Chapter 106: Special Hobbies
The object his knuckles touched was slowly pulled out from Su Xueyi’s clothes; it was a long golden chain.
One end of the chain was hooked around Ying Xi’s fingertips, and the other end was wrapped around Su Xueyi’s neck.
The golden chain contrasted with the other’s fair skin. Su Xueyi swallowed hard, his throat bobbing.
Behind Ying Xi was the tree. He had no way back.
He was even less willing to show fear before Su Xueyi, especially since he understood this man’s temperament of taking an inch and wanting a mile.
Ying Xi coldly yanked the chain. “Do you know my guards are not far away? If Lang Xun sees this, Prime Minister Su’s ‘majestic posture’ will be known to all of Chang’an.”
The chain flashed with golden light.
Ying Xi didn’t know that his current response made the already excited Su Xueyi even more invigorated.
Su Xueyi went from standing to kneeling. He looked up and said, “Isn’t that what you expected?”
“When did I ever expect you to act like this!”
Su Xueyi’s eyes lowered slightly, waves of emotion flowing, tugging the chain to make a faint clinking sound.
He looked enlightened, as if Ying Xi was just refusing to admit it. He chuckled. “Your Majesty secretly sent people to give me things many times. The gift boxes were wrapped tightly on the outside, but inside were collars, chains, whips, and ropes.”
“Your Majesty understands me far better than I understand myself, yet you can always pretend not to know. I truly admire you.”
“I…”
Doubts piled up in Ying Xi’s mind, eventually becoming clear.
After the mental fog cleared, only a few large words remained—Fragrant Gift Box.
“Sweetie, do the Fragrant Gift Boxes contain these things?”
The Sweetie System gave a dry laugh: [Your Majesty, hehehe.]
[Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and wisdom is in the eye of the wise.]
[It’s because Prime Minister Su needs them that the Fragrant Gift Box satisfies his desire. This is the true meaning of the Favorability Value.]
Ying Xi only felt a headache.
So the gifts he spent thousands upon thousands of taels on were actually not worth that much.
Sweetie System: [The Dynasty Stability Fund! It’s the Dynasty Stability Fund, Your Majesty!]
[The benefits Prime Minister Su brings you have long since surpassed the silver spent on the gift boxes…]
Be that as it may, Ying Xi didn’t intend to accept this.
Even if Su Xueyi desired the Sword of King Yue, a Jade Burial Suit, or the Heshibi, he wouldn’t mind him overstepping propriety; spending these hundreds of thousands of taels of silver was heart-wrenching.
“So what should I do now?”
[Whip him, scold him, tug his chain—he’ll feel very comfortable.]
Ying Xi’s mouth twitched. “And if I don’t want to do any of that?”
The Sweetie System said: [I don’t think he’ll let you go easily. In Prime Minister Su’s world, Your Majesty is his true love and obsession, but also the outlet for his sexual desires…]
Ying Xi asked sharply, “What is he venting?”
Since being influenced by CEO novels, Ying Xi knew that some social elites secretly harbored a desire to be punished or mistreated.
But he didn’t mainly read that stuff, so naturally, his understanding wasn’t deep.
The Sweetie System understood much more than him: [I mean, he loves you and wants you to punish him. And if you punish him, it turns him on.]
Ying Xi wasn’t so ignorant as to not understand.
Everything he did was triggering Su Xueyi’s psychological impulse.
—Su Xueyi wanted to have sex with him.
The chain was scorching hot; Ying Xi felt as if he were badly burned!
He let go of the chain between them, thinking of those explicit images. In his memory, the Yuantai Emperor had held his concubines and been intimate before him.
Unmasked organs, bodies of white and red intertwined…
As a child, he didn’t understand why the Yuantai Emperor, his foster father, had dismissed all his beloved concubines and knelt before him with a wicked smile when they were alone.
It turned out that was also a kind of masochistic pleasure for the Yuantai Emperor.
That face had been pressed against his feet. Ying Xi had tried hard to pull the Yuantai Emperor up, only to be slapped and scolded for not knowing what was good for him.
Then, while struggling, he had smashed the Emperor’s jade pendant, making a noise that completely ruined the man’s mood, and finally, he was pushed down and covered in scratches.
His most unbearable experience was triggered by this.
Ying Xi couldn’t and would absolutely not satisfy Su Xueyi’s desire.
He stepped back blankly, and Su Xueyi advanced!
Su Xueyi was the person in the world who most knew how to take an inch and ask for a mile. Once someone showed weakness, he would become as strong as a spring.
Su Xueyi wobbled as he pressed Ying Xi tighter against the tree.
Warm lips brushed his neck. Breaking the safety distance made Ying Xi tense. His voice came over:
“You must be thinking about how to stop the disciples of the prestigious families from carving up power. Why not order me?”
“Command me, use me, let me do anything for you.”
“The strong are unscrupulous, while the weak are swallowed. You want to fight them until the sky turns dark and not a single piece of armor remains… that is my unique Emperor… I am willing to use my entire being to serve you forever, to be your most loyal slave.”
A few leaves fell from the tree canopy.
Ying Xi had naturally lost his chance.
He yanked off Su Xueyi’s clean jade pendant and threw it into the mud, yet he couldn’t call out for the guards to save him from his predicament.
The beautiful jade worth thousands of taels fell into the filth, but Su Xueyi only hugged Ying Xi even more happily.
He was covered in the pungent scent of white sandalwood. “Yes, exactly like that! I have offended my Sovereign; you should slap me hard!”
But in Ying Xi’s memory was the scene of being beaten, and he instead tremblingly stopped his right hand.
He couldn’t accept this kind of “play.”
Because he had once been deeply hurt by it.
And every step he took hit Su Xueyi’s fetish exactly, and every step he retreated would lead to the other’s intrusion and induction. This man was stuck to him like glue!
Su Xueyi was a hundred times more difficult to deal with than the Yuantai Emperor!
Ying Xi felt like retching, his stomach churning until he wanted to vomit.
He could only forcibly search for relevant plots in CEO novels and tore off Su Xueyi’s hair crown.
The crown, representing propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame, fell to the ground. It was like being humiliated by the Emperor; Su Xueyi was already so invigorated he was just one step away from ascending to heaven.
And next, Ying Xi tore off his hair ribbon and used it to blindfold Su Xueyi’s eyes.
The burning pain on his skin transitioned into pleasure, and the world before him fell into darkness.
Su Xueyi’s hands trembled as he cradled Ying Xi’s face, their legs pressed tightly together. Sensory deprivation brought infinite hallucinations and fantasies.
Su Xueyi’s lips trembled against his. “Conquer me.”
“Your Majesty, conquer me…”
[Recall.]
Ying Xi disappeared, riding a bright streak of golden light.
Su Xueyi gasped for air, his arms outstretched. He hadn’t gotten Ying Xi, nor had he been able to completely satisfy his craving. He was left alone, pressed tight against and gnawing on a hundred-year-old tree.
“Your Majesty, when did you get back???”
As soon as he landed, Yu Lianjing let out a cry of surprise.
He was a principled eunuch; he couldn’t interfere when the Emperor discussed politics with court officials.
He had been waiting in Weiyang Palace, and in the time it took to turn around, the Emperor was already sitting in the study.
Yu Lianjing’s mind didn’t have many supernatural things in it. He hurried over to pay his respects to Ying Xi, then saw that Ying Xi’s shoulders were covered in leaf fragments; he must have gone to the park with the ministers.
Yu Lianjing busied himself: “This slave will go get you some comfortable clothes. Change out of these, have some snacks, and take a nap to shake off the fatigue of the journey.”
Ying Xi said tiredly, “Prepare a bath.”
Yu Lianjing froze.
The Emperor’s lips were curled downward, and his brow was full of displeasure, so Yu Lianjing didn’t dare to ask what had happened during the park visit.
“Yes.” Yu Lianjing left.
The hot spring steamed; the bath was right inside Weiyang Palace. Ying Xi locked himself inside.
The nauseating feeling of being touched by an outsider was still mixed with childhood memories. Ying Xi’s throat bobbed. “Lang Xun.”
Guard Lang heard the sound of water splashing. Across the hall door, his heart skipped a beat, and a drop of water formed on the tip of his nose. “Your Majesty.”
“Take Su Xueyi—”
Ying Xi originally wanted to say “give Su Xueyi a beating.”
But on second thought, that would actually be satisfying him.
Ying Xi changed his words: “Put the memorials Su Xueyi sent on my bed!”
Lang Xun took the order, not knowing the Emperor was also helpless.
Ying Xi wanted to pierce through Su Xueyi’s name when the Sweetie System wasn’t looking.
“Sweetie.”
The Little Sweetie System quickly popped up: [Your Majesty.]
“Are there items like Mengpo Soup or Water of Forgetfulness in the mall?”
The Sweetie System was dazed. Reading truly made one progress; the Emperor was actually more capable of accepting new things than it had imagined. [No.]
[Your Majesty, we are a Dating System. How can we let users fall out of love so easily?]
[Those kinds of items belong to rare drops—even rarer than Fragrant Gift Boxes.]
Don’t mention the Fragrant Gift Boxes.
The gift boxes had brought him a massive amount of trouble.
The steam made Ying Xi’s skin look milky white, and water droplets rolled down from the ends of his hair. The bronze mirror reflected Ying Xi’s pensive face.
The Little Sweetie System billowed: [Sticky-sticky~]
Ying Xi submerged his shoulders in the water; there was a difference between men and women. “Then that means those items do exist.”
[Do you want to cut off Prime Minister Su’s favorability?]
“Mn.”
[But I don’t think it’s worth it,] the Sweetie System explained. [Aside from being in the BDSM circle, Su Xueyi is truly a good helper. Besides, you only saw the part where his fetish was exposed; this doesn’t count as pathological behavior.]
After speaking, the Sweetie System even presented several scientific reports to Ying Xi.
It circled a line: [See, Prime Minister Su’s situation hasn’t affected his normal work or life.]
“But he affects me,” Ying Xi said. Discomfort crawled over his back, and his stomach felt like it had an empty hole. “I can respect it, but I cannot cooperate.”
But Su Xueyi only craved his cooperation.
“…” The Sweetie System was silent for a few breaths.
Some psychological research showed that loving the BDSM circle belonged to a kind of psychological compensation.
And for someone who had no feeling or even a resistance toward the circle, it was highly possible they considered it violence. This made the Sweetie System professionally guess again that His Majesty hadn’t been treated well as a child.
A smart assistant wouldn’t ask impolite questions.
So, it never dared to deeply explore the past events of Fanlan Hall.
The Sweetie System reduced Ying Xi’s stress: [Your Majesty, actually, he’s obsessed enough with you. If you don’t play with him, it’s not that he can’t be guided. In the future, you can slowly help him quit, reducing the frequency from many to few.]
The Sweetie System told Ying Xi the plan.
Ying Xi’s brows locked; he didn’t want to do it even once.
The next day.
There was a shortage of manpower at court. Organizing a full Grand Assembly might cause all of Chang’an to come to a halt, so Ying Xi only summoned the Ministers of the various departments for a small meeting.
The topic was naturally to select a group of new officials to fill the various vacant positions.
Actually, as long as the treatment wasn’t lowered, expansion was always a good thing.
After all, with more colleagues working in the yamen, the burden on each person would be less.
Among these officials in Chang’an, a group had been rectified, and a group had been sent out. Those who remained were being worked by Su Xueyi until they were almost ready to die at their posts.
As soon as the topic of adding people was brought up, there was a whole group of people praising it.
The heads of the Secretariat each planned how many new people they wanted to ask the Emperor for.
The Emperor should have a list of talents in his hands.
His Majesty had killed so many people and had just reclaimed the Jiangnan territory; he still needed people to work for him.
That talent list could be said to be what every prestigious family, every master’s lineage, and even some well-connected independent households had been stretching their hands out to reach while the Emperor was on his southern expedition, exhausting every means to shove people in.
The newly arisen atmosphere of clean governance was nearly destroyed by this list.
The officials had no objections. The maneuvering happened beforehand; this was the final draft formed by the push of all parties, just waiting for the Emperor’s final approval.
Ying Xi took the initiative to say, “The Prime Minister gave me a list.”
The officials waited for the follow-up.
But Ying Xi steadily took that list away and placed it in a corner of the desk.
The officials felt utterly lost.
Just as they were looking at each other, the Emperor said, “I intend to open an Enke to recruit officials.”
The Imperial Examination system existed in this dynasty, but it had long run parallel with another system—the Public Recommendation System.
Using two methods to select officials was the norm for the court.
Therefore, the officials didn’t think much of it and all bowed. “Your Majesty is wise; this is a blessing for the scholars of the world.”
However, they didn’t know that the recommended list, because of its glaringly ill intentions, had drawn the Emperor’s complete disgust.
Ying Xi announced, “Those recommended on the list are all capable people. In the future, they shall participate in the Imperial Examination together and be granted offices based on their rank.”
“If this works, from now on, I won’t trouble you ministers. In your spare time away from official duties, you won’t have to recruit talents for the court for me. Ministers, what do you think?”
“…”
The officials were prepared for the list they gave the Emperor, but the Emperor’s refusal to accept it was unexpected.
Ying Xi had also thought about it. What he was doing would move a massive amount of interests.
He added in this silence, “I myself, since the southern expedition, will no longer grant offices arbitrarily.”
Ying Xi had summarized valuable experience from Li Yilong’s defeat.
Once benefits only belong to a small group, the majority of the commoners won’t support that court.
Now that he, as the ruler, could act according to the system, he had maxed out his sincerity for reform. Ying Xi felt it should work.
But this was also his rare political naivety.
Because most officials were not him.
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