FOR 'S SAKE!!!!! I finally managed to update thanks to social isolation that I adore, since my college decided to close to start up virtual classes for now and the government has us practicing social distancing I've been managing to write more often these days so I finally updated this story. And thank you so much for the support that this story gets~! I sometimes feel as though it's unwarranted.
Thank you for waiting and I hope you enjoy.

Yifan’s eyes don’t stray far from his betrothed, only briefly when his father directs himself to him and only because he is the emperor. Junmyeon is quite beautiful, no not beautiful, he is exquisite. Yifan thinks that the gods that they all worship must look like Junmyeon, exquisite and divine creatures who exist only to be worshipped; maybe Junmyeon was actually a god disguised as a human. For once in his long and old life, Zhoumi did not lie to me. He is divine and he will be my husband, thank the Gods for politics and veiled threats. 

“Your Highness, your eyes do not stray. Do you like your Southern betrothed that much?” His most loyal general Can Lie laughed in a soft breathy tone next to Yifan. “He’s quite bold, walked out of his carriage to personally introduce himself to us. And all the soldiers were looking at him as though he was fire itself arriving to warm them up.”

“Is that so? My betrothed must have made such a great impression on my soldiers to make them ready to serve him.”

“And the most interesting thing is; he didn’t speak a single word of deference to them aside from a lovely smile. It must be his presence.”

Yifan turned to look at Can Lie with a stern face trying to find the lies in the words spoken with his oldest friend yet he found none. Junmyeon had managed to enamour 15% of his total fighting force with a smile and a strong disposition to preserve the weather he wasn’t used to, if given the chance the rest of the soldiers would fall and then the country as well. An easy to love wife wouldn’t be hard for his reign, if they love his spouse then it's easier.

He turned to see Junmyeon walk away, being led by his mother to what would be his personal chambers for the remainder of his life in the household. The Emperor and his consort do not share rooms -not even when they’re simply the Crown Prince and his spouse-, instead having separate chambers thus allowing the Emperor to have as many concubines as he desires in his bed and the consort does not have to live with the humiliation of sharing a bed where their spouse cheated on them with. Zhoumi arrived at where Can Lie and he sat to tell him that he was expected in the Emperor’s chambers, Yifan nodded, getting up instantly and making way to his father’s chambers. 

Yifan bowed deeply in the presence of his father who was drinking lotus wine. “You requested me, Your Majesty?”

“My son, sit and have a drink with me.” Yifan sat in front of his father, before making way to grab the cup that was offered to him. The sweet taste of the wine was comforting to his tongue as he drank. “So what do you think of Prince Junmyeon, my son? He’s very intelligent and quite easy to like, I doubt that you two will have any problems getting along.”

“I haven’t spoken to him but I do  know that you’ve never chosen wrong before, father. I shall trust your judgement as though it was mine,” Yifan nodded to his father who smirked in delight at his son’s response.

“We have no time to wait regarding your wedding with Prince Junmyeon, the good thing is that your mother has been going through all the wedding preparations. She says that no one could do a better job for her son than herself so I’ve allowed it.” Hangeng smiled softly at the antics of his wife before looking at Junmyeon. “Our original plan was for your brother to get married first but since Yunho passed away, Asterrania is in mourning so I can’t expect your brother to get married soon but you'll need to get married first to solidify our alliance  with Asterrania. I trust you, my son; King Minseok won’t take lightly if we insult his brother in any way so be careful and treat him right.”

“He is to be my husband, my consort. How can I treat him with anything less than respect?” Yifan asked shocked, when he had first seen Junmyeon the first thing that had arrived to his mind was “The only thing I want to do is lie in bed with this man for hours; pleasuring ourselves and getting to know each other, I want to know what makes him squirm and sigh in delight, his favorite food, his favorite subject to study or which philosophers’ teaching did he enjoy the most.” so how could his father conceive such a thought? “Why do you say that?”

Hangeng stared at Yifan with shock in his features before he schooled his reaction to aloofness once more. “Nothing my son, just a plain reminder for you and what’s at stake. I shall see you tomorrow morning, spend some time with Prince Junmyeon during the day. There’s nothing wrong with getting to know him.”

“Yes father. Rest well for your health.” Yifan stood up and walked away from his father, he made his way to his quarters topping in his tracks when he saw the woman kneeling in front of his bed. He cursed internally remembering that he had told one of his guards earlier in the day before the Asterranian party’s arrival that his favorite concubine was to be sent to his chambers for the night. He saw the soft pale skin already exposed as the vermillion robe was bunched on her elbows in which her chest wouldn’t be exposed yet but her back would, her long black hair already thrown back over one shoulder to frame quite nicely her back; Cao Lu was always a lovely beauty and she was also well-read so after , they’d talk about many things. Her being his current favorite made her have many privileges that she didn’t have before and one of those privileges included all the books she could read in her lifetime. 

“Your Highness, it’s  great to see you. I’m glad that you requested me for tonight.” Cao Lu crooned softly, her voice sounding like silk. Yifan walked around her until he stood in front of her, deciding that he might as well go through with it. If you start something then you finish it.

Yifan cupped her jaw, tracing her lower lip with his index finger before he lifted her face to see him, she stood up slowly at the silent command from the prince. “You’re the only concubine I’ve requested in the past 3 moons, who else would I ask for?”

“Anyone else, my prince. It isn’t a good political strategy when you forsake the daughters of your future ministers to have in your bed the daughter of a provincial physician.” Cao Lu hummed softly as she completely removed her robe, exposing her body fully to the prince. 

“My chamber is not a place to speak about politics and even if it was, I don’t care about the ministers because most of their daughters are air headed and light conversation is hard with them unlike with you.” Yifan whispered as he kissed her shoulder, feeling her hands undress him slowly as this was a dance that they had danced for quite a while now. 

Junmyeon shivered as he stoked the fire trying to get more heat, Empress Bingbing had mentioned that these were the warmest chambers in the entire castle but Junmyeon felt it as cold as the rest of the castle but it would be something that he would have to get used to. Baekhyun was shivering equally as much but he was muttering -which helped to maintain body heat for Baekhyun-about the information that he had managed to wring out of a maid who had attended him. Jongdae had already retired to his own chambers, claiming that he was very tired and that he needed his beauty sleep to which they both conceded as he left the room.

“She says that the wedding preparations are incredible but that she hasn’t seen much since 3 weeks ago because it’s a personal project to the Empress.” Baekhyun said as he got up from his chair, feeling tired of being cold and grabbed the fur blankets, throwing one to Junmyeon and keeping the other for himself as he curled back in the chair. “S-So I imagine how dazzling the wedding will actually be,”

“Well that’s nice.” Junmyeon said, not feeling as easy as Baekhyun to speak when you're feeling cold but that's the difference between them.

“She also commented that Prince Yifan has a favorite concubine.” Junmyeon halted in his teeth chattering to look over at Baekhyun who seemed worried which was understandable. In Asterrania, you couldn’t have a concubine and for everyone to know who she or he was, they were normally dirty little secrets that were considered insults to the consort. But things were different in Yiwen and Junmyeon would have to abide by their rules. Besides, he didn't come to Yiwen to fall in love with his husband, he came to honor an alliance between the two countries and to do that there was no need for love. Besides, the only love he had is almost an entire continent away. 

“Good for him. Hopefully we don’t cross paths often for me to see it.” Junmyeon replied, not knowing why his heart was clenching.

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Yifan is an eloquent man who likes pillowtalk, can you honestly blame him? It was really hard to choose an age appropiate Chinese female idol so I went with Cao Lu, who is considerably closer in age

Please stay safe and healthy, please follow any directions given by the government regarding health and if you don't trust shady governments -bcs mood- then please follow any directions given by WHO and CDC. I hope to see you all soon.