The Grand Secretary has no heir? His concubine gives birth to triplets.

This undisguised domineering, dependence, and intense jealousy, flowing directly into Pei Yan's very being, came through these few words of his heart.

A feeling of exhilaration rose up along my spine, sending shivers down my spine.

He always resented that Jiang Guo'er approached him and deceived him in order to seek revenge.

But at this moment, listening to her desire to possess, those deceptions suddenly became insignificant.

Pei Yan pulled her close with his long arm, holding her tightly in his embrace.

His large hand stroked her thin back, revealing a panic and clumsiness that he would never normally display, and helped her catch her breath.

"Why are you crying?"

His voice was terribly hoarse as he lowered his head to find her lips, his breath hot.

"If you just say one word and tell me not to go, I will stay here with you and not go anywhere else."

Jiang Guo'er raised her head, and large tears fell down her cheeks.

Reason was pounding in my head.

[Don't reveal this! Don't reveal this! Being jealous of a concubine is a huge taboo! It will make him disgusted with you!]

But her emotions were tearing her heart apart.

[I just don't want him to touch anyone else! The Prime Minister is mine, the Prime Minister is mine, why should he be given to that unknown Hu woman!]

She sobbed, her small hands weakly pounding his hard chest.

Pei Yan was deeply moved by her extremely aggrieved and conflicted feelings.

He couldn't help but lower his head and gently kiss away the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes.

"Okay, I'm not teasing you anymore."

He pressed his ear against hers, unable to suppress a laugh.

"Just kidding, I'm not going to her room. She's just a spy, why would I sacrifice my body for her?"

Jiang Guo'er paused, only then realizing that she had been tricked.

She was furious and, disregarding social hierarchy, clenched her small fists and punched Pei Yan's shoulder twice.

But these two blows were still as powerless as a cat scratch to Pei Yan.

Jiang Guo'er angrily broke free from his embrace, turned around and sat down at the table with her back to him, refusing to talk to him anymore.

She pulled a thin piece of gauze from her sewing basket and cut it into small pieces with a few snips of her scissors.

He grabbed the silk doll and sewed it up in a fit of pique.

The stitches flew by, and in no time, a thin, translucent gauze skirt, barely covering the body, was placed on the doll.

She even deliberately tugged at her skirt, revealing most of the doll's legs.

[Serves you right for making me angry! Serves you right for having nothing better to do than look for someone to amuse you in the middle of the night!]

She heard a noise behind her, and Pei Yan had somehow appeared behind her, raising his hand to pull her into his arms.

He stared at the doll wearing a semi-transparent gauze dress, his Adam's apple bobbing and his breathing quickening.

"Guo'er." Pei Yan leaned closer to her neck, "Making me wear such thin, see-through clothes... what are you implying?"

Jiang Guo'er's hand holding the embroidery needle trembled, and her cheeks flushed red.

How come this person...does that all the time?!

She turned her head, glared at him fiercely, pouted as if she wanted to curse but dared not utter a sound.

Pei Yan chuckled, picked the person up horizontally, and carried them to the not-so-spacious canopy bed.

It took almost half an hour to finally coax this irritable little devil to sleep.

The next day, as dawn broke.

Without alerting anyone, Pei Yan changed into a blue robe and headed straight for the secluded courtyard in the southeast of the mansion.

Master Longchuan, dressed in a worn-out Bagua Taoist robe, was cooking porridge on a small red clay stove in a broken clay pot.

After listening to Pei Yan's description of Salera, he pretended to wipe his hands, took out a few coins, and shook them a few times inside the tortoise shell.

The copper coin landed on the stone table.

The Taoist priest stroked his beard and made a profound and enigmatic assertion:

"This divination indicates that the person behind the foreign woman is located in the East."

Pei Yan stood by the stone table, his face expressionless as he gave a slight twitch of his lips.

"Taoist Master," he scoffed.

"You're talking about the Eastern Palace, right? She was sent by the Crown Prince; do you really need your divination for that?"

"I've come here today to ask you to calculate where his final, deadly move lies."

Master Longchuan coughed twice and reached into his sleeve to gather the copper coins.

"Such scheming and plotting involving the crown prince are beyond the comprehension of the heavens; how could I possibly predict them?"

He circled Pei Yan, looking him up and down for a while, and then suddenly started calculating with his fingers.

A moment later, the Taoist priest slapped his thigh, shook his head, and smacked his lips.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you've been having a lot of romantic troubles lately!"

Pei Yan frowned: "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, you're attractive to women, but you just don't know how to handle these romantic entanglements."

"Look at this! Plucking one flower in the east, picking another in the west, entangled in rotten peach blossoms, making enemies everywhere!"

The Taoist priest's words were ostensibly complimentary but actually derogatory, revealing a schadenfreude that seemed to enjoy watching a spectacle unfold.

Pei Yan was speechless, a tightness in his chest that he couldn't let out.

The chief minister of the Great Chu was already walking on the edge of a precipice.

He used to be all alone, without any weaknesses, and no one could control him.

But things are different now.

Empress Xiao Yuzhen and the Crown Prince, these venomous snakes lurking in the shadows, have clearly realized the importance of Jiang Guo'er to them.

Shala was merely a stepping stone; the real killing blow could fall on Jiang Guo'er at any moment.

The Grand Secretary, a figure of great stature, unusually adopted a humble posture in this small courtyard.

Pei Yan clasped his hands together and solemnly bowed.

"Please, Taoist priest, bestow upon me a protective talisman. Whatever the cost, as long as it can ensure her safety."

Master Longchuan put away his joking expression and took the broken clay pot off the stove.

"There's no need for any amulets."

The Taoist priest stared into Pei Yan's eyes.

"I have only one piece of advice. From this day forward, for at least two months, you must ensure that Jiang Guo'er never steps out of the Grand Secretary's residence."

"Even if the sky falls, we must stay at home! As long as we don't go out, this calamity can be averted."

Pei Yan silently repeated it in his mind, and his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down a little.

As long as people are under his watchful eye, the Pei residence is as secure as an ironclad fortress, and no trouble will ever arise.

The crisis can be temporarily suppressed.

But Pei Yan's fingers suddenly clenched tightly at his side.

He took a deep breath, and the air around him seemed to freeze as he tensed up for a moment.

Extreme repression and hidden fears crept back onto his face.

He stared at Daoist Longchuan and asked the question that had been troubling him the most so far.

"Master, is there a way... to confirm whether a woman is carrying twins when she is very early in her pregnancy?"

The dark attic of his childhood, his mother's cold ruler, and the cruel family rule that one of the twins had to hide from the other torment him day and night like a leech.

He needs to know the exact answer.

Upon hearing this, Master Longchuan paused in his action of holding the bowl.

He looked into Pei Yan's bloodshot eyes and sighed.

"There is a method. Ancient medical books record that a seven-inch long silver needle should be inserted into two major acupoints in the pregnant woman: Shenque and Guanyuan. If the Qi sensation splits into two opposing paths, it indicates twins."

The Taoist priest paused, his expression becoming extremely serious.

"However, if the acupuncture is not performed carefully, it can cause a surge of blood and qi, which can not only cause the fetus to be lost, but also cause immediate hemorrhage, endangering the mother's life."

Pei Yan's pupils suddenly contracted.

Without even thinking, he immediately interrupted the Taoist priest: "That's enough! There's no need to do the divination."