Emperor, Your Son Is Into Men! - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I transmigrated into Shen Tao, the wastrel young master of the chancellor’s estate, courtesy name Taoyan.

My father had talent. My mother had beauty. Among the common people, their marriage was spoken of as a perfect match.

Unfortunately, they gave birth to a useless son like me.

The emperor refused to believe in fate. Convinced that a tiger father could not possibly sire a dog of a son, he ordered me to become the Crown Prince’s Study Companion.

My whole family was terrified.

Father Chancellor said, sweating bullets:

“This humble subject is ashamed. My son is dull by nature, shallow in learning, and lacking in knowledge…”

My mother said, trembling:

“If he delays the Crown Prince’s studies because of this, we would deserve ten thousand deaths.”

The two of them hinted to the emperor in every possible way that I was stupid.

They were this close to spelling it out with flowers and fireworks.

But the Old Emperor only grew more satisfied. Beaming, he said:

“Great wisdom often appears foolish. That boy has boundless prospects.”

I thought, with the Old Emperor looking the way he did, how much better could the Crown Prince possibly be?

Then I saw the Crown Prince, Qin Yuanxi.

Holy crap.

Now that was what you called elegant as jade and graceful as pine,

with the bearing of a celestial being.

At such a young age, he was already learned, knowledgeable in both past and present.

One look and you could tell-

in a few more years,

he would be the sort of emperor for the ages who could crush the Old Emperor into dust in seconds.

I also heard that the Old Emperor and the empress had long since become a couple in name only, sharing a bed while dreaming separate dreams.

In short,

to sum it all up:

this Crown Prince

was not favored.

Not liked.

And he was feared.

The Old Emperor choosing me as his Study Companion had sinister intentions written all over it.

A grand conspiracy.

…

From the moment I entered the palace, I loved dragging the Crown Prince along to skip the Grand Tutor’s lessons every now and then.

I took him to winding-stream poetry banquets hosted by those “bad friends” of mine,

took him hunting in the outskirts,

took him to admire flowers, admire the moon, and admire pretty girls.

Unfortunately, the Crown Prince had a cold, distant temperament and rarely spoke.

When he met young masters from noble families, he barely talked.

When he met girls, he liked talking even less.

I took him to the Qiqiao Festival.

Afraid he would get lost,

on the way there, I tied one end of a red cord around his pinky and the other around mine. He stayed silent, only staring at that red cord.

I shook the cord and teased him in a pinched voice:

“Young Master Qin.”

“Neither of us has even the slightest connection to any girl.”

“You’ll just have to do as the locals do and tie this Qiqiao cord with me for now.”

This Crown Prince was still far too innocent.

The moment I finished speaking,

his face flushed bright red, and he immediately made to return to the carriage.

“Who is your sweetheart?!”

“Taoyan, stop spouting nonsense!”

I hurriedly grabbed him and said:

“Oh, come on. What are you getting so worked up for? We finally managed to sneak out of the palace and have some fun.”

“I won’t tease you anymore.”

“You really can’t handle anything, can you?”

Only after I dragged and tugged at him did this guy finally agree to stay.

Fortunately, the scent of fragrant rouge filled the air along the way.

The bridgeheads and boats were full of beautiful girls.

Quite a few of them were secretly casting flirtatious glances at Qin Yuanxi.

There was no helping it. This brother of mine was genuinely, devastatingly handsome, and his status gave him an air of noble refinement. Exquisite and good-looking.

Counting his age,

he was already old enough to marry a Crown Princess.

So I asked curiously:

“Does Your Highness have a girl you like?”

His fingers, hooked around the red cord, paused.

He lifted his head and looked at me quietly,

saying nothing.

I asked again.

Only then did he answer slowly, without much interest:

“I’m not interested in women.”

After saying that, he suddenly stared into my eyes

and added:

“What about you?”

See? Even the Crown Prince liked gossip.

Who in this world didn’t have curiosity?

I chuckled,

raised my hand, and grandly gestured at all the girls along the road.

Under Qin Yuanxi’s puzzled gaze,

I said, full of pride:

“Heh. I won’t hide it from Your Highness.”

“Just counting the walk we’ve taken so far, a conservative estimate would be… I’ve probably liked seventeen or eighteen of them.”