Looking for Mother

The Zhou Dynasty had a thriving economy in small commodities. To encourage commercial tax revenue and trade, curfew restrictions in the residential wards had been greatly relaxed, allowing night markets to operate until the third drum watch-midnight.

Chang'an City had the largest and tallest bell-and-drum tower in Great Zhou to tell the time for its people. Bells rang in the morning and drums sounded at dusk, with eighteen strikes for each two-hour period.

After the third drum watch, anyone still at the night markets would be arrested as a thief.

The resonant drumbeats drifted through the air, signaling the curfew patrols to begin making arrests.

Emperor Zhou arrived just in time outside a residence. Its plaque read:

-Grand Marshal's Residence.

Two household guards stood watch at the entrance. His trusted eunuch stepped forward, presented a token, and quietly announced:

"An honored guest has arrived. Open the gates at once."

Seeing that it was a palace token, the two guards hurriedly opened the gates and knelt to welcome him.

Chen Yang, Great Zhou's mighty general, had earned merit for destroying the Southern Turkic state. The Retired Emperor had deliberately withheld a lavish reward so that Emperor Zhou could bestow his favor after ascending the throne.

Several months earlier, Chen Yang had been appointed Grand Marshal, equal in rank to the Grand Commandant and standing alongside the Three Dukes. He also commanded the Chang'an Northern Army, guarding the capital. His honors and favor could hardly have been greater.

"Your subject, Chen Yang, greets Your Majesty!"

Wu Junji shuddered and instantly woke.

Chen Yang. He did not know Chen Yang, but he knew Chen Yang's nephew, Chen Yu.

The two of them had been mortal enemies in his previous life.

The struggle for the throne had been so brutal that, within fifteen years, not a single veteran official remained at court-all thanks to Chen Yu.

In another two years, Emperor Zhou would destroy the Chen Family. Chen Yang would die, his younger sister Empress Chen would take her own life, and his nephew Chen Yu would be rescued. After lying low for fifteen years, Chen Yu would enter court to exact his revenge.

His goal had been to destroy Great Zhou's Mandate.

From Chen Yu's perspective, it would have been a wish-fulfillment novel for male readers.

Wu Junji was probably the villain who simply would not die, no matter what anyone tried, until the very end.

Why had he been brought here?

Was the old bastard no longer planning to throw him away?

Or did the old bastard want to hand him over to the Chen Family, then have a perfectly good excuse to kill him two years later?

Emperor Zhou thought Chen Yang's voice had frightened him and hurriedly patted and soothed him.

The sovereign and his subject went to the study together.

Emperor Zhou paced back and forth with the child in his arms.

The knack for soothing a baby seemed engraved in his bones; he had learned it without a teacher.

Only once Wu Junji's breathing had gradually steadied did he hand him to his trusted eunuch to be carried away.

In his previous life, everyone had believed Emperor Zhou killed the Chen Family because their achievements overshadowed their sovereign.

But Wu Junji had later worked out that, although Emperor Zhou was arrogant and petty, he was not a man incapable of tolerating accomplished subjects.

He had intended to feign sleep, but as he pretended, he discovered that this body simply could not stay awake. Helplessly, he fell asleep for real.

Now only Emperor Zhou and Chen Yang remained in the study.

Emperor Zhou came straight to the point.

"Have your younger sister enter the palace."

Chen Yang froze. There was a streak of blind loyalty in his bones; if Emperor Zhou issued a direct decree, he would have no room to refuse.

But His Majesty had come late at night, in private, giving him a chance to sound him out:

"My younger sister is twenty years old. She is spoiled and headstrong, and knows no restraint. I fear she might anger Your Majesty."

Emperor Zhou browsed the books in his study. Anyone's study was forbidden territory to outsiders, especially in an official's household.

They were particularly cautious with their manuscripts, burning discarded drafts every day.

Emperor Zhou found a copy of the Thousand Character Classic. It was new, with only slight signs of use, and had most likely been prepared for a child's first lessons.

"I hear someone has been arranging a marriage for you, my dear subject. Why haven't you agreed?"

Something struck a taut string in Chen Yang's heart.

He gave a bitter smile. "I dare not hold back a young lady from a noble family. Caring for my widowed sister-in-law and raising my late brother's posthumous son to adulthood are my only wishes in this life."

It was not that Chen Yang did not want to. He could not, and did not dare.

How could someone the emperor had touched marry and have children?

Emperor Zhou gave two cold chuckles.

When it came to bed partners, Emperor Zhou cared nothing for whether they were men or women-but he was the one who took them.

If anyone dared set their sights on him, none of their nine degrees of kin would survive!

The little wretch was his disgrace. Even if he had brought that disgrace upon himself, killing Chen Yang would still be only right and proper.

But perhaps that could be put on hold now.

"Having your sister enter the palace is a favor to your Chen Family."

"You saw that child just now. I have no qualms about telling you: he is my child."

Emperor Zhou's voice brimmed with implication. "Chen Yang, do you understand?"

Chen Yang's heart thundered like ten thousand galloping horses. That inconceivable suspicion had been confirmed, leaving his mind utterly blank with shock.

He did not know what expression to wear or what to say to salvage a silence about to plunge below freezing.

He would never be able to marry in this lifetime. To do so would be to stroke a tiger's whiskers.

Without marriage, there would be no children. That had become a regret lodged in Chen Yang's heart.

Yet now he knew that he and the emperor had a child.

Absurd, and astonishing.

Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. His mouth opened again and again before he dropped to his knees with a thud.

"I deserve death by a thousand cuts, ten thousand times over! I beg Your Majesty to leave an opening in the net! Allow everyone in the Chen Family a way to live!"

Emperor Zhou turned his thumb ring. There was no affection between him and Chen Yang; they loathed and detested each other. He had intended to wait until the time was ripe, invent some casual excuse to slaughter the Chen Family, and ensure no one ever knew this secret again.

Chen Yang was loyal to his sovereign, devoted to his country, and a capable man. But the world had plenty of loyal patriots and plenty of capable men. It would not miss one Chen Yang.

Such was an emperor's ruthlessness.

Now that his attitude toward Wu Junji had changed, his attitude toward Chen Yang was beginning to change as well.

He felt there was no need for Chen Yang to die.

Using the little thing to bind the entire Chen Family to him, making them brave life and death for his sake-was that not the best possible strategy?

The young emperor possessed extraordinary audacity. He believed there was nothing under heaven he could not control, no person he could not master. He even found danger thrilling and mesmerizing.

The vague, wavering notion in his heart finally settled into certainty.

"Wu Junji."

That was the name Emperor Zhou had devised for the little wretch.

"He will be the future Crown Prince of my Great Zhou. Having bestowed such an extraordinary honor upon your Chen Family, your family's lives now belong to my Wu Household."

However he looked at this bargain, Emperor Zhou would lose nothing.

The imperial physician had examined him. With medicinal treatment, his secondary sexual characteristics would gradually regress, leaving him an entirely normal man.

Every thorny problem had been cut apart like bamboo beneath a blade. At last, Emperor Zhou was willing to let go of that lingering resentment.

"I will appoint your sister Imperial Noble Consort and place her in charge of the inner palace."

Emperor Zhou ordered someone to bring Wu Junji for Chen Yang to hold.

This was an emperor's generosity, offered to win a man's heart.

The little thing in his arms squirmed with a few soft whimpers.

Chen Yang's muscles instantly tensed.

Leaning toward the faint candlelight, he studied the little bundle in his arms as cautiously and carefully as he would a map of strategic defenses.

The child had delicate brows and lovely eyes.

He tentatively reached out. Emperor Zhou did not stop him.

So he very gently touched the tiny mole at the corner of the child's eye.

The child's warm vitality anchored every drifting sense of unreality in his heart. His gaze grew impossibly tender.

Chen Yang had once had a small mole in that same spot, but someone had slashed his face on the battlefield. Once the wound healed, the mole was gone too.

He had only a quarter of an hour. Chen Yang silently and respectfully saw His Majesty off. As the carriage vanished into the long night, the lingering warmth of that tiny life seemed to remain against his arms. Reluctantly, he withdrew behind the gates.

From that moment onward, Chen Yang's life belonged to Wu Junji.