Stop Bothering Me, Emperor

Chapter 42 - Confession

The expression on Song Xiao’s face was clearly reflected in the cold and brightly colored fireworks. Seeing his expression, Yu Tang was also blank, before he realized the ambiguity in his words.

It was already hard for Song Xiao, as a person who had received a scholar’s education since young, to willingly lie under the monarch; to do what Yu Tang’s words seemed to be suggesting would be a humiliation. So, the former incarnation of the Jingyuan emperor had never made Song Xiao do that.

”That – that’s not what zhen meant…” In a flurry, Yu Tang seized the wooden box and opened it right away to reveal the actual gift.

In the middle of sapphire blue velvet lay a jade flute that was entirely dark green. Right then, the sparklers faded and there wasn’t any light in the field; there was only the green jade, which reflected the gentle moon in flecks of twinkling light.

Really, just, playing, the xiao, that’s all!

Song Xiao coughed, then raised his hand to pick up the jade xiao. The mildly cool sensation felt very comfortable in his hand.

As an outstanding genius of the Song family, the Song top scorer had naturally learned the six arts of a scholar, and was just as proficient in the four arts, but what he loved the most was still the xiao. The xiao’s shape was long and slender, and its sound vast and boundless. Like a scholar’s conduct, it was straight as bamboo, and calm and far-sighted.

“What song does the emperor wish to hear?” The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder on the grass, and Song Xiao tested the sound. This flute was very exquisitely made, and its sound was also very good.

Yu Tang looked at the pair of slender and fair hands grasping the green xiao, and for a split second, felt as if he had returned to the imperial palace of a thousand years ago.

“Your Majesty summoned this servant to the imperial garden, for what reason…” The assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, who was still wearing his official robes, lowered his eyes and softly asked the question after approaching the crabapple flowers in the imperial garden.

“I heard that this dear subject is skilled in the xiao; zhen obtained a jade flute today, but zhen does not know how to play it, and thus bestows it on my dear subject.” Yu Jintang raised his hand to deliver a jade flute into Song Xiao’s hands. Their hands touched for a brief moment.

Yu Jintang withdrew his hand and hid it in his sleeve. Silently looking at that pair of slender and fair hands as he thought of the touch just then, he lightly caressed his own fingertips.

Song Xiao turned to look at Yu Tang, who was lost in thought as he stared at Song Xiao’s hands, and also couldn’t help but recall the situation back then. He couldn’t help smiling but also felt sad. The truth was that the emperor had just wanted to hold his hand at the time, but because of his circumstances, he could only borrow the excuse of the bestowal to touch Song Xiao’s hands slightly in that repressed and restrained manner.

Lifting the xiao to his lips, Song Xiao took a deep breath, then slowly blew.

Suddenly, there was the long and resonant sound of the xiao. It was a bleak note, which brought one back to an era thousands of years ago. This was the same melody which Song Xiao had played in the imperial garden back then.

Drawn out endlessly, sad and mournful, this was ‘BegoniaUnder The Moon’.

‘The monarch is like a begonia under the moon, desolate and solemn as it reflects the light. A song for the monarch; unable to curtail his yearning, unable to resolve his worries…’

Yu Tang’s hand abruptly tightened. He recognized this song. Back then, he had been preoccupied with looking at Song Xiao and hadn’t heard the lingering charm in the song. It was only when they got married and Yu Tang happened to flip to these lyrics in Song Xiao’s personal notebook that he found sole proof that Song Xiao might have already liked him before. This made Yu Jintang, who had disregarded Song Xiao’s aspirations and directly handed down an imperial decree to compel Song Xiao to marry him, secretly happy for a long time.

When the song ended, Song Xiao slowly lowered the xiao, then turned to look at Yu Tang.

“You playing this song for zhen; did you wish to say something?” Yu Tang pretended that he didn’t understand what he had heard, and drew closer to Song Xiao.

Song Xiao pursed his lips. “No- nothing&#k2026; This subject merely likes this song, that’s all.”

“The monarch is like a begonia under the moon&#k2026;” Yu Tang leaned closer to Song Xiao’s ear, and softly recited the lyrics.

Song Xiao’s ears, which had just cooled down, immediately reddened. “You – how could you peek at my personal notebook?”

“Everything under the sky belongs to the emperor. You’re zhen’s, so naturally, your personal notebook is also zhen’s,” Yu Tang said like a rascal as he slowly wrapped his arms around Song Xiao’s shoulders. “Junzhu, back then, you also liked me, right?”

Song Xiao lowered his eyes and didn’t say anything.

Seeing this, Yu Tang became nervous again. In their last life, Song Xiao did have feelings for him, but between them lay too many people and matters. In the end, he still stubbornly had Song Xiao accompany him into death. Even if Song Xiao still liked him, it was inevitable that there would be a knot in his heart.

“To be able to meet you again, the Heavens are truly kind to me. The past…” Yu Tang took a deep breath, then simply threw caution to the wind. “In our last life, we weren’t able to live together until we had white hair. In this life, I will definitely treat you well; you…”

Song Xiao lifted his head and looked at the emperor who was speaking a little incoherently, and his eyes couldn’t help curving. “En.”

“En?” Yu Tang was still recalling the confession written in the book. He hadn’t even said anything yet, but Song Xiao had unexpectedly agreed. His Majesty the emperor became a little stupid, his eyes widening slightly. Seeing Song Xiao smile until his eyes were curved, he forgot everything again as he slowly leaned in closer with no other thought than to give Song Xiao a lingering kiss.

Song Xiao smiled and also leaned in.

“What are you doing?!” The charged atmosphere was abruptly disrupted by a furious voice.

“Ah!” In the pavilion not far away, a pair of lovers screamed as they ran out. Flashlight in hand, the guidance teacher chased after them, and the light then highlighted the shadows of people on the slope.

“Whoever’s there, come out!” the guidance teacher bellowed. The exams had just ended today, and the school had made a last-minute decision to do a sweep and catch students who were being lovey-dovey and didn’t return to their dorms. The students would be rebuked, their names taken down, and their parents called up.

Yu Tang pulled Song Xiao to stand up with him and they ran.

Currently, there were lovers running wildly around everywhere on the school campus. The school rules stipulated that no one was allowed to date. If they were caught, their parents would be called and the students would get demerits. The most severe thing that could happen to students in the normal classes was expulsion. The screams of female students and the yells of teachers flooded the entire sports field.

As an expert in concealment, Dugu An knew all the hiding places in the school. Taking the infatuated emperor and empress with him, he took seven or eight turns on a small lane before turning into a courtyard of a family apartment and then ducking into an alley. This alley was an extremely narrow gap between two buildings and so dark that regular people wouldn’t notice it.

Yu Tang drew Song Xiao towards him and the two of them squeezed into the narrow alley.

“There, I saw them running over there!” The guidance teacher had taken his little electric scooter in order to chase after this pair who ran particularly fast.

Footsteps echoed outside, and Yu Tang blocked Song Xiao with his body; the light flashed past and didn’t detect them.

Song Xiao was pressed against the wall and his face was buried in Yu Tang’s chest. He tried his best to lift his head, and when the two of them made eye contact, they couldn’t help laughing. They were both boys; why were they running? Even if they were caught, then it was just them having fun and returning to the dorm late, and not being in love ah!

They laughed and laughed, before Yu Tang suddenly lowered his head and firmly sealed Song Xiao’s lips with his own.

Once their lips touched, it was hard for them to part. Rolling and grinding, it was as if they wanted to devour each other. This was unlike the few times they had touched previously; gently probing, slowly deepening, then melding together, unwilling to part.

After the midterm exams ended, the next day was a holiday. First thing in the morning, the students impatiently rushed off the school campus. The two who were passionately in love were somewhat reluctant to part, as Yu Tang slowly sent Song Xiao to the gates of the estate. As they stood around chatting for a bit, they just happened to run into Song Zicheng, who had just returned from working overtime all night.

“You two haven’t had breakfast ba?” Song Zicheng looked at his watch. “Xiao Tang, come up and have breakfast before you go; by the time you get home, you’ll be starving.”

Song Xiao frowned and was about to decline when Yu Tang agreed. “Then I’ll be troubling you.”

While Song Zicheng walked in the front, Yu Tang sneakily held Song Xiao’s hand in the back. Song Xiao tried to shake him off, but to no avail; this fellow’s grip was damn tight.

“My dad will see in a minute!” Song Xiao quietly warned him.

“If he does, then it’s just right for me to propose marriage.” Yu Tang blew air into Song Xiao’s ear.

Song Zicheng had been up the entire night, and he wasn’t in too good a frame of mind. However, he still persevered and had breakfast with the two children before he finally went upstairs to sleep.

Yu Tang followed Song Xiao to his room, and looked around his empress’s ‘lady’s chambers’. The two of them played games for a while before Auntie Chen called them down to the living room to eat apples.

The TV was currently playing entertainment news, and Auntie Chen’s eyes were glued to the screen.

“A few days ago, Zhuo Jingjing revealed that Xinghai Entertainment wants to freeze her. A lot of fans were extremely sympathetic, and accused Xinghai Entertainment of treating their artists too harshly. Xinghai Entertainment continued to remain silent on whether or not this was the case. However, Xinghai Entertainment finally reacted yesterday. Our report on that, coming up.” This was an entertainment news program with considerably high ratings, which only aired on Saturday afternoons and Sunday nights. It could be said to be the weathervane of the entertainment circle.

“Regarding Miss Zhuo’s press conference, the company’s senior executives had no intention of blocking Miss Zhuo.” Standing before the cameras, the spokesperson of Xinghai Entertainment calmly said, “Suspending Miss Zhuo’s activities was because she herself claimed that she was pregnant and needed rest, before she requested of her own accord to participate in film promotions…”

After a round of box office success for ‘Pink Winter’, Xinghai Entertainment finally went on the counterattack. First, they published information on the internet and in the papers, revealing that Zhuo Jingjing had used her pregnancy to try and create a scandal with a company executive and swindle him into marrying her.

Zhuo Jingjing had previously claimed that she was pregnant and said that she was preparing to wed Mr. Song. Comparing that with her tearful complaints later, one would notice that she deliberately avoided anything to do with her pregnancy, and only said that the company was bullying her.

While everyone suddenly saw the light, Xinghai Entertainment’s official statement was that they had no intention of freezing Zhuo Jingjing before, and that it was all a complete farce directed and acted out by Zhuo Jingjing herself.

“Why did she do that?” Song Xiao frowned. Slandering her employer and splashing dirty water on Xinghai Entertainment – how did that benefit her?

Yu Tang sneered. Why? It was just that Zhuo Jingjing felt that she could no longer get along with Xinghai Entertainment, and wanted to switch companies. But Yu Dan, that person, wasn’t as reliable as Song Zicheng, and Zhuo Jingjing made a bad move.

Song Zicheng had worked through the night yesterday precisely to vet the draft of the PR statement. Zhuo Jingjing had thoroughly infuriated him this time. This was no longer as simple a matter as freezing her – he wanted to make enough of a profit, then destroy her!

A stone stirred thousands of waves. Everyone was baffled after Xinghai Entertainment’s response. Dodging left and punching right; what was Zhuo Jingjing’s aim?

Very soon, an insider revealed online that Zhuo Jingjing really had been pregnant, but the child was gone.

“That day, I was at Dayu Maternity Hospital, and I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure. Now that I think about it, that was definitely Zhuo Jingjing!”

“Zhuo Jingjing has habitual abortions; everyone in the circle knows this. Otherwise, how do you guys think an actress with bit roles can become a popular huadan?”

“LS, please bare all!”

“Second poster seems to be an insider, please bare all!”

A water army spread the word on social media and news message boards that because of Zhuo Jingjing’s habitual abortions, she failed in her fraudulent marriage scheme, and came out to work. Now that she wanted to switch companies, she stepped on her original employer and planned to use public opinion to refuse to pay the damages for a breach of contract. This sort of outrageous artist immediately became the target of everyone’s criticism.

What was more important was that Zhuo Jingjing started her career with the image of a fresh and pure maiden. With the sudden appearance of ‘habitual abortions’, just spreading this news was basically enough to destroy her image, regardless of whether there was any evidence or not.

And Dayu Hospital, which was mentioned many times, seized the opportunity to do a soft sell as they inserted themselves into the hot topic posts on various forums.

【 Sister Wang, what should I do if I have an unplanned pregnancy? It’s fine, Dayu Maternity Hospital is your faithful companion. Operate today, go to work tomorrow!】

Currently, Ge and Jie nicknames were popular on the internet, such as Instant Noodle Ge, Lonesome Ge, Feng Jie, and so on. Zhuo Jingjing was also given a nickname, and called ‘Wang Jie’.

Baobao Notes

Lowkey, this became my fav chapter to date cuz of the sweet confession

I was missing for a few days cuz of Chinese New Year celebrations, tbh I thought I was gonna be really free but I ended up having multiple meetings with a bunch of friends coming back for the holidays