Marked by a Tyrant After Transmigrating

Shortly afterwards, the two took the young man out of Chun Jiang Pavilion. Ye Shu gave him some silver and set him free.

“How could this be,” The young man firmly refused to accept it. “Engong saved me. I can’t take any more of Engong‘s silver.”

“Are you going to return home?” Ye Shu asked.

“I… I’m not,” The young man shook his head. “I have been living with my father as a child, but he accumulated gambling debts and sold me into the brothel without a second thought. I won’t go back. I’m thinking of finding a place to live in the capital and find some way to make a living.”

The young man’s eyes were clear and transparently bright. “Can Engong tell me his name? If I earn enough money in time, I will certainly repay Engong.”

But it wasn’t convenient for neither Ye Shu nor Jin Wang to disclose their names.

“We also live in the capital,” Ye Shu said. “We will surely see each other again at some time in the future if you also live here.”

Ye Shu insisted on not disclosing his name. The young man couldn’t keep asking and could only nod. “I look forward to meeting you two again. I hope that by then I will already have enough silver to repay Engong.”

Ye Shu nodded with a smile.

The young man looked at Jin Wang standing not far away.

The latter was dressed in black and stood under a tree, his upright and slender figure holding an extraordinary bearing.

“Is…that…your husband?” The young man softly asked. “He’s so handsome.”

Ye Shu subconsciously wanted to deny it, but the young man hurriedly added, “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean anything else. I’m just… just envious of you. He must be very nice to you.”

“He……” Ye Shu paused and softly added, “He’s indeed very nice to me.”

Frankly speaking, Jin Wang did treat him very, very well. As a ruler, one would naturally be sensitive and mistrustful, and that is to say nothing of the experiences that Jin Wang had gone through in his early childhood. Under all these influences, it wasn’t at all easy for him to treat him this way.

Ye Shu decided he would treat him better once they returned, if the dog emperor would also stop acting like an ass.

The young man smiled. “I wish you and your husband happiness forever.”

The two parted ways in front of Chun Jiang Pavilion and Ye Shu returned to Jin Wang.

“What took you so long? What were you talking about?” Jin Wang asked.

“Talking about you ya,” Ye Shu looked up and smiled softly at him. “He said you’re so handsome. Your Majesty spent a lot of silver to buy the man’s freedom. You really want to let him go without bringing him into the harem?”

Jin Wang reached out and took him into his embrace. “Gu already has two beauties in the harem, why would Gu need another one?”

“But also…” Jin Wang lowered his head, gazed into his eyes, and added in a low voice, “He’s nowhere near as good as you. Gu simply doesn’t see him.” 

“You’re the only one in Gu‘s eyes.”

Ye Shu’s heart fluttered slightly. 

Jin Wang rarely said such words to him, and whenever he did speak like this, there was always a teasing overtone, thus Ye Shu didn’t take it to heart at all.

But it was different this time. His eyes held deep sincerity, neither casually coaxing him nor intentionally teasing him.

Ye Shu suppressed the unfamiliar throbbing in his heart as he tilted his head and smiled. “Your Majesty’s honeyed words are really getting sweeter and sweeter.”

Jin Wang had a smile in his eyes, and just as he was about to speak, Ye Shu faintly added, “I feel sorry for the noble consort. Not only could he not come out to play with Your Majesty but also couldn’t hear such honeyed words. If I’m the only one in Your Majesty’s eyes, where do you put the other one then?”

“…All you can see is your new bride’s smile, while the abandoned one weeps unheard…”

Jin Wang’s expression froze.

Is this man addicted to playing palace intrigue with himself?

“Gu, of course, also holds the noble consort in his heart, don’t—” Jin Wang instinctively explained for himself, when he saw Ye Shu’s stifled laugh with his shoulders shaking, only then did he realize that he had been set up.

Jin Wang gritted his teeth. “Ye! Qi! An!”

“Hahahaha I was wrong, I was wrong. Your Majesty, spare my life—!”

—

Time ticked and the sky gradually darkened. Ye Shu and Jin Wang returned in the carriage.

Ye Shu recalled his doubts from earlier in the Chun Jiang Pavilion. 

“Kunjun?” Jin Wang’s eyes narrowed slightly as he frowned. “You don’t know what Kunjun means?”

Ye Shu was unsure. “Should… Should I?”

“……”

Ye Shu clearly remembered that there was no such setting in the book nor was it mentioned from the original owner’s remaining memories.

However, this world’s plot was already very different from that in the book. Ye Shu wouldn’t be surprised no matter what novel setting emerged.

Jin Wang was silent. He originally thought that Ye Shu had not been aware of his own differentiation on account of his foggy and slow nature. But now it seemed that he actually didn’t even know the difference between Qian and Kun, knowledge as basic as the difference between men and women. Was there even anyone in this world who wouldn’t know this?

Jin Wang’s intuition was telling him that there was something weird here but he couldn’t put his finger on it at the moment.

After a moment of silence, he then replied, “Kunjun is just the name given to that boy by the brothel.” 

“The brothel has always been divided into Qian and Kun,” Jin Wang started saying nonsense, “Qianjun have sophisticated artistry and don’t sell themselves, while Kunjun have a radiant and beautiful appearance and serve people by means of sexual services… As for the differentiation… Think of it as the hanging plaque, yeah.”

Ye Shu felt perplexed. “That’s it?”

Jin Wang firmly said, “That’s it.”

“Alright…” Ye Shu didn’t doubt it and added, “Let’s continue our discussion from a moment ago. Has Your Majesty thought about what title to confer me?”

Jin Wang, “……”

Ye Shu said this originally just to tease Jin Wang. Who would have thought that the very day after they returned to the palace, Jin Wang would really issue a decree.

The beauty presented by the official of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was conferred the title of Concubine An; a rank slightly lower than that of the noble consort. Just like the noble consort, the servants must refer to the Concubine as their young master.

As the two concubines of the reigning ruler, one was bestowed the Yongshou Palace and the other was bestowed the Chengqian Palace, which were on the left and right of the Yangxin Hall. It was thus clear that His Majesty favored the two concubines.

However, the wedding ceremony which was previously shelved was not mentioned again.

From then on, no one in the court raised objections about the first concubine. As long as His Majesty had taken a Kunjun, it was only a matter of time before he gave birth to a prince, thus there was no need to be too impatient.

As for Ye Shu…… He didn’t go to either of the two palaces. He continued to return to his little black room in the Yangxin Hall.

“This won’t do,” Ye Shu stood by the bed and said seriously to Jin Wang. “You can’t continue locking me up in here anymore.”

The servant was in the course of dressing Jin Wang, who looked up at his words and said, “Why?”

Ye Shu angrily said, “I have grown plump these days!”

Ye Shu had a slender body type, but when he had changed his clothes today, he found that his waist and abdomen were actually rounder than before.

Thinking about it, this was all Jin Wang’s fault.

Jin Wang’s eyes immediately lit up as soon as he heard the other’s statement. “Come over. Gu will have a look.”

Ye Shu huffed and puffed as he walked over. Jin Wang embraced him and sat down.

He placed his hand gently on Ye Shu’s abdomen. His flat lower abdomen did not yet show signs of pregnancy from it’s exterior appearance, but upon touching it, it did feel a little rounder than before.

Jin Wang collected the smile in his eyes and deliberately said, “What do you mean plump? Gu sees no difference.”

Ye Shu was exasperated and said, “Anyway, you can’t keep me locked up here anymore. I want to go out.”

Jin Wang, “No.”

Ye Shu, “…Hmp.”

Jin Wang flicked him on the forehead. “Who asked you to be so naughty before. If you were to be released after only a few days of imprisonment, would Gu still have dignity?”

Bitch hole Jin Wang.

Ye Shu was too angry to pay any heed to him.

As the time for the morning court approached, Jin Wang left with his people, while Ye Shu stayed in the bedchamber alone. He got bored and began to tinker with his disguise paraphernalia.

These days, Jin Wang would take him out for a walk every day after attending court. He was now addicted to playing two roles, changing his identities every day. It could be described euphemistically as His Majesty evenly distributing his grace.

Not only that, he even tried to develop another skin mask, trying to get Jin Wang to add it to the harem as well.

However, the first time he tried, Jin Wang was enraged to see a strange man on his dragon bed, enraged to the point that he almost dragged him out to be flogged to death.

……The tables turned on him catastrophically.

Ye Shu had just finished changing his appearance when the servant came in to report, “Young master, Imperial Physician Feng has come for the routine consultation.”

“Let him wait outside.” Ye Shu responded and was about to take off the disguise from his face when his movement came to a halt.

Imperial physician Feng would come every few days to feel Ye Shu’s pulse, only that each time the conclusion was that he was in good health and had no abnormalities. But his fatigue and drowsiness, the bloating in his abdomen, his occasional nausea and vomiting, and other symptoms were never thoroughly dispelled.

This physician wasn’t in cahoots with Jin Wang to hide something from him, right?

At the thought of this, Ye Shu turned back towards the bed and let his disguise be. “Let him come in.”

When the physician Feng came in, whom he saw was not Minister Ye, but a young gentleman.

The young gentleman was reclining on the dragon bed, peering at him weakly through the open gauze canopy, seemingly a bit unwell.

Physician Feng, of course, recognized this as Concubine An, and immediately saluted. “Young master.” 

Ye Shu softened his voice and said, “Physician, you may dispense with the curtseying.”

Physician Feng then rose. “Young master, this subject has come to inspect the noble consort. I don’t know if he…”

“The noble consort is not here today. The physician can come back later,” Ye Shu moved with weak and gentle movements. “It so happens that I’m not feeling well today. Could the physician do the same for me?”

Then, a hand reached out from within the gauze canopy.