“Do people around you call you an idiot, idiot, so you’ve actually become an idiot?”
Hearing the blatant mockery, Sansan pressed his lips tightly shut. Strength naturally entered the hand gripping the silk cloth beneath the table.
“Telling me to go sleep elsewhere?”
The Emperor’s rage-filled voice seemed to freeze Mianggung Palace. In the fiercely sharp atmosphere, no one could raise their faces. Amidst it all, Gang-i was still crying loud enough to bring down Mianggung Palace.
“Bi Jin, stand up immediately and kneel.”
It was the first time the Emperor had directly given Sansan corporal punishment. The servants of Mianggung Palace exchanged glances with each other while keeping their heads bowed, not knowing what to do. Sansan hesitantly stood up and knelt on the floor that was a mess with food.
“Someone, take the Eighth Imperial Prince to Suchanggung Palace immediately. Since Bi Jin cannot be faithful to his duties while caring for the Imperial Prince, how can I stand by and watch? Bi Jin is not qualified to raise the Imperial Prince.”
“Y-Your Majesty! I was wrong. This lowly one committed, committed a crime worthy of death. Please, please forgive me. Don’t send Gang-i to Suchanggung Palace. I was wrong. I was wrong. Sob.”
At the imperial command that fell like lightning, Sansan crawled across the messy floor, grabbed the Emperor’s leg, and begged. Whether he was extremely angry, the Emperor kicked his foot to shake off such Sansan.
“It seems I’ve been too lenient with you. Where does a concubine dare to interfere with the Emperor’s sleeping arrangements? This is a grave crime worthy of summoning your father and mother for flogging, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Shall I do that?”
“I was wrong, I truly was wrong. Sob, I-I won’t do it again. Please withdraw your command, won’t you?”
“What are you all doing not taking him away immediately!”
When the Emperor urged in a voice like autumn frost, Head Eunuch Han, who had been standing while observing the situation, sent a look to the palace eunuchs on standby. Seeing this, Sansan cried and begged even louder, but the Emperor never withdrew his command to the end. In the end, Gang-i was sent to Suchanggung Palace together with Wanui Han who had been in the side hall.
“Unless you want to never see the Eighth Imperial Prince again, you should stop crying now.”
“Sniff, sob.”
“Didn’t I warn you repeatedly that you can only live with the Imperial Prince when you fulfill your duty as a concubine?”
“…Y-you’re too much. Gang-i, Gang-i is very sick right now,”
“The one who is too much is you. Why should the Son of Heaven, who has been overseeing state affairs all day, face such a tiresome situation? Other concubines are not like you. If there were a sick Imperial Prince or Princess, they would have sent them to the side hall or another palace long ago.”
Sansan bit his lower lip so hard that blood formed. Please, just go to another concubine—he wanted to beg. But he was afraid that if he did, he truly would never see Gang-i again.
It was suffocating. His solar plexus felt like it would burst. He wanted to scream and run to Suchanggung Palace. Sansan had to painfully suppress all those impulses. The Emperor, who had been glaring at such Sansan, finally stood up from his seat first.
“Someone. Since Bi Jin says he’s not hungry, clear all of this away.”
He glanced down at the food scattered in a mess and Sansan kneeling on top of it, then turned and strode toward the bedchamber.
“Let’s see just how substantially you ate that snack that I should check it myself. Take off all those dirty clothes and follow me.”
After the Emperor left, Sansan gritted his teeth while watching his tears fall with a plop onto the floor. The arm supporting him on the floor trembled.
Could he hate it this much? He felt like he’d vomit blood from hatred.
“Mama, you must go.”
Yeongchae said while helping Sansan up.
“Hurry, what will you do if you incur greater wrath? Mama, please.”
Sansan pushed Yeongchae away. Then with his own hands, he undressed in the side hall where all the palace servants were present.
He was told to take off all his dirty clothes and come, so he had to undress and go. That damn duty—wasn’t it enough to just do all of that? He would quickly finish everything and come back to find Gang-i again. Sansan thought only of that.
***
Sansan covered his mouth with the back of his hand and continuously swallowed hot breaths inward. Gang-i’s crying seemed to keep echoing in his ears. Even though the child’s crying from Suchanggung Palace couldn’t possibly be heard all the way here, it was so.
“Don’t cover it. I want to hear.”
The Emperor, who had seemed to be overlooking it briefly, now grasped Sansan’s wrist and removed it from his mouth.
“Haah…, nngh.”
Tear-mixed moans inevitably flowed out. The Emperor looked down as if entranced at Sansan, who couldn’t close his lips that had opened from the intense movement.
The tip of his nose reddened like a child’s, eyelashes with tears beaded on them, water-soaked amber eyes, and both cheeks flushed pink as if drunk and lips wet with saliva. No matter how much he looked, he never tired of it. Where had something this satisfying to his heart appeared from?
Sansan turned his head to the side to avoid the Emperor’s gaze out of agony and shame. The pain from below that was spread to just before tearing remained the same, but separately, the exhilaration that seemed to burn everything inside grew day by day.
His belly bubbled, and his head turned white. Gang-i was probably crying in pain, yet he was sad about his own situation of having to engage in such shameful acts. Unable to find language to express the complicated and dirty emotions he was feeling, Sansan just lumped it together as sadness.
“Hooh, San-ah, call me Sibilang.”
The Emperor, who had slowly bent his waist, whispered into Sansan’s ear. The Emperor’s breath was also burningly hot. His hand caressed Sansan’s belly that was pressed against his abdomen.
He was proud of the belly that had swollen carrying his offspring. The offspring inside also felt lovable. In truth, if only it were possible, instead of on top of the belly, he wanted to put his hand below and knead the womb.
“…Haah, Si, Sibilang.”
“Yes, San-ah. Hooh, my lovely thing.”
“Wh-nngh, when we finish, Gang-i, ngh! Gang-i again,”
“It depends on you.”
“Hng, I’ll, I’ll do well. Si, Sibilang.”
“What ‘well’ when you can’t do anything but lie down and cry? Put your arms around me.”
As the command fell, Sansan’s hands, which had been sprawled on the bed clutching only the gold needles all along, wrapped around the Emperor’s neck. Sansan never laid hands on the imperial body first unless commanded. The Emperor felt deep satisfaction at the slender arms wrapping around his neck and spurred his movements even more.
Sansan’s entire body was crushed haphazardly under the Emperor’s massive body. His pelvis felt like it would dislocate because of his thighs spread to their limit left and right with his knees bent, and it seemed like all his organs were being twisted inside his lower abdomen being pressed tight.
Breathing was already difficult, but soon the Emperor blocked even that with his lips. Viewed from above, it looked exactly like the Emperor was devouring Sansan.
The body scents of the two people racing toward climax spread chaotically through the bedchamber, but the only ones who could sense it were the parties involved.
Sansan always felt ambivalent emotions toward the body scent the Emperor emitted just before climax. It felt good but he hated it. He really hated it. He just closed his eyes and swayed, hoping this intercourse would end quickly.
That’s when it happened.
“Your Majesty—.”
Head Eunuch Han called for the Emperor from outside the curtains. The Emperor, who had stopped moving, looked back beyond the curtains with an irritated feeling. Knowing that he would never be sought while in the bedchamber unless it was truly urgent, he didn’t ignore it, but his mood at being interrupted in the middle was far from pleasant.
“What is it?”
“I deeply regret to report, but word has come from Suchanggung Palace that His Highness the Eighth Imperial Prince’s condition is not good, Your Majesty.”
Sansan, who had been barely gasping for breath beneath the Emperor, was shocked and began to struggle to pull his body away.
“Wh-what does that,”
“Shh, calm down.”
The Emperor suppressed such Sansan with a firm hand. He blocked the lips trying to protest with his palm and spoke toward Head Eunuch Han.
“Then it’s a matter of summoning an imperial physician to Suchanggung Palace—why are you intruding when the Son of Heaven is resting?”
That extremely low voice was full of annoyance.
“We already summoned an imperial physician, but it seems he may have caught measles, so I urgently came to report. Please forgive this servant’s crime, Your Majesty.”
“M-measles? Your Majesty, ngh, Your Majesty!”
The Emperor, who pressed down Sansan as he once again twisted his body to escape without much effort, resumed his movements and commanded.
“Tell them to first follow the imperial physician’s instructions at Suchanggung Palace. I’ll hear the report after I finish what I’m doing.”
“Y-Your Majesty, please, stop, hngh, ngh!”
Sansan truly for the first time in a long while laid hands on that body without imperial command and pushed the Emperor away. It was an action done prepared to be beaten, but instead of hitting him, the Emperor decided to bite those impudent lips that spoke refusal.
While persistently kissing him like that, the Emperor never stopped until he finished pounding away with the wailing Sansan until the very end.
The intercourse that had stopped at the edge of climax due to Head Eunuch Han’s interruption continued for nearly another half shichen after that.
