Chapter 521 Empress Finally Understands Her Heart
Did he know that she didn’t want to give birth? Giving birth was very painful, and she didn’t want to do it at all.
What she hated the most was the fact that she thought he had died, and she could finally be free.
But unexpectedly, with just a cup of poisoned wine, he made her join him in death!
Even in death, he had to drag her down with him!
Therefore, she hated him!
The most affectionate emperor and empress, a couple deeply in love?
Ha!
The Dog Emperor merely treated her as a tool for bearing children—how could he love her?
To say that she loved him, that was absolutely the biggest joke of all!
She didn’t even have time to spare for hatred.
If it weren’t for him, how free and wonderful her life would have been.
Xia Weibao felt contempt in her heart and continued reading; she wanted to see how later generations could possibly discern that she and the Dog Emperor truly loved each other.
It was recorded that Emperor Xia Liang, in disguise, brought back a woman from Jianghu and made her his empress despite the opposition of his ministers.
It was recorded that the courtiers, wishing to consolidate their power, planted concubines in the Imperial Harem and demanded Emperor Xia Liang to depose the empress. In a fit of rage, he issued an edict to depose all the concubines instead.
It was recorded that after three years in the palace without producing an heir, the courtiers, citing the need of the nation to have a successor, called for the empress to be deposed.
Under pressure from the Empress Dowager, who claimed that among the three unfilial acts, not producing an heir was the gravest, she agreed not to depose the empress but insisted that he must favor other Concubines until a royal heir was born.
Emperor Xia Liang stood firm in protecting Empress Bao, and the following year, a Crown Prince was born, followed by five princes and one princess, effectively silencing all the ministers.
It was recorded that Emperor Xia Liang indulged the empress’s wilfulness; while the harem was not to interfere in politics, he nonetheless allowed her to wear the Dragon Robe, sit on the Dragon Throne, burn Memorials to the Throne, dismantle palace walls, and attack courtiers.
It was recorded that the emperor and empress’s love was stronger than metal or stone; they could not be born on the same day of the same month of the same year, but they wished to die on the same day of the same month of the same year. When the emperor died, the empress did not care to live any longer and followed soon after, being buried together with him.
Together in life and death...
As she read on, tears moistened Xia Weibao’s eyes.
It was only from these later records that she realized things were not as she had imagined them to be.
She knew the courtiers were dissatisfied with her involvement in politics, but she had no idea so many people wanted her deposed, and even the Empress Dowager had applied pressure.
No wonder he looked so unwell when he returned that day, dragged her to bed in the bright daylight, and kept whispering in her ear to bear him a son.
How much pressure had he endured for her sake?
Suddenly, a door in her mind flung open, and scenes from the past emerged in her mind.
Why, with her abilities, could she have escaped the palace walls, yet she did not leave?
Why did she, despite her protests of not wanting children, end up bearing him one after another?
Why, when he fell, did she feel as if the heavens had collapsed and her soul was trembling?
Why, upon seeing him die before her, did she feel utterly devastated, and without a second thought, drank down that cup of poison...
Because she also loved him.
She loved him so much that life without him lost all meaning.
Only she didn’t know it.
At the time, she didn’t understand.
This love, it took a thousand years for her to comprehend.
Xia Weibao clutched her chest, her mouth slightly agape, breathing heavily.
Her heart ached so fiercely she could barely breathe.
All that she couldn’t make sense of before suddenly became clear.
Her eyes felt dry and sore, longing to cry, yet she found no tears would come.
It turned out that when the heart ached to its limit, even the eyes would run dry.
A sour taste swelled in her chest, so uncomfortable that her whole body ached.
When Lu Hualiang entered with breakfast, he saw her hugging her shoulders, her body convulsing, utterly distressed.
That hollow look in her eyes made his heart panic.
He rushed to the bedside; Xia Weibao looked at him with rapid breaths, her mouth opening and closing, but she was unable to utter a word.