The Lecherous Prince and His Playmate [BL]

Changling frowned as he looked at the servant serving Youxian. She wasn’t used to Youxian’s circumstances, and she was assigned to him by Changling himself. “What do you mean, he’s refusing to eat the food from the kitchen?”

She bowed to him. “Your majesty, how else do you wish for me to explain this? All he’s been eating is salmon and honey. Because there was no salmon in the kitchen and they refused to buy for him because you instructed so. I’ve had to visit the market place to buy the ingredients many times. The Crown Princess has also helped me with purchasing the ingredients and it is all that he is eating. Morning, noon and night. Salmon and honey. I tried to give him a bowl of pork soup this morning and he vomited, then fainted. Please, your majesty, I request you allow us to visit the physician.”

Changling pondered over this. Youxian was up to something again but he didn’t see anything wrong with him having salmon and honey, it was just an odd combination. “Has he had anything to drink?”

“He has, but it would only be water with honey in it.”

Frowning, he nodded. “Call the physician over. I’ll be heading to the cold palace to see him, too.”

Looking at his attendant, he said, “Call the princess. I’d like to have a word with my daughter.”

Princess Youxia walked into her father’s study reluctantly. She wasn’t impressed with him after he detained her birth father and refused her and her brother's visitations to him. Bowing to him, she said, “You called for me, father?”

Changling could hear the deadness in her voice. What he learnt about her over the past year and a half as he’s gotten to know her is that she was so much like him but so much like Youxian too and the combination of them both besides the beauty, she could be compared to a demon.

“Have a seat. I have something to ask you,” he said.

After she sat down, she looked at the scrolls on his table and picked up one. Opening it, she read through it asking, “Are the officials asking for money again?”

He chuckled, “No, they’re asking for your hand in marriage.”

She rolled up the scroll and chucked it at him. She read something else while he spoke his nonsense again. “I’m too young.”

He pulled out a bunch of proposal booklets and handed it to her. “I won’t force you to marry now. You’re young and we haven’t spent enough time together. You can choose who you want to marry. I’m sure that you have your standards after meeting everyone at your coronation. I wonder, what do you think of the prince of Gaya?”

Placing her chin on the desk, she nodded her head, “I like your thinking. I know Tian Cao is the next emperor after you, so I can’t take the throne as empress. And I want to be an empress, father.”

Changling tilted his head to the side with a smirk. “And why is that?”

“Why not? My father is the emperor and so is my grandfather. Why can’t I be the empress?”

He chuckled, “We’ll make that happen, but if you do want to be the empress, we can have you marry your brother.”

She raised a brow confused, “Like Empress Ju?”

He nodded his head, “Normally it’s not favourable to join another kingdom, especially now when there is no need to.”

Xing Guang stared at him, then shook her head. “Nope! No! Never! I’ll kill him, then I’ll kill you.”

Changling burst into laughter, but nodded his head. “I will find you a suitable husband, but feel free to look at the candidates.”

She nodded.

“Does daddy normally eat salmon and honey together?” He asked as he opened a scroll.

Xing Guang’s mind was trying to register that she was looking at a candidate and shook her head, “No, only when he is sick.”

Changling frowned, “So this happened before.”

Looking at him, she asked, “Is he sick?”

He nodded, “As you know, your father’s been punished for a month and over this month, his appetite has taken a turn. I’m sending the physician later but I just wanted to confirm from you if it has happened before. When was he last sick?”

She shook her head. “It’s only a story I heard from my father, Wulin.”

Hearing Wulin’s name coming from her, Changling felt guilty. To be honest, when Wulin escaped, and he sent his men after him, he hoped he’d be killed, but instead his men died. He decided to let Wulin go and not pursue him, but why’d he have to return and get killed by Youxian? 

She thought about it, then her eyes widened. “When he was pregnant with me.”

*

“Father?” Tian Cao called.

Changling snapped out of his thoughts. Looking at his son, he could see that he was dejected. “Did something happen?”

He nodded his head as he walked over to him and gave him a hug. Changling frowned, “Who hurt you?”

Tian Cao chuckled as he pulled away from the hug and smiled at him, saying, “I walked into Youxia.”

“Oh…”

Sitting down, he said, “She was complaining about you wanting to marry her off and even suggested that I marry her.”

“I’m sorry, son, I tried.”

“I know.”

“Youxia is as stubborn as I am. She won’t marry the man I choose for her, so I’ll leave her to choose her own husband, but you could always make her fall in love with you,” he said.

Tian Cao looked at his father, then shook his head. “I’ll just live with a broken heart. I spoke to my mother about this and she called me disgusting, saying it’ll only cause a problem for her family.”

“She is right.”

*

“What do you mean, I’m pregnant? Changling and I haven’t had sex since he’s imprisoned me here and I know for a fact that it’s impossible. I’ve been to many physicians over the years and they’ve all said that I cannot bear a child.”

Changling looked at Youxian and saw that he was angry, but why was he angry?

So angry at hearing these words that tears were forming in his eyes.

Was it really so bad to have his child?

This was the best news he’s received all month.

“You are pregnant, my lord. There is no mistaking this. This is good news for the kingdom. We have another royal member.”

Youxian looked at Changling. He couldn’t recall exactly when last they had slept together. Lowering his head, the image of Wulin popped into his mind. His tears fell to the ground as he placed his face in his palms.

Standing up, he said, “All of you just leave. I want to be alone.”

The physician looked at Changling, saying, “Your majesty, the cold palace isn’t a good place for him. I beg you to cancel your order for his punishment. Living here could be detrimental to the infant’s life if it already hasn’t.”

Youxian was forcefully moved out of the cold palace and back into Changling’s palace.

It was nighttime now and Youxian was sitting up against the pillows as he listened to Changling snore. He couldn’t sleep. All he could think about was how he ruined things by killing Wulin. He was finally having that man's child, but now he was dead—how could he be happy? Wiping his tears away, he shoved Changling, saying, “Wake up.”

Changling didn’t say anything, but the snoring stopped. 

Sniffing, he said, “I killed Wulin for us.”

“You didn’t have to kill him. He was nothing but good to you and did us a great favour by looking after you and our child.”

“But you tried to kill him,” Youxian whispered. 

“Then I let him be because I had a change of heart.”

Placing a hand on his stomach, he let his sobs escape as he said, “I slept with Wulin before I killed him.”

Changling sat up on the bed as the words sunk in and looked at Youxian, who was crying into his hands. His blood started to boil but, calming his anger, he said, “This conversation never happened.”

*

*

*

A few days after Youxian was sent to the cold palace…

Consort Ae Cha climbed out of the carriage in the woods outside the palace. She looked around, then walked up to the house there. Entering, she could smell the strong scent of iron in the air.

Holding her nose close, she walked to the kitchen where she heard noises coming from and saw a man standing in front of the stove cooking.

He was half naked with a bandage wrapped around his abdomen.

She cleared her throat. “I see you’re still alive.”

The man turned around and looked at her. He rolled his eyes. “Why are you here, Ae Cha?”

“That’s consort Kwon to you,” she corrected him.

Wulin turned around, leaning against the table with his hands folded, saying, “The day I speak to you with respect is the day pigs fly. What do you want?”

“I just came to say thank you for all you’ve done. I’ve brought you your compensation and I have a message from our father,” she said.

He shook his head. “He disowned me. What more does he want?”

She shrugged as she sat down. “No one asked you to be born, but having you a part of my plan gave you some value in his eyes. With you dead, I can assassinate people at will and you will be helping me—well, once you’re all healed, I can’t have you bleeding on the job.”

Raising a brow, “Look, I know you don’t like Youxian but there is no way I will allow you to kill him and the Crown Princess.”

“I won’t be killing them,” she said. “And I knew you’d go against me. Well, I guess I don’t need your services anymore, seeing that you already are refusing me.”

He shook his head. “Just go. I already told you that once I get Youxian out of the emperor’s sight and die, it’ll be the end of it. I’m leaving the kingdom, so tell your father that, too.”

She shook her head with a sigh. “You’re lucky we aren’t capable of killing you.”

“I took a knife for your ungrateful self.”

She stood up and waved her hand, “Yes, yes, I heard you the first time.”