Wolf King And His Fox Consort [BL]

After making the announcement to his mother, it was only fair that Chu Yun and Xiao Zai called everyone together to introduce the twins formally and receive everyone's well-wishes and gifts.

By the end of it Chu Yun thought his polite smile would be stuck in place. Something Gu Wei didn't fail to notice when he approached him with a knowing look in his eyes.

"Almost over now," he said, touching the top of Xiao Yin's forehead with two fingers. "You'll have your children all to yourself soon."

Chu Yun narrowed his eyes at him. "I don't mind other people paying them attention."

Gu Wei's knowing look stayed in place. "I'm sure."

He was saved from having to defend himself by the appearance of the Queen Dowager. She looked very dignified, although absent the finery she'd used to war when Xiao An had been King. But if anything, she looked much healthier now.

Her skin looked less sallow, and even her rheumy eyes looked clearer. She approached Chu Yun with a rare smile. "Well, as expected the two of you made pretty children."

Chu Yun thanked her politely, but couldn't help preening a little at the praise. His opinion might be biased, but he thought his children were the most beautiful babies in the world. Especially now that they had outgrown their turnip phase.

The Queen Dowager didn't touch the twins but she smiled kindly at them.

"And neither of them is an alpha?" she asked.

Chu Yun smiled tightly. "No. They're either betas or omegas, too soon to tell which."

Surprising him, she kept smiling. "Well, that will mean more work for you and Xiao Zai, but I'm sure it's nothing the two of you can't handle, considering all that came before."

"Of course you won't be able to have any more children," Gu Wei interjected, cutting a shrewd look to Chu Yun and answering a question that had been circling around his mind. "Unless you're willing to wait twenty years until the next batch of pills are refined."

"Only if Xiao Zai carries them this time," he said, with a smile.

His children were the rightful heirs of the Zui throne, and the people of Zui would have to make peace with it.

It wasn't the people Chu Yun was worried about, not after the reforms Xiao Zai was going to implement. But they could always seize and redistribute the nobility's land if they proved too troublesome.

The Queen's Dowager unusually clear eyes had a glint to them. She touched Chu Yun's elbow with her wizened hand and drifted away towards the other guests.

"She seems to be in a good mood," he remarked to Gu Wei.

"Why wouldn't she? When everything she set into motion is coming to fruition."

Chu Yun shot him a quizzical look but Gu Wei was already walking away, unreadable as ever.

Xiao Zai was locked in an animated discussion between Chu Hean, Lieba Chun and Chu Yun's parents, and Chu Yun was eager to join them and find out what had the four of them so excited when Tan Ruo stopped him with a polite wave.

"It's been so long since we talked," she said, voice laced with pleasure.

"Sister Tan is right, it has been too long." He walked with her towards the shade of a nearby plum tree. "I hope all has been well with Sister Tan and Minister Song."

She fanned herself with a smile, making the thin silks of her robes flutter in the breeze. "Everything is fine, but she has a lot of work on her shoulders with the reduced number of ministers right now."

"That might change soon."

Her eyes widened. "Is that so?" her tone was leading, eager for gossip, but Chu Yun only nodded.

"The twins are lovely, congratulations," she said, shrewdly changing subject. "You might not know this but no one in Haolin is talking about anything else, from the fishmonger to the courtesans, everyone expects the royal twins to have some heaven granted talent."

Chu Yun grimaced. "As long as they're not expecting them to be alphas."

"I don't think that is as much a topic of discussion. You should be worried instead that they're hoping that the children will be able to fly, or bring rains from the skies."

"Right now they can't even walk so I'm afraid the people of Haolin will have to be disappointed."

Tan Ruo smiled again. "Well, the expectations for them are very high indeed, since everyone already thinks so highly of their parents."

Chu Yun couldn't hide his surprise; nor his delight. "Really?"

"His Royal Highness will have do disguise himself as a commoner one day and walk into any teahouse in Haolin, to hear for himself how every second toast is to the King's long rule, and the Consort's health."

"Maybe soon they'll have even more reason to wish Xiao Zai a thousand year rule."

Tan Ruo was barely holding herself back from asking what he meant by that, and Chu Yun would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the expectant look on her face.

Their good cheer was interrupted by Hua Nanyi's sudden frazzled appearance.

"I've been informed that there is someone outside the palace walls requesting an audience ," she chanced a quick look towards Tan Ruo, who excused herself with a polite bow. "An elderly blind man, accompanied by a young girl, who claims to have been Chu Hean's teacher."

A silent look passed between the two of them. But with that description alone Chu Yun would have been able to identify the old Master of Harmonious Resonance.

Chu Hean was still chatting animatedly with Lieba Chun, their father, and Chu Yun's mother. He was more at ease in the months since he'd met Lieba Chun than Chu Yun thought possible after everything he'd found out about his brother's double life. He didn't want the past to come barrelling into Chu Hean's life.

"Tell him there are no audiences for the time being," Chu Yun said. "Make excuses give him money for the journey back and to rest at an inn, but make it clear neither I, nor Chu Hean will be seeing him."

Hua Nanyi's expression remained troubled. "The problem is that he's requesting an audience with the Queen Dowager," she grimaced, "I have to let her know."