Chapter 49 His Tears
The red candles burned halfway down, their wax tears piling like red coral.
The chamber still carried the lingering scent of passion. The quilt lay in disarray and my fingertips glowed with lazy pink.
Yuwen Huang lay on his side beside me.
One hand propped his head.
His ink-black hair spilled loose, and his eyes resembled a sated beast, full of endless tenderness and possession as they lingered on the marks he had left on my neck.
"Still hurting?"
His thumb gently stroked the old arrow scar beneath my shoulder blade, his voice hoarse and low after the act.
I gave him a lazy glance and refused to answer the obvious question.
My whole body felt dismantled, sore and soft as though it no longer belonged to me.
The moment felt right.
I propped myself up slightly. The silk quilt slid from my shoulders, revealing graceful collarbones and more tempting red traces.
His eyes darkened and his Adam's apple bobbed.
I ignored him and reached beneath the pillow to retrieve the warm jade-like porcelain bottle.
Birth Potion.
The original scheme, the later hesitation—now it had become an indescribable expectation.
"Your Majesty..."
I held the bottle before him, fingertips slightly warm, voice deliberately calm.
"It is time to fulfill the promise."
Back when he had lost his memory, I had angrily planned to make him personally give birth to an heir.
Now it felt... like we were choosing a future together.
Yuwen Huang's gaze landed on the bottle and he froze.
Then he looked up at me, eyes complex—with surprise, understanding, and a deep pain I could not read.
He did not take it.
Instead he suddenly reached out and gripped my wrist so tightly the bottle nearly slipped.
"Ah Heng..."
His voice cracked with a sob.
I was stunned.
The next second, the man who had dominated the bed moments ago suddenly had red eyes. Large tears rolled down and scalded the back of my hand.
"Don't..."
He shook his head like a child terrified of abandonment and pulled me—and the bottle—tightly into his arms, voice shattered.
"I don't want..."
He cried as he spoke, sobs coming in gasps, full of grievance.
"I didn't know it would make you suffer like this..."
His words tumbled out incoherently while his arms tightened as if I might do something foolish the moment he let go.
"The pain of childbirth is like walking before the gates of hell... For a man to give birth is nine deaths and one life... Ah Heng, I don't want you to take any risk..."
He lifted his head, eyes blurred with tears. Those once sharp, deep eyes now held only pure fear and plea.
"What does the throne matter? What does the world matter? I only want you safe beside me... nothing else is important..."
"If anyone must bear this risk, it should be me! I am the one who forced you. I am the bastard!"
I looked at him.
I looked at this arrogant emperor, now reduced to crying like a helpless child over the bottle in my hand.
No.
Wait.
I had never planned to take it myself.
I had always intended for him to take it...