"Your Highness, Duke Ailian asked me to send his regards. Regarding recent events, he feels deeply ashamed. Please rest assured that he will properly handle Miss Paisar's matter as soon as possible. He wishes you all the best." A beta minister stood before He Yan with his head bowed, respectfully reporting.

Viscount Ailian was a notorious alpha aristocrat whose romantic scandals before marriage were once the talk of the entire empire. However, after getting married, since his wife's family background was far more formidable than his, the viscount had been quite well-behaved for a while.

Little did anyone expect that Viscount Ailian's good behavior was only superficial. In fact, he had long found several mistresses and kept them outside, one of whom was even an Omega from a baron's family who had given birth to his beta illegitimate child. When Lady Ailian discovered his misdeeds, she flew into a rage. Upon learning of the existence of an illegitimate child even older than her own, she was so furious that she immediately wanted to divorce Viscount Ailian.

Although this society had rather harsh requirements for Omegas, when an alpha not only cheated but even had an illegitimate child older than the legitimate one, public opinion would undoubtedly favor the Omega's side.

So recently, Viscount Ailian had been criticized quite badly on the light net, and the entire Ailian family was also ridiculed. After all, when Viscount Ailian's mistress and illegitimate child were exposed by Lady Ailian, they were found living in a house under his cousin's name. If anyone said that no one in the Ailian family knew about Viscount Ailian's misdeeds behind Lady Ailian's back, even a fool wouldn't believe it.

Viscount Ailian was originally just a declining minor aristocrat. His current status was inseparable from Lady Ailian's support over the years. Even the entire Ailian family was only able to occupy a corner in the imperial capital because the aristocrats gave face to Lady Ailian's family.

If he divorced Lady Ailian and lost his wife's support, the Ailian family probably wouldn't remain illustrious for long. So for Viscount Ailian, the best solution at this time should be to cut ties with those mistresses, send the illegitimate child away, and try his best to retain Lady Ailian.

However, for some unknown reason, despite the opposition of the entire clan, he even had the wild idea of taking the opportunity to divorce Lady Ailian, so that he could make the Omega who bore him an illegitimate child his legal wife and add the illegitimate child to the family tree.

The empire's aristocrats were very particular about saving face. Illegitimate children were shameful existences that weren't allowed to enter through the front door, let alone be added to the family tree. They had to be hidden away secretly. Aside from Viscount Ailian, there really weren't many people muddleheaded enough to insist on giving an illegitimate child a status.

It was inevitable for large families to occasionally have such messy affairs. If they got too out of hand, it would affect the overall image of the imperial aristocracy. So He Yan also had to devote some attention to those aristocrats and not let them stir up trouble.

But as the empress, it was inappropriate for him to personally intervene in those unspeakable matters. So at times like this, He Yan would often have the palace ministers visit those "restless" aristocratic families to express his "greetings" on his behalf. This beta minister was one of the subordinates responsible for handling these trivial matters for He Yan, a position of moderate importance.

Regarding this matter, He Yan only had the minister convey one message to Ailian, expressed rather euphemistically, but roughly translated to: he could divorce Lady Ailian or not as he wished, but he could forget about legitimizing his mistress and illegitimate child. The imperial aristocratic circle couldn't afford to lose face over this. And if he didn't arrange for those two to leave the imperial capital within half a month, his rank of nobility could be conveniently lowered after a while.

Viscount Ailian immediately caved. He was just a viscount to begin with. If demoted further, he would only be slightly better than a commoner. He no longer dared to keep dreaming and painfully sent away his mistress and illegitimate child.

He Yan pinched the slender spoon handle and stirred the teacup twice before asking in a light voice, "What about Lady Ailian?"

The minister didn't even dare to raise his head and continued to answer respectfully, "Lady Ailian said she is very grateful for your concern, but she... has made up her mind."

In fact, divorce was a very difficult decision for Omegas. After all, after receiving a permanent mark, alphas could mark an Omega again, but it was very hard for Omegas to start anew.

Mustering the courage to begin a new relationship under societal scrutiny wasn't the most difficult part. The most painful thing was that even if they divorced their alpha, due to an Omega's body automatically rejecting the invasion of another alpha's pheromones after accepting one alpha's permanent mark, they could never be marked by a second alpha in their lifetime. Subsequent heats could only be spent with the help of suppressants.

What a twisted and extremely unequal biological structure.

He Yan sighed inwardly, put down the exquisite patterned porcelain cup in his hand, and after a long while, suddenly raised his head to look directly at the minister. "What's the matter? Why are you so nervous today?"

The minister's heart jumped. He controlled his conditioned reflex to touch his cuffs and tried his best to maintain a calm expression. "Your Highness..."

He had only said half of his sentence when he was interrupted by footsteps coming from behind.

A tall figure passed by him and walked straight to He Yan's side, picking up the half-finished cup of tea and draining it in one gulp.

With the arrival of the alpha, the cold pheromones in the air gave the minister an immense sense of oppression. Even just standing there without saying a word, His Majesty the Emperor's icy face was enough to make one fall silent.

Although it was rumored on the light net that His Majesty the Emperor was essentially a henpecked husband and netizens came up with countless jokes to mock him, His Majesty only showed his affectionate side to the empress. In front of others, he remained as cold as ever.

"You may go." Seeing His Majesty the Emperor, He Yan's gaze also shifted away from him. He casually waved his hand to dismiss the minister, looking unconcerned.

After bowing to the emperor and empress, the minister respectfully withdrew from the room, his mind tightly strung until he dared to secretly breathe a sigh of relief after leaving the palace, lifting his hand to wipe his forehead, which was covered in cold sweat.

From the look of the empress, he shouldn't suspect anything... perhaps he was indeed too nervous.

Inside the palace, as soon as the minister left, the majestic emperor's face instantly collapsed. He hugged his empress, holding his slender waist, and frowned, "No, you can't meet with him alone anymore."

After their family's Omega repeatedly assured that there was no danger, and he repeatedly confirmed with the research institute that the antidote was indeed foolproof, the emperor finally agreed to let his empress "risk his life", but just now, seeing that minister with ulterior motives enter the room, he inevitably began to feel anxious again, wishing to immediately isolate their family's Omega from that dangerous source. After hesitating for a few minutes, unable to restrain himself any longer, he directly came in to send the person away.

He Yan patted the emperor's stiff shoulders, feeling that they were quite firm, and continued to knead them a couple of times, helplessly saying, "I haven't even scared him for a few sentences, and you came in."

The emperor's body slightly tensed up as his Omega kneaded him, and the arm around his waist also silently tightened. He murmured, "I was worried about you."

He Yan had absolutely no resistance to their family's emperor acting spoiled with a straight face. Although after three years of "correction", Adrian's inner insecurity had slightly lessened, it was only relatively less obvious compared to before. Deep down, he was still extremely petty.

What troubled him was that during these three years, their family's emperor had already mastered the skill of making him soften through invisible coquetry. So although it seemed like he always held the more dominant position in this relationship, with the emperor not daring to go against his wishes, in reality, he was also tightly wrapped around the emperor's finger.

Just like now, although He Yan really wanted to string Aaron along for a while longer, giving him the illusion that he was on the path to success before cruelly waking him up, seeing their family's emperor looking so worried, he suddenly lost interest in this game, thinking: The weather is cold, let Aaron go to prison. Their family idiot's happiness is more important.

He Yan: Feeling like his boyfriend power is at max!

"Alright," feeling the emperor's hand on his waist beginning to slide down, reaching a bit below his lower back, He Yan hurriedly pushed him, "Don't mess around, I still need to go to the research institute in a bit."

Upon hearing this, the emperor immediately lightly pinched his buttocks, before reluctantly withdrawing his hand, "I'll go with you."

*

Aaron didn't expect things to be exposed so suddenly.

Just this morning, he had still received a reply from the mole that "everything is going smoothly". By evening, just as he was preparing to go off work and head home, a group of military officers suddenly barged in and attacked.

These people had clearly come prepared, not giving him any time to react. As soon as they entered, they turned on a psychic power suppressor, not even giving him a chance to resist before his psychic power was disabled and he was handcuffed with cuffs specially designed for S-class and above powerhouses.

Aaron was rudely twisted by the arms, his blond hair scattering messily onto his face as he struggled. His expression instantly turned ferocious as he angrily questioned, "What are you doing? I am a prince!"

Even though he had not lived very satisfactorily these past three years, he still maintained the pride and bearing of a prince, and had never been treated like this, restrained like a criminal!

"Prince Aaron," the military officer with the strongest aura among the group spoke. His gold epaulettes indicated he was a lieutenant colonel, the highest-ranking among them. Although he used an honorific, there was not a hint of respect in his tone, but rather a contemptuous flavor. "Please do not worry, you will soon no longer be one."

"After all, even if you are honored as a prince, there is no immunity after committing treason."