The life swap begins with Consort Hua becoming Lady Qin.

After the last sentence was uttered, the hall fell silent.

Yan Zhi stood outside, and his heart was slightly shaken.

For a long time, no one dared to speak. After a while, a minister finally mustered the courage to advise, "What we have said is for the sake of the country and Your Majesty's reputation..."

"A clean reputation?" Yinwu chuckled softly, his tone as cold as ice: "If I can't even protect my own empress, what's the point of talking about a clean reputation? If you gentlemen are really so idle, you might as well think more about the deficit of the Ministry of Revenue and the military pay for the border troops, instead of focusing on this little corner of the harem."

"Step back!"

The last two words were spoken with resounding force, leaving the court officials speechless. They could only bow and take their leave.

As soon as the door opened, everyone came face to face with Yan Zhi, who was standing under the corridor.

The person who had just been speaking eloquently inside suddenly turned pale and red-faced, feeling incredibly embarrassed.

It was the senior minister in the lead who reacted first, bowing and saying, "Your Majesty, we pay our respects."

Yan Zhi remained calm, simply nodding slightly: "Thank you all for your hard work."

The word "hard work" sounds ordinary, but to the courtiers who had just been reprimanded, it carried an inexplicable and ambiguous meaning. For a moment, no one dared to accept it and could only hurriedly bow and leave.

After they left, Yan Zhifang stepped inside.

Inside the Imperial Study, Yinwu remained seated behind his desk, with folding tablets scattered across the table beside him, his expression somewhat gloomy.

When she came in, he only raised his eyes slightly, without saying a word, and was not as warm as usual.

The two looked at each other across an imperial desk, and Yan Zhi surprisingly felt a little guilty.

She blinked, smiled, and stepped forward, affectionately taking his hand and saying, "Now that's settled, my title as the 'Empress' is probably going to be confirmed."

Yinwu did not struggle, letting her hold his hand. However, unlike before, he was not so eager to grab her hand back. Instead, he snorted and said, "What are you afraid of? If you are a wicked empress, then I am a tyrant. In the history books a hundred years from now, I will be condemned more than you."

Yan Zhi was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter.

She played with the hand that was much larger and warmer than hers, and said, "Then I thank Your Majesty for your protection."

"It's not His Majesty."

Yinwu suddenly spoke, grasping her hand with his own, his grip as firm as ever.

His gaze remained fixed on her face, unwavering.

"It is Yinwu."

Yan Zhi was slightly taken aback.

Yinwu looked at her and slowly said, "When I married you, I was just a bald prince, not some emperor. Back then, you weren't the empress, but just the most favored girl in the Nian family, proud and arrogant, confident that you could do anything, even daring to make a hole in the sky."

"You and I can be the Emperor and Empress, but more importantly, we must be Yinwu and Yanzhi."

Yan Zhi was unusually at a loss for how to react.

Yinwu, however, seemed determined to make some things clear today.

Do you remember the first time we met? It was at the racecourse.

"You were so young back then, and what kind of person was Fourth Brother? He was the cold-faced Prince Yong, feared by everyone in the capital. Ordinary people would give him a wide berth, but you weren't afraid. Your face clearly showed that you didn't like him, and you even dared to say things to him that made him lose face. I thought to myself at the time, this little girl must be very pampered and live a carefree and happy life."

Yan Zhi listened, and a slight movement flickered in his eyes.

Yinwu's lips curved into a smile: "Later, even after Fourth Brother made things so clear, you still dared to say to his face that you didn't like him, and then turned around and asked me if I dared to marry you."

At this point, he seemed a little embarrassed and gave a slight laugh.

"I didn't dare at first. Although I was also a prince, I was far inferior to my fourth brother back then. But I don't know why, looking into your eyes, I nodded as if possessed. Looking back, I'm glad I nodded, otherwise..."

Otherwise, she might have turned around and gone to find Sixteen, or even Seventeen.

"And then there was the autumn hunt," he continued. "My brother, the Crown Prince, took a fancy to a deer. Everyone else gave way, but you wouldn't. You clearly saw him drawing his bow, but you insisted on taking the arrow from him. In the end, you shot the deer. My brother, the Crown Prince, was furious, but Father Emperor praised you for your courage. After you came back, you just sat there eating the venison as if nothing had happened."

At this point, a genuine smile finally appeared in his eyes.

"It was the same on your wedding day. Your two sisters-in-law tried to test you, but you wouldn't stand for it and stood up to them in front of so many people. You were so formidable back then. Whoever made you unhappy, you made them unhappy on the spot. You laughed when you were happy and got angry when you were unhappy. Even if they didn't like me, thought my grades were bad, or thought I was hopeless, it was all written all over their faces."

As he finished speaking, his voice gradually softened.

"Do you know, after entering the palace, I have never seen you laughing and joking with such a carefree attitude again."

Yan Zhi looked at him, and suddenly felt a tightness in her throat.

"You did a great job, better than anyone else. You remained calm and resourceful in the face of adversity. Whether in the imperial court or the harem, amidst countless battles and intrigues, you always felt you could handle it, and I knew you could too."

"But I don't want you to live as a cold, lifeless shadow on the queen's throne."

"You are Yanzhi."

"Whether you're a virtuous empress or a wicked empress, as long as it's you, that's all that matters."

"You can be anything, but you can't hide yourself or even disappear just because you want to be a certain kind of person."

"What are you afraid of?"

Yan Zhi stared blankly at him, at this young emperor she had personally nurtured. Over the years, she had accompanied him as he grew up, intentionally or unintentionally guiding him to grow in the direction she desired.

As he said, she was both his teacher and his friend.

But in reality, she always looked down on him.

Because he was so young, with a pure heart and a good temperament, she could see through everything he was thinking at a glance without any effort.

Therefore, she never imagined that one day, this same person would see through her so clearly.

Pretend?

She belatedly realized that this explained why she had been feeling somewhat uneasy lately.

Did she put it on again subconsciously?

Like the shrewd and tactful Lady Qin from her past life, she concealed all her sharpness within gentleness and composure, hiding her joy, anger, and ambition.

Only in this way can we be thorough and secure enough;

Talent...

"Yanzhi, what are you afraid of?"

Yinwu's repeated questioning abruptly pulled her out of her thoughts.

She instinctively clenched her fist, but the pure gold armor stung Yinwu's palm.

She quickly tried to pull her hand away, but he held it even tighter.

Looking into his stubborn eyes that demanded an answer, Yan Zhi's expression was complicated: "I want to win, but I'm also afraid... I can't win."

She said she wanted to live her own life in this lifetime, but she wanted to win even more.

She remained resentful of the utterly crushing defeat she suffered in her previous life.

They hated that voice in that mysterious space who casually mentioned fate!

Every time I think about it, it feels like a fishbone stuck in my throat, and I feel a deep sense of hatred and disgust!

She just wanted to win, to win big!

She wanted the Nian family to remain prominent, but not to be destroyed.

She wanted Yinzhen to never get what he wanted in this life, and to watch helplessly as everything that should have belonged to him slipped through his fingers, one by one.

She insisted on appointing female officials and trampled all those so-called ancestral precepts and rules into pieces.

These are things that the proud and arrogant Qin Yanwan cannot do, nor can the headstrong Nian Yanzhi, who relies solely on his family background, act recklessly.

It has to be that Qin Da Niangzi from her past life, with a face like Guanyin but a heart like a snake.

But it was at this moment that she suddenly understood.

The perfect woman whom everyone admired at the beginning, and the vicious woman Qin who was later hated by everyone, was never a mask she wore, nor was she a different person she pretended to be.

That was simply another set of bones and flesh that she had woven for herself after years of honing herself amidst harsh winds and frost, using the most thoughtful manners and the most comprehensive wisdom.

It was also herself.

Thinking of this, Yan Zhi suddenly felt a little dazed.

Deep inside her, something seemed to loosen silently.

Yinwu remained standing in front of her, watching her intently with a quiet and focused gaze.

"Yanzhi, I know you have a big plan in your mind, one that you can't tell outsiders." He gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I don't want to be an outsider to you either, but I know my own abilities are limited. I'm not a smart person, nor do I have much ability to help you. If it weren't for a series of coincidences, you probably wouldn't have even looked at me... But even if I'm not the best, I'm still an emperor now. What can I do to stand in your way? As for these old scoundrels, and what else? You can leave the historians' criticisms to me. I'm thick-skinned anyway. If you really want to hide, hide behind me..."

The rest of the conversation was interrupted by a warm hug.