Chapter 118: Don''t be rejected on your wedding day


    Xi Zirui barely has any reaction to Ni Ni''s words, his brain having trouble making sense of what ''carrying someone''s children'' entails for him.


    He feels a sudden urge to lower his hands down to his crotch and check if everything is still where it''s supposed to be, but the presence of three women makes him feel self-conscious.


    Those three women, however, take advantage of his disorientation to push him down into a cushion in front of a low vanity.


    Bai Mi picks at hisnk strands of his hair with a grimace. "He doesn''t look like much."


    His reflection is familiar, the same humid eyes, prone to growing red-rimmed, the same beauty mark under his left eye, the same full upper lip.


    The sole ring difference are the stubby light orange jade horns springing up from his forehead, close to his hairline.


    On reflex, his hands fly upwards to touch them and Xi Zirui notices the iridescent orange scales running down the back of his fingers all the way to the second knuckle.


    Liao Min''s face shows up over his shoulder on the mirror, giving him an appraising look. "I think he looks decent, for a male."


    Xi Zirui gives her an outraged look.


    Bai Mi sighs. "We''re not the ones who have to like him, let''s just hope that my cousin can be persuaded to marry, this time."


    "By the grace of the ancestors, it will be so," Li Siqi says, bowing her head solemnly.


    Xi Zirui gives his reflection another perplexed look.


    ---


    He spends the next two hours having his hair painstakingly dried andbed by the three women as they fuss over him.


    The upper half of his hair is bound up in a high pony tail on top of his hair, while the lower half is let loose over his shoulders,bed and oiled until it gleams under the refracted sunlight filtering in through the wax paper window panes.


    Bai Mi paints a lotus beauty mark above his eyebrows with red cinnabar, and darkens his eyebrows with coal.


    "He''s starting to look presentable," she says with an appreciative look.


    "Again, I''m right here, and my name is Xi Zirui," he says, pulling away from Bai Mi''s attempts to stick a gold hairpin in his hair.


    Bai Mi ignores him and applies some cinnabar powder to the corners of his eyes, after fixing the hairpin in ce.


    "There," she says, tilting her body backwards to appreciate the full picture.


    One of her maids approaches Bai Mi with her head lowered and a red veil with gold brocade folded between her extended arms.


    Bai Mi takes the veil and lowers it over Xi Zirui''s head, submerging the world in hazy tones of indistinct read.


    "Listen to me," Bai Mi says, her tone stern. "You''re going to marry my cousin, after my uncle''s death he''s now the heir to our n and he must produce a heir of his own, whether he wants it or not."


    The downwards swoop of her eyebrows brooks no room for argument.


    Her keen eyes narrow on him. "ording to our information, you are fertile and your kind has been historically able to bear dragon young to term."


    Xi Zirui''s brain screeches like a scratched record every time the issue of pregnancy is brought up.


    He still can''t believe that''s a thing.


    The sheer idea of it makes his heart stutter and his palms turn sweaty.


    Bai Mi frowns a little at Xi Zirui''sck of reaction. "If my cousin agrees to marry you, and you manage to carry at least one child to term, your n will be rewarded."


    Interesting, considering Xi Zirui has been kidnapped and is being forced -- from Bai Mi''s perspective -- into marriage with aplete stranger.


    "If you have anything to say about the marriage, it''s best if you speak now."


    Xi Zirui is actually thrilled about marrying Han Yu, finally.


    He''s not thrilled about getting pregnant, but he can work on that.


    "I have nothing to say," Xi Zirui says, trying not to sound too eager either.


    People about to be forced into a marriage against their will aren''t usually enthusiastic about the proceedings.


    Bai Mi rises to her feet and Li Siqi and Liao Min rush to nk her.


    "Very well," she says giving Xi Zirui an essing look. "You can follow the maids into the bridal chamber."


    What? Are he and Han Yu supposed to get married without an audience?


    Ni Ni chimes, "Things are, uhm, a little different in this world."


    Yeah, no shit.


    Xi Zirui follows after the two silent maids, and meanwhile silently admonishes Ni Ni to tell him everything she knows.


    ---


    He''s left alone to wait in avishly appointed room,pletely decorated in shades of red, and brocade dragons soaring through red skies, sometimes twirled around each other in ways that leave little to the imagination.


    Xi Zirui sits in the middle of the room, in front of the bed, with his palms over his knees trying not to let his nerves eat at him.


    "Host has probably realized that men can get pregnant in this world," Ni Ni starts, tentatively, as if she is afraid Xi Zirui might start screaming at her any moment now. "Well when ites to spirit animals, there are qianjun who can get others pregnant, and pass on the lineage of their n, and there are kunjun who can bear young. This is actually unrted to gender. For instance, Bai Mi is a qianjun, like Han Yu."


    Seahorses. That''s what Xi Zirui tells himself to make sense of what Ni Ni is telling him.


    Except she''s not done.


    "Spirit animals are immortal, and can live for a long time, which is useful, considering it is extremely hard for them to reproduce due to the reduced number of qianjun and kunjun."


    That exins Bai Mi''s desperation, but not why he, who is apparently a carp, can have uh... a dragon''s babies.


    "Kunjun are even rarer than qianjun, and extremely valuable, as they can bear the young of other species besides their own, ording to certainpatibility requirements."


    So that''s what the original is, a kunjun?


    Ni Ni chimes in agreement. "Yes, there haven''t been any kunjun born in the Coiled Dragon n in ages, which is why Bai Mi has been trying to find a spouse for Han Yu from other ns."


    Without much sess it seems.


    Maybe it would help if they weren''t kidnapped.


    "Oh no, that''s tradition," Ni Ni says. "Although usually it''s the qianjun kidnapping the kunjun they want to marry, and not their rtives. A kunjun would be extremely offended if they weren''t kidnapped on their wedding day."


    What a sane and normal thing to look forward to!


    Xi Zirui is afraid of what other lovely traditions this bizarre society has.


    Ni Ni chimes but before she can fill him in the doors of the room fly open with a bang as multiple people push Han Yu into the room, and then lock the door behind him.


    He''s wearing a red robe, simr to Xi Zirui''s, and his hair is tightened with a matching gold hairpin.


    As soon as the doors close behind him he immediately starts mming his fists against the wooden panels. "I''m not going to marry anyone, besides the one I love. Let me out at once!"


    He gets no response, but that doesn''t stop his efforts.


    Ah, so that''s why he doesn''t want to marry.


    It leaves a bitter feeling in Xi Zirui''s stomach, like a meal gone sour.


    The idea of Han Yu loving anyone besides him is revolting.


    He gets up to his feet and makes his way towards the door, pulling the veil down his face. "Your Highness, please don''t hurt yourself."


    Han Yu turns around as if to dismiss him, butes to a standstill when his gazends on Xi Zirui.


    Xi Zirui also bes enraptured by the sight of him. By his sleek ck hair, spilling down his chest like a curtain of silk, his high cheekbones cut from jade, softened by the soft pillow of his red lips and the thickshes framing his eyes.


    Even the antler-like pale red jade horns sprouting from his hairline seem to add to his beauty.


    When their eyes meet, Xi Zirui wonders if it''s recognition that makes Han Yu''s eyes widen like that.


    A fraction of a secondter Han Yu''s eyebrows knit above his limpid eyes in a frown.


    "They''ve gone too far this time," he says, his voice rumbling through his chest.


    Xi Zirui thinks that perhaps it''s not recognition shining in Han Yu''s eyes, after all.


    He advances towards Xi Zirui with a thunderous expression on his eyes and wraps one broad hand around his jawbone, using his strong grip to turn Xi Zirui''s head this way and that.


    "How did they do it? Howe you look so much like him despite not being a human?" Han Yu asks, even as his eyes shine with fierce outrage, there''s a quiet wounded note to his voice.


    Xi Zirui thinks he might know what''s going on here, and the irony of it all might just kill him.


    ---


    In China there are different terms for alpha and omega, especially when they happen in ancient settings, which I really like, so I''m using them here.


    qianjun - alpha


    kunjun- omega