The start of Empress Wei's estrus began in the middle of the night, at wee hours before dawn.
He shouted and shouted, clutching his whole body and shivering. The older he got, the worse the effect of his heat cycle was.
His body was aching for something, and that something was to be marked.
But he resisted. Even as he smelled the scent of an Alpha coming through from one-fifth of a li away.
As the Emperor forced the door open, he saw his spouse lying on the floor with another man embracing him, and immediately had the urge to kill---
But his eyes cleared once he saw it was a Yin. The Yin scholar.
He's not a threat. He will never be a threat.
Two magnets of the same poles could not stick together. They needed to be opposites.
He just calmly went by his Empress' side, squatting down in front him. But the Yin man pulled the Empress closer to himself and away from him.
"The Empress is still unwell. If you force him he may die." He said cooly.
Emperor Zau just sneered bitterly. "I know that."
He touched Wei Wangyi's hair and brought it to his lips, inhaling the sweet scent and wanting to absorb every single bit of it. It permeated to his cells itself, going through his brains as chemical-induced impulses.
But his fear of losing Wei Wangyi had stopped him from reacting to this impulses, and he stood up to leave.
"He's seeking the embrace of a Yang, yours will be insufficient. I'll have a servant bring some of my unwashed clothes here."
The way he said 'insufficient' had much emphasis, accompanied with a quirk to his lips.
Ren Jidian wanted to punch him and slam a rock to his head right then and there.
The bastard emperor left, and a little while later, a servant came with the clothes. Ren Jidian looked at them with disgust, but Empress Wei seemed to be drawn to them, reaching out with shaky hands but also repulsed by his own desires.
"I don't want..... Get that away from me....." He said, yet his eyes said otherwise as they continued to dart towards these clothes.
Ren Jidian had a look of pain in his eyes seeing him this way, and told the servant:
"Place those clothes on the corner over there. Leave us be."
The servant left, and Gou Zhongcheng entered.
"Is there anything that can make him feel better without resolving to using a Yang's possessions?" The guard asked him. "Some kind of herbal potion or medicine perhaps."
Ren Jidian shook his head somberly. "I know things that can ease the pain, but it won't stop the ache from coming back. The other kind of ache."
Empress Wei clutched on his sleeves. "Scholar Ren.... Can I ask you something that may cause you to hate me?"
The two of them looked at the Empress with wide eyes when he mumbled this.
He buried his head on his neck. "I just can't take it anymore... Please... I'm sorry, but I need your help... I need you..."
"W-What do you mean, Empress?" Ren Jidian frowned, hugging him tighter. "I can never hate you."
"Then.... Those clothes....."
Gou Zhongcheng seemed to have realized faster than the scholar can, and stood up. "I'll make sure no one comes within 45 chi from the manor. Take all the time you need."
Ren Jidian was confused by this, but Gou Zhongcheng picked up the Emperor's clothes and gave him a meaningful look.
Even someone as dense as Ren Jidian can piece together what this meant.
As Gou Zhongcheng left, he let go of the Empress.
He stood up, Yang clothes in hand, his eyes restless and his breathing heavy.
"Empress... Do you mean that you want me to....."
Empress Wei nodded, face full of tears. "It's better than the alternative... Please.... Just a release would be enough..."
Ren Jidian was aghast. "A release? But I can't do something like that to you without meaning anything----"
"I know. You're a good man, Ren Guang." Empress Wei hugged his legs. "That's why I really apologize for asking you to do this... I'm so sorry... But I can't stand it..."
Ren Jidian did not speak for a while.
Then, he went to open the door in between his and the Empress room, entered it and closed it with a bang!
The Empress was shook by this, and immediately flung himself to the door, desperately knocking on it.
"Scholar Ren, please! Just come back! I shouldn't have said anything!" He cried.
"I'd rather have you by my side! I'm sorry for having no shame to tell you that! Please, come back!"
He had angered him. Empress Wei did not want to anger him at all, he was all he had.
"Ren Guang, come back! Please----"
The door swung open again.
There he was. Scholar Ren was back, a conflicted expression on his face...
Wearing clothes far too big for him, the sleeves about to droop down on his small body.
"I must look terrible." He said, adjusting the collar and pulling it up. "The stink of this is..... ugh! But other than that, I liked the clothes far more than the wearer."
"Ren Guang, you....."
Empress Wei just blinked while still on the floor, looking terribly haggard.
He choked on sobs. "You're not mad at me?"
Ren Jidian sighed, kneeling in front of him.
"How can I ever be mad about something beyond your control, Empress? In fact, I don't think I can be mad at you at all for too long."
He wiped the Empress' tears away with his hands wearing oversized sleeves. "Maybe for a couple of minutes, maybe hours, but I can't bear a grudge on you for a whole day."
"You...."
He couldn't help it. Maybe his emotions were heightened due to the hormones, maybe it was the clothes that drew him in.
Or maybe he just really wanted to.
But he reached out and kissed Ren Jidian.
Not delicately, not gently. It was a very desperate kiss that clung on to his lips like it was afraid of letting go at all.
It was like if the Empress did not kiss him, he would die.
Ren Jidian found himself melting from such a kiss.
As the Empress let go, he caressed his face and asked in a hushed tone. "Should I turn off the lights?"
The Empress weakly nodded, and he clung on to Ren Jidian sniffing on these clothes. He seemed to have been comforted by just the smell of them.
And since it was the scholar wearing them, he wasn't that much repulsed by the idea of seeking comfort from them.
Ren Jidian walked over to the lamps with the Empress still clinging on to him, and blew off the fire within them.
The manor was succumbed to utter darkness.
"Scholar Ren... Where are you? Where's your face?"
He felt the Empress feel around him, and he shivered, maybe from the cold of the night without any lamps to heat it up.....
Or maybe from the coldness of his fingers.
"Right here, Empress." He guided the hands towards the side of his face.
"Scholar Ren... You don't have to do this if you don't want to..... I....."
Ren Jidian just found his waist and pulled him closer, kissing him just as fervently as the Empress kissed him.
"As we do this... Here in the dark... Will you imagine me as the Emperor?" He asked, with a slightly sad tone.
The Empress was baffled by this question. "Of course not, he's a disgusting, cruel demon---"
"I meant his appearance. His body. When we do this... Will you imagine me as a Yang?"
After all, that must be the only way the Empress can stomach spending a night with him. An Omega or Yin like him.
The Empress did not answer for a while.
He heard shuffling, as he undressed himself. Ren Jidian ached to see it, but knew he must not be greedy.
After all, they were sleeping together to relieve the pain of his heat. It means nothing else than that.
The Empress took his hands and guided him to touch all over him. Ren Jidian felt the curve of his neck, his shoulders, his slender arms, his back, his chest...
He faltered at this part, and gave them a little squeeze.
"Ah...." The Empress moaned so softly, it almost sounded shy.
He pinched the two round protrusions, fiddling with them as he moved close to kiss the Wei Wangyi's neck.
"Mn.... You..... Hah....."
"Empress Wei." Ren Jidian whispered to his ear. "Is there someone that you like, someone that you ache to be with?"
The Empress blinked at this question, and Ren Jidian can imagine his soft eyelashes fluttering like butterflies as he did so.
Ren Jidian continued, still speaking and breathing right next to his ear. "I know that because of being abused by that tyrant for so long, you must have been accustomed to fearing every Yang. But I can't just assume things about you. I can only ask."
"Have you never fallen in love with a Yang at all? Or anyone?"
Empress Wei clutched on to his shoulder, grabbing on to that thick cloth. He answered softly.
"No. Never in this life. I don't even know what love means for that matter."
Ren Jidian nodded. "And do you not want to love at all?"
"I don't... know. I dream of it before things have turned for the worst. Dreamt of someone to take me away from this kingdom and bring me back to Pei."
"And is this person you imagined..... A Yang?"
Ren Jidian asked with a manner of politeness that was too polite that the Empress hated it.
"Scholar Ren. Listen to me." He cusped both sides of his face. "What I have imagined before had nothing to do with the present. That savior I dreamed about is not here."
"But you're here. With me. And that's what matters."
He kissed him once more, as if to comfort him.
But instead of returning the kiss, Ren Jidan clutched his wrist and pinned him down!
"Scholar Ren..... You....."
Ren Jidian had quickly undressed him, but his expression and his tone was calm. He raised the thick, oversized robes he was wearing, and lowered his undergarments inside.
Empress Wei felt him press on top of him, and the scholar raised those legs up in the air with no hesitation.
He whispered to the Empress' ear. "Thank you for trying to comfort me, Your Majesty."
"But that doesn't change the fact that I wasn't the man of your dreams."