Zhang Mingyang recognized that royal feather—it meant the person inside the carriage could only be one man. His grin widened.
Duan Wang had personally come to receive him. What a show of respect.
Yet he was puzzled—why come in a carriage, not on horseback?
Huo Xiao dismounted, respectfully lifted the curtain, and Jiang Huaichu stepped out calmly, dressed in simple clothes. His obsidian eyes were tranquil and composed. Instantly, the surrounding soldiers lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at him.
Standing at the front line, graceful and composed, he effortlessly subdued the thousand troops behind him. One look was enough to see the vast gulf between him and ordinary men.
Zhang Kui, Dong Lu, and the others—coarse military men—were stunned. Only now did they truly understand whom their emperor was in love with.
He wasn’t just soft and delicate—he had a spine of steel.
For the first time, they grasped the full weight of Duan Wang’s identity. Shocked and unsettled, they realized: the situation had changed. The past was no longer the present. And with it came caution and fear.
Back in Great Ning, they had grown close to Jiang Huaichu, even spent days and nights together. Their national differences had been downplayed, and they’d started seeing him as one of their own. But no matter how good a man he was, Jiang Huaichu was still the Prince of Nanruo—an identity that couldn’t be erased after eighteen years.
To him, Nanruo would always come first. Compared to national interest, love might mean nothing at all.
There was no guarantee he wouldn’t turn against them and join Zhang Mingyang in killing their emperor—because logically, that was the safest course of action for Nanruo. A once-and-for-all solution.
Zhang Kui and the others gripped their weapons, faces tense, watching Jiang Huaichu’s group closely, prepared for anything.
The air was thick with tension.
From the moment Duan Wang appeared, Xiao Yun’s eyes had never left him. But unlike the wary glances of Zhang Kui and the rest, Xiao Yun’s gaze was full of warmth. His stiff expression relaxed, and he beamed at Jiang Huaichu with a goofy, bootlicking smile.
Jiang Huaichu didn’t even look at him.
Zhang Mingyang said, “I didn’t expect Duan Wang himself to come.”
Duan Wang said mildly, “We had an agreement. It’s only proper.”
Xiao Yun’s face changed abruptly.
That meant… he knew everything.
Even someone as famous and noble as Duan Wang was speaking kindly to him—Zhang Mingyang grew more pleased and laughed loudly: “Surely Duan Wang didn’t come for me. He’s here for the Emperor of Great Ning, right?”
Jiang Huaichu smiled slightly. “And how do you know that?”
Zhang Mingyang froze. Wasn’t that obvious? He assumed Jiang Huaichu was teasing and joked back, “That Great Ning scoundrel threatens Nanruo’s safety. A Wangye who loves his people would naturally hate Xiao Yun to the bone. Surely you’ve come to kill that dog yourself?”
Jiang Huaichu cast him a faint glance, his attitude ambiguous and noncommittal.
Zhang Kui and the others’ faces instantly changed. They gripped their weapons tightly. Their reinforcements wouldn’t arrive in time, and they were already outnumbered. Their earlier advantage came from cunning, not strength—handling Zhang Mingyang was already a stretch, and now with the addition of Duan Wang…
Meanwhile, Xiao Yun kept glancing at Jiang Huaichu with wide, hopeful eyes—anxious, flustered, yet proud and delighted. He even threw him a flirtatious look. Xie Zhe turned to glance at the emperor’s dramatically expressive face: “…”
Zhang Mingyang burst out laughing. “With such sincerity, of course this general must fulfill your wish and make Wangye happy!”
“Make me happy?” Jiang Huaichu chuckled lightly. “Then I shall respectfully accept.”
As he said this, his eyes were fixed on Zhang Mingyang.
His gaze was so clear that no one would believe it belonged to anything but an innocent eighteen-year-old youth.
The next second, Zhang Mingyang heard him coolly say, “Kill them all.”
Zhang Mingyang laughed. “Truly ruthless and decisive, Duan Wang. You are a true hero of our times!”
As he spoke, his brows furrowed. He looked puzzled at the unusually quiet army behind Wangye.
They weren’t watching Xiao Yun—instead, they were staring, unblinking, at Zhang Mingyang’s elite soldiers, their eyes as black and hungry as wolves.
Without warning—like a dam bursting—the generals and soldiers of Nanruo surged forward. In an instant, they surrounded the Ye elite troops.
The entire shift took only a heartbeat. Zhang Mingyang didn’t even have time to react before screams rang out behind him.
Xiao Yun’s cavalry, initially on alert and ready to fight Nanruo’s army to protect him, were stunned when the Nanruo troops caught the Ye elite off guard.
“What the h*ll are you staring at? Get in there!!” Xiao Yun shouted.
His roar finally snapped the stunned Great Ning cavalry out of their daze. They quickly joined the battle and began slaughtering the Ye elites.
In the blink of an eye, the tides had turned. Zhang Mingyang, panicking and dodging attacks, finally realized what had happened. He roared, “Duan Wang, are you insane?! You’re killing me?!”
His elite soldiers, ambushed and without time to form ranks, were thrown into disarray and picked off one by one. It was only a matter of time before they were completely wiped out.
The situation was beyond saving. Zhang Mingyang’s eyes turned bloodshot. “Duan Wang! This is betrayal! If you kill me, Nanruo’s fate will be worse than Ye’s! If you don’t kill Xiao Yun now, he will destroy your country one day!”
Amid the chaos of clashing blades and flying limbs, he looked across the battlefield—and stopped breathing.
Xiao Yun had jumped from his horse and was sprinting full tilt toward Jiang Huaichu. Without a word, he threw his arms around him.
In front of three armies, under countless eyes, the Great Ning emperor—known for being cold and unfeeling—embraced the supposedly unshakable, duty-bound prince of an enemy nation.
Xiao Yun’s tall figure shielded him from the bloody slaughter behind.
Duan Wang raised his cool face to look at him. Xiao Yun whispered, coaxing, “Just let me show off once—just once! Wifey! He’s going to die soon anyway! If I don’t show off now, he’ll never know!”
“…” Jiang Huaichu glared at him.
Knowing his lover was shy, Xiao Yun resisted the urge to spin him around in a circle and instead just held his hand.
Jiang Huaichu tried to pull away. When he couldn’t, he coldly allowed the hand-holding.
Zhang Mingyang’s eyes widened in shock as he finally pieced it all together. “No!! You were working together?! You plotted this?! This whole act—it was for me?!”
Xiao Yun beamed at him, as if taunting was part of the plan. “Who do you think you are? Who said we were performing for you? I never claimed to be attacking Nanruo. I came here to marry into their royal family. You misunderstood.”
“You?!!”
Xiao Yun smiled cheerfully. “See? Doesn’t Nanruo’s ‘soft rice’ taste especially sweet? Don’t you want some?”
“…” Zhang Mingyang nearly passed out from rage.
“…” Jiang Huaichu shot Xiao Yun a cold glare, instantly silencing him. Xiao Yun gave him a look of complete submission, like a man who worships his wife.
Clearly, Xiao Yun was more than happy to eat that “soft rice”—utterly shameless as he clung to Jiang Huaichu’s hand. “Wifey, he called me a dog, he threatened and mocked me, and he said you’d cut me into pieces…”
Jiang Huaichu looked at him flatly. “So what do you want?”
Xiao Yun replied eagerly, “Anything I want?”
Jiang Huaichu said nothing—but that silence was answer enough.
Xiao Yun smirked and shouted, “Soldiers of Ye! Anyone who cuts Zhang Mingyang into pieces—will be spared!”
The Ye generals who were still struggling against Great Ning and Nanruo forces suddenly stilled. Slowly, they turned their eyes to Zhang Mingyang, whose expression darkened with horror.
“You wouldn’t dare!!” Zhang Mingyang screamed.
With a final, agonized scream, he fell, writhing in pain. Even then, he stared at Jiang Huaichu beside Xiao Yun and laughed coldly. “Duan Wang—trusting Xiao Yun will only lead to your doom! What’s happening to me today—will happen to you someday!”
Jiang Huaichu only laughed softly, unconcerned.
…
Jiang Huaichu was still pregnant. Afraid the bloodshed might give him nightmares, Xiao Yun shoved him into the sedan without a word.
Jiang Huaichu was about to lower the curtain when Xiao Yun suddenly slipped inside.
“Get out—how shameless—”
But Xiao Yun pounced like a wolf, pressing his lips to his in the narrow space. Jiang Huaichu, worried others would hear, turned red and shoved his chest. “Let go.”
He hadn’t even had a chance to lecture Xiao Yun yet, and the man was already being so brazen.
But Xiao Yun refused to let go. He trapped Jiang Huaichu’s slender wrists with one hand, used the other to guard his pregnant belly, and relentlessly pried his lips apart.
Ever since Jiang Huaichu returned to Xiao Yun, the man had treated him with nothing but tenderness—even in bed. He had rarely shown such madness or loss of control. Jiang Huaichu’s heart fluttered, breath growing unsteady, a rosy flush spreading across his pale face.
Ever since Jiang Huaichu became pregnant, his body had grown increasingly sensitive—so much so that even the lightest touch felt overwhelming. His senses were heightened a thousandfold, and he was clearly beginning to unravel. In a panic, afraid Xiao Yun would do something shameful here of all places, he tried to protest, “…Xiao Yun, mm…”
Xiao Yun’s breath was hot, carrying the fierce, relentless air of a conqueror, like he wanted to mark his territory again, to reaffirm that Jiang Huaichu belonged to him. The air was tense, their breaths tangled, their bodies intimately close. Jiang Huaichu’s breathing quickened. “Xiao Yun.”
Xiao Yun didn’t respond. Jiang Huaichu couldn’t figure out what was going on with him—he felt ashamed, angry, and scared all at once. He raised his hand to strike him, but Xiao Yun pulled him into a tight embrace before he could, and said in a low voice, “Chuchu, this is the first time I’ve felt like I have a home.”
His voice was full of deep affection, as if the person in his arms was his everything, his unconditional shelter, his safe haven.
After wandering for over twenty years, he had finally found a place that truly belonged to him—one that would always accept him, wait for him, and protect him.
He had never expected that the sense of belonging he’d never dared to hope for would come from a prince of an enemy nation. It felt surreal—real and dreamlike all at once—so much so that he wanted to test it, push it, see if it would break.
But it didn’t break. The person beneath him glared at him, both embarrassed and angry—so vivid and real, even the way his back arched under the pressure of the baby inside him was awkwardly, embarrassingly real.
Xiao Yun’s heart was burning with warmth, and it beat only for the person in front of him.
Jiang Huaichu gave him a frosty look.
Xiao Yun held him close and murmured in his ear, “Chuchu, Xiao Yun has a home now. Thank you for giving me a home.”
Jiang Huaichu suddenly felt his heart soften. That word—home—was something even he couldn’t resist. It struck right at his most vulnerable spot. After a moment, he gave a half-smile. “Xiao Yun, I’m not your mother. You’re twenty-five.”
“…” Xiao Yun suddenly realized how absurd it was for a grown man like him to be clinging and acting spoiled with an eighteen-year-old. But keeping a straight face, he said solemnly, “Then I’ll be your father.”
Jiang Huaichu suddenly laughed. Xiao Yun was momentarily dazzled. Before he could react, Jiang Huaichu had grabbed his ear and gave it a hard twist.
The atmosphere froze for a few seconds.
“Ahhh—ow ow ow!! Chuchu, I was wrong!! I won’t hide anything from you again… I promise! I was just afraid you wouldn’t help me if you knew, and it’d be awkward if you found out on your own! Who knew you’d stand by me?!”
“You’re the smartest! I hid everything so well, and you still figured it all out!”
“Stop pulling already!” Xiao Yun chuckled lowly. “Baby, how about we go find somewhere warmer for this?”
“Ahhh—don’t kick! Kick too hard and our future happiness might be ruined!”
Outside the carriage, Zhang Kui and the cavalry joined forces with the generals of Nanruo, a sense of pride surging in their hearts. This was their emperor’s wife. This was their army—not the cold and aloof Duan Wang of Nanruo’s forces.
He may be Duan Wang, but he was also the Empress of Great Ning—their fellow, Xie Caiqing—a warm, radiant man who would protect those he loved.
Someone who had the courage to trust, and to love.
…
In the following half month, Jiang Huaichu handed over the Nanruo military talisman and the Miluo command token to Xiao Yun like a mother giving the house key to a wild child she had kept locked up, finally letting him run free.
Xiao Yun, armed with the 400,000 troops his wife had so casually tossed him, wasted no time and launched a pursuit that swiftly swept through Ye Country. Once the border defenses fell, his nearly 500,000-strong force reached the gates of the capital. Cities surrendered one after another, commanders defected to save their lives. In under two weeks, the vast land of Ye ceased to exist.
The world was stunned.
All across the land, people were shocked by Nanruo’s Duan Wang’s decision to lend his army to Xiao Yun. Many smaller nations cursed him for being mad and bringing ruin upon them all.
After all, no one could have imagined that the second most powerful nation, Nanruo, wouldn’t join forces with the rest, but would instead help Xiao Yun rise—making the strong stronger, and the weak weaker.
But what no one expected was that on the day Xiao Yun returned in triumph, he offered all the conquered cities of Ye to the emperor of Nanruo.
The news shook the world. And soon, word spread from Nanruo: Xiao Yun had done all this as a wedding gift—for the sake of marrying just one person from Nanruo.
The entire realm was thrown into an uproar.
Ye’s territory was not smaller than Nanruo’s. Even if Xiao Yun had borrowed Nanruo’s army, it had been his war to fight. It was like borrowing money to take the imperial exam—yes, you’re grateful to the lender, but you wouldn’t hand over your title as thanks.
It simply wasn’t reasonable.
What Xiao Yun had done, in essence, was take Nanruo’s army and work for Nanruo. He seemed less like the emperor of Great Ning and more like a general of Nanruo.
Naturally, some people in Great Ning were dissatisfied. Still, the weight of this wedding gift—unprecedented in all of history—could not be denied.
The entire world speculated about the identity of this person he wanted to marry—just how captivating must they be to make the famously indifferent Emperor Xiao of Great Ning completely lose his mind, fall at her feet, and willingly dedicate himself in such a way?
…
In the Nanruo imperial study, Taifei sat at the lower seat, wringing her hands, occasionally glancing at the upper seat where Jiang Huaiyi was reading memorials, her brows etched with anxiety.
Ever since Jiang Huaiyi had returned from the Great Ning camp, he hadn’t mentioned Jiang Huaichu even once—not for over half a month. It was as if the man didn’t exist. She suspected he had cut ties with his younger brother in anger.
Now that Jiang Huaichu and Xiao Yun had come to pay their respects, Jiang Huaiyi had merely told someone to let them wait in the side hall. He hadn’t said he would see them, nor that he wouldn’t—he just left them there.
Jiang Huaiyi took another sip of tea. Taifei could no longer hold back. “Zike!”
Jiang Huaiyi’s courtesy name was Zike—Jiang Zike.
She hadn’t called him “Your Majesty,” but “Zike”—a sign that what she wanted to talk about was a family matter.
Jiang Huaiyi set down his teacup and frowned. “What’s the rush?”
“Are you going to see them or not? It’s been half a month. I haven’t even seen the little Wangye! I don’t know if he’s gained or lost weight! He’s your brother! Don’t you care?!”
Her words came like rapid fire, without pause.
Jiang Huaiyi remained silent, lost in thought.
Taifei was beside herself with worry, but knowing his temper, she still spoke cautiously: “Zike, Yaner has already married someone else, and at this point, it’s too late to find another woman for Wangye to marry. Besides, Yaner was his longtime friend—being a little wronged was still acceptable. But for someone else, someone who doesn’t know the truth, marrying Wangye would only end up hurting her.”
She was anxious to the point of desperation. “Putting that aside, you’ve seen Xiao Yun’s attitude. If he didn’t care for the little Wangye, would he have offered the entire Ye country as a betrothal gift? I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who cherishes Wangye more than Xiao Yun does.”
“If you keep refusing, Wangye is already over five months pregnant—his belly is quite obvious. By the time they marry, it’ll be plain to everyone. You wouldn’t want him to marry Xiao Yun and then give birth within a month, would you?”
Jiang Huaiyi replied coldly, “Why should I let him marry at all?”
Taifei tried again, gently, “Little Wangye hasn’t returned for over half a month… Four hundred thousand troops, and he just lent them out like that. You really don’t understand his heart? A grown man can’t be held back. He’s already willing—what are you unwilling about?”
That struck a nerve. Jiang Huaiyi exploded: “My brother, Jiang Huaiyi’s brother, a prince of this nation, is to be wed off like a woman to be someone’s empress? To devote himself to Xiao Yun and Great Ning? To leave his homeland? To bear that b*stard’s children? And the child will even carry Xiao Yun’s surname? Be Great Ning’s heir? Who cares about those few cities from Ye?!”
“Try to look at it differently,” Taifei said carefully. Then, thinking over Jiang Huaiyi’s words, she suddenly turned toward him. “Zike… Is that what’s bothering you?”
Jiang Huaiyi’s face flushed and paled, but he said nothing.
Taifei thought hard and finally caught on.
That day when Jiang Huaiyi returned from Xiao Yun’s camp without bringing Wangye back, she had thought he was too disappointed to bother anymore. But now, it seemed he had softened—though still torn, still struggling with pride and resentment.
She knew him well. Sharp-tongued, soft-hearted.
So, he was afraid Wangye would suffer.
She frowned and said, “It’s true. The capital is thousands of miles from here. If anything happens to Wangye, we wouldn’t even know… If he’s really given away, and ends up mistreated, what could we do?”
She grew increasingly anxious. “He’ll miss home. He’ll be alone, in that den of wolves and tigers, completely out of place. He might not even be used to the food and clothes…”
The more she thought, the more worried she became. Her willingness to support Xiao Yun faded.
Jiang Huaiyi’s expression darkened.
Taifei hesitated, then asked, “Then… what if we asked if Xiao Yun would marry in instead?”
“…,” Jiang Huaiyi was silent. After a long pause, he seemed to come to a decision. This couldn’t be delayed anymore. He took a deep breath and said coldly, “Go distract Huaichu. I want to meet Xiao Yun in private.”
