After the Cool and Aloof Imperial Preceptor Was Forced into a Marriage

Cool, aloof young Daoist who cares for the world, bottom x sinister, lovesick young emperor, top

Xuanyi’s master once said, “When the world follows the Dao, sacrifice yourself to the Dao. When the world abandons the Dao, sacrifice yourself for the Dao.”

His master died at the hands of the new emperor. Scalding talisman water was poured down Xuanyi’s throat, and the emperor said, “Let the people see what sort of evil thing this talisman water is, the water of the sorcerer who wreaked havoc across the land.”

In a chaotic age, the victor becomes king and the defeated are branded rebels. The new emperor looked at sixteen-year-old Xuanyi and asked whether he could be called an emperor for the ages.

The slender youth stood before the courtyard in a plain Daoist robe, eyes lowered indifferently. “Your Majesty has united the nine provinces and brought peace to the land. It is the good fortune of all the people.”

“I should have killed you,” Pei Ce said, looking at him.

But how could anyone in the world be born so beautiful? Even in a coarse-cloth Daoist robe, he was as lovely as a crane.

Back when Xuanyi followed his master in the Taiping Dao army, Pei Ce had already heard of him. Beautiful and clever, he had a knack for beguiling people, just like his good master. They could make others willingly die for them.

His neck was so long and pale. Pei Ce wanted to see him with his neck arched, dazed in the throes of death or climax.

In the ninth year of Yuanping, the founding emperor died in discontent after becoming obsessed with seeking immortality and medicine, but never finding the right method. The young Imperial Preceptor Xuanyi helped the prince, Pei Zhaoling, ascend the throne.

Pei Zhaoling’s mother had died young, and her status was low. He grew up at Xuanyi’s Daoist temple. Xuanyi had struck his palm with a ruler, mended his clothes with his own hands, and held him and patted his back to sleep when he was sick.

Xuanyi taught him poetry, history, rites, and the Book of Changes, as well as the ways of an emperor. He helped him kill powerful ministers, seize control of the military, and pacify foreign tribes.

Xuanyi held power over the court, ruled despotically, and deceived the emperor. Impeachment memorials against the Imperial Preceptor fluttered into Pei Zhaoling’s office like snowflakes. On the day he returned power to the emperor, a heavy snow was falling. Xuanyi held the memorial tablet of his late master and walked alone into the snow.

The young man’s frame was slender in the snow, but his back remained straight. He was as beautiful as a crane in a pond.

Behind him, Pei Zhaoling’s gaze darkened. The hand holding his umbrella tensed until the veins stood out. His eyes turned sinister and vicious, like a wolf wanting to tear the crane apart and devour it.

*

Top is a virgin; bottom is not. The top and the cannon-fodder top are not biological father and son. The cannon-fodder top has no harem. I’ll think of a reason when I start writing.

Series novel: After the Devoted Bottom’s Heart Turns Cold [Changing Tops]

Theme: You lie buried beneath the earth, your bones dissolved in mud; I remain in the world, my hair white as snow