Chapter 24#

The CEO of our dynasty’s love—truly it could move heaven and earth… and move his romantic rival as well.

Originally, although Chu Ruiyuan liked my brother, he did save my sister-in-law’s life. I shouldn’t have kept calling him Emperor Scum Chu.

But the day after my nephew and niece’s full-month celebration, he summoned me to the palace and said he was fond of me and wished to form a “cut-sleeve” relationship with me.

Did he think I was stupid?

He must have assumed I couldn’t see that he liked my brother and was planning to use me as a substitute.

I felt like I should be angry. But looking at Chu Ruiyuan’s face, I just couldn’t quite manage it.

The CEO of our dynasty is ridiculously good-looking.

So good-looking that I thought—even if I had to be my brother’s stand-in and sleep with him a few times—I wouldn’t exactly be losing out.

Of course, that would depend on whether he was well-endowed and skilled.

Still, no matter how handsome he was, he was the ruler of the realm—and above him stood the Empress Dowager, who had already punished me with kneeling twice and was very much alive.

I may have felt lust, but I didn’t have the courage to act on it.

Yet Chu Ruiyuan was, after all, the sovereign. Whether his feelings were sincere or not, once he said he cared for me, I couldn’t embarrass him.

So I knelt and said, “Your Majesty and I have known each other for years. I, too, hold Your Majesty in my heart. Hearing your words just now, I am not without joy. However, I am a man. For me to love Your Majesty would be intolerable to the world. You are destined to be a wise ruler of a prosperous age. If because of me you were to bear even the slightest stain in history, I would rather die here today!”

I thought my refusal was clear and resolute.

Who would have guessed that Chu Ruiyuan would simply smile, pull me up from the ground, gather me into his arms, and say, “As long as you hold me in your heart, that is enough. Leave the trivialities of the mortal world to me. Jun’an need not worry.”

And then he dragged me to bed and forced himself on me.

Well, “forced” isn’t quite right. Before he could force much of anything, it became consensual.

You can’t blame me. He was already that good-looking—and on top of that, well-endowed and highly skilled.

I’m a man. A creature ruled by my lower half.

The double pleasure of sight and body? I genuinely couldn’t resist.

So, muddle-headed, I became my brother’s stand-in and slept with the CEO of our dynasty. Honestly, I was a bit shaken.

I was afraid the CEO’s mother would kill me.

But after that, Chu Ruiyuan summoned me to the palace twice more, and the Empress Dowager never appeared.

Either the CEO’s methods were impressive enough to conceal this from his own mother, or the Empress Dowager considered it too trivial to bother with.

Whichever it was, I didn’t feel secure.

Emperor Scum Chu, meanwhile, looked determined to carry this “love” (and bed-sport) through to the end. With no better option, I had a sudden flash of inspiration—like those characters in novels who fake their own deaths.

So I went to Guan Mingyue’s house.

When I arrived, Guan Mingyue and Doctor Jiang were locking up the front gate. Their master had just taken on a new junior disciple—a young girl, small but extraordinarily intelligent—and they were about to return to their sect to visit.

I asked the coroner and the miracle doctor whether there was any scientific way to fake death. Doctor Jiang suddenly took my pulse. Without explaining, he took a porcelain bottle from his robe.

“This medicine is called ‘Return.’ It can make a person appear dead for ten days. It is a secret formula of our sect, and there are very few pills in the world. I hope you will never need it.”

After speaking, the usually taciturn Senior Brother Jiang signaled his junior to see me out.

Thus, I was swept out the door by the two brothers, who were in a hurry to depart.

Actually, they never let me in to begin with.

With “Return” in hand, I felt much more at ease.

If things turned bad, I could fake my death and escape.

After all, my father’s position as prime minister was secure; Chu Ruiyuan’s feelings for my brother were there; and in bed, he was the one taking me. Whatever happened, disaster wouldn’t befall my family.

So I spent the next two years happily sleeping with the well-endowed, skilled, and devastatingly handsome CEO of our dynasty.

From eighteen to my coming-of-age ceremony. From being a seventh-rank official to holding no office at all.

Yes. As the emperor’s lover—bedmate—I was demoted instead of promoted.

And this had nothing to do with the Empress Dowager.

It was entirely Emperor Scum Chu’s doing.

Here’s what happened.

After Chu Ruiyuan had tasted flesh, he wanted to summon me to the palace practically every day.

But I was only a minor seventh-rank idle official. If I frequently had audiences with the emperor and often didn’t return home until dawn, even if others didn’t notice, my parents and brother certainly weren’t blind.

Especially my sister-in-law—after the first night I didn’t come home, she gave me a subtle smile that made it clear she understood everything.

So one day, after our harmonious exercise, I reluctantly told Chu Ruiyuan that we needed restraint—once every ten days or half a month would be ideal.

He proposed a solution: I could open a teahouse that operated overnight. That way, I could occasionally stay out all night “to look after business.”

The moment I heard it, I thought: the hearts of those who can sit firmly in the CEO’s seat are truly dark. To come up with such a scheme.

I liked it.

But if I resigned my post to go into business, my father would beat me half to death.

Chu Ruiyuan smiled and said he had his own way.

The next morning at court, he casually lamented that the government offices were bloated with redundant officials.

That very day, my father told me to resign my idle position.

The hearts of those who sit firmly in the CEO’s seat are truly dark.

After resigning, I bought a two-story teahouse with a back courtyard in the capital’s commercial district. After renovating it, I opened something like a combination of a modern reading café and private club, called the “Tea Classic Pavilion.”

My target customers were scholars in the capital, students arriving for the imperial examinations, and cultured gentlemen seeking tasteful gatherings.

The day after my coming-of-age ceremony, my Tea Classic Pavilion—backed by two top exam laureates, a talented lady, and the devoted sponsorship of an emperor—opened for business.

And on its opening night, I stayed there “to look after business.”

Honestly, I was quite surprised that Chu Ruiyuan, as ruler of the realm, was willing to leave the palace to meet me privately on my turf.

Almost as surprised as I had been the day before, when at my coming-of-age ceremony my father bestowed upon me the courtesy name “Zihou.”

Sharing a name with Liu Zongyuan—I felt a little uneasy.

There’s a saying that a humble name is easier to sustain. Such a weighty name might shorten my lifespan.

But a name granted by an elder cannot be refused.

So I accepted the courtesy name my father gave me.

Just as I accepted that the willful and handsome CEO of our dynasty would actually come to my Tea Classic Pavilion to dine—and spend the night.