Accidentally Having a Baby with the Future Emperor - Chapter 25

“A little, yes. Are you feeling unwell?” Xi Rong asked.

Gu Rong nodded, bleary-eyed, and wanted to loosen his collar further to cool down, but when his fingers touched the fabric, he hesitated. In the end, he said, “That thirty-year-old Dukang really is something else. Blame me for being greedy. Brother, I’m going outside to cool off. You go ahead and sleep, no need to bother with me.”

With that, he stepped past Xi Rong, got off the bed, slipped on his shoes, and wobbled out.

The tabby cat, which had been crouching at the foot of the bed, wary of Xi Rong and not daring to approach its master, leaped down the moment Gu Rong left and scampered after him.

A moment later, the creak of the door opening echoed from outside.

Xi Rong paused briefly, then put down his book and got out of bed, leaving the stone chamber.

No lights were lit in the small wooden hut outside. Only moonlight filtered through the doorway. Xi Rong found Gu Rong there at the threshold.

Gu Rong sat cross-legged, slumped against the doorframe. His wide robe pooled on the floor, his head drooped slightly, and his collar hung wide open. A stretch of the back of his neck was damp with sweat, glistening with fine droplets. The tips of his hair and the sash at his neck were clearly damp as well.

“Rongrong,” Xi Rong called softly.

Gu Rong opened his eyes and looked up, a little dazed. “Brother, you came out too? Are you hot as well?”

That movement exposed a large stretch of skin below his open collar, completely unshielded. In the silver moonlight, it was like fine jade stained with blush, like peach blossoms stirred by spring waves, glowing with a nearly decadent hue. His cheeks burned crimson, and his forehead and nose were beaded with sweat.

Xi Rong’s deep gaze froze.

The heat that had been simmering inside him suddenly burst loose, surging and pounding uncontrollably. He had always been harshly self-disciplined, nearly to the point of austerity, but that did not mean he lacked desire.

On the contrary, he had passed twenty barely four years ago and was at the age where a man’s desires burned strongest.

Gu Rong patted the space beside him. “Brother, sit too.”

Xi Rong did not sit. Instead, he reached out and swept Gu Rong up into his arms, striding directly back into the house. The tabby cat tried to follow but was shut out when the wooden doors slammed shut.

“Brother, carrying me makes me even hotter,” Gu Rong complained, frowning. “Put me down. Don’t mind me. Let me go out and cool down in the breeze…”

Xi Rong said nothing. He went straight into the stone chamber and gently laid Gu Rong on the stone bed.

First, he helped Gu Rong take off his shoes and placed them neatly at the bedside. Then he took off his own boots and climbed into bed.

Gu Rong lay flat on the pillow, feeling even more stifled. He kicked off the blanket with his foot, intending to sit up, but just then, a shadow fell over him, completely covering him.

The oil lamp cast a dim, flickering light.

In that faint glow, the sharp, handsome features hovering close to him, solemn as a mountain, radiated a rarely seen intensity and focused pressure.

“Brother, you’re crushing me,” Gu Rong said.

Xi Rong remained still as a mountain.

“I know,” he replied.

“Don’t you feel uncomfortable?” Gu Rong asked, still trying to kick off the blanket. But as soon as he stretched out his leg, he realized both his legs had been wedged apart by another firm, muscular leg. With someone pressing down on him, he couldn’t even bend his knees.

Half-bent, his knee bumped into something above, then got stuck there.

Hot.

So hot.

Even his knees felt scorched.

If it was already so hot, why was that person still pressing down on him?

Gu Rong’s thoughts scattered.

He shifted and tried to nudge the weight above him with his knee to free himself.

The moment he pushed up, the pressure above suddenly intensified, trapping him even tighter.

Then, he felt it; the leg he was still trying to move clumsily was caught and held down by a large, strong hand like an iron clamp.

It was even hotter above.

Gu Rong felt like he was burning up too. If not for the deeply ingrained self-discipline carved into his bones, he would have torn off the rest of his clothes just to relieve the blistering heat roasting him from within.

He couldn’t strip, so the unbearable heat transformed into sweat, pouring out of his skin in waves.

So hot.

Truly so hot.

“Rongrong,” a low voice called his name.

Gu Rong opened his eyes again.

This time, the gaze above him carried an even heavier intensity; a force of pressure and aggression unlike any he’d seen before.

Gu Rong stared into those eyes. “Brother, you suddenly…”

“Suddenly what?”

“You’re different.”

“How am I different?”

“You’re kind of… like a wolf that eats people.”

A brief silence followed.

Then came a voice from above, “Are you afraid?”

“Afraid?” Gu Rong shook his head. “I’m not afraid.”

“You’re not afraid the wolf will eat you?”

“I’m afraid of wolves, but I’m not afraid of you, brother. You’re not really a wolf.”

“Are you still feeling uncomfortable?” Xi Rong didn’t comment on that answer but asked instead.

Gu Rong nodded. The back of his neck and spine were soaked. Even the air he exhaled felt scorching.

“I feel awful. It’s so hot.”

“But brother, you’re hotter than me. Don’t you feel uncomfortable?”

As he spoke, Gu Rong’s knee instinctively pushed upward again, almost as if trying to remind Xi Rong just how hot it was there.

Right after he said that, his calf was suddenly gripped tightly, painfully even. The hand holding his leg seemed to tense all at once, like it had been provoked, clamping down hard.

“I feel awful too,” Xi Rong said, his Adam’s apple rolling as he swallowed silently.

He wasn’t just not a gentleman. In some ways, he was a wolf.

A wolf that had spent half a year on the Southwest battlefield, living with blades, bones, and blood.

A wolf might show gentleness on the surface, but in its marrow and blood, it could never truly be docile or restrained. Especially not in moments like this, when it had been deliberately provoked, and all the dormant desires in its body were awakened in full.

Xi Rong could clearly feel that the flood of want boiling in him was pushing, surging, igniting the restlessness inside like wildfire spreading through dry grass.

A trickle of sweat slid silently down his temple.

“You feel awful too? Then what do we do?” Gu Rong asked with concern.

After asking, Gu Rong even offered a suggestion. “Why don’t we go sleep in the courtyard?”

Xi Rong answered bluntly, “There’s no bed in the courtyard.”

Gu Rong didn’t see the problem. “We can lay out straw mats.”

“Rongrong.”

A second bead of sweat traced the line of his face.

Xi Rong pressed his lips tightly together. “We’re feeling like this because we ate venison at noon and drank Dukang wine in the afternoon. Normally, the combination of meat and alcohol wouldn’t have such strong aftereffects but that was Dukang that had been buried underground for thirty years. That’s different. Sleeping in the courtyard won’t solve the problem. If we keep this up, we might both burn ourselves into real trouble.”

Gu Rong let out a heated breath.

The upbringing carved deep into his bones wouldn’t let him undress in front of a guest.

Hearing Xi Rong’s calm tone analyzing the situation, he asked, “Then what should we do?”

His entire body was sweating and the damned bright silk inner robe was showing its worst traits at the worst time. Soaked through with sweat, it clung to his skin like a translucent cicada’s wing. Sticky and clammy, it only made things worse.

“We can solve it by sleeping.” Xi Rong’s voice was still calm, though the hand braced to one side of him bulged with veins from the strain of control. “But not by sleeping in the courtyard. And not on straw mats either.”

Gu Rong looked at him. “Then how?”

“We… sleep together,” Xi Rong said slowly.

As the words left his mouth, his deep eyes were completely overtaken by another emotion; something darker, heavier, a still pool of black under the lamp light.

Gu Rong’s mind went blank for a moment. He hesitated. “We sleep together?”

“That’s right. Together.”

Gu Rong instinctively asked, “How do we sleep together?”

“Didn’t you say you understood how things work between two men?”

At that point, Xi Rong was surprisingly patient, coaxing in a low, steady tone.

“I…”

Gu Rong looked troubled.

“I’ve only heard about it. I’ve never seen it… and I don’t know how to…”

“You don’t have to know how.” Xi Rong’s voice softened. “You just need to hold me tight. That’s enough, just like in the bathing tub.”

Gu Rong wasn’t exactly innocent, but the alcohol made his head fuzzy. “That simple? …What if I fall asleep again?”

Xi Rong chuckled.

“If that happens, it proves I’m really no good.”

Then, pressing his lips together once more, he showed a hint of hesitation that rarely appears and asked, “But I want to know… are you willing to sleep with me?”

To his surprise, Gu Rong nodded right away.

“You really are?”

“Of course.” Gu Rong laughed, the corners of his eyes flushed with red from drink and heat, a bit tipsy and wild. “Brother, at night when I sleep, I always hug you, not A’Li, right?

“I like hugging you. You’re warmer than A’Li, although… it’s a little improper. You’re not offended, are you?”

“Of course not.”

Xi Rong’s voice was gentle, but the calm in his eyes was beginning to fracture, revealing an unrestrained hunger and possessiveness.

“You like it? That makes me very happy. So happy.”

He lowered his head and gently kissed the flushed corner of Gu Rong’s eye.

Gu Rong’s eyelashes trembled. Being kissed like that tickled a little.

“Brother, what are you doing?”

“Kissing you.”

Xi Rong pressed a second kiss.

Then, from the corner of Gu Rong’s eye downward, he trailed kisses along the elegant line of his shoulder and neck, moving slowly lower.

Gu Rong’s head tilted back involuntarily. He couldn’t take the barrage of kisses falling like a sudden downpour and instinctively raised a hand to stop them.

His wrist was immediately caught and pressed back onto the pillow.

“Mm…

“Brother… I…”

Gu Rong arched his neck back even more.

That instinctive resistance, rather than hiding him, only served to fully reveal his long jade-like neck; from the Adam’s apple down to the collarbone, completely and beautifully exposed in a taut, graceful line like a swan stretching its wings.

And the kisses only fell more closely, like rainfall.

“Brother…”

“Don’t call me ‘brother.’ Call me Third Brother,” a low, lingering voice spoke near his ear.

“Brother…”

“No. Third Brother.”

As punishment, the kisses all landed directly on his Adam’s apple.

Gu Rong arched his neck in both discomfort and ticklish delight. Dazed from the kisses, he finally murmured, “Third Brother.”

He obeyed.

The kisses didn’t stop. Instead, they deepened.

Eventually, they slipped past his collar and headed for even deeper places.

Gu Rong’s body tensed instinctively, then slowly relaxed.

Because this time, the kisses were soft. Lingering.

To put it a bit crudely, he was being kissed in a way that felt very good.

And because the other person wanted to kiss him, that annoyingly sticky, clinging inner robe was gradually peeled away.

Gu Rong felt even better, as if he were floating in a cloud soaked in the gentle mist.

No one knew how long had passed before the kisses finally ceased.

Both of them were breathing heavily, breaths tangled together.

Gu Rong’s eyes shimmered, wet and glazed with heat.

Xi Rong couldn’t help himself. He leaned in and kissed each of Gu Rong’s eyes gently before saying, “Hold onto my waist.”

That, Gu Rong was all too familiar with.

Obediently, he reached out and wrapped his arms around Xi Rong’s firm waist.

As soon as he did, he felt both his ankles being gripped.

“Brother, what are you doing?”

“Starting to sleep,” Xi Rong said softly.

Gu Rong nodded and then suddenly said, “I think the position is wrong.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“You should be underneath and I should be on top.”

Xi Rong fell uncharacteristically silent for a moment.

“That was in the bath. The bed is different.”

The heat that had been momentarily quelled by the kisses surged back even more violently.

Gu Rong broke into another layer of sweat, eager to sleep and be done with it. He asked, “How long do we have to sleep? Is it one hour?”

Just the thought of enduring the torment for another hour made him feel miserable.

Xi Rong struggled not to smile. “It will take longer.

“At least, for me.”

“…Ah? That long? Brother, should we maybe talk about poetry and songs to pass the time?”

“If you still have the strength for that,” Xi Rong replied. “But, just now you called me wrong twice. I’ll have to punish you later.

“So, it’ll probably take even longer.”

Although Xi Rong had long known that Gu Rong’s waist and legs were especially well-formed, it wasn’t until he held them that he realized they were even more slender, firm, proportionate, and beautiful than he’d imagined.

The oil lamp burned silently on the stone table.

Two shadows appeared on the stone wall, restrained at first, but soon tangled together with intensity.

In the second half of the night, the wind rose sharply, and the leaves entwined with one another beat fiercely in the gusts, causing the entire forest to rustle in waves.

Jiang Cheng, Song Yang, and Zhou Wenhe, along with a squad of shadow guards, walked under the moonlight on the fallen leaves in the forest. To avoid notice from those at the foot of the mountain, they had taken only winding, rugged paths.

The rough terrain wasn’t the worst of it. The most troublesome was that, after finishing their task, all three began to suffer from nosebleeds.

“Something definitely went wrong,” Jiang Cheng said, stuffing a cloth into one nostril.

Song Yang, with both nostrils plugged, looked increasingly guilty. “Maybe it was the venison we ate at noon…”

“Venison?” Zhou Wenhe turned his head. “We only had a little venison. Why would that cause nosebleeds?”

Song Yang’s guilt deepened.

“It’s just… I was worried everyone would be worn out from traveling overnight, so while stir-frying the venison, I added a bit of deer blood wine to get rid of the gamey smell and enhance the flavor. Who would’ve thought that deer blood wine was so potent…”

Zhou Wenhe nearly burst into another nosebleed.

“Why would you even add the deer blood wine? You don’t know that the wine Li Jia brought is made from wild deer blood? It’s extremely potent.

“We’re screwed. His Highness also ate your venison. What if he gets a nosebleed too?”

The three fell into collective silence.

Zhou Wenhe said coldly, “When we return, you might as well kneel and apologize for your crime straight away.

“His Highness is already afflicted by that heat poison and you added fuel to the fire.”

The mere thought of the Eastern Palace holding meetings over the next few days with everyone bleeding from their noses made Zhou Wenhe’s scalp tingle with dread.

By the time they returned to the mountain, dawn was beginning to break.

The three entered the courtyard together and hesitated at the door, debating whether to knock and report back to Xi Rong.

When in the Eastern Palace, Xi Rong had established a rule: no matter the time, urgent matters were to be reported immediately without regard to his rest. As such, disturbing His Highness in the middle of the night was routine.

But this was different.

They weren’t in the Eastern Palace, but someone else’s home.

Inside the house, in addition to His Highness, the owner of the wooden hut was also asleep. If they knocked, they’d wake both.

“Let’s not knock,” Song Yang decided. “We’ll wait until it’s brighter. The task is done anyway, no harm in waiting a little longer. If we disturb that young master’s rest, His Highness might be displeased.”

Jiang Cheng thought silently to himself, ‘That may not be true.’

That young master sleeps like a log. Even shouting might not wake him.

But having learned from past mistakes, Jiang Cheng didn’t say it aloud.

The three were just about to sit on the straw mats in the courtyard to wait when the door opened from within and Xi Rong stepped out. His dark hair was loose and he wore a black robe. Clearly, he had only just awakened.

The three immediately stepped forward to salute and then exchanged awkward glances, because they noticed that, despite having eaten the same venison as them, His Highness didn’t have a nosebleed.

Xi Rong asked directly, “How did it go?”

Song Yang quickly shifted his gaze away from His Highness’s nostrils and respectfully replied, “Everything went smoothly. As instructed, the items have been hidden in another location in the mountains. Once day breaks, there’s bound to be a grand spectacle in Songzhou Prefecture.”

Xi Rong nodded.

Song Yang hesitated, then asked, “May I ask when Your Highness plans to leave?”

Xi Rong, his expression steeped in morning light, replied, “I have no plans to leave for now.”

The three were momentarily stunned.

The author has something to say:

Xi the Dog: Wifey really holds down that ‘soft rice’ (dependent husband) like a pro.
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