In the bedchamber, Xiao Yun was still fuming. Hands on his hips, he paced back and forth: “If I don’t beat him, does he really think he’s some big shot—”
“Your Majesty, have some tea.”
A cup of tea was offered. Xiao Yun was about to wave it away when he saw it was Xie Caiqing holding the cup. His fingers paused mid-motion, and his attitude made a complete 180-degree turn. With a gentle smile, he accepted the tea and took a sip.
Xie Caiqing’s hand, hidden within his sleeve, clenched tightly. “Your Majesty, regarding what you said earlier in the Imperial Garden—why don’t you attack Nanruo?”
“Oh,” Xiao Yun replied impatiently, “I have this old ancestor—an old head from Miluo Manor, you’ve probably heard of him. Always siding with outsiders, all chummy with Nanruo—really annoying. The main thing is, he’s got a private army of around 200,000. Add in Nanruo’s forces, and that’s over 500,000 troops.”
Xie Caiqing’s heart tensed. Xiao Yun had detailed knowledge of their military strength. There was clearly a traitor from Great Ning holding a high position in court.
Feigning realization, Xie Caiqing said, “But surely the old ancestor would still side with Your Majesty?”
“Yeah, right. When I was still a prince, I visited Miluo Manor. I was what, twelve or thirteen? That old man coaxed me with snacks and toys, making me promise not to fight Nanruo in the future.”
“…And did you agree?”
Xiao Yun snapped, “You think I’m that easy to fool?”
“Nothing escapes my eyes,” he added with a raised brow and a smirk.
Xie Caiqing: “…”
Xiao Yun sat down, his tone softening slightly. “But I do owe him a favor, and he is my ancestor. Besides, Nanruo is staying in line. They don’t pose a threat. They refuse to bow or pay tribute, but I’ll just turn a blind eye for now.”
Suddenly, he slammed the table and his expression turned stormy again. “But I didn’t expect Jiang Huaiyi to actually—”
Behind Xie Caiqing, the nervous Yin Xian quietly slipped a jade bottle into his hands. Xie Caiqing then presented it with both hands to Xiao Yun. The emperor’s anger faltered, his speech halted, and once again his demeanor shifted. He accepted the bottle with a smile.
Holding the jade bottle, he looked toward Yin Xian behind Xie Caiqing, surprised. “It’s that time again already?”
Yin Xian nodded, “Your servant has been keeping track.”
Xiao Yun marveled, “This month flew by like a few days.”
Yin Xian glanced at the exquisitely beautiful Xie Caiqing seated across from the emperor.
How could time not fly when you’re tangled up day and night with someone like that?
The emperor once had a wild variety of eccentric hobbies, but ever since he lured the pure and pristine top scholar into his bed, he had only one pastime left.
For the past month, Xiao Yun was either on the bed, on the way to the bed, or thinking about how to coax Xie Caiqing onto the bed.
Xiao Yun asked, “My dear, don’t you think it’s gone by fast?”
Xie Caiqing replied, “…Fast.”
So fast that every day felt like a year. He’d been counting the days.
Xiao Yun uncorked the tightly sealed red stopper from the jade bottle and poured out two black pills, each the size of a pearl. As he prepared to swallow them with the warm water Yin Xian handed him, Xie Caiqing suddenly came to his senses. “Your Majesty, what medicine is that?”
“Oh,” Xiao Yun said teasingly, “Medicine to make sure your status stays secure in the future.”
Xie Caiqing looked completely lost.
Yin Xian stifled a laugh and explained, “His Majesty has been taking this every month since he was a teenager in the military. It’s…”
Yin Xian paused, his old face flushing red. “It’s a contraceptive. To prevent women from getting pregnant.”
Xie Caiqing’s face instantly went pale. He lowered his eyes, fingers in his sleeves tightening until they turned white. Though his expression didn’t change, his mind was in turmoil and his ears rang.
It felt like falling into an icy abyss.
Xiao Yun had been taking contraceptive pills all along.
He had been taking medicine.
Xie Caiqing had no idea.
Such a deeply private matter, taken only once a month and done so discreetly—there was no way for him to know.
Then all those days… those long months of preparation, slowly getting to know Xiao Yun, deceiving his elder brother, traveling from afar, breaking and remaking himself piece by piece, scheming to seduce Xiao Yun, giving everything away, the countless nights of vulnerability and collapse, and over a month of tormenting anticipation—
All of it, all of it—
He couldn’t possibly get pregnant.
Xiao Yun had been taking the medicine all along.
The surge of emotions overwhelmed him, dragging him into the depths in an instant. Xie Caiqing dug his nails into his palm, forcing himself to breathe slowly. He calmed down at lightning speed and clawed his way back from the abyss.
This was the result.
An undeniable, failed result.
Perhaps because everything had been going so smoothly, he’d dared to hope—to expect even—that he’d carry Xiao Yun’s child. That’s why this blow was so hard to take. If his brother’s arrival had knocked him from the clouds into limbo, then this news pushed him straight into the pit.
Xie Caiqing’s expression remained unchanged.
So he failed. So what?
Before coming here, he’d already imagined every possible bad ending—including the abrupt end of the plan and all his efforts going to waste.
He came to Northern Ning only after making peace with each of those possibilities.
When things were going well, he allowed himself to enjoy it.
When things turned for the worse, he had to learn to accept the pain and bear the consequences.
He wasn’t someone who couldn’t afford to lose.
Aside from the bitter taste of dashed hopes, this wasn’t a humiliating memory.
But now the shame of having expected a child—having dared to hope—slowly surfaced, staining his face red, making him feel too ashamed to face anyone.
He had plotted so much for something that was impossible.
He had longed for the impossible like a fool.
In just a few breaths, he had made all the necessary mental adjustments.
Xiao Yun, having swallowed the pills, was still watching him. Seeing Xie’s cheeks flush, he thought he was embarrassed and laughed. “What’s there to be shy about?”
Xie Caiqing’s expression was calm as stagnant water. He asked in confusion, “Why does Your Majesty take the pills?”
Xiao Yun replied, “To prevent women from getting pregnant, of course.”
Xie Caiqing asked, slightly surprised, “But Your Majesty is clearly disciplined and doesn’t consort with women. Then why still—”
“We must stay on guard. I’ve always believed that true confidence comes from understanding the inherent flaws of being human—and managing them in advance. That’s the only way it’s not blind arrogance. I can’t even be sure I can fully control myself,” Xiao Yun laughed. “If I could, I wouldn’t be treating you like this. So how could I expect to control others with hidden agendas?”
Xie Caiqing looked at him, an ironic smile in his heart.
He was precisely that person with the hidden agenda.
Xiao Yun snapped, “What if someone drugged me and I did something muddle-headed? If that happens, it can be handled with money. But if a pregnancy results… even if I don’t want to take responsibility, the whole world would force me to.”
“Or maybe I get blinded by lust and have a fleeting affair, agree to part ways peacefully, but then months later someone shows up pregnant—no idea whose kid it is—saying it’s mine. Wouldn’t I be the ultimate sucker?”
Xie Caiqing lowered his eyes.
He would never let Xiao Yun be that kind of sucker.
He had never intended even the slightest harm toward him.
And yet, he still had no opportunity.
“I hate being used—being forced to do what I don’t want. I won’t allow even the slightest surprise in my life, anything that makes me lose control or be led around by the nose. Minor matters are fine, but when it comes to big things, how can I afford to be careless? These things could affect my entire life—I can’t afford to lose. So I have to handle the details, take precautions in advance.”
“It’s no trouble anyway. My darling doesn’t know, but your husband here once studied medicine for years under the old ancestor. I’m the real divine physician,” Xiao Yun said with a grin. “One pill lasts almost two months. To be extra safe, I take one every month—never missed a dose. Aren’t I well-behaved?”
A chill spread through Xie Caiqing’s chest.
It was the first time he realized that the seemingly arrogant and impulsive Xiao Yun was, in fact, meticulous to a terrifying degree—his mind deep and unreadable.
Xiao Yun pulled Xie Caiqing’s hand and, without giving him a chance to resist, sat him down on his lap, chuckling: “Scared? I’m heartless so that I can be affectionate toward the right person. If I can’t control myself, how could I just do whatever I want with you? I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager—not just to protect myself, but also to protect my future wife.”
He wrapped his arms around Xie Caiqing’s waist from behind and bit his delicate ear.
“Protect?” Xie Caiqing thought bitterly.
“Of course,” Xiao Yun said seriously. “If you were a woman, I’d have stopped taking the pills long ago. But you’re a man. And there are still so many ministers watching me, pushing me to marry and produce an heir. Do you know—just last year alone, more than a dozen spies tried to get close to me. I killed every single one of them. Even court officials tried to sneak people into my bed—actually sent them in stark naked.”
“If I got drugged, or if—taking a step back—I really lost control, though that’s impossible, I’m just saying if… and I slept with someone random and they got pregnant, there’d be no choice but to let them give birth. Then you’d have to raise the child I had with someone else. I’d have others in my harem besides you. And you’d never have a child with me. Wouldn’t that make you uncomfortable, wouldn’t that hurt?”
“I’ve encountered too many bad people, suffered too many setbacks. So I became the most calculating, guarded one myself,” Xiao Yun said while licking Xie Caiqing’s little ear with abandon, laughing softly. “Before I met you, I kept myself pure—so that I could love you wholeheartedly and without reservation. So no one would be able to wrong you, not even slightly. Wasn’t I good? Shouldn’t you reward me well?”
Xie Caiqing forced a smile. His emotions were tangled—he didn’t respond.
In the short month they had spent together, Xiao Yun had indeed never let him suffer.
But that wasn’t what he wanted.
If it were another time and place—if he really were Xiao Yun’s empress—those words would have made him blush, fall for him completely. But he was the “spy” Xiao Yun spoke of.
He only wanted a child.
That goal had been so simple at first—and yet it had come to this.
What he could give no longer seemed enough for Xiao Yun’s boundless desire.
Xiao Yun had started to ask for closeness, for commitment.
But that was precisely what he couldn’t give.
All he could offer was passion.
That was all he wanted too, but Xiao Yun was now offering him intimacy and promises too heavy to bear.
He didn’t know how to respond.
They were misaligned from the start—and the farther they went, the more misaligned they became.
Now there was a conclusion. It was time to end it.
Stop at the perfect moment.
One step further, and he would start feeling guilty from the imbalance.
He didn’t want to deceive someone’s feelings—not even an enemy’s.
Xie Caiqing turned around.
“What is it? Looking at me like that?” Xiao Yun grinned. “Too handsome? Too clever? Moved to tears?”
Xie Caiqing kissed him on the lips. Xiao Yun’s smiling eyes widened in shock.
The kiss was like a snowflake—softly falling, dissolving upon contact.
“You… what are you doing?!” Xiao Yun finally reacted, suddenly acting like a modest lady who’d been teased, jerking back against the chair and glancing sideways at a blushing, head-lowered Yin Xian. He cursed inwardly, Where’s my dignity? How can I lead by example now? “What… what are you doing! No rules at all! Only I’m allowed to kiss you, got it?!”
Xie Caiqing gave a small smile. “Rewarding you.”
Author’s note:
Jiang Huaichu posts on a forum:
I’m pregnant.
But my family’s second dog takes birth control every month.
I didn’t cheat.
But second dog says the child definitely isn’t his.
Question: Whose child is it?
