A few days went by and Wang Chang was sleeping when he felt an ominous presence beside the bed. He opened his eyes and saw a young man staring at him.
His eyes were sharp and a certain aura radiated from his body. Wang Chang's baby body's instincts screamed. In this situation, a baby would normally cry, but an old man like him only felt intimidated.
"Jiayi, this is your father."
The Empress' voice came from beside Wang Chang.
At the reveal, Wang Chang's eyes widened and the intimidation disappeared. All he could see was the nervous eyes of a father who was unsure how to react to his newborn son.
"Jiayi… The auspicious one. Empress, you picked a good name."
"Naturally as my son, he needed a name of the same level as mine; Jin Xingjuan."
"With my name of Jin Yang, I must not have gotten the qualifications to marry the Empress."
Jin Yang ruefully smiled. His name simply meant the Sun.
"You and I are already married."
The empress rolled her eyes.
Wang Chang watched the banter between the two in silence.
Why does he keep calling her Empress?
Wang Chang didn't understand the intricacy of imperial politics. Someone else familiar here would understand that Jin Yang married into the imperial family. He had no imperial blood so he was not at the same level as the Empress.
"Carry Jiayi with you. I shall go out for a walk."
The Empress lifted Jin Jiayi to his father's embrace.
Jin Yang took him carefully and hugged him in his chest. A smile couldn't help but come out of his face as he wallowed in happiness.
The Empress stood up from the bed and motioned for the maid-servants to come near her.
After a dozen minutes, she finished changing into an imperial dress. Gold threads formed the fabric and silver was embroidered to form the word Jin at the front.
The dress flowed like a waterfall and slid along the floor. It was vastly oversized for the Empress' body, but it gave her an intimidating and serious presence.
Jin Yang was still stunned to hold his own son.
Meanwhile, Wang Chang stopped focusing on his father and stared at his mother dressed in her imperial dress. She had an entirely different aura from what he was familiar with.
"Go. I shall meet your entourage and receive information about the conquest."
Even her words were colder and more distant than before. Wang Chang felt alienated at the sudden change.
The Empress noticed his gaze and smiled, filled with motherly warmth.
Wang Chang gulped. She was still his mother, but her aura was so much different. She seemed unapproachable.
"Jiayi~ Are you surprised about my change?"
Those same words came out of her mouth. The unapproachable feeling disappeared and Wang Chang smiled. He felt at ease now that she talked as she used to.
His baby body was surprisingly sensitive to such a change.
"Hehe."
The Empress giggled, and it immediately disappeared and was replaced by a poker face.
Wang Chang watched as she left.
"Let's have a date tonight as a family, Empress," Jin Yang uttered before she could leave the room.
"I will make time."
After taking a short pause and answering, the Empress disappeared behind the closing doors.
"That's your mother, Jiayi. She is the Empress for a good reason. I… thought I would be able to gather my power and become the true Emperor, but she never gave me a chance. My flaw with politics must be why she chose me. The only things I'm good at are war and battles. Sigh. What am I doing talking to a baby?"
Midway in his words, Jin Yang realized he had been talking to a baby. He smiled at Jin Jiayi and carried him out of the room.
The Empress Jin Xingjuan is my mother, and she is an empress for a good reason…
Wang Chang thought about Jin Yang's words. He was grateful for the information as it helped him get a clearer sense of the situation he found himself in.
The more he thought about it, the harder it was to reconcile the image of his mother and the empress mode he glimpsed earlier. In his experience, she was a loving mother who appreciated her servants.
She showed me a side befitting a mother. She is a good mother who knows how to act in certain situations.
He learned more about his mother. Even though he did, Wang Chang felt that the closing distance between him and his mother suddenly grew wider. He frowned and stared at the hallway outside.
Jin Yang carried him in his arms. The guards would see him and immediately salute him even if he was still far away.
Wang Chang guessed that the rank of his father must be quite high. He thought back to his mother's words mentioning that his father was conquering the Wen Kingdom.
Because of his lack of information, he thought that it was a figure of speech from her, but after today, he wouldn't be surprised if he truly led an army to conquer a kingdom. Wang Chang pursed his lips and subtly glanced at his father.
He didn't seem to notice his mixed emotions as he stared straight ahead.
Wang Chang didn't know where they were going.
A few minutes later, they walked out of the palace. A tree extended its canopy over a large area. Under it were smaller trees that produced mangoes. The green leaves rustled with the wind and formed a picturesque image.
Lining along the path to the large tree were smaller flowers.
"This is the garden, Jiayi. I met your mother here."
Jin Yang carried Jin Jiayi along the small mango trees and stopped beside the trunk of the large tree.
"She was sitting cross-legged under this bodhi tree. Swirls of spiritual energy flew above her head like a crown. It was a coincidence I saw her, and I was entranced."
Jin Yang's eyes clouded with the past. He stared at a spot near the tree. Those eyes were filled with love and seemed to pierce through time and see that exact moment.
Wang Chang watched and listened in silence. He couldn't help but remember Luo Nuying. He didn't notice the strange words his father had said either.
When he met her, it was under a tree too. However, she was standing and gazing into the distance, in a certain direction.
Could it be that she was looking towards her hometown back then?
Sadness filled Wang Chang's heart. After knowing with certainty that she was a cultivator, he realized he didn't know her as much as she let on.
"Your mother noticed me. She glared at me and I thought I was dead, but luck would have it that a servant ran to her about an emergency."
Jin Yang didn't seem to care whether Wang Chang understood him or not. His emotions poured out, and he remembered the past.
Did she know I was looking at her back then, too?
Wang Chang didn't talk to Luo Nuying when he saw her under the tree. At that time, he was a young man hoping to migrate to the city. He was carrying wood on his back and left a few minutes later.
"Hahaha. Then we met a few more times after that. I will tell you more, s-son."
Jin Yang looked down at the sad Wang Chang and felt unfamiliar with calling a baby his son.
Jin Yang smiled mirthfully and shook his head. He caught himself talking to his one-month-old son again. Knowing that he wouldn't understand made him let down his guard.
Then after the garden, he gave Jin Jiayi a tour of the imperial palace.
The Imperial Chambers consisted of several rooms for the imperial family. It used to be filled with women from the previous Emperor's harem, but it was now mostly empty.
He then took Jin Jiayi to the Servant Chambers. There were many rooms, and they were relatively spacious compared to a normal room in Wang Chang's village.
There were expensive decorations on the walls. They were severely below the level of the Empress' room, but they still fell under the "wealthy" category in Wang Chang's mind.
The more he saw, the more Wang Chang realized his poor lifestyle in his past life.
Why did a cultivator go to my village? Was she on a mission?
Wang Chang was left wondering about his wife's intention. He faintly guessed that Luo Nuying would be a powerful cultivator since she was able to influence his reincarnation.
And by extension, she must also be rich. He had heard from his friends who frequented the city that cultivators were guaranteed to be wealthy with gold.
"Let's go back to the garden and rest."
Jin Yang took him to the garden once more. When they arrived, he smiled and sat under the bodhi tree with Jin Jiayi in his arms.
"Are you sleepy, Jiayi?" he asked.
At the mention of sleep, Wang Chang's eyelids felt heavy. The sadness and lovesickness in his heart quickly brought Wang Chang into dreamland.
"Oh, he fell asleep."
Jin Yang chuckled.