They kneeled down reverently in front of Shenma, and placed the incense sticks in front as they prayed.
Ren Jidian did not like the idea of Shenma very much. He was not really religious, but he does respect all beliefs. It just irks him...
That someone would be forced to only be glorified and revered for their capability to make new people. Their only purpose and feature was that they made many children, and that was it.
The stories never celebrated Shenma much outside of his conception. In fact, they rarely even show him interacting with his children or being a major influence on letting them grow into noble people.
It was his husband Daqiang who takes the credit for training them. They were mostly Yangs too, of course.
He was the eternally pregnant man. That was all he was.
But Wei Wangyi was praying to him ceaselessly, and so, he did not share these thoughts out loud. He doesn't want to offend a god either, who knows what this might do to him as a character in a story.
He just watched Wei Wangyi whose eyes were closed. The smell of incense was in the air, mixing with Wei Wangyi's own sweet smell.
Even as a Yin/Omega, his pheromones were powerful and very alluring. This was why Ren Jidian was always fearful for him.
Yangs couldn't resist him. Even he could not resist him, finding that scent very tempting.
When Wei Wangyi opened his eyes, it felt so soft like velvet drapes slowly opening to reveal his captivating eyes.
"What did you pray for, Scholar Ren? Are you done praying?"
Ren Jidian cleared his throat. "Ah.... Yes. I prayed..."
"I prayed never to bear children. In case someone takes advantage of me, I hope I become infertile, and it does not bear fruit."
Wei Wangyi chuckled at this. "Such a strange thing to pray to a god of childbirth, don't you think?"
He then pats his head. "But I understand you. I also prayed for the same thing. In case all failed..... I do not want to bear the Emperor any child. I would rather die."
Ren Jidian remembered something, and felt like this was his moment to ask.
"Empress Wei.... Had you ever wished to be a Yang?"
"Not in appearance, no." Empress Wei shook his head. "I quite like my appearance. I also realized that I liked....."
"I liked being subdued, receiving rather than giving. Because of you."
His face reddened at this, but he calmed himself down.
"But I..... I have read a story about this Yang man, who looked more like a Yin. He was beautiful, and his allure drew many people into him, no matter their gender. I do not know if this story was a real account.... or just the invention of someone's mind."
Ren Jidian nodded. "They do exists, Empress. Yang people who looked like Yins, and Yin people who looked like Yangs."
They call it in modern times A-esque and O-esque.
A-esque are Alpha-like Omegas, they were built muscular and tall yet still get pregnant and experience heat.
O-esque was just the reverse of that, petite and pretty but still an Alpha. Empress Wei was describing an O-esque man.
"Hmm..... I was caged for a long time in the Palace, so I never had much opportunity to meet one. But I want to be like that man." Empress Wei admitted. "So badly. I want to be a Yang who still looked like this."
Ren Jidian smiled, and patted his head. "I also understand that kind of yearning, but I do want to appear more like a Yang."
His gut feeling was right. Of course, Wei Wangyi was still Wei Sizhi after all.
Wei Sizhi also expressed that he wanted to transition to be an Alpha, just like him, but as a more O-esque type of Alpha.
Wei Sizhi would sigh and think that it was a pipe dream because of poverty.
"Medicine for that is expensive. It's a new and taboo science after all. Men can turn into women easily, as well as women turning into men....."
He would rant while they stare at the sunset as always over the bridge. Sipping on his can of sweet apple beer that never gets him drunk.
"But with Alphas turning into Omegas, and Omegas turning to Alphas, it's 'unethical'. It's abnormal. What a bunch of crap, don't you think?"
Ren Jidian would agree. "They would have to make surgeries with the glands too to change the type of pheromones we produce."
He listed down all that they needed to transform from O to A:
"We'll be taking hormones every month that suppress our heat cycles permanently. As well as those that could develop our muscles and increase our height, though they were barely enough so some opt for surgeries for that too."
"Get enlarged dicks with baculum, have our uterus taken away... The costs in total would have been millions and millions of yuan."
"70 billion yuan." Wei Sizhi estimated, as he was the smarter of the two when it comes to math.
Ren Jidian would sigh and sip his soda.
"Yeah, and that is if you can find a doctor or hospital willing to risk their reputation for that. It really doesn't make any sense why it's 100% okay for them to let people transition to the gender they want, but not the subgender."
Wei Sizhi shrugged. "That's because if an Alpha man suddenly becomes an Alpha woman, she can still impregnate. An Omega transman still gets pregnant. There is no threat to humanity's duty to repopulate."
"There's only a change when Betas do it, but the world rarely cares about Beta anymore. They have more freedom." Wei Sizhi rubbed his forehead. "I also won't mind just being a Beta man."
"Hmm. Same." Ren Jidian would lie.
Actually, he wanted the power of the Alphas too much to settle for being a Beta if given the choice. People may think he's being greedy and unrealistic.....
But he could only rely on imagination anyway. Why need to be realistic when you imagine something that may never happen?
Well, it could still happen.
He could potentially kill Huai Zhenji after their marriage, cover it up and get all his money.....
Then he'll have that 70 billion yuan he needed to be the Alpha he always wanted to be.
He just needed to not get touched by that filthy man and get pregnant in the process.