“Did he lose his appetite because of the heat…”
Sanwol muttered in a worried voice. Though she said that, she didn’t really think so. Before coming to the imperial palace, even a wind-up electric fan or placing ice beneath that fan was an unimaginable luxury they couldn’t even dream of. Sanwol didn’t know how surprised she was when she first came to the imperial palace.
Even at the private residence where such things didn’t exist, she had never seen her older brother lose his appetite. Perhaps because he grew up eating food while reading others’ faces, he ate well no matter what was given to him. But there was no way he’d lose his appetite to heat in the even cooler imperial palace.
Sansan resumed his needlework without answering. It was a pair of baby socks for the baby Sanwol would give birth to. Though blood stained it here and there, it would be fine once washed and dried well. Imagining the baby wearing these gave him a surge of motivation even when he had no energy.
“What can I make for you so you’ll eat something, hmm?”
Sanwol asked again. Sansan chewed on his lower lip. Even he didn’t know why his stomach felt so bad. The smell of food just disgusted him. Sitting before a meal table was torture, yet the Emperor forced him to sit at the table every meal. Even when he said his stomach felt bad and he couldn’t eat, the Emperor only repeated that he should try to endure and eat.
It was tiresome. So tiresome he could die. The Emperor who constantly bit, sucked, and hurt him day in and day out.
The Emperor who kept forcing him to eat when he couldn’t.
In that moment, Sansan, who felt another surge welling up, threw the baby sock he was making onto the floor. Then he panted for a while. Yeongchae tried to move but Sanwol raised her hand to stop her. Sanwol quietly stared at Sansan.
“Orabeoni.”
“…Yeah.”
“You have to pick it up. You said you wanted to give it to Teunteun.”
“…Yeah.”
Sansan wiped away the tears that trickled out with the back of his hand. Soon he got down from the Arhat Bed, crouched down, and picked up the sock and needle. He was just about to stand up.
“Mama. Wanui Han has arrived.”
“Somyeong?”
When Sanwol said to come in with a pleased expression, the curtain of the tea room was drawn back and a woman walked in.
She was a beauty with a willowy figure and a fair, gentle countenance. Sansan’s face reddened without realizing it.
“I greet Concubine Yoon Mama. Mama, may you enjoy great fortune.”
“Somyeong, what’s with the formalities between us? Come here and sit.”
Wanui Han, who was heading toward the cushion a palace maid of Yeongnyeong Palace had brought forth, glanced once at Sansan standing in an awkward posture.
“I came because I have something to give to unnie. But you were together with Wanui Jin.”
“Yeah, we’re usually together at this time. Ah, orabeoni. This is Wanui Han, my palace entry cohort. Say hello.”
Usually, concubines of the same rank would call each other older sister and younger sister according to age, and the custom was to clasp each other’s fingertips and bow slightly twice by bending the knees slightly, but no matter how much of a eunuch he was, it was too much for an outside man and woman to do so. After a moment of awkwardness, Wanui Han moved first.
“Since you’re unnie’s older brother, I’ll call you orabeoni too. Jin orabeoni, nice to meet you.”
Wanui Han gathered her fingertips together, placed them against her right hip, and bent her knees once gracefully and slightly.
“Ni-nice to meet you.”
Sansan clumsily showed a cupped-hand salute. Seeing this, Wanui Han smiled gently and sweetly, then shifted her gaze back to Sanwol.
“When we first entered the palace, we promised to make baby undershirts for each other if we gave birth, remember? I said I’d be diligent, but it didn’t please me so I kept remaking it, and it’s only now finally finished that I brought it. The Longjing tea sent from my private residence was also good quality, so I packed some—will you accept it, unnie?”
“You remembered that? I’m so grateful and sorry… I’ll use it well, Somyeong. Show me quickly. Okay?”
“Yiyeong, bring that here.”
When Wanui Han gestured, a short court lady who had been standing aside approached her. She held out a wooden tray she had been holding with both hands, and Wanui Han personally lifted the red silk and took out the white baby undershirt and glass container inside.
“I carefully selected the softest cotton to make it. My skills are lacking, but please regard it for the sincerity, unnie.”
This was merely an expression of modesty—the baby undershirt Wanui Han had made was truly exquisite with excellent craftsmanship. At the needlework stitches so fine they were nearly invisible, Sanwol and Sansan couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration continuously. Sansan became embarrassed by the socks he was making and stealthily hid them behind him.
“Our Teunteun is also very fortunate. Not yet even born, but already has an uncle making socks and an aunt making a baby undershirt.”
Sanwol smiled brightly, genuinely happy for the first time in a long while.
“Are you making me an aunt?”
“Of course.”
The atmosphere of Yeongnyeong Palace, which had always been somehow subdued, took on a rare vitality. Sanwol exchanged overdue conversation with Wanui Han and smelled the fragrance of the Longjing tea she had brought. Sansan occasionally glanced at the two while doing needlework and also picking up gwapyeon to eat.
It was good to hear his younger sister’s lively voice, and good to see her brightened face. Sansan himself was also quite happy. A smile formed on his face without realizing it. It was when they were spending such calm time.
Sansan flinched in surprise and stiffened his waist. Because of this, he pricked his left thumb with the needle.
“Ah!”
“Orabeoni?”
When Sanwol looked at him in surprise, Sansan sucked on his thumb where blood had formed while shaking his head as if it were nothing. But it wasn’t nothing. His heart gradually became anxious.
Because he could feel the Emperor’s scent approaching from very far away. That heavy, explicit fragrance that always weighed heavily on Sansan every time he attended his bed. It was getting closer and closer to Yeongnyeong Palace.
And finally.
—Crack, crack.
“His Imperial Majesty the Emperor arrives.”
Along with the sound of the ceremonial staff sharply striking the ground, the voice of the head eunuch announcing the Emperor’s arrival shook Yeongnyeong Palace.
“We greet His Imperial Majesty the Emperor. Long live, long live, ten thousand times long live His Imperial Majesty the Emperor.”
Because her body had grown heavy, Sanwol delayed quite some time just getting up from the Arhat Bed. In the meantime, the Emperor strode right into the rear hall. She knelt down right where she was standing with Songhwa’s support and barely managed to pay her respects.
“We greet His Imperial Majesty the Emperor. Long live, long live, ten thousand times long live His Imperial Majesty the Emperor.”
“…I greet Your Majesty. Long live, long live, ten thousand times long live Your Majesty.”
Sansan also saw Wanui Han kneeling and knelt down following her. The Emperor approached Sansan directly.
“Your body isn’t even well. Didn’t I tell you not to kneel?”
The Emperor, who lifted Sansan by his thin shoulders and arms, said while touching his bony fingers here and there. Sansan felt uncomfortable seeing Sanwol, who was kneeling on the floor paying respects despite having a belly swollen like a mountain, and kept pulling his body back.
The more he did so, the Emperor felt an inexplicable thirst at Sansan’s scent growing thicker. Unable to hold back, he kissed him right there.
“Ah, mmph!”
The wet kiss continued for a long time. The Emperor wrapped his arm around Sansan’s struggling waist, pressed his body close to his own, and inserted his tongue deeply to lick every corner of his mouth.
His other hand, which had been caressing the nape of his neck, naturally slid down his back and gripped his buttocks. Sansan only moaned in shame.
At this rate, he seemed ready to do the deed while keeping two concubines kneeling, so the head eunuch had no choice but to step forward. He bent his knees slightly and touched the floor with his fisted hand. He cleared his throat lowly and opened his mouth.
“Your Majesty, I speak with deepest regret, but Concubine Yoon continues to kneel. I fear for the precious imperial grandson’s wellbeing, so please look upon this with mercy.”
The Emperor’s tongue, which had been persistently wandering inside Sansan’s mouth, withdrew some time later as if reluctant. Saliva stretched long between their lips before breaking. The Emperor smacked his lips while watching Sansan, whose face was flushed, wipe his own lips with his sleeve.
How cute that he still blushed over such a trivial thing. This morning, his erection was so cute that he had even sucked his lower parts.
At first, he couldn’t even get hard, but now he got erections every morning, which was quite something, and the Emperor couldn’t help but touch him constantly. He was so cute that he had once flicked the erect member, and Sansan had cried out in pain.
Every night they frolicked together like that, yet he made such a face from just a kiss. What man could not have his heart melt?
“Everyone rise.”
The Emperor moved toward the Arhat Bed while holding Sansan’s hand. Sansan was the only one he had pleasured with his own mouth. Not only with his mouth—he had never even caressed with his hands. If he wanted to touch, he touched, but he had never felt the need to do actions for the sake of caressing.
But this one was different. He kept wanting to caress him to see his excited face. Of course, the desire to touch was also part of it.
“You ate gwapyeon.”
The Emperor, who deliberately seated Sansan on his lap, said as if making a statement. There was no gwapyeon left on the plate.
Footnote:
Teunteun (튼튼이) – (nickname for Sanwol’s unborn baby, means “sturdy/strong one”)
