Marked by a Tyrant After Transmigrating

Moonlight shone from high above and a cool breeze lingered in the night.

Inside the Royal Hunting Grounds of Changlu State in Qiuwei, several elite cavalry units held their torches aloft as they conducted a search within the woods surrounding the camp.

Half an hour ago, the ruler of Changlu was assassinated in his own tent and it was still unknown whether he was dead or alive.

The camp was in an upheaval, ringing with the sound of people’s weeping, shouting, and admonishments. In another tent not far from the ruler’s, a handsome young man was sitting in front of a table, holding a book with both hands as he read.

“Young Master, are you sure you don’t want to go out and check?” On his side, a black-clothed guard brought him a cup of tea and asked in a low voice.

The young man didn’t look up. “No.”

“But if anything should happen to His Majesty……”

Before he could finish, the young man raised his eyelids and glanced at him coldly.

The young man was rather gentle, his features both pleasing and elegant, yet it would appear that he was somewhat weak.

He ought to have been in bed, wearing only a coat with thin lining which lined his slim and slender figure. His face was fair and spotless, apart from a tiny cinnabar mole below his earlobe; an eye-catching bright red that glowed in the light of the charcoal fire.

When the guard looked at him like this, it sent chills down his spine and he didn’t dare to keep looking.

With diffidence, the guard promptly shut up.

“You’ve been with me for a long time. I don’t have to tell you what to say and what not to say.”

The young man turned over a page. “There shouldn’t be a next time. Get out.”

“……Yes!”

“Hold on,” The young man suddenly stopped him. “Take that charcoal brazier away, it’s too hot.”

The guard was slightly taken aback as he looked at the young man.

At some point, the faint aroma of fruity costus rose in the air.

Perhaps because of the toasty charcoal fire, the entire profile of the young man’s face, down to the very roots of his ears, was visibly pink to the naked eye, making the color of the tiny cinnabar mole ever more lurid, adding a hint of charm.

He tugged at his loose neckline with a somewhat impatient look. “What is it?”

“N-Nothing.”

The guard suddenly found it hard to breathe. He didn’t dare to speak any more and removed the charcoal brazier, leaving in a hurry.

The guard didn’t feel right until he was out of the tent, in the blowing night breeze.

Young Master used to fear the cold. Moreover, late autumn has already arrived, the nights are already too chilly, how could it be hot?

Silence reigned in the tent. The young man was sitting upright, straight as a ramrod, while his eyes peered out over the top of the book. Seeing that there was no more movement outside, he heaved a sigh of relief, threw the book on the table, and collapsed as if he had no bones.

“……Finally left.”

About a quarter of an hour ago, Ye Shu transmigrated into this world.

This was originally a book of scheming.

In the book, the three states: Great Yan, Changlu, and Western Xia were set up each as independent regimes, and the male lead, Jin Wang, was the new emperor of Changlu.

This male lead was different from the others.

Jing Wang was a ruthless, cold-blooded, and extremely petty man who would unfailingly take revenge for every minor offence. As he wasn’t favored by the late Emperor, he gradually advanced his forces and entrenched himself into the court at every step in order to kill his own father and brother, and finally seized the throne. On the day of his enthronement ceremony, the court eunuchs who had insulted him as a child were chopped into pieces by him and publicly thrown into a tiger’s cage, where they died being eaten by the tiger.

After ascending the throne, Jin Wang killed treacherous officials and eradicated his dissenters by fair means or foul. After that, he stirred up a war and personally took part in an imperial expedition, conquering the Great Yan and Western Xia in only three years, finally gaining rule over the world.

Ye Shu transmigrated into the book as a cannon fodder of the same name as him.

The original owner was the son of a sinful official whose family had fallen on hard times since he was a child. Fortunately, he met Prince Jin Wang, and stayed with him as his attendant. The original owner and Jin Wang grew up together. After Jin Wang’s ascension to the throne, he made an exception and appointed the original owner as the left prime minister as well as the supervisor of a hundred officials.

However, the original owner and Jin Wang’s political views were at odds, and soon a rift developed between them.

In the third year of Jin Wang’s ascension to the throne, the original owner conspired with foreign enemies to incite rebellion and assassinate the monarch in Qiuwei. But the assasination failed and Ye Shu was condemned by his nine clansmen, becoming the first well-known cannon fodder to be brought down by Jin Wang.

To put things simply, he was just a human tool to daub the male lead for experience.

“What’s this all about……” Lying weakly on the table, Ye Shu listened to the sound of weeping outside the camp with a sore headache.

There was indeed a lot of crying outside. However, no one knew that Jin Wang wasn’t at the camp at all that night.

Long before the original owner plotted the assassination, Jin Wang had already anticipated it, and now what remained in the monarch’s tent was just a fake body.

Once the assassin strikes, the original owner’s plan will fall through and stand exposed, without omission.

Three days after that, Jin Wang would personally lead his troops to surround the original owner’s mansion.

Imprisonment, pillage, and a punishment of death by a thousand cuts.

The original owner lived for only three chapters in the book. At the end of the third chapter, the original owner was cut down to a mere skeleton, pushed down the city gate tower by Jin Wang himself, and then trampled into mud by a horde of cavalry. 

—Deep hatred indeed.

Ye Shu shivered and couldn’t sit still.

All else aside, it was a bit of a tragic death.

It was already bad enough that he had somehow transmigrated into a book. He didn’t want to die just like that.

Definitely not; he had to run, with no delay.

This tool of a man will be whoever he wants to be. He won’t be a minister to somebody!

The camp was in such chaos that no one noticed a figure slipping out of the camp quietly.

Ye Shu knelt down by the edge of the stream as he cupped his hands and washed his face with water, his fingers somewhat trembling.

Drops of water slid down along his neck into his collar, leaving a meandering trail of water.

He tugged uneasily at his collar.

Why is it……so hot?

The Royal Hunting Grounds were located in the mountainous forests on the outskirts of the capital. As it was, once again, late autumn, the mountain breeze gusted at night, but it didn’t feel half as cold to Ye Shu.

He had been so caught up in the panic of his transmigration earlier that he hadn’t noticed anything strange about his body.

Only now that the night breeze was blowing, did he become a bit more sober.

The indescribable heat was burning like a prairie fire, and a thin layer of sweat soon broke out on Ye Shu’s forehead, even his breath burned up.

Ye Shu looked down at his hands and a guess suddenly surfaced in his mind.

He wasn’t…drugged, was he?

Which twat had dared to drug him???

—

“Not even one caught?”

A tall canopy of trees obscured the moonlight, and a figure dressed in the garb of an imperial guard stood among the trees.

Behind him, the one at the forefront spoke up gingerly, “Y-Your Majesty, that group of traitors was extremely cunning and well-prepared, we really were……”

“Unable to, or unwilling to?”

Jin Wang spoke softly and smoothly. The imperial guards behind him all dropped to their knees. “Your Majesty, I beg your pardon! This subordinate would never dare to betray Your Majesty!”

“Never dare?” Jin Wang finally looked back, his pair of handsome eyes were cold against the moonlight as his gaze faintly fell on the imperial guard’s head. “This one, drag him away and chop off his head.”

“Your Majesty, have mercy! Your Majesty, have mercy!”

Screaming wails resounded through the woods. The group gazed at each other in speechless despair, not daring to move.

“Well?” When Jin Wang lifted his eyes, the crowd trembled at his gaze and immediately two men stepped forward to drag the man away. 

As the wails gradually faded away, the forest then became quiet enough that even a dropping pin could be heard. Jin Wang calmly said, “If he’s not found before he breathes his last breath, you know the consequences.”

The assemblage hurriedly answered “yes” in succession and hotfooted it away.

—

Jin Wang was walking within the woods when all of a sudden, a strange sound came from within the darkness behind him. His footsteps halted and a golden needle instantly appeared in his fingertips.

A luscious, fruity fragrance spread through the woods.

Jin Wang’s expression slightly changed.

This smell was……

Before he could react, a figure crashed into his embrace. Jin Wang was rammed back half a step, his back against the coarse tree trunk.

At the same time, a piece of black silk covered his eyes, obscuring his line of sight.

“Don’t move.” The words lowered in his ears were soft and faint, shaking beyond recognition.

The luscious, fruity fragrance then filled his nostrils.

The fragrance was quite mild, like a green plum after rainfall, as if he was lured through the darkness to have a bite. 

Ye Shu was having a hard time right now.

Upon discovering that he might have been drugged, his first instinct was to get out of there before the drug took full effect. But who knew that that forest was so big and the path so rugged that he would get lost shortly after entering the woods.

Ye Shu walked alone in the forest for a long time, his body getting hotter and hotter under the effects of that drug.

Furthermore, he couldn’t relieve himself at all. He wanted……wanted someone to help him.

“I’ve been drugged,” Ye Shu inhaled lightly and then grievously said, “……can you save me.”

A long silence.

The body in his arms was burning hot. Jin Wang put away the needle without moving a muscle, raising his hand to hug the other party’s slim waist, causing a shiver as his fingers slipped past the abdomen.

The luscious, fruity fragrance suddenly became intense.

“Want me to help you?” Jin Wang seemed to find it amusing and asked softly, “Do you know who I am?”

“You…… You’re wearing an imperial guard’s clothes.”

Ye Shu grabbed the other party’s arm and held it tightly like a life-saving straw. “Help me find someone…… to detoxify. I can repay you…… After five days, go to the tea shop ten miles outside the city, look under the table on the second floor at the end of a private room…… That money will keep you clothed and fed for the rest of your life and you won’t have to shed your last ounce of strength for a living.”

The original owner was billowingly powerful and wealthy in Changlu. Ye Shu had already made up his mind to run far away, he couldn’t take those possessions with him, but it wasn’t a problem to give some of them to this person.

There was no one else in that forest and he couldn’t get out, this was the only solution Ye Shu could come up with.

But the man just chuckled.

That voice was extremely low and deep, like a small hammer hitting Ye Shu’s heart.

“I don’t want the money.”

Ye Shu’s legs were too soft for him to stand on now, and his eyes were both red. “Then what do you want?”

The man retorted, “You’re the one begging me, shouldn’t you think about it yourself?”

“I……I don’t know,” Ye Shu’s consciousness gradually blurred, his forehead resting on the man’s shoulder, and in a tiny voice, he said, “If you help me out, you can……have whatever you want.”

Ye Shu leaned in closely.

After being deceived, his senses became clearer than usual.

The fruity fragrance seemed to be a hundredfold stronger than before, and the sweetness of the scent became all-pervasive, drawing out the primal instincts of the people’s heart.

Jin Wang had never thought before that the young Prime Minister who dared to contend with him in the court and commit the crime of treason would differentiate into a Kunjun.

Some of the world’s men and women would face a second differentiation when they reach adulthood. Qianjun were mostly rulers; powerful as well as high in status, while Kunjun were relatively humble in power and possessed the ability to procreate.

With Ye Shu’s temperament, Jin Wang originally thought that he should become a famous Qianjun.

How interesting.

The corners of Jin Wang’s sharply defined lips lifted slightly, and under the sweet, fruity fragrance of green plums, another new flavor spread through the forest.

The fragrance of Qianjun’s faith incense was cold and fierce, extremely aggressive, full of mellowness and rich like the dusty, long-forgotten fragrance of distilled spirits.

Ye Shu whined impatiently.

He seemed to finally sense the danger in this man and stumbled backward half a step, only to be yanked back by force.

Their clothing grazed against the blades of grass with a soft sound and they rolled into a patch of meadow.

The black silk over Jin Wang’s eyes finally slipped off, revealing those handsome eyes akin to those of birds of prey.

Jin Wang looked condescendingly at the man in his embrace.

Ye Shu was thoroughly muddled from the fall. In the meantime, he frowned while still following his instincts to get into Jin Wang’s embrace. His head was tilted to one side, showing the tiny mole by his earlobe that had already turned dark red as blood.

That was a Kunjun’s distinctive mark.

He didn’t even notice himself that he was in the differentiation phase, and was still muddle-headed.

Jin Wang ran his fingertips harshly over the gaily colored tiny mole, forcing out a few sweet hums.

Ye Shu couldn’t stand this kind of torment and minutely struggled in his arms. “Don’t you……”

Jin Wang’s tone was insipid. “Do the events of tonight have anything to do with you?”

“No……”

Jin Wang deepened the strength of his hand. “Speak.”

“……won’t tell you,” Ye Shu had already been muddled by the desires in his body. He buried his head in the man’s embrace and murmured, “……Seeing someone dying and not saving them, you’re too bad, why should I tell you.”

Still acting all righteous.

Jin Wang was about to get angry, but also found it laughable.

In these three years of ascending the throne, Ye Shu seemed to have changed into a different person and started to oppose him in all respects. But tonight, he felt that the Ye Shu of the past had returned.

The one who……had catered to his every demand and had accompanied him for many years.

In his embrace, the man’s collar had almost entirely come apart through his struggles and Jin Wang finally lifted his hand to cover it up. “There’s no one else here, just me. What do you think will happen?”

Ye Shu gave a soft whimper.

And he was answered by the ever stronger fragrance of fruity woods.

Giving up all resistance, like a ripe green plum that is ready to be picked as it overflowed with fruity fragrance.

Jin Wang gazed at him deeply and finally smiled in satisfaction. “Very well.”

The moonlight, through the canopy of the trees, cast dappled shadows, and it was as if a gauze was drawn around the two who were in an intimate embrace.

Jin Wang forcefully clasped the other man in his arms, and the murmurs in his ear were stirred broken and weak. “Ye Shu, Ye Qian, you’d better not have betrayed Gu.”

He lowered his head and covered the tiny mole by Ye Shu’s earlobe, nibbling and pecking at it with his mouth. The strong scent faith incense was then released.

Ye Shu’s body couldn’t stop trembling as he was held in Jin Wang’s arms.

As intimately as a lover.

“Otherwise, Gu is going to make you pay……”

Author’s Note:

First and foremost to avoid confusion. 

1 Ancient ABO setting. Qianjun=Alpha, Kunjun=Omega, Faith Incense=Pheromone. Personal settings are all over the place, thinking of adding more.

2 MPREG. Little sweetcakes.