The emperor woke up in the morning with an empty bosom.

  The sky outside had already brightened up, but the interior of the bedroom was intentionally kept dim by using screens and gauze curtains, making it still somewhat dark and hazy.

  Outside the mosquito net, Lin Daiyu could be vaguely seen sitting in front of her dressing table, combing her hair.

  The emperor sat up, lifted the curtain and walked down from the bed, all the way to Lin Daiyu's side.

  Lin Xiao saw him get up, put down the eyebrow pencil in his hand, and smiled: "Today is a day off, no need to attend court, why doesn't the emperor sleep for a while?" As he spoke, he was about to stand up.

  The emperor pressed her shoulder and let her sit down again, saying: "I'm used to getting up early, today is already sleeping late."

  She picked up the eyebrow pencil on the table, dipped it in the inkstone, and began to draw her eyebrows.

  Lin Yan smiled shallowly, and he was doing something on her eyebrows, but she laughed and asked: "Can the emperor paint his eyebrows? Don't let the painted eyebrows be seen by the concubine."

  The emperor lifted her chin, examined her eyebrows to see if they were symmetrical, and smiled softly: "In a secluded room with green curtains hanging, red windows and green pavilions with embroidered clouds flying. In the quiet afternoon, there is nothing to do, so let's learn from Zhang Sheng how to paint eyebrows." After finishing speaking, he added two more strokes to her eyebrows.

  This is from the Southern and Northern Dynasties Liu Huan's "Newlywed Couple Poem": "A minor official like a new moon, gets a beautiful wife with good behavior. The sound of the guqin has been heard before, the peach blossoms have been divided by the son-in-law. The eyebrows are painted with a clever idea, the embroidered quilt is shared in the boudoir. In a secluded residence, the green silk hangs down, the red window and green pavilion fly with embroidered clouds. Afternoon idleness has nothing to do, let's go learn how to paint eyebrows from Zhang Sheng."

  It describes the scene of a newlywed couple enjoying their honeymoon and painting each other's eyebrows. Saying this here is also quite fitting.

  Lin Yan glared at him and scolded: "Has Your Majesty drawn eyebrows for many palace consorts?"

  The emperor smiled warmly and said, "I don't have so much leisure time to paint eyebrows for anyone. The only ones I've painted eyebrows for are you and your aunt." He thought of his late wife and a hint of nostalgia appeared on his face.

  When Xiangniang first married him, she was just a lively and fiery young girl, only two years older than Yuanyuan now, with an even bigger temper. On the second day of their wedding, he curiously wanted to paint her eyebrows, but at that time his eyebrow-painting skills were not as skilled as they are now, so one eyebrow was painted thick and the other thin, which made her ignore him for half a day, even when entering the palace to pay respects to the empress dowager she pretended not to see him, and even the empress dowager saw it and became worried, thinking that there must be some problem between them just after their wedding.

  As the struggle for the throne among the princes intensified, she gradually became more dignified and virtuous, taking charge of the household and raising their children, allowing him to focus on his ambitions without worrying about domestic affairs. Without a powerful external family to rely on, he could only seek support from his in-laws, which was also facilitated by her efforts as she traveled extensively to secure the backing of the Lin family and other influential clans.

  Wu's family wanted to send the girl into his palace, she was not happy in her heart, thinking that Wu's support would be beneficial to him, but also took Wu as his concubine with great fanfare.

  His mother had asked him to treat his wife well, but he seemed not to have done so.

  The emperor was lost in thought until Lin Yu called out to him several times, and he finally came back to his senses. He smiled at Lin Yu, continued to work on her eyebrows for a while, then put down the eyebrow pencil, held her chin and looked left and right before saying, "Alright."

  Lin Xiang smiled and said: "Your Majesty, please go and get dressed, I'll let the palace maidens come in to serve you." She then called for the palace maidens and eunuchs to enter.

  The emperor smiled and gently patted her head before heading in the direction of the bathroom.

  Lin Xiao turned her head and looked at the makeup of the woman in the diamond-shaped mirror, softly sighing.

  The emperor painted her with a single eyebrow, not the willow-leaf eyebrow she was used to painting. The one who truly loved painting single eyebrows was her aunt Lin Xian. Lin Xian had thick eyebrows and big eyes, so she suited a more heroic single eyebrow. But her temperament was gentle and elegant, her appearance was clear and beautiful, painting a single eyebrow wouldn't look bad on her, but it would be even better with willow-leaf eyebrows.

  She originally painted her eyebrows in a willow-leaf shape, but ultimately let the emperor change them into straight eyebrows.

  The emperor had breakfast with her in Changkun Palace before going to Qianqing Palace to attend to government affairs.

  The Emperor said to Lin He while having breakfast, "I haven't seen the Crown Prince for a long time, and he hasn't come to pay his respects. Have him come over tonight and have dinner with us."

  Lin Yan smiled and said yes.

  After seeing off the emperor, Lin Xiang called Mu Ye over and asked all the palace maids in the house to leave. Then she asked her: "Can you concoct a medicine that will allow me to temporarily avoid pregnancy without harming my body?"

  Mu Qing was shocked after hearing it and directly wanted to oppose it.

  She spoke up, "Don't worry, I'm not unwilling to have children, it's just that I don't want to now." She paused for a moment before slowly explaining, "That year in the northwest, I saw a peasant woman giving birth. The young daughter-in-law was only 14 years old, with a face full of innocence, but ultimately couldn't escape the disaster of childbirth. Although she finally gave birth to the child, she lost her own life." After the doctor said that it was because the age of the parturient woman was too small to give birth, and her bones had not yet fully developed, which is why it was a difficult delivery. The dead woman still had tears on her face, with a lingering attachment to this world, but that family was overjoyed at the birth of the newborn, no one cared about her life or death, making her feel especially shocked and chilled.

  Although she liked children, she was not prepared to lose her life for the sake of having a child. Moreover, with the eldest son in the Lin family, giving birth to an imperial prince or princess would only be adding flowers to the brocade. Not having children did not have too much impact on her either. So, having children was something she didn't think she needed to rush into.

  Mu Qing didn't say another word. Compared to the still unborn crown prince, Lin Ye's name was naturally more important. Even in the imperial harem, where there were so many skilled imperial physicians on hand, there were still palace consorts who lost their lives while giving birth. Lin Ye's worries weren't unreasonable.

  Mu Ye, however, approved of Lin Xiao's decision. As a doctor, she knew that childbirth was like having one foot in the gate of hell, and the younger the woman, the more dangerous it was.

  Although her personality is mature and steady, her body is still that of a 15-year-old girl.

  "Your Ladyship, I can prepare it. I can mix the medicine into a pill form, so it will be convenient for you to use and not easily discovered by others."

  The women in the harem were required to be dedicated, even if they were neglected, punished or sacrificed, they had to shout "the emperor's grace is vast". The imperial concubines who did not want to give birth to children for the royal family for their own lives would be regarded as disrespecting the emperor, so contraception was naturally not allowed to be known.

  "Your Ladyship, I'll prepare some more prescriptions for you to regulate your body, and combine them with dietary therapy to help you nourish your body. How does that sound?"

  Taking good care of your body will make it easier for you to have children in the future.

  Lin Dai nodded.

  "After that, he said: 'Alright, go and see if there are any visitors at the Wu Guo Gong Fu.'"