From CEO to Concubine

Some things were destined to change but others remained the same. The elusive favour of a husband was a fickle creature in this day and age but the customs of the time still had to be observed. Thus it was, that despite the growing unease amongst the harem, they still showed up at Changchun Palace to pay their respects to Li Fang each morning, their arrival as accurate as the timekeeping of the water clocks or sundials.

Today, Li Fang was exhausted and didn't have much to say to them. She had been bogged down lately by the sheer amount of administration she had to deal with, organising the impending arrival of the new beauties and their training. This might seem like a simple matter of moving house from without to within the palace but in truth, Li Fang had a lot of issues to consider and a lot of orders to mete out to the different inner palace departments. Just yesterday, the Privy Purse had reviewed her suggestions for the inner palace allowances and rejected most of them with a polite but unforgiving, "Noble Consort Li Niangniang must consider the constraints of the budget more carefully."

What constraints? His Majesty's reign was a prosperous one and yet these sly stingy eunuchs managed to make it sound like the dynasty was on the brink of destruction! She had half a mind to accuse them of slandering the emperor but she knew that if she tried to go that route, the remaining departments would rally against her. Although the eunuchs often fought amidst themselves to climb the ranks, they were a collective unit against any other who tried to take them down. Li Fang didn't have enough power to deal with them yet, not when she was just a mere consort. But if, one day, she managed to become empress…

The other concubines had retired back to their palaces but Imperial Concubine Hui and Lady of Bright Deportment Zhang, both of whom were considered closer in relations with Noble Consort Li, had asked for permission to remain behind to tend to her. Zhang Qian probably just wanted to complain about the latest spate of rumours that had spread through the inner palace like a wildfire but Hui Shuxian's motives were more difficult to guess.

Li Fang propped and elbow up on her side table and rested her forehead against it. She was so tired from staying up late multiple nights in a row to handle the bulk of the work. An empress would normally have one or two high-ranking consorts to assist them with keeping the inner palace's affairs in order. If Li Fang had requested, she was certain that the emperor would arrange one or two helpers for her.

But she didn't dare to relinquish any of the powers of the phoenix seal. So what if she had been the crown princess once? Thanks to that godforsaken Tian Fu star, she hadn't been acknowledged as the emperor's legitimate wife. This left her with no other advantages over the other consorts in the inner palace apart from her right to govern them. It was also the only chance she had to prove her worth to the emperor.

Even if he couldn't love her, she had to force him to acknowledge that no one else was fit for the task but her.

"What do my little sisters want?" she murmured as she heard their approach. She had retired to a private reception area in her inner chambers with a long divan separated in the centre by a tea table. The right side of this divan was meant for the emperor when he visited and the left was her designated place.

Hui Shuxian and Zhang Qian greeted her once again before taking their seats on the mahogany stools the servants rushed to prepare for them.

"Niangniang." Hui Shuxian brought out a scent pouch. "Lately you haven't been resting well. Little Sister is worried about you, so I made this and chose a herbal blend that would help you to relax."

Li Fang smiled and gestured for one of her maids to accept the gift. "Little Sister is too thoughtful," she said. But once Hui Shuxian left, the scent pouch would be destroyed. Li Fang knew all too well what underhanded tactics the members of the inner palace were capable of. She had no trust for these random displays of goodwill.

"Niangnianggg." Zhang Qian couldn't help but whine the second she opened her mouth. "It isn't fair, you must take a stand for all of us!"

Li Fang assumed at first that Zhang Qian was referring to the matter of the Tian Fu star shining again on the night of Yan Yun's arrival in the inner palace. Because this issue had been brought up in morning court, there was no concealing it from anyone, even though Li Fang had already spread a warning that gossiping about state affairs would be met with severe punishment. But this was clearly not sufficient in preventing tongues from wagging and it was all the servants were discussing these days.

It was annoying but what could Li Fang do? She had thought that one disgraced pretty toy wouldn't be able to stir up so much muddy water and had done little besides taking due precaution against him.

She had underestimated him.

"All right, all right," she placated halfheartedly. Zhang Qian's shrill voice exacerbated her migraine. She was going to have to send for the imperial physicians in the afternoon. "The situation with the Tian Fu star is out of everyone's control. Even though the State Preceptor had alluded that the star shone on that person in Zheshan Palace, there are so many other interpretations of it. We have to trust His Majesty not to be led blindly by the nose."

Li Fang's grandfather had been present in court that morning too and had already sent word to tell her to lay low and not kick up a fuss. He had said that the emperor didn't appear to buy into any one interpretation and that Li Fang should just secure her position in the inner palace by remaining unwavering in the face of any instability. Li Fang agreed with him. Granted, she knew little about the emperor, but given what glimpses she'd had of his personality, he wasn't going to capitulate and crown some convict's son empress just because the stars aligned as such.

But instead of being ameliorated, her words seemed to exacerbate Zhang Qian's discontentment.

"But His Majesty has been blinded!" she protested. "No one knows how that shameless hussy did it but on the night of the solstice, the imperial buttery sent a bowl of tangyuan and his cloak over to Zheshan Palace!"

This news was like thunder to Li Fang. She shot Mianxin a sharp look of reproach. Mianxin was her right-hand and closest confidante. Li fang counted on her to keep abreast of everything that went on in the inner palace.

Panic ran across Mianxin's expression and she hurriedly curtsied. "This servant is at fault for overlooking Zheshan Palace," she apologised, cold sweating prickling at her skin. She had been too distracted with making sure that the logistics for the new arrivals were arranged correctly that she'd forgotten to receive updates from the door guards of Zheshan Palace, whom she'd bribed earlier on to relay messages about the new tenant.

"Forget it," Li Fang said with a sigh. She didn't want to blame Mianxin either, not when Mianxin had slogged away day and night for her good too. Loyalty deserved to be rewarded. In this case, pardoned. "You were distracted with my matters." Li Fang regarded Zhang Qian solemnly. "Tell me what had happened."

She listened with ugly envy gnawing at her insides as Zhang Qian spiced up a story about how her sources had told her that the emperor had gone to that same old deserted garden again as he did on the same day each year. But one of the eunuch's from the ninth prince's palace said that the ninth prince had run out mischievously and bumped into a secret rendezvous between His Majesty and that wily First-class Attendant.

"A secret rendezvous?" Hui Shuxian said suddenly. She was toying with a dried jujube, rolling it between her fingers in a pleasing manner that emphasised the elegance of her nail guards. Her gaze swept meaningfully towards Li Fang. "And then a bowl of tangyuan after? Oh my."

Zhang Qian only became a concubine after the emperor ascended to the throne but Hui Shuxian had served alongside Li Fang in the crown prince's eastern palace. Although everyone knew that the emperor's heart had been given away a long time ago, few were aware of the full details. Hui Shuxian, though, knew better than Zhang Qian why there was even a bowl of tangyuan in the imperial buttery in the first place.

"Niangniang." Hui Shuxian's expression was casual as she picked open the jujube to remove the seed within. "That person made a wedding dress for you once, are you going to make a wedding dress for another now (1)?"

The jujubes were supposed to replenish and nourish with warming effects that improved circulation and helped ward off the cold. Li Fang had been eating them since the start of winter.

But they weren't enough to stop her blood from running cold.

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The lotus pond behind the imperial library was seldom visited by anyone. No one had access to this area besides the emperor and princes and right now, there were only two living in the inner palace who qualified.

But the state preceptor had taken a strange liking to the small pavilion that sat in the middle of the waters and was inaccessible except by the small wu peng boat (2) that was teetered to one side, crafted from black walnut wood.

It was an inconvenience that Liu Yao tolerated because the state preceptor was a mentor figure whom he had no choice but to rely on. Liu Yao might be emperor but this didn't mean that he was unable to heed the wise words of others, even if he had to stoop down to the position of 'Boatman' and row the both of them out to the pavilion in order to obtain said advice.

"Ah, it's still so peaceful here," the state preceptor marvelled, once they were seated at the round stone table beneath the pavilion's wide roof. There was no one in their vicinity, not even Cao Mingbao, and besides the state preceptor's chatter, all Liu Yao could hear was the occasional lonely birdcall. Liu Yao didn't respond to that, merely prepared the tea that the state preceptor had carried in his arms for the short ride.

His lack of attention didn't faze the state preceptor. Liu Yao had learnt as a child that this ageless man, with his twinkling eyes and long white hair, didn't need an audience to put on a performance. He mused aloud about everything and nothing, even composed poetry about the landscape at a whim in a casual display of literary brilliance that would put any scholar in the realm to shame.

But this was because he was old and had the benefit of experience.

"Are you still waiting?" the state preceptor asked once Liu Yao was done steeping the tea with hot water from the flask that Cao Mingbao had painstakingly reminded him time and time again not to scald himself with.

…switching between the frivolous and the solemn without warning was also very much this old man's style. Liu Yao forced himself to consider the question, taking a sip from his cup. He sensed that the state preceptor had chosen to visit him today to discuss the Tian Fu star.

"Do you think the dead can ever return?" Liu Yao heard himself ask. He had never voiced this question before, not even to the state preceptor, who would be the best authority to answer it. No one truly knew who the state preceptor was or how he had cultivated this peculiar appearance and unusual abilities but he was Liu Yao's only connection to the unknown.

The state preceptor made a noise. It sounded considering but could also just be him clearing out tea dregs that he'd accidentally swallowed. "Your Majesty." When the state preceptor spoke again, his gaze had softened into a semblance of pity and Liu Yao had to look away because it was unseemly for a monarch to appear miserable enough that others should feel sorry for him. "Even if Young Master Ziyu had reincarnated, he would only be a mere child now, one in millions. Where would you go to find him?"

"But you think it possible."

"Isn't there a measure of possibility in everything? They say man has three souls and seven mortal forms, who is to say spirits couldn't linger on the earth long after their death? Or that these souls, upon entering the reincarnation wheel, wouldn't disseminate into different bodies?" The state preceptor sighed. "Your Majesty, this old subject has nothing to offer you besides empty guesses. And yet, still, you're waiting."

Three souls. Seven mortal forms. Liu Yao's mind kept tracking back to that figure standing beneath the barren plum trees. They were nothing alike, an observation he'd made ages ago. All the little coincidences that he'd noticed so far were either exactly that—coincidences—or the product of careful manipulation. There was a chance that he'd been baited into accepting Yan Yun into his harem, that an enemy lurking in the dark had guessed the real part Liu Yao had played in the execution of the Yan Family and had cleverly lodged Yan Yun by his side like a fishbone in Liu Yao's throat.

How much of Yan Yun was the boy himself and how much was manufactured by a cunning mastermind who had trained Yan Yun to behave in a way that guaranteed Liu Yao's undivided attention? From his quiet unrelenting spirit to the edge of stubbornness that sharpened his portrayal of submission, Liu Yao couldn't forget about him.

So different and yet too similar. Liu Yao had been offered male beauties in the past too, many who bore a closer resemblance to than Yan Yun did. But where they had been alike in appearance, they had failed to replicate the right manner of speech, the correct posture and poise.

But Yan Yun could.

Ziyu had been from the south. He'd always liked his tangyuan savoury but Liu Yao couldn't get used to the taste. Was this something Yan Yun had considered too?

And since he already suspected Yan Yun of manipulating him, why was he still hesitating to get rid of him?

"Your Majesty?"

Liu Yao downed the rest of his tea in one go. "I can afford to wait," he said.

"Can you really?"

He had no good answer.