Chapter 2: Attending the Emperor at Night?!

In Fang Xu’s eyes, this so-called transmigration was nothing short of a trap—one set to ruin him completely! He’d read plenty of transmigration novels, and even the most unfortunate protagonists never found themselves in a predicament as dire as his. At the very least, Fang Xu had never seen a male lead face the threat of being pinned to the ground and rubbed raw, with death as the only alternative.

Yet now, Fang Xu was faced with precisely this test. He had to make a decision among three options. Should he choose to be humiliated, submit to forced sterilization, or endure a slow and torturous death? Fang Xu could do nothing but clutch his head and crouch on the floor in despair.

He wanted neither of these fates, yet the young women by his side kept urging him to accept his lot—without resistance. They informed him that, at dusk, His Majesty would come in person after finishing the day’s memorials, and Fang Xu was forbidden from leaving the grand hall until then. Any attempt to leave would lead to dire consequences.

They also warned him that the current emperor, the founding ruler of the Great Qin, was infamous for his volatile temper. If Fang Xu provoked His Majesty’s displeasure, his end would be unspeakably miserable.

Fang Xu couldn’t be sure whether these young women were deceiving him. But since he was now an imperial consort, he reasoned that they likely dared not lie to him. Trusting their admonishments, he swallowed hard, resigned to his fate.

Never had he imagined his situation would be so wretched. What had he done to deserve this? Why, when others transmigrated, did they enjoy such favorable circumstances while he suffered so? With the options before him so stark, Fang Xu could only resign himself to being pinned down and humiliated.

He felt a pang of guilt for his own dignity, but what choice did he have? Survival demanded sacrifice; for now, he had to submit in order to plan for the future. Sometimes, one must endure humiliation to achieve greater aims. Fang Xu kept repeating this to himself, relentlessly brainwashing his own thoughts, until he gradually numbed himself to what was to come.

The young women soon realized Fang Xu had given up resisting. Each of them breathed a sigh of relief and quietly withdrew from the hall.

“Elder sister, why did you frighten Her Ladyship so?” the youngest among them, who had remained silent throughout and thus gone unnoticed by Fang Xu, finally asked as they left the hall.

She truly didn’t understand why her sisters had to scare Fang Xu so thoroughly.

“We weren’t frightening Her Ladyship, dear, don’t say such things. We did it for your sakes as much as ours,” one sister replied gently.

If Fang Xu really tried to escape, all of them would face merciless punishment. Thus, for their own sake, they had no choice but to exaggerate the truth.

It wasn’t quite a lie, just a matter of embellishment. The youngest girl, Xiaoya, looked troubled.

“Xiaoya, we had no alternative. Would you rather something terrible happened to us?” the eldest among them knelt before Xiaoya, looking into her eyes.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want to be separated from my sisters,” Xiaoya replied, nodding. The older girl smiled and patted her head.

“You’re a good girl. And who knows—maybe Her Ladyship will fall for His Majesty after all,” she said with a smile.

Xiaoya considered this and found her guilt eased.

Fang Xu, meanwhile, sat atop the canopy bed in the grand hall, utterly unaware he’d been manipulated. He continued his own self-hypnosis, and it worked surprisingly well. Not long after, a few maids brought him dinner. They were all taken aback at his transformation; compared to earlier, Fang Xu seemed an entirely different person.

It wasn’t that he had changed dramatically, only that he’d accepted his fate. No matter how much he disliked it, he realized he had no power to choose. Why torment himself further?

Since he’d already accepted his situation, he decided he might as well treat himself kindly. So he ate and drank his fill. Afterward, fatigue overtook him—a natural result of the day’s tension. Now that he’d relaxed, exhaustion settled in, and Fang Xu thought that an early sleep might spare him some awareness of what was to come.

Perhaps, when the time came to be pinned down and humiliated, he’d at least be numb to it.

With that, Fang Xu lay down on the bed, yawned, and closed his eyes, beset by weariness. He felt he'd endured too much for one day, and now he needed to gather his thoughts—and more importantly, to consider his future.

As he drifted off, he soon fell into a deep sleep. He had no idea how long he’d slept when a sense of pressure roused him. Something heavy pressed down, making it difficult to breathe. Startled, he opened his eyes.

The hall was shrouded in darkness, but even so, Fang Xu was stunned by the scene before him.

A woman was straddling his body. If that weren’t enough, she was tugging at his clothes with increasing urgency.

Terror seized him. Just as he was about to cry out for help, the woman sensed his intention and clamped a hand over his mouth, rendering him mute.

Fang Xu had never imagined a woman could possess such strength. She leaned in, her breath ghosting over his neck, and—whether by accident or design—bit down gently on his earlobe, sending involuntary tremors through his entire body.

“My beloved consort, were you waiting for me to come and favor you?” she whispered in his ear.

But Fang Xu, in his current state, could barely comprehend the meaning of her words.