Song Pu looked at Tantai Yi, the smile at his lips fading. He spoke softly, “Your Majesty and I stand in the relationship of ruler and subject, not as the male consort Your Majesty speaks of. If Your Majesty punished Li Zongyi for such a reason, then I… would naturally find it laughable.”
Tantai Yi’s gaze settled on his face, and he, too, smiled, saying lightly, “If Lord Song finds it amusing, then laugh. I am serious, and I have no fear of being laughed at by you.”
At that, Song Pu could no longer laugh. He prided himself on being straight and had assumed Tantai Yi was the same, but if this man truly lost his temper at seeing him and Li Zongyi bathing naked together, then the problem was already a serious one.
He was not so obtuse as to fail to recognise jealousy.
Song Pu pondered for a moment, suppressing the agitation in his heart. When he looked again at Tantai Yi, his gaze carried a faint, indefinable complexity. He coughed lightly and asked in a low voice, “If Your Majesty wishes for me to remain by your side, does Your Majesty not feel that making me a male consort would be a grievance to me?”
Tantai Yi raised a brow. “Does Lord Song intend to be Empress instead? That is impossible. Lord Song dreams rather boldly.”
Song Pu fell silent.
That had not been his meaning, yet hearing such words still stung. If he truly liked him, what was wrong with making him Empress? There was not the slightest sincerity in that.
Drawing a breath, he feigned curiosity. “Why not?”
Hearing him set his sights on the Empress’s position, Tantai Yi felt no discomfort. On the contrary, a strange and inexplicable pleasure arose.
But why could Song Pu not be Empress? Tantai Yi found himself momentarily at a loss. In truth, there seemed to be no real reason he could not. Yet at this moment, Tantai Yi suddenly realised a blind spot he had never considered before.
Why had he wanted to take Song Pu as a male consort in the first place?
Because he liked Lord Song. At times, when he looked at that pale, glutinous-rice-soft face, he would feel the urge to bite it, to knead those beautiful, soft hands, to draw that slight frame into his arms, to… do many things.
And then there was that morning. If only they could do that again.
Tantai Yi had a poor memory and did not often dwell on such sensations, but when he did think of it, he could recall that peculiar pleasure. It was entirely different from doing it himself.
He was not ignorant of desire. At fourteen, the late emperor had sent fresh young palace maids to attend to his needs. At the time, he had rebelled fiercely, opposing all of the late emperor’s arrangements, and so he remained untouched to this day. Yet he was still a man, and in his youth he had seen his share of erotic paintings. He was not unfamiliar with such matters.
And towards Lord Song, he did harbour that sort of desire. Long ago, when listening to Lord Song’s pleasant words, his heart would quicken for a fleeting moment, a tingling spreading through him, even giving rise to more absurd reactions.
There had been signs all along.
His breathing suddenly grew uneven. So this was what he had wanted? To do such things with Lord Song?
He had spoken before of taking Lord Song as a male consort, yet had never once thought of this. Truly absurd. That he could be so absurd.
But Lord Song was a man. Where, then, could he…?
Song Pu, receiving no answer, lifted his gaze to Tantai Yi’s face, only to meet eyes more blazing and intense than ever before. His back tensed at once, goosebumps prickling across his skin. “Your Majesty, why… why are you looking at me like that?”
Even his voice faltered. What sort of look was this? It was as though he were being appraised, like prey caught in a hunter’s net. It set his heart racing with unease.
Tantai Yi’s gaze drifted to that small mouth. From head to toe, it seemed there was only that one mouth…
A flush rose upon his fair and striking face, and his eyes burned all the hotter, as though lit with flame.
Song Pu could feel the dangerous aura emanating from him. The back of his neck tightened, and even his expression became strained. “Your Majesty?”
Tantai Yi gripped the armrest of his chair, his voice suddenly rough. “It is not impossible for Lord Song to be Empress. But if so, then you and I would be husband and wife. Lord Song, do you understand what husband and wife do?”
Song Pu was speechless.
At last, a word surfaced in his mind to describe Tantai Yi’s current state. He was in heat.
A wave of goosebumps rose over him, and even a phantom ache stirred faintly. He forced out a strained smile. “How can two men be husband and wife? Your Majesty, as the sovereign, must have an Empress who can serve as a model to the realm. Your Majesty must not make such jests.”
Tantai Yi nodded. “I have never heard of a man serving as Empress either. But if Lord Song wishes it, I am not unwilling to grant you the title. In that case, all of Lord Song would belong to me…”
As he spoke, a faint glimmer of excitement flickered in his eyes. His gaze upon Song Pu turned almost fierce, as though he might strip him bare with it.
Song Pu cursed inwardly, his fingers tightening upon the fabric at his knees. “Your Majesty jests. I was only speaking in jest just now. How would I dare to covet the Empress’s position?”
When Tantai Yi had previously spoken of taking him as a male consort, after the initial shock, Song Pu had not truly taken it to heart. Tantai Yi’s manner carried a certain upright detachment, as though he had no designs upon his body. Ordinarily, if a man truly had such inclinations, he would long since have dragged him to bed. Yet Tantai Yi had not. Even that earlier incident had been an accident.
Because of this, Song Pu had felt at ease sharing a bed with him.
But now… what was this?
A straight man, just like that… turned?
Song Pu could scarcely believe how completely Tantai Yi had changed. This time, he forgot all prior awkwardness, his mind occupied solely with safeguarding his dignity and chastity.
Tantai Yi reached out and took Song Pu’s clenched fist. Lowering his gaze, he slowly prised apart his fingers and enclosed them within his palm, a faint smile at his lips. “Only when Lord Song desires something can I feel at ease. If you wish for the Empress’s position, the court will surely oppose it, but I do not care. I am the Emperor. Whomever I wish to make Empress, I shall make Empress. Whoever dares to obstruct me, I will send him below to meet the late emperor.”
He spoke with complete certainty. Hearing such words, Song Pu felt not the slightest bit moved, only alarm, especially when Tantai Yi added, “But Lord Song is so slight of frame, I wonder how we would consummate matters. Do you know how such things are done? Where would I… begin?”
Song Pu’s face turned pale. “This subject does not know. How can Your Majesty even think of such matters? Taking me as a male consort is one thing, but how could Your Majesty consider… that?”
Tantai Yi remained composed. “Why not? Does Lord Song not wish it?”
Song Pu could only marvel that he could even ask such a question. No ordinary man would agree to such a thing. What straight man would willingly lie with another man? Even with such a face, that was no reason.
Yet, based on what he knew of Tantai Yi, the man seemed to lack a certain restraint in such matters, his thinking erratic and impossible to predict. Still, Song Pu felt he might yet be coaxed, and so he asked, “Why does Your Majesty wish for such a thing with me?”
Tantai Yi frowned slightly, then relaxed, his tone almost light. “If it were with others, I would have no desire for it. Should any of them dare to touch me, I would punish them severely. But Lord Song is different.”
He still remembered their earlier estrangement and did not wish to admit outright that he desired closeness.
Song Pu did not let him evade the matter. “In what way am I different?”
Tantai Yi’s smile faded a little at his persistence. He looked at him for a long moment before answering, “Lord Song has a good mouth.”
Song Pu thought he meant flattery, but Tantai Yi wondered: could consummation between two men truly only be achieved through that mouth?
