The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 24

Xie Lian had a hard time waking up today.

He'd slept rather well, overall, since he was getting somewhat used to sleeping without Hua Cheng by his side again. But although he'd slept well, he was aching all over. Which was very confusing.

Xie Lian hadn't been able to get any dance practice in during the last ten weeks because he needed to stand in for Hua Cheng and be in the throne room for most of the day with Mei NianQing. Who also had to stand in for Hua Cheng and who also happened to be his dance instructor. But since dealing with the matters the court brought to him on a daily basis left both of them exhausted, neither of them had been in the mood for dance lessons recently.

Which meant there was absolutely no reason why Xie Lian should be aching all over. Or maybe it was the opposite, and he was aching because he was simply sitting too much. But then again, how would sitting all day cause his chest to ache like this? Well, it wasn't his whole chest that was aching, actually. Concentrating on where the discomfort was coming from, Xie Lian found the source to be his pecs. Which was rather strange. Why would his pecs hurt?

Xie Lian sighed, and slowly sat up in his nest. His body was protesting every single movement, and he couldn't help but groan at the strain. At least he was waking up properly now, he thought.

But he still had to wonder why his chest in particular hurt. Well, it wasn't actually all that painful compared to other things he'd experienced, so maybe saying it hurt was a bit of an exaggeration. But it was still a noticeable discomfort.

Then again, his body had been changing constantly over the past few weeks, and none of the changes had been particularly pleasant. For example, he'd noticed his overall silhouette to be somewhat more feminine, though he wasn't sure if his waist had somehow grown smaller, or if his hips and chest had grown wider. It wasn't a big difference by any means, but it was nevertheless noticeable to him.

Another thing he'd noticed was the fact that his muscle definition had decreased. Though luckily he was still as strong as he used to be, he certainly didn't sport his well defined abs anymore. It wasn't that he'd gained weight either; his body had just... turned soft, somehow. That included his chest as well, actually.

While Xie Lian had always been rather slim, he'd also always been rather muscly. So seeing his muscles just disappear like that was a bit of a bummer to him. And of course his stomach and chest muscles had been the ones that were most obvious to him, so when he'd touched his chest to confirm if all the muscles were really gone just like that, he'd noticed just how soft that area had become.

Sure, Hua Cheng had already mentioned it before he left as well, but the difference was much more extreme now. It honestly felt like all of his chest muscles had turned into fat, and Xie Lian didn't like that at all.

With a sigh, and a bit of trepidation, Xie Lian raised his hand to his chest in order to find out if the situation had gotten even worse.

However, once he'd touched his chest, Xie Lian couldn't help but flinch a bit. It was much more tender and sensitive than he'd anticipated. Growing a bit worried, Xie Lian heaved himself out of the nest, got dressed, drank his medicine, and then dragged himself to the infirmary. He really wasn't feeling well today, he realised. Even his stomach had turned against him the moment he left the house.

When Xie Lian finally reached the infirmary, he took a deep breath to steady himself before walking on. However, with that deep breath he got a whiff of the most horrendous medicine he'd smelled - ever. It instantly caused him to retch, and it was all he could do to move out of the doorway before his stomach emptied itself. But of course he had to gulp in more air when he was done vomiting, which caused him to smell that cursed medicine again, which also caused him to vomit again. It was horrible.