I Only Learned He Was the Crown Prince After Running Away While Pregnant

[My next story will be "I Was Born by My Imperial Father Himself". Please add it to your reading list~] Several months ago, the newly appointed prefect of Yangzhou allowed his brother-in-law to bully men and women and oppressed local merchants. Gu Yanling’s family was a wealthy merchant clan, so they bore the brunt of the plunder. It wasn’t just that. When his father went to call on the prefect, he was subjected to every kind of humiliation. Gu Yanling had always thrown his weight around in Yangzhou and had never suffered such an indignity. This was going too far! He had no way to punish them, until he saw the prefect groveling and fawning over a handsome, aloof man with an extraordinary air. This man had to be an important figure from the capital. Damn it! He should have passed the imperial exams and risen to the highest office, then had this dog of an official, who bullied his inferiors and groveled to his superiors, executed! Executed! Then he remembered his teacher’s assessment of his essays: they stank to high heaven. Gu Yanling: … Haha, getting into the highest office would be ten thousand times harder than sleeping with a man and whispering in his ear until he had the corrupt official beheaded… Wait! Whispering in his ear? The next day, Gu Yanling disguised himself with an utterly plain face and sneaked into the man’s residence as a servant. Even if he couldn’t whisper in the man’s ear, he would become his most favored servant! Day after day, he played the sweet, obedient servant, “Young Master this” and “Young Master that,” doing everything he could to flirt with the man. · Hu Jiawei was the Yangzhou prefect’s brother-in-law. Everyone fawned over him and catered to his every whim. At a restaurant, however, a plain-looking young man splashed wine all over him. Before Hu Jiawei could even get angry, the boy put his hands on his hips, glared, and loudly demanded, “You blind, conscienceless wretch! How dare you knock over your grandpa’s wine!” Then he turned and ran. Hu Jiawei led his thugs after him, shouting, “I’ll skin you alive today, and then you’ll know who’s in charge of Yangzhou!” As he finished speaking, he saw the important man his brother-in-law had been groveling to standing right there. The boy put on a pitiful expression and twisted the truth. “Young Master, save me! I only spilled a little wine on him, and he threatened to beat me and skin me alive!” Hu Jiawei: …??? The lofty figure who never even looked his brother-in-law in the eye actually took the boy’s words to heart. His icy gaze pinned Hu Jiawei in place, and Hu’s knees gave way as sweat soaked through his clothes. Petitions detailing the prefect’s crimes flooded the important man’s desk like snowflakes. Before long, the prefect was dismissed and investigated, and his lawless brother-in-law was thrown into prison along with him. The people of Yangzhou cheered and applauded. Gu Yanling was about to make his exit after accomplishing his goal, but unexpectedly, the man wanted to marry him. Gu Yanling: ??? No need, no need! We only slept together a few times. You really don’t have to take responsibility! Afraid the man would learn the truth, Gu Yanling fled Yangzhou overnight. Four months later, he looked down at his slightly rounded belly. Gu Yanling: ? After taking his pulse… ??? He was pregnant! He was a man! How could he be pregnant?! · The current Crown Prince, Xiao Xinghan, had always been restrained and proper, with few desires. While recuperating in Yangzhou, he was relentlessly pursued and seduced by an insolent servant who didn’t know his place. At first, he watched coldly, wondering where someone so plain got his confidence. But day after day, faced with the scheming and sly cleverness beneath that obedient facade, he found himself unable to resist… falling for him. He accepted defeat. He only wanted to take the man to the capital and ask his father for permission to name him Crown Princess. He was ready to defy the opposition, but the man he had been kissing and holding close just the night before had disappeared the next day. He searched all of Yangzhou, but the man had vanished without a trace. Until he saw someone in the capital, riding past with a lively crowd around him, sporting a radiant face and an expression, every frown and smile, so like the person he had searched for all this time. · Gu Yanling’s father had built a huge business. The whole family moved to the capital and lived a life of comfort. Who would have thought the man he’d once seduced was the Crown Prince himself? And then, by pure chance, he ran into him right on the street and was forcibly brought before His Highness the Crown Prince. Gu Yanling tried to keep his composure. The Crown Prince’s gaze was appraising. “You look very much like my late wife.” Gu Yanling put on an innocent expression. “Your Highness, you must be joking. Everyone in the capital knows you’ve never married. The position of Crown Princess is still vacant.” The other man’s voice turned dangerous. “The way you speak makes you look even more like him.” Gu Yanling: … Oh no, he was doomed. He would never admit that he was the one who had deceived and toyed with the Crown Prince before walking away. And he absolutely couldn’t let the Crown Prince know he had also given birth to a little prince! An alternate historical setting, older gong and younger shou, one-to-one romance, just the two of them, sweet romance. * My next story will be "I Was Born by My Imperial Father Himself", a historical BL story about raising a child, with a beloved little prince. Please add it to your reading list~ Blurb Xie Huining had known since he was in the womb that he was the luckiest person in the world. He was born from the belly of the most esteemed emperor in the land, a singular honor. The moment he was born, he was named Crown Prince. His Imperial Father had no one in his harem, so he didn’t have to worry about brothers fighting for the throne. On top of that, the man who had spent a passionate night with his Imperial Father was the tyrant of a neighboring kingdom. Apparently, the tyrant’s harem was empty too. Hehe, he really was lucky. Unless something unexpected happened, he’d inherit the thrones of two kingdoms! Of course, at the moment he was only a three-year-old child, rampaging through the imperial palace. Everyone trembled in fear wherever he went, from the ministers at court to the ants on the ground. His Imperial Father was at his wits’ end, so he arranged a young nobleman as his study companion and had the Crown Prince’s tutor teach him ahead of schedule. He hadn’t studied for even half a month before the little Crown Prince started grabbing his cheeks and demanding to write a letter to his tyrant father, asking him to take him to the neighboring kingdom. He didn’t want to study another day! The letter was never sent. Xie Jiao looked at his son’s crooked writing and couldn’t make out what it said even after a long examination. It was clear the boy needed to study properly. Two couples: the child and his childhood friend, and the Imperial Father and the tyrant. Theme: Be sincere in matters of the heart