CHAPTER 502: CHAPTER 502 : (EXTRA) THE DETHRONED CROWN PRINCE (2)

"Jianshen, did you really call your father ’the biggest scum across all layers of heaven’?"

The Empress visited her son in the dungeon the day after his son was thrown into the palace dungeon, her face marred with utter disbelief.

Xie Jianshen, prim and proper in behavior despite being locked up in a prison cell, calmly replied to his mother, "Yes, Mother."

The Heavenly Empress let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Leave, all of you," she told her maids and the prison guards. "I wish to speak to my son alone."

Xie Jianshen was no criminal, only a dragon prince who defied his father, so naturally he posed no danger to his own mother. The Heavenly Empress stepped into the prison cell and pulled her son into her arms for a hug.

"Oh, Jianshen. What exactly did the scum tell you?"

"..."

Disbelief contorted Xie Jianshen’s face as he stared at his mother. Unlike him, a man who reveled in wielding his tongue like a cruel lash, his mother was a paragon of courtesy. Indecent words like "scum" would never leave her lips. So why the sudden change?

"Mother, did something happen?" he asked.

The Empress scoffed.

"Nothing a scum wouldn’t do," she said, again repeating the word she never before mentioned.

Xie Jianshen did not find out the reason for this sudden change of attitude much, much later, after more than twenty years had passed.

"He wanted to marry me off to some noble alpha," Xie Jianshen muttered. "So I told him that he was the biggest scum across all layers of heaven, and that I would rather die than live as an omega."

The Empress pursed her lips and nodded thoughtfully.

"While I agree with the first part of your answer, Jianshen, I do think that you should consider getting married and leaving the Golden Dragon Palace for good."

His mother’s words made Xie Jianshen sad.

"I know, I know," the Empress started coaxing her son with sweet words. "Mother knows that you don’t want to live like other omegas. All I want is your happiness. Wherever it is, it is beyond the confines of this cold, horrible palace."

She was born in the phoenix clan. She was once a free bird, unattached to anything and anyone. Only when the gilded bars clanged shut behind her did she understand the terrible weight of the golden cage. The price she’d paid for its shine felt suffocatingly heavy.

"You are my son and I love you. Trust me, my son, you will be much happier out there. Unfortunately, an unclaimed omega must never wander alone without protection. A husband, a mate can give you the protection you need. Find a good husband, get married, and leave this palace, Jianshen. I am stuck here for life, but you are not."

Bearing his mother’s words in his mind, Xie Jianshen eventually changed his mind and agreed to get married. As expected, he came up with a list of requirements.

"I alone shall decide whom to marry."

The Heavenly Emperor agreed.

"I alone shall decide when to perform my marital duties."

"..."

The second point on the list made the Heavenly Emperor furrow his brows, but he let Xie Jianshen continue nonetheless.

"I refuse to give birth to any child."

"Now wait a second," the Heavenly Emperor could not contain himself any longer. "What kind of marriage is that? You refuse to get intimate with your husband and you also refuse to give him an heir. Jianshen, which alpha would agree to take you as a wife???"

Xie Jianshen merely narrowed his eyes at his father and shot him a disdainful look.

"It is up to me to take an alpha as a husband and not the other way around. Thus the first requirement on the list."

"..."

The Heavenly Emperor was speechless.

The Heavenly Empress was more than amused. She couldn’t help but giggle with Xie Jianshen’s every requirement.

"Do you think this is funny?" the Emperor glared at his wife, who, for once, glared back at him.

"I think that my Jianshen is very smart," the Empress remarked. "An omega or not, he is still the eldest prince of the Emperor. Given his status, it makes sense to not expect him to lower himself to the level of average omegas."

The Heavenly Emperor could barely believe his ears.

"No alpha will agree to these... ridiculous requirements," he snapped.

"That’s wonderful," Xie Jianshen remarked with an uncaring smile. "Thankfully, since I do not plan to give birth to any child, I am also not in a rush to get married."

"You...!!!"

The Heavenly Emperor’s eyes bulged in anger. He looked like he was about to transform into his dragon form and personally beat his eldest son up. Thankfully, Head Eunuch Wang managed to calm him down with a cup of very strong herbal tea.

"I am going to inform all the other eight palaces about your availability for marriage," the Emperor snapped, shaking a trembling finger at his son’s face. "I am sure that they will carefully consider your requirements, and put forward their best marriage proposals -- if there is any."

At that time, almost a year had passed after Xie Jianshen differentiated into an omega. At seventeen years old, he was at the peak of his youth. Vicious and cold from time to time, but an extraordinary beauty nonetheless.

Taking into consideration his unreasonable requirements, Xie Jianshen would be more than happy to receive no marriage proposals at all. Alas, as his mother said before, he was still the eldest prince of the Heavenly Emperor. Alone his status fueled many alphas to vie for his hand in marriage.

Two weeks later, Xie Jianshen, the omega prince of the Xie family, was faced with no less than one hundred marriage proposals from all over the Heavenly Realm. Every single one of them declared their undying love for the omega they did not know and willingly agreed to anything as long as Xie Jianshen agreed to marry into their family.