Heart and soul!
Qi Mingyue's heart shook, he knew that his soul did not come from this world but was brought from another world. After his surprise subsided, he asked calmly, "How is this Celestial you speak of different from ordinary people?"
"The spirit of a Celestial is in tune with nature, they can easily make people feel close and their perception is sharper than that of ordinary people. When faced with danger, they can react faster than others. Their spirit and heart are in congruence with the spirit of Tianyin, that's why they're born with the foundation for practising Tianyin. Even if they don’t use an instrument, they still have the ability to confuse people!" Practising Tianyin had the effect of clearing the mind and tranquillizing the spirit, it wasn't easy for her to feel close to others. She, however, wanted to be close to him, all because of his qualifications as a Celestial.
Although Qi Mingyue felt that his sixth sense was sharper than others, he thought he had acquired it through countless life and death experiences. He never thought it was because he was different from ordinary people! In retrospect, there were many times when a feeling that came from nowhere saved his life...
"That day, if I didn't think Yao had no malice, I wouldn't have been so embarrassed." He smiled bitterly and somewhat accepted her words of him being a Celestial. Most probably, the reason he felt a sense of peace here was because he was attracted to Tianyin.
"That's right, your soul is in harmony with Tianyin and you're also drawn towards it instinctively. That's why you easily fell into the power of Nian Chen and aren't able to extricate yourself even now, just because Tianyin is in harmony with both your mind and soul. It's difficult to get rid of its influence."
"Is there a solution?"
"Yes, yes, it depends on whether you are willing." Jiang Yao narrowed her eyes and smiled, walked over to the scaffold, reached out to tease Little Black and intentionally stopped talking.
"Yao--," his warning trailed off, Qi Mingyue could naturally see that she did it intentionally but when he saw her with a smile on her face, she appeared just like the Jiang Yao of that day. Unconsciously, he also curved his lips into a hint of a smile, "say it now."
"Nothing much, just worship me as your teacher." After that, she couldn't help laughing out loud and lean against the bookcase, shaking with laughter.
"By worshipping you as my teacher, I can get rid of Nian Chen? Is Yao joking?"
Jiang Yao straightened up, swung her sleeves and assumed the posture of a master, "How? Worship me as your teacher, I'll teach you the secret of clearing your mind. The first step of Tianyin is the Clear Heart Technique. To control the mind of others, you must calm your own mind to first to avoid getting confused by the guqin sounds and get rid of the power of Nian Chen. Are you willing?"
Her long hair was messily tied behind her head and her appearance was not particularly gorgeous. On her beautiful face, only her bright eyes were conspicuous but the smile full of enthusiasm made her whole person shine instantly, revealing a bit of heroic posture and her clean brilliance that made people want to laugh with her.
Towards such a woman, Qi Mingyue nodded, "If it's Yao, there's no problem with it." Indeed, it was as Father Emperor said, he easily pitied women. But Yao was so cute, how could he not like her? He just hoped when Father came to know about it, he won't be angry.
"It's a deal! But you still have to call me by my name, it would be really unbearable to hear Mingyue call me Master!"
"Why can't you stand it? It's a blessing to have a disciple like me."
"Master said it's forbidden, then it's forbidden!"
"Yes, yes, Mingyue knows. You should hurry up and start teaching me the mind skills or I'll fall asleep again." He rubbed his eyes, it seemed that the power of Nian Chen had risen again.
Jiang Yao quickly approached him, whispered in his ear and began to teach him the Clear Heart Technique.
•×•×•×•
In the past few days, he had been practising the Clear Heart Technique handed down by Jiang Yao and the power of Nian Chen had been eliminated immediately after he tried it. Even the qi in his body was enriched and calmed down. It seemed that it was a blessing in disguise.
On this day, he went to Ningxi Pavilion to greet Consort Mother and drank some sweet soup. Different from the last snack, it had a special aroma but wasn't too sweet. He wanted to bring some back for Father Emperor. He had no intention of glancing out the window but saw a familiar figure by chance.
The man hurrying away was the plainly-dressed Han Ziqi. Turning his head away casually, he smiled faintly. It seemed that Consort Mother was still involved with him. She wanted to have a romance but still often went to Father Emperor to ask for an audience, did she want to have both?
Sure enough, he didn't have to worry about consort mother. She should have thought about it clearly and must have a plan in mind. He just hoped that she wouldn't choose the wrong path. As her son, he still held some feelings for her.
"What are you[1] looking at?" An Ruolan raised the jade spoon, added some more to his bowl, glanced at the courtyard outside the window and retracted her eyes gently.
[1] She calls him HuangEr here which translates to Emperor's son, can be understood as prince.
"This child just saw that the flowers in the yard are blooming well. What is Consort Mother worried about?" He took another sip of the sweet soup.
An Ruolan shook her head with a smile. "Just asking casually. By the way, this sweet soup... is it palatable?"
Qi Mingyue praised, "It's sweet but not greasy, there is also a light fragrance. Consort Mother's craft is indeed good."
"I'm glad you like it." An Ruolan smiled lightly, then lowered her head and appeared to have something in mind. After a moment of silence, she suddenly looked up and said to him, "Since you had your hundred-day celebration, I have seldom seen you. After such a long time, I always felt a little alienated from you. These days, you often come to visit me, I'm very happy. I hope you can understand the difficulties of your Consort Mother. Don’t blame your Mother for failing to accompany you during your growth."
"Why does Consort Mother say this? Was there anything wrong with this child's conduct that made Mother sad?"
"This concubine is alright, just seeing that you have grown up, I suddenly felt emotional. After finishing the sweet soup, you should go back. His Majesty seems to be dissatisfied with you coming here. The day before yesterday, he told me not to keep you for long and said that you were unwell and shouldn't move."
Where was it not suitable for him to move? It was just that Father Emperor did not want him to move around here. "I heard that Consort Mother went to the Imperial Study to meet Father Emperor and also brought some snacks. This sweet soup tastes good, it's sweet and palatable, Father Emperor would like it, if not--"
"Okay, go ahead. I will send some to His Majesty tomorrow, I hope he won't dislike it."
In fact, Father Emperor and he had similar tastes, neither of them liked sweet things. If the soup was anything like the Luotong flower cakes from last time, then Father Emperor would be disgusted. "This child will go back."
After bidding farewell to Consort An, Qi Mingyue planned to return to Xuantian Palace. When passing by the Imperial Study, he saw several concubines waiting in front of the door, holding all kinds of pastries and soups in their hands. It seemed that as soon as Jiang Yao suffered, the harem began to become lively.
After having several meals, the sky grew dim. Qi Xutian walked impatiently into his bedchamber.
Qi Mingyue undressed and planned to go to bed, upon seeing the look on his face, he smiled, "My Father Emperor is surrounded by flowers, it must be difficult to withstand the grace of beauties. Looking at your temperament, I'm afraid that there are still a lot of people. I don't know what you were forced to do to appear so tired."
Qi Xutian leaned lazily against the door and heard the joke in his words, and smirked, "Forced? Your Father Emperor is indeed pitiful, I was forced to eat a lot of things that were that were hard to swallow, but who asked a certain someone to covet me exclusively? For him, I can't provoke the harem."
While looking at Qi Mingyue lying on the bed, he took off his hair crown and let his long hair fall. Then, he began to undo his robe slowly and raised his hand to show off all his charm, "I haven't favoured those people for a long time, they are anxious. I'm not coaxing them appropriately because this certain someone would be unhappy, it makes me feel helpless and sad. MingEr must tell me, who makes your Father have such grievances?"
Laughing out loud at his words, Qi Mingyue sat up and leaned his back against the bed's headboard. "If even you don't know, how can you expect me to know? It's impossible." Under the reflection of the luminous night pearl, Qi Xutian's proportionate and alluring body made his heart stir. His eyes were drawn towards him involuntarily as he scanned his honey-coloured skin and the texture of the defined muscles on his chest and abdomen. The half-open robe made his bare chest look even more attractive. As his clothes fell one by one, the view in front of him caused his teenager's body to begin to heat up slightly.
Qi Xutian was still looking into his eyes, revealing an ambiguous and seductive wicked smile. Soon enough, all the clothes on his body fell to the ground, leaving everything bare. He walked towards the bed under the fiery gaze of the young man, leaned over to whisper softly in his ear making his hot breath fan against it, "I'm going to take a bath, do you want to follow me inside?"
Qi Mingyue barely managed to turn his eyes away and shook his head, "Father Emperor should go by himself. I have already washed before and I'll be going to sleep now." If he went in with him, then he wouldn't let him go. Let alone he himself couldn't guarantee that under the deliberate temptation of his Father, he wouldn't stray from taking a bath and end up doing something else.
It seemed that his MingEr's willpower was very firm and he could endure so much. Qi Xutian sighed with regret, got up and walked away to take a bath.
When Qi Xutian came back wearing his inner robe, he saw that Qi Mingyue was still sitting by the side of the bed, waiting for him and hadn't slept. "You still haven't gone to sleep? Waiting for me?"
"There is something I need to tell you."
"Speak, what's the matter? Is it related to Jiang Yao?" MingEr went back to Ranxin Pavilion a few days ago and afterwards, he didn't see him having nightmares while sleeping. He didn't hear him explain the reason, so he thought that the matter was solved.
"Actually related to her. There is another thing I need to tell you, I have worshipped her as my teacher." In the palace, Wu Yao had taken the role of his personal shadow guard and protected him in the dark. Other shadow guards weren't allowed to get close to him. They could know his location but weren't allowed to investigate his words and deeds. Father Emperor also allowed him. Therefore, if something happened, the two would tell each other instead of getting information from others.
"Worship her as your teacher? MingEr wants to learn her Tianyin?" As far as he knew, Tianyin wasn't for everyone to learn. Even Jiang Yao was barely able to learn it.
"It's not that I want to learn but have to learn." Then he told Qi Xutian about everything he came to know in Ranxin Pavilion as well as about the Celestial being Jiang Yao talked about. He also mentioned the reason why he had to practice Tianyin.
"Jiang Yao is certainly lucky to get such a cute apprentice like MingEr. She can get close to you from time to time, it really makes me doubt her intentions." Qi Xutian snorted coldly in humour.
Qi Mingyue understood that he wasn't displeased and felt relieved. He really did not want to make his Father hate Yao because of him. She was a woman who stayed in the palace for Father Emperor, and most probably loved him deeply, but reluctantly accepted the feelings between them both father and son. Even then, she still faced him without any ill feelings.
"If you don't want Yao and I to be too close, might as well employ another musician to teach me. Now, I am just learning the practice of Tianyin. It's not necessary for me to choose the same instrument as her, I can learn something else."
Qi Xutian heard how he addressed her and squeezed his waist, "Don't call her name like this in front of me, are you trying to make me angry? Also, you always go to Ningxi Pavilion recently, could it be that you miss your Mother? Or do you feel sorry for her?"
"Is Father eating vinegar? Just for a form of address and for visiting Consort Mother more often?" He lay sideways on Qi Xutian's chest and looked at the man under him seriously. Since frankly confessing their feelings, Father Emperor had become more and more domineering. As long as he got close to a woman, he would be unhappy.
Qi Xutian encircled his body and gently caressed his back. "I can't help it. I just don't want to see you close to others. You must remember that you belong to me, don't be attentive to anyone else regardless of their gender, alright?"
Qi Mingyue sighed helplessly, raised his hand and slowly touched Qi Xutian's face with his fingertips, sketching its outline, "Father is really unreasonable, so domineering, wanton, sly, fickle, cruel, and ruthless. Although you are tall and handsome, you are too much of a casanova. Considering everything, I should stay far away from you."
Qi Xutian narrowed his eyes and smiled with amusement, "Oh? Then why are you still in my arms and never left?"
Was he being forced to say it? Qi Mingyue caressed Qi Xutian's face and said for the first time seriously, "Because I was so moved by this kind of Father. Even if you're my father, even if I have to violate ethics, I acknowledge it all."
"MingEr..." Finally, he heard these words. Qi Xutian suddenly embraced him, pressing his body against him closely as if guarding a treasure and several kisses fell on him.
"So you can rest assured. Don't mind that I am close to a woman, I was born with a preference for men. You are the only one that makes me feel emotional, no one else can make me care."
Qi Xutian stared at him as he said these words. Such a serious youngster, he almost couldn’t wait to have him right away but he restrained himself from kissing his pink lips, fearing that he would hurt his body if he didn't control himself.
Qi Mingyue saw his expression and smiled. He took the initiative to encircle Qi Xutian's neck and captured his lips.
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