I’m the Ball He Ran Away With

Xie Ning had known since childhood that he was different from other people. Everyone else had one father and one mother, but he had two fathers.

Only, he had never met his other father.

He went to ask his dad, who answered with a perfectly serious expression:

His other father lived in the biggest house in the entire capital, and probably wouldn't like a child who couldn't even recite the multiplication tables.

Hmph!

Xie Ning knew his dad had to be lying.

He had secretly asked around. The other children at school hadn't even heard of the multiplication tables.

He had assumed there'd be no chance to meet his other father.

But one day, his dad suddenly had to go away for a while.

So he had no choice but to send Xie Ning to the capital to stay with his other father.

Xie Ning: !

Xie Ning was excited, but... but he still hadn't learned the multiplication tables.

(Dad's point of view)

After transmigrating to ancient times, Xie Qingci accidentally fell in love with Xiao Teng, the Crown Prince of the current dynasty.

He got to build a career while falling in love. What could be better?

Then one day, he discovered he was pregnant. Xie Qingci stared in shock. "What?!"

No one had told him that men could get pregnant in this world!

And so began his escape while pregnant.

Just as life was getting comfortable, the System told him he had to go to other worlds to complete missions and work off his debt.

The System had helped him a lot back then, so Xie Qingci had no choice but to accept.

But no matter how he looked at it, the person he was most worried about leaving behind was Xie Ning. He couldn't trust anyone else with him.

Then he suddenly remembered Xie Ning's other father.

He was now the reigning emperor.

Well, whatever else he might be, he was the boy's biological father. Surely he wouldn't just abandon him.

There was no time to lose, so Xie Qingci had to ask a friend to escort Xie Ning all the way to the capital.

He thought he'd explained everything, but forgot that Xie Ning was an utter blockhead.

The road to finding his father would be a bumpy one.

Reader's Guide:

1. The main story is told from Xie Ning's point of view, and includes mistaken-identity scenes involving his father. The romance between his two fathers will be written.

2. Expanded from a short story I wrote for a monthly subscription a few years ago. Some details have changed; this version takes precedence.

3. Xie Ning has a love interest, but his romance won't begin until he's an adult.

▶ Upcoming historical BL novel: I Shall Remonstrate to the Death!!!, blurb:

During finals week, college student Xi He stayed up all night reading a badly ended novel. The next moment, he died suddenly and transmigrated into the body of a cannon fodder character with the same name.

The protagonist of the book, Xie Changling, was an unloved prince sent to the enemy nation as a hostage when he was very young.

He endured endless suffering.

After years of swallowing his humiliation, he eventually killed his father and brothers and seized the throne, becoming an utterly ruthless tyrant.

The tyrant never cared about governing. He attended court only when he felt like it, and casually ordered executions, leaving everyone at court on edge.

A few years later, the enemy nation annexed his country, and he became the ruler of a fallen dynasty.

Xi He's task was to change the course of his country's downfall.

"...Isn't that asking a bit much?"

Fortunately, the System gave him a golden finger: he and the tyrant would share sensations.

In short, if he hurt, the tyrant would hurt too. If he died, the tyrant would die with him.

So Xi He embarked on a path of remonstrating to the death, treating life and death as trivial.

When the tyrant wanted to exile upright officials, Xi He said, "Your Majesty, I shall remonstrate to the death!"

When the tyrant wanted to use the treasury to build himself a mausoleum, Xi He said, "Your Majesty, I shall remonstrate to the death!!"

In a fit of rage, Xie Changling grabbed his sword and tried to kill Xi He.

Xi He ran circles around a pillar, shouting, "Your Majesty, think this through!!!"

The ministers present couldn't help but sweat for Xi He, stunned by his audacity.

Just as everyone assumed Xi He wouldn't live much longer,

three days later, he was still in one piece and back at court.

Three months later, he was visiting the palace more and more often and had become a close confidant of the emperor.

Much later, Xie Changling went on a pleasure-seeking binge and missed court for several days in a row.

Xi He reached out from under the covers, his voice hoarse. "Your Majesty, I shall die... Mmph..."

But Xie Changling silenced him.

A minister who kept shouting about remonstrating to the death but was actually afraid to die x a tyrant who had no desire to live but kept going anyway.

Theme: Whatever you face, meet it head-on.