It takes about one week before the Royal Parade can reach the end of the Human Realm. During this time, Zhong Song was responsible for giving Lang Yuan the basic information about the world. The Emperor assumed that Lang Yuan is completely illiterate. He is not stupid to show the Empress Dowager a future Empress that can't count from one to ten. So the one week journey turned out to be a lecture for the young boy.
The first lesson Zhong Song taught Lang Yuan is all about the origin of their world.
"There are a total of nine realms," Zhong Song said. "And this Realm is called the World."
"What?" Lang Yuan asked. "You call this world as [WORLD]?"
"Yes, and the World Realm holds two floors, like any of those nine realms. Each realm has its own higher step and the lower step. The Higher step of the World Realm is called as the Higher Realms and the lower step is Human Realm. Each Realms has their own names and specifications."
Lang Yuan though, then this realm called [WORLD] is like [EARTH] on my previous life.
Then it means that the nine realms are like nine planets. But do they actually have the concept of planets? Lang Yuan looks above the heavens. It was already night time and the stars are twinkling above. The moon is nowhere in sight. Guessing like how the moon moves, then they are rotating and revolving?
"Sooner or later, you will be meeting some of the Emperor Gods from the other realms once you will be crowned as the Empress. You should know thier backgrounds and taboos to avoid offending them when you met them."
Zhong Song proceeded to the geography of the World Realm. The Higher Realm has a vast area but the population is only small and the places are smaller than the Realms. It is as if the Higher Realm is just one kingdom with a few villages around.
The Human Realm is the opposite. Despite having a smaller area, the population ang the places are as much of a human hair! Zhong Song have to skip over some details and only explained the major countries and cities.
The setting inside the Human Realms is as follows: Kingdom, Cities, and Villages. Lang Yuan compared it to Earth. The nine realms represents the nine planets. The Kingdoms represents countries. Cities are the regions inside the country while villages is the smallest unit. Thinking it this way, each realm sure is a huge one. Lang Yuan never thought that he will be ruling over this huge territory.
Zhong Song showed him a map with some marks. And because Lang Yuan can't understand their writing yet, he listened intently to Zhong Song as he relocate the names to the map. Lang Yuan has a good memory. He only needed to know it once to remember it until the time of his death. While Zhong Song is discussing some few deyails about a certain country, a tug on his shirt made Lang Yuan look behind.
Huh? But there are nobody behind him. Another tug came but below him. He found JiDan standing on his two feet while raising his arms up trying to reach Lang Yuan. He hoisted the child up but got caught at the middle. The boy is heavier now!
"Oh, is it feeding time yet?" Zhong Song asked as he rolled back the map. "Good, feed him well."
Lang Yuan heaved a sigh as he placed the two-year old JiDan above the table. He took a knife given to him by the emperor and cuts his palm. JiDan showed a worried expression when Lang Yuan winced a bit from pain.
"Mama... Hurt... Hurt?" JiDan asked.
Lang Yuan only smiled. He showed his palm to the kid and placed it above his mouth. He let JiDan drink it. JiDan is reluctant but he needed to grow. This is a normal occurence for a dragon child like him.
At First, Lang Yuan is worried that JiDan might grow faster than a normal kid does. It was during the first day when JiDan is crying so much that Lang Yuan needed to coax the baby. But the baby won't sleep and tried biting his hand. Lang Yuan didn't allow the baby do it not until Yu XueQin commented some facts.
"Feed it to him. Don't let a dragon child gets hungry," The emperor said gently as he was leaning on the headboard of the bed while reading a book.
"B-But Your Honor... JiDan might grow faster and... and..." Lang Yuan can never imagine himself watching his son graduate to an adult man in just a few weeks! That would be ridiculous!
"You don't have to worry. A Dragon Child will age faster but grow slower. Feed him your blood until he reaches his five year old state. In that way, dragon children are not messy unlike those small little devils crying late at night."
"Until he reaches Five years old? W-will I not get dry from blood?" Lang Yuan asked.
"It's okay. It only takes a few days and he'll become five."
"A few days? Then..."
Then JiDan growing up to an adult man... taller than Lang Yuan himself...
No! He wanted to spoil JiDan more. He doesn't want to grow him fast. That would be very heart wrenching when it happens! The emperor chuckled when he saw the horrified expression of the youth. He flipped a page from the book.
"If you are worried that he will grow old faster, well, that's a bit wrong. A dragon Child might grow up that fast but after it reaches its five year old form a bottleneck will appear. The body will not age and grow old until ten years later. So you can have a five year old son for ten years!"
So Lang Yuan kept on feeding JiDan. Ang JiDan instatly grew the next day. Now, he is already on his two years old state. The kid can now talk but only a few. Lang Yuan can still understand him though even without words.
JiDan becomes extra sleepy every after a feeding so the little boy take refuge of his mother's lap and started sleeping. Lang Yuan don't like to wake the kid up so he stayed sitting even though he knows that it will numb his legs soon. Zhong Song just hummed a song and proceeded to the next material.
"We will have a deeper topic once we arrive at the palace. And for now, I will ask you a few questions. Just answer me honestly," he said. Lang Yuan nodded.
"Okay, so we will be meeting the Empress Dowager soon. You might not have enough time to prepare something for the lady so I am here to know what things can you serve to make the Lady satisfied."
Ökay," Lang Yuan understood.
"First question, can you sing?" Zhong Song asked.
Lang Yuan shook his head. "No."
"Okay... how about dance. Can you dance?"
Lang Yuan shook his head. "No."
"Play an instrument?"
"No."
"Recite poems?"
"... No..."
Zhong Song gave him a worried look. "Don't tell me that you do not also know how to paint?"
Lang Yuan wanted to dig a hole to hide. "I'm sorry, Ju laosi. I am so useless."
"Ah..." Zhong Song shook his head in disbelief. "It's okay. I almost forgot that you are from the slums. It's normal for you to not know those. But it can be learn. It's just that you will be forced to learn them in a few days."
"No problem," Lang Yuan said confidently. "Just show it to me Ju laosi. I will study hard."
"Oooh, so you are really that willing to get wed with the emperor, huh," Zhong Song teased.
"Wait, N-n..." Lang Yuan felt that if he says no he will be beheaded in no time. After all, nobody knows about his agreement with the Emperor. Yu XueQin made Lang Yuan promise to not say a single word about marrying for the sake of protection and power. What everyone knows is that Lang Yuan is the one that made their cold master experience love.
They are both in love with each other.
Pweeh! Lang Yuan wanted to throw up and made a vomiting gesture. Not until a long arm snaked down from his neck and pulled him up with a hug. JiDan was surprised by the moment and stared at his father annoyingly. Lang Yuan tried struggling by the sudden touch but sighed when he found out that it was the emperor.
"How is the studying, was it tiring?" Yu XueQin gave Lang Yuan a kiss on the forehead.
Since the two of them are pretending that they are in love with each other, of course, their actions must also show some 'intimate' advances. Just like right now. The emperor did gave Lang Yuan a kiss on the forehead but his hands are itchy. It easily found refuge inside the robe of Lang Yuan feeling the warm smooth skin underneath.
"If you're not tired we could go a round," The emperor huskily whispered brushing his skin teasingly.
Lang Yuan tensed up. He grabbed the Emperor's shoulder and whispered stop. But the Emperor will not take orders from a youth so he continued. Zhong Song only scrunched his nose. Sorry for him that he has no lover he can flirt with.
"Get a room," he muttered before leaving the scene and walked out.
The emperor only smirked and removed his hand. Lang Yuan is flushing red from both embarrasment and... and a bit of lust. Nobody has tried touching him before so the feeling is new. He thought that the part the emperor touched him is burning. His heart started pounding loudly.
"And the third party went away," The emperor went to JiDan who slept back. He carried the boy on his arms. Right now, Lang Yuan can no longer carry JiDan for long so it is now the emperor's job to carry the kid.
Lang Yuan watched the figure of the supreme being before him and somehow imagined a caring father hushing its children to sleep. He smiled a bit before standing up. But his legs died due to sitting for so long so he quickly stumbled forward. The emperor just caught him on his other arm and pulled him to an embrace. Lang Yuan landed to his broad chest.
"Careful," the magnetic voice said. "Make sure that everytime you fall I am there to catch you."
Lang Yuan can't help but to cringe with that pick up line. What the hell ba!
They entered the carriage where a makeshift bed was placed. The emperor carefully placed JiDan on a crib (despite being a two year old already) and then headed to the edge of the bed. He spreads his arms side like and eagle and watched Lang Yuan. The youth knows this gesture very much so he wasn't fazed and walked towards the emperor.
It is the empress resposibility to take good care of the emperor. It should be the servants doing it but because Lang Yuan is making his best to stay as an Empress then he has to learn it. Yu XueQin told him that if ever the Empress Dowager disapproves their marriage, Lang Yuan will still stay inside the palace but he will be joining the harem. For a twentieth century boy who knoes what a green tea bitch is...
He's pretty much aware of those dark schemes the ladies inside the harem to harm him. But he was so coward and weak that he will not fight back. So the safest position is to become an Empress. He will not only have the protection against the other people but also from the ladies inside the harem.
Lang Yuan is done with removing the Emperor's outer robe. He then proceeded to removing the pins and bands from the emperor's head to let its long black hair to flow down. After a few minutes of untangling and removing, the emperor is now almost bare with only his under robes remaining. Lang Yuan is pretty much satisfied with his work.
Yu XueQin climb up the bed. He made a patting gesture to his side. "Sleep, the night is already deep."
"It's okay. I'm not sleepy yet and I think JiDan needed some..."
Yu XueQin pulled the youth and rolled over above him. He held Lang Yuan's hands to the side of his head, trapping the boy inside his body. Lang Yuan left his breath when he found himself under the supreme being. His eyes widened.
"So, you're really willing to do one round?" The emperor raised an eyebrow with a smirk.
"H-huh? N-no... It's not t-that..." Lang Yuan wanted to cover his blushing face but both of his arms are locked. The emperor leaned closer to his neck, smelling a unique scent reminding him of some wood. The emperor took a sniff and was satisfied with the smell.
"You see, even though we are pretending we can still do those things. Actually, it will make everything more realistic. What you say?" He whispered.
Yu XueQin can see the Lang Yuan's ears gone read. He chuckled, giving shivers to Lang Yuan. He rose his head up again to look at those crimson eyes. Since that time he commanded Lang Yuan to look only at him, Lang Yuan quickly fulfilled it and would always look at his eyes straight. A stir of emotion seems to move inside the emperor's chest.
"So, are you sleepin or not?" The emperor asked.
"Y-yes! I'm sleeping. Actually I'm already sleeping!"
Yu XueQin laughed and lets go with his grip. Lang Yuan quickly moved to the side to cover himself with the quilt. The boy gave a glance to the sleeping JiDan before truthfully closing his eyes. Lang Yuan slept faster than he imagine. It must be because he was exhausted with the earlier study session.
The emperor pulled the youth and placed him in front of his chest. Lang Yuan found the comfortable warmth and squeezed in. Yu XueQin chuckled lightly and caresses the hair of Lang Yuan. He must be staring too much to Lang Yuan that he also feel like sleeping.
But the emperor just have the sweetest dream on that night.
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Late update. I'm sleepy and sure there are errors hahaha. And still I posted. I dunno if I'm lazy or not 😂😂😂
But hey, I did a fan art of Lang Yuan. Well, I'm not really that good in drawing and only have a mouse and desktop so it's not really that good. Hahaha I wish I can buy some pen tablet to draw 😂😂😂 anyways... Here's a fan art everyone 😂😂😂 and good night 😂😂😂