Heavy is the Crown

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/49081477.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandoms: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The
Untamed (TV)
Relationship: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Angst, Ancient China, Royalty, Childhood Friends, Substance Abuse,
Abusive Parents, Boys In Love, Plot Twists, Omegaverse, Reverse
Harem, Politics, Sexual Slavery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Chinese
Zombie, Dark Magic, Complicated Relationships, Everyone wants to be
the Emperor except WangXian, Zombie Apocalypse, Jiangshi
Manifestation, Mpreg
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of Omegaverse & Guideverse Collection
Stats: Published: 2023-08-03 Completed: 2024-07-17 Words: 46,491 Chapters:
50/50
 Heavy is the Crown
by Chiaroscuro555

Summary

Wei Wuxian was born as the only prince of the kingdom where only the Alphas could
become the Emperor.

And he was secretly born as an Omega.

His mother - the Empress - killed everyone who knew the truth about his birth and
suppressed his pheromone to become a Beta.

But suppressant could only do so much, and when the beloved Grand Duke of the Kingdom
and Wei Wuxian's childhood friend, Lan Wangji - an Alpha - came back from war, the
Emperor blatantly supported him as the next Emperor instead of his own son, because of the
secret behind his birth.

Lan Wangji - who was in love with Wei Wuxian ever since they were children - did not want
to be the Emperor, instead, he would support Wei Wuxian, regardless the protests from the
current Emperor and his supporters.

But when he finally found out the truth about their origin and that the love of his life was
actually his half brother after they spent their heat together, everything moved up so fast and
Wei Wuxian was... dead?

Inspired by the manhwa The Roque Prince Is Secretly an Omega.

 Chapter 1

It hurt.

It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt so much he would die from the pain alone.

Why?

Why must he endure this?

Why couldn't they all leave him alone?

He didn't even want to be born – let alone to be the Emperor.

So, why?

Why?

WHY?

But then a soft voice whispered to him, making his pain forgotten temporarily.

"Wei Ying… wait for me…"

Wei Wuxian jolted up from his uneventful sleep – drenched in sweat. His head throbbed and
his heart beat fast like he was in a sprint and every part of him was hurt.

But.

This was just another day for him.

Another day, another pain, another suffering – where he had to endure, just to survive.

The difference this time was the appearance of the nostalgic sweet voice at the end of his
nightmares.

Was it because of the news that they all received yesterday?

The victorious return of the Grand Duke Lan over the border that was infested by the
mythical beasts and caused people harm.

That news was literally what everyone was talking about. Even Xue Yang – his royal guard –
heard about that from the whispers of the princesses and the maids all around the palace, and
he was so excited to meet the National Hero since he was his idol.

Wei Wuxian just couldn't care less if he tried.

Even breathing was very hard for him – let alone gossiping about the Grand Duke Lan.

Wei Wuxian shook his head to clear it from the unnecessary thoughts and he noticed that his
attendant – Wen Ning – was already standing beside his bedchamber. He was done preparing
everything for bathing, filled with the herbs that would help with his pain, and he was there
to help Wei Wuxian to walk to the pool with steaming hot milky water and flower petals.

"Your Royal Highness, the bath is ready."

Wei Wuxian was not able to utter a word since he was clenching his teeth from the pain, so
he just nodded while Wen Ning guided him into the pool. And when he reached the edge, he
took off his wet robe and entered the hot water slowly until he was submerged inside the
calming concoction.

Wen Ning and his sister – Wen Qing – were the only people in this whole palace who knew
the truth about his condition, but since they were his most trusted people, they would not dare
betray him.

Wen Qing was the doctor who treated him, and gave him all the herbs that could alleviate his
pain. Although on the other side, she was also the one who was ordered by the Empress to
give Wei Wuxian the poisonous suppressant to hold back his pheromone.

Yes.

Wei Wuxian was the only Crown Prince in the kingdom who only allowed an Alpha to be the
Emperor.

And he was a dominant Omega.

His mother – Empress Yun – was also a dominant Omega from one of the strongest Dukedom
in the country – whose father was also the current Prime Minister. And a dominant Alpha too.

When Wei Wuxian was born, his brilliant, shiny silver eyes and his strong and intoxicating
pheromone filled all the immediate vicinity of the palace where the Empress gave birth, and
it even caused a few of the eunuch went crazy with lust, although they were not supposed to
have any romantic feelings at all.

Once she took a whiff of the strong pheromone, she was furious because she wanted an
Alpha son to be the next Emperor. And when she found out that she could not have any more
kid due to the excessive bleeding that caused them to remove her womb, she decided to make
her one and only son the Emperor so she killed all the people who knew about the secret of
his birth, and called her father to find someone to make a suppressant for the baby so that no
one ever found out that he was actually an Omega.

The Empress' father – Prime Minister Yun – refused at first.

He saw how strong his grandson's pheromone was and he told his daughter that it would be
dangerous if they were to suppress such a strong Omega's pheromone. It could even kill the
baby in the process.

But the Empress was adamant and she said that she would rather the child die than letting the
Emperor knew that she had an Omega son.

The Empress' relationship with the Emperor was a contractual one instead of love. The
Emperor – at that time, the Crown Prince – would be provided with all the support from the
Yun family to become the Emperor, in exchange that he had to marry the Princess of Prime
Minister Yun – the flower of the high society, the Queen Bee, the apple of her daddy's eyes,
and the only daughter he had.

The Crown Prince did not agree with the marriage at first, since he already had a Beta lover
that he loved and cherished, and he planned to marry her.
But his father – the previous Emperor – found out about the relationship and he immediately
agreed to the Prime Minister's suggestion to marry the Crown Prince to his daughter and
afterward, everything moved in lightning speed.

Of course the Crown Prince was brokenhearted, and he refused to consummate the wedding,
until Yun Ruoxi – the Crown Princess – bought an aphrodisiac and slipped it into the Crown
Prince's drink, forcing him to consummate and mark her as his mate.

When his Beta lover found out, she took her own life by hanging herself on the tree where
she and the Crown Prince first proclaimed their love to each other – with his unborn child in
her stomach.

Ever since then, the Crown Prince – now Emperor – hated the Empress and her son with all
his heart and refused to meet them outside of formal function where they had to attend and
instead, led an ascetic life away from his own wife and son.

But the news of the return of Grand Duke Lan should make the Emperor ecstatic, since he
was really fond of him – a dominant Alpha and the only son of his dead best friend.

The Emperor took Grand Duke Lan in when he lost his parents, and gave him the same
education as the Crown Prince – up until his coming of age ceremony, where he had to go
back to his territory and took care of the mythical beasts infestations.

It was three years ago, and now, the Emperor's most favored man was back.

And Wei Wuxian was pretty sure that his father wanted to make Grand Duke Lan to be the
next Emperor instead of his useless and hated son.
 Chapter 2

"...ness… Your Royal Highness!"

Wen Ning looked scared when he realized that the Crown Prince didn't even budge even
though he called him many times already.

He was about to fetch his sister when Wei Wuxian's silver eyes suddenly opened, and he
gasped when he saw how brilliant the color was – a sign of a dominant Omega – and he knew
that it was time for the Crown Prince to consume yet another poison to hide his eyes and his
strong pheromone.

Wen Ning himself was a Beta, so he didn't quite understand the world of the Alphas and the
Omegas, but he knew that the man he was in charge of was suffering badly from the
accumulated poison that they called suppressant, and it started to make him lose his mind.

He was already addicted to opium and alcohol – just to alleviate the pain from the
suppressant – and lately, even the strongest substance could not help him with his pain. And
he knew that it was time to up his dosage – again.

He didn't know how the Crown Prince handled all those poison and the sinister glares from
the Emperor and his ministers – or even the pity looks from the Prime Minister – his own
grandfather.

But most of all, he couldn't understand the Empress at all, judging by the way she treated her
own son.

She called for him to see her right now, knowing that this was the Crown Prince's time to take
the suppressant – which would cause his whole body to feel like it had been pricked by a
thousand needles and burned with acid.
She knew that and still requested for his attendance – which should easily be postponed until
after the effect subsided. But since the Empress was also a sadist, she had a high when she
watched her own son squirm in pain in front of her, and that was how she exerted her
dominance.

"Know your place and become the Emperor if you want to escape this hell."

That was basically the words she said every time she met her own son and it made Wen Ning
super grateful for his own parents – who always loved and cherished him and his sister.

And right about when he thought about his sister, the knock was heard and he knew that his
sister was the one who was behind the closed door, since it was the time for the Crown Prince
to take the suppressant.

When he opened his eyes, Wei Wuxian suddenly realized that he was still inside the pool, and
the water had cooled down, leaving him cold. That meant that some time had already passed
since he first entered the steaming hot water, and he realized that he needed to get out of there
to prepare himself for what was going to come.

And when the knock was heard from his door, his body stiffened and his heart raced, from the
memory of the pain that he never got used to.

"I'll open the door, Your Highness." Wen Ning helped Wei Wuxian get out of the pool and he
took the long robe to cover him before he opened the door and revealed Wen Qing with a
bowl of the suppressant disguised as a health tonic.

"Your Royal Highness." Wen Qing entered and curtsied before she put the bowl beside Wei
Wuxian's bedside table. "How are you feeling today?"
It was nice of her to ask Wei Wuxian about his feelings, when she knew exactly how he felt
about everything. Or maybe it was sarcasm? Wei Wuxian couldn't even read the nuance and
the hidden meaning behind others' words any longer, ever since his dosage was upped about a
month ago. It was probably the side effect of being high twenty four hours a day, seven times
a week.

"Better than before." The lie came out as easily as breathing. "But I think it's time for you to
add the dosage." Even talking only this much had made him out of breath already, so he
decided to lie down on his bed before he passed out.

Then after a full minute passed, he propped his body up and drank the suppressant.

Wen Qing observed Wei Wuxian for a long time while he drank without changing any facial
muscles.

It was hard, because the drink tasted like shit, and afterward he would feel like dying for the
rest of the day.

Maybe it was easier to just give up and die.

He had nothing and no one, and no one loved him or even wanted him around. He was no
different with those living dead, but maybe they were better because they're dead and they
could not feel a thing.

No pain. No politics. Only the welcoming darkness.

"Don't ever do that, Your Highness." Wen Qing's voice suddenly pierced through the fog
inside his brain. "The Grand Duke Lan has come back. Please don't even think about doing
anything stupid."

Hmm…
What was it with Grand Duke Lan? Why did everyone seem to look up to him? And what's
with the comment that Lan Wangji had come back and to not do anything stupid?

They didn't even have any relationship except some vague memories about their shared
childhood. But then again, opium and alcohol could do that. Destroyed the last of his brain
cells.

It was hard to think when he was being high all the time, but it was the only way to escape
the pain – especially since he knew that his mother got off by seeing him in pain.

And speaking of his mother.

"The Empress requested your audience now, Your Highness." Wen Ning looked very
uncomfortable when he said that, and Wei Wuxian understood.

He knew he was being punished for being a dirty Omega, instead of the Alpha that the
Empress wanted. And although he didn't understand why, he was instilled from young that
your parents were to be respected and honored, no matter what happened, no matter what
they did.

Well, this was him respecting and honoring the one who brought him out to the world,
although he knew that his filial piety would kill him first before he could be the Emperor.

"Prepare my robe, please." Wei Wuxian spoke softly to Wen Ning.

The effect of the suppressant was immediate, and both siblings saw how the brilliant color of
his eyes turned into the dull shade of dark gray – as if the light had been extinguished off
them.
They also knew that the pain had started, from how Wei Wuxian's hands started to tremble
lightly as Wen Ning put on the robe – layer by layer – and noticed how skinny Wei Wuxian
was.

He could not stomach solid food, and preferred alcohol and opium as his daily food – with an
occasional bone broth and porridge – since he would vomit all the solid ones right out after
consumption.

"I also prepared this for you, Your Highness." Wen Qing gave him a bottle of the strongest
liquor that she could find, and Wei Wuxian gave her a small smile of appreciation – which
Wen Qing knew would be hurt as hell.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." Then he drank it straight from the bottle in a few gulps.

It helped.

The liquor helped numb his pain, although just a little bit.

But a little bit was all that he needed.

And now it was time to face the Empress.

 Chapter 3

The walk to the Empress' Court was long, since it was located right beside the famous Lotus
Pond where the Empress spent a fortune to build and often invited people to come and enjoy
the view. And the Lotus Pond was located right smack in the middle of the court while the
Crown Prince's Court was on the other side.

The Empress built the Lotus Pond and her own Court, and made them super extravagant –
with real gold pillars carved with dragons and phoenix, and furniture made out of the best
quality jade. Even the Emperor's Court was not as extravagant as this because he spent most
of his time locked up in his study when he was not with his minister.

It usually took Wei Wuxian thirty minutes to walk to the Empress' Court, and it was on a
good day.

Today? Not so much.

He refused the palanquin that Xue Yang had prepared for him, and insisted on walking to get
some fresh air after all the opium he inhaled had permeated all of his clothes and pores with
its sickly sweet smell.

He hated it.

The taste, the smell, the after effect.

But it was basically the only thing that could keep the pain away – even for a short while.

Armored by his heavy black and gold Crown Prince garb and crown, and mostly
determination, he walked – slowly and painfully, just like a snail – to the Empress' Court,
followed by Wen Ning and Xue Yang behind him.
It took longer than he thought.

The usually thirty minute walk turned into an hour because he was feeling like he was about
to keel over and die with every step that he took.

He knew that his attendants were worried sick about him, and he was glad that he had at least
three people who cared about him in this hell. So he forced himself to move until he reached
the extravagant Empress Court.

When they reached the place, Wei Wuxian could hear the faint sound of music and people
talking, and he knew right away that the Empress was entertaining people.

And by entertaining, what he meant was that the Empress gathered the most powerful
generals and merchants whose positions were vital in court and she flooded their senses with
her dominant pheromone to make them all fall in love with her. In turn, they would do
anything for her – including giving her secret information and supporting her useless son, the
Crown Prince Wei Wuxian, to be the next Emperor.

When Wei Wuxian took a whiff of the strong pheromone, his stomach turned inside out and
he almost fell down on his knees from the nauseating, thick pheromone that the Empress
exuded.

He tried hard to gather himself and keep himself calm, to not let the others know that he
could smell the pheromone since a Beta was not supposed to be able to do that.

He gulped once, twice, and forced a smile before he entered the Court and knocked on the
Empress' room – where the pheromone was the thickest.

"Come in."
The Empress answered after what it seemed to be a decade of waiting.

She always did that – playing with his mind, torturing him mentally, and physically – and she
did not care that she made her own son become like this.

Not dead, but not alive either.

As long as she achieved her goal – to become the most powerful person in the country with
no one above her.

When Wei Wuxian entered the room, he almost keeled over from the barrage of the strong
pheromone, but he held on and raised his head proudly – playing his part as a good for
nothing Crown Prince who could only drink and get high all day instead of being the future
Emperor that they all expected.

But he didn't care.

Let them all think that he was a good-for-nothing Prince, and perhaps, one day, the Empress
would change her mind and let him free from these shackles.

"Thank you for coming, gentlemen. I hope we can meet again soon." She smiled at them and
Wei Wuxian could literally see the heart eyes from the old men.

He wondered if his mother was actually a reincarnation of Su Daji – the nine tailed fox –
since she looked like she did not age ever since she had him.

Today she wore a bright red robe with golden stitches of an exquisite phoenix mid flight, and
she also wore her red lipstick and her best golden crown as if to show off to the world that
she – Empress Yun Ruoxi – was the one and only power in the Palace and not even the
Emperor dared to have any other consorts nor concubine, for fear that he was going to be
mutilated in his sleep if he did so.
At least that was the rumor outside.

No one knew the real situation inside the Forbidden City, and the people outside could only
speculate from what they saw in a glimpse.

Like how they did not know that the notorious Crown Prince actually wished to die, if the
Empress did not threaten him that upon his demise, she would send all of his attendants and
their family to the grave with him for his company in the afterlife.

And her cunning plan of being the Empress Dowager and him as the puppet Emperor was
flawless – except for the Grand Duke Lan.

And Wei Wuxian instinctively knew that this summon would have something to do with Lan
Wangji, since the Empress hated him so much because the Emperor loved him so much.

"Lan Wangji has come back and the Emperor planned a banquet to welcome him." She got to
the point right away – which Wei Wuxian guessed correctly.

"I heard, Mother." He bowed his head down while trying to hold his breath back from
inhaling too much of the strong pheromone.

"And I heard that you told that girl Doctor to up your dosage again?"

Wei Wuxian caught his breath.

It was just like an hour ago that he asked Wen Qing to do that, and yet the Empress had found
out.
"Yes, Mother. The effect of the current dosage could not last for more than a week so I asked
to add more of the dosage."

The Empress observed her own son with her sharp gaze, and she disliked what she saw.

Sure, he was handsome with his long silky black locks and his dark gray eyes – a
characteristic of the Emperor Wei family, his only saving grace since the Emperor had to
admit that he was his son. But other than that?

Sometimes the Empress wondered, what if Lan Wangji was her son instead of this scrawny
Omega, then the throne would be guaranteed to be his. Especially since the Emperor loved
him so much she suspected that there was something going on between the two of them.

But nothing.

The previous Grand Duke Lan was Emperor Wei's best friend since childhood, and he
married his childhood sweetheart – a commoner, which she hated – and they had their one
and only son just almost at the same time as hers.

That Lan Wangji was a perfect sample of a dominant Alpha, and she envied him.

Why couldn't she – Yun Ruoxi – the most wanted Omega in the country, couldn't even give
birth to the only thing that she wanted?

She knew the Emperor was weak and useless, and she couldn't wait for the day when she
finally got rid of him and placed her son on the throne while she would be the real power
behind the puppet Emperor.

But strangely, all of the assassins that she sent did not come back. It was like they
disappeared into thin air, and she was now meeting with those who were in charge of the
security in Inner Court to find out what was going on.
Wei Wuxian saw his mother's expression and he had a suspicion that she was not happy.

Either with him, or with the news of the Grand Duke Lan, or something that the Emperor did.

It was hard to please the Empress, and those who did not meet her expectation would be
killed at once.

In some way, Wei Wuxian envied them.

At least they were allowed to die.

 Chapter 4

On his way back, Wei Wuxian saw a figure outside the Empress' door, and he noticed him
right away.

He was one of the Empress' playthings – a petite and beautiful man with feminine features
and long silky locks. He wore red lipsticks and his nails were painted red – and his wardrobe
consisted of a very thin gauze-like robe that hid nothing.

The man always lurked outside when Wei Wuxian came to see the Empress, and he always
tried to belittle him in any chance he got, since he knew that he was the Empress' favorite toy.

"Your Highness, nice to meet you again so soon." He spoke in a low voice and his face was
half hidden behind the red fan. The thin robe slid off slightly to show one of his slender and
porcelaine-white shoulders, and he did not make any gesture to fix it.

"Mo Xuanyu." Wei Wuxian only acknowledged him and he brushed him off to go back to his
court – not seeing the unpleasant look on his face.

He didn't care anyway.

He knew that the Empress' boy toys always tried to find a way to please her, and that
included by being obnoxious to him, knowing that the Empress did not care about him at all
except to make him the next Emperor.

Everyone was trying to gain favor from the Empress since they knew it was just a matter of
time before the Emperor croaked and the puppet Emperor was going to replace him, and they
all knew who held the true power in the Palace.

Even all of those pretty boys – who were the son of the nobles – were racing to get the
Empress' affection, and Mo Xuanyu was the highest ranked one. His father was one of the
biggest suporter of the Prime Minister and the Empress, and Mo Xuanyu himself was an
Omega – which was coveted by many, but could be seated within the high ranked officials,
since there was a rule that forbade Omegas to have any positions in the hierarchy.

They knew if they could get their baby into the Empress womb and probably made the child
the Emperor instead of the useless alcoholic and drug addict Beta they called the Crown
Prince – not knowing that the Empress had lost her ability to get pregnant. Otherwise, she
would not waste her time on Wei Wuxian, and instead she would just kill him when he was
born.

But alas, fate said something else, and now she had to endure all of this humiliation – while
trying to hasten the demise of the current Emperor.

And that was one of the reasons why she hated Wei Wuxian with all her might.

She did not need him to think, just barely alive was enough. And that was exactly what she
did to him.

On the way back to his court, Wei Wuxian felt lighter. He felt that the pain had subsided, and
he felt a little bit better and his mind was a little bit clearer, so he decided to go out to the
marketplace where he could see the bustling town and its people – his people.

He needed to be reminded once in a while about why he did all of this, and why he should
hang on to the thin thread that connected him to his will to survive.

Of course he knew that his pain would not end even if he was to become the Emperor. But at
least he needed to know that his people were living a good life.
True that the current Emperor was weak. He was only a normal Alpha among his Beta
siblings. But he was at least really concerned about his people and did everything he could to
upgrade the standard of their living, including providing free housing and free education in
the slum area. He also opened the employment center for the jobless people and mostly they
would help by giving back to the others in any way they could, so the crime rate went down
considerably.

For the weak Emperor, his mind was quite a modern one, and that's why the people loved
him. And yet, the nobles and the aristocrats did not like the way the Emperor was
approaching things, and it was one of the reasons why they sided with the Empress to bring
back the olden way of governing the low class and common people.

By iron fists.

Wei Wuxian had no idea how he could oppose the Empress if one day he was to become the
puppet Emperor, but he had established something that could help the people if the day the
current Emperor died – came.

And he was on the way to meet his back up plan now.

 Chapter 5

"Welcome to Peony Garden, Childe, your usual room?"

The place that Wei Wuxian went to was the famous courtesan house – Peony Garden – which
only catered to the rich and mighty.

The building had two floors and the second floor was reserved to the most requested girls of
the Peony Garden. Each room was decorated according to their taste and the guests could
only arrive after their appointment and payment were made up front. If they exceeded their
two hour time limit, there would be extra charge for every hour they stayed – not including if
the girl had already made another appointment prior.

They did not do any bodily fluid exchange there, only music, dance, literature, and all the
things a high-end courtesan did to stimulate the mind of the lonely – with an exorbitant price,
but still in very high demand, judging from the waitlist that could span as far as six months in
advance.

All of their girls were beautiful and smart, but most importantly, Peony Garden was actually
an information guild that was set up and belonged to Wei Wuxian. He gathered the orphans –
mostly Omegas and Betas – and put them under training to become spies because he knew
that information was worth more than gold.

The girls were trained by an Omega woman that Wei Wuxian saved when she was heavily
pregnant and abused by her husband – Jiang Yanli, and her Beta brother, Jiang Cheng. Both
of them did not know that he was the Crown Prince – only a rich son of a noble who was
kind enough to help them, and they did help with all their body and soul, by making the
Peony Garden one of the two most successful courtesan houses in the red-light district.

And now, the receptionist who recognized him quickly took him to his special room that was
only reserved for him only.

She nodded at the trainee girl to call Madam Jiang and informed her that the Childe was here.
"Would you like some snacks while you're here, Sir? We have a new menu for this month."
The girl, Mianmian, knew that Wei Wuxian liked the Peony tea and the specialized snack of
the Peony Garden – a snowdrop cake with peony jelly inside. But the new menu was different
because it was made out of the strange fruit that the foreigner brought and taught how to
make them into a delicious chocolate drink and snacks, and she wanted to show off her skill
to the handsome and gentle Childe.

Xue Yang was about to reject because he did not like it when Wei Wuxian ate food that had
not been tested first, but the latter stopped him and he smiled gently at the young girl.

"Sure, Mianmian. Please bring some to my friends here too, okay?" And he ruffled
Mianmian's hair before he went to the back door where the special room was located –
leaving Wen Ning and Xue Yang outside.

Inside the dark room, Jiang Yanli had waited for him with a pot of specially brewed tea and a
few plates of snacks such as mooncake, pineapple bun, and the famous snowdrop cake with
the peony jelly inside that Wei Wuxian loved.

He knew that it was risky to eat without the poison tester, but he trusted Jiang Yanli and she
would never betray him by her own choice.

"Childe, I've been expecting you." She curtsied and bowed her head deeply as a sign of
respect, and Wei Wuxian waved her off.

"Any news?" He sat in front of Jiang Yanli and took a piece of the snowdrop cake and bit into
it.

"Not the ones that you wanted to know, but we have an appointment with Minister Lu in
three days, we should know more by then." Jiang Yanli then updated Wei Wuxian with
something that was bothering her lately. "Childe, we have information that many of the
orphaned young Beta males were kidnapped and were taken somewhere. We tried to
investigate, but every time we could not find any more clues. Like they just disappeared into
thin air."

Wei Wuxian lifted his brow in question.

Young Beta males were very common and many people threw their Beta son away in hope to
conceive another more superior offspring, like an Alpha male.

No matter how weak, Alpha males and females were in high demand, especially for works in
government positions – where Omegas were forbidden to hold any high position. So it was
no wonder that the Beta children were the lowest in the hierarchy, and they would amount to
become eunuchs in the palace, since it was hard for them to have children too.

But, to kidnap them in the broad daylight? That there, took some guts, and it could only be
done by someone with a high ranking, whether it was nobles – or slave traders.

"Please ask Jiang Cheng to investigate more into this. Use any means possible to find out
more and the whereabouts of the kidnapped children, please. You may use the emergency
fund to utilize more manpower to do so."

"Yes, Childe. Thank you for your concern, and I promise not to let you down."

After that, they continued with the usual reports, and Wei Wuxian would leave when it was
time that the sun started to get low.

"I will leave everything in your hand then, Yanli. If you have any urgent news, please use the
messenger bird to send me the encrypted message, and I will get back to you shortly." Wei
Wuxian then stood up and prepared to leave. He was starting to feel the low tremor on his
hands – a sign that he had exceeded his stamina and needed to take a rest before he passed
out from exhaustion.
"By the way, where's A-Ling? I didn't see him around."

"He's playing with some kids his age from the Blue Orchid. They had a lot of young children
there and I think A-Ling had a crush on one of them."

Blue Orchid was the other courtesan house with the best reputation and even longer waiting
list. But although they were rivals, they also helped each other in times of need – given that
they were all women and children and people who did not have any family left in this world.

"Hmm, good for him. Just tell him that I miss him and will see him next time I come here."

"Of course Childe. Have a safe trip and I will give you an update as soon as possible
regarding your request."

Wei Wuxian nodded and he left the room to go back to where his aides were waiting for him,
when he saw A-Ling outside in front of the front door – talking to a tall gentleman in all
black.

He smiled and called the boy, and when he turned around, his face was beaming with
happiness to see Wei Wuxian. He ran back to him and gave him a hug that made Wei Wuxian
remember what he was doing this all for.

And it was worth it.

"Childe, that gentleman was looking for you." A-Ling pointed at the man with an all black
attire that was talking with A-Ling before and Wei Wuxian frowned.

No one was supposed to know that he was out here, and if anyone suspected, he was after all
the useless Crown Prince, and he was already living the life of debauchery anyway.

But when he looked closely at the man in all black, his heart stopped for a second there.
What was he doing here of all places?

The man's fiery golden eyes met with his own dull gray lifeless ones, and Wei Wuxian saw
that they lit up and the man himself quickly approached him with fire in his intoxicating
golden eyes.

It took him only a few long strides to be on Wei Wuxian's side, and he smiled so softly when
he called his name. The name that he couldn't even remember since no one ever called him
that ever since this man went away three years ago.

"Wei Ying. I'm back."

 Chapter 6

Lan Wangji.

Grand Duke Lan.

The most coveted person in the country right now, and the strong candidate of being the next
Emperor.

In other words, his total opposite.

Wei Wuxian took a step back, but Lan Wangji also moved forward even closer now – and it
made him realize that Lan Wangji emitted a soft, pleasant smell all around him that caused
him to let his guard down.

And every part of him remembered the smell.

Ever since they were children and when he was in pain from all the suppressant, Lan Wangji
was always by his side, comforting him and enveloping him with it.

His pheromone was like the soft and refreshing smell of the pine forest, citrus, and the
sunshine itself – everything bright and nice, the total opposite of himself. And it always
brought him some peace and contentment amidst the storm that he was dragged into against
his will.

But it was different now.

He was beyond salvation and he did not want to taint Lan Wangji's reputation by associating
with him in any way.
And it also would be for his own protection, because he could not let his heart wavered even
for a bit, if he wanted to make everything end up well for everyone. He would sacrifice his
body, his mind, even his soul if it's to protect his people.

"Wei Ying." Lan Wangji suddenly took Wei Wuxian's hand and clasped it in his own bigger
one.

It was so big, and warm, and… safe.

Wei Wuxian remembered that he always felt safe when he was near Lan Wangji, and it
helped alleviate his pain without any drugs or alcohol.

But he could sense that Wen Ning and Xue Yang were anxious about this unexpected
encounter, so he needed to get away from Lan Wangji as soon as possible.

It was not the best thing to let people know that the Grand Duke Lan had been visiting the
courtesan house. It was not good for his perfect image and unblemished reputation – unlike
himself.

As for him, not many people knew the face of the Crown Prince, so he should be fine.

"Grand Duke Lan." Wei Wuxian let go of Lan Wangji's hand forcefully. "You should not be
loitering around the red light district at this time. No. At all. People will be disappointed at
your behavior at this point. You should head back to your residence immediately before the
Emperor and the nobles of your faction found out that you've been here."

Lan Wangji did not immediately respond, instead, he looked at Wei Wuxian with such
intensity that would burn any other man with its fierceness.
But not Wei Wuxian.

He could not feel anything anymore after all of those drugs and alcohol that was coursing
through his veins. And he did not want to drag Lan Wangji's name and reputation through the
mud for being associated with him in the slightest.

Thus, he needed to take a proper distance from him.

But then he saw how Lan Wangji's eyes got hard – and he wondered if he finally realized that
he was the good for nothing Crown Prince after all – and prepared for his blow.

"Do you think I care about my reputation, Wei Ying?" Lan Wangji's tone was still low and
pleasant, although Wei Wuxian could feel the tension behind his words. "I don't give a fuck
about what people think about me, and perhaps, you should do, too." He then forcefully
grabbed Wei Wuxian's hand again while the other one waved to his aide and guard – the Nie
brothers. "Come with me. I will take you back to the palace. I know you didn't bring your
carriage with you and you look like you're about to keel over any time now."

Well, he's not wrong, judging how his feet were trembling and how his whole body was hurt
from this short outing. He was thinking to use the Peony Garden's carriage when he saw Lan
Wangji anyway.

But, how would this encounter be seen by the Empress?

She would put her spies on Lan Wangji to follow his movement, and not to mention she
probably put someone on him too.

What would she think about when he let Lan Wangji take him back to the Palace?

"Don't worry about anything, Wei Ying. I will take care of everything, now that I'm back.
You don't have to be afraid anymore."
Lan Wangji spoke with such a tender tone that caused Wei Wuxian to waver for a bit.

But then he thought, this was not Lan Wangji's battle.

This was his battle, and there was no way he would drag Lan Wangji into hell with him,
especially with the Empress looming behind his back, ready to get rid of everything that
hindered her to be the Empress Dowager.

So he steeled his heart and took his hand back from Lan Wangji, and thankfully Xue Yang
was quick when he prepared the Peony Garden's carriage to arrive right when Wei Wuxian let
go of Lan Wangji's hand.

"Thank you, Grand Duke Lan. But you should go back to your place instead, and not
associate with me. I have a means of transportation here, so don't worry about me. Please
take care of yourself, and congratulations on your grand achievement."

Wei Wuxian nodded his head and then with Wen Ning's help, he entered the carriage and left
before Lan Wangji could do something that would embarrass them both.

He would definitely keep the Grand Duke's reputation intact for his future marriage, and for
when it's time for him to become the Emperor.

Wei Wuxian was sure that Lan Wangji would make a fine Emperor – and that was the last
thing in his mind before he passed out from exhaustion.
 Chapter 7

"You're awake, Your Highness."

Wei Wuxian opened his eyes to see the familiar ceiling with the wooden dragon carvings, and
he knew that he was back in his bedroom.

"How long?" He groaned in pain from his stomach.

It seemed that his estrus cycle had started, even though he knew that it was not supposed to
be the time yet.

Did the meeting with Lan Wangji somehow trigger it?

"Two days." Wen Qing gave him a cup of warm water to calm his stomach. "It seems like
something has triggered your estrus cycle, Your Highness. Yours is supposed to be another
week or so."

"It seems to be the case."

Wei Wuxian knew that he could not go outside at least for another day to settle his body, but
then Wen Qing cleared her throat and pointed at the black and red robe that was obviously
new.

"The banquet for Grand Duke Lan will be held tonight, and this is what the Empress sent you
to wear."

"The banquet is tonight?" Wei Wuxian was baffled because as far as he remembered, it was
supposed to be next week.
"Yes. The Grand Duke Lan insisted that he would be busy next week and if the Emperor
wanted to give him a banquet, he should do it today."

Wei Wuxian groaned.

He knew that Wen Qing knew that his estrus cycle had started earlier after he met Lan
Wangji, and he also knew that Wen Ning and Xue Yang must have told her too about the
meeting.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. Since you drank the suppressant all the time, your pheromone
would not smell like any other… you know. But, may I suggest something? This might be the
solution to lessen the suppressant and the drugs and alcohol, Your Highness. But…" She
hesitated to continue.

"Go on." Wei Wuxian kneaded his head to release the tension from all the drugs.

"There is one way to do it. By spending your estrus cycle with an Alpha."

Wei Wuxian stopped his kneading as he digested Wen Qing's words.

"If you can find an Alpha that you can trust and spend your every estrus cycle with him, the
pain of the suppressant would lessen by half at least, and you don't have to use the drugs and
alcohol again, Your Highness."

Wei Wuxian thought about the ridiculous idea and he scoffed lightly.

"Have you told this to the Empress? If you haven't, don't. I don't want she killed every Alpha
who spent the night with me just like she disposed everyone else who threatened my position
as the Crown Prince."
"Understood, Your Highness. But please consider the idea."

Well, it actually made sense. He was a dominant omega with stronger pheromone than his
peers – the normal omegas – and he was already in his prime age for having an offspring or
two.

Just like how Lan Wangji would be married as soon as he found the right partner.

Lan Wangji.

His heart ached when he actually thought that someday Lan Wangji would marry another
Omega and have a happily ever after life with their children.

Well, he deserved that.

He deserved that and so much more.

Unlike himself.

He knew that he was just a pawn for the Empress to be discarded as soon as she became
Empress Dowager and he had accepted his fate ever since he understood how the world and
its people worked. Only the strong would survive, and he was the furthest thing away from
having strength to do anything about his own condition – let alone taking care of others.

"I want to take a bath please."

He would rather think of how to survive the day instead of thinking of some useless stuff.

At least until he became the Emperor that his mother wanted.

"I have prepared the bath for you, Your Highness." Wen Qing bowed and she called Wen
Ning to help with Wei Wuxian's clothes. "Please drink this strengthening supplement, to help
you to get through the party. Don't worry about the pheromone, it's very subtle, no one would
be able to smell it unless they're looking for it."

Wei Wuxian nodded in gratitude toward Wen Qing.

When he first chose Wen Qing as his doctor, the Empress was angry because she was a Beta
woman. But Wei Wuxian told her that if an Alpha male doctor – just as the Empress wanted –
was to attend him, what happened when his estrus cycle suddenly came? Wouldn't he be in
more danger of triggering the Alpha's rut? And the risk of pregnancy? Of course he didn't
want it to happen since he was on suppressants all the time. But what if?

After thinking about what Wei Wuxian said, the Empress begrudgingly agreed with a
condition that if he ever got found out, she would terminate all of the doctor's family and
everyone who ever came in contact with her.

Wei Wuxian entered the milky bath filled with herbs and subtle-scented flowers that would
help cover his alluring scent of bergamot, jasmine, vanilla, musk and with spicier undertones
that could turn any sane man crazy with lust immediately.

An hour or so in the bath would dissipate his own strong scent and rendered him scentless
like a Beta that he was supposed to be.
 Chapter 8

The place that held the congratulatory banquet was lavishly decorated with all the abundant
food and the best dancers with thin gauze that barely covered their slim bodies danced in
seductive mode to entice their viewers.

Wei Wuxian recognized some of the dancers from Peony Garden and he subtly nodded in
agreement. He knew they would mingle and gather information from the nobles and the other
dancers and mistresses and he was proud of them.

Thankfully, no one in Peony Garden knew that he was the Crown Prince, and only Jiang
Yanli and Jiang Cheng who saw his face clearly when he was there.

Well, he has a suspicion that Jiang Yanli knew more than she let everyone know, but that was
exactly the trait that he looked for. And he believed that she would not betray him, as long as
the money was good. And the income for the Peony Garden was even bigger than the Crown
Prince's allowance.

He entered the banquet and immediately got the attention of most of the onlookers.

They immediately whispered among themselves and criticized everything – from his sickly
pallor, to his robe, to his skinny and small body and his infamous reputation of being an
alcoholic and drug addict.

It was just the usual farce, and he paid no heed to them. Instead, he walked straight to the seat
that was prepared for him and started to drink the alcohol to numb his mind.

Unfortunately, as soon as he sat down, another man approached him. This time it was the
alpha male of the Wen family – Wen Chao, the first son of the Minister of Justice – and the
rough and arrogant one who was rumored to hurt many omegas and betas for his
entertainment.
And his father was one of the Empress' loyal subjects.

"Greetings, Your Highness." He smirked and took a seat beside him. "Let me pour the wine
for you."

Wei Wuxian only nodded since he had no strength to argue, nor that he was able to do
anything to this man even if he was nobody's son.

Wen Chao was tall and buff and very strong too, because he was the captain of the Royal
Guards. While his status was not as high as Lan Wangji, his strength probably matched the
slim and athletic Grand Duke.

Although he wondered why Wen Chao approached him. He was supposed to be on duty since
the banquet was attended by high-ranked people, and he was the captain of the Royal
Guards.

"Thank you." He nodded as Wen Chao poured the drink to him.

"You may be wondering why I'm here instead of doing my duty as the captain of the Royal
Guards." He suddenly opened the conversation.

Well, not really, but whatever.

Wei Wuxian didn't really care, he just wanted the banquet to be over and he would excuse
himself to go back to his quarters.

Being this close to an Alpha while he was in the middle of the heat was not comfortable at
all, especially since Wen Chao's pheromone was too heady for him, it made him almost vomit
out his gut. So, in order to drown the scent, he poured the alcohol again. At least being drunk
was able to lower his sense of smell and render him high.
What he did not know was, when he lowered his guard, his own pheromone would seep out
more and more, and being the dominant Omega, his pheromone was very potent to the
normal Alphas.

Wen Chao was thinking about how he could get closer to the Crown Prince, and maybe
seduced him, since he was going to be the Emperor. He did not mind having a Beta as his
spouse especially if the said Beta was half dead. Who knew if he would survive for that long,
and meanwhile, he could be the Emperor Regent.

Of course he was not that stupid to not see that the Empress was aiming for the seat of
Empress Dowager and became the power behind the puppet Emperor, but as long as he could
be the Royal Consort, that was not going to be a problem at all.

But then he started to feel good.

He could smell a very heady and strong pheromone that messed with his head and stirred his
loin, and he looked around to see if there was an Omega in vicinity. He didn't recall ever
smelling this particular pheromone, and he knew every Omega in the Palace. Hell, he tasted
almost all of them – mostly the maids and the eunuchs. But their smell was lighter, and the
only smell he could remember that was this strong was the Empress when she started her
dominion.

Dominion was when she released the big amount of pheromone that could make the Alphas
crazy with lust and became her slave, and unless it was a Dominant Omega – which was rare
enough – they could not have this kind of pheromone.

Wen Chao was starting to lose his mind and started to be controlled by his lust as he suddenly
grabbed the Crown Prince's skinny wrist and pulled him closer.

"What are you doing?" Wei Wuxian tried to let go of Wen Chao's hand, but his grip was too
strong, and he looked like he was in some kind of a daze.

"Your Highness, why don't we go somewhere more… private to talk? I want to talk to you
about something."
Wei Wuxian almost vomited from the Alpha's pheromone that suddenly went wild. He was
trying to hold his breath but the smell became heavier and it enveloped him in not a pleasant
way, so he tried to shake Wen Chao's hand off to no avail.

"Captain Wen, please let me go at once." He spoke in a stern manner. "Or I have to call the
guard on you."

But Wen Chao ignored him and he suddenly stood up and dragged Wei Wuxian with him
outside to the garden and pushed him down at the gazebo. His eyes looked wild, and he was
breathing heavily while he looked at Wei Wuxian with such a burning passion in his eyes.

"Captain Wen, please…" Wei Wuxian did not understand why Wen Chao suddenly acted like
he lost his mind, and when he tried to let go of his hand, the man gripped it harder until Wei
Wuxian flinched from the pain.

"Your Highness… I-"

Suddenly Wen Chao's words got cut by another sharp and heady smell that overpowered him
and caused him to flinch and let go of Wei Wuxian's hand.

He fell backward and a second later another imposing figure in all black appeared between
them, and it caused Wen Chao to almost suffocate from the Dominion of the Dominant
Alpha.

"Captain Wen." The voice was low and dangerous. "You are supposed to be the Captain of
the Royal Guard, and yet here you are, almost assaulting the Crown Prince."

"I–I am sorry Grand Duke! I did not know what exactly happened to make me lose control
like that, please forgive me Grand Duke, Crown Prince! Please spare my life!" Wen Chao
suddenly realized what he was doing and he became so scared under Grand Duke Lan
Wangji's Dominion. It almost suffocated him, and he would surely die if the Grand Duke did
not give him mercy.
"Just leave." Wei Wuxian suddenly could not breathe and he knew why.

Lan Wangji's pheromone had triggered his heat, and he had to get out of this place as soon as
possible.

"Be glad that Your Highness has granted you mercy." Lan Wangji looked at Wen Chao coldly
and the latter bowed down to both of them.

"Thank you, Your Highness! Thank you Grand Duke! I will take my leave now!" He
disappeared from their sight immediately, and Lan Wangji turned around to help Wei Wuxian
when he noticed the smell.

"What in the…" Lan Wangji was overwhelmed by the scent of the seductive pheromone that
wafted out of Wei Wuxian's body.

For a lesser man like Wen Chao, he would definitely not stand a chance.

Even for him, it was hard to think amidst the waves of the dizzying and lustful pheromone
that caused Lan Wangji to get aroused.

But how…?

Then he noticed how Wei Wuxian was breathing heavily and his face was reddened from all
the heat, and Lan Wangji was very surprised to see the appearance of the man that he thought
was a Beta.

"Wei Ying… you… you are an Omega?"

 Chapter 9

The sound of Lan Wangji's voice and his sudden release of his Dominion caused Wei Wuxian
to feel hot and itchy all over his body.

He could feel his breath was getting shorter and shorter and his vision blurred, and when Lan
Wangji looked at him with such a tender look that suddenly turned into a surprised one.

And then he could see that Lan Wangji was speaking something that unfortunately he
couldn't hear because he lost consciousness.

When he gained his consciousness, he was back at his room with Wen Ning and Wen Qing's
concerned look as they observed him beside his bed.

Wei Wuxian groaned as he tried to wake up, but then he remembered that he was supposed to
be at the banquet for the Grand Duke and he quickly questioned Wen Ning about that.

"Uhm…" Wen Ning looked at Wen Qing – who nodded. "The banquet had ended three days
ago, Your Highness."

"What?" Wei Wuxian shot up but he felt dizzy and Wen Ning propped him up and Wen Qing
gave him water.

"Yes. Three days ago the Grand Duke brought you here – unconscious – and told us to tell
you to meet him as soon as you wake up. And he was just here to tell us that he will be
waiting at the Blue Orchid tonight."

Wei Wuxian was puzzled.

Three days?
But he woke up feeling much better, and he knew that he had not drunk any of the
suppressants since he passed out.

He looked at Wen Qing in question.

"It seems that Your Highness' pheromone was suppressed by the Grand Duke'a Dominion –
without side effects." She cleared her throat. "And yes, the Grand Duke found out that you
are an Omega, that's why he wanted to talk to you as soon as possible." Wen Qing looked
straight into Wei Wuxian's eyes. "And I suggest you go and talk with him, and if possible,
arrange for a mutually benefitting solution for both of you so that you don't have to drink any
suppressants ever, if you know what I mean."

Of course Wei Wuxian knew what it meant. He was not that dense so that he could not
understand the implication of having his pheromone easily suppressed without the side effect.

But why Lan Wangji, of all people?

It was good that he was the only one who was always by his side, but on the other hand, he
was always by his side – causing him to not be able to have a family of his own.

Should he be selfish and ask for his help on this matter too?

He believed that Lan Wangji would not spread that the Crown Prince was an Omega – at least
from what he knew from three years ago about his upright character.

But three years was also such a long time to make people change.

What if he wanted to be the Emperor in exchange for his help? Or what if he threatened to
tell people that the weakly and useless Crown Prince was such a worthless Omega and thus,
secured his place as the next Emperor?
Well, he didn't really care about who should reign as the Emperor, and in his opinion, Lan
Wangji would be the best choice for the Emperor instead of himself.

It was just the Empress.

What if she did something to Lan Wangji?

He didn't care if the Empress killed him at this second since he did not want to live anyway,
but he couldn't leave without knowing that Lan Wangji was going to be safe.

"Fuck I'm going crazy." He let out a loud sigh and wanted to crawl back into his bed and die.

"You should do that later, Your Highness. Right now, you have an appointment with Grand
Duke Lan."
 Chapter 10

It had been three days since Lan Wangji found out that Wei Wuxian was an Omega, and even
though it was hard to believe, he finally understood why the Crown Prince always had this
sickly pallor, and drank alcohol and did drugs all the time.

It should be to numb the pain of the suppressants.

He clenched his teeth in anger as he remembered how frail Wei Wuxian looked, and how
light he was when he carried him back to his chamber – and he knew that this was all the
Empress' doing, just to make sure that she could be the Empress Dowager and seized the
throne and the power for her family.

He also felt stupid since he never thought for a second that Wei Wuxian was actually an
Omega.

Sure, he caught a whiff of his tempting pheromone here and there when they were together,
but he always thought that it was only a perfume that Wei Wuxian wore – definitely not the
pheromone, and not that strong.

But, from the quality of the pheromone that he just smelled from Wei Wuxian three days ago,
Lan Wangji was sure that Wei Wuxian was a Dominant Omega – the one that was more
superior to a normal Omega – just like the Empress.

Of course he knew how the Empress had her monthly meetings with the powerhouses and
people with high influence just to cast her Dominion over them, and he knew that many
officials were already on her side.

It was just a matter of time before the Empress decided to dispose of the stupid Emperor and
by the time it happened, he knew that Wei Wuxian would be the puppet Emperor that the
Empress wanted.
Lan Wangji rapped his fingers on the wooden table while looking out of the window to see
the crowded street, when someone knocked on the door.

"Enter."

An older woman entered the room and she brought a fresh pot of tea with her. She
approached Lan Wangji and put down the tray of tea and snacks that she brought with her.

"Master. Let me change the tea for you."

Lan Wangji only nodded while keeping his gaze outside.

He wondered if Wei Wuxian was going to come today since it had been three days since he
took him back to his chamber.

From the information he received, Wei Wuxian was still asleep, but today he had a feeling
that the news that he had been waiting for should arrive soon.

"By the way Master, someone was looking for you. Should we bring him up here?" Ying Yu
– the Madam of the Blue Orchid and the head of Lan Wangji's information guild – informed
him after she poured the tea.

She was an orphan whose parents were killed in war, and she was saved by Lan Wangji's
father who trained her to be the shadow guard of the Lans. After Lan Wangji inherited the
Dukedom, he commanded Ying Yu to set up the information guild in the red light district and
hid behind the courtesan house, Blue Orchid.

She was also the one who told him that Wei Wuxian was the actual owner of the Peony
Garden courtesan house and that their purpose was identical to theirs.

"It's the one you've been waiting for." She continued.

Ying Yu knew that Lan Wangji had a massive crush on the Crown Prince, and he was the
only person who cared about the poor guy.

From all of the information they gathered on the Crown Prince, she was sorry for him to have
a crazy mother like that. No wonder he drowned himself in drugs and alcohol.

She still recalled the time back when both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were still in their
teens – how happy they played together although Wei Wuxian was always weak, and how
Lan Wangji's stoic face could only smile when he was with the sickly Crown Prince.

She also knew that Lan Wangji rejected all the marriage proposals and declined the
Emperor's offer to be the next Emperor – just because he did not want the Crown Prince to
suffer more. And also because of his undying love.

She only hoped that Lan Wangji was happy, and she was ready to do anything to make sure
of it.

Lan Wangji quickly stood up and walked out the room but Ying Yu stopped him.

"It would be suspicious if you go out by yourself instead of sending him here. After all, he
wore a disguise, does that mean that he doesn't want to be recognized?"

Lan Wangji knew that she was correct, so he went back to sit although he was anxious.

"Please bring him here then, and thank you."

Ying Yu nodded and she walked out quietly to retrieve the Crown Prince and brought him
back to the room, then she would let out words that they were not to be disturbed.
 Chapter 11

Wei Wuxian was wearing his civilian clothes when he went to the Blue Orchid – which
happened to be on the opposite side of the river where Peony Garden was located.

He told Wen Ning and Xue Yang to wait outside as he entered the three floor mansion alone,
and was greeted by a pretty little thing wearing a blue and white robe with her hair tied into a
high ponytail.

"Good morning, Childe! How may we help you today?" She smiled and bowed her head
respectfully toward the gentleman who looked rich albeit a little bit underweight with black
circles under his pretty dark gray eyes.

"I‐ I have an appointment with someone here. Lan Wangji?"

The girl looked at him with curious eyes but she did not show any other expression other than
a pleasant smile.

"Ah of course. Would you mind if I send words first, Childe?"

"Not a problem at all."

She led him into a waiting room and served him tea, while she informed his presence.

Although this was the first time Wei Wuxian visited this abode, his mind was calm and clear.
This was the first time since he was always drunk and his mind was hazy all the time. And he
liked it.

Was this the effect of an Alpha's pheromone? Or was it just an exclusive to Lan Wangji's
Dominion?
He smelled other Alphas' pheromones multiple times, but nothing could ever compare to
Grand Duke's refreshing and masculine scent – something that he never had.

He never smelled his own pheromone, and he wondered if anyone ever did because as long as
he remembered, he always took the suppressants to hide his true identity.

The Empress told him that when he was born, his smell almost killed a lot of people from its
potency.

Did it mean that he smelled like poison? Or something foul?

Was that the reason why Lan Wangji called him? To tell him that he was going to get rid of
him and become the Emperor?

Wei Wuxian chuckled bitterly.

Of course he would. And Wei Wuxian would tell him that he would not get in his way, and
maybe since they were childhood friends, Grand Duke Lan could grant him a quick and
painless death, so that he would not suffer anymore.

"Childe, please follow me."

An older and beautiful lady appeared and she bowed respectfully toward Wei Wuxian –
making him question whether this was their standard operation or they knew who he was.

But, he wasn't about to ponder over an unimportant question, and instead, he followed her to
the third floor – which looked more private than the other two floors below.

"Please enter the last room on the corridor, Childe. He has been waiting for you."
"Thank you."

Wei Wuxian started to walk toward the room, and when he opened the door he could smell
the freshness of the citrus, the forest and the sunshine, mixed with the deeper scent of
sandalwood even before he saw Lan Wangji – and he wanted more.

He didn't know if his sense became more sensitive because he was about to have his heat, but
he knew that he wanted this scent. Bad.

He approached Lan Wangji – who looked at him without any hint of his feelings in his golden
eyes – and he kneeled before him.

"Please just get it over with."

At least, he would die among this pleasant smell that calmed him, so that he didn't make any
unnecessary ruckus.

Lan Wangji did not respond, but Wei Wuxian could hear the rustle of his luxurious and thick
black robe as he stood up and approached Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian lowered his gaze to the floor and closed his eyes – and prayed for a merciful
death – when he felt that Lan Wangji pulled him into his embrace.

"What did you think that I would do to you?" Lan Wangji spoke with his usual calm voice,
but Wei Wuxian could feel the turbulence behind his words, and he flinched from fear.

But Lan Wangji pulled him even closer and nuzzled his face into the crook of Wei Wuxian's
neck.
"Wei Ying, I'm here. You don't have to worry about anything anymore, because I will do
anything to make you happy."

When Wei Wuxian heard those comforting words, he didn't believe them at first, after all,
between him and Lan Wangji there was a huge gap that even he didn't know how to cross
especially after all what happened to himself.

"Why?" He couldn't help but ask. "Why would you – a Grand Duke with many achievements
and beloved by everyone, who was just like a sun in the sky – do anything to make me – an
abandoned Crown Prince in name, whom everyone despises – happy?" Wei Wuxian heaved
from the pressure that he felt in his chest. "I don't even know what makes me happy, so why
would you know, Lan Wangji?"

Wei Wuxian did not realize that tears were falling down on his face, and he was flustered,
angry, ashamed – at himself – for being this pathetic human being.

He felt so low and useless in front of Lan Wangji. He felt weak and would crumble anytime
soon, especially when Lan Wangji held him like this.

Why would he even hold him like he was the most precious thing in the world? And why
didn't he say anything about his secret?

Why did his hug feel so tight that it seemed to want to put together all of his ruined and
scattered pieces and mold them into one whole being that he never was?

"Because, I love you, Wei Ying. I always do."

Lan Wangji let go of his hug for a moment to caress Wei Wuxian's face and his eyes were so
soft it was like he was not the God of war that everyone was talking about, but only Lan
Wangji, the boy who always followed him everywhere when they were children.
Wei Wuxian remembered the fondness he felt toward the beautiful boy who always wore
white and blue – the Lan's color – and wondered why he always wore black now instead of
the more suitable white and blue robe he always liked.

He didn't realize that he said it out loud, and Lan Wangji answered him with a smile on his
face.

"Because I don't want you to see the blood on my clothes." He kissed Wei Wuxian's temple
with such tenderness that made Wei Wuxian almost cry because no one ever treated him like
this before. "I just want you to see the good side of me, not the bad side, so that you can give
me a chance to love you and make you happy."

"Why? Why do you love me? I am a nobody, a thrown away, a puppet Crown Prince, a
junkie, an alcoholic, a liar. You should just kill me and get over with and become the
Emperor. Me? I just want to rest. To sleep without waking up again. And you should know
why, Lan Wangji. I lied to you. To everyone. I don't deserve to be alive."

Wei Wuxian didn't realize that tears were falling down hard on his face as he sobbed into Lan
Wangji's embrace.

He was so stressed and in pain all this time. And when Lan Wangji told him he loved him, it
seemed like his defense crumbled down to pieces and he just didn't want to pretend to be
strong anymore especially in front of Lan Wangji.

His Lan Wangji.

Lan Zhan.
 Chapter 12

An Omega.

A dominant one at that.

Lan Wangji was so deep in thought as Wei Wuxian cried in his embrace until he fell asleep
while he stroked his long hair tenderly.

Wei Wuxian was too skinny.

He was very light as he carried him to the bed and put him down to let him sleep after all the
pent up frustration that he knew Wei Wuxian must have been keeping inside him for so long.

His handsome face was also gaunt, and his cheeks were sunken to the point that he looked
like a back-alley addict – added the sweet smell of the opium that had permeated into his
pores from its excessive use.

Fortunately, his hair was still beautiful with its shiny luster, courtesy of a hardcore
maintenance by Wen Ning, using aromatic oils and such.

Lan Wangji was thankful for Wei Wuxian's aide and doctor – the Wen siblings – for going
this far to make sure that their liege was alive, although barely.

He sighed as he touched Wei Wuxian's face with his fingers.

He already told his subordinates not to bother him until he called for them, and to lock the
third floor up, so that no one would be able to enter without permission – when he suddenly
smelled it.
It started with woody sandalwood scent – just like the one he always preferred for his
incense, so that he did not really notice it at first – but when it suddenly became heavier with
jasmine, bergamot, and more seductive tone, he realized that it was not the incense that he put
in the room, but instead, an Omega's scent.

He quickly looked at Wei Wuxian – who still closed his eyes, and apparently did not notice
that he released his pheromone wildly – and suddenly he felt hot all over his body.

As a Dominant Alpha, he was used to the Omega pheromone being unleashed upon him on
purpose – to see if they were compatible, or for some more sinister people, to trigger his heat.
After all, he was the most coveted Alpha in the whole continent especially with his handsome
face, great body and perfect lineage.

Every Omega wanted to be his mate, but he only wanted one person – didn't even matter
what his gender was.

He didn't even care that as a Beta, they would have a hard time getting pregnant and having
children. But he loved that person more than just for his ability to have children.

And right now, as he inhaled the intoxicating pheromone from Wei Wuxian, he knew that he
was not imagining things.

Wei Wuxian was definitely a Dominant Omega – and he realized that his own rut was
triggered by the pheromone, a very rare case because he had never been affected by anyone's
pheromone before.

Lan Wangji clenched his teeth and tried to leave the room before anything happened, but he
felt a strong grip on his arm, and when he turned around to try to let go, he saw that Wei
Wuxian was already half naked as he untied his robe with one hand, and his eyes shone in
brilliant silver – a definite sign of a Dominant Omega.

"Where are you going?"

Wei Wuxian's voice became sultry and teasing, and surprisingly his grip was so strong that
not even Lan Wangji could let go without hurting him.

"Wei Ying…" Lan Wangji tried to hold himself back. "I'm going to go out to calm myself
down because I think you're in heat." He became so flustered that he was having a hard time
to hold back instead of pouncing the love of his life.

"Hmm, what a coincidence, Lan Zhan, I can literally smell your arousal from here. Are you,
by any chance, in a rut right now because my heat triggered it?" Wei Wuxian did not let go of
his grip, and instead he pulled Lan Wangji closer. "You know, Wen Qing told me that instead
of drinking the suppressant that causes me to feel like I'm dying, it's easier to spend my heat
with someone I trust." Wei Wuxian suddenly looked coy and he was blushing. "And there's
no one that I trust more than you, Lan Zhan… so, if you don't mind… would you like to
spend your rut here with me?"

Wei Wuxian's silver eyes were brimming with tears, and it caused Lan Wangji to be unable to
deny his request. Well, he wanted to spend his rut with Wei Wuxian ever since forever, but
not without his consent.

"Are you sure, Wei Ying? Because I will not let you go once we spend my rut and your heat
together. Do you understand?"

Wei Wuxian only smiled as he moved forward to touch his lips softly to Lan Wangji, and
inhaled his fresh scent deeply.

Lan Wangji held his breath back, for he was afraid that with any movement that he made,
Wei Wuxian would disappear – just like in his dreams.

But when Wei Wuxian started to move his hands to undo his robe, he couldn't help but
deepen their kiss as he pulled his belt roughly to help Wei Wuxian with the undressing.
His taste was so strong and intoxicating, and it caused him to quickly fall deeper into his rut
as he quickly undressed himself until they both were naked.

"God, you're so beautiful, Wei Ying…" Lan Wangji couldn't help but admire Wei Wuxian's
body.

Sure it was very skinny and he could see his rib bones jutted out and even his hips protruded
sharply. But in his eyes he was the most beautiful person in the world, no matter what his
condition was.

"I love you, Wei Ying." Lan Wangji started to kiss Wei Wuxian fervently and he touched
every inch of his skinny body with love and care, until he could feel the heat rise from both
of their entangled bodies.

"Lan Zhan… I need you." Wei Wuxian lost his breath from pleasure, especially when Lan
Wangji's finger touched his opening and found out that it was already wet and ready.

"I'm here, Wei Ying, always." Lan Wangji whispered all the sweet words into Wei Wuxian's
ear while he drove himself into him and got lost in the bliss.

After so long, he was finally able to become one with his beloved, and he would cherish and
treasure him, and he would give him the highest honor so that everyone would treat him as
the true Emperor that he was.
 Chapter 13

The only time that Lan Wangji got out of the room was to take the freshwater and meal twice
a day for three days. His aide seemed to have taken care of everything including blocking the
pheromones from their room from spreading by using the special array that could block even
the tiniest dust particle from coming in or out.

When he finally emerged and asked for a tub of hot water to take a bath, his aide – Nie
Mingjue – quickly prepared it in the room next to theirs.

Lan Wangji was pleased when he saw that the tub was fit for two people, and he carried Wei
Wuxian tenderly and put him inside the wooden tub before he joined him.

"How's your body?" He started to wash the long hair with water very carefully. "I prepared
aromatic oils that's good for you." He poured a small cup of specially mixed oils that was
good for boosting stamina and vitality, and added the extract of a ten thousand years red
ginseng root, morinda root, reishi mushroom, and sweet wormwood to help with Wei
Wuxian's health.

He also made the special concoction to be drunk later by Wei Wuxian, as he already did for
the past three days.

As a result, Wei Wuxian's complexion became a lot better and with the food the chef
provided, Lan Wangji could see that Wei Wuxian's sunken cheeks had filled a bit, and it made
him look very handsome.

"You spoil me too much."

After he regained his senses this morning, Wei Wuxian couldn't help but feel guilty.

He had lost his mind and literally mauled Lan Wangji and triggered his rut.
Thankfully Lan Wangji was so nice and indulged him, and it was probably because they were
childhood friends that he didn't kill him on the spot.

But it still did not change the fact that he slept with Lan Wangji – the Grand Duke, the future
Emperor, and the most eligible bachelor in the country – while he was just… trash.

Even when it was because he was in heat after so long being suppressed, he should not lose
his mind like that.

What if he got pregnant?

They did not use any protection magic.

And worse, it seemed that the Grand Duke had marked him as his mate.

He touched the swollen part of his neck and had mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, he knew that the mark would help him tremendously, since a marked Omega
did not exude their pheromone to anyone else except their mate – and the mark would
disappear in a few days, he just had to cover his neck to prevent anyone from noticing.

On the other hand, he wondered if Lan Wangji made a mistake since they both lost their
minds during the shared heat/rut, and if he didn't, what was he thinking?

"Don't worry about this, Wei Ying." Lan Wangji touched the bond mark tenderly, as if he
knew what Wei Wuxian was thinking about. "Actually I would like to apologize for marking
you without your consent." He didn't look sad or regretful though. "I was planning to court
you and propose to you formally, but it seems that fate has decided to hasten the process."
What.

Lan Wangji wanted to court him?

To propose to him?

Even though he was supposed to be a Beta?

"You… wanted to court me? Although you know that I'm a Beta?"

"Well, apparently you're not a Beta and yes, I want to formally ask the Emperor to court you
before proposing to you after some time." He touched Wei Wuxian's face tenderly. "Why do
you look surprised? I told you that I've been in love with you ever since we were kids, and I
don't care if you're a Beta or Omega or even an Alpha." He cupped his face and pulled him
closer. 'I love you for you."

Wei Wuxian didn't know how to respond to such a blatant display of affection, when Lan
Wangji kissed him softly and continued to wash him with such tenderness that he never felt
ever since he was born.

"Don't you worry about anything. I will take care of everything when we're back."
 Chapter 14

Li Xin was born as an illegitimate daughter of a noble and the maid.

To be precise, her mother was raped by her employer's son, and she was thrown out to the
slum after they found out that she was pregnant.

Li Yan was a very smart and resilient woman, and she did everything she could to raise her
daughter to be a good person, when one day she met the one who raped her – and he was a
married man with two sons and a daughter of his own.

At that time, she did not have any more feelings for the man, but Li Xin – her daughter – was
different.

She decided to plan a revenge that would humiliate her mother's rapist and save the other
young and gullible maids from his clutches, and the opportunity came when she found out
that the man loved to go to the courtesan house – Peony Garden.

Li Xin immediately applied to work there and she planned to assassinate the perverted
bastard, when she was called by the owner of Peony Garden – Jiang Yanli – and given an
assignment to serve the man who raped her mother.

She quickly devised a plan to kill the man using the no taste, no smell time-released poison
that she made herself – courtesy of being an errand girl for the old alchemist – and she
successfully put the poison into his cup of wine while he was intoxicated.

The news of the childe's death of a heart attack while he was taking a bath was spread in just
a few days, and Li Xin was very proud of her handiwork – when Jiang Yanli suddenly called
her. Right when she was about to disappear with her mother.

She took one look at her boss and knew that her boss knew that she was the one who killed
the perverted bastard, and yet, she was not afraid at all. At least she had taken revenge for her
beloved mother, and she had no regret.

But the next sentence that came out of Jiang Yanli's mouth was a very surprising one, the one
that she didn't expect to hear at all.

"Li Xin, you are a very smart and very beautiful girl, and I understand everything. From now
on, you will undergo special training with our special girls to be the top courtesans in Peony
Garden, and we will protect you and your mother from any repercussions. Deal?"

There was no need for her to think for so long because her mother was the most important
thing for her, and she knew that the special training for the special girls was training to be a
spy and an assassin. Since she already killed a man, what made it different if she killed
many?

She agreed and Jiang Yanli took Li Yan into their place and made her in charge of the kitchen
because she was very good at making snacks for their patrons – and Li Xin graduated the best
in her class, specializing in using poison.

At the moment, Li Xin was one of the dancers who performed for Grand Duke Lan's
celebration banquet. After she finished performing, she slipped out of the girls' changing
room unnoticed and she went in the direction of the Empress' quarter.

The Empress' quarter was an impenetrable fortress with the most amount of guards and arrays
that not even a ghost could slip into without permission.

But, Jiang Yanli provided her with one tiny opening that would close in twenty four hours –
an insignia which could be freely used until the sun was down again tomorrow.

Li Xin changed into the maid's uniform and entered the Empress' quarter easily since there
were a lot of guests who wanted to pay respect to her.
Afterwards, she walked to the direction of the Moonlight Cave – a place where the Empress
kept her pet tiger – and threw a piece of a huge meat laced with super strong sleeping powder
into it, and she waited until the huge beast fell asleep before she entered the cave.

She walked past the snoring beast to the end of the cave, and pressed the jutted stone that
revealed a dark path to the secret dungeon that the Empress kept.

It took her five minutes to reach the end of the stairs and when she did, she almost vomited
from the smell of human excrement, but she knew that she had to hold on.

She walked past rows and rows of prison cells with humans inside, and she had to squash her
urge to free all those innocent souls. Not tonight.

Tonight, she had a very important mission that only she could do, and she needed to do it
before the allocated twenty four hour window.

She steeled her heart and blinded her eyes and walked to the innermost place in the secret
dungeon – where her objective was.

Sometimes she did not know how Jiang Yanli obtained this kind of information, and she
suspected that it had something to do with her brother and the childe who came often and
looked like he was about to be blown by the wind.

But then again, she had learned not to delve into Jiang Yanli's business, unless she was
specifically to be told so, and this one was the most dangerous mission that Jiang Yanli ever
bestowed on her.

When she reached the solitary prison cell at the back of the dungeon, she needed a few
second to adjust her eyes to the light, when suddenly she heard a rustling sound inside the
cell and decided to throw one of her precious mini smoke bombs to make the person inside
unconscious so that she could do what she came here to do.
 Chapter 15

The sun was up and the wind breezed through the willow tree where Wei Wuxian was sitting
below, enjoying the perfect weather with his eyes closed.

From a distance, he could hear the sound of splashing water and the giggles of the children
who swam in the lake to cool down their bodies after working out with their swords to be the
master swordsman – just like their father, who accompanied their sons into the lake and now
was playing with them.

He was content with being able to take a short breather and a nap after a long day of working
in a cooped up office, and the sound of his beloved laughing was the biggest happiness for
him.

But when he felt the splash of water on his face, he knew that it was time to join them before
they dragged him out kicking and screaming into the crystal clear lake with lotus flowers all
over it.

"Join us, Baba! It's two against two and Feng Yue is cheating with Daddy!" Feng Xue – who
had the impeccable good look and golden eyes from his husband – was pouting and
screaming, while Feng Jue – who looked like him with his brilliant silver eyes – giggled
uncontrollably while holding on to Lan Wangji's back and sprayed water onto his twin
brother.

Even though they were still very young, they were smart and gifted in wielding swords – just
like their daddy.

"Yes, join us Baba! The water is perfect for swimming!" Lan Wangji also called him and he
finally relented and took off his heavy robe and shoes before joining his husband and children
into the crystal clear and cool lake.
After they spent some time playing until the children were exhausted, they were taken by
Wen Ning to have their bath, leaving Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian alone in their private
residence to take their own bath together.

Although it was actually a custom for a couple to have their own quarter, Lan Wangji and
Wei Wuxian were against it and they decided to live together in the same quarter – which was
located just beside their children's.

"Are you tired?" Lan Wangji was sitting behind Wei Wuxian and he washed his long hair and
massaged his scalp.

"Mm, not really… ah yes that's good." Wei Wuxian moaned from the way Lan Wangji's
fingers massaged his head. "Why?"

"I just think that it's time for the kids to have a little sister to rein them in, what do you
think?" His hands started to move down to caress Wei Wuxian's nipples and the other hands
slid easily into his opening. "Judging by how wet you are, I assume that you agree?" Lan
Wangji prepared himself to enter the love of his life, and he replaced his fingers with himself.

"What if we have another boy?" Wei Wuxian started to moan in pleasure while his body
moved along Lan Wangji in a slow rhythm.

"Then we should keep making them until we have a daughter." Lan Wangji thrust hard and
Wei Wuxian cried out in pleasure. Their bodies were so compatible that every lovemaking
was an event to be celebrated.

"I agree. Let's have a pack full of daughters who will take care of us when we're old."

"I love you, Wei Ying. Forever." Lan Wangji moved faster and faster until he knotted the love
of his life and started to paint his inside white.

"I love you too, Lan Zhan. Forever."

 Chapter 16

The first thing he felt when he was up was that his body was lighter and there was no haze in
his brain like every morning when he woke up from his slumber.

The second thing that he noticed was that he was not alone in his bed. And after another look,
it was not even his bed.

Third, there was someone else with him.

Someone who embraced him from behind like a lover.

And when he stirred, he could feel that they were still connected, and it made him freeze.

Had he lost his mind?

Or…

Was he still stuck in those fleeting dreams?

He knew that the happiness and the warmth that he felt when he saw and heard those laughter
of joy from the children was just a dream, since he had those kinds of dreams many times
before – although he never saw his partner's face so vividly just like he just did.

Lan Wangji.

But, was this also a dream?

Wei Wuxian tried to see who was the person behind him – although he had his suspicions
from his fresh scent that enveloped him – and he was greeted by the most dazzling and
brilliant golden eyes.

"Good morning."

Lan Wangji gave Wei Wuxian a light kiss on his nose, and Wei Wuxian gasped from the
surprise.

He tried to move away but the movement seemed to only make Lan Wangji got bigger inside
him, and he gasped in surprise – and pleasure.

"You like it?" Lan Wangji pulled out slowly and then he thrust even slower, and Wei Wuxian
could feel every friction, every movement, and he got aroused immediately. "I seem to recall
that you practically beg me to fuck you over and over and over…"

"Stop it!" Wei Wuxian was so embarrassed when he heard how Lan Wangji whispered the
lewd things in his ear that never in a million years would he even think of doing with him.

But here they were.

Doing things just exactly like in his dreams.

If this was also a dream, please just let him not wake up forever.

He was tired, and hurt, and sick, and he just wanted for all of his misery to end.

And most of all, he just wanted to rest. To not think about anything at all.
But as the sensation got sharper and his body felt pleasure beyond what he ever imagined, he
knew that this was not a dream, especially when the evidence was clear – the wet stickiness
all over the bed and inside him, and the sore and swollen neck where Lan Wangji bit him and
made him his mate.

And as if Lan Wangji could read his mind, he kissed the palm that touched the bite mark
lovingly.

"I don't regret it, Wei Ying, especially after you begged me to give it to you. I planned on
doing so anyway, although not this soon." He chuckled. "But don't worry, I will go to the
Emperor today and I will ask him…"

"Stop." Wei Wuxian turned around to face him, and whined a bit when they were separated
from the loss of warmth. "Please don't tell anyone about this… us… yet. I‐ I need more time
to prepare myself. Please?"

Lan Wangji was quiet, and his golden eyes were piercing and eerily identical to those he just
saw in his dream, and he wondered what a beauty their daughter must be if she inherited Lan
Wangji's traits and especially his eyes.

"I will do anything you want, Wei Ying. Take all the time you need." Lan Wangji finally
spoke and Wei Wuxian could see that his eyes were very determined and he knew that he
didn't have much time before Lan Wangji would announce their union to the whole world.

"I will be waiting for your good news."

 Chapter 17

Afterwards, Lan Wangji took Wei Wuxian back to the palace and promised him that he would
not say anything to anyone until Wei Wuxian was ready.

Of course he was not satisfied since he wanted to take Wei Wuxian away from the palace and
settled down somewhere warm and alone, but he respected his decision. After all, he had
been waiting for twenty years, a few days more would not matter.

When he walked out of Wei Wuxian's quarter to go back to his own residence, someone was
waiting for him outside and he could see that it was the Emperor's most trusted eunuch, and
he bowed down as soon as he saw him.

"Grand Duke Lan, the Emperor wants to see you."

Lan Wangji raised his brow in question and wondered how the Emperor knew that he was
here, but he nodded and followed the eunuch to the Emperor's quarter.

When he reached the Emperor's study, he was not alone. There were familiar faces inside,
and he had a suspicion of what was going on. But he did not say anything and instead he paid
respect to the Emperor.

"Long live Your Majesty."

"At ease, Grand Duke. Please sit down." The Emperor waved his hand to show Lan Wangji to
the seat beside him. "You know the Minister of Finance – Jin Guangshan. We were just
talking about you."

"Minister Jin." Lan Wangji nodded his head at the man, who looked like a cat that just ate a
can of sardines.
"Grand Duke Lan, it's an honor to meet you. Please, meet my daughter – Jin Su." He showed
Lan Wangji his daughter – who was obviously an Omega with a scent like an expensive
flower inside the greenhouse.

"She just had her coming-of-age ceremony, and she is an Omega. Why don't you young
people talk among yourself while we discuss the boring finance thing? The garden is
beautiful at this time of the day, you should take her to look around, Grand Duke." The
Emperor smiled as he ordered both Lan Wangji and Jin Su to go out to the beautiful Royal
Garden which was filled with wisteria trees in full bloom – in other words, very romantic.

Lan Wangji immediately knew what the Emperor's intention was, but he did not want to
argue unnecessarily and endangered Wei Wuxian in the process, so he just nodded and turned
around to leave – followed by Jin Su.

The garden was indeed beautiful, and Lan Wangji wished that he was here with Wei Wuxian
instead of with this Omega who spread her pheromone like she was in heat.

Fortunately, since he was already bonded to Wei Wuxian, the Omega's pheromone did not
affect him at all, and it just felt like a little tickle on his senses.

But of course he had to put an act – to prevent anyone from knowing that he had already
bonded with someone – so he decided to act bothered like he usually did.

"Miss Jin, please refrain from releasing your pheromone in public. It will disturb the order."
He spoke with a stern voice, but apparently Jin Su was very determined.

"But Your Grace, there's no one around here, and I think, Your Majesty intended for us to
be… together, for the future of the Kingdom." She moved closer and spread her pheromone
even more while she touched Lan Wangji's hand boldly – which he evaded swiftly.
"Miss Jin, once again I remind you that you are in public. As the daughter of the Minister of
Finance, should you conduct yourself more properly?" Lan Wangji then turned around and
left. "Please tell Your Majesty that I have an important appointment and I would leave first."
 Chapter 18

"I heard that you spent three days at the brothel?"

The Empress called Wei Wuxian as soon as he was back at his residence, and asked him the
question by the time he entered the Empress' room.

"So you decided to release your pheromone by having sex?" She laughed cruelly. "I see the
effect on you, son. Good for you." Then she suddenly turned cold. "Have you taken care of
the people with whom you slept with? I will not tolerate anyone who learns about your
secret."

Wei Wuxian nodded.

He already knew that the Empress would find out as soon as he was back, because she put
spies on him. Thankfully he had the countermeasure by having his doppelganger at his
disposal.

"Good boy. I see you're growing up already. Soon enough, you're going to be fit to be a true
Emperor – unlike your father." The Empress nodded in satisfaction. "Here, take this elixir for
your body. You're going to need it." She waved her hand to the young Omega male in skimpy
clothes and he brought the elixir to Wei Wuxian. "I will deliver one to you every month so
that you can use it to replenish your energy."

The elixir was actually some kind of a very strong philter that, if taken, would cause any
Alpha to lose their minds but strengthen the Omega's vitality.

Wei Wuxian knew, since the Alphas in the Empress' residence were all addicted to this so-
called elixir's scent that wafted out from the Empress' every pores and would do anything to
have another taste even if they had to sell their soul to the Devil himself.
But he would pretend to be clueless and later would ask Wen Qing to concoct the antidote for
it.

"Thank you, Empress Mother." Wei Wuxian bowed down and the Empress waved him off.

When he entered his residence, Wen Ning quickly escorted him inside and prepared his bath
while secretly slipping him a secret note and Wei Wuxian nodded before he entered the bath
and opened it.

There was only one sentence on it.

Package secured.

His mind quickly calculated the time, and he decided to go back to Peony Garden as soon as
possible after he finished taking the bath to soothe his body and eat something because he
was starving.

After the bath, he ate a banana and suddenly blushed from the image that came out popping
into his head of the things he did with Lan Wangji, but he tried to shake it off and think about
something else entirely.

He was very grateful for Lan Wangji's help, but that did not hinder him from doing what he
was about to do – although he knew that by doing this, he would risk his life and everyone
else around him. But still, it was for the good of the country, and he gladly gave his life if it
would help with the country's prosperity.

His country.

So without further ado, he told Wen Ning to prepare the carriage to go to Peony Garden.
Thankfully the Empress had misunderstood his purpose to go to the courtesan's house and he
wouldn't correct her. For the greater good.

When he arrived there, Jiang Yanli had been waiting as they walked straight into the office
they used to meet, and after Jiang Yanli closed the door, she turned the stone statue of the
laughing Buddha and a secret door was opened.

"After you, Childe."

Wei Wuxian nodded and entered the dark room where there were stairs to the secret
basement.

"What about the others?" He asked Jiang Yanli.

"We couldn't take them all without notifying the guards, but we took the worst of them and
promised the rest to go back for them soon."

Wei Wuxian nodded.

He knew it was risky to take away the prisoners, but he had to at least secure the most
important one – the one who held the secret of the Empress that caused him to be held inside
the secret dungeon for the last twenty years.

The others – the sick and dying ones – were also taken secretly to testify before he could save
the rest.

"How's his condition?"

"He was malnourished and dehydrated, but other than that he was actually fine. It was a
miracle that they didn't even torture him like the others."
Wei Wuxian nodded as they arrived on the hidden basement that was converted into a living
quarter temporarily, and Jiang Yanli took him to the secluded room at the corner where the
one Wei Wuxian searched for so long was kept.

They entered the room and saw that the man was asleep and the doctor was just checking his
condition.

"How is he, Doctor?"

The doctor, Xiao Xingchen, was one of Jiang Yanli's most trusted men, and he knew how to
shut his mouth after he was rescued from the assassins who were sent by the noble that felt
wronged by his diagnosis.

"He's asleep, Childe. But he should be fine in a couple more days if you want to ask him
questions."

Wei Wuxian nodded.

He knew that he couldn't satisfy his curiosity today anyway, but he needed to see for himself
the face of the man who was the Empress' weakness, and the one who knew her deepest,
darkest secret.

And when he came closer to the bed where the man was asleep, he saw it.

The face of the familiar and yet unfamiliar person for him.

The face of his father, the Emperor.

 Chapter 19

He knew that the Emperor was out again to meet the lady that he loved – a commoner, and a
famous courtesan of all people – whom he had been seeing for quite some time now.

Every time he met her, he would come back with stars in his eyes, and songs about how
beautiful and smart and sassy the lady was.

They met when the Emperor went out for inspection in a disguise, and the first time they met
was when she was harassed by a man and the Emperor was ready to defend her, when she
unexpectedly kicked the man's ass.

That was when the Emperor knew that he was in love, and he started to court the lady using
all his charms and knowledge and everything he had.

Of course he knew that the passionate love would not last long due to the difference in their
status, but he also knew that it was his duty to replace the Emperor anytime that he was
needed, after all, it was the reason why he was paid handsomely.

Other than occasionally replacing the young and deeply in love Emperor, he also excelled at
his administrative work and his martial arts were also on the level of a master, since it was
his job to protect the Emperor.

Yes, he was the Emperor's shadow, and his best friend from childhood – a brother from the
same milk mother.

His mother was the Emperor's nanny and they played together a lot when they were kids, up
until when he offered himself to be the Emperor's shadow.

He was happy with his job, and when the night came, sometimes the Emperor asked him to
come and they would play chess and drink tea together until it was time for them to go back
to their duties.
But since the Emperor fell in love, he was rarely summoned, and it kind of saddened him a
little. And yet, he was still the man that he referred to the most.

It was a hot summer day and he was sweating all over from the sweltering heat, when he
asked for a drink to cool his body and a maid came soon after to bring him a pot of cooled
tea.

He took the cup and drank the refreshing tea before he took a break and rested his eyes for a
bit. He knew that the Emperor would not come back until late at night, so he took it slowly,
when the heat suddenly increased in his lower part and caused his heart to beat loudly.

As a bodyguard of the Emperor, of course he knew what this meant.

It was either he was poisoned – or someone put an aphrodisiac into the tea he was drinking.

When the door to the study opened to see the beautiful woman that he recognized as the
Prime Minister's only daughter – the most beautiful woman in the country.

He saw her a couple of times at the banquet – although from far away – and he admired how
beautiful and determined she was to be the Empress.

He also knew that it was not his place to think about someone so high in the hierarchy, and
quickly quashed his fantasy away.

But when she started to undress in front of him with a beautiful smile on her face, he knew
exactly what was going on. Unfortunately the lust already overwhelmed his mind as he took
her over and over and over again until the night came and she purred happily in his arms.
When the dawn broke, he felt the tip of a dagger on his jugular – wielded by none other than
the beautiful Prime Minister's daughter – followed by a gaze as cold as ice and a question
filled the empty room.

"Who are you?"

 Chapter 20

Lan Wangji didn't have much thought when the Emperor summoned him the next day. He
even thought of visiting Wei Wuxian on his way to make sure that he was alright and he
ordered Nie Huaisang to prepare some precious herbs and tonics.

He went to Wei Wuxian's place first and was disappointed when the man was not there, so he
left the gift to the doctor and moved to the Emperor's quarters.

Lately, the Emperor always summoned him to his quarters instead of his office or library, and
he even talked about nothing important – just stuff that usually a father and son talked about.

Weird.

He was quite baffled from the change of behavior that happened more intensely ever since he
came back from the war.

Sure, the Emperor always treated him like his own son because his late father was the
Emperor's best friend that he treasured so much, but should he treat him like that when he
couldn't even look his own son – the Crown Prince – in the eye?

If this was the Emperor's scheme to make him the next in line to be the Emperor, he would
blatantly refuse since he did not have any intention of being one. He just wanted to spend the
rest of his life with the person he loved – away from politics and the bustling life of the city –
and he would make sure that the Emperor knew that.

When he entered the quarters, the Emperor was waiting for him in his casual clothes and he
was smoking shisha. There was a table full of snacks and alcohol in front of him and when he
saw Lan Wangji, he gestured to join him – which was declined by Lan Wangji.

"This is the latest trend between the nobles these days – a pipe from the exotic Middle East,
brought by the merchants. Why don't you try some and enjoy it?"
"Thank you for your offer, Your Majesty, but I don't smoke." He declined the obvious
invitation to smoke opium, judging from the sickeningly sweet smell that came out from the
pipe.

"You've always been a stuck up, but I like it." The Emperor chuckled as he inhaled deeply.
"Anyway, how do you find Minister Jin's daughter? She's pretty and talented, very fit to be
the Empress, you know."

"Oh? Do you plan to get married again, Your Majesty? I sincerely congratulate you for your
courage." Lan Wangji bowed his head in a mocking gesture, and the Emperor froze from his
disbelief.

But then he laughed heartily.

"I didn't know that you can make jokes, Wangji." He smiled and poured tea on their glasses.
"This is your favorite tea that just came this morning."

"Thank you."

Lan Wangji was actually very impatient. He wanted to go back to Wei Wuxian's place to see
if he was back, but if he showed the slightest intention in front of the Emperor, he was afraid
that the Emperor would find some fault in Wei Wuxian.

Again.

They spent the next few minutes in awkward silence, until finally the Emperor cleared his
throat in order to start breaching the topic he was trying to bring up. He knew it was no use to
wait for Lan Wangji to start the conversation, and if he let him, the man would be able to sit
in silence for days.
"So, Wangji, I want you to think about marrying Minister Jin's daughter. She would be a
perfect wife for you, and she was the Dominant Omega with perfect lineage and…"

"I have to stop you right there, Your Majesty." Lan Wangji put his cup down. "I will tell you
for the last time that I don't want to become the Emperor, nor am I interested in getting
married to someone that I do not have feelings for." He then stood up. "If you don't have
anything else to say, I will take my leave now, Your Majesty. I still have a lot of things to do
back at the duchy." He bowed and turned around to leave, when he heard the Emperor throw
his cup against the wall and called him in a cold voice, but Lan Wangji could hear the
coldness in his voice.

"Grand Duke Lan, you do know that your behavior could be seen as insubordination and
worse, I could strip you off your title and land and throw you in jail?"

That's it.

Lan Wangji turned around and answered the Emperor with an even colder tone.

"My parents told me to marry the person that I love, and I intend to do so, Your Majesty. You
can throw me in jail or strip me of everything or take away every land that I own, it doesn't
matter as long as I can be with the one I love."

The Emperor suddenly looked pale from Lan Wangji's words.

He realized that somehow, somewhere, Lan Wangji had fallen in love with someone, and he
didn't know about it until this minute.

Who?

Who dared to bewitch the future Emperor of this country?

No, more importantly, who dared to bewitch his one and only flesh and blood without him
knowing?
 Chapter 21

Emperor Wei was still very young and in love and just reigned to the Crown when the Prime
Minister offered him his daughter to be the Empress.

Of course he could not refuse, because the Prime Minister was the one who held the real
power and everyone knew about it. If he dared refuse, he was pretty sure the Prime Minister
would stage a coup and remove him from the throne just as easily as he put him there.

Ah, sometimes he envied his best friend, his shadow and his sworn brother's freedom to
choose his own life, instead of being chained by these gold shackles called the Crown.

He didn't understand love or freedom, until he met Murong Xia – the most beautiful woman,
and the smartest one that he ever knew – and fell in love. Hard.

She was the most coveted courtesan in the red light district but she did not offer her body to
anyone and instead she only offered her skill as a musician and conversationalist by
accompanying lonely men with her music and her wit.

Murong Xia was an exceptional artist, musician, and scholar from a fallen nobility, and the
only thing she yearned for was her freedom.

When Emperor Wei paid a hefty sum to buy her freedom, she quickly got pregnant, and he
was ecstatic and planned to give Murong Xia her nobility back so that he could marry her
and make her the Empress.

And at the same time, he heard the news that the 'Emperor' was injured by an unknown
assailant and that the Prime Minister's daughter saved him, and the 'Emperor' fell in love
with her and proposed to her at once.

He knew right away that he had to hide the woman he loved so that the psychopath daughter
of the Prime Minister did not find her, so he asked his best friend, Grand Duke Lan, to keep
her safe and he spread the rumor that his mistress hung herself because of a broken heart.

The next thing he knew, he was forced to marry Yun Ruoxi – the Prime Minister's daughter –
in a lavish marriage, and even with a more lavish dowry. Of course the Empress Dowager
didn't mind at all since Yun Ruoxi was the perfect example of a daughter-in-law – sans her
psychopathic tendency. But she would never know because she was dead soon after the
wedding and the Emperor suspected that she was killed by the newly appointed Empress.

He didn't know how to escape from the Prime Minister and his daughter's clutches without
endangering everyone – especially his beloved and his unborn child – so he complied with
everything that Yun Ruoxi demanded and started to make plans behind all their backs.

When he heard that Murong Xia started to show her pregnancy, he asked Grand Duke Lan to
marry her, so that his child would not be labeled as a bastard – which Grand Duke Lan
agreed, with a condition that the child would inherit the Grand Duke Lan title and the
Emperor was forbidden to see Murong Xia and the child until he had his coming-of-age
ceremony.

The Emperor hated the idea, but he knew that it was the right thing to do, because the evil
Empress had her eyes everywhere and he would endanger his child's life if he showed as
much as an interest to him before he was able to defend himself.

Soon, when Murong Xia's son and Yun Ruoxi's son grew up, he couldn't help but compare the
two of them in everything. And while he grew more fond of Lan Wangji, he couldn't help but
loathe Wei Wuxian – just because he was the son of the Empress.

So when Grand Duke Lan and his wife suddenly died in an accident, it gave him the perfect
excuse to bring the child of his best friend to the Palace in the guise of being his guardian.

Sure he couldn't be too close to the boy since the Empress surely spied on them all, but it
didn't stop him from convincing everyone else to make Lan Wangji the Emperor – especially
since Wei Wuxian was the black sheep of the Royal Family.

But now?
The Emperor just realized that he could not smell Lan Wangji's scent, and he knew that Lan
Wangji had been marked by someone.

Well, it did not matter. As long as he could find the one who marked him and got rid of them,
Lan Wangji would be able to marry Minister Jin's daughter – his biggest supporter who
promised him that it was Lan Wangji that would be the Emperor instead of the Crown Prince.

He chose the slimy snake, because his power was no less than the Prime Minister, and he was
the one who could match the Empress' influence.

So, no matter what happened, Lan Wangji had to be the Emperor – even he had to rot in hell
for doing what he had done so far, and what he was about to do next.
 Chapter 22

"Let me tell you a secret, Grand Duke Lan. I think you are old enough to know the truth now,
especially since you are talking about love."

The Emperor put down his shisha and poured tea into the two cups. He had made his decision
and he did not want his son to be led astray by some unknown bitch in heat and took away his
inheritance just because of the trivial thing called love.

"I know that you want the love that your parents had, but what if what you know so far was a
lie?" The Emperor drank the tea while observing the Grand Duke's expression.

Unfortunately, Lan Wangji was known for his poker face and he did not even blink when he
heard the Emperor's words, so he decided to tell him. He wanted to see any expression in his
son's face, instead of that usual stoic ice statue that he always wore in public.

"Did you know that Murong Xia – your mother – was originally a courtesan?"

Still no expression.

"Hmm… what about this then. Did you know that Murong Xia was my lover before I told her
to marry your father?"

A hitch in the breath, but nothing more.

"No comment?"

"The past is supposed to be in the past, Your Majesty. It's no use trying to reminisce over
trivial things, especially since my parents were not of this world anymore." Lan Wangji stood
up as he could not stand this degrading conversation anymore.
"So, your parents did not tell you about your lineage then."

"They told me everything I needed to know, especially regarding my life. That I should
follow my heart instead of the norm. And I think it's enough for me."

The answer made the Emperor boil with rage.

What did the Grand Duke Lan and Murong Xia teach his son?

Follow his heart?

That was such a bull.

If they were all able to follow their hearts instead of the strict rules and regulation, then he
would be able to live happily with Murong Xia and his son, and he would be the best
Emperor instead of Wei Wuxian – the weak and useless Beta with powerful back up.

If they were all able to follow their hearts, then… then he would not be shackled into this
golden cage called the throne with nothing going his way.

And in the midst of rage, he shouted at Lan Wangji – who refused to listen to him, and
instead, decided to choose love.

"Did you know that your mother was already pregnant when she married your father?"

The words surely had the power to stop Lan Wangji from leaving his chambers.
He turned around to face the Emperor, and his face was pale.

"What did you just say?"

The Emperor felt this kind of weird satisfaction when he saw how pale Lan Wangji's face
was. The man was smart, surely he understood the meaning behind his words.

"It is as it was. Your mother was already with you when she married your father, and she was
my lover before. Surely you can put things together with those facts, right?"

Lan Wangji felt like his world was crashing down on him after he was being lifted up to the
sky when his love was reciprocated.

Surely the gods loved pulling pranks on them all.

A sick and twisted prank.

"So, you're saying…" He swallowed hard, and he got a sudden headache slamming his head
like he was being hit by the wyvern. "Wei Wuxian… the Crown Prince… is my half
brother?"

The Emperor was surprised that it was the first question that Lan Wangji asked.

He knew that Lan Wangji was always fond of the useless Crown Prince and he treated him
better than the others had treated him. But he always thought that it was just because they
grew up together so that they were more like brothers.

The Emperor sighed in disappointment.

"Unfortunately, yes, he is your half brother. And that's the reason why I want you to be the
Emperor instead of him."

Lan Wangji did not answer, instead, he left without saying another word to the Emperor.
 Chapter 23

The moment he received the news that the man was conscious, Wei Wuxian went to Peony
Garden to see him – the one who was previously the Emperor's shadow.

He wanted to know why the Empress imprisoned him without killing him. He was
malnourished and weak from the lengthy time that he was underground, plus he was drugged
with opium for so many years, so who would know if he still had his mind intact.

Sure he was conscious but no one knew what the long term effect of the opium would be,
especially since he was already in his late fifties.

But Wei Wuxian was hopeful.

He wanted to find out the Empress' weakness, so he would do anything – including forcing
the man to spill her secret and why he was held in the secret dungeon.

When he arrived at Peony Garden, he started to go off the palanquin with Wen Ning's help
when he felt very dizzy. He needed to hold Wen Ning and stood still for a few minutes for the
dizziness to subside before he shook it off and walked into the building.

Unfortunately, Wen Ning was still concerned about him.

"Are you alright, Your… Childe? Should we stop and sit down for a bit before continuing?"

"I'm fine, Wen Ning. It's probably because I stood up too fast." Wei Wuxian smiled to
reassure Wen Ning. "Don't worry, I feel so much better now." He patted Wen Ning's shoulder.
"But please ask Jiang Yanli to make some of the special tea for me?"

"Yes, Childe. Please let me know if you have any discomfort. Or anything at all."
Wei Wuxian nodded as he entered the room behind the bookcase where Jiang Yanli put the
prisoner they saved, and he found out that the man was up and sitting on the bed while Jiang
Yanli sat beside him with a bowl of porridge on her hand.

"Please, Miss, I can eat by myself."

The man's voice was hoarse, and his hands were trembling, but his gaze showed
determination, and Wei Wuxian knew exactly how he felt – because not too long ago he was
in the exact position as the man.

"Miss Jiang." Wei Wuxian made his presence known, although he knew that Jiang Yanli must
have noticed the moment he entered the secret room.

"Childe. You're here." She bowed respectfully and the man suddenly became quiet as he
turned his head to see Wei Wuxian.

When their eyes met each other, they displayed the identical reaction toward each other –
shocked, disbelieved, denial.

The man's face was identical to Wei Wuxian – if he was thirty years older.

"You…"

Wei Wuxian's words were caught in his throat.

Now he knew why the Empress locked this man up in the darkest basement, why she treated
him like he was unworthy, and her insistence to make him the Emperor.

It all made sense now.

But why?

Why didn't she just kill the man?

That way, her secret would be safe and no one could threaten her.

"Your mother did not kill me because she knew that the Emperor cared about me like his own
brother, and it's her way to threaten the Emperor to make you the next in line as the
Emperor."

The man spoke softly with his hoarse voice while his eyes filled with tears. But he did not
approach Wei Wuxian, nor did he move at all.

"He was crippled from the waist down." Jiang Yanli whispered to Wei Wuxian before she left
the room to give them privacy.

They were silent for a long time while looking at each other, when finally Wei Wuxian broke
the silence.

"Do you mind telling me your name, Sir?"

It took the man a while to reply to Wei Wuxian.

"My name is Hei Changze, and I was the former shadow of Emperor Wei."
 Chapter 24

Lan Wangji abruptly left the Palace without looking back after he heard that… that ridiculous
statement from the Emperor.

He suddenly couldn't breathe and his throat was caught, and when he jumped into his white
horse – Bichen – he was so blinded by the rage that he almost fell down when Bichen started
to run.

The horse seemed to understand his master's mood, as it moved lightning fast toward the
residence of the Lan Archduchy.

When he arrived there, his right hand man – Nie Mingjue – was waiting outside with a grim
expression on his face and Lan Wangji knew that something had happened. Something bad.

"Let's talk inside." Lan Wangji gave the reign of Bichen to one of the knights and he walked
toward his office.

He saw a lot of documents on his table and he knew that the three days he spent with Wei
Wuxian now had consequences. But then he saw Nie Huaisang and he looked like he was
working nonstop for three days. And when he saw Lan Wangji enter the office, he looked
very relieved.

"Duke, I've finished most of the documents and left the most important ones that need your
decision." He pushed the mountain-high documents on the table toward Lan Wangji.

"But unfortunately, you have to leave immediately for the mythical beast's subjugation. The
southern border was attacked this morning and we need to go there like, right now." Nie
Mingjue cut Nie Huaisang's words and it earned him a stink eye from his younger brother.

"What about Wen Chao? Isn't he the one who is responsible for the southern border?" Lan
Wangji quickly concentrated on the situation at hand. He was responsible for the border
protection but the Wen's family was his subordinate and they were supposed to handle this
simple matter.

Unless.

"Wen Chao was badly hurt. He cut his own right arm from the poison and Wen Xu was dead.
We only have Wen Zhuliu left and he would not be able to handle them all alone in the long
term."

"Them?" Lan Wangji quirked his brow when he heard Nie Mingjue's report.

"Yes. Them. The living jiangshi. "

"Fuck." Lan Wangji cursed as he kneaded his temple from the sudden headache, and he never
cursed loudly.

The worst case about the living jiangshi was that they used to be your friends and comrades.
And they could not die unless you beheaded them – which sometimes was a really hard thing
to do because you used to know them, to struggle alongside them.

"Prepare to leave at once. We need to help Wen Zhuliu with this sudden manifestation." Lan
Wangji gave his order to Nie Mingjue who nodded and left the office. "Huaisang, investigate
the cause of the sudden appearance of this jiangshi. The last dark sorcerer who made them
was supposed to be dead, so find out if he had an apprentice."

"Yes, my liege." Nie Huaisang bowed while thinking hard inside his mind. Everything would
have to be postponed because of this damn jiangshi, and some of the documents were very
very important.

But well, if the Grand Duke said so…

Plus he looked pissed, and Lan Wangji rarely showed his emotion like this – so Nie Huaisang
wondered if something happened with the Crown Prince, since the Grand Duke only showed
emotion when it had something to do with Wei Wuxian.

But until then, he had jobs to do.

 Chapter 25
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

It took a while for Wei Wuxian to digest the information that Hei Changze gave him, and he
felt nauseous afterward. Thankfully the incense and the tea that Jiang Yanli provided was
helping.

He drank the tea while observing Hei Changze – who was now asleep after their lengthy
conversation.

He still could not believe what the man said, and it was even harder to swallow the fact that
the man still had this longing look in his eyes when he told Wei Wuxian about the Empress.

Sure he did not know what she did to Wei Wuxian – or even that he had a son at all.

Maybe if he did, he would take a stand against the Empress? But who knew.

From what he told him, up until ten years ago, Hei Changze was not locked underground, but
inside the Empress' secret room.

Yes, she hated the former shadow of the emperor, but she also loved to fuck him, especially
since she knew that he caught feelings for her – and would do anything for her despite her
hatred.

But one thing he refused to do was to harm the Emperor, no matter what kind of threats of
punishment the Empress gave him. And seeing that the Emperor was willing to make Wei
Wuxian the Crown Prince in exchange for the Empress not to kill Hei Changze, he suspected
that both men loved each other just like real brothers.
Wei Wuxian suspected that Hei Changze was given drugs – a mixture between opium and
aphrodisiac – so that he would always obey the Empress and her twisted kind of power play.

Or maybe it was just love.

Well, Wei Wuxian was not interested and he did not want to know about his… parents'
fucked up relationship.

All he wanted to know was if the man had any important information regarding anything, but
it seemed that he already passed his limit, so Wei Wuxian left him alone – with thousands of
things occupying his mind.

When he got out of the secret room, Jiang Yanli was waiting for him with such distress in her
face that Wei Wuxian suddenly panicked.

"What's wrong?" He quickly approached the window to see if somehow something happened
outside.

"Childe, we just got news that the jiangshi attacked the southern border and Grand Duke Lan
Wangji is on his way there right now. Wen Xu and Wen Chao are incapacitated and Wen
Zhuliu is the only one left to defend the border."

Jiang Yanli's face was full of emotion instead of her usual poker face.

Wei Wuxian understood the distress, because Jiang Yanli's parents were also the victims of
the jiangshi, and up until now their bodies were nowhere to be found.

This was also the main reason why Jiang Yanli became the top information gatherer in the
mainland. She wanted to find out what happened to her parents.
But, Wei Wuxian also felt fear when he heard that Lan Wangji went to the Southern border to
help.

Sure, Grand Duke Lan Wangji was the most powerful person that he had ever known, and he
easily killed mythical beasts with his sword and not to mention that Bichen was also a tamed
mythical beast that would help him.

"When did he leave?" Wei Wuxian asked Jiang Yanli while inadvertently clenching his
hands.

He still had these complicated feelings over their bond, but one thing that he knew for sure
was that he did not want Lan Wangji to get hurt. He was – after all – the most important
figure in the country.

And he was also the best choice to be the next Emperor instead of himself – the useless
Crown Prince.

"He left just now. If you hurry, you may catch him, Childe."

"Where is Jiang Cheng?" Instead of answering, he asked Jiang Yanli the whereabouts of her
brother – the spy that he gave the order to build the Hao clan, which consisted of normal
people, slaves, workers, thieves, and every other person you might meet on the street. They
got their information mostly from the ordinary people and the maidservants of the nobles –
which sometimes were better than the ones directly from the nobles especially with the
details.

"He's on the assignment that you gave him previously. Should I call him back and send him
to the Southern border?"

Jiang Yanli was good.

 She could read Wei Wuxian's mind and see the anxiety he felt when he heard about the
jiangshi manifestation and how Grand Duke Lan went there alone.

Jiang Cheng was a great assassin who worked behind the shadows, and he certainly could
help Lan Wangji discreetly.

But, his assignment was more important right now.

So, after some thought, Wei Wuxian made his decision.

He knew that this was not a very wise decision, but he needed to find out if he had more than
just a feeling of deep friendship with Lan Wangji, and there was no better timing than this.

"No. Please prepare Suibian for me. I will be the one to go."

Chapter End Notes

Jiangshi is zombie
 Chapter 26

By the time Wei Wuxian arrived at the Southern border, everything was still in chaos and he
couldn't find Lan Wangji anywhere.

He saw the new jiangshi were forming from the dead people, and they were swarming from
all directions. People were overwhelmed by their friends and allies turned enemies, and their
movement became slower – which made it advantageous to the jiangshi.

Wei Wuxian quickly moved to the center of the chaos with his special mount, and he
whispered to it.

"Suibian, now it's time for you to show them all your skills." He patted the pure black mount,
and it neighed before suddenly transforming into a Qilin – a half dragon, half horse mythical
creature – and it breathed holy fire that quickly annihilated all the jiangshi that were
surrounding the wall of the Southern border's fortress.

After that, he landed in front of the fortress and unmounted while Suibian turned back into
the pure black horse, and he could feel that everyone was looking at him and Suibian.

But then he heard the familiar voice that he longed to hear and he turned around to face it.

"Are you okay?"

Lan Wangji grabbed him and checked him all over for any injuries, and he sounded very
worried.

Then all of a sudden his voice turned cold.

"What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here where it's dangerous." Lan Wangji
quickly took off his outer fur robe and put it on him. "Where's your aide?"

"I come here alone." Wei Wuxian shrugged into the warm fur coat and looked around the
main hall where many soldiers were lying down on the emergency makeshift bed with
various degrees of wounds on their bodies.

"Why would you do such a… stupid thing?" Lan Wangji sighed as he took Wei Wuxian to the
quiet office where no one would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"I-I just thought that you guys would need Suibian's help. He only listens to me, so I need to
be the one to take him here." Wei Wuxian's voice wavered.

Did he make the right choice by coming here alone?

He definitely could feel the coldness from Lan Wangji, one eighty degrees from back when
they… spent their heat together.

Did he mistaken Lan Wangji's intention?

Lan Wangji seemed to feel that Wei Wuxian was trembling lightly, and he felt guilty for
feeling what he felt right now.

He was confused, and he was in denial.

If Wei Wuxian was really his half brother, then what they did…

Well, he did not want to think about it, he had to clear his head and that was the reason why
he came here. To clear his head.
He also knew that the Emperor was one manipulative bastard, and he could be just spouting
nonsense about his mother being the Emperor's mistress and got pregnant with him before
she married his father.

But there was only one way to find out about the truth, and that was to find their retired butler
who was his father's most trusted man.

Lan Wangji believed that the butler would know what happened, especially since he retired
rather abruptly after his parents died and the Emperor took him in.

"Wei Ying, I was worried about your health. And why did you come alone? The situation is
dangerous, and you could be killed." Lan Wangji pulled Wei Wuxian into his embrace.

No matter what their relationship was, he had always loved Wei Wuxian ever since they were
children. And there was no way that he would trust the Emperor's words blindly, especially
after he knew how eager the Emperor wanted to get rid of the Empress by using him as the
shield.

"I was worried when I heard about the jiangshi's attack, and I also heard that you're…" Wei
Wuxian's words were cut by the loud knock on the door, and he quickly pushed Lan Wangji
away and cleared his throat.

Lan Wangji cleared his throat before he told whoever was behind the door to leave.

"I told you that no one should enter…" But the door opened before he could finish his words,
and Wei Wuxian saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, entered the office.

Her hair was long and silver, and her eyes were the deepest shade of blue that Wei Wuxian
had ever seen. Overall, she looked like a goddess descended from heaven with her all white
robe and the blue lotus mark on her forehead.
"Wangji-gege, I heard that the Crown Prince is here!" She suddenly stopped when she saw
Wei Wuxian and gasped. "Oh my god, you're so beautiful!" She approached Wei Wuxian and
shook his hand with such enthusiasm that Wei Wuxian almost fell down the chair.

"Feng Yue, I told your brother not to bother us, and here you are." Lan Wangji sighed but Wei
Wuxian could feel the fondness from his words and he wondered what kind of a relationship
Lan Wangji had with this beautiful woman.

"I just want to meet the Crown Prince!" She pouted and then turned to examine Wei Wuxian.
"My name is Feng Yue, and I am a healer. Do you have any wounds anywhere? I can heal
them for you." Her eyes sparkled like a couple of sapphires, and even Wei Wuxian was
mesmerized by them.

"I'm fine, Feng Yue, but thank you for your offer." Wei Wuxian smiled at the childlike
behavior of the beautiful woman, when suddenly the door opened once again and this time, a
male version of Feng Yue came barging in.

"Wangji-gege! The horse! It's a Qilin! This is the first time I've seen a mythical beast from
the book! May I pet him?"

Wei Wuxian looked at the newcomer – who looked like an oversized puppy – and couldn't
help but smile.

"Feng Xue, I told you…" Lan Wangji took a deep breath but he was cut by Feng Xue.

"I know what you said, but but but but but… pleaseeee?"

Then Feng Xue caught sight of his obviously twin sister holding Wei Wuxian's hand, and his
eyes brightened before he followed her.

"You must be the Crown Prince, huh? Did you know that Wangji-gege wrote you letters
every day when he was away for three years? Too bad you did not respond, he was
heartbroken, you know…"

"Feng Xue, Feng Yue, leave at once or I will give you punishment for disobeying direct
order." Lan Wangji's voice was cold, but the twins only whined and pouted, and they finally
left after protesting a lot.

"I'm sorry for their behavior. They're supposed to be outside today, patrolling the border, but I
guess they heard about your arrival."

"It's fine." Wei Wuxian smiled. "It's refreshing to see welcoming faces instead of mocking
ones back in the Palace." He tucked his stray hair back behind his ear while Lan Wangji
poured him hot tea.

"There would be no one here who would dare mock you. Especially since they all know how
precious you are to me."
 Chapter 27

The twins gathered around the Qilin – which had returned to its form as a horse – and they
spoke in a strange language that sounded like singing.

Wei Wuxian – who happened to be walking near them – was surprised to hear the strange
language that he only read about in books before.

When the twins heard his surprised gasp, they turned around to look at him with an interested
look in their eyes, and they approached him.

"Hi there, Crown Prince. Are you hungry?" Feng Xue bowed respectfully while Feng Yue
hooked her arm into Wei Wuxian's.

"Gege, let's eat. And afterwards, may we ride your Qilin please?" She literally shined and
Wei Wuxian almost got blinded by her beauty.

Of course he saw beautiful women almost every day since he owned a courtesan house, but
these twins' beauties were out of this world, especially with their piercing blue eyes.

And from the lilting tone of their spoken words, he could guess that they were indeed not
humans.

"His name is Suibian, and he only let those he approved of to ride him. You guys are
welcome to try though, he has more tolerance toward supernatural beings like fairies."

Wei Wuxian saw the twins' eyes twinkling in amusement before they burst into giggles that
even sounded like singing.
"You are so smart! No wonder Wangji-gege loves you so much!" Feng Yue hugged Wei
Wuxian – which caused him to take a step back from the force – and she whispered
something in the foreign language into his ear.

The fairy language.

"That's a blessing for you, Crown Prince. May your life always be blessed with happiness and
luck!" Feng Yue kissed Wei Wuxian's cheeks and hugged him once more – making Wei
Wuxian startled from the intimacy.

As a Crown Prince, he was always alone and everyone was scared of him – or avoiding him
for obvious reasons. So, when someone showed him kindness, he became very suspicious of
them.

And that included Lan Wangji.

He still had no idea how to face Lan Wangji even after they met again with his obvious
fondness seeped out through every fiber of his being that even a person as dense as himself
could feel the warmth.

But then again, he wanted to make sure if it was temporary or not. Bringing Suibian here
with him would surely help with the jiangshi situation – if only Suibian would accept Lan
Wangji.

Wei Wuxian found the Qilin when it was still very young and got hurt by a larger predator.
He nursed it to health and apparently the mythical beast took him as its parent figure since it
did not want to leave Wei Wuxian.

After that, he named it Suibian and kept it in Peony Garden without anyone else knowing
about its true form, including Jiang Yanli.

But apparently his worries were for naught.

Suibian yielded to Lan Wangji when the man asked for permission to ride it to exterminate
the jiangshi, and it surprised Wei Wuxian to see how easy the Qilin gave him the permission.

He guessed that Lan Wangji was that kind of person anyway – someone who was blessed
with perfection that even a mythical beast wanted to follow him.

It was fine. It was what he had in mind when he brought Suibian here anyway – to give it to
Lan Wangji as a gift that could help him with his dangerous job.

He would feel at least a little bit of peace, knowing that Suibian was there to protect Lan
Wangji – the only person who was nice to him without asking for anything in return.

"So, Xianxian-gege – may we call you that?" Feng Yue sat in front of Wei Wuxian and put
her head on his lap like a child.

"Yes, Feng Yue, I will be happy if you call me gege." Wei Wuxian patted her soft and silky
hair fondly. She was just like a child with her innocence and curiosity and it made his
protective instinct come out.

"Tell me more about you, gege, I want to know more about you." Her eyes were twinkling
and Wei Wuxian smiled. She helped him a lot just to be by his side when Lan Wangji was out
fighting the jiangshi with Feng Xue and the others.

He knew that Lan Wangji told Feng Yue to stay behind to protect him and he was grateful for
her companionship.

"Rather than listen to my boring life, why don't you tell me about you and Feng Xue? How
did you know Lan Wangji? And how old are you?"
Feng Yue took her time to compose herself before she answered with the sorrowful tone of
her usually cheerful voice.

"We were saved by Wangji-gege when our village was attacked by the ogres. Everyone died,
and just before when the ogre tried to kill us, Wangji-gege came and killed the ogre and took
us with him. Since we, fairies, were natural healers, we helped Wangji-gege with the
subjugation of the mythical beasts. He kept us here because he knew that we would be
captured if anyone finds out about us." She then snapped her fingers and her ears became
long and a pair of transparent wings with intricate details appeared from her back. "Wangji-
gege taught us to hide our ears and wings, so that we could live in peace without anyone
trying to catch us."

Wei Wuxian was amazed with the appearance of the wings and ears, and he unconsciously
reached out to touch the wings but then he stopped himself.

"May I?" He asked for Feng Yue's permission before he touched them. He knew that it was
impolite to just touch without permission and he also knew how sensitive the ears and the
wings of the fairies were.

"Yes, Xianxian-gege. You may touch them." Feng Yue beamed with proudness as she
retracted her wings to its full span.

The wings were very beautiful and otherworldly, and even if they looked thin, they were
actually very strong – even stronger than spider silk – and they were very smooth and cold to
the touch.

"Too bad you have to hide them. They're very beautiful."

"Thank you, Xianxian-gege, you are very beautiful too." She retracted her wings and hid
them again. "It's a low price to pay if we could live in peace." Feng Yue smiled but Wei
Wuxian could see that her eyes did not smile. "Anyway, I think Wangji-gege will be back
tonight. Do you want to take a bath?"
After Lan Wangji was gone for almost a week, he was finally back. Unfortunately, he still did
not know what to do and what to say to him, especially when Lan Wangji himself seemed to
avoid him before he was gone a week ago.

But tonight, he should be able to talk to him about… everything that happened.

Or at least he hoped so.

 Chapter 28

Lan Wangji knew that he chose the cowardly way out by leaving Wei Wuxian alone while he
fought the jiangshi with Feng Xue and Suibian.

And even Feng Xue knew it too.

He asked Lan Wangji why he didn't come back and took care of Wei Wuxian, and instead
slumming it with the frontliners – which was unnecessary since the jiangshi were almost
gone. And it had been almost a week since the Crown Prince came.

"Wangji-gege, why don't we come back to the fortress? I miss the hot water for bathing and
hot meals cooked by my sister." Feng Xue whined to Lan Wangji – who looked like he was
swallowing a hard lump while he patted Suibian's black mane.

"I want the same thing too, Feng Xue. But I need to wait for something before I can go back
there and hold him like I long for." Lan Wangji gritted his teeth in frustration.

If only Feng Xue knew how much he suffered – knowing that the love of his life was so
close, and yet so far away – just because of the Emperor's words.

"Something? You mean the news from Blue Orchid?"

Lan Wangji nodded.

"Huh. I thought I saw that blue falcon from Blue Orchid arrived this morning. Was that the
news that you've been waiting for?"

Lan Wangji couldn't believe his ears while he quickly ran to his office – where the blue
falcon was waiting on its perch.
He must have missed the falcon this morning. He quickly untied the note on the falcon's feet
and opened it to read the confidential information, but then he growled and threw the paper
away.

There was no important news especially regarding the one he wanted to know so bad. There
was only a mention that a dancer broke into the Empress' place but she was nowhere to be
seen afterwards. Lan Wangji thought that the dancer must be dead by now, judging how cruel
the Empress was toward rats.

"God, I can't do it." He groaned in pain while his head was throbbing. "Feng Xue, let's go
back. I have something urgent to do."

"Does this concern Xianxian-gege?" Feng Xue teased Lan Wangji and he chuckled.

Lan Wangji did not answer him, but he walked out of the office and quickly moved to where
Suibian was when he last left him.

Wei Wuxian threw up again this morning, and he felt nauseated just by smelling the food that
Feng Yue prepared for him. All he could swallow was a little bit of soup and hot tea and it
was only because Feng Yue threatened him to report to Lan Wangji.

It was strange that in just a little over a week, he had become so close with Feng Yue that he
felt like he had a little sister who cared about him so much.

This was also the first time that he had someone other than Wen Ning and Wen Qing who
treated him like a normal person instead of a Crown Prince, and he appreciated that.
And when the nausea came in waves, she helped him a lot by giving him a special tea that the
fairies brewed when they felt under the weather.

"It's probably just the flu." Wei Wuxian reassured Feng Yue who was panicking over his
worsened condition.

Well, he was in a much better condition than when he was forced to consume the suppressant,
but he guessed that Feng Yue didn't know about it.

"Ge, at least let me examine your condition please? I'm a healer and you should make use of
me."

Wei Wuxian couldn't help but be touched by her plea, but he did not want to let her know that
he was actually an Omega – which could make things worse.

"If you're worried about your secondary gender, please don't. I know that you're… well,
anyway, I can smell your pheromone – which is very pleasing. I also promise not to tell
anyone about this, so, let me examine you, or else Wangji-gege would be very angry if you're
sick."

Wei Wuxian was surprised when he heard of what Feng Yue said about his secret, but since
she did not say anything to anyone, perhaps he could trust her…

"Alright." He gave Feng Yue his hand and Feng Yue touched his wrist with her delicate and
cool fingers.

It only took a minute for her face to change from worry to excitement and happiness, as she
let go of Wei Wuxian's wrist and hugged him tight.
"Xianxian-gege! Apparently I was worried for nothing!" She squealed. "Congratulations,
gege! You are pregnant!"
 Chapter 29

"P-pregnant?"

Wei Wuxian was at a loss for words when he heard Feng Yue's excited squeal.

He was a drug addict and his body was riddled with suppressants and opium and alcohol and
god knew what else, and yet, he got pregnant?

Wei Wuxian did not know what to do, but he instinctively touched his flat stomach.

What he understood now was that there was another life within him, and that he could not
just ignore them to play house with his abusive mother.

There was no way that he would yield to the Empress, or worse – let her take advantage of
his unborn child, especially since their father was the one that the Empress despised the most.

He then grabbed Feng Yue's hand and asked her in a very serious tone.

"Feng Yue, are you sure? That I'm pregnant?"

His voice was shaking and Feng Yue could feel his hand that touched her trembled. So she
grabbed Wei Wuxian's skinny hand and covered them with hers, while she sent healing power
to him to calm him down.

"Yes, gege. I can feel the lifeforms inside you although they are still tiny. you should be able
to see and feel them soon though. Have you told Wangji-gege about this? He would be
thrilled to hear that he will be a father soon. In fact, I'll send a letter to him right now and ask
him to go back. It's been a week and he just disappeared out of the blue. If I were you, I
would catch him and chain him here, gege."
Feng Yue smiled so sweetly while saying such scary words that Wei Wuxian wondered if the
fairy was actually a healer and not a warrior.

But, no.

He could not let Lan Wangji know about this, especially with the turbulent relationship
between the Emperor and the Empress.

Besides…

Even though he came here in person to talk to Lan Wangji, he just left without words –
bringing Suibian and Feng Xue with him.

It was probably his fault to come uninvited, and he actually did not mind so much with the
good environment despite the jiangshi threat.

But the baby changed everything.

He… he should not stay at the palace anymore.

And judging from how Lan Wangji treated him this past week, he doubted that Lan Wangji
would be happy to hear that he was going to have a child.

Wei Wuxian made his decision then, and he took Feng Yue's hand in his.

"Feng Yue, please don't tell anyone yet about this baby, especially Lan Wangji."
It was hard saying those words, like swallowing a lump of coal in his throat – and he had
done that when he was out of his mind back then when he was still a child.

Still, even though it had been a long time ago, the feeling and the sensation remained.

"Why, gege? Don't you want to share the good news with your mate?" Feng Yue tilted her
head in confusion.

More often than not, she was confused by how humans acted.

They often spoke things and did things that they did not mean – then regretted them all
afterwards. Then they wanted to go back in time to fix their mistakes.

Humans.

"Well, the thing is…" Wei Wuxian was trying to find words to tell her about his situation
when suddenly the window was knocked by someone – or something.

He turned around to see who did it when he saw the messenger hawk with red tie on its claw,
and his heart sank.

The red tie was a sign of emergency and Jiang Yanli would not send him that if there was no
urgent matter.

Wei Wuxian quickly opened the window and took the letter and read it – and suddenly
became pale.

"What happened, gege?" Feng Yue noticed that Wei Wuxian had become paler and his legs
gave up from shock. But Feng Yue quickly propped him up and put him on the chair before
she poured a cup of tea for him.
"I-I need to go back to the palace now. Can you help me?" Wei Wuxian was shaking hard and
his hands were cold, and Feng Yue knew that it was a sign of shock.

"Gege, calm down. Please tell me what happened so that I can help you." She touched his
hand gently and sent him a calming wave to soothe his nerves, and it seemed that it was
working since the trembling stopped.

"My… my subordinates were caught by the Empress and they will be executed tomorrow at
dawn if I don't come back tonight."
 Chapter 30

The journey back to the fortress took longer than Lan Wangji predicted since the jiangshi
attacked them from out of nowhere. It seemed like they were directly controlled to slow Lan
Wangji's movement.

Fortunately Nie Mingjue and Feng Xue were there and helped to annihilate the jiangshi
quickly, but even so, it still took a longer time to reach the fortress.

When he reached the fortress, he quickly dismounted and ran toward where Wei Wuxian was
staying before he left, and prayed that he would forgive him for his stupidity.

Brothers or not, he loved Wei Wuxian, and although there was nothing he could do if they
were indeed half brothers, he could at least take care of Wei Wuxian and make him the
Emperor – after he got rid of the Empress.

The plan slowly formed in his mind when he opened the door to the room Wei Wuxian stayed
– only to find a maid was cleaning the place.

"Where is Wei Ying… I mean, Crown Prince?" Lan Wangji frowned, and he had a bad
feeling about this.

The maid was so surprised, she dropped the broom, but she quickly composed herself and
cleared her throat before she curtsied and answered Lan Wangji.

"Greetings, Your Highness. The Crown Prince left last night with Princess Feng Yue."

Lan Wangji was surprised when he heard that Feng Yue was with Wei Wuxian.
Feng Yue was an unpredictable one compared to her brother, Feng Xue. Her temperament
was volatile, but her power was exceptional and she would be a great help to Wei Wuxian if
she went with him.

But what happened?

What caused Wei Wuxian to leave in a sudden without informing him? Well, Feng Yue was
supposed to inform him or Feng Xue if there was something to do or if she went somewhere,
but it was not the first time she disobeyed orders anyway.

"Did the Crown Prince say anything about the reason why he has to leave?" Lan Wangji
asked the maid, and the maid suddenly remembered something.

"Ah, apologize, Your Highness. Princess Feng Yue left you a letter on the table there."

Lan Wangji quickly retrieved the letter and ripped it open, then he read Feng Yue's
handwriting before he crumpled the letter in his hand and threw it hard against the wall.

"I guess that was not good news?" Feng Xue took the crumpled paper and smoothed it out to
read his sister's letter, and he couldn't help but hold back his smirk.

'Wangji-gege, I will follow Xianxian-gege to the capital to take care of some problems.
Apparently, the evil (step)mother imprisoned gege's aide and doctor, and she demanded gege
to come tonight because she will execute those poor souls. I used the teleportation device and
set the coordinates to the manor. Don't blame me if I destroy things and people to protect
Xianxian-gege.'

It was a very typical Feng Yue – brash and to the point. But it concerned him too, since she
said that they were going to rescue Wei Wuxian's subordinates.

There was a reason why Lan Wangji banned the twins' entry to the kingdom other than their
fairy blood.
The fairies – especially Feng Yue – were not as pleasant as they looked. In fact, they were
volatile and ruthless beings, despite being natural-born healers.They were more like
bloodthirsty warriors with faces like angels.

Both of them killed and mutilated mythical beasts like they were stomping on ants and they
did not have any conscience or mercy to those weaker than them.

They obeyed Lan Wangji only not just because he was their savior, but also because he was
stronger than both of them. If he was weaker, they would chew his ass and spit him out
before they created chaos everywhere.

But Feng Yue – the more ruthless one between the twins – was like a puppy in front of Wei
Wuxian, and Lan Wangjo wondered if the bond between them was the reason why.

Anyway, since she was with Wei Wuxian, he could at least feel a little bit at ease. She would
destroy everything that tried to harm Wei Wuxian, but that was the problem too.

"We need to get back to the capital." Lan Wangji turned around and Feng Xue followed. "Tell
Nie Mingjue to stay and take care of the rest. You will come with me."
 Chapter 31

Wei Wuxian's head was spinning when they landed on his quarter by Feng Yue's teleportation
skill.

It was more like she grabbed Wei Wuxian's hand and ripped a scroll with strange writings on
it, and the next second they were inside his chamber and him with a headache and nausea.

"Don't worry, gege, it's common for the first timer to experience nausea and headache after
using the teleportation scroll. Plus you're pregnant." Feng Yue smiled and she took out a
pearly bottle with vines on it, then she shook out a huge pill and gave it to Wei Wuxian.

"Eat this. It should mask the smell of your pregnancy and protect you."

Wei Wuxian scrunched his nose as he took the pill and smelled it.

"Well, the smell alone should be able to mask the rotting corpse in the living room." He
swallowed the pill and surprisingly it tasted refreshing – unlike its foul smell. "What is this?"

"You have a rotting corpse in your living room?" Feng Yue's eyes widened in awe. "May I
see it?"

"That's a figure of speech, Feng Yue." Wei Wuxian couldn't help but chuckle at her
weirdness. Or maybe all fairies were like this? He had no idea.

"Tsk. Anyway, you don't want to know what's the ingredients for the pill. Just know that it
is… somewhat healthy." She smirked in satisfaction. "Anyway, how should we proceed with
your mother? Do you want me to kill her?"
"As much as I would like to say yes, she was a very cunning and very devious woman who
would have many plans in place in case something happened to her, especially for things like
this." Wei Wuxian sighed.

It was not the first time the Empress had done stuff like this – kidnapping the official's
children and threatening them in exchange for favors and obedience, devising plans to make
people submit without lifting any of her fingers – making them all wish that they were dead
instead.

"I can raze the whole place to the ground if you want to." She walked around and touched
things with a child-like curiosity. "This place smells foul, and the feng shui is not good. Do
you want me to redecorate for you?"

"Okay, Feng Yue, we need to focus." Wei Wuxian's head was throbbing from all the
overwhelming events which started from the letter Jiang Yanli sent. He needed to make a
plan to save Wen Ning and Wen Qing, and most importantly, he needed to leave the palace
for the sake of his baby.

"If you give me your subordinate's stuff, I can track them and rescue them for you."

Wei Wuxian was surprised when he heard Feng Yue's offer and couldn't help but ask her.

"Are you a dog or something? And I don't mean to insult you, I just wonder…"

"Gege, I can do things you couldn't even imagine anyone doing – ever." She smiled
beautifully and Wei Wuxian suddenly wondered if he made the right decision by bringing her
along with him.

"Well, if you can find my subordinates and bring them to a safe place, please do." He took
out a handkerchief that Wen Ning left, and a jade pendant that belonged to Wen Qing.

"But what about you, gege? What will you do?"

Wei Wuxian knew that there was no safe way out for his subordinates if he did not come to
see the Empress and divert her attention away so that Feng Yue could rescue them.

He touched his stomach lightly, as to reassure himself that everything would be alright.

"I will be fine, Feng Yue. Please take care of them and if you see Lan Zhan… well…" He
hesitated for a bit before he smiled at her. "Anyway, you better go now. Let's meet at Peony
Garden afterwards, okay?"

"You better tell Wangji-gege yourself and come to meet us." She hugged Wei Wuxian before
she snapped her fingers and disappeared.

Wei Wuxian finally took a deep breath as he prepared himself to face the Empress and
whatever she had, but this was going to be the last time because after this, he would leave it
all behind and start a new life – just him and his baby.
 Chapter 32

The walk to the Empress' quarter felt very long, and when the eunuch announced his arrival,
he could smell the strong smell of opium from inside the Empress' room and he almost
gagged from the sudden attack of nausea. But strangely, he quickly became calm, and
although his heart was beating very fast, he did not feel fear like the one he always felt when
he met the Empress.

When he entered the room though, he saw that someone was naked and tied up in the middle
of the room, and a man in all black was whipping him with a thorny whip.

The gore view caused him to stop in his tracks.

He couldn’t see the man‘s face since he was covered in blood from top to toe, and he was
wearing a thorny crown, but there was something familiar about him that he couldn’t
remember.

“What do you think, son?”

Wei Wuxian suddenly heard the Empress’ voice and he knew that she was sitting on her usual
throne with a horde of young men under her feet.

“Mother. I’m here.” Wei Wuxian did not answer her question and instead, he just announced
his arrival and hoped that everything would be done soon enough.

“Yes, I can see that. But I was asking about what you think of this little useless thing.” She
suddenly stood up and walked to the mess of a man and lifted his bloody chin up with her
silk fan. “He told me that he would do things for me, and yet, he failed at the simplest task. Is
that right, Little Momo?”

When the Empress turned the battered face around to show Wei Wuxian, he held his breath
because he knew this man.
Rumor said that Mo Xuanyu was a very talented necromancer, and with the sudden jiangshi
appearance, it did not take long for Wei Wuxian to put things together and conclude that Mo
Xuanyu was the one behind the jiangshi manifestation.

So, everything was the Empress’ plan? Not just an apocalyptic sign of the end of the world?

He knew exactly what the Empress wanted if she had started to play aggresively like this, and
he wondered if his days were numbered.

The Empress’ eyes were glinting with some kind of a sick satisfaction when saw Wei
Wuxian’s face paled.

“I know you’ve been to the Southern border to help with the jiangshi stuff – although I don’t
understand what kind of help you could give them since you’re so useless – but did you know
that our little Momo here is actually a necromancer? And quite a powerful one too, if I might
say. Too bad the enemies are much more stronger, so I give Little Momo here a little bit of a
punishment for undermining Lan Wangji’s power.”

The Empress nodded slightly at the topless man who wore only a loincloth and a facemask,
and the man started to wield his thorny whip once more.

When the whip hit Mo Xuanyu’s body, he was too weak to make a sound other than a tiny
whimper, and Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“So, Crown Prince. You crawled here because I have your slaves, is that correct?” The
Empress walked back to her throne and she crossed her long and shapely legs to reveal her
milky white thigh.

Wei Wuxian was disgusted with her blatant display of power play, and he felt sorry for all
those young men who could not reject her simply because they were pawns from their own
family’s greed – but he held back and put his usual poker face on, after all, his people’s life
depended on him. And Wen Qing and Wen Ning were more than just his people. They were
his family.

“I have no idea what mistake that my subordinates had made to anger you, Mother, but since
they are my people, would you be so kind as to let me punish them?”

The Empress took a long time to observe Wei Wuxian.

She did not expect that Wei Wuxian would dare to appear before her, and with a healthy
appearance of all people.

She expected him to be a mess – fully pumped with opium and out of his mind – and then she
could proceed to shame him like she used to do before she returned those two siblings to him.
After all, they were the only ones who were willing to stay by the powerless Crown Prince’s
side.

And now she wondered if this had anything to do with Lan Wangji – and her son’s trip to the
Southern border alone.

“Do you need more medicine, Son?” The Empress suddenly asked Wei Wuxian while
observing his reaction.

The medicine was the code word for opium, and she was the one who provided them to the
Crown Prince.

Wei Wuxian was in a dilemma.

He knew that if he answered no, the Empress would not return his retainers since he would
not have any more needs from them, and the Empress would surely replace them with her
spies.
The Empress had not put any spies blatantly near him because she knew that he was just a
useless addict.

So he did what he had to do to save his people – and himself.

“If you would be so kind as to bestow us with the… medicine, Mother, I will be glad to
receive them.” He bowed to the Empress while gritted his teeth in anger.

What kind of a mother would want their only child to suffer and be addicted to drugs?

The answer was the one who put herself first before the wellbeing of their child.

And Wei Wuxian swore that he would not be that kind of a parent.

“Good. I will deliver the medicine to your place, alongside the remains of your… people.
Now go back to your place and behave yourself, Crown Prince.”
 Chapter 33

Feng Yue followed the scent of Wei Wuxian’s subordinates by ordering her poison butterflies
to search for those particular scents and found out that the place where they were held was
heavily barricaded by multi-layer kekkai.

She thought that it was strange that a mere human would need this kind of protection, but it
did not matter for a being like herself since this kind of a barrier did not affect her at all.

She got rid of the kekkai with a flick of her fingers, and she entered the suspicious area
leisurely – following the butterflies – and what she saw was a horrendous view of the kind of
degradation that human beings were capable of.

There were various states of the humans, from drugging out of their minds, or indulging the
carnal pleasures without a care in the world, or those who were emasculated to the point of
looking worse than the jiangshi.

Feng Yue wondered if this was what the humans were capable of doing toward their own
kinds, and decided to not engage herself with humans other than Lan Wangji and Wei
Wuxian.

She did not like humans, and now the feelings were getting stronger to the point of disgust
toward those lesser and sinful beings.

But she had a job to do to help her new favorite human, and she decided to take care of
everything at once.

The people whose scent was on the things she brought were held in a dungeon where other
people with the smell of death were also there.

The dungeon was filled with people with a various degree of death looming at them, and
Feng Yue never saw anything worse than this place – even on the battlefield.
The dim light of the torches only added to the gaunt, and the smell of human excretions were
overwhelming. But she ignored them all and breezed through the hallway to the end of the
dungeon where she could see the two fresh bodies without their heads were still chained on
the wall, and the fresh blood was splattered on the wall and the floor.

Did she come too late?

She crouched down to examine the bodies.

No.

These ones were freshly dead, but their physiques showed that they were emaciated and their
skin lacked the luster of a healthy person. So they must have been the older residents of this
dungeon.

But then the butterflies stopped in front of one of the walls and she knew that there would be
a secret room behind it, so she smirked as she punched the wall with her bare hand, and the
wall just crumbled apart like cookie crumbs.

Behind the walls was a room where there were two people with the same scents as the one
she had been tracking, and they looked at her with horror in their eyes – especially when they
saw her silver hair and the blue lotus mark on her forehead.

They heard from their parents, who heard from their parents, the lore that the fairies were the
ones with hair like the color of the moonlight and the eyes as deep as the Northern sea, and
they killed and ate children for fun. So if they happened to find one, they had to run the other
way, or hide so that they could not find them.

And now, one of the bloodthirsty fairies was standing in front of them – surrounded by the
eerily bluish transparent butterflies.
She looked like the Grim Reaper herself and Wen Qing and Wen Ning did not know which
one was worse – death by the decapitation, or eaten by the beautiful fairy.

“Jie, it seems like we have reached the end of our journey here.” Wen Ning gulped as he
clutched his sister’s hand and prayed for Wei Wuxian’s safety. “I just hope that the Crown
Prince is safe with Grand Duke Lan, and not coming back here to see the Empress.”

Wen Qing did not respond to her brother’s words, instead she squeezed his hand tight, and
glared at the fairy.

If the fairy was going to eat them both, she would make sure that she did not have a pleasant
meal, and hoped she had a bad stomach ache afterwards.

“Are you Xianxian-gege’s beloved subordinates?” The fairy tilted her head in question, and
both of the Wens were very surprised to hear the beautiful melodious tone of her voice. “I’m
Feng Yue, Xianxian-gege’s friend and I’m here to get you out of this place. Come with me if
you want to live.”

But Wen Qing was skeptical.

What if this was a trick?

Feng Yue saw the doubt in the woman’s eyes and she sighed while muttering under her
breath, “Human…” and she took out the jade pendant with the woman’s scent to show her.

“The Crown Prince Wei Wuxian asked me to save you. Now will you come with me or not? I
haven’t got all day, you know.” She dangled the pendant in front of Wen Qing’s face – who
snatched it and saw that it was indeed hers, and she left it at the Crown Prince’s residence.

“You’re not going to… eat us?” Wen Ning asked with a small voice and Feng Yue sighed
again.
“No, I’m not. I prefer the tender flesh of young babies or children instead of the old people
like you.” But when she saw how both people widened their eyes in fear, she laughed. “I’m
joking! I don’t eat human flesh, although I enjoy killing them… anyway, let’s go before I let
you burn with this place.”
 Chapter 34

Lan Wangji entered the capital shortly before he heard the loud boom, followed by the
earthquake that caused people to panic and cause chaos everywhere.

He saw the thick black smoke from the direction of the Palace and he had very bad feelings
about it.

“You don’t think your sister is the one who caused that, do you?” He looked at Feng Xue who
chuckled and then suddenly got serious.

“Ahem. I think the probability of it being her doing is high. Very high.”

“Goddamnit.” Lan Wangji quickly raced Suibian to the Palace to see if something happened
that caused Feng Yue to become unhinged.

He arrived at the palace a short while after, but the damage had been done.

The Palace was covered with the thick, dark smoke – the aftermath of the explosion – and he
saw clearly how chaos ensued everywhere and even the Imperial Guards were running
around like headless chickens – leaving their posts unguarded.

“Feng Xue, go find your sister and the Crown Prince and take them to a safe place. I will try
to find out what happened.” Lan Wangji got off of Suibian and he exchanged the horses so
that Feng Xue could take the Kirin away from people’s gaze, because for them, a mythical
beast was supposed to be killed – whether it was good or bad.

Feng Xue took Suibian’s rein and he took off to the direction of the Empress’ Palace – where
the ground zero was – and hoped that his sister did not hurt the Crown Prince with her
explosion.
He knew that something must have pissed her off so she took the drastic measure of
obliterating the whole place. He just hoped that the Crown Prince was okay.

Lan Wangji wanted to find out if Wei Wuxian was okay, but he had to make sure that the
Emperor was fine first.

The blast destroyed almost three quarters of the Palace, so he was sure that Feng Yue held
herself back, since if she used her full power, the Capital would be no more.

When he arrived at the Emperor’s quarters, he saw the Royal Imperial Guards who guarded
the Emperor were standing outside the quarters and the place looked almost unscathed. There
was only debris and smoke from the explosion and he knew that the Emperor should be fine.

When the Head of the Royal Imperial Guards saw him, he came closer and bowed at him.

“Grand Duke Lan.”

“Captain Li, how’s the Emperor?” Lan Wangji unmounted from his horse and walked toward
the quarters.

“He is fine. Mostly. We were just surprised by the loud sound, but nothing else happened.
The source of the explosion seemed to come from the Empress’ place.” Captain Li pointed at
the direction where the smoke to be the thickest, and Lan Wangji couldn’t help but want to go
there right now.

“I will check the Empress. Please stay with the Emperor until I make sure everything is
alright.” He mounted the horse again and ran toward the direction of the Empress’ quarter
while praying that everything would be okay, and Wei Wuxian was fine.
His heart clenched with guilt because he did not have the courage to talk to the man he loved
and just left him alone, even though he knew that it was very hard for him to come alone to
see him. He even brought Suibian to help him with the jiangshi, and he just chickened out.

Lan Wangji regretted every second of the past seven days, and he hoped that Wei Wuxian
was alive so that he could tell him the exact things that had been weighing on his mind.

But when he arrived at the Empress’ place, he could see that the Palace was in ruins and his
heart sank. He knew that Wei Wuxian always came to the Empress’ place first to greet her,
but by the look of things, almost nothing was still standing.

Made sense since this place was ground zero.

Then he noticed that there was a huge hole on the ground behind the Palace, and there were
people inside. People who looked like prisoners.

“Assistant Nie, please evacuate those people and put them in a safe place so that we can ask
them questions later. Also, please find any survivors. The Crown Prince was supposed to be
here.”

Nie Huaisang – who came along with Lan Wangji and Feng Xue – nodded and quickly
mobilized the soldiers to search and rescue the survivors, focusing on finding the Crown
Prince first.

Lan Wangji then continued to monitor everything when he found Feng Xue on the site of
ground zero – crouching and touching the ground, then smelling it – and he approached the
fairy.

“Did you find anything?”

“Good news and bad news. Good news is, with the exposure of this underground prison, you
can use it to prosecute the Empress and take care of her however you like. The things she did
to those people…” Feng Xue shivered lightly.

When he arrived, he found the corpses of young and nubile boys and girls – all in a state of
severe dehydration and they all had various stages of wounds on their bodies. Like they were
tortured repeatedly over time.

Even if the blast did not kill them, they would die soon enough from infection and starvation.

“And?” One look around and Lan Wangji got the gist. Rumor had it that the Empress had
many toys that she frequently discarded and he had been searching for the proof for so long –
and yet, here they were, right in front of their noses.

But he wanted to know about something else more important.

“We could not find the Empress anywhere, but we found a young man – freshly tortured –
and found out that he was the one who mobilized the jiangshi.”

Lan Wangji nodded.

He had a suspicion that the jiangshi was the Empress’ doing and now they had the proof.

“Secure the man and interrogate him. Make him spit out everything and use any means
necessary.” He was sick and tired of the Empress’ game and it’s time to end it all.

“One more thing.” Feng Xue approached Lan Wangji and gave him the mangled black onyx
pendant with red tassels that used to belong to Wei Wuxian. “I found this near ground zero,
and I thought… you might want to have it.”

Feng Xue’s voice sounded so distant when Lan Wangji took a glance at the familiar pendant.
He took it and caressed it in his hand, then he gritted his teeth and asked Feng Xue about the
inevitable.

“Where did you find it?”

Feng Xue took a time to answer him, and when Lan Wangji heard his answer, he just gripped
the pendant tighter and turned around to see for himself – the fact that the only person that he
ever loved had perished in the blast, leaving nothing behind except for just one measly
pendant.
 Chapter 35

The aftermath of the disaster was as complicated as Lan Wangji thought it would be. With the
Empress being missing, the Emperor exercised his power to get rid of the Empress’ faction –
including the Prime Minister – under the guise of investigation about the summoning of the
jiangshi.

Mo Xuanyu – who was full of grudge – testified in front of the public trial that he was forced
by the Empress to summon the jiangshi to get rid of Grand Duke Lan and then after that, she
would kill the Emperor to put the Crown Prince on the throne.

He was sentenced to be beheaded in a week’s time.

When the Emperor found out that the Crown Prince was missing – presumed dead – he
immediately appointed Grand Duke Lan as the next Emperor before he finally succumbed to
his lung cancer – which was not predicted by Lan Wangji and everyone else at all.

Of course when Lan Wangji agreed to take the throne – albeit temporarily – Minister Jin
forced his daughter to him alongside the veiled threat that he would seize the throne himself
if Lan Wangji did not make Jin Su the Empress.

But with Feng Xue’s help, he got rid of the Jins and banished them to the Southern border
with a charge of smuggling drugs and slaves, and aiding and abetting Mo Xuanyu, since it
turned out that the young man was Jin Guangshan’s illegitimate son.

In short, Minister Jin was playing both fields to increase his chance of becoming the new
Emperor’s father-in-law.

The week turned to months, and autumn turn to winter – and then to spring and summer,
when Lan Wangji was finally able to take a deep breath and think about the event that
changed his life.
He took the position of the Emperor out of duty, but his days felt too long and his heart felt
heavy.

His subordinates and ministers encouraged him to take an Empress to help with his burden,
and to have offspring to keep the royal line alive.

It turned out that the Emperor had already informed everyone that Lan Wangji was his son,
and that he kept him safe out of the Empress’ clutch by giving him to the previous Grand
Duke Lan, and everyone accepted the fact easily rather than questioning it.

For them, it was better for Lan Wangji to become the Emperor rather than the previous good-
for-nothing Crown Prince, the son of the evil Empress.

But no matter how much everyone insisted, Lan Wangji did not budge. He did not want to
take an Empress nor did he want to remain as the Emperor for long. He just waited for the
day when Feng Xue found his twin sister and asked her about what happened to Wei Wuxian.

Yes.

Lan Wangji did not believe for a second that Wei Wuxian was dead.

He knew that there must be a reason for him to disappear, but he was alive, and he knew for
sure from the mate bond that he had that was still intact.

Sometimes when he was alone at night, he touched the marking on his neck and wondered
where was Wei Wuxian, and what he was doing – and hoped that he was happy no matter
where he was and whoever he was with.

Sure, he wanted to search for him, but would it be better to stay away when the only person
whom you ever loved was actually his own flesh and blood?
And out of the vices that he developed after the tragedy, Lan Wangji became fond of the
liquor that Wei Wuxian always drank – the Emperor’s smile.

Funny.

He did not remember when was the last time he was smiling wholeheartedly after he found
out about the despicable truth.

Ah well, maybe this was for the best.

Someday – soon – he would just quietly slip into the night and travel around the world –
mourning about the love that was not his from the start – and ended everything just as quietly,
hoping that he would be able to be with his one and true love in their next life.

Among Lan Wangji’s subordinates, other than Feng Xue – who was indisposed at the
moment from a secret assignment – Nie Huaisang was the one who saw everything his liege
had been through.

The love, the pain, the heartbreak – and the quiet acceptance. And he was worried sick that
somehow, Lan Wangji would just die in his sleep from the heartbreak.

So, he utilized his ability to gather information with the help of the people at the Blue Orchid
to find out anything about the disappearance of the previous Crown Prince, Wei Wuxian.

When he did not find any morsel, any gossip, anything, about Wei Wuxian, Nie Huaisang had
a suspicion that somehow, someone else was covering for the man.
And his suspicion was confirmed, when one day out of the blue – when the first leaf fell at
the sign of the end of the summer, the whole full circle ever since the change of the regime
happened – an old man appeared out of nowhere and asked to have a private audience with
the Emperor.

Of course the Imperial Guards denied him.

Who was he to dare to seek an audience with the Emperor?

Thankfully Nie Huaisang was just arrived from the Blue Orchid, and he saw that the man
bore a very close resemblance to the previous Emperor, and he decided to take this man to
talk to him before he decided to let him meet the Emperor or not.

“He’s with me.” Nie Huaisang waved at the Imperial Guards and signaled the man to enter
his palanquin.

“Thank you, kind sir.” The man entered with a smile on his face. “May I know who you are,
Sir?”

Although the man was old, and his clothes were plain like the ones for the commoner, his
gray eyes showed intelligence that was beyond his status, and Nie Huaisang knew that he had
hit the jackpot.

“My name is Nie Huaisang, and I am the advisor for the Emperor, Sir.” He bowed his head to
the old man. “May I have the honor to know your name, Sir?”

The man looked at Nie Huaisang as if he was contemplating of whether he should tell him his
name or not, but he finally decided.

“My name is Hei Changze, and I have something important to say to the Emperor.”
 Chapter 36

When the first autumn leaves fell, the air had become crisper. And although the summer had
not ended yet, the wind had started to become colder – especially since the place that they
lived was on the secluded part of the mountain where the nearest town was almost an hour
away by horse.

Wei Wuxian was harvesting the herbs that he planted himself for dinner behind the modest
house that they occupied for the last year, and although there was no one else to help him like
when he was still the Crown Prince, he was happy, and he was healthy.

He saw that Wen Qing was still accepting patients, so he went to the kitchen to prepare to
cook while waiting for Wen Ning to come back from foraging in the forest for mushrooms
and hunting rabbits for their dinner.

When he decided to leave everything behind, Wen Qing and Wen Ning insisted on coming
with him, with Wen Qing becoming the doctor who accepted patients that came from near
and far away, and Wen Ning was helping with the household chores.

The other person who came with him was surprisingly Feng Yue.

After blasting the Empress’ place, she grabbed the Wens and Wei Wuxian, and they
teleported to the outside of the capital where they found this place, and ever since then, they
all lived together – along with another addition, Wei Wuxian’s birth father, Hei Changze.

The man came to their place a few months ago after he regained his health – courtesy of
Jiang Yanli, who somehow knew that Wei Wuxian was not dead and lived in this place.

At first, Feng Yue wanted to blast the man away and obliterated Jiang Yanli and the Peony
Garden out of her overprotectiveness of Wei Wuxian. But Wei Wuxian prevented her from
going unhinged again, and asked her to keep an eye out before taking another step forward.
After a while, he saw that Hei Changze really meant it when he said that he wanted to be with
him and took care of him for the rest of his life, so he let him be.

And even Feng Yue started to grow fond of him when she found out that Hei Changze was
really good at swordsmanship, as they practiced everyday together with Wei Wuxian.

But right now, he was alone and he enjoyed the calm and quiet before the storm.

He started to cook rice and vegetables for dinner when Wen Ning was back with the wild
rabbits – which he skillfully skinned and cut to make the rabbit stew that Feng Yue was so
fond of.

Wen Ning took the skin of the rabbits and cleaned them and prepared them to be processed to
make coats for the upcoming winter and when the stew was almost ready, he could hear the
commotion outside.

He smiled at the familiar sounds and prepared himself to go outside to feed them, but his
heart almost stopped when he saw the familiar figure and face that he longed the most but
unable to touch anymore because of the distance between them and the difference in their
status.

To be able to see the Emperor was the privilege that he did not have the luxury to have
anymore.

But in exchange for what he had right now, it was a matter of trivial things.

Still, the sight of the man that he loved – and gave him precious gifts – shook the very
foundation of his core.

Wei Wuxian swallowed his saliva once, and then twice, and he even forcefully closed his
eyes then reopened them again to male sure that he was not hallucinating – when Lan Wangji
took the first step and pulled him into his hug.
“L-Lan Zhan… what are you doing here? How did you know that I’m… here?”

Wei Wuxian was trying hard to control his emotion when he felt the wetness on his neck
where Lan Wangji’s face was.

“I miss you. I’m sorry for everything, but I miss you a lot.” Lan Wangji did not let go of his
hold, and even tightened it – as if he didn't want to be apart from him anymore.

Wei Wuxian could see that Hei Changze was smiling at him, and he understood exactly what
the man did. He just did not know how to respond to this sudden barrage of emotion from
Lan Wangji – and from himself.

“I don’t know what you’re sorry about, Lan Zhan… or should I call you Emperor Lan?” Wei
Wuxian patted Lan Wangji’s back and forcefully led him outside – hoping that he would
leave before he found out about the little secret he kept from him.

It’s not that he did not intend to keep Lan Wangji in the dark, he just did not want to go back
to the Capital and had anything to do with the royalty and whatsoever. He just wanted to live
the rest of his life with the people that he loved, without any chain to restrain them. And
being with Lan Wangji would betray the purpose.

And that’s why he had to make him leave, although it would pain him so.

“Would you let me explain everything, Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji looked like he was already on
the edge of the precipice with no way back, and he did not know what to do except hang on
to him.

True, Wei Wuxian loved him, but if the memory served him right, the man did not even want
to be in the same room with him back then on the Southern border, so what else did he want
to explain?
“Let’s talk outside.” He would give him five minutes of his time then send him away before
Feng Yue came back and threw a tantrum and destroyed everything again.

They walked to the quiet corner not far from the house, and Wei Wuxian stopped to allow
Lan Wangji to speak.

It took a while for Lan Wangji to compose himself before he was able to speak – albeit with
pain and tears in his voice.

“I know that I was such a fool for everything I did to you, and there’s no excuse.” Lan Wangji
took Wei Wuxian’s hand in his and kissed it softly. “I was told by the previous Emperor –
your father – that I was actually his biological son, and that we’re brothers by blood. That
was the cause of my… stupidity back then, and I was avoiding you because I did not know
what to do with the fact that you’re my half brother and that I love you more than my own
life.” Then he suddenly kneeled in front of Wei Wuxian, surprising the latter. “Please forgive
my foolishness. I was living in hell because of this fact, until Hei Changze – your biological
father – suddenly turned up and told me the truth about your birth secret, and why the
Empress seemed to have the hold on the Emperor.”

Wei Wuxian was stunned by the revelation that Lan Wangji was actually the Emperor’s son,
and every puzzle piece clicked into its rightful place and he finally got the final
understanding of the whole mess.

“I know it may be too late for you to forgive me, but I…”

“Stay away from him!”

Lan Wangji’s words were suddenly cut by a sharp, bell-like voice that sounded a lot like a
very young child, and he turned around to see a little girl with the eyes the color of molten
gold and the long silky dark hair just like Wei Wuxian’s, was standing at the edge of the
forest and she pointed a wooden sword at him with fire in her eyes.

Lan Wangji looked at the girl, and then to Wei Wuxian, when the girl repeated her words
once again, with much more authority in her voice.
“Stay. Away. From. My. Father.” She approached them with the agility of a wild beast and
pointed the edge of the wooden sword toward Lan Wangji. “Let his hand go.”

Lan Wangji couldn’t take his eyes off this girl, and when he let go of Wei Wuxian to try to
touch the girl, she took a step backward and grabbed Wei Wuxian’s hand before she pulled
him behind her back.

The action reminded Lan Wangji so much of himself when he was just this age and the
feeling of overprotectiveness that he felt when he met Wei Wuxian for the first time.

He was just about to ask Wei Wuxian about this girl when he heard another child’s voice and
this time, it was a crying voice.

“Baba! Baba! Please don’t hurt Baba!”

Another child – this time a boy with silver eyes just like Wei Wuxian – came out of the forest
and he ran toward Wei Wuxian with his chubby, crying face.

Wei Wuxian crouched down to take him into his arms, and kissed his wet face while assuring
that he was okay.

“Stop crying Xinyue, Baba is fine. And Yinyue, put down the sword. This man is our guest,
not an enemy.” Wei Wuxian took the girl into his arms and both of the children hugged his
neck while glaring at Lan Wangji with an obvious contempt in their faces.
 Chapter 37

Before any of them could speak anything, another person burst out of the forest looking like
she was about to kill someone when she spotted Lan Wangji.

“Gege! What are you doing here?”

The woman – Feng Yue – casually speaking to Lan Wangji as if their last conversation was
only yesterday, and she jumped closer to the giggling kids.

“Who set the trap in the middle of nowhere and led me through it?” She tickled both kids
until they were crying from laughter, and she took them both into her embrace. “I’ll clean up
the kids while you guys talk. I bet you have a lot of things to talk about. Right guys?” Feng
Yue winked as she walked toward the house without waiting to hear both men’s answers.

“I see that she hasn’t changed at all.” Lan Wangji sighed at Feng Yue’s brashness. “I guess
she likes you that much, huh?” Then he looked at Wei Wuxian again – this time, with so
much hope in his eyes. “Are they… mine?”

“They are mine, and mine alone.” Wei Wuxian turned around to walk back to the house.
“There was never anything that had happened between us anyway except for a few nights of
passion. You are the Emperor and I am a… dead man. And since I know you’re going to be
pressured to get married by everyone to… continue the bloodline, you are welcome to marry
whoever you like. In fact, I will appreciate it if you can cut our bond now that you’re here.”

Wei Wuxian knew that his words were harsh, but what else could he do?

He did not want to go back to that godforsaken place, and Lan Wangji would not be able to
abandon the throne, as he was an upright man with the highest virtue.

“Wei Ying, I love you, and I know you love me. Can’t you give me a chance to prove my
love for you? For our children? I can not live without you, Wei Ying. And after knowing that
I have children… how can I ever leave you?”

Love?

Yes, he loved Lan Wangji, but he loved his children and his humble and happy life more. And
if loving Lan Wangji was an obstacle to his and his children’s happiness, he would be glad to
cut ties with the man that he loved for the sake of his own sanity and his children and family.

He was so done with all the rules of high society and the pressure to be someone that he was
not. And he did not want his children to experience the same nightmare as his own.

It would be hard, but not impossible. After all, his life was not his alone anymore.

“If you doubt me, I already erased the rule that only alpha could be the Emperor, and I put a
ban on anyone who mistreated Omegas. I also replaced everyone who was in the previous
Emperor and Empress’ regime. You don’t have anything to be afraid of now, Wei Ying.”

He would give it to Lan Wangji that the man was the only one who could easily erase the
ancient law with the flick of his hand.

Maybe he should give him a chance to prove himself?

After all, the man looked like a mess, and Wei Wuxian was secretly satisfied to see the usual
prim and proper Lan Wangji was not himself. If anything at all, it showed that the Emperor
himself was willing to bend his knees for the good for nothing former Crown Prince, and the
petty realization shocked him to his reality.

What was he doing?

Did he really want Lan Wangji to suffer?

Well, yes, but that was beside the point.

And since he could not make up his mind, he decided to take things slow. After all, being
slow was better than nothing.

“I’m not going back, Lan Zhan. But you are welcome to come here anytime you want.”

Let’s see some determination there, pal.

“But enough of this… heavy talk. Would you like to join us for dinner, Lan Zhan? We only
have a humble rabbit stew though, I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all, Wei Ying, as long as I can be with you – and the children.”

“Well, I hope you don’t change your mind. The kids could be… handful.”

“I can work with that.” Lan Wangji took Wei Wuxian’s hand, and together they walked to the
house – hand in hand – filled with the hope for the fresh start that Lan Wangji prayed that
Wei Wuxian would give him.

PS :

This is the end of the main story, but don’t worry, I will add more snippets into their daily life
with Side Stories.
Thank you for joining me in my first attempt at writing angst, and I hope you are all satisfied
with it.

AJ
 Side Story 1

The spring breeze was starting to get warm and the children were so excited to go to the town
with their little family that consisted of their father, their grandfather, uncle Wen Ning and
aunt Feng Yue.

They were wondering if the handsome man who often visited them during the cold and harsh
winter – bringing all kinds of food and clothes – also came. He even built a house next to
theirs and spent a lot of time playing with them – although they knew that he was a very busy
man, according to their father.

Yingyue – the tomboy – had grown quite attached to him, since he taught her how to wield
swords and how to fight, while Xingyue – the shy but smart boy – liked it when the man
brought him books and gifted him a very nice inkstone on his birthday. He even praised him
for his calligraphy and he taught him a lot about it and poems and other stuff too.

The kids wondered, how could someone be so smart and so good with weapons, and he was
also very very patient when he taught both kids in their area of expertise.

In fact, they also saw how he treated their father with so much love and care, and even
though they were still young, they could see the quiet intimacy between the two men – and it
caused them to slowly become attached to the man who became more and more like a father
figure to them.

Wei Wuxian saw it too – how Lan Wangji was very patient and loving toward his very bright
and difficult children, and how they responded with the same affection – and he was touched
by the effort he made to be with them. He guessed that they were still flesh and blood after
all.

But he still did not want to have anything to do with the kingdom, for he knew that the
second he let Lan Wangji acknowledged the children, they would be imprisoned in a golden
cage called the Imperial Palace.
Right now though, he just wanted to focus on the kids’ little excursion and birthday present.
He wanted the kids to see for themselves the hustling and bustling of the market and how
normal people made their living, and the Lunar New Year was the best time for them to see
everything and enjoy the festivities at once.

Of course he also promised them to eat at the restaurant that was famous for their variety of
seafood dishes for the celebration of their birthday.

The children never ate seafood since they lived on the mountain, and they were so excited by
the thought of eating something alien to them – especially since last time Feng Xue and Feng
Yue described the appearance and the taste to them.

Hard like-a-rock lobsters and crabs outer shell and soft and buttery inside, transparent
jellyfish that would sting anyone who bothered them with poison but taste heavenly, the
beautiful fish that would be crispy and spicy – or even fresh and sweet when eaten raw – the
octopus that had suckers but very good when grilled, and many many more.

The kids absorbed it all with excitement in their eyes and they asked Wei Wuxian all the time
when they could taste those delicacies too – and that was when he decided that it was time for
them to go out and see the world for their birthday, which coincided with the Lunar New
Year.

They had to get through the marketplace to go to Jade Pavilion – the restaurant where he told
Jiang Yanli to book for a reservation – and the children were wide-eyed from all the
commotion on the street filled with the street peddlers and people who prepared for the Lunar
New Year. They wanted to try the tanghulu and the osmanthus cake while Feng Yue bought a
couple of bottles of sweet osmanthus rice wine for the seafood feast later.

Wei Wuxian wore a flowy black robe with red inner and he let his long silky black hair
loosely half tied. He also wore a wide straw hat with black gossamer fabric that would cover
his face.

Sure, no one knew the face of the supposedly dead Crown Prince, but he just did not want to
take any chance, especially that it was known to the public that he was not actually the real
Crown Prince.
The Fake Prince, they all called him.

Of course he didn’t really care about what others thought about him, but sometimes Feng Yue
burst out in anger when she got back from the town and heard someone talking about the fake
crown prince.

Well, anyway, he asked Wen Ning to buy some bunny lanterns for the kids, and they
continued their exploration toward Jade Pavilion.

The restaurant was full and they even refused the group of people who came without
appointment – like the one who was standing in front of the door and yelled at the waiter who
refused them entry.

They were obviously rich judging from the quality of the clothes and the jade pendants that
they wore. But the waiter was calm as they refused them entry.

“Do you know who I am? I’m the son of the Governor!” The man yelled at the waiter, and
one of his friends tried to calm him down.

“Calm down Lin Hu.” Then he turned to the waiter. “I see that the second floor is empty. Is
there a way that we can use the place? We are sorry we don’t have an appointment, but we
have important guests here. Help me save face please?” The man handed down a pouch of
gold coins to the waiter but the waiter still refused them.

“I’m really sorry, Childe. The second floor has been booked in advance and actually, they are
here.” The waiter waved to Wei Wuxian’s party. “Childe, welcome. We’ve been expecting
you. Please go up to the second floor and we will serve you the food in a moment.”

Wei Wuxian nodded and Wen Ning, Feng Yue and his father brought the kids to the second
floor.
He was about to follow when the man who gave the waiter money suddenly stood in front of
him.

“Hi there, my name is Zhuge Jun and I am here with very important guests from afar.” He
pointed at the people at the back of the group who wore colorful costumes that Wei Wuxian
knew came from the neighboring kingdom of the nomads.

Hmm.

“Yes?” He spoke in a lower tone than usual.

“Would you mind if we use your reservation please? We will compensate you generously.”
Zhuge Jun smiled and Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but feel strangely icky.

“As you can see, our guests have never tasted seafood before and Jade Pavilion is the most
famous seafood place in town. Since we have to entertain them so that they feel… satisfied, I
will pay you twice the price that you paid for your food and make another reservation for the
earliest possible date. Is that okay?”

Wei Wuxian observed Zhuge Jun and the first man who told the waiter that he was the son of
the Governor, then he turned his attention to the nomads.

The nomads consisted of three men and one woman, and it was obvious that she was the most
important person since the three men guarded her tight.

Unfortunately she wore a veil that covered her face, but Wei Wuxian more or less knew who
she was.

The Princess and the newly appointed Saintess of the Ashina Tribe.

And one of the Empress candidates for Lan Wangji.

He wondered though, why the Saintess went out alone discreetly with only three guards and
with the son of the Zhuge family of all people.

The Zhuge family was one of the neutral families that did not support either the Empress or
the Emperor in the last battle of succession, and they were famous astrologers and exorcists
who were on par with Abe no Seimei in Japan.

Unfortunately before he could answer the man, someone took the chance to answer Zhuge
Jun.

“The reservation has been made for very important people too, and I suggest if you want to
eat some seafood, you better make your own reservation next time.”
 Chapter 39

Wei Wuxian looked up to see that Lan Wangji – dressed in all black that was almost the
reminiscence of his old day – was standing tall beside him and he was followed by Feng Xue
who dressed in all black too.

He was not surprised to see him, since he was the one to invite the latter to this little birthday
celebration, and also a little gift for the children because he knew how much they liked Lan
Wangji – not knowing that he was their other father.

Although he suspected that the kids had already guessed, since they were so smart.

What surprised him was that Lan Wangji did not wear a veil to cover his face. Not that it was
needed because no one outside of the close acquaintances and the court ministers knew what
he looked like. Even back when he was still the Grand Duke, he rarely showed his face to the
public.

But still.

Wei Wuxian watched as Zhuge Jun turned to face Lan Wangji and he looked very surprised –
and Wei Wuxian wondered if the man knew the identity of the Emperor who was standing in
front of him.

Zhuge Jun did not know that the men in front of him were the Emperor and the previous
Crown Prince, however, he had this sixth sense that told him that those men were not your
ordinary people – from the aura they exuded. Even the old man and the pretty woman who
entered first, and the man with silver hair behind them had that same dangerous vibe.

He just wished that his friend could feel it too and shut his damn loud mouth for once. This
was definitely the last time he did this favor for his stupid cousin – who had a crush on Lin
Hu from the Lin family.
“Who are you?” Lin Hu pointed his finger at Lan Wangji. The man was handsome but he was
conceited and he used his position as the son of the Governor to do things that he should not
do without his father knowing.

“It is more polite to introduce one self before they ask for the other's name.” Lan Wangji
looked at Lin Hu, and then to Zhuge Jun, then to the Saintess and her bodyguards.

“You…!”

“Lin Hu, stop.” Zhuge Jun stopped his friend from doing any more damage. He could see
from the corner of his eyes that the man with silver hair took a step forward and he did not
want any bloodshed especially when the Saintess was here.

“We apologize once again, Childe. My name is Zhuge Jun and this is Lin Hu, the son of the
Governor.” Zhuge Jun purposely did not introduce the Saintess. “May I know your name?”

“Zhuge Jun, the second son of Zhuge Huang. You’re quite a smart man. I will remember
you.” Lan Wangji did not answer his question, instead he pressed his hand to the small.of Wei
Wuxian’s back. “Let’s go inside. The kids must be hungry already.”

Wei Wuxian nodded and both of them entered the restaurant to the second floor that was
closed for only them. He was starting to get tired from the confrontation and apparently Lan
Wangji could sense that by the swiftness he showed when he took him away.

When Lin Hu still insisted on entering, Feng Xue – who stayed behind – unsheathed his
sword and pointed it to his neck.

“I suggest you better come back home and sober yourself before you do something that you
will regret later.”

“Why you…”
“Who are they?” Zhuge Jun cut Lin Hu’s words to stop him from talking. Not because he
cared about Lin Hu but more like he was curious about the handsome gentleman and the
mysterious man behind the black veil and he was fed up with his friend’s antics and
selfishness.

Of course he had his hunch by the strong and dominant pheromone that both men had, but he
wanted to confirm that.

“It’s none of your business, son of Zhuge Huang.” Feng Xue sheathed his sword and he
turned to the Saintess. “You should pick a better companion, Saintess.”

The Saintess gasped lightly and the bodyguards unsheathed their short daggers from their
belts, but she stopped them from attacking.

“We should go.” She signaled Zhuge Jun – who was ready to leave at any second, dragging
his friend with him – and they left in a hurry, leaving Feng Xue sighed.

The Saintess probably recognized him anyway since he did not exactly blend into the crowd,
but he didn’t give a damn – and apparently so was General – Emperor Lan.

Ever since the ministers started to pressure him to get married and parade beautiful Omegas
in front of him, Emperor Lan’s temper had become colder and he blatantly ignored all the
men and women that were being offered to him no matter how beautiful or influential they
were.

Of course it was because he only loved Wei Wuxian and they also had kids together, but it
was a problem by itself since Wei Wuxian refused to let Lan Wangji acknowledge the
children as his.

Feng Xue groaned from frustration.

Human’s life was so complicated and they did not want to be honest to themselves in order to
be happy – for example, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian.

If they just admitted their feelings to each other and talked about how they should make it
work, he bet everyone including the children would be more happy.

He thought that it was time for him and his sister to discuss things and help those clueless
people to get together. After all, he also wanted to spend more time with the kids instead of
letting his crazy sister take care of them all the time.

Who knew what kind of shit she would teach the kids when no one was not around.
 Chapter 40

The kids were chatting with their grandfather and Feng Yue when they caught sight of Wei
Wuxian and Lan Wangji entering the second floor, and they squealed when they saw Lan
Wangji.

“You’re here!” Xingyue the shy boy jumped on him and gave him a kiss on each cheek –
followed by Yingyue.

Lan Wangji carried each kid in his arms and kissed them with so much love that Wei Wuxian
felt a bit guilty for denying him his right. Maybe it was time for them to talk about stuff
moving forward, but right now, they would enjoy the birthday dinner.

“Of course I’m here. Where else should I be if not with my precious on their birthday?” Lan
Wangji gave both kids kisses and then Feng Xue appeared with gifts for them.

“You even brought gifts?” The kids were surprised and super happy from the expression on
their faces, and Wei Wuxian felt the pang of guilt once again.

The children clearly loved their other father as much as they loved him, but even though they
had the feelings, they did not question his decision to not tell them about Lan Wangji’s real
identity – although he suspected that they felt the connection already.

“Of course I brought gifts.” He took the long shaped box and gave it to Yingyue. “This is for
you, I hope you like it.”

Yingyue opened the box excitedly and found a pure black bow inside.

“Wowwwww, it’s beautiful!!!” She jumped up and down and then hugged Lan Wangji once
again.
Wei Wuxian saw the bow and he gasped.

The bow was the one that the previous Grand Duke Lan treasured so much, he always used it
when he went on to monster subjugation.

It was made from one of the legs of the giant poisonous mythical beast – Queen Spider – and
it didn’t need a physical arrow. Just by using internal force, it would transform the qi into
poisonous arrows that would pierce the enemies and turn them into dust. It was also strong
enough to be used to hit the closing enemies. In short, the bow was a very versatile weapon.

“Lan Zhan… isn’t that your…”

“Yes, Wei Ying. And I think our Yingyue is fit to be its new master. Although you have to
cultivate more so that you can use this bow with your qi.” He ruffled the girl’s hair and then
took the other box and gave it to Xingyue.

“Xingyue, this is for you.”

Xingyue opened the box and took out a golden Bagua and Wei Wuxian gasped once again.

“That’s the magical Bagua of the Lan Family.” He pointed at the magical bagua that was held
by Xingyue excitedly.

The bagua was the 8 trigram that was made from pure gold and had a mythical ability to fend
off the enemies, make arrays, read the stars and also the future if you were skillful enough. It
was rumored that this was the bagua that once belonged to Zhuge Liang, but he gifted it to
his best friend – the Archduke of Lan – as the sign of their friendship.

“Yingyue is smart enough to use this, rather than collecting dust inside the warehouse.” Lan
Wangji kissed both children’s hair and held them close. “Now, put aside the gifts and let’s
eat.”
The children obediently put each of their gifts into their dimensional rings, and they started to
chatter and eat the delicious seafood – from fresh uni, salmon, tuna belly sashimi, grilled
black miso cod, huge crabs that was steamed and cooked in spicy tomato and eggs, lobsters
with black pepper sauce, abalone porridge, cold jellyfish in sesame sauce, baby octopus,
drunken shrimps, deep fried squids, and many many more that made everyone ooh and aah
over the variety of the dishes.

“These are…” Wei Wuxian was flabbergasted by the choice of the dishes that exceeded what
he ordered, and he knew exactly who the perpetrator was. “Feng Yue, is this your doing?” He
sighed.

Of course money was not the problem since he had a lot of them, especially from the Peony
Garden. He just wanted to take the first step slowly because who knew if the kids were
allergic to seafood?

“No?” Feng Yue shrugged as she stuffed her face with the crab. “This restaurant belongs to
Wangji-gege, so he prepared everything for us. And it's an all you can eat buffet. Yay!”

“Yay!” The kids followed her and each took a crab leg and started to crack them up and
sucked the inside – following Feng Yue’s doing.

“Of course.” He sighed while Lan Wangji smiled and pulled him closer.

“I just want the best for my… the kids, and you.” He kissed Wei Wuxian’s hair softly and
squeezed his waist. “You deserve the best of everything, and I will give you all, even if you
ask for the stars and the moon.”

“Such a flirt.” Wei Wuxian’s face reddened. He never knew that Lan Wangji could say things
like this, and he did not know what to do about it. He could even smell the fresh scent of Lan
Wangji’s pheromone and he was kinda aroused from it, so he pushed him away then cleared
his throat to prevent a further accident.
“Kids, please immediately inform us if you feel itchy or you suddenly can’t breathe. It means
that you are allergic to seafood, and we need to stop eating right away.”

“Yeess baba…” The kids obediently nodded and continued to eat the squiggly jellyfish while
their grandfather laddled the abalone porridge into their bowl and cracked open the lobster
for them.

Who would have thought that Hei Changze turned from the leader of the assassin into a
normal grandfather who coddled his grandchildren.

After waiting for fifteen minutes and getting no allergic reaction from the kids, Wei Wuxian
finally let out a long sigh and Lan Wangji chuckled and cut the crab open and fed them to
Wei Wuxian.

“Stop worrying and eat.” He also took the lobster and opened it to reveal the white flesh and
also fed it to Wei Wuxian.

“Stop it.” Wei Wuxian hissed and blushed. “The kids are watching.”

“So?” Lan Wangji didn’t give a fuck as he peeled the shrimps and put it on Wei Wuxian’s
plate. “You’re my mate, and I am yours. You may not want to admit it but I will gladly
announce to the whole world the moment you give me permission to do so.”

Wei Wuxian was flabbergasted with the sudden love declaration and wondered what got into
him. But mostly, he could not retort his statement so he just shut his mouth and ate whatever
Lan Wangji put on his plate while thinking of the future.
 Chapter 41

They finished their food and chatted over the delicious dessert of ginger pudding with a piece
of candied fruit on top, and went to see fireworks that Lan Wangji told Feng Xue to set up
beforehand.

They walked leisurely to the lake and entered the pavilion in the middle of the lake that was
reserved only for them, then soon after, the firework show started. The kids were in awe
when they saw the beautiful fireworks and they giggled and acted like the children they were.

Wei Wuxian was sitting beside Lan Wangji – who held his hand tight – and it made him
unconsciously lean on him and inhale his fresh scent. He could feel the tension in his body
lessened, just from being close to his mate.

Just for a little bit, he let himself enjoy this peaceful and rare occasion.

“Are you happy, Wei Ying?”

Lan Wangji suddenly asked him the question and it took him a while to answer.

Was he happy?

He was. Somehow.

But he knew that Lan Wangji didn’t only mean it. There were so many other questions that he
didn’t ask him, and yet, somehow he just knew.

And he answered him as truthfully as he could.

“I am happy now. Here. With everyone.” And you.

Yes.

If he was telling the truth, he was always happy when he was with Lan Wangji. Just by being
near him, it eased his pain and lightened him up in a way no one had ever done. Even with
the kids.

The kids brought him hope and joy, but it was a different kind of happiness than the one he
felt with Lan Wangji. The warm and comfortable feeling of being near his mate, the security
of knowing that he would always be there to catch him when he falls, the satisfaction that
somehow he had come this far with his encouragement.

But it did not mean that he would be willing to come back to the Palace in whatever capacity.

Although he was happy, he still had nightmares about his life there, with all the drugs and the
Empress’ torture. Sometimes he could still even feel the phantom pain that the Empress had
inflicted him so many times.

Sure the scars from the physical wounds had healed, but he didn’t know when the scars in his
heart would – if ever.

And somehow, Lan Wangji caught on his feelings – and the light shivering he did – and he
pulled him close and kissed his hair softly.

“It’s good enough for me. As long as you’re happy. And remember, I will always be here
with you, no matter what.”

Maybe it was his words, or maybe it was the whole situation, but Wei Wuxian couldn’t help
but let out a drop of tears as he felt the tightness in his chest.
Oh, how he loved this man so much, and how he wished he could give him what he wanted
without much thought.

But then again, he was not alone this time.

There were a lot of people depending on him, and he could not just give in to his whims. And
so far, this was the best middle ground solution that he could think of – except for the one
that they all went away to the faraway land to live anonymously.

And that was just a pipe dream for him.

But if there was one thing he could show Lan Wangji his gratitude with, he knew that this
was the perfect time.

“Do you want to stay for the night?”

Lan Wangji was a smart man, and without many words, he knew what Wei Wuxian meant,
and he wasn’t about to refuse the offer that he had waited for so long.

“Not even a war can make me go away from your side ever again.” Lan Wangji whispered
closely in Wei Wuxian ear – so close that he could scent the wafting pheromone that was
starting to get stronger from arousal.

Wei Wuxian blushed. He was mildly aroused ever since Lan Wangji came and saved them
from the unruly young’uns, but then he repressed all of his worldly desire for the sake of his
children, his life, even Lan Wangji’s life.

He was the Emperor for chrissake, and one of his future wives was there in front of him.

But then again, that was the last straw.

He was jealous.

Lan Wangji was his mate, and he gave him children.

This time, he would be selfish for once and let himself enjoy what he had been denied for so
long.

They were laughing and singing and enjoying themselves all night long – lowering their
guard – so that no one realized that someone was keeping a close eye on them with such
malice in their eyes.

Soon .

Soon they would be able to take revenge for everything that had been done to them.

And by the time it was over, there would be nothing left of those people.

Not even their precious children.

 Chapter 42

As soon as they got back to their house and both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian said good
night to the children, they excused themselves and went to Lan Wangji’s place.

The moment the door was closed, Lan Wangji pulled Wei Wuxian close and kissed him –
slowly at first, and then became more and more demanding, as he released his pheromone.

Wei Wuxian moaned when he smelled the fresh scent and he knew immediately that he was
rutting from the way he became very aroused and wet.

“Lan Zhan… I think I’m in heat…” He panted and suddenly felt hot all over so he took off
his clothes while still kissing Lan Wangji fervently.

“I know.” Lan Wangji also took off his clothes and carried Wei Wuxian to bed. “I can smell it
since we were at the lake.”

“God, you smell so good.” Wei Wuxian sniffed Lan Wangji’s neck and inhaled his fresh
scent, then he could feel that he was ready.

He flipped their position out and took out his mate’s swollen member out of the suffocating
pants and led it toward his opening. And before Lan Wangji could say anything, he lowered
himself down and swallowed everything up to the hilt.

Lan Wangji groaned as he gripped Wei Wuxian’s hips and started to thrust into him in slow
motion.

“Faster, Lan Zhan.” Wei Wuxian moved his hips in a lewd motion and Lan Wangji couldn’t
hold back anymore as he thrust faster and faster until they both gasped and grunted and
finally he came and knotted his soul mate.
“Wei Ying…” He whispered his name softly as he gathered the man in his arms and kissed
his temple.

They waited until his knot had subsided, and then Lan Wangji stood up to get some water and
clean cloth to clean the now sleepy Wei Wuxian.

“Drink this.” He put the cup of water in front of Wei Wuxian’s swollen lips and made him
drink before Wei Wuxian suddenly pulled him into a kiss.

“I’m good, Lan Zhan, but I want you to fill me in again.” He bit Lan Wangji’s lips and licked
the blood, before he pulled him on top of him. “I want you inside and knot me again. And
again. And again.” He licked his lips in a lewd manner. “I think the kids need more siblings,
what do you say?”

Lan Wangji knew that this was probably the heat that was talking, but since he was in his rut
too, he would be glad to do what his mate wanted.

“Let’s make a dozen of kids then.”

 Chapter 43

Lin Hu was still fuming from his encounter with the strange man and his entourage. He even
felt betrayed by Zhuge Jun because the man did nothing to help him – instead, he looked very
afraid of the man with the strange bodyguard.

He didn’t understand why Zhuge Jun acted like that. In fact, if he wasn’t in the middle of
courting his sister, Lin Hu wouldn’t want to be seen together with the nerd from the Zhuge
family at all.

He needed to think fast to secure his relationship with the Saintess of the Ashina Clan that his
father had worked so hard to arrange, so that when she was appointed as the Empress, she
could help back him and get him into a nice position in the Imperial Palace.

He took the glass of alcohol in front of him and drank it in one go, then he tried to fill it up
only to realize that it was empty.

“Goddamn it, everything is so fucked up!” He threw his glass against the wall and it shattered
– making the courtesans who were with him look at him with distaste.

One of them then called for more alcohol and lit up the incense filled with calming
concoction, while the other started to play the guqin to soothe the young master.

“Young Master, please enjoy this alcohol.” She poured the newly came bottle of alcohol and
poured it to the empty glass, then she served it to the already drunken man.

Lin Hu drank it quickly and after some time, he fell asleep on the table.

When he woke up though, instead of the room that he was in before he went to sleep, he was
in a totally different place – and he was tied down on the chair.
“Wh-what the hell?” He suddenly got hit by a splash of cold water and sobered up
immediately.

“Fuck! Where am I? Who are you? Do you know who you mess up with? I will tell my father
to arrest you all for daring to do this to me! Untie me at once!”

Lin Hu screamed and tried to get away from the chair but someone slapped him once, twice,
three times – silencing his scream.

“If you dare to utter another word, this won’t end just by we slap you, Lin Hu.” A woman's
voice was heard in front of Lin Hu but he could not see her because there was a thick red veil
between them. “And yes, we know who you are. The only son of Governor Lin.”

Lin Hu opened his mouth to speak but he remembered the warning and he looked over at the
man who stood beside him holding a dagger – and he changed his mind.

“Good. Now you’re learning.” The woman sounded pleased and she continued to talk. “So, I
have a proposition for you.” She paused to let someone lit up her pipe and exhaled a few
times before she continued. “I saw you had an altercation with a certain gentleman earlier,
and I know that you must be very ashamed since you have Saintess Ashina with you.”

Lin Hu widened his eyes in surprise.

Saintess Ashina’s appearance was not known by many people except the highest level
ministers, and yet, this woman knew about her?

He gulped in nervousness.

“Don’t worry, I’m on your side. In fact, why don’t you let me help you and we can take a
revenge together, and you can keep the Saintess with you? Who knows, if you do good for
the country, the Emperor would reward you with her?” She chuckled. “You may speak now.”
“Uhm… why do you want to help me? I’m pretty sure I don’t know you and you sound like
someone pretty high in the government position. Surely you must have more connections
than me.” Lin Hu cleared his throat and hoped the brute did not slap him anymore.

“Let’s say… we have a common enemy.” Her voice suddenly turned cold. “How do you say
it… the enemy of my enemy is my friend? In this case, an ally?”

Lin Hu was not as smart as Zhuge Jun, but he was not stupid either.

For someone to have an enemy in a high position as this woman, he must also be someone in
high position. And Zhuge Jun always told him to not involve himself in the fight between
two powerful figures or he would be ripped to shreds.

And he was about to decline the offer when the woman suddenly spoke again.

“Oh, and don’t you ever think to decline my offer since I will rather skin you alive than let
you out of this place. No one ever lived after they defied me, you know.”
 Chapter 44

It took them a whole week to get over their heat, and when they did, Wei Wuxian jolted up
from the sex haze and found a tray full of breakfast and drink – but no Lan Wangji.

Wen Qing – who brought a basin of water to wash his face – asked him if he would like to
have a bath.

Wei Wuxian knew that he smelled like sex and pheromone, and he agreed immediately to the
offer of a warm and calming bath.

“Oh, by the way, Your Majesty left this morning because he has something important to do.
He said he will be back as soon as possible.” Wen Qing informed Wei Wuxian as she checked
his pulse.

As her doctor, she still monitored his condition every now and then even though he looked
healthy. Without his mate by his side and provided him with what he needed, he was in risk
of falling into a depression, especially when he already had the history to begin with.

Wen Qing did not agree with his methods of running away from the Emperor without telling
him anything in the first place, since the Emperor had the right to know about his children
too. But as a lowly servant, she decided to keep her opinion to herself. As long as Wei
Wuxian was safe and healthy, the problem of their hearts was not hers to interfere with.

Wei Wuxian nodded as he understood that as the Emperor, Lan Wangji had obligations and
duty toward their people, and he wouldn’t be so selfish to try to monopolize him for himself.

And yet, it still made him sad.

He realized that as long as Lan Wangji was still the Emperor, they would not be able to live
normally, and to see each other any time they wanted.
But still he had a sliver of hope that maybe one day, they would be able to be together –
especially since he knew that the twins would have another sibling or two soon.

Wei Wuxian touched his flat stomach fondly.

Of course it was still too early but he just had a feeling that he would get heavy with another
baby soon.

And maybe when he did, he would be ready to discuss with Lan Wangji about their future –
together.

The children were playing with their new birthday gifts while Wen Ning accompanied them
to the open field near their house. They usually played alone while he hunted for rabbits or
boar to eat, and so far, nothing had ever happened since Feng Yue erected a barrier around the
whole mountain and they restricted access to other people – and today was no different.

He left the kids to play for a while since their grandfather or Feng Yue would come soon
enough to keep an eye on them, and he went deeper into the woods to check the traps.

The first two traps that he set up were still intact, but he wasn’t worried because there were
still some more traps, so he walked deeper to check the others. And as he thought, the third
trap yielded a great result with a wild boar caught in it.

Wen Ning was very excited as he approached the boar carefully with his bow and arrows to
quickly kill the boar, when his instinct suddenly warned him of an impending danger.
As per Feng Yue and Grandpa Hei’s instruction, the safest way for him to avoid unseen
danger was to make himself as flat as the surface he stood on, so he quickly dropped down to
the floor and a second later he could hear an arrow swished from his right and if he was still
standing, it would pierce his neck and render him dead.

But who?

Who dared to trespass?

More importantly, who had the ability to trespass the fairy barrier that Feng Yue erected
without the owner’s permission?

Unfortunately he could not do the thinking first, since he knew that he had to go back to the
kids. But before that, he took out a small wooden whistle and blew it loudly.

The whistle did not have a sound, but it was meant to be like that since there was one person
that could hear the frequency and be alerted about this dire situation.

The children were still playing with themselves when suddenly Yingyue heard a faint rustle
sound from their blind spot, and she quickly pointed her bow and arrows and shot at it. Her
instinct told her that there was something lurking in the shadows and that they were in
danger. So she did what Feng Yue told her to do when they were in this kind of situation.

“Xingyue, we need to go.” She grabbed her brother – who was also already alerted by the
strange presence all around them – and they started to flee toward their home.
Feng Yue was just waking up and checking the barrier when she noticed that there was
something strange with it.

There was a sign that someone had been tampering with the barrier and she had a bad feeling
about it – right about when she heard the emergency soundless whistle that no ordinary
human could hear except for her and her brother.

She gave Wei Wuxian, Wen Ning and the kids one each for an emergency, and she
immediately ran out toward the forest where the whistle was sounded.

Hei Changze – who was hanging the laundry – saw her face and he immediately knew that
something had happened, and he abandoned the laundry to follow her.

“What happened?” He asked Feng Yue while they ran toward the forest.

“The whistle.” She answered and Hei Changze paled.

“Let’s hurry then.”

They quickly moved to the place where they knew the children would be – while hoping and
praying that nothing happened to them, and the whistle and the barrier were just false alarms.

Unfortunately, Feng Yue’s sense screamed that this was a real situation, and she had very bad
feelings about it. She just hoped that they got there on time to make sure that everything was
fine.
 Chapter 45

When Feng Yue arrived at where the kids were supposed to be, she did not see them, and
instead, she could feel an unsettling twist in the air and she felt anxious.

Usually, when no one was here, the surroundings were peaceful and she could feel every
living thing around them. Right now, although it was calm, it felt like something had tainted
the air with its disgusting scent and drove away the creatures to hide.

She could feel it.

Someone had breached her barrier.

It was only a tiny slit but the feeling of evil was already all over the place. And she was very
sensitive because as a fairy she was very much in tune with everything.

Suddenly she heard a rustling sound from the woods and she quickly went there to see what
happened. She entered the woods and she recognized the area where Wen Ning usually
hunted and she found traces of blood on the ground.

She saw that the blood was fresh and she immediately cast a tracking spell to find the owner
of the blood – whether it was Wen Ning or his attacker – and unsurprisingly the tracker
pointed to the lake near there.

Feng Yue ran toward the lake and she saw that Wen Ning was fighting with someone in all
black, and he almost got defeated.

She knew that although Wen Ning was quite capable, his opponent was a pro, and he also had
the smell of blood and death all over him, so she decided to help Wen Ning.
She moved swiftly behind the masked man and incapacitated him with one hit to his neck,
and she looked at Wen Ning.

“Are you okay?” She scanned him but aside from minor flesh wounds, he was fine. “What
happened? Where’s the kids?”

Wen Ning suddenly went pale when he heard Feng Yue’s question.

“The kids are not in the field? I drew them here so that they did not hurt the kid and you
could find them. Oh god, who took them?” Wen Ning panicked as he scrambled up to go
back to where the kids were, but Feng Yue stopped him.

“I was there and no one was at the usual place. Since this bastard is still alive, why don’t we
ask him where they took the kids and who dared kidnap the children of the Emperor.” She
took Wen Ning’s dagger and pointed it to the masked man’s throat.

“Speak. Or I will make you regret that you were ever born.”

The children woke up in a dark place where they could smell the heavy sweet incense, and
knew that they were in trouble.

The last thing they remembered was running back to their home when a portal suddenly
appeared in front of them and they couldn’t stop quick enough to steer out of the way and
involuntarily entered it.

Inside there was a dark place that was unfamiliar to them, and when they tried to go back to
the way they came from, the portal was already closed.
“Don’t worry Xinyue, I’ll protect you.” Yingyue hugged her shaking little brother tight and
took out her bow and arrows. “Stay behind me.”

She was also afraid, but she knew as the older one she had to protect her little brother. And
she also believed that the others would find her soon enough so she swallowed her saliva and
squeezed her brother tight, to assure him that nothing would happen to them.

Xinyue nodded and held on to his big sister's clothes, while they started to move forward, to
look for an exit. He always believed in his big sister, and also Feng Yue and Wen Ning and
grandpapa and baba and… Father.

Although he was quiet and shy, he was very intelligent, and it didn’t take him long to
understand that the rich uncle who always came to their place was their other father. He
didn’t know what happened between baba and him, but he always prayed that someday he
would be able to call him Father. And he wanted to make him proud by being a good boy and
survive this… kidnapping.

He felt strange that the kidnappers knew about them, since his rich Father was always alone
when he came to visit, but he guessed that maybe the kidnapper was his enemy?

He was deep in thought while holding on to his sister’s clothes, when he felt it.

The eerie feeling of someone watching them.

“My my my, you little brats are actually quite decent from up close, if you ignore the smell of
poverty all over you.”

Suddenly there was a woman’s voice laughing at them, and both kids instinctively knew that
she was dangerous. They huddled up closer and Yingyue pointed her arrow to the direction of
the voice and shot – only to be laughed at and mocked by the mysterious woman.
“Oh my, you’re just like your father, little girl, while the boy is just like his mother.”

They heard the sound of fabric moving and suddenly they were face to face with a very
beautiful woman dressed in all red.

The kids tried to move away from her but she grabbed them by their collars like they were
little rabbits.

“Let us go, you witch! My baba will definitely crush you when he finds us!” Yingyue tried to
kick her but she just laughed and threw them away. The kids braced themselves for a
collision with the floor when they landed on something soft. They looked up to see a
beautiful man was holding them in his embrace, but his face was blank and he didn't have any
expression on his face.

“Take care of those brats while I take care of the other things.” She waved her hand and the
man nodded. “Oh and restrain them, they will definitely try to run away.”

The man nodded again and he cast a restraining spell on the kids.

“You witch! Let us go!” Yingyue started to scream and Xinyue started to cry, and the woman
looked at them with an irritated expression on her face.

“Shut them up too.”

The man nodded and cast another spell that made the kids’ voice could not be heard.

“And stop calling me witch, brats, I am your grandmother, so call me Royal Grandmother
before I tore your tongues out from insolence.”
 Chapter 46

It was already late when Wei Wuxian came out to find the children, and instead, he was
welcomed by the deafening silence.

It was odd, because usually there were chatters everywhere and especially with this being
close to dinnertime, but he couldn’t even find anyone.

He walked to the children’s bedroom but no one was there, and he started to feel panic in his
chest. This had never happened before. There were always voices everywhere, not the
deafening silence like this.

But then he heard the front door slam and Feng Yue’s urgent voice, so he came out to see that
Wen Ning was hurt and Feng Yue was holding him and putting him down on the floor.

Wen Qing came soon after and she tried to be calm when she examined Wen Ning – who told
her that he was fine.

“What happened?” Wei Wuxian asked Feng Yue who looked like she was about to kill
someone.

“Someone took the kids, but don’t worry. I’ve alerted my brother and he and Wangji-gege are
on their way here.”

Wei Wuxian was speechless.

He tried to digest what Feng Yue just said, when the door burst opened once again and Lan
Wangji and Feng Xue came through it.
“Hei Changze is following the track and I gave him the signal flare for when he finds them.”
Feng Yue informed Lan Wangji and Feng Xue – who nodded – while Wei Wuxian was still
digesting everything.

“Who took the kids?” He finally said the words, and Lan Wangji held him tight.

“We don’t know yet, but we’ll find out soon. Don’t worry, I will take care of everything.”

Lan Wangji brought Wei Wuxian back to his room so that he calmed down while Feng Xue
mobilized the Blue Orchid people to find the children, since they would not use the palace
people to prevent any news spread out about the whereabouts of the former Crown Prince.

Wen Ning also asked Jiang Yanli to help find the children, and she immediately sent her best
people to find the information on the children.

It didn’t take long for Feng Xue to inform Lan Wangji that they caught a suspicious man
around the perimeter, and Lan Wangji nodded before he asked Wen Qing to attend to Wei
Wuxian while he was unconscious.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness, I will take good care of him.”

Lan Wangji then left to see the suspicious man that Feng Xue caught and restrained near the
place where they found him – who turned out to be the same man who had a fight with them
at the restaurant before.

When he saw Lan Wangji, his eyes widened in recognition and he started to yell and scream
at him.

“You! How dare you treat me like this! Do you know who I am? I will tell my fa-...”

His words were stopped when Feng Xue slapped his face hard.
“Where did you take my children to?” Lan Wangji asked him with a very chilly voice that
even Feng Xue shivered from the coldness.

He knew that Lan Wangji was very angry, but he held himself back because he wanted to find
his children first.

“What children? I don’t know any children! And if you mean the dirty little brats who came
with you guys, I have no idea and I don’t care. They’re just unimportant kids, why are you all
so obsessed with them?”

This time, Feng Xue punched his face until he lost two of his teeth.

“Careful with what you’re going to say next or I will gladly open your stomach and stuff your
gut into your dirty mouth.” Feng Xue pulled his hair back hard and he breathed a very cold
breath into Lin Hu’s face to show him what he was capable of.

Lin Hu suddenly became very afraid when he realized that Feng Yue was not a normal
human, and he was not that stupid to finally realize that the man in front of him was not just
any man at all. And the only one he knew that would have such a supernatural being under
their order was only one person.

“Your-Your Highness?”

Lan Wangji did not correct or deny his question, instead, he looked at the man with a very
cold glare that could make anyone bow down in fear.

“Where. Are. The. Kids.”

Feng Xue emphasized every word while pulling Lin Hu’s hair even tighter and the man
screamed from the pain, but stopped after Feng Xue took out a dagger and pointed it at his
throat.

“Scream one more time and I will slit your throat and make it so that even your mom will not
recognize you.”

Lin Hu quickly stopped his screaming and gulped a few times from the nervousness.

No wonder that man had an authoritative aura when they quarreled yesterday, he was the
Emperor himself.

Now he regretted that he agreed to the woman’s plan.

But it wasn’t like he had a choice in that matter.

“I don’t know! I don’t know who she is! She just came to me out of the blue and offered me
to be an officer in the court, so I assumed that she was someone in a high place like Empress
Dowager?”

Lan Wangji froze in place.

The only Empress Dowager that he knew was missing ever since he took over the throne, and
no matter how hard they looked for her, they couldn’t find any trace of her.

Lan Wangji suspected that she got help from the Empress’ faction, the Prime Minister’s
clique, so he put a tail on each and every one of the known colleague of the Prime Minister –
and this was the first time he heard about the Empress.

Feng Xue seemed to notice his expression as he restrained Lin Hu and put a gag on him
before he threw the man back into the utility shack.
“Your Majesty, should we investigate more into this matter? It’s very suspicious how the
Empress suddenly appeared and took the children away.”

“We still haven’t known that it was the Empress.” Lan Wangji gritted his teeth. “It was just
his assumption that the woman was someone in a high position. We should look into this
matter more before we decide what we should do next. In the mean time, ask Feng Yue to
find out if Xinyue brought his bagua with him. I may have a way to find out their
whereabouts if he did.”
 Chapter 47

“Are you okay, Xinyue?”

Yingyue whispered to her brother – who shivered from cold, and fear. She then hugged him
even closer to reassure them that everything would be fine.

“Don’t worry, everyone will come for us soon, and then we can leave this place.” She patted
her little brother’s head, and kissed his hair.

“Yingyue, I think I know how to contact them.” He whispered so low that Yingyue had to
strain herself to hear his soft words. “The bagua? I think I can activate it so that uncle can
find us.” Then he suddenly became quiet. “Did you ever think that uncle was actually our
father, like she said?”

“Yes. Many times.” Yingyue looked for the bagua inside her bag. “He smells so nice and so
familiar, and I often wish that he’s our father. Uncle also likes baba very much, you know. He
always touched and kissed baba whenever he thought we didn’t see them.”

She then gave Xinyue the bagua and he turned it in some kind of a sequence, until it suddenly
lit up.

“Quick, put it back inside the bag!” He gave the bagua back to Yingyue – who shoved it into
her bag again – before anyone would find out what they were doing.

“Now, let’s just hope that Feng Yue will be able to track us.” Xinyue snuggled up to his sister
and held her hand tightly.
“Wangji-gege, I got a signal from the bagua.” Feng Yue immediately informed Lan Wangji
when she caught the signal.

Other than being the main force of Lan Wangji’s personal army, Feng Yue was specializing in
collecting intel, and when the bagua was activated, she immediately received the signal.

“Good boy.” Lan Wangji was feeling proud of his son, who was able to activate the bagua
just as he taught him to. “Show me the way.”

Feng Yue led Lan Wangji and Feng Xue to the place where she got the signal from the bagua,
and they were surprised since the place was neither secluded nor it was like a villain’s lair,
but it was a big mansion in the middle of the city that belonged to none other than the
Governor Lin – Lin Hu’s father.

“Ok, here’s the plot twist. What does the governor want with the children? It’s not like he
knows that they are the Emperor’s.” Feng Xue sounded what was in everyone’s mind.

“It’s because he’s actually under someone else’s influence.” Suddenly Jiang Yanli appeared
with Jiang Cheng, and they approached Lan Wangji then they bowed in respect. “Your
Highness.”

Lan Wangji knew that they were Wei Wuxian’s subordinates and that they were quite good.

“What do you mean by he’s under someone’s influence?” Feng Yue asked Jiang Yanli. She
already knew everything about her when she first decided to follow Wei Wuxian and they
sometimes even interacted.

“It seems that there’s a very powerful dominant Omega who spread their pheromone around
the important and high level officials and turned them into their obedient subordinates.
Sounds familiar?”
Lan Wangji suddenly felt uneasy.

Of course the first image that popped in his mind was the worst, but when he thought about
it, it all made sense.

He had turned the Capital and every place he knew upside down to find the previous
Empress, but even his most trusted Feng Xue and Feng Yue could not find her. It was like she
just disappeared into thin air, but of course he knew better.

The empress had her influence spread far and wide, and she could easily hide under his nose
since the power of dominance from her pheromone would not be that easy to undo.

Lan Wangji already prepared everything he could think of to track her and bring her down,
but he was careless to think that he had covered everything – and this was the proof.

“Let’s go inside first to retrieve the kids.” Lan Wangji gritted his teeth. “Feng Yue, you and
Yanli go around the back and try to find the kids, while I meet the governor to see what he
wants.”
 Chapter 48

“I am so honored to have the Emperor visit my humble residence.”

Governor Lin kneeled in front of him and Lan Wangji waved him up.

“So, what brings you here, Your Majesty?” He had commanded his servants to prepare the
best food and wine, and yet he was sweating bullets, and his eyes darted everywhere like he
was feeling guilty of something.

Lan Wangji observed him for a while without uttering a word, until Governor Lin almost
could not handle the silence anymore.

“Your Majesty, if you would…”

“Tell me, Governor Lin.” Lan Wangji cut his words abruptly. “How much is the price of
someone’s loyalty nowadays? Riches? Women? Position?”

Governor Lin looked so taken aback by Lan Wangji’s question, and he immediately kneeled
back until his forehead touched the ground.

“Your Majesty, please forgive me!” He slammed his forehead many times on the ground until
it bled out.

“Forgive you? For what? Did you do something that would require my forgiveness?” Lan
Wangji pretended that he didn’t know about anything, although his voice was as hard as a
nail.

Feng Xue knew that Lan Wangji was holding back because he didn’t have any proof, and he
applauded his self control since if it was him, he would burn everything in his path to get his
offspring back.

“I know my son has been meeting with one of your future Empresses, Your Majesty, but it’s
because he’s still young and stupid and didn’t know what to do! Please forgive him, Your
Majesty!”

Lan Wangji didn’t say a word, only tapped his fingers on the chair’s arm while he was
thinking.

If the Governor didn’t know about the missing children, then, was it only his son who
kidnapped them?

“Did you really think that I came here personally to ask you about that?” He didn’t even
consider any of the Omega that was offered to him as his Empress because to him, his mate
had been determined since a long time ago and he did not even have a slightest thought about
mating with anyone else.

The Governor looked so confused when Lan Wangji asked him back, and he was about to
speak when there was a commotion from the garden.

They all looked outside to find Feng Yue broke into the place and marched directly toward
Lan Wangji with anger on her face.

She gave Lan Wangji the baqua that she had found inside the secret room.

“I found this but the kids are nowhere to be found.” She then turned to face the Governor.
“Should I make him talk?”

“Wait.” Lan Wangji held the bagua and he showed it to the Governor. “Do you want to
change your story? I can give you a leniency of a quick death if you tell the truth. But if you
decide to continue to lie, I will let Feng Yue here interrogate you, and you should know that
she’s one of the Twin Reapers of the Battlefield.”
The Governor paled when he heard the nickname.

Everybody knew about the Twin Reapers of the Battlefield – the Emperor most trusted
people.

They were the notorious killers who terminated people without discriminating gender or race,
and they only obeyed the Emperor. They were also not humans and they could regenerate
very quickly if somehow someone managed to hurt them – which almost never happened.
And if it did happen, they would retaliate a hundred fold.

And the Emperor told him that the beautiful woman was one of the Twin Reapers?

He knew that it was all his fault.

He pampered his son too much, and since he was in the same faction with the previous Prime
Minister – the former Empress’ faction – he thought that his stupid son would be guaranteed
a high position when Crown Prince Wei took the throne.

But he didn’t think that Crown Prince Wei would be killed and the Empress went missing,
and Grand Duke Lan was the real son of the former Emperor – who succeeded him without
much opposition.

And now, his son was involved with the tribal Princess and offended the Emperor.

But what was it with the bagua?

Suddenly Jiang Yanli appeared and she asked for permission to come closer to Lan Wangji –
which he granted.
“Your Majesty, I found this note in the secret room where we found the bagua.” She showed
the letter to Feng Xue – who took it and brought it to Lan Wangji. “Apparently, whoever
stayed there knew that you would come.”

Lan Wangji opened the note and read the writings in it.

The Velvet Pearl

Midnight

Come alone if you want the children back

 Chapter 49

The Velvet Pearl was one of the famous courtesan houses in the red light district – only
because it catered to people with specific taste that no ordinary courtesan would be able to
take.

They also indulged in drugs, slavery, and every other illegal means that would attract people
with psychotic tendencies but with big pockets.

And that was the place where the notes told Lan Wangji to go if he wanted to see his children
again.

As a security measure, Feng Yue would make herself to be one of the courtesans – which
included hypnotizing a few people to make them believe that she was a new recruit – and
Feng Xue would pose as one of the customers. Hei Changze and Jiang Yanli helped with
outer surveillance while the Wen siblings stayed back to take care of Wei Wuxian.

Lan Wangji entered The Velvet Pearl alone just five minutes before midnight, and the Madam
welcomed him with a flirtatious smile.

“Welcome, Childe! Is this your first time here? We have everything that you need for
whatever you desire, all you have to do is tell us, and we will provide it.”

She looked at Lan Wangji with a calculative glance, and decided that he was at least a rich
family’s son – or even a noble – judging from his appearance that was understated but with
the highest quality. Even his pendant was the rarest jade that not anyone could have even
though they had money.

The notes did not say anything about the specific place other than The Velvet Pearl at
midnight, so Lan Wangji asked the Madam directly.

“I have an appointment at midnight here.”

When she heard that, her face turned serious and she bowed at Lan Wangji.

“Please follow me then.”

The Madam brought them upstairs and toward their biggest VIP room at the back – which no
commoner could afford. Even some nobles couldn’t because the price was too high.

But if you could afford it, then your every wish would be granted – no matter how perverted
or twisted. They would even cover up murder if the need arose.

The Madam knocked on the door and she bowed to Lan Wangji before she scurried away
from him, as if she did not want to get involved with them.

The door opened quietly and Lan Wangji stepped inside – only to smell the familiar sickly
scent of the opium that made him want to vomit from disgust.

“So, you’re here alone, Grand Duke Lan – or should I say, Your Majesty?”

Right before him was a scene straight from the forbidden book that was given to him right
after he became the Emperor. The book was full of the illustration of copulating couples in
different positions, and he looked at some of them with interest – especially those that
depicted two males.

But here in real life, he could only think that it was a disgusting view instead of an arousing
one.

There were multiple partners inside the spacious room, and not all of them were human.
There was blood, urine, and many unidentified liquids everywhere, but the one he was
looking for was sitting on top of three naked men who crouched down on all four with
nothing to wear – and she held a whip in her hand.

“Welcome, Grand Duke Lan – or should I say… Your Majesty?”

Lan Wangji ignored the venom that was dripping off her. That woman was so vile that he
wanted to tell Feng Yue to purge the whole place.

But he persevered. For the sake of his kids.

“Where’s my children?”

The woman laughed out loud and she stood up from her human throne, then she walked
toward Lan Wangji and took a deep breath from her opium pipe – then she blew it on Lan
Wangji’s face.

“Oh? But they’re my grandchildren too, you know.” Her voice turned cold and she spread her
vicious pheromone around to make Lan Wangji submit.

Little did she know that Lan Wangji was the strongest Dominant Alpha ever, because he
always honed his skill on the battlefields. Even a huge Drake would easily submit to him
because of the pheromone.

But he held himself back.

He knew that if he attacked the former Empress, she could harm his children, and it was the
only reason why he did not destroy the whole place and buried the former Empress with it.

“I admit you’re very strong, Lan Wangji. But can you hold yourself back when my scent is
the same as my son’s? Your lover?” She smirked as she took off her thin robe and showed
Lan Wangji everything.

She looked young – the side effect of being a powerful Dominant Omega, and also because
she had consumed young men’s vitality to replenish hers – but that was the only thing she
had going on for her.

She emitted her strong pheromone that was designed to hook other genders and make them
submit to her and she maxed the output – until some of the people inside the room started to
lose their consciousness.

Lan Wangji could feel it. The same pheromone as the love of his life – but with impurities
that made him want to vomit, unlike the pure one that Wei Wuxian had.

Since he had already bonded to Wei Wuxian, the pheromone did not affect him much. He
only felt a bit nauseous from the overwhelming amount of it.

He was about to retaliate when suddenly the door to the room opened and Wei Wuxian
entered and counteracted the vile pheromone from the previous Empress.

“You fucking bitch!”

 Chapter 50

The former Empress was surprised to see Wei Wuxian barged in like an angry wild animal –
and so did Lan Wangji. And when Wei Wuxian released his pheromone, Lan Wangji finally
understood why he was a Dominant Omega.

His pheromone was fresh, strong, and domineering – even over the former Empress – and
yet, he didn’t have the underlying vile smell that the former Empress had.

The former Empress was taken aback by the sudden release of Wei Wuxian’s pheromone
attack, and she never knew that her own son had this kind of power that could take her down
a peg.

But she did not give up.

She had a longer experience by controlling those who were weaker than her, and the useless
Crown Prince had never dealt with anyone before.

Sure, her sentiment was not wrong. Only that she did not calculate the primal instinct of a
parent who wanted to protect their children, and this time, it reared its ugly head and was
ready to fight to death to protect their offspring.

“You fucking bitch! I’ve endured years of your mental and physical torture because I thought
that was what I had to do as your son. I even disappeared to live my own life away from
everything to protect my babies, and yet you dare try to kidnap them?”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes flared silver and he started to dominate over everyone there – including
the former Empress, whose orifices started to bleed from the direct attack of Wei Wuxian’s
pheromone.

Lan Wangji looked at the phenomenon with a surprise glint in his eyes because he didn’t
know that Wei Wuxian had this kind of an ability.
But then again, there were a lot of things he didn’t know about his soulmate – yet.

When he witnessed everything that was unfolding before his eyes, he knew that he had made
his decision a long time ago, and he moved to Wei Wuxian and hugged him from behind.

“It’s okay, my love. Feng Yue has found the kids and they’re safe.” He kissed Wei Wuxian
softly and the latter turned to face him with his face wet from the tears.

“Really?” Wei Wuxian sobbed. “I don’t mind killing her if that’s what I have to do to get my
kids back.”

“Our kids.” Lan Wangji held Wei Wuxian close – who buried his head into his chest. Then
Lan Wangji nodded at Feng Xue – who was standing by closely – to take care of the former
Empress and everyone else, while he took Wei Wuxian out of the stinky room to get some
fresh air. And the fairy gladly knocked down everyone and tied them up before he gathered
them around the corner for further instruction.

“Yes, yes, our kids.” Wei Wuxian finally calmed down. “I’m sorry for denying you the right
to call them your flesh and blood, I have no excuse for that. They are and forever will be your
children, Lan Zhan.”

“I am sorry too, for trusting the previous Emperor instead of talking it out with you. I didn’t
know what to do and I knew it was not a good excuse… but…”

“Let bygones be bygones, Lan Zhan. I was wrong too, you know. About a lot of things. And
I…”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t finish his words when they both were jumped by the children. Xingyue
was sobbing into Wei Wuxian’s embrace while Yingyue was trying to hold her tears back,
when Lan Wangji took her into his embrace.
“It’s okay to cry, sweetheart. You are a very strong girl, you know? But now we are here for
you.”

It took another minute but finally Yingyue sobbed into Lan Wangji’s neck.

Lan Wangji kissed her baby cheeks and he crouched down to gather Wei Wuxian and
Xingyue and kissed them all one by one.

And that was when he knew what to do.

“Feng Yue, you go help Feng Xue to bring everyone back to the Palace. We’ll follow you
guys from behind.”

Feng Yue nodded with glee.

She already had plans on what she was going to do to the former Empress to make her regret
that she ever hurt Wei Wuxian, and boy, was it gonna hurt like hell.

Lan Wangji brought Wei Wuxian and the kids back to their home, and he left as soon as they
settled down. He promised to come back as soon as possible with some good news that Wei
Wuxian thought was about the former Empress’ execution – so he waited.

But then a week passed by and there was nothing – not even a peep from the fairy twins.

Even Feng Yue was not coming back.

Then he heard from Jiang Yanli that the Emperor was going to be married to the Princess
from the rich neighborhood country, and a wedding party would be held for 7 nights and 7
days.

Wei Wuxian was stunned.

He did expect that somehow, as the Emperor, Lan Wangji would be married soon to
strengthen the country, but he didn’t think that it was this soon.

And especially not after he told him that their kids were… theirs. That he would tell them
soon that Lan Wangji was their father.

But now… it seemed like a stupid idea.

It took a moment later for Wei Wuxian to realize that he… didn’t really have any attachment
to anyone anymore, and with this, he decided that it was time to finally let go of everything.

He called his father and the Wen siblings, and together they packed their humble belongings,
and left their cottage in the woods where most of his happiest memories were.

And this time he knew that he would be happy.

…..
….

..

.
It didn’t take long for Wei Wuxian and his family to settle down again, and this time, he
chose a place that was located between the mountain and the sea – with open space
everywhere so that no one would be able to approach without anyone seeing them.

The kids were happy because they could eat the freshly caught seafood all the time, and they
got a healthy tan along with their grandfather and the Wen siblings. Even Wei Wuxian had
never been healthier – or happier.

He took a deep breath and went under the shade to take a rest from picking the crabs and
checking their lobster traps, and he sat on the shiny sand while chugging the water – when he
saw the familiar silhouette behind him.

His heart stopped for a second, but then he was embraced by the cloud of sandalwood and he
knew that everything had fallen into its place.

By the time he had settled down in this place, Jiang Yanli informed him about how Lan
Wangji relinquished the throne to the son of the previous Emperor’s cousin – a very capable
man and he was also a Dominant Omega who was loved by his parents dearly.

Lan Wangji knew that the man would be a great ruler, and he was already in love with the
Princess from the neighboring Kingdom, so the wedding came as soon as the new Emperor
took the throne.

Feng Yue and Feng Xue were also busy with the previous Empress’ execution, the deep
cleaning of her network, and the training of the people for the next Emperor’s bodyguards
and trusted men, so when they heard that Wei Wuxian and everyone had moved away from
the cottage, both of the twins immediately ran away from the Palace to search for them.

Lan Wangji followed up afterwards, and when he saw how healthy and tanned Wei Wuxian
was, he couldn’t help but be filled with so much love – especially as he saw the children and
the little extra bundle under the shade beside where Wei Wuxian sat.
“Welcome home, Lan Zhan.”
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