He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter Eighty - Kneel Before Me

Author's note; There is some sweet Male loving half way through this chapter. Skip to the next chapter if you wish to avoid.

Three weeks after the Guardian was introduced to the people and four weeks after the Council tore up their miswritten declaration, Keung Ai disappeared.  At least, she thought she had and would have, were it not for a trusted individual who tailed her up until the point that she bought a baby from a prostitute from a city in the North of the Empire, not far from the Heartlands border.  The woman was then held at the border, prevented from entering the country with the child until Xiang Ah Liû and Wáng Yu Long came to meet with her.

"Your highness!" She greeted her 'husband' first, but he looked at her with nothing but distain.   "Your highness, I have birthed you a son!"

Lian Guan Ting took the boy from her, despite her attempts to get him back.  "Keung Ai, from this day onward, you are in exile from the Holy Lands and may no longer set foot in our country," the Living God advised her.

"What? You can't do this!  Yu Long, husband, please!" The woman begged, reaching for him, but the Prince simply stepped backward.  "Yu Long, I gave you a son, I should be your wife!  Not him!  He is a man, he cannot give you children!  I am destined to be your wife!"

"Take her away!" Xiang Ah Liû instructed.  The border guards did so, leaving the struggling woman at the foot of the mountain, kicking her when she refused to stay there.  "What do you wish to do with the baby?"

"He belongs with his mother," Yu Long glanced at the squirming infant.  "However, if she truly does not want him, we can find him a home that does." 

"To think that she would go to such extremes," Lian Guan Ting murmured as he rocked the baby in his arms.  Keung Ai had not only lied about the night she had spent with Wáng Yu Long, she had fled when it could be proven that she carried no child, could not entice him to bed to get with one and so then had bought one!  The former Concubine Du Xinyi had let it be known that his former husband did not use aphrodisiacs; the large man was too conceited, believing himself gifted in the art of lovemaking!  The drug he had used on Yu Long was one prescribed to help him sleep, his huge weight made his joints ache, which became unbearable at night.  But he had hated the heaviness of mind the drug caused, so did not use it often.  Whether something had truly occurred between woman and man that night, only Keung Ai knew and it was increasingly unlikely.

"There are desperate women everywhere," Yu Long muttered.  Recently, the men had attended the marriage of Emperor Wáng Jie Long and Zhao Zhen Yi, who had been declared Empress.  Their two acknowledged sisters and their husbands had also attended.  First Sister had changed, though she was still large and round, her temperament was softer and there was clear affection between her and the older man who was her husband.  However, it did not stop her from slapping down ambitious girls who tried getting close to the Islands King.  The same ambitious girls had spoken of their own potential path into entering the harem and becoming beloved by the handsome and popular Emperor.  And those same ambitious girls had turned their attentions to the two husbands who clearly had no wives.

In the end, a very not calm Living God had turned to his Guardian, pulled him down by the neck of his robe and kissed him in full view of those girls and their families.  Yu Long had been startled, but enthusiastic in returning the kiss.  It was too much to bear for some women, who had fainted in shock and others, who had stared on and had nosebleeds.  "It seems Second Prince may take after his father in that regard," Minister Wen had mused to himself.  He was very careful not to say this in front of said man nor the Emperor.

*****

After returning to the Winter Temple, the two husbands entered the bedroom suite prepared for them. Yu Long removed the jade hair pin from his hair with a sigh. "It is over," he felt a little lighter of heart and offered a smile to his husband. The smaller man did not smile in return, his eyes narrowed and slightly red.