Borrowing Seed

On the day Ju Zi and Huo Yuhao returned, Huo Yuhao was taken away.

The turmoil in the Bright Capital never leaves anyone any room to breathe. No sooner have they crawled back from the brink of death than they are swept into the vortex of the struggle for imperial power.

Huo Yuhao's journey has been fraught with peril, every step of the way fraught with danger.

But he was so caught up in the situation that he may never have truly seen the price the Ju Zi, standing behind him and desperately pulling him out of the mire, had paid.

Xiao Xiao read through the diary entries, a pang of sadness welled up inside her. "Huo Yuhao... he has no idea how much Ju Zi had to pay to save him?"

After reading the diary, Tang Ya chuckled expressionlessly, "Men are always like this, taking other people's sacrifices for granted without even bothering to ask what the other person gave up."

To protect Yuhao, Ju Zi had no choice but to ask Crown Prince Xu Tianran for help, which meant that Ju Zi had to agree to become the Crown Princess.

In the capital of the Sun Moon Empire, Xu Tianran was an all-powerful figure. Apart from him, no one could rescue Huo Yuhao from the strangulation of imperial power.

But there's never a free lunch in this world, especially when it comes to favors from someone like Xu Tianran. They always have to be exchanged for something precious.

What Ju Zi gave up was her freedom for the rest of her life, the life she could have lived freely.

She imprisoned herself in the magnificent, golden cage of the Eastern Palace, all for the sake of Huo Yuhao's safety.

Ning Tian frowned, somewhat puzzled by Ju Zi's behavior. "She never does anything that loses money, but Ju Zi has lost everything from the very beginning with this deal."

Zhang Lexuan sighed softly, "Often, a woman's choice is not about choosing the best, but about choosing the only path that can protect the person she wants to protect in the present moment."

After rescuing Yuhao, Ju Zi came to Huo Yuhao's bedside at night and expressed her feelings and the hatred she had to face.

Only when the night is deep and quiet do people dare to reveal the words hidden deepest in their hearts.

She spoke to the unconscious boy about the unspoken feelings of love, the family feuds buried deep in their bones, and how behind her seemingly glamorous status as the Crown Princess lay nothing but involuntary scheming and helplessness.

She had rarely in her life let down her guard like this, simply because the person before her was the only one in her muddy life who could make her lower her guard completely.

Star Dou Forest, at the bottom of the Lake of Life

After reading the diary, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion in the cage felt a pang of sorrow and began to sympathize with Ju Zi: "Ju Zi confided in a sleeping person, knowing full well that even if she did, she wouldn't get a response or be rejected. Ju Zi is so pitiful."

The Far North.

A complex emotion flashed in Ice Empress's eyes, but she quickly followed with a cold laugh. She had seen too many lovesick men and women who couldn't have each other, but it was precisely this kind of obsession with unrequited love that was the most tormenting.

Snow Empress also fell silent. Although she had no feelings for Ju Zi, based solely on Lin Ye's description, she felt that Ju Zi was pitiful, too pitiful.

The time she spent reuniting with Huo Yuhao was arguably the only warm moment in her life.

Before this, her life consisted only of hatred over the destruction of her family, and only of daily forbearance and scheming.

She was like a knife hidden in its sheath, all her sharpness directed at her enemies and herself, living a life that was both cold and hard.

Until she reunited with Huo Yuhao, during her time at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, she no longer had to be on edge all the time, nor did she have to calculate the gains and losses of every step.

Ju Zi could bicker with him and spend time with Huo Yuhao like an ordinary girl. Those days were as short as a dream, yet they were the only light to shine into her turbulent life.

Sun Moon Empire Royal Soul Engineer trainees, Female Dormitory.

Ju Zi's eyes were filled with confusion. Would she be like this in the future?

Will she meet a man like that in the future?

Ju Zi was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke, "... The only warm color? Are those diaries from the future, those times we spent together, really that important to me?"

Xiao Xiao stopped eating and, under the pretext of going to the toilet, began to sob softly.

Xiao Xiao felt that no matter what happened to the older sister named Ju Zi, she was really too miserable from the current perspective.

Xiao Xiao, a girl with rich emotions, simply couldn't bear all this. She was probably the first person to cry while reading Lin Ye's diary.

Unfortunately, Huo Yuhao didn't have feelings for her. In addition, Xu Tianran was impotent and unable to have children. He also wanted her to have children with the blood of the royal family to ensure the royal bloodline.

To give your heart to the wrong person is the most hurtful thing in the world. What's even more hurtful is that she doesn't even have the right to keep that mistake.

Xu Tianran bestowed upon her the honor of being the Crown Princess, but also placed even tighter shackles upon her.

Because he was disabled and unable to have children, he forced Ju Zi to borrow the sperm of other royal children, just to produce an heir with royal blood to consolidate his power.

In his eyes, Ju Zi was never a living person, but merely a tool to consolidate his power, a vessel to produce an heir for him.

The moment this thought crossed Ma Xiaotao's mind, her anger flared instantly, Ma Xiaotao immediately became furious.

"Xu Tianran is a beast! He's utterly despicable! He's incompetent himself, yet he still treats people like this!"

The Far North.

The Snow Empress remained calm; she had seen far too many such things. "Under imperial power, human life is as worthless as grass, let alone the wishes of women, which are never considered by those in power."

Ice Empress didn't seem to have any objection to Snow Empress's opinion.

Although both are women, they are quite different from ordinary women.

Anyone who truly regards them as weak women is, in a sense, likely to never see the sun again.

At that moment, Yuhao's image appeared in her mind, and a bold idea came to her.

Since she's going to be forced to have a child that doesn't belong to her husband, and since she can't be with the person she loves in this lifetime...

Then why not choose someone you're truly willing to be with?

Once this thought popped into her head, it grew wildly in her heart like weeds. What she wanted was never the position of empress, nor any overwhelming power.

She simply wanted to preserve something truly her own in this life controlled by others, a connection to the only boy who had ever given her warmth.

Star Dou Forest, at the bottom of the Lake of Life.

A complex emotion flashed in Gu Yuena's beautiful eyes; she had developed a different impression of this human.

She initially thought this human was an ambitious man born for revenge, a warmonger.

However, according to Lin Ye's diary, this person seemed to have a lot of tragic elements, making it impossible for her to dislike him; on the contrary, she admired him quite a bit.