Yan.

This made Qin Yan's heart skip a beat, and he couldn't help but wonder: Could it be that Yan'er has some kind of terminal illness?

Upon realizing this possibility, Qin Yan felt instantly dizzy and nearly fainted.

"Your Majesty, I am incompetent and cannot see what is wrong with Her Majesty the Empress's health. Please summon all the imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital to come and examine Her Majesty together."

"Hurry up and go!" Qin Yan roared at the eunuch not far away, his whole body trembling with cold.

All the imperial physicians in the Imperial Hospital, including those on leave at home, were escorted by guards to the Emperor's bedroom.

Each of them who took Su Yan's pulse would, without fail, furrow their brows, sweat bead on their foreheads, and turn ashen-white.

This made Qin Yan even more panicked. After the last imperial physician finished examining him, he dared not ask about the results, for fear of hearing words such as "he will not live much longer" or "incurable disease."

One of the old imperial physicians, who had served as a military doctor in Qin Yan's army camp when he was conquering all sides, stepped forward. Instead of saying what illness Su Yan had, he said, "Your Majesty, this old minister would like to take your pulse. This is related to why the Empress has fallen into a coma."

Upon hearing that this was related to Su Yan's coma, Qin Yan suppressed his irritability and impatience, and reached out to let the old imperial physician take his pulse.