In the three years since marrying the Emperor, He Yan's life has been quite satisfactory overall.

Although he was very interested in piloting mechs and even had the idea of joining the military for two years after graduation, the Emperor was firmly opposed to this. Even though it was now a relatively peaceful era, the military was still not absolutely safe.

Secondly, with the Emperor, who had long occupied the first place on the mech practice field ranking, as his sparring partner, it would be difficult to encounter stronger opponents in the military. So after graduating from the Imperial Military Academy with excellent grades, he ultimately chose to enter the Military Research Institute and became a research fellow in his field of expertise.

However, this research fellow position was just a title, and he basically didn't need to go to work, as his primary job was still being an Empress.

Being an Empress was actually not as easy as the public imagined. Not only did he have to assist the Emperor, who was always sticking to him, in reviewing some imperial matters, but during major festivals, he had to decide on all the celebration arrangements. Even the trivial family matters among the nobles were his responsibility, as well as the public relations of the royal family... In short, initially, He Yan felt that being an Empress was more tiring than being the Emperor.

Fortunately, after exploring for a while, He Yan found that there were tricks to handling these matters, and he also cultivated several capable subordinates. Gradually, he no longer needed to carefully inquire about every matter.

In general, He Yan would handle affairs, tease the Emperor, make him puff up in anger before coaxing and petting him, and lived a rather comfortable life. Anyway, he had no ambitions, so this was pretty good.

However, unlike He Yan, Aaron had not had a comfortable three years.

Originally, as the only prince of the empire and the Emperor's brother, it would have been normal for him to directly enter the military department and be appointed as a major with just a slight order from the Emperor.

But perhaps due to the incident with Elai back then, the Emperor was more wary and distant from him, and did not open any backdoors for him. So after graduating from the Imperial Military Academy, Aaron only entered the military department with the rank of lieutenant he had obtained at the academy.

Since the Empire had not experienced any wars for many years after the National Defense War, opportunities to gain military merits naturally became much fewer, and the promotion speed of officers and soldiers was also very slow, basically relying on seniority to move up.

Aaron had been stuck at the lieutenant position for three years before just having hope of being promoted one level.

Although for ordinary soldiers, his promotion speed was already very fast - after all, many lieutenants found it difficult to have promotion opportunities even after a dozen years - compared to the glorious records of past princes, especially his imperial brother Adrian, Aaron's performance could be said to be very mediocre.

Was Aaron content with this?

Of course he wasn't.

In terms of strength, his psychic power intensity was only one level lower than his imperial brother's, and could be counted as one of the top in the entire empire; in terms of character, he felt he was not much worse than his imperial brother, who was willful, cruel and ruthless before marriage, and acted like an idiot after marriage, only knowing how to shamelessly revolve around an Omega all day.

But now, due to Adrian's disfavor, he did not receive treatment matching his abilities. How could he swallow this anger?

What made him feel most embarrassed was that those Omegas who had persistently chased after him, saying they wanted to marry him, had slowly disappeared in these three years. The number of active members in his fan support group became fewer and fewer, and even several managers had left.

At this point, Aaron finally realized that in the end, what those Omegas valued was nothing more than his temporary glory. As long as he did not shine all the way as they expected, those who had once been madly infatuated with him would mercilessly abandon him.

Every time Aaron thought of this, he couldn't help but think of Elai, who had been in prison for three years.

Perhaps only this Omega's feelings for him were real. He believed that the Omega who was willing to take risks for him back then would definitely not abandon him like other Omegas when he fell into a low point, if he was still by his side.

He wondered how he was doing in prison.

Prisons would not inject inhibitors for alpha and omega criminals. Every heat period, these criminals could only endure the pain brought by the heat, bearing the suffering for their entire lives. That's why some people commented that to a certain extent, life imprisonment was actually more terrifying than the death penalty for alphas and omegas.

Aaron had countless times had the idea of visiting Elai, but held back each time. After all, he was the second prince of this empire, and of course could not have any involvement with a treasonous criminal on the surface.

In fact, after the incident with Elai, in order to not expose himself, he had significantly reduced the frequency of contact with the Green family in these three years. The Green family had also been dormant for a long time after losing Elai, this valuable chess piece, until half a year ago, when their newly planted mole had successfully infiltrated the palace, and their contact with Aaron began to become frequent again.

During those days when he lost contact with the Green family, Aaron had also considered whether he should take the opportunity to withdraw and give up the thoughts in his heart, living steadily as a disfavored prince. But in these three years, every second of his jealousy towards Adrian and his discontent with his own situation tortured him. Every time he thought about how his future life would be so stifled due to Adrian's prejudice against him, an unshakable sense of fear would well up in his heart.

So in the end, when he received contact from the Green family again, he chose to continue this cooperation.

Aaron silently remembered the information sent from the other end of the encrypted channel, and immediately cautiously deleted all records. Now, he was more cautious than three years ago, because he knew that this time, if he took one wrong step, he would never have a third chance.

Adrian was a very domineering person with extremely strong desire for control. If it failed this time, he would definitely investigate thoroughly and would never allow a third attack to happen.

The mole planted by the Green family this time was a minister who had been promoted by the Empress over the years. Although he was not considered the Empress's confidant, he still held a certain position in the palace and could often see the Emperor.

Having learned from Elai's lesson, the Green family did not dare to be as impatient as last time. This time, they chose a more covert and tactful method - through this minister, they would give the Empress a drug that would affect her mental strength.

This drug would not directly destroy a person's mental strength. Instead, it produced an effect similar to a hallucinogen. After ingesting a certain amount, it could imperceptibly affect the threads of a person's mental strength, causing them to develop some unhealthy mutations, gradually leading the drugged person into a permanent and incurable state of mania. Moreover, this mutation was contagious.

As long as He Yan combed his brother's mental strength, it would cause Adrian's mental strength threads to be affected as well.

This drug was very covert and convenient to use. When the time came, the minister would only need to drip a few drops of the drug on his cuffs, and he could let it take effect through the drug's own volatility when discussing matters with the Empress. In fact, this drug was very targeted, only effective on mental strengths above S-level.

Since the high-end talents with mental strengths above S-level in the empire were either shining in the military or in research institutes, there were not many top powerhouses in the palace except for the Emperor, Empress, and the captain of the Royal Guard. There was no need to worry about large-scale collateral damage. Moreover, this drug would be completely decomposed after being exposed to air for half an hour, so there was no need to worry about the minister exposing himself after the incident.

In addition, this drug was recently developed by a large foreign country, with extremely low production. The Green family had gone to great lengths to obtain a sample, and the Empire had not yet been able to obtain information about it. So even if something wrong was detected in the Empress' spiritual sea, it would be difficult for those doctors to find the cause and solution in a short period of time.

In this series of plans, what Aaron had to do was to find a way to get a briefcase containing the drug into the imperial capital smoothly and deliver it to the minister quietly.

This was not difficult. On an ordinary afternoon not long after, an inconspicuous gray briefcase, mixed with a large pile of luggage, successfully passed the security check.

Inside the palace, He Yan, sitting at his desk, saw this scene. He paused the light brain and zoomed in to observe the security officer's movements.

In the frozen frame, it could be seen that the security officer used a very clever angle. Only by zooming in to the extreme could one observe that the detector in his hand actually only checked three-quarters of the briefcase, completely skipping the lower right corner of the case.

He Yan lightly tapped his slender fingers on the wooden desktop, making a crisp "tap, tap" sound. He played this security check video at the slowest speed, watching it five or six times before figuring out the trick. He couldn't help but sigh, "The port side's new countermeasures are coming out really fast."

Even though the inspection intensity at the Imperial Capital Port had always been very strict, smuggling, illegal immigration, and security lapses still existed in some dark corners. There were always people who took risks for profit. The Imperial Capital Port had just carried out a special rectification campaign against these phenomena three months ago, and now there were signs of them emerging again.

His Majesty the Emperor rubbed He Yan's distinct knuckles and held them in his palm, gently saying, "It's difficult to completely ban these things. Take it slow." In fact, after more than a decade of rectification, compared to when the previous emperor was in power, the bad practices at the Empire's major ports had been cleared up a lot, especially in the three years since He Yan became the Empress. Under heavy pressure, these things had become very rare.

"But," His Majesty the Emperor suddenly frowned, as if he had thought of something, and grabbed his Empress's hand with concern, "Darling, you still shouldn't take risks. What if the drug's effect fails then?"

He Yan looked at him helplessly, "The professors at the research institute are not vegetarians either. They have been studying the drug's structural formula for so long, how could they possibly create an ineffective antidote?"

He had stolen the drug's structural formula from another country's top-secret files.

Not long after their marriage, He Yan felt it was too troublesome to hide it, so he confessed to His Majesty the Emperor that he had the ability to crack national-level confidential information. His Majesty the Emperor, just like when he learned about his true mental strength back then, calmly accepted this setting after making sure that he himself was healthy in all aspects, and did not actively delve into the reasons behind it.

It could be said that he was very considerate!

In order to repay this consideration, He Yan had never been stingy in helping the Empire do many things within his capabilities. This time, the drug's structural formula was just the tip of the iceberg.

However, the considerate Emperor was not convinced. His tone was still full of worry, and even a little aggrieved, "But I'm worried about you, darling. Can we not play anymore?"

In fact, the evidence in their hands was already enough to send Aaron to prison for treason. It was just that He Yan had a heavier taste for mischief and wanted to cooperate with Aaron and the Green family's plan to put on a show.

When they were complacent, he would give them a head-on blow. Although the final result would be the same, when touching hope and then being thrown into the abyss, the blow Aaron would suffer would undoubtedly be more thorough and heavy.

He Yan was a person with a particularly good memory and was very petty. He dared to target their family's idiot. He had not forgotten this grudge from three years ago at all.

Author's Note: Going through a chapter of simple and straightforward plot. Aaron will probably be able to receive his just desserts next chapter. Then we can wrap things up and write a extra chapter about the little bun _(:з」∠)'