After Scheming Against the Enemy Nation’s Emperor, I Got Pregnant Chapter 92

Jiang Huaichu was… momentarily embarrassed.

With Xiao Yun smiling like that, he felt awkward being the one to signal the first volley of arrows.

Armies were at the gates. Orders had already been given. Things had reached a point of no return. It was only a matter of attacking now or later.

But at that moment, he truly couldn’t guess what trick Xiao Yun was playing.

Below the walls, Xie Zhe urgently whispered, “Your Majesty! Please, wave the signal to attack the city! Stop smiling! Everyone’s watching!”

Xiao Yun looked around, finally coming back to his senses. He restrained his grin, though the corners of his mouth still twitched—up, down, up, down—relentlessly. Just as Xie Zhe was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he heard Xiao Yun whisper: “I need to withdraw the troops.”

He didn’t say think about withdrawing—he said want to. Xie Zhe’s vision went black. “…Withdraw the troops???”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Xie Zhe was silent for a few seconds. He twisted his stiff neck to look behind him at the bloodshot-eyed, battle-ready soldiers fired up and eager for war. He swallowed hard.

Xiao Yun said, “There’s no choice. We must withdraw.”

Xie Zhe tried to comfort himself. Xiao Yun’s always been outrageous, but he usually has his reasons. In the end, he always turns out to be right. Forcing himself to stay calm, he said reluctantly, “But orders have been given. Just now, Your Majesty said… those who disobey will be executed… Your word is law, and now…”

“…” Xiao Yun’s expression darkened.

Xie Zhe whispered, “Your Majesty, please, just wave your hand…”

The arrow was already nocked—how could it not be loosed? Especially on the battlefield. To withdraw without reason at this point would look like desertion. Their own men wouldn’t accept it. Xiao Yun’s authority would plummet, the enemy would laugh, and the reputation of Great Ning’s elite army would be in tatters. What would happen next?

Xiao Yun declared firmly, “We must retreat.”

Veins bulged on Xie Zhe’s forehead. He restrained himself, then said in the calmest tone he could manage, “Your Majesty has to give a reason that will convince the troops.”

His eyes were suspicious. There was no reason that could convince everyone, himself and the commanders included.

Xiao Yun said gravely, “Duan Wang is Xie Caiqing.”

“Ah???” Xie Zhe cried out in shock. He looked up at the elegant, unparalleled man atop the city gate, eyes full of disbelief. There was no time to process this. “But that’s a personal matter—the generals won’t—”

“He’s pregnant. With my child. Great Ning’s.”

Xie Zhe almost fell off his horse.

“I’m not joking. This is the heir Great Ning’s people have been begging for for years. Is that reason enough?”

“…”

“Don’t tell anyone,” Xiao Yun said, even as Xie Zhe’s face contorted. Suddenly, a spark lit in his mind. “Did you bring your imperial pardon token?”

Still stunned from the earlier bombshell, Xie Zhe’s face had turned pale, and he was trembling as badly as Xiao Yun had earlier.

“No time to explain,” Xiao Yun repeated quickly. “Did you bring your pardon token or not?”

Xie Zhe answered numbly, “…Yes… I brought it.”

Xiao Yun let out a huge sigh of relief. His grin returned, this time full of confidence. “The Commander had a nightmare last night—thirty thousand troops wiped out. He sensed a bad omen and insisted on forcing my hand to retreat. Even though I said disobeying orders would be punished by death, the Commander has rendered great service and possesses a pardon token. I’ll spare him—for now. We’ll fight another day.”

Xie Zhe: “…”

Seeing him still silent, Xiao Yun thought he was reluctant to use his token: “Come on, come on, give it to me! As long as my wife and baby are fine, I’ll give you as many tokens as you want!”

Before Xie Zhe could recover from the wave after wave of shock, Xiao Yun had already roared: “Retreat! Get the h*ll out of there—retreat!!”

…

On the city wall, Jiang Huaichu stood and watched as the 300,000-strong army surged like a tidal wave—only to recede just as quickly. The speed of it was surreal.

The overwhelming momentum, the tension where arrows were ready to be released, the tragic and fierce atmosphere—it all felt like some kind of hallucination.

Now, only clouds of dust remained. The wind carried it into their faces.

Huo Xiao choked a few times in the kicked-up sand and wind, coughing angrily: “Don’t tell me this was just a drill! Are they screwing with us!?”

Jiang Huaichu looked equally bewildered.

How did Xiao Yun issue military orders—and then get an army of 300,000 to withdraw at his word like that?

…

In the commander’s tent, Xie Zhe watched as the man known as the most formidable under the heavens bounced from the bed to the floor, then back to the bed again—sitting, standing, spinning in circles, waving his arms, slapping the table, clapping his hands, laughing into thin air. He thought to himself, He’s really lost his mind. And badly.

When Xiao Yun saw him come in, all the excess energy in his body suddenly found a place to go. He rushed over, grabbing Xie Zhe’s hands: “Xie Zhe! Xie Caiqing is pregnant! With my child! Am I awesome or what!?”

“…”

“It’s true, the belly’s already big—I touched it! Our little bunny’s child is amazing, growing so fast! Just like me!”

“…”

“No, wait—I’m amazing! Do you know what this means?! It’s been at least four months! I was only with my wife for one month, five days, and seven hours. He’s only been gone for two months, twenty-seven days, and three hours. You know what that means? That means it only took a couple of times to get pregnant—maybe even the first time! I’m incredible!”

“…”

“No, no—Xie Caiqing is the incredible one! He got pregnant so quickly with my kid!”

“…”

“I’m going to be a Royal Father! Did you hear that?! I’m going to be a Royal Father!!”

Xie Zhe: “…” He was yelling so loud he was nearly deafening.

“Xie Caiqing is actually Duan Wang! There’s no empress who can top that status—he’s a royal prince! And he’s the precious younger brother Jiang Huaiyi spoils like a treasure—and now he’s my wife! And he’s pregnant with my child!!”

Xiao Yun grinned ear to ear: “I’m going to marry him right away! Yes, yes, no waiting—the belly’s already showing. I’m going to propose right now, marry him in grand style, and announce to the world that I have an empress! That I have an heir! Everyone will know the baby in Duan Wang’s belly is mine!”

His usually deep and unreadable eyes were full of naive joy. As he spoke, he dashed for the door. Xie Zhe quickly grabbed him: “Your Majesty, wait.”

Xiao Yun said impatiently, “Whatever it is, talk later—nothing’s more important than this right now.”

Xie Zhe cleared his throat and said calmly, “Jiang Huaiyi’s younger brother is named Jiang Huaichu. He’s eighteen, not yet of age. And if he’s pregnant, as Your Majesty says…”

Xiao Yun paused, giving him a bit more patience now that Xie Caiqing had been mentioned. “So? What’s the issue?”

Xie Zhe replied slowly, “Well, his older brother Jiang Huaiyi is extremely conservative and values propriety. He personally enacted the laws of Nanruo. According to Nanruo law, any man who impregnates a girl not yet of age… gets drowned in a pig cage.”

“Your Majesty,” Xie Zhe looked at him with deep meaning, “You’ve gotten a man who hasn’t come of age yet pregnant. Guess what Nanruo law says you deserve?”

Xiao Yun shivered.

“Others might go easy on you,” Xie Zhe continued with a faint smile, “But you got Jiang Huaiyi’s one and only treasured younger brother pregnant. Think he’ll let you off easy?”

“…”

“And if you’re thinking, ‘I’m the Emperor of Great Ning, he’ll have to show me some respect,’ maybe you’ve forgotten: the time in Great Ning’s imperial garden when you and Jiang Huaiyi were fighting over Xie Caiqing—you insulted him right to his face.”

“…”

“You might also have forgotten that earlier, at the city gates, you had your soldiers shout personal insults at all eighteen generations of his ancestors.”

“And more recently—just one hour ago—you were attacking Nanruo.”

Xiao Yun’s face cycled through green and white, expression changing rapidly.

But that wasn’t even all.

Back when he had chased Xie Caiqing and boarded the carriage, he had nearly killed Jiang Huaiyi—and was about to defile Xie Caiqing right in front of him.

Xiao Yun’s face turned to ash. He forced a smile: “S-So what? If my wife agrees to marry me, isn’t that enough? He’s willing! He’s already pregnant, can’t even hide it anymore. His big brother won’t want him laughed at. I’m doing it for their sake—his and our baby’s!”

Xie Zhe asked, “And what makes Your Majesty so sure Xie Caiqing is willing to marry you?”

Xiao Yun looked at him in surprise, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and scoffed: “Isn’t it obvious? He’s a Wangye, got pregnant before even reaching adulthood, and he didn’t get rid of it! He defied his big brother, risked public shame, just to keep the baby. If that’s not love, what is? He’s willing to bear my children—mine!”

The more he said, the happier and more sentimental he became.

“I have to marry him right away. Give him and our baby a proper name.”

Xie Zhe smiled and said, “Well, Your Majesty seems to remember all of that, but maybe you’ve forgotten a few less important details.”

“Hmm?”

“Just half a month ago, you wrote a letter to Duan Wang, threatening him to hand over that ‘little sl*t Xie Caiqing’ as soon as possible. So… was it Duan Wang who was angered by the threat, or Xie Caiqing who was furious about being called a little sl*t?”

“…”

“And let’s not forget, Your Majesty cheerfully told me that you wanted to irritate Duan Wang so much he’d lose sleep and stop eating—so you shot him letters with lines like, ‘A grown man still napping at noon?’ or ‘Still not up? What are you, a pig?’”

“…”

“And you had soldiers yell from below the city walls—calling him a cowardly, turtle-headed b*stard.”

Xiao Yun’s face turned completely ashen, frozen stiff.

But that wasn’t all either.

Back in Northern Ning, he had insulted Jiang Huaiyi countless times in front of Xie Caiqing.

And what Duan Wang, Jiang Huaichu, valued most… was his elder brother.

The day Xie Caiqing left Northern Ning, he had even said—right to his face—that he and Jiang Huaiyi were just a pair of filthy degenerates, and that he was already sick of him.

That day at Miluo Manor, he was still shouting about fighting for road space with the pregnant Xie Caiqing.

That day in the prison, he had cursed Duan Wang as lowly right in front of Xie Caiqing and said he’d smash Duan Wang with a halberd…

No, that wasn’t the most important part.

The most important thing was that he had cursed Duan Wang, saying he’d give birth to a son without a…

That was his own child.

No, no, no—that was Dong Lu who said it, not him, not Xiao Yun! Xie Caiqing couldn’t have figured it out!

Wait—!

If Xie Caiqing hadn’t figured it out, how could he have cooked for him later?

Xie Caiqing knew!

Wait—!

He had his pregnant wife busy in the kitchen for several hours cooking for him?!

Xiao Yun’s lips began to tremble.

Xie Zhe, who had been dragged into this mess by Xiao Yun several times and had taken the fall more than once for no reason, looked at the emperor—who had always remained unruffled in the face of great threats, always watching others be spun around by his schemes while he stood aside laughing—as his face finally turned the same deathly pale shade Xie Zhe himself would show when greatly startled. Xie Zhe smiled in satisfaction. Still feeling it wasn’t enough, he said gently, “Your Majesty may also have forgotten, he is the most beloved young prince of the Nanruo royal family, doted on by your great-grandfather since childhood, designated heir to Miluo Manor, and backed by the full power of both the royal family and Miluo. Raising a child for Your Majesty? That’s more than manageable.”

Xiao Yun’s face twisted in horror. “No! The child can’t grow up without a father! That would be a life of incompleteness and sorrow! Xie Caiqing also shouldn’t be giving birth alone, raising a child of unknown parentage alone and being laughed at!”

Xie Zhe smiled. “Then Your Majesty may be overthinking it. Duan Wang is soon to be married. His bride is the only daughter of Duke Yi, the most prestigious noble of Nanruo. She’s a famously refined lady—gentle, proper, educated, and virtuous. Likely to be fertile and an excellent mother.”