"As the emperor's court diarist, Song Shiwei wavers between loyalty and duty. The emperor has long confessed his love through subtle gestures and closeness, but he refuses to acknowledge it. Such love is taboo in the empire. The emperor, for his part, is searching for someone he can trust — a partner before whom he can drop every mask and lean on with confidence."
— Contagious, a German-language reader

"Recommended: Bu Zao Chao — past lives and present, so sweet it hurts, not a drop of angst~"
— a Chinese-language reader

★ The whole empire sees him as a wise young sovereign, but one man knows he is faking it every single day — and the emperor keeps that one man, his court diarist, close by his side. A scheming emperor × a straight-talking remonstrator: one pretends, one endures. Who breaks first?
★ From a drunken night after the imperial exam banquet to a post recording the emperor's daily life, to gifts of clothing and a shared bath — every set piece pushes the question, "Is he serious?!" and keeps you turning pages to the end.
★ 4.22 billion views and 1.484 million favorites on Tencent Animation and Comics; the German edition's four volumes are now complete.
★ If you want the full push-and-pull of a "scheming emperor × straight-talking remonstrator," don't miss this one.

In the eyes of the world, the young emperor of the Ning dynasty is diligent and capable. Only the scholar Song Shiwei knows the whole realm is being fooled.

After drinking too much at the banquet celebrating his success in the imperial examination, Song Shiwei wakes to find himself in the imperial bed, having spent the night with Emperor Xiao Chengyu. Terrified, he thinks he will be sentenced to death — yet the emperor acts as if nothing happened, and simply appoints him court diarist, keeping him in attendance day and night to record the sovereign's daily life.

From then on, this "pretending-to-be-decent" ruler presses closer and closer under the pretext of state affairs: keeping him overnight, giving him personal garments, and not sparing him even in the shared bath. Song Shiwei vows to "uphold the way of the sovereign," but the more he tells himself "my heart is straying from duty," the more he loses every battle between what he says and what he does.

On one side is a minister's duty; on the other, a longing he cannot suppress. When the emperor finally lays all his cards on the table, Song Shiwei must answer: is he the Ning dynasty's minister, or Xiao Chengyu's man?

The title comes from the poem "Song of Everlasting Sorrow": "Spring nights are short and the sun rises late; ever since, the sovereign has held no morning court" — the ending was written into the title all along.

(Genre: costume-drama workplace BL; 54 episodes, completed)

Zhi Zhen (script)
A professional scriptwriter working across BL and BG comics. BL comics: You Di Shenru (Lured Into the Trap), Bu Zao Chao (completed); BG comics: The Princess After She Abandons Him, The Empress Dowager's Subjects (costume-drama BG), Even I Don't Want This (completed), Ugh, It's Become a Spirit (completed), The Little Fairy Is Expecting (completed), I'm a Big Shot in the Palace (first season completed), A Beauty Turned General. Published novels: Qianji Empress, Feng Xie Yaotai, There's an Aura Ahead, The Fortune-Scattering Princess, Like Is Strawberry-Flavored (BG), plus the BL short story Traitor (on Aifadian).

Bai Xiong Dao Er (art)
Lead artist of this work, with completed titles and a prior audio adaptation: Where There Is a Dragon (completed; healing / isekai / non-human), Demon King, Your Brother Wants You Home for Dinner (bromance × comedy).

(1) The Imperial-Exam Banquet: A Night of Entanglement
(2) Appointed Court Diarist, Attending Night and Day
(3) The Emperor's Advances: Gifts of Clothing, a Shared Bath, and a Pull of Ambiguity
(4) A Minister's Duty and an Unspoken Longing
(5) A Happy Ending

(Note: 54 episodes, completed; the above are five main plot nodes, not the original chapter list.)