All of the servants and junior officials in the Palace of Divine Might knew the most important unspoken rule.

Do not touch the Empress.

One guard had learned that lesson the hard way and had both of his hands cut off before getting tossed back down to the mortal realm when he had helped the Empress down a set of stairs.

Not touching the Empress was the most important of the unspoken rules, but it was far from the only rule.

They were not to speak to the Empress unless they absolutely had to, and should they see that the Empress was starting to get agitated or distressed, they should calmly direct him towards the Emperor without touching him.

Zhu Xiaofan was an exception to these rules, as the Emperor did not have the time to give his wife nonstop attention and care.

She was the youngest but favored daughter of a rather rich mortal nobleman who had funded the construction and maintenance of a dozen temples for the Heavenly Emperor, so when a position for a servant in the Emperor's palace was offered, Zhu Xiaofan was plucked up.

And as such, as she was of noble blood, educated, and had a demure personality, she had been the maid chosen to become the Empress' handmaiden -though caregiver was a better term.

While Zhu Xiaofan had some leeway with the unspoken rules, even she knew what boundaries she could or could not cross as she knew that his majesty was a very possessive husband.

From the moment she began her shift every morning until it ended every night, she was always found at the Empress' side and she always had to wear a set of thick silk gloves so that she never touched the Empress' body with her direct hands.

She was also allowed to dress the Empress in his elaborate outer robes, style his chestnut hair and put on his jewelry and make-up for him.

But she was under no circumstances allowed to undress him or bathe him, only the Emperor himself could do such.

On this particular day, Zhu Xiaofan was walking a few steps behind the Empress as he walked through the private garden, making sure he did not trip or fall over.

(Her predecessor had made such a mistake and the Empress had ended up with a bruise on his knee. No one knew what had happened to her, but it led Zhu Xiaofan to get the job and she knew better than to ask questions.)

The Empress stopped walking suddenly, looking around like he was confused and mumbling things.

Zhu Xiaofan got closer to hear what he was saying, unsure if it was his usual nonsense mumbling or if he was wanting something.

"Where? I? Where is it?" The Empress asked in a confused tone, his voice soft from little use

"You are in your home, your majesty." Zhu Xiaofan replied gently, trying to soothe him, "Nice and safe."

The Empress did not seem satisfied with the answer, his eyebrows furrowing a bit, "No. Gotta find them. On the mountain."

Thinking he was just mumbling nonsense, the handmaiden continued to assure him that there was nothing for him to find and asked if he wanted to go see his husband.

When she saw a little nod, Zhu Xiaofan gently wrapped her hands around the Empress' wrists, keeping her hands somewhere that they could not be even slightly interpreted as 'intimate', and led him back inside and down the various hallways to the Heavenly Emperor's office.

Knocking on the door, she waited for permission to enter before opening it and bowing at the divine ruler within before bringing the confused Empress inside.

As soon as he laid his golden eyes on the Emperor, the Empress seemed to go on autopilot and rushed over to his husband, crawling onto his lap and resting his head on his shoulder.

The Emperor wrapped his arms around his wife's waist, holding him against him, "What has my Xianle so upset?"

The handmaiden did not hear what the Empress replied with, but she assumed it was more of his prior words.

Her guess seemed to be correct as the Emperor replied in a doting tone, his voice soothing but firm, like a parent comforting a child after a nightmare, "The Ghost Bridegroom case is long solved, silly boy. You have nothing to worry about besides being my beautiful wife, a cute little thing."

That seemed to soothe the previously distressed Empress, who just settled contently and closed his gold eyes as if he was falling asleep.

Zhu Xiaofan thought the comparison was a little odd, how his majesty always referred to his wife as an object -'thing', 'doll', 'treasure', 'gem', etcetera- but it was far less weird than the way the Empress referred to him in his less-lucid moments.

"Daddy." The Empress hummed, like a purring cat

That made the older man chuckle, "I am right here, dear one. You are exactly where you are meant to be."

The Empress whined slightly, "Daddy."

"What does my little doll desire, hmmm?" The Emperor teased

Another whine was given instead of a verbal reply and the Heavenly Emperor seemed to remember the maid was still here and sent her away.

Zhu Xiaofan bowed and rushed to leave the pair alone.

***

Jun Wu looked back down at his wife once that maid was gone, seeing how his Xianle was whining and wiggling on his lap.

"Little gem, settle down. Sweet dolls are still on laps and are pampered." He teased, looking at the distant foggy look in his beloved's eyes

Xie Lian paused a bit as if taking in his words, his foggy brain taking a while to process it.

Jun Wu found it cute, how his wife was so coddled that he could struggle with complex thoughts.

The brunet pouted, "Busy, daddy, inside!"

"Do you want Daddy to silence those useless thoughts in your head again?"

The younger god nodded his head eagerly, like an excited puppy.

Xie Lian beamed as he felt a wave of spiritual energy flood his body, filling him with the addictive warmth and an overwhelming sense of tranquility.

He calmed down instantly, just lying limp in his husband's embrace.

A voice started playing in his silent head, saying things in his own voice.

"I am a doll.
A doll does not need to think or worry. I am a doll. I do not need to think or have worries.
A doll only concerns itself with being beautiful for its owner. I am a doll. I am only concerned with being beautiful for my owner.
A doll is obedient without question and loves its owner above all. I am a doll. I obey my owner absolutely and love him more than anything.
A doll is a possession and enjoys being owned. I am a doll. I love being my owner's property.
I am a doll."

Xie Lian agreed with everything the voice in his head was saying, smiling happily and ever so slightly nodding along to the words that had become a familiar mantra in his typically empty head.

But then the voice added something new, a line that Xie Lian had never heard before -quickly noticing it when the original six lines.

"A doll's only two desires are to please their owner and become pregnant. I am a doll. I always want to please my owner and long to birth him a plethora of successors." The voice that sounded so much like his own added at the end

The doll made Empress was initially confused by the voice's words, but then it made perfect sense to him.

He was Daddy's property, Daddy kept him safe and loved, and he should thank Daddy and please him by giving him babies.

Xie Lian wiggled slightly at that, pleased with himself for realizing such a thing.

"Babies." The living doll cutely mumbled, "Have Daddy's babies."

"That is right, Xianle." Jun Wu chuckled, his fingers idly playing with a strand of chestnut hair, "That is what a good doll does. Are you a good doll?"

The brunet eagerly nodded, moving from his head from the older man's shoulder to look at his face, "Xianle is!"

Jun Wu seemed incredibly pleased by his words, pressing his lips to his little wife's, and picking him up bridal-style.

He carried his precious gem to their bedroom down the halls, setting him on the bed and immediately beginning to undress him.

Layer by layer Xie Lian was undressed, and all of his Empress regalia dropped carelessly onto the floor until all that was left was his innermost robes until that too was pulled off.

Greeted by the sight of his wife's naked form, Jun Wu's grey eyes focused on the area between Xie Lian's slender legs, the perfect body part that he had once not known his obsession had been hiding for eight hundred years.

Jun Wu had accepted his failure to mold Xie Lian into his perfect successor when he first discovered his most intimate area and acknowledged that Xie Lian's behaviors were too set-in for him to change into what he had once wished.

But that acceptance had also come bearing a new plan: Xie Lian was not his perfect successor, but he was fully capable of giving birth to little heirs that he could teach from the start.

He then undid his signature white armor and the white robes beneath it until he was also bare, his manhood swollen at the gorgeous sight waiting on the bed.

The Emperor then got onto the bed and on top of his wife, delighted when Xie Lian spread his legs unprompted and he quickly got between them.

For the next few hours he had his way with his wife again and again, spilling into Xie Lian consistently; and when he was finally done, he put a pillow under Xie Lian's hips to keep them at an angle in hopes of making more of his seed reach his womb.

Jun Wu smiled at the sight of his beloved, his face flushed and drool dribbling out of his mouth, his eyes blown with lust and bite marks and hickies all over his chest, neck, and thighs.

No, he would even go as far as to think his darling had never been happier than he was now as his wife, and to think just a year before his Xianle was off gallivanting on his own.

Pressing another kiss to Xie Lian's head, Jun Wu held him close.

Xie Lian made a happy noise at that, snuggling against his chest before dozing off.

Oh yes, this was all worth it. Jun Wu closed his own eyes and decided to rest for awhile as well, his mind drifting back to the series of events that had led to this.