Lang Yuan almost wanted to vomit blood.

Ah no, he is really going to vomit blood.

The nonsense interjection of the First Concubine halted the retreating figure of the Empress Candidate. The attention that was already on Lang Yuan shifted to the standing lady with red robes. She was clenching a brush on her one hand, the other pointing impolitely to Lang Yuan. The Youth has no force to look at her so he remained standing half leaning to the maids helping him to walk.

Zhong Song watching this scene unfold shoots Lou MuLan a glare.

"What is the meaning of this, Lady Concubine Lou," Zhong Song asked, his voice a bit louder than usual. Lou MuLan gave the scholar a meaningful look while holding her nose up.

"Imperial Scholar, can't you see? He cheated," Lou MuLan retorted.

"And in what basis are you accusing him?" Damn, Zhong Song wanted to finish this deal already.

"Did you not see? How do you think he can finish the test that fast? He must have known the answer beforehand. He cheated!" Lou MuLan insisted.

In which, is really reasonable. A test that takes hours and days to finish, and yet Lang Yuan finished it within less than fifteen minutes...

"I am asking you, Lady Concubine Lou, in what basis are you accusing him? We all see how he finished answering the test," Zhong Song defended. "Are you aware of the punishment that you will receive if this accusation would be proven false?"

Not only Lou MuLan would be eliminated from the contest, her chance of expulsion is also high. The maids supporting Lang Yuan can feel the quick lowering of Lang Yuan's temperature. His pulse is also starting to fade. With worried faces, they look at Zhong Song. At least him go just now!
"Let the Empress Candidate go," Zhong Song ordered.   Lou MuLan who saw the exchanged sneered. She made a mocking laugh and pointed Zhong Song this time.

"I see, so you two are scheming!" Lou MuLan blurted out. "You are the one who gave the answers to him."

"What?" Zhong Song looks at her with a confused stare. "What do you mean?"

"It's impossible that he can get the answers without your help. As what I have known, you have been supporting him from the first right? You were teaching him some lessons before the contest start. It is possible that you also gave him the answers this time knowing that he might not win, like what happened to him with the first competition," Lou MuLan said.

Everyone knows that Zhong Song was appointed as Lang Yuan's tutor. That is due to the fact that Lang Yuan is a human and he needed to know a lot of stuffs especially the information about this world. Lang Yuan is not stupid but he is completely ignorant to this world's standards. Like how he didn't know that solving math questions in five minutes is an unusual occurrence.

The people started to gossip. It is true that Zhong Song is relatively close to the Empress Candidate. Maybe he did really give him the answers? Lang Yuan is a human. In order for him to win the competition, a powerful being should back him up. Zhong Song might be a half-breed but it is better than a human is. He is also the emperor's brother.

Then, if the brother favored the Candidate Empress, and the emperor 'liked' the Empress Candidate, what is the use of this competition?

From the start, the emperor is already planning to marry Lang Yuan. Whatever place they hold the wedding, be it on the human realm or here, they can still get the marking. Then what happened? The news of the concubines objecting the wedding is also known. But the decision will still depend on the emperor. To whom he will sleep with still depends on him. 

After all, [Empress] is just a title. Even if Lang Yuan will be demoted as a consort, he still carried the most important part of the royal family: the birth of an heir.

Though, unknown to all would be Lang Yuan's action at the end of the conversation. He accepted the challenge. He told everyone that he would do whatever trial the concubines want him to do. Even Yu XueQin who can forfeit the decision let Lang Yuan do whatever he wanted. He respected the decision of the human and also wanted to see if Lang Yuan can really handle the 'provocation' he uttered.

But Lang Yuan doesn't have a clear memory of that event so who should be blamed for this?

"Excuse my intrusion," out of blue General Gu spoke. "Imperial Scholar Zhong was not able to perform his duties due to today's event. He has been busy with the accommodations for the arrival of the emperors. He only entered the study once. You can ask a few witnesses for the credibility of this information."

The scholars who are together with Zhong Song nodded furiously. it is true that Zhong Song stayed beside them all the time. Actually, the poor scholar has been handing every document from left to right, sprinting from here to there, just to finish the work for the limited time. If there's any spare time for Zhong Song to rest, that would be for him to have at least a breather.

"But it doesn't mean that he has no ways to give it to Empress Candidate, right?"

The one who spoke was Emperor Tian YingJie. The arrogant emperor is boringly looking at his nails as if the cuticle is more important than the existence of life. He pretended to blow the invisible dust, and then his gaze dropped to Lou MuLan. He propped his chin against his hand and deepened his glare to the woman.

"It is possible to send the answers to the 'human' without actually being present on the scene. You know, like how shadows will never leave traces especially when the light covers the dark," the arrogant emperor said.

Lou MuLan who was surprised by the sudden interjection of the emperor only looked at him once. But the words he said had some deep meaning to it that she quickly avoided the gaze and looked down. She started sweating, large beads of water trickled down to her neck.

"But it is impossible, right?" The next one to talk was the youngest emperor, Mu BoLin. "He neglected his work. How could he have time to do something like that? Also, three of us just arrived right now. We gave the questions earlier. The only one who knows the answer would be us. Even the Imperial Scholar did not take with the question-making, right?"

It must be because he was still a child to their eyes that they only look at Mu BoLin with gentle eyes. Though, the arrogant emperor only shrugged his shoulders. On the other hand, Zhong Song who was listening had his heart pierced by a poison arrow. When the word [NEGLECTED] dropped, the guilt on his heart swelled up.

True, he neglected his duties to the Candidate Empress. He neglected to watch him, to monitor his health, and due to this carelessness, Lang Yuan is suffering. If only he focused on watching the human and let the other work for the accommodations then he could have given Lang Yuan the preemptive measures and oriented him to what he should do in the contest.

While the men are discussing this useless banter, Lang Yuan is already on his wits end. He has been cursing since earlier, wanted to utter any profanity he knows to the faces of these men that has been stalling time. His condition is getting worse. He wanted to get the medicine and deal with it. But these stupid dragon emperors are just discussing this like no big deal. So to end this, he said:

"I didn't cheated," he muttered, trying to force out his remaining warm breath out.

Before anyone could retort to the words the youth said, another emperor stood up with a clap. Chang MingYu gathered the attention of the people.

"We are disturbing the other candidates so how about we settle this," he said. "I will ask a question right now to our dear Empress Candidate. If he can answer the question, then it means that he didn't cheated and he is free to go. Our dear Lady Candidate Lou will let go of the accusations and will continue doing her job. What can you say?"

Chang MingYu is Yu XueQin's mortal enemy. Ever since the two dragons met when they are still young, there is this war that always brewing between them. Nobody really knows the main reason why these two fights like cats and dogs, but one can tell that their hatred was deep. Maybe if the two were left alone with daggers on arms, the next thing that will happen would be bloody brawl between them.

The proposal seems to be valid. They thought that it was Chang MingYu's 'first' visit (without fighting) to the [WORLD] realm. His hostility towards the emperor and the imperial scholar was ever so present. If he will give the question, nobody will doubt his relationship towards the Candidate Empress. Actually, this is a disadvantage to the Empress Candidate. Chang MingYu is as ruthless like Yu XueQin. He will never give an easy question.

Nobody objected. After all, he is the most qualified person to do this job. The first five emperors who arrived first will be questioned if they met Lang Yuan. Mu BoLin is still too young to ask such question. And Ting YingJie does not care to whatever will happen to this contest. With Chang MingYu holding the floor, everyone anticipated.

"However, there will be a condition," he added. "Since I will be asking him a new question, the Empress Candidate will be given one point. This will serve as his credit for answering more questions."

Lou MuLan lowered her head and kneeled down before Chang MingYu. She can't see any problem. "I apologized, Your Majesty. I will accept your proposal."

Chang Mingyu grinned. "Okay... then..."

He looked over to Lang Yuan who was still glued to his position. The youth only turned around to face Chang MingYu. When he was to about to walk to come in the middle, the emperor raised his hand.

"There's no need to exert force. Just stay where you are. I will ask the question by mouth," Chang MingYu said.

The maids reluctantly let go of Lang Yuan. His ghastly appearance is becoming evident to the watchers. The five judges noticed the paleness of the youth. Even Lady Kang wanted to come over to see what happened to her child. But Lang Yuan stood firmly. His crimson eyes directly looking at Chang MingYu. Receiving the gentle gaze, Chang MingYu could only clench his hand.

"Then... I will ask..."

There was extreme silence. The sharp hearing of the dragons can hear Lang Yuan's eneven breathing. It was during this time that they realized that the Empress Candidate is in a bad condition. Chang MingYu moved his lips and said...

"What is one plus one?"
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The author has something to say:

Author: What's with Lang Yuan and Yan JiaYi's relationship in the past?

Lang Yuan: ...um...

Yan JiaYi: He's my...

Yu XueQin: *grabs Lang Yuan* Of course, that's not important anymore. He's already mine now.

Author: Anyone misses Yu XueQin? You will be seeing him more from now on. Well, all the actors are now in place. I'm ready ha ha ha ha

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Yay! I updated!

I wanted to share the fanarts made by a reader nekota96 but it's posted in Instagram. 😂😂😂

Her works are sooooooooo good and sooooooooo cute 😍😍😍