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Chapter Text

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In Qishanwen Imperial Court. 

“To think that the ‘Son of Heaven’ is but a mere butcher’s son, a man called Nie Mingjue, the leader of the peasant’s revolt,” Wen Ruohan comments, amused when his alpha generals are defeated.   

“But it’s unfair to call it just a peasant’s revolt when the man managed to even get the support of the merchants, scholars and some of the nobles.” 

“Your Majesty! I assure you those nobles will pay and I will bring the leader’s head and those of everyone who has supported him on a pike!” the defeated General raises his head from facing the floor to vow to his Emperor. 

“Silence! Did I allow you to talk?” Wen Ruohan says in a commanding voice. For those who have never known the Emperor they would not have believed him of belonging to the fairer gender.  

“My apologies, Your Majesty. This one will cease speaking.” 

“As expected, omegas are not to be trifled with,” he idly comments to no one in particular. 

-0- 

The leader of the rebellion is not just a lowly peasant, but a man belonging to the unclean profession.

Ordinarily, he would have thought Nie Mingjue’s own blood to be too dirty to be spilt on the hallowed grounds of his ancestor’s palace but he anticipates the coming execution as a glorious display of the threats an omega can bring and it is only another omega who can bring one down.

And his head on a spike in front of the gates would make for a nice decor as well as a symbol.

It’s a shame the first omega who’s intrigued him this much in a while is an enemy. 

Wen Ruohan thinks briefly of using a body double to serve as a public display while he keeps the real body as a toy but dismisses it. It’s hard enough to find an alpha of Nie Mingjue’s physique and statue, what more among the betas and least of all, omegas.  

“I would rather have kept you, yet you forced my hand. If only you were satisfied with your lot in life," he says to the bound and captured Nie Mingjue.

“And yet, the commoners, merchants and even a few of my nobles have chosen you, Mingjue.”

The tyrant looks at him, intrigued. “You even bested my eldest son, the former Crown Prince, but it’s too bad all traitors must be killed.”

"But...if you bow down before me, prostrated, I will lessen your sentence and order your death to be less painful.” 

The original sentence had been the hunting down of his relatives to the third degree and death by breaking his limbs with the gradual increasing weight of stones and then tying his limbs to four horses to be pulled apart. Ordinarily, in the past omegas were exempted from this cruel death as they were thought to be too weak and we're usually given away as concubines or allowed suicide by poison but Wen Ruohan decided to honour his enemy by making him the exception.

"You should be pleased you got my attention, what some alphas have failed to do, and now you've gotten it, you should pay the price."

" Whatever you say, but I defy you and won't beg for mercy. I have no other kin except for my immediate family and they have been taken under protection you can not enter into."

Hearing this, Wen Ruohan frowns. The Lans have proven to be his major obstacles but he brushes it aside. With the leader dead the opposition's morale will decrease and then his men can rout out the remaining supporters. He has a trump card, a fox within their ranks.

“Now tell me, how does it feel to be betrayed?” Wen Ruohan smiles.

“You should never have put your trust in alphas. It was the thing that doomed you."

"He betrayed you for acknowledgement from his father and led you to my hands with false information."

“Meng Yao was never your man," he sneers. This is punishment for putting trust in alpha's words. Wen Ruohan had gained the throne after killing off his alpha and beta siblings. They would have sold him off to a marriage undesirable and detested. But, it was only right for the strongest to take the throne and Wen Ruohan took it for himself and let the alphas know their place. 

It is unfortunate, he thinks, that he does not have an omega ally at court who is on or almost at his level and that he shall find another who understands and possesses the same power as he belonging to the enemy but he can not pardon traitors. To pardon one would be a grave sin and to undermine his own power.

After Wen Ruohan is killed

“Took you long enough,” Nie Mingjue says after Wen Ruohan has been killed. 

“You are not hurt are you A-Jue?”

They hurry along to make sure Nie Mingjue isn’t hurt in their plan.

He cries when he sees an ugly, swollen bruise marring Nie Mingjue’s left cheek.

Wen Ruohan's stately figure lays in a pool of his blood, the expression on the unattached head frozen in slight surprise.

The Qishanwen court hastily surrenders once they hear their omega Emperor is dead. Some had always objected to an omega ruler so they easily surrendered to the winners, wanting to be included in the new status quo and hope it reverts to back when Alphas used to rule.

But that is a problem for another time and right now Lan Xichen and Meng Yao leave Nie Mingjue’s body pleasantly exhausted till the sunrise 

Few months after the coronation, when the royal physician announces the new omega emperor is pregnant, everyone gives hard looks at Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao, the concerned two wishing for the ground to open and swallow them up. 

Wei Wuxian breaks the silence “At least we won’t have to worry about the succession, long live the royal baby!”

Everyone breaks out into agreement for politeness and then from enthusiasm. An heir right after assuming the throne bodes well for the new monarch! 

“So who exactly is the alpha sire?” one of the courtiers asks.

Nie Mingjue shrugs, “Don’t know."

Everyone stays silent and in the hearts and minds of some courtiers if they had the position they would berate and sneer at an omega for letting himself be taken by multiple alphas never mind that he's the current emperor now or that Alpha and Beta emperor's had always taken more than one consorts and concubines. Jin Guangshan takes note of who these people are 

“How could both of you not know?” Lan Qiren chastises his nephew.

Lan Xichen’s ears become red.

“I was enthusiastic and didn’t know His Majesty hadn’t taken his monthly herbs while imprisoned. Shortly, after we rescued him he went to heat…” Lan Xichen trails off, embarrassed.

Nobody is certain of whose father the child currently in Nie Mingjue came from -not even the two alphas.

In the end, it doesn’t matter to the lineage so long as the child belongs to the Emperor and as the one who’s going to give birth they’re certain of it. No one is sure who’s the alpha. As the emperor it was within his right to have multiple consorts and concubines and usually, they would be in a competition to see who will be the mother, or in this case, sire, but both Lan Xichen and the newly named Jin Guangyao don’t mind and they promise to take care of the child as if it were their own. 

-0-

However, a ruler’s job is never done and when news broke out that the new emperor is another omega, different states started to rebel. They want to bring back the monarchy to before when it used to be only alphas who ruled and not omegas like Wen Ruohan and this new upstart.  

"Brother! The royal physician said not to overexte-"

“I can still handle a blade.”

“Please think of the baby!” Nie Huaisang wails.

The court is in a panic when they see their pregnant omega Emperor trying to lead the battle.

In the end, it takes three maids-in-waiting, a court doctor and his alpha assistant, a court official, a wailing Huaisang clutching on the hems of the Emperor's robes as a distraught concubine would do to beg when they've fallen out of favour, and the cajoling and reasoning words of his consorts who were his former sworn brothers. 

"Fine! But I won’t stop me from keeping away from the sidelines throughout.."

Silence reigns in the busy corridor with the entourage of frantic limbs convoluting around their emperor to prevent him from marching on ahead to battle with a swollen belly not entirely hidden by the maternity robes he’s dressed in.

It's not that they don't believe that Nie Mingjue won't succeed but it''s exactly because they believe he can.

They have a belief that expecting omegas shouldn't fight on the battlefield because of superstitions that the dead souls will target their hatred on a defenceless fetus and enter the body to force a miscarriage.

“Your Majesty, it’s not healthy for the baby!” 

“Brother-Consort, don't you think it's time to play a pleasant tune on your xiao? I heard recently you got your hands on a lost music sheet from the ancient dynasty of three centuries ago and I have wishes for you to play it. I hear it is exquisite from the scrolls which have reviewed it. Would you mind playing it now?”

-0-

When foreign dignitaries visit the court they often make a mistake on the ruler’s identity. 

They are told the Emperor is an omega so they've often mistaken him to be either of the two High Consorts. 

So imagine their surprise when they are told that the alpha looking guy is actually the omega and the emperor while the one they’ve thought as the omega is the alpha consort.

“This...is the emperor?” 

“Is there anything wrong with His Majesty?” 

“I had heard rumours that His Majesty was an omega,” the diplomat says with uncertainty. 

“Our omega emperor...is rather enthusiastic about fighting in the front line.” one of the court officials says hastily. He is one of those who supported Nie Mingjue and has a vested interest in making sure his emperor doesn’t die. 

Past

Nie Mingjue thinks the society’s expectations for omegas are foolish.

As a butcher’s son, he’s seen his fair share of blood. And it’s not as if he’s going to wait and cower while an enraged bull comes at him.

So he gets the sabre that has fallen by his father’s side and kills the bull at the spot. 

He’s not going to cower behind some alpha.

Chapter Text

The Nie family are said to be so manly that they produce a lineage that is mostly alpha to centuries past. Even if they were a family of the lowliest job the alphas in their family were said to still be able to attract tons of omega admirers because of their strength and abs. 

Thus, with marriages of omegas into the manly alpha line it shouldn't come as a shock that along the way genetics cocktail will spit out an offspring that is both an omega and manly, so manly that they would be like their alpha ancestors...

And Papa Nie scratches his head how on earth his firstborn omega son had turned out to be manlier than his own alpha father and how his second-born alpha son was the very definition of an omega while watching the  scene of his firstborn son carrying his second like a rice sack a hundred too many times. The brothers are just fond of piggy-backs except the roles are reversed with the omega carrying the alpha. 

How can he find the perfect mates for them! He wallows in pity and thinks the Heavens is surely playing a trick on him or had accidentally switched his sons’ second genders by mistake. 

The Nie genes are so manly that it produces an omega whom other alphas cower in fear and then it becomes hard to find a suitor. 

-0- 

Nie Mingue’s father is a butcher and one of the unclean professions. The courtships of others and for himself often escapes his ears, determining that gossip are useless. If he is to marry some alpha it better be someone who knows their way around the family trade and won’t shy away from blood. 

He’s not going to marry an alpha who faints at the first sight of blood or who can;t keep up with him. 

Although he’s an unconventional choice, brawny and muscular instead of wispy and delicate. Tanned instead of pale as moon his wild and masculine looks still manage to attract a few, unusual alphas who want the assurance they will be given  strong children, seeing the qualities in Nie Mingjue. Most of them are farmers or mercenaries.

 If even the omega is this strong how much more the alpha offspring would be? Although they don’t look at him with desire, Nie Mingjue is fine with that. Who wants to be desired by weaklings who can’t even carry a carcass of a deer on his shoulder? Pathetic. Nie Mingjue thinks as he carries two fully-grown stags, one on each shoulder -  to be butchered for their meat and fur and the horns for Huaisang. A doctor said the powdered horns would help an alpha to be manlier. 

Father Nie, who hasn’t given up yet on finding a match for his unconventional omega son, looks at the opened door and sighs when he sees the mentioned person hauling a lame horse over his shoulders and drops it in front of his father.

"Father, our horse collapsed along the way when I delivered the meat. So I carried both the horse and the meat."

The horse neighs on the ground, showing disdain at being carried like a rice sack.

"Didn't the other alphas offer to carry?" asks Father Nie. Really, what kind of an alpha just let an omega carry around animals? This generation has grown so weak! 

Nie Mingjue narrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"How could they even offer to carry when they can't even lift off a horse from the ground."

"No, they just minded their business and stared."

Papa Nie internally wails. 

He had perfectly set it up so that the horse would be overloaded so Mingjue won't have any choice but to carry some of the load by hand all the while the alpha suitors were in the perfect place to offer a hand to lighten the load, and then Mingjue will have no choice but to notice them! And invite them into the house for tea in gratitude! 

But the plan failed and his omega son is getting on with the years. By this year he will be twenty-two! Omegas need to be married off as soon as they presented! Eight years has passed and he still hasn’t found a marriage for his son, Papa Nie despairs. 

‘A-jue, please blame your father's line for producing so many manly men’ , his father bemoans. ‘ The trait appeared in you even if you were an omega and cursed you to be an unwedded one for so long. This one will have a lot of kneeling to do in front of the ancestors.’

He should have thought of things ahead when he was smitten long ago by a fierce omega and later married her. She had also been an omega who didn’t shy away from the blood of his work.

It’s really true what they say of sons resembling their mothers. Huaisang’s mother, whom he married after the death of his first wife, had been a soft and gentle omega woman who would rather keep to inside the house and needleworks and paintings and collect pretty trinkets. 

After raising a manly omega, he thought he should expect and care for a gentle omega this time and was lax with Huaisang’s training, not pushing a lot of work to him and spoiling him so the same thing won't happen with Mingjue. Instead, his second son became an alpha and his second wife’s omega gentle traits were passed on to Huaisang.

 Now he had an omega son as fierce as his first wife and the rest of the Nie alpha ancestors and an alpha son who’s demure and gentle as an omega but absolutely useless as an alpha and who cowers behind an omega's back and dwarfs in comparison behind said person's back. 

….

After a long time of abstaining from vices, excesses and the wastefulness other people often indulged in, commoners and nobles alike, which he had been too disciplined to take in, the Nie patriarch took to drinking. The alcohol tastes good anyway with the meat he produces, he consoles himself as he cries bitter tears of not being able to find good matches for both his sons.  

-----

“Why didn't you offer my omega son a hand?” he interrogates the line of men he thought were viable suitors for his first son. They are strong and healthy alphas, although not as strong as his A-Jue (and he is proud of this even if it makes him worried most times in his waking hours) they would still make good matches and then his omega son would no longer need to be alone and called an overripe fruit. 

“We meant to, sir but just as we approached to offer a hand your son took the horse and carried him on the shoulders.” 

“We couldn't offer without losing face since if we offered to help him what if he gives the entire horse to us? We'd just be smashed under by the weight!” 

“Your omega son is very strong.”

“So, we’ve been meaning to ask what diet you're feeding your son, Mister Nie?” 

“We want to bulk up to be as huge and strong as him.”

And the boys begin to praise Nie Mingjue's muscles as if an alpha would about another alpha they respect and try to emulate to be without a single praise for his omega trait -which he didn't have anyway.”

“I've only been feeding him the meat we hunt and butcher and some grains and vegetables.” 

Suffice to say, Nie Papa's business becomes brisk with the huge onset of orders for his meat.

As for the lineup of suitors he had planned for his son after a long, arduous time of haggling the dowry and accumulating it for them to accept, well-

“I realize I need to be stronger and manlier before I can woo your son, Mister Nie,” says one of the suitors apologetically. 

“After seeing your omega son, I realized how weak of an alpha I really am. I was already satisfied with my current strength and didn’t try to attain more but when I saw your son I realized how weak I really am and should double my training  so I can become as big as him,” he says apologetically and with regret. 

“And then someday I hope -”

Papa Nie sighs. Although he wanted to marry off his omega son now but at least this suitor hasn't fully given up on the match and instead is thinking of the future. What more could he ask of a potential son-in-law? If he wants to become stronger for his son’s sake then it is a good thing. After all, alphas should always protect their omegas. 

“-I will finally get to challenge and subdue your omega son in a wrestling match!”

“Wait! What?!!” shouts an angry papa. “Did I hear that right? You want to bully my omega son into submission?” 

Papa Nie’s face becomes red with anger and chases this stupid suitor and rival(?) out of the house with his sabre, still fresh and bloody from the carcass of a bear.

“How dare you want to bully my omega son!!!” he keeps on yelling even when they’ve left the house. 

The unfortunate word choice of ‘subdue’ conjures up images of his son being pinned and taken on the floor, awakens his parental outrage. Thus awakened, it accompanies him as he chases the suitor-slash-rival-wannabee into the foot of the mountain and beyond it. At least the suitor gets some training out of this. 

“Aren't you a proud, alpha man?!? Come back here and fight me!!”  

“Help!! Mister Nie wants to kill me!” the cries can be heard all afternoon.

-----

In the end, the one who breaks off the one-sided chase is Nie Mingjue who’s already chopped one week’s worth of firewood while his father had been busy talking to the suitors. 

“Father, what are you doing chasing off the customer to the mountains?”

The said customer but actually a (ex-) suitor and a rival-wannabe looks on with admiration at how Nie Minjue is able to restrain his father’s arm with the sabre, the same man who seemed all too much like the awakened vengeful war god while he was being chased after.

“Someday! I will be an alpha as strong and manly as this omega!!’ the man thinks. 

….

Growing up near the Nies he's already long since accustomed to the idea that maybe omegas aren't as weak as how society views them to be.

Instead, his view of alphas is warped by seeing Huaisang and thinks how weak his own gender is.

Chapter Text

"None of these men and women are good enough!", Nie Mingjue announces as he places down the list of suitors for Nie Huaisang with finality.

Unfortunately, Nie Mingjue has the same idea as his father on deciding on who would make a good marriage match for second son:

They have to defeat Nie Mingjue in a strength match first.

"Impossible, brother! Imposibble!" Huaisang gasps, "at this rate, I'll be single for the rest of my life!” Granted, Huaisang doesn’t have plans to marry now - he has to look after his brash omega brother - but he plans to in the future, preferably to a meek, artistic and gentle omega woman. Huaisang is a boobs man.  

Being so alike to their father, it doesn’t come as a surprise  Nie Mingjue takes after his father in deciding what makes a good match for Huaisang. 

Briefly, after Nie Mingjue had taken over the court which is mainly managed by his two High Consorts while he trains the army, he had considered setting a marriage for his brother, but so unsatisfied he was with the choice of suitors that he shutted down every prospects with the excuse that none were good enough for his brother and so Huaisang remains single. 

“Brother! Nobody is as strong as you!”

But because of the war, his responsibilities, the decision was shelved for the meantime and none of the suitors impressed him.

But after the war ended and the Nie family were elevated to the highest ranks any can accomplish Nie Mingjue's wholehearted concentration went back to arranging a good match for his brother.

And Nie Mingjue was more similar to his father.

They are now royals -no matter how baseborn their heritage was - and Nie Huaisang is still embarrassed whenever the other courtiers would ask what qualities of a marriage prospect he was seeking if not for himself then for his younger brother. 

To which Nie Mingjue would reply with the same answers as he had before: 

“Someone who can beat me in a fight.”

 Huaisang suffered second hand embarrassment for days.

It got to the point that they gossiped behind his brother's back for being an unseemly omega, even worse than Wen Ruohan was, and although Nie Huaisang felt strongly that although his brother could have answered better it did not excuse the courtiers from mocking him behind his backs.

His face flushed but more from indignant anger than embarrassment this time, 

‘Brother, you've gotten rid of Wen Ruohan but there are still hidden enemies who need to be routed.’

Nie Huaisang resolves to get rid of them. 

They think him foolish, a fop of an alpha. Well, h and a head-shaker. Well, he can use it to his advantage.

So that no one hurts his family. 

In the Past: 

"I'll only allow anyone capable of defeating me to marry Huaisang."

It should have been fine -Huaisang didn't want to marry - but it seems that after Huaisang failed to become the stereotypical alpha, his father, and then Nie Mingjue were both in a hurry to marry him off so Huaisang's future was secure, a worry that most families typically reserve for their omega sons and daughters.

After failing and being disappointed with the candidates in setting a match for his eldest omega son, Papa Nie's matchmaking anxiety instead transferred to Huaisang. 

'If I can't get a good match for my eldest at least I can still do right for my second son!' was Papa Nie's decision.

And so, fighting matches were staged between young men and women alphas by Papa Nie who had already been given their names by the astrologer who said they would be favourable matches for his younger son.

After the disastrous matchmaking session Nie patriarch had already given up on finding a suitable omega match for Nie Huaisang. He didn't think it would work out anyway, and began searching for an alpha son-in-law. He still cared for his alpha son and no matter how much the matchmaker said Huaisang would need to become more alpha-like to find a good match, but inwardly, he knew Huaisang would not change. Therefore, he began using Huaisang's omega-like personality and not his actual gender as basis for deciding an alpha would suit him not knowing that Huiasang would have preferred another omega because he never told him for fear of disappointing him and being branded as a deviant alpha.

And so, with his well-intentioned but misguided attempt, he began hunting for the most alpha-like of alphas for his two sons. Mingjue was fine with an alpha who could help out with the family trade and requested he at least be strong enough to carry a full-grown ox. 

Sometimes, the Nie Patriarch worried that he should be concerned for his firstborn's blase attitude towards marriage- other parents would see the non fussiness as a boon - but right now, he should concentrate at least in finding a suitor and see how it goes from there.

“B-but I'm an alpha! Shouldn't I look for omegas?” Huaisang had asked.

They both look at him, giving him a once-over, between the fan delicately held in his hand and the trinket in his hairpin and said, as if in one mind and body, "No."

“Only the best of alpha would do for my very omega-like alpha son,” Papa Nie said.

“Someone like your omega brother so you'll have someone protect you for the rest of your life.”

“B-but, I have da-ge! And father already. I don't need anyone else,” Huaisang protested.

"Preposterous," Papa Nie said.

"A-jue will start a family as soon as a worthy alpha comes and is at least equal to his strength." Papa Nie has already given up and lowered his standards but only by a very bit - he still insisted no weakling can marry his two sons though or else he will roll in his future grave.

"As the omega, he will have to marry into the alpha's family. Leaving you, Huaisang, to the family's butcher shop, but - "

His father glanced at Huaisang again, at his foppish clothes and sighed.

“At the least, we'll find you a strong alpha at least who can take on the family trade.”

Huaisang at this instance regretted not taking his apprenticeship seriously. If he had been alpha-like enough to satisfy his father and brother maybe he could have gotten away with marrying an omega with the same interests as him, but he really didn't like butchering dead animals and the smell nauseated him.

He had wanted -if ever he should marry- for his wife or husband to be someone with the same interest as him and gentle, therefore most likely an omega, or even a beta would do , just as long as it's not another alpha similar to his brother who still insists on training Huaisang how to hunt, butcher and fight even while trying to find an alpha for him! He wailed. Or it's precisely because he's failing in their expectations in the more physical part of their trade which fuelled up their anxiety in finding a marriage for Huaisang. So he can be set for life.

"What about a poet? Or a courtier, or a painter?" Nie Huaisang had dared hoped once.

"We're just butchers,” they replied.

“What will he do?” asked Papa Nie, gruff. “Paint fans and scrolls with animal's blood?”

Savages!  Huaisang cried.

Although… to be fair, due to the abundance of red blood in their homes, and with their father's forbiddance of giving Huaisang any money to buy any paints or other fancies Huaisang had definitely made use of animal's blood as paints.

Suffice to say, the majority of Nie Huaisang's contraband (only because his father forbade it) paintings were mostly done in red 'ink'.

“The bright redness really brings out the passion,” one of his customers had said.

“I searched everywhere for red paints as realistic as this but I could never find it anywhere. Where among the kingdom could I find paint like this?” another sheltered scholar asked. 

‘It's because you never butchered your own meat or collected the blood, ’ Huaisang thought but didn't mention it to the greenhouse noble.

Despite it all, even with all their failed matchmaking efforts, he still loved his family and knew they only wanted the best for him.