Ye Yubei

Biodata

Background / History

Ye Yubei ascended the throne thirteen years before the current events. Lady Shu entered the palace at the beginning of his reign and served him for more than a decade. Under his rule, Northern Li grew strong enough to rank among the top three of the Seven Kingdoms 20 32.

Twelve years earlier, he banished Shen Qingqing to the Cold Palace, where his youngest daughter, Ye Tangtang, was born. He subsequently neglected both mother and daughter so thoroughly that he could not identify Tangtang when she was brought before him for punishment 1 2.

His failure to remember Shen Qingqing initially becomes an unresolved mystery. Touching her hand brings him inexplicable sadness, and ordinary gestures feel familiar, but he cannot recover clear memories of their past. He initially attributes this to the number of women in his harem, then recognizes that her name exists among fragmented memories he cannot piece together 8 33 34.

As a child, Ye Yubei lost his birth mother, endured bullying by other princes, and received little affection from his father. These experiences left him withdrawn. The future Empress Dowager, his adoptive mother, treated him better than anyone else, and he later secured her position as Empress Dowager 51.

His recovered memories reveal that Shen Qingqing did not initially recognize him as emperor. Shortly after his accession, he encountered her climbing a palace wall and caught her when she fell. Although his younger self spoke arrogantly, he subsequently visited her, improved her inadequate provisions, and intervened when Lady Xin tried to have her struck. He revealed his identity, promoted Shen Qingqing, and sent Lady Xin to the Cold Palace 116 117 121 122.

Memory Tampering and Recovery

Ye Yubei eventually suspects that he has selectively lost memories of Shen Qingqing rather than merely forgotten an insignificant consort. He orders investigations into palace aromatics, seeks information from folk sources, and sends samples to the Western Regions, where fragrance specialists may understand their effects 69.

The Western Regions perfumer Lingyun identifies a blend of Tranquilizing Incense, Agarwood Incense, and night-blooming cereus leaves and stems that affects deeply imprinted memories. The blend is called Never Forget, a name Ye Yubei finds bitterly ironic. With Lingyun’s assistance, he undergoes hypnosis and observes scenes from his younger life as an incorporeal spectator, unable to intervene in them 116 117 121.

Further sessions allow him to recover his early encounters with Shen Qingqing. He identifies Consort Shu as responsible for altering the incense and confronts her with Lingyun’s evidence. She denies responsibility for the complete mixture, admitting to some ingredients while claiming ignorance of the Agarwood Incense. Ye Yubei strips her title and confines her to the Palace of Gathered Purity 120 122 123 124.

He later tells Shen Qingqing that the incense made him forget the woman he loved and caused his abandonment of her. He apologizes and promises to protect her from further injustice. She initially remains cautious about this explanation, but subsequently acknowledges that she still loves him and chooses to give their relationship another chance 125 135.

Post-Rebellion Imperial Household

After the rebellion, Ye Yubei does not recall the evacuated imperial concubines to the palace. Shen Qingqing becomes the only woman remaining in his harem. Empress Lu is deposed and sent to cultivate at a temple, the Lu family is exiled, and the eldest prince is imprisoned in a dungeon 143.

Three years later, Ye Yubei remains the reigning emperor. He proclaims a general amnesty and invites guests from far and wide for Tangtang’s coming-of-age ceremony, making the occasion more elaborate than the New Year celebrations 144.

Appearance

• Build and apparent age: Tall, with firm muscles; he appears barely over thirty at his introduction 1 45.
• Face: Sharply sculpted features, stern brows, long narrow eyes, pitch-black pupils, and cold, pale skin 1.
• Usual clothing: Black dragon robes edged in gold, with a metal-adorned waist sash 8 14.
• Reputation for beauty: Described as the most handsome emperor in Northern Li’s history 14.

Personality

Ye Yubei has a violent temper and a reputation for killing over minor disagreements. Civil and military officials fear that a single wrong word could cost them their lives. His possessiveness extends to women he scarcely remembers: he considers every woman who enters his harem to belong to him and reacts brutally to infidelity 8 11 20.

His pride initially prevents him from accepting responsibility for his family’s suffering. Even after hearing about Tangtang’s deprivation, he insists internally that, as the Son of Heaven, everything he does is right. Shen Qingqing’s refusal to welcome his attention wounds him because he expects the deference and admiration other palace women offer 12 32 45.

Tangtang gradually exposes his emotional vulnerability. Her insults unsettle him, while even brief praise leaves him delighted. He becomes willing to indulge her, protect her publicly, and reconsider punishments to avoid frightening her or disappointing Shen Qingqing. This softening is selective rather than a complete rejection of cruelty: he still orders servants executed while defending his daughter 25 47 48.

He also values his own survival over remaining on the throne. After taking Tangtang’s predictions seriously, he considers installing a prince as emperor and retaining power as the Retired Emperor; the provided events do not show him carrying out this plan 10 11.

His later behavior shows a more explicit acceptance of guilt. He tells Tangtang that her deprivation was his fault, promises her abundant food, and regards his failure to protect her and Shen Qingqing as his greatest regret. When Shen Qingqing sends him away after a family meal, he accepts that she still has reason to resent the years in the Cold Palace 99 110 115.

His affection can also be comically jealous. He resents Tangtang receiving her mother’s attention when he wants time alone with Shen Qingqing, and he dislikes seeing Tangtang care for Jun Yuyuan before him. Conversely, his attachment to Shen Qingqing makes him emotionally fragile: the claim that she willingly prevented another pregnancy because she hated him leaves him distraught until she explains her feelings herself 70 99 134 135.

Ye Yubei’s political ruthlessness remains intact. He uses a consort’s scandal as leverage against the Lu-aligned Governor Jiang, keeps Consort Shu alive because she is useful against Prince Yue, and conceals her suicide to prolong the rebels’ hesitation. He nevertheless prioritizes his family’s survival during the siege, arranging evacuations and eventually entrusting Tangtang’s escape to Jun Yuyuan 53 128 134 139 140.

Tangtang’s compassion also brings out his concern for public welfare. He opens the granaries when he learns of concealed refugees and punishes the officials responsible for suppressing the plague reports. Her interest in inspecting relief work briefly makes him consider naming her heir, but he decides that the burdens of ruling would deprive her of a carefree life 120 122 125.

Abilities & Skills

Hearing Ye Tangtang’s Thoughts

Ye Yubei begins hearing Tangtang’s unspoken thoughts when he orders her execution. Her account of the accusation and prediction of his death immediately change his response 1.

• Detecting deception: He hears the motives behind her innocent expressions, flattery, and attempts to fake illness 12 22 48.
• Uncovering scandals: Her gossip alerts him to affairs involving Lady Liu and Lady Shu, which he subsequently verifies 8 9 18 20.
• Learning future threats: Her thoughts identify Grand Secretary Lu and Prince of Yan Ye Yulin as participants in a future betrayal 47.
• Recognizing Tangtang: Her familiar internal complaints confirm her identity when her dinosaur pajamas make her appear monstrous 43.
• Exposing concealed corruption: Her thoughts reveal that the Lu family’s “old fox” accepted bribes and suppressed reports of the Qi Prefecture plague, prompting relief measures and action against Grand Secretary Lu 120 122.
• Questioning apparent allies: Tangtang’s warning and private suspicion of the eldest prince lead him to delay opening the palace gates after the apparent arrival of reinforcements 141.
• Limits: He frequently misunderstands her unfamiliar vocabulary and only partly understands her references to points and prize draws. He initially believes he is the sole listener, but other characters also hear her thoughts 1 14 15 22.

Martial Arts and Battlefield Command

Ye Yubei is an exceptionally skilled martial artist whose military reputation earns him the title War God of Northern Li 32.

• He catches Tangtang after her high-speed skating collision without being knocked backward 32.
• He is said to be capable of taking an enemy’s head amid a chaotic army 32.
• The narration credits him with never losing a battle he personally fought 32.
• Tangtang acknowledges his bravery and strategy, attributing his foretold defeat to political betrayal rather than a lack of military ability 47.
• During Prince Yue’s rebellion, he remains outwardly fearless on the gate tower, threatens Lu Qin with an arrow, and prepares a defense despite having fewer than 3,000 Imperial Guards against roughly 20,000 rebels 137 139.
• After Prince Yue’s death, he calls on the remaining soldiers to surrender rather than die needlessly and promises not to kill the innocent 141.

Imperial Authority

As emperor, Ye Yubei can determine punishments, alter harem ranks, confer princess titles, and allocate palace resources 12 14 47.

• Restores Shen Qingqing’s position, later promoting her and granting the title Chen 2 12.
• Names Tangtang Princess Chaoyang despite objections from Consort Liang 14.
• Orders Tangtang’s enrollment at the Royal Academy and refuses her attempts to evade school 15 22.
• Overrides warnings about Consort Li’s powerful father when punishing the eunuchs who threatened Tangtang 47.
• Prohibits anyone from calling Tangtang a demon, declaring death as the punishment for violating the order 51.
• Confines Ye Muxue to Phoenix Hall for a month after she attempts to destroy Tangtang’s barbecue stall 71.
• Promotes Shen Qingqing directly from Beauty to Consort Chen and orders an elaborate ceremony despite Eunuch Wang’s reservations 100.
• Opens the granaries, establishes disaster relief, dismisses the Qi magistrate, removes Grand Secretary Lu, and appoints Zhang Judai in his place 120 122 125.
• Assigns eight elite shadow guards to protect Tangtang 128.
• Deposes Empress Lu, exiles the Lu family, imprisons the eldest prince, and preserves Princess Consort Liu Rumei’s honors after the rebellion 134 143.
• Proclaims a general amnesty for Tangtang’s coming-of-age ceremony 144.

Investigation and Political Strategy

• Incense investigation: Pursues expert analysis beyond the palace when initial inquiries cannot establish whether aromatic mixtures are harmful 69 100 115 116.
• Reopening an old case: Orders an investigation into the embezzlement and bribery case that led to Shen Qingqing’s father being imprisoned 100.
• Trusted investigative command: Entrusts Bai Yu, commander of the imperial guards, with investigating both assassination attempts against Tangtang 132.
• Evidence-based confrontation: Produces the eunuch who replaced Shen Qingqing’s incense on Empress Lu’s orders, undermining the Empress’s denials 134.
• Rebel leverage: Knows about Prince Yue’s secret mining and weapons manufacture and uses Consort Shu’s affair and pregnancy to pressure him 128 134.
• Information control: Conceals Consort Shu’s suicide because Prince Yue’s belief that she remains a hostage restrains his attack 139.

Power Progression

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Heaven-Questioning Sword — Worn at his waist; drawn when he mistakes Tangtang’s dinosaur costume for a creature that has harmed his daughter 43.
• Black-and-gold dragon robes — His imperial attire, also worn while publicly bestowing Tangtang’s title 8 14.
• Borrowed pink flashlight — Tangtang teaches him its controls and lends it to illuminate his path, explicitly asking for its return. He later returns with its battery exhausted but keeps it rather than discard what he regards as her first gift. Tangtang gives him a flashlight again after Shen Qingqing turns him away 34 53 100.
• Photographic portrait — Taken by Tangtang; he admires it as the best picture of himself he has seen and requests another with Shen Qingqing 40.
• Painted portrait — Tangtang paints a lifelike likeness of him during the banquet’s artistic challenges. He praises it as rivaling the work of heaven 111.
• Arrow used against Lu Qin — Threatens the rebel official from the gate tower during Prince Yue’s siege 137.
• Hypnotic incense — Used under Lingyun’s guidance to help him revisit suppressed memories; distinct from the harmful Never Forget blend responsible for his memory loss 116 120 121.

Relationships

• Ye Tangtang — Youngest daughter and Ninth Princess. Their relationship changes from near-execution and mutual alienation to protective affection. He rejects a proposed marriage to Lu Wuyou and promises to support her even if she never marries 1 14 48. He later openly admits responsibility for her deprivation and defends her right to choose future consorts, reversing his earlier anger over her recruiting numerous candidates. Her public-mindedness briefly makes him consider her as an heir, but he decides she should remain carefree. During the siege, she refuses to abandon him and supplies the weapons that help defeat Prince Yue; he asks whether Heaven sent her to save him 63 99 111 125 137 139 141.
• Shen Qingqing — Tangtang’s mother and a former Cold Palace consort. He renews his interest in her, but her fear and continued distance prevent an easy reconciliation 2 11 12 45. He promotes her to Consort Chen, investigates her father’s old case, and pursues recovery of their shared memories. After learning she voluntarily drank safflower to prevent another pregnancy, he fears she no longer loves him; her explanation and forgiveness restore their relationship. She remains beside him during the siege and is the only woman left in his harem afterward 100 116 125 135 139 143.
• Ye Muxue — Third Princess and an empress-born daughter he originally favors. Although he recognizes that she bullied Tangtang, he lets the first incident end because of her status, privately resolving not to overlook a recurrence 1 14. He later fulfills that resolve by confining her for a month after her attack on Tangtang’s stall. His increasingly open preference for Tangtang deepens Muxue’s resentment 71 110 128.
• Ye Linmo — Sixth Prince, whom he has largely forgotten. Tangtang’s concern for Linmo after he is injured defending her makes Ye Yubei recognize that the boy needs more attention 46 47. Linmo subsequently helps run Tangtang’s barbecue stall, and Ye Yubei uses news of the stall’s earnings to draw Tangtang away while speaking privately with Shen Qingqing 70 71.
• Empress Lu / Lu Yuanxi — His empress, whom he initially regards as virtuous and competent. Tangtang’s accusations challenge that image; he later directs his anger at her after the attempt to brand Tangtang a demon 15 50. His suspicions grow after Tangtang’s assassination attempt, and evidence implicating her in poisoned incense and the events thirteen years earlier ends their remaining marital affection. She tries to wound him with Shen Qingqing’s safflower choice. He ultimately deposes her and sends her to cultivate at a temple 100 134 135 143.
• Jun Yuyuan — Captive crown prince of a fallen kingdom. Ye Yubei considers killing him to eliminate the future threat suggested by Tangtang’s thoughts, but permits Tangtang to invite him to a meal instead 17 18. He remains jealous of Tangtang’s attention to Jun and wary of the young prince’s concealed abilities, yet rewards him with a hundred taels of gold for protecting her. During the rebellion, he accepts Jun’s promise to defend Tangtang and eventually entrusts him with escorting her to safety. Jun then kills Prince Yue using Tangtang’s handgun 98 99 132 139 140 141.
• Eunuch Wang / Wang Defu — Attendant entrusted with investigations, provisions, and personal errands. He also becomes the unwilling recipient of Ye Yubei’s spicy-food ordeal 1 12 23. He coordinates the incense inquiry, helps arrange hypnosis, carries out promotion orders, and sometimes serves as Ye Yubei’s scapegoat during family banter. He states that he began serving Ye Yubei eight years earlier 69 70 100 120.
• Grand Secretary Lu / Lu Qin — Senior court official identified in Tangtang’s thoughts as a future traitor. Ye Yubei also rejects his proposal to marry Tangtang to his grandson 47 48. Ye Yubei later removes him for concealing the Qi Prefecture plague. Lu Qin joins Prince Yue’s rebellion, is arrested by the eldest prince, and is followed by the exile of the Lu family 122 137 141 143.
• Ye Yulin — Seventh brother and Prince of Yan, residing in Yanbei. Tangtang predicts that aristocratic families will help him seize the throne 47. Ye Yubei later describes Prince Yue as more dangerous than the Prince of Yan; Ye Yulin’s predicted coup is not shown occurring in the supplied events 134.
• Empress Dowager — Adoptive mother and the person who showed him the greatest kindness during his neglected childhood. He summons all imperial physicians when she becomes ill and arranges her evacuation during the rebellion 51 139.
• Consort Shu of the Palace of Gathered Purity — Implicated in the incense that erased his memories of Shen Qingqing. Ye Yubei strips her title, confines her, exposes her pregnancy by Prince Yue, and keeps her alive as political leverage. Her reported suicide deprives him of that hostage, so he initially suppresses the news 122 124 128 134 138 139.
• Ye Yuqing / Prince Yue / King of Yue — Royal rival whose affair with Consort Shu, secret weapons program, and rebellion threaten Ye Yubei’s throne. Ye Yubei attempts to use Shu as leverage against him. Tangtang’s explosives injure the prince, and Jun Yuyuan ultimately kills him with her handgun 128 131 134 137 138 141.
• Liu Rumei / Princess Consort of Yue — Prince Yue’s wife. After the rebellion, Ye Yubei preserves her honors and permits her to remain in the princely residence as its princess consort 143.
• Ye Linci — Eldest prince, who arrives with apparent reinforcements and arrests Lu Qin. Tangtang suspects an attempt to seize the throne, prompting Ye Yubei to keep the gates closed and ask Linci to execute Lu Qin in his place. The eldest prince is subsequently imprisoned permanently 141 143.
• Bai Yu — His most trusted subordinate and commander of the imperial guards throughout the imperial city. Ye Yubei assigns him the investigation of the attacks on Tangtang; Bai later reports Consort Shu’s suicide 132 138 139.
• Lingyun — Western Regions perfumer who identifies the memory-altering incense, assists Ye Yubei’s hypnotic recovery, and provides evidence during his confrontation with Consort Shu 116 123 133.
• Zhang Judai — Appointed Grand Secretary after Ye Yubei dismisses Lu Qin over the concealed plague crisis 122.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Foretold Death and Political Betrayal

• Death in three years: Tangtang predicts that Ye Yubei will be killed, his head displayed on the city wall for three days and nights, and his eyes pecked out by crows 1.
• Northern Li’s fall: She also predicts the kingdom’s collapse within three years. Ye Yubei increasingly treats her warnings as credible after witnessing other statements come true 10 11.
• Internal betrayal: Grand Secretary Lu, aristocratic families, and Ye Yulin are foretold to undermine him, enabling Jun Yuyuan to defeat Northern Li’s army 47.
• Original predictions: These warnings describe the original storyline, not completed events at the time Tangtang makes them 1 47 50.
• Changed rebellion: Prince Yue and Lu Qin instead launch an early rebellion. Tangtang notes that Prince Yue’s intervention was not part of the script she knew, and the system attributes the plot’s deviation to her presence 129 137.
• Altered outcome: Tangtang’s weapons and Jun Yuyuan’s intervention help defeat Prince Yue. The Lu family is exiled and the eldest prince imprisoned; three years later, Ye Yubei is still alive and ruling Northern Li. The predicted death and collapse have therefore not occurred on the original timetable 141 143 144.

Notable Quotes

“Neither you nor Tang Tang is to blame for this. Don't cry.” 12

“Don't worry. Father will see justice done for you. No one is allowed to bully Tang Tang.” 46

“Who gave you the nerve to lay hands on my little princess?” 50

“From now on, anyone who dares call the Ninth Princess a demon will be put to death without exception.” 51

“Let it be. She still harbors resentment. After all, I abandoned her in the Cold Palace for over a decade without a word or a care.” 115

“Qingqing, is everything you said true? Do you really feel that way? Can you still forgive me?” 135

“Tang Tang, were you sent by Heaven to save Daddy?” 141

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