"I won't eat."
"It's not like it's poisoned," Banna said with a curled lip.
Yan Wushi glared at her before shutting his eyes and pretending to go back to sleep.
"I know you're awake, you liar!"
"Banna, what's wrong?" Shen Qiao said as he entered. He'd just finished refilling the kitchen's daily water supplies, so he wiped off the excess drops on his robes.
"He's being a child, like usual," she hissed.
Yan Wushi cracked a single eye, but didn't reply.
"Yan Wushi, I asked her to feed you. Recovery requires fuel."
"I won't eat," he said softer than he had to Banna. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Bring a weiqi board."
Shen Qiao and Banna exchanged a bewildered look.
"Will you eat if we bring you a board?"
"You have to bring a weiqi board," Yan Wushi said with a sniff, and his eyes grew watery, like he might cry again. The thought disturbed Shen Qiao so greatly that he sprang into action.
From the previous night, Yan Wushi had been like this, acting immature and impotent, almost like he was thirty years younger than he actually was. He often got a vacant look in his eyes, which troubled Shen Qiao. He'd hoped whatever was affecting Yan Wushi would disappear with a good night's sleep, but as he brought the weiqi table to the bed side, he looked up, and Yan Wushi's face was lowered like he was too shy to make eye contact. Shen Qiao cursed internally.
Banna had left the bowl of broth she'd prepared, too frustrated to stick around. Yan Wushi sat up and frowned at the bowl, then at the board, and then at Shen Qiao.
"You need to set up problems."
Shen Qiao furrowed his brow.
"Did you hear me? You need to set up some problems."
Shen Qiao did as asked, saying, "I'm not playing with you, you still need to eat."
Yan Wushi hunched his shoulders and said something like, "That's why I need the problems," under his breath.
Shen Qiao set up life-and-death problems on three of the board's four corners, then handed Yan Wushi the bowl of black pieces. Yan Wushi shoved his hand into the bowl and played with the pieces as he scanned each problem. It only took him a moment to lay down three black pieces, one on each problem, to solve them, and he looked up at Shen Qiao accusatorily.
"You made them too easy."
"Forgive this servant for disappointing Your Majesty once again," Shen Qiao said dryly. Shen Qiao was a decent weiqi player, but it wasn't like he was a grandmaster! Of course he'd only be able to think up simple problems!
"I'm not 'Your Majesty,'" Yan Wushi grumbled. "Mother will punish you if she thinks you're incompetent." As he said this, he rearranged one of the problems into a different, more complex pattern. Once satisfied, he showed Shen Qiao a pleading expression, "Food?"
Shen Qiao handed it to him and was grateful that the odd ordeal was over, but then Yan Wushi demanded the same thing the next day, and the day after. The next day after that, Yan Wushi was delirious with fever, so he ate whatever Shen Qiao gave him, but even after his body and personality recovered, he repeated the pattern: if Yan Wushi wanted to eat breakfast, he had to complete weiqi drills.
"It wakes the mind up," Yan Wushi said when Shen Qiao had asked. "How do you think I got so good at weiqi, hm?"
"It just seems unnecessary," Shen Qiao said, secretly grateful that Yan Wushi was back to normal, but missing the soft obedience Yan Wushi had shown in the past few days.
Yan Wushi scoffed, "I've followed this routine since I knew how to play, don't think I'll go changing it just because you, Taoist, think I'm doing too much."
"When did you learn to play weiqi?"
Yan Wushi was still studying that day's problems, knuckle pressed to his lips. "Five."
Shen Qiao blinked in disbelief. "Five? What if you couldn't figure out the problems?"
"Problems before food, always. If you don't solve them, you don't eat. You try again the next day."
"Doesn't starvation make the mind slower?" Shen Qiao said, horrified at the idea of starving a five-year-old child.
"Of course," he said, setting down a black piece on the board, "That's why it's so important to get it right the first time."
"A-Qiao," Yan Wushi said.
Shen Qiao ignored him.
"A-Qiao!" he called again.
Shen Qiao closed his eyes and begged the heavens to gift him patience.
"A-Qiao, my tea cup is empty," Yan Wushi said once Shen Qiao had turned to give him a withering look. Really, Shen Qiao almost preferred it when Yan Wushi was ill. At least he was quiet then.
"I'm sure our illustrious emperor can lift a teapot and refill his own cup, given circumstances." Shen Qiao was covered in dirt turning the soil around the cistanche. It was a warm-weather plant, so as the eleventh month progressed, Shen Qiao wanted to give it as much of a chance of surviving the winter as he could. Yan Wushi was sitting on the back porch watching with a portable table, on which sat their tea set and the lunch Banna had prepared for them.
"Ah, so you'll leave your dear husband and emperor to fend for himself? Deny him the pleasure of watching you pour for him?"
Shen Qiao grunted as he pulled up another stalk of oleander root. "If I remember correctly, my dear emperor is mysophobic," he said. He smoothed some soil back into place. "I don't dare dirty his cup."
Yan Wushi grumbled and put his teacup down. Shen Qiao pulled up a vine that was creeping towards the cistanche and tossed it into their compost pile.
This was a good day for Yan Wushi; he could get up and walk to the back garden, and he even had enough energy to bother Shen Qiao afterward. Likely, tomorrow, he would be too weak to feed himself.
"You've missed one," Yan Wushi poured himself another cup of tea.
Shen Qiao looked to his left, where another vine had grabbed onto the cistanche's leaves. He yanked it up and tossed it into the pile, then wiped his hand over his brow. The air had chilled considerably in the month they'd been stuck in the Cold Palace, but it wasn't quite cold yet, so Shen Qiao still ended up sweating as he worked.
"Come here," Yan Wushi said suddenly, looking serious.
Shen Qiao stepped over to him, and Yan Wushi used his sleeve to wipe Shen Qiao's forehead. The cloth came away dirty. Yan Wushi shook his sleeve out and clicked his tongue against teeth. Shen Qiao dunked his hands into a bucket of water and scrubbed under his fingernails. He inspected them, then dried his hands off on a napkin from the table.
"Let me see the wounds?" he asked.
"If you want me to undress, you can just say so," Yan Wushi teased. "Isn't it shameless to bare myself out here in the open?"
Shen Qiao mentally rolled his eyes. "Do you want to go back inside then? Do you have the energy?"
Yan Wushi pushed his lower lip out. "Carry me?"
"Just show me the wounds, please." Shen Qiao used the napkin to pat sweat off the sides of his neck.
Yan Wushi carefully shrugged out of the top part of his robe. Shen Qiao knelt down next to him to remove the bandages. He'd removed the stitches about ten days after he'd put them in, then stopped packing the stab wound just yesterday. Both sites looked like they were healing well, but Shen Qiao mourned the scars that would inevitably be left behind. Although, looking at the emperor's torso, this was likely not the first time someone had tried to assassinate him.
Shen Qiao, with two fingers, touched the thickest part of Yan Wushi's pectoral muscle.
"Pain?"
"No."
He pressed harder. Now?"
"No."
"One finger or two?"
"Excuse me?"
"Am I touching you with one finger or two? Don't look."
"Two?"
"And now?"
"Still two."
"And now?"
"One."
"Good. The local nerves seem to be working fine. How about now? Any pain?" Shen Qiao poked him closer to where the wound had scabbed over. The outer edge was surrounded by fresh pink skin, which was promising.
Yan Wushi grunted. "That's unpleasant."
Shen Qiao nodded, then moved down to the top of the slash wound and repeated the process a few more times. Other than answering Shen Qiao's questions, Yan Wushi was uncharacteristically quiet.
"This is good," Shen Qiao said, inspecting the old bandages. "They're closing well. The poison may affect you for a while yet, but the physical wounds should be completely healed in the next two months." They didn't have a wealth of extra cloth that was suitable for binding wounds, so Shen Qiao found the cleanest area on the bandages and made sure that was covering the scabs. But Yan Wushi caught his hands.
"Wait." He brought Shen Qiao's hand to his left pectoral again. "The poison, does it affect the heart?"
"It can."
"Then can you tell me if my heart is beating normally?"
"Have you been having palpitations?" Shen Qiao said, concerned.
"Feels tight sometimes," Yan Wushi said with an odd intensity.
"You're having trouble breathing?"
"Only when you touch me," he smiled.
Shen Qiao looked at his hand on Yan Wushi's bare chest. There shouldn't be anything on his hands that would cause that kind of reaction…
Yan Wushi squeezed Shen Qiao's hand, which caused Shen Qiao to squeeze Yan Wushi's pec. The muscle was softer than Shen Qiao was expecting, and his face heated from jaw to hairline.
"Yan Wushi!" he shouted as he pulled his hand away. "You—!"
Yan Wushi laughed at him and tried to grab his wrist again. "You're not being a very good doctor, A-Qiao! I'm having such terrible symptoms!" He caught one of Shen Qiao's forearms and they tussled a bit. Yan Wushi was not nearly as strong as he'd been before, but Shen Qiao couldn't use his own full strength for fear of hurting him. He swatted at Yan Wushi, but then Yan Wushi took both of his wrists and tugged. Shen Qiao crashed into him, and the momentum carried them both backwards. Yan Wushi grunted when his back hit the floor, and Shen Qiao immediately propped himself up on his hands.
"Are you alright? Don't mess around like that! Just because you're feeling better today doesn't mean you're fully healed!" He felt around the back of Yan Wushi's head, scolding him some more, "You already had a concussion, do you really want another?"
Yan Wushi was smiling up at him enigmatically. He reached up and tucked a loose strand of Shen Qiao's hair behind his ear.
Shen Qiao flinched slightly, so Yan Wushi pinched his cheek in retaliation, but it was gentle. "A-Qiao, I—"
"AH!"
Both of them startled and turned their heads to see Banna at the doorway, covering her face with her apron.
"Do you mind?" Yan Wushi said the same time Shen Qiao said, "Banna, we're not—!"
"I-I heard Lord Shen yell, I thought—! Excuse me!" She rushed back into the house, ears pink.
Yan Wushi snorted, then reached back for Shen Qiao, but Shen Qiao was already scrambling up off of him and accidentally kneed him in the groin.
"Sorry, sorry," Shen Qiao said as he helped Yan Wushi sit up. Then he ran off after Banna.
Yan Wushi, in a considerable amount of pain, muttered, "Some fucking doctor!"
As predicted, Yan Wushi took ill the next day. He insisted the fever was slight, but it ran hot enough that Shen Qiao demanded he stay in bed. Yan Wushi, busy-body that he was, could not be trusted to rest unless he was incoherently sick, so Shen Qiao had to sit by his bed and listen to him pontificate for hours on end, otherwise he'd follow Shen Qiao around the house to preach. He also had a bad habit of standing too close, of staring too intently as Shen Qiao worked; it was unnerving.
For lunch that day, Shen Qiao made him plain congee, one of the only things Shen Qiao could make reliably without burning it, and one of the easiest foods for Yan Wushi to digest.
"Can you sit up?" Shen Qiao asked as he set the tray on the bed.
Yan Wushi did, but the effort winded him. Shen Qiao arranged the tray over Yan Wushi's lap, but when Yan Wushi scooped up his first spoonful, his hand was shaking so badly that the congee splashed right out.
"Ah, here, let me." Shen Qiao took the spoon from him, and the bowl off the tray. The bowl was still steaming, so he blew on the next spoonful. He tasted it to test its flavor and temperature, and finding both acceptable, he brought the spoon to Yan Wushi's lips, one hand hovering just below to catch any spilled liquid.
Yan Wushi's mouth did not open right away. He was staring hard at Shen Qiao, likely offended about being treated like an invalid, but he must have been hungry, because he eventually parted his lips and drank down the congee.
"That's awful stuff," Yan Wushi said once the bowl was done. "Are you sure you're not trying to poison me?"
"If I wanted to poison you, you wouldn't know it had happened until it was too late," Shen Qiao said calmly.
"Hmm, but you wouldn't."
Shen Qiao set the bowl aside. "I wouldn't. Even as unorthodox and aggravating as you are, you're still the emperor. Removing you now will only create chaos, and the people will suffer."
"You think I'm aggravating?" Yan Wushi said with a long face. When Shen Qiao was not affected, Yan Wushi gave up the act and laughed. "You're exactly right. Though I care little for the common people, maintaining the nation's stability is the first and foremost goal. Which is why I've been focusing on the Touei pirates even though those ministers keep trying to distract me."
"The pirates?" Shen Qiao said, giving Yan Wushi a confused look.
"What do you mean 'the pirates?'"
"What do they have to do—"
"It's all about the pirates!"
"I'm afraid Your Majesty's wisdom is too great. This subject doesn't follow."
"Aiyoh, A-Qiao, it's not your fault, your head is too full of benevolence to scheme like your husband." His expression was somewhere between teasing and arrogant. "Think like this, who benefits if Beimu attacks us and wins?"
"Beimu," Shen Qiao said.
"Who else?"
"…Xian and Sindhril rely on us for trade, and Xibu is too weak to benefit. I suppose Touei would benefit. Or at least their pirates would."
"And their pirates are essentially state-sanctioned at this point. So Beimu and Touei. Now, who stands to benefit if Beimu attacks us and loses?"
Shen Qiao thought for a moment. "Touei. Our military forces would be reduced and tired, it would be the perfect opportunity for them to attack."
"So we agree that Touei has a vested interest in seeing Rong and Beimu forces meet."
"But what—"
"Why are the pirates attacking our ships?"
"To plunder them?"
"For what?"
"Goods?"
"Copper coins. I suspected their schemes years ago and placed an embargo on Touei imports, so now the only way they can get our copper is by stealing it."
"Why do they want copper so badly?"
"Because there are no copper mines in Touei."
"Right, but it's not like they can use our coppers anywhere but in Rong, why would they want money they can't use?"
"They weren't using it, they were melting it down."
"But—"
"A-Qiao, what are canons made of?"
"Bronze," Shen Qiao responded.
"And what is bronze made of?"
Shen Qiao's cheeks heated. "Tin and…copper."
"Now tell me, do you think they gave their best canons to Beimu? Do you think they gave all of their weapons away?"
"No, and the copper mine in the northeast…"
"En. They got a decent amount out of that awful governor before we put a stop to it. But if we'd moved too quickly, they might have withdrawn their support from Beimu."
"If they'd withdrawn their support, wouldn't that have been better for all parties? There wouldn't be a war—"
"Beimu would still lack resources, and they'd still be attacking our border. And if you think Touei wouldn't find some other group to support in the shadows, you're naive; their own pirates would devastate our coast with the right weaponry. I want to deal with them as soon as possible so I don't have to deal with them later, once Touei has had a few years to experiment with our copper, you understand?"
Shen Qiao blew a long breath out his nose. "Yes, I understand."
"Now, another question for you, my dear husband," Yan Wushi said with a lilt.
His indulgent expression did not impress Shen Qiao. "I'm not your husband, I'm your concubine."
Deflating slightly, Yan Wushi pressed on. "Do you think someone like Mu Tipo would have been able to come up with a scheme like that on his own? I think it's more likely he reported the mine's discovery to the northern army, and someone planted the idea of trading behind my back into his head." Yan Wushi was staring at Shen Qiao out of the side of his eye. "Three guesses as to who that someone might have been?"
Shen Qiao sighed, "No need, my brother has always been farsighted."
"Not as farsighted as me," Yan Wushi said with a frown.
"Of course not, Your Majesty."
"Your brother is still sore about not being promoted and believes that if he can just win over the right people, win the right battles, he can gain glory for both the nation and his family. It's a noble goal, but unfortunately, I'm playing a much more important game."
"And what exactly is that game, Your Majesty?" Even after all that, Shen Qiao still didn't understand Yan Wushi's main goal.
"To remove that idiot Riyue's corrupt ministers, of course. To leave court in a better form than it was when I came to it."
Shen Qiao blinked. "How noble of you."
"I think you'll find that I'm quite noble when I wish to be," he said proudly. He laid his hand on top of Shen Qiao's. "Shall I do you the honor of showing you?"
Shen Qiao blithely extracted his hand from Yan Wushi's, saying, "I think I've seen enough of our dear emperor's nobility to last me a lifetime. Now, forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't it be more efficient to simply remove the corrupt or incompetent officials and replace them with better suited candidates?"
"No, no, see this is where your nature gets in the way! You are so focused on being righteous even when those around you are not, you fail to plan for their treachery! Look what happened when I didn't have the empress dealt with properly, hm? You think my father's officials will be happy to know that I've replaced them?"
"If you offer them a decent retirement package—" Shen Qiao said, feeling stupid again.
"Not enough, more than money, my ministers want power and prestige. They want their names lauded in our annals. The most corrupt of them want me dead so they can place their own puppet ruler on the throne. Even if I remove them, their influences will remain. They will only leave if they die or I do. So, with this war and with my absence, I'll trick them into revealing themselves so I can kill them, same as I did for Tao Hongjing."
Shen Qiao was speechless.
"A-Qiao, an emperor is the seat of power for a nation. Can I rule the country and not be cunning?"
Shen Qiao pursed his lips together, then said, "Isn't it tiring? It's best to remove oneself from conflict entirely, to accept the path before you—"
"From when you entered the palace until now, how has that approach worked out for you?" Yan Wushi asked bluntly.
Shen Qiao's face went hot. He hesitated, but then said, "And how about you, Your Majesty? Has your need to manipulate and scheme done you any better? You and I are sitting in the same room, aren't we?"
Yan Wushi laughed. It started out as a soft chuckle but then rose to full-bodied laughter. Shen Qiao didn't see what was so funny.
When Yan Wushi was done, he said, "I suppose this is what you call fate, then."
Yan Wushi had no energy for the rest of the week, so he spent his time either slurring at Shen Qiao about politics or asleep. A cold front had come in, and Shen Qiao wanted to wash the bed pallet one last time before the cold would freeze it to the clothes line. He set up a little blanket nest on the floor and made sure Yan Wushi was tucked in well before he went out to to the side courtyard. When he re-entered the house, he could hear Yan Wushi's voice, but the water bucket was heavy, so he dropped it off with Banna first.
"A-Qiao, enough," he heard Yan Wushi say. "A-Qiao…"
Shen Qiao quickened his pace. Had Yan Wushi gotten tangled in the sheets? Was he hurt? Shen Qiao stopped short at the threshold, then coughed out a laugh.
"A-Qiao," Yan Wushi whined as he tried to turn over in the sheets. There was a young deer next to him, chewing on the blankets, making Yan Wushi's weak efforts pointless.
"Where did you come from?" Shen Qiao asked, holding his hand out to the deer as he approached. The deer looked at Shen Qiao suspiciously, then sniffed the air between them. After bleating once, it went back to Yan Wushi, putting its nose all over his face. It must have been wet and cold, because Yan Wushi grunted and shoved its head away, "A-Qiao, no kisses, tired."
The deer bleated again, offended at Yan Wushi's rejection. It began exploring the room, nosing through the items on their low table, knocking over Shen Qiao's sewing basket, tearing a page out of the book Shen Qiao had left on the vanity and eating it.
Shen Qiao tried to herd it out of the room, back onto the porch, and out the broken wall, since he assumed that's where it had come from, but the deer paid him no mind except to dart out of reach each time he got close.
"Fine, you can stay for now, but no more eating my books." He put the books up on top of a cabinet to be safe. "I'll see if Banna has anything in the kitchen for you."
The deer sniffed the air after him.
He explained the situation to Banna, and she laughed at him, but found a bit of wilted cabbage for the deer. He returned to the main chambers only to find the deer curled up on the floor with Yan Wushi, who'd woken up and was holding the deer's head in both hands.
"You'll make a very fine stew," he said, "but it'll be better if we fatten you up first."
"Yan Wushi, be nice to him!" Shen Qiao said, approaching too quickly; the deer startled and tried to scuttle out of the bed, only for its long legs to get caught in the blankets. It stopped struggling once Shen Qiao presented it with the cabbage.
"Ah, look at him, so easily distracted, no idea what awaits him. Reminds me of a certain someone…" Yan Wushi said with a suggestive look at Shen Qiao.
"You've already named him, so we can't eat him."
"Hm? When did I name him?"
"Just now, when you so cruelly rejected his kisses," Shen Qiao said.
Yan Wushi's face went red, then white, and then he wiped at his cheek. "A-Qiao!" he berated the deer.
It chewed back at him in defiance.
Shiwu dropped by the next day with more supplies and a letter from Shen Qiao's sister. To his credit, he didn't mention their new family member, even when the deer climbed into Shen Qiao's lap and ate the pears Shiwu had bought right off the table, but he did stare at it for quite a long time.
Yan Wushi had many things to say about Shiwu visiting, since this was the first time he'd been awake during Shiwu's visits.
"Is this the little stable boy I'm going to execute?"
Banna fumed, "You'll only get to him through my dead body!"
"Yes, that's the plan."
"Ignore them," Shen Qiao said, still flicking his eyes over his sister's scrawl. Not only had she been in contact with Yuan Zixiao in the Secretariat, she'd been working in the Secretariat and had all kinds of news to share. "Guang Lingsan returned to court? Why was he excused from court?" he asked no one in particular.
Shiwu replied, "Oh, I know that one! Bian Yanmei beat the shit out of him!"
" What ?!" Banna and Shen Qiao both said at the same time. Yan Wushi laughed.
"Yeah, after the attack, when Bian Yanmei was escaping the capital, Guang Lingsan tried to stop him, so Bian Yanmei showed him what for. Oh, and Yu Shengyan released the Golden Tiger Guard to protect him, so he's currently in prison for aiding a traitor."
"How can he be a traitor? Wasn't he the emperor's favored eunuch?" said Banna.
Yan Wushi tutted her. "Exactly, which is precisely why all the other ministers, empress included, hated him. Thought I was giving him too long a leash. They need him out of the picture, lest he take control of the throne, or, worse, lest he keep the throne warm for me, rendering the coup moot."
Shen Qiao continued reading the letter.
Then, suddenly, he put the letter down.
"The empress released Sang Jingxing."
Banna and Yan Wushi stopped bickering, and Shiwu looked up from the deer.
"It was only a matter of time," Yan Wushi said. He pulled on the ends of his sleeves, which were still too short for his arms. "They were involved after all, I'm sure he had a large part in the uprising."
"Why is he still even alive?" Banna said.
"Shengyan was interrogating him," responded Yan Wushi.
"For a whole year?!"
Yan Wushi looked down his nose at her. "The longer he lives, the more information I can squeeze out of him, what about that do you not understand? Leaks on his end are what tipped me off about the copper mines, and the empress's attempt to poison me, and the ambush on our military. You said it was all four generals? That doesn't seem right to me."
Shen Qiao shook his head as he finished reading Gu Hengbo's letter. "They thought it was all four, but the Southern Army leaked false information on purpose. Yi Bichen's deputy general told him about the rebels' plot instead of joining. They've met up with Bian Yanmei, but there's been no movement since the empress's spies reported last."
"Hmm. That's closer. Does the court know where Yanmei is?" said Yan Wushi.
"Not sure, but it's likely that they will soon."
"Grind some ink, A-Qiao, I need to write a letter."
"Grind it yourself!" Banna exploded. "All you do every day is order Lord Shen around!"
"A-Qiao, I'm terribly ill, I can't do it myself."
"Did you lose your hands?!" Banna picked up a teacup and threw it at him, but he leaned to the side and let it fly over his shoulder.
Shen Qiao scolded both of them, "Banna, I know your manners are better than that. Yan Wushi, would it kill you to say please? You may be the emperor, but no one here is your servant."
"Aren't you though, dear husband?"
"I'm not your husband, I'm your concubine."
"That's even closer to being a servant than being my husband. Prepare the ink."
"Is it always like this?" Shiwu asked Banna, who was audibly grinding her teeth.
"Yes. Lord Shen, stop that!"
Shen Qiao paused with a stick of ink in his hand. "Hmm?"
"Why do you always give into him?"
"Because I am his king and husband, clearly, and he is a devoted servant and wife," Yan Wushi said with a lazy smile.
Shen Qiao began grinding the ink against the inkstone. "When reasonable, it's best to give him what he wants right away, otherwise he'll escalate and become unreasonable."
"You think I'm unreasonable?"
"Two walls," was all Shen Qiao said in response.
Yan Wushi tossed his head back and laughed, and Shen Qiao had to fight to keep his smile down. Banna and Shiwu looked at them both in confusion.
Yan Wushi sealed his letter before anyone could read what he'd written. He handed the envelope to Shiwu and said, "If you can get this letter to Bian Yanmei, perhaps I'll spare your life."
With a pale face, Shiwu accepted the letter.
~
The longer they stayed in the Cold Palace, the colder the air got. Snow had fallen the last two nights, which was not good for anyone's health, and definitely not for Yan Wushi's. He'd been feverish since the snow began, and since they couldn't burn large amounts of wood, they had to make do with the few hand warmers left about the palace. Before the chill, Banna had slept in one of the side courtyards, grumbling about being kicked out of her place in the main chambers. Shen Qiao had slept on a futon on the floor next to Yan Wushi's bed in case there was trouble in the night.
But now, Shen Qiao was worried Yan Wushi would catch a chill and all the work he'd put into saving this mad emperor would mean nothing. Saved from poison, killed by cold, Shen Qiao couldn't accept that. So he asked Banna…
"Absolutely not," she said as she separated dough into tiny balls.
"Banna…"
"Just because he's got you in his thrall doesn't mean I'm going to sully myself by sharing a bed with him."
"You-It's not—" Shen Qiao huffed. "I'm not asking you to sleep with him, just…to sleep with him."
She grabbed a rolling pin and began flattening a ball of dough out. "If I had my way, we'd toss him out into that nice little pile of snow on the front step and watch him freeze to death over dinner."
It was such a typical thing for her to say, Shen Qiao almost laughed.
"I don't even understand why you want to keep him alive after everything he did to you. You should have let me kill him."
Shen Qiao leaned against the counter. "Do you think your parents were happy being driven out of their homeland?"
Banna stopped rolling the dough. "Of course not, Grandfather used to complain about how different Rong was from Xibu all the time. He said mother hated it too. What does that have to do with not killing the emperor?"
"Yan Wushi is the only thing standing between us and a full-blown war not only with Beimu, but with Touei as well. I want you to think about the number of civilians that will be caught up in a war that large, and decide if killing Huanyue is worth their lives."
Banna clenched her jaw, but then all the tension drained out of her body. "Alright, fine, I won't kill him. But I'm not going to share a bed with him, no matter how cold it gets!"
Three nights later, the well froze. A night after that, Banna knocked on the main chamber door, wrapped in a blanket and shivering. "I take it back," she said. "Is there room on the futon?"
Shen Qiao got up to help her arrange the blanket over the futon, then moved a barely conscious Yan Wushi towards the center. Banna slipped into the futon on Yan Wushi's left, Shen Qiao resumed his place on Yan Wushi's right.
"I'm not marrying her," Yan Wushi mumbled. "She can be your maid again, but I'm not marrying her."
"Who wants to marry you!" Banna hissed.
"Hush, both of you," Shen Qiao scolded.
Yan Wushi wrapped his arm around Shen Qiao's waist and said, "Yes, A-Qiao." His breathing evened out almost immediately afterward. Shen Qiao felt Yan Wushi's forehead and grunted when it was still hot. He rearranged Yan Wushi on his back with his arms at his sides, then fell asleep mentally listing the ingredients he'd need for Yan Wushi's medicine tomorrow.
He woke before the sun rose because Banna got up to start making breakfast. She apologized when she realized she'd woken him, but he waved her off. She was doing them all a favor by cooking; as far as Shen Qiao was concerned, she could spit in their faces, and he wouldn't rebuke her. He was going to resettle and try to sleep some more, but someone was staring at him. He could feel the eyes stuck on him, even though they were only half open.
"You're awake?" Shen Qiao asked quietly.
"Hmm," said Yan Wushi.
Shen Qiao rolled onto his side to feel Yan Wushi's forehead again. It was still warm, but not as hot as it had been before. Yan Wushi caught Shen Qiao's hand and pressed it against his cheek.
He was barely awake, so he certainly couldn't be judged by his words or actions, but the tenderness with which he kissed Shen Qiao's palm made Shen Qiao squirm.
"Mother said it was a love token," Yan Wushi said under his breath.
Shen Qiao had no idea what he was talking about.
"Said she was his favorite. What idiots…" Yan Wushi tucked his face even further into Shen Qiao's hand, then his grip went slack as he fell back asleep. Shen Qiao gently removed his hand, and the Golden Lotus Ring flashed in the low morning light. He hadn't taken it off since he'd realized what it was, and he'd almost forgotten he had it. He looked at it, then back at Yan Wushi. His hair had come out of its usual braid during the night, so Shen Qiao carefully tucked the loose strands behind Yan Wushi's ear, pausing over the light star-lit color at his temples. Even sleep-worn and fever-sweated, Yan Wushi had such a dignified appearance. Running a country must truly be exhausting.
Since he was truly awake now, Shen Qiao lit a few hand warmers and tucked them into the futon with Yan Wushi, then gathered some clean snow from outside to boil into tea.
~
Yan Wushi's fever broke on the last day of the year. He was still weaker than he had been before the poisoning, but after three months away from court, his stitches were mostly healed; the stab wound was still scabbed, but much improved.
Banna treated him a little better, or at least she didn't say every rude thing that entered her head. Yan Wushi still treated her like a servant, but with fewer acerbic comments to twist around, he had no choice but to speak to her kindly. Kindly-er. Shen Qiao wasn't sure Yan Wushi was capable of being kind.
Shiwu returned to their hideout on New Year's Day to deliver more supplies.
"A letter, oh, two letters?" Banna said as she pulled wax-sealed envelopes out of the bag. She reached over A-Qiao the deer to hand the letters to Shen Qiao, who kept one and passed the other to Yan Wushi.
Yan Wushi opened his and scanned it; before Shen Qiao could even unseal his own, Yan Wushi had fed his letter to A-Qiao the deer, who seemed to savor the treat.
"News from Bian-gonggong?" Shen Qiao asked.
"Hm," was all Yan Wushi said.
Shen Qiao rolled his eyes, and opened his own letter. Gu Hengbo was now spending an equal time between the Chancellery and Secretariat because of a worker shortage. Shen Qiao pinched the bridge of his nose.
"The empress's first attempt to reclaim our land in the northeast was intercepted by the Touei pirates and wiped out completely," Shen Qiao said softly.
Shiwu nodded. "The officials who come by to get horses have all been in a bad mood recently. And some are afraid she's going to make Sang Jingxing emperor."
Shen Qiao's body went cold. "She can't—"
"She could," Yan Wushi mused. "As the regent, she's able to choose the next emperor, but she won't."
The other three stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate.
"What?"
"How can you possibly know what she'll do?"
"I know her nature. Been married to her for almost two decades. She's jealous and anxious, she'll dangle the Dragon Throne over Sang Jingxing's head for as long as possible to keep him interested."
"Isn't he in love with her?" Shiwu asked.
Yan Wushi laughed. "Not possible. With no family, she needs his support, which he is well aware of. Unless he can get something out of her, he likely doesn't care if she lives or dies."
"…I'm glad I'm not in court," Shiwu mumbled.
"En, it's best to stay as far away from court as possible," Shen Qiao agreed.
The corner of Yan Wushi's lip twitched, but Shen Qiao went back to reading his letter.
Gu Hengbo went on for three lines about how wonderful her Yuan-jiejie was at getting her information and helping her navigate the palace, and then she wrote that their Da-ge had been a nightmare at home. He'd been released from prison (Shen Qiao hadn't realized he'd even been arrested!) and was furious with Empress Yuan for reinstating Sang Jingxing as the Minister of War instead of handing the position to Yu Ai, who had been the driving force behind her takeover. Not only that, she was pushing the whole blame of what happened to Yan Wushi onto Yu Ai and had declared him a criminal.
It made sense. Even if the empress had known about the assassination attempt beforehand, which was very likely given her timing, she wouldn't be able to maintain credibility as the empress if she didn't try to capture the person who'd tried to kill her husband. Shen Qiao's head hurt.
Gu Hengbo explained that the empress had suspended the Linchuan Institute and Purple Manor's classes and was posturing to make Buddhism the national religion because she owed Abbot Xueting for treating her well at Tiantai. Ruyan Kehui, who oversaw the Confucian studies at Linchuan Institute and who had originally supported her rise to power, had visited the Qi Faamily Compound several times in the last week to drink and complain with Tan Yuanchun.
"Your brother can drink with Ruyan Kehui, but you can't even handle one cup?" Yan Wushi said with a smile.
"That's what you got out of that?" said Shen Qiao, barely glancing over the top of the letter.
"Of course not. This is all splendid. Everything is going exactly as planned."
Banna asked, "You planned to be here? In the Cold Palace?"
"Where I am doesn't matter. What's important is that Yuan Xiuxiu is driving the country into the ground."
"It's not funny," Shen Qiao said, disapproving of Yan Wushi's amused expression. "You of all people should be concerned."
"Why?"
"She's turning your court upside down."
"My court?" Yan Wushi's eyebrows shot to his hairline. "A-Qiao, in case you haven't noticed, I'm no longer the ruling emperor."
Everyone in the room was silent for a beat. Shiwu, intelligently, stayed quiet, but Banna and Shen Qiao both spoke at the same time.
"You're not taking the throne back?!"
"Yan Wushi! I didn't save you so you could run away!"
"Didn't we just decide that it was best to stay as far away from court as possible? I'm only waiting for a good time to sneak out of the capital so I can sell my mother's jewelry and retire as a rich merchant in Xian."
"You'd give up on your entire empire?" Shen Qiao asked, at a loss.
Yan Wushi inspected his fingernails, then casually stroked A-Qiao the deer's back. "I never wanted to be emperor in the first place."
"Then what was the point of all of this? Why go through so much trouble when you could have just appointed an heir and abdicated?"
"Where's the fun in that, ah? Why not enjoy a few years of luxury before it all goes to hell?"
Shen Qiao wanted to tear his hair out! This man! Was! Impossible!
"I-I also brought dumplings, for the new year," Shiwu said, rummaging through the half empty bag.
They divided up the dumplings, and Banna got tea, side dishes, and sauces from the kitchen. Yan Wushi began to tease Shiwu about the shape of the dumplings, asking if his hands were shaking while he made them. Banna defended him immediately, of course.
Shen Qiao stared at Yan Wushi; he knew better than to think Yan Wushi ever meant what he said, especially when his words directly contradicted what he'd said before, about wanting to reform the court. He was just so hard to predict, Shen Qiao didn't know what to believe.
At the end of their meal, Shen Qiao wrote a quick letter to his sister and sent it off with Shiwu. A-Qiao the deer joined their pile as they all went to bed together.
Shen Qiao awoke the next morning shivering. As he sat up, Banna turned over in her sleep. There was a body's worth of space between them. Shen Qiao twisted around to survey to room and whispered, "Yan Wushi?"
No one answered.
Shen Qiao got out of the futon and went to the kitchen. He went to Banna's side chambers, he went to the back porch. From the moment he'd woken up, he'd known that Yan Wushi was gone, but he couldn't stop himself from checking. By the time he'd finished searching and returned to the main bedroom, Banna was sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
"Good morning," he greeted.
"What's wrong?"
Shen Qiao didn't answer; instead he puttered about the room, picking things up and putting them down.
"Hmm? Where's Huanyue?"
She stood and made to approach Shen Qiao but stopped when she noticed something on the low table.
"Lord Shen," she called, picking up a set of tossed-aside under robes. "Aren't these his?"
Shen Qiao furrowed his brow. If Yan Wushi had left his robes here, then…
Shen Qiao went to the cupboard where he had put Yan Wushi's repaired robes, the ones that actually fit him. The cupboard was empty.
"He just left, ah?" Banna snorted. "What a piece of work. Do you think he really ran off with his mother's jewelry like he said he would?"
It was certainly a possibility. There wasn't anything to stop him. But Shen Qiao thumbed the ring on his left hand. "I don't think so."
"Then…What should we do?"
"I want to wait for him," Shen Qiao said decisively.
"En, and if he doesn't return?"
Shen Qiao closed the flower on the Golden Lotus ring, then opened it again before closing it a final time. "What did you plan to do before Yan Wushi and I got here?"
Banna's face went a deep shade of red and she began stuttering. "I didn't really have a plan but to stay alive! Shiwu has been taking good care of me and I figured I'd abuse his good will until he got tired of me!"
Shen Qiao chuckled sadly. "I'm not sure Shiwu would ever get tired of you."
"Then…we just stay here for now?"
Shen Qiao nodded. "I'll keep in touch with my sister through Shiwu, she may be able to tell us when it's safe to re-emerge." Shen Qiao perked up and began looking around the room again.
"Lord Shen?" Banna asked when he went to the chamber door and looked down the hallway both ways.
Shen Qiao sighed, saying, "He left us, but took the deer."
Shen Qiao and Banna had a quiet week together. Very little changed: they took spit baths with small buckets of melted snow, cooked meals with one another, and spent the rest of their days reading, sewing, gardening, or cleaning until the sun went down. Without Yan Wushi's broad frame between them, it was easy for them to fit on the bed, so they piled all the blankets onto the bedframe and supplemented their lack of fevered emperor with a few hand warmers each night. Shen Qiao had expected Banna to be coy about it and maybe try to sleep in her side chamber again, but she didn't even flinch when they laid themselves down the first night.
"I used to sleep with my grandfather before I came to the palace, how is this any different?"
Shen Qiao laughed, not sure how he felt being compared to her grandfather, but he decided it was better than her thinking of him as a potential lover. In fact, when they slept together, Banna's preferred posture seemed to be with her back to Shen Qiao, which suited him just fine.
The cistanche in the garden died due to a deep freeze, which deeply saddened Shen Qiao.
On the eighth day of the new year, Banna and Shen Qiao were digging it out of the garden when the sound of someone shouting caught their attention. Shen Qiao looked towards the palace front, confused, then wiped his hands off on his robes and went inside. He grabbed one of the wooden practice swords Shiwu had brought him, and scanned each room as he entered it.
Banna followed close behind him, also covered in dirt. The voice was clearer now, definitely coming from the front side of the palace, but the words were still unintelligible. They arrived at the palace's front door and cracked it open. No one was in their front courtyard, but now Shen Qiao could clearly hear the voice shouting, "If no one comes to greet us, we will have no choice but to intrude!"
There was some shuffling noise outside, then the front gate shook in its threshold. Banna grabbed the back of Shen Qiao's robes. He was about to tell Banna to run for the garden again, to escape out the broken wall, but the front gate swung open.
"Concubine Shen! You are here!" A-Qing said with wide eyes. "Why didn't you come to greet us? What is all over you?!"
"…Dirt?" Shen Qiao said, heart still racing in his chest.
A-Qing was much taller than he'd been the last time Shen Qiao had seen him, his face was a little thinner, and he had bags under his eyes. He still had the soft look of a eunuch, and it was clear he was growing up well, even if he was tired.
"Why is the emperor's esteemed Meiren covered in dirt?!" A-Qing was scandalized. He turned to the eunuch behind him and said, "Bring him fresh robes immediately!"
Shen Qiao and Banna looked between themselves. Based on her expression, Banna was also considering whether it was still possible to escape out the back wall.
A-Qing brought several other eunuchs into the courtyard with him and they all began looking around, tutting at the state of disrepair. One brought in a beautiful white and blue robe for Shen Qiao to change into, but wouldn't let him touch it until he'd bathed himself. When Shen Qiao pointed out that it would take at least a few hours to heat up enough water, A-Qing waved two eunuchs carrying a large tub into the palace.
"And what about Banna?" Shen Qiao asked.
Almost immediately, another eunuch arrived with a set of brown and red clothes.
"The baths may be cold for time's sake, but please bear with it," A-Qing said with an apologetic smile.
The baths were cold, much to Shen Qiao's displeasure, but what was worse was that the eunuchs seemed to believe Shen Qiao was not capable of bathing himself, poking and prodding him the whole time, dumping fragrant solution after fragrant solution over his head. He hoped they were being gentler with Banna!
But her glower when they reunited said they had not been. She looked very fetching in the new clothes, a short tunic over a set of riding pants.
"Much better," A-Qing said with a nod. "I've packed up anything that seemed to be of worth and will have the trunks delivered to Canglang Palace."
"Thank you," Shen Qiao said unwillingly. He turned to Banna. "If you want to leave now, I won't fault you. You're not my servant anymore. I don't want to drag you into needless danger."
Banna ruffled, her chest puffing up. "What else am I supposed to do, hm? It's either Canglang Palace or the stables as far as I'm concerned! And Canglang Palace has beds !"
Shen Qiao laughed and nodded, but couldn't help feeling guilty. He had no idea what awaited them at the end of this. He didn't even know where the eunuchs were taking them! But if Banna was willing, Shen Qiao could only be grateful for her devotion and do his best to protect her.
The eunuchs herded them into a carriage and set off; Shen Qiao once again said good bye to the Cold Palace.
The carriage stopped in front of Canglang Palace.
Shen Qiao looked around at the eunuchs unloading items and taking them through the palace's gates. He'd thought perhaps they'd take him to court or to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Banna sighed in relief.
"We will leave you to your household now," A-Qing said once the trunks were all unloaded.
"The emperor—"
"Is too busy to see you at the moment, I'm sure you understand. But he didn't want you holed up in the Cold Palace for too long. Truly, his benevolence knows no bounds."
"Truly," Shen Qiao said, his eyebrow twitching.
"I'll inform him that you've been resettled. Perhaps he will call upon you when he's finished with Lady Bai."
"Lady Bai?" Shen Qiao said, his stomach twisting uncomfortably.
"Hm? Yes, he's been calling upon her every day since he returned."
"That bitch!" Banna gasped.
"Banna," Shen Qiao said under his breath. Despite his own confusion, Shen Qiao had no claim to the emperor. Or at least, he had no more claim to the emperor than any other concubine. He felt ridiculous. What had he been expecting? Yan Wushi had never seen Shen Qiao as anything but a pawn and then a resource. Now that he'd moved on to Bai Rong, Shen Qiao could only hope that she knew what kind of man she was involving herself with, although, if she had truly been the emperor's favorite before Shen Qiao came along, Shen Qiao couldn't help but wonder if perhaps…perhaps this had been their plan all along.
They'd exposed Yu Ai and the empress during the assassination attack, shouldn't Yan Wushi be close to achieving his goal? Wasn't this the perfect time to purge the last vestiges of his father's court and usher a new era into the palace?
He didn't have too long to think about it because almost as soon as he'd settled back into his palace, Gu Hengbo barged in and scolded him until she was blue in the face. Yuan Ying accompanied her, and though he didn't say anything, he nodded every time Gu Hengbo started a new sentence.
When she was done, she collapsed into a chair in Shen Qiao's room and said, "Bring me some tea, I'm wilting!"
Shen Qiao was finally able to greet Yuan Ying properly.
"You're looking well. It's been a long three months."
Yuan Ying poured Gu Hengbo some tea. "Yes, it has. For spending three months in the Cold Palace, you don't look too bad either."
"I had plenty to keep me busy."
"And why hasn't the emperor called you directly to his palace!" Gu Hengbo demanded. "You spent three months healing him and then what, he just abandons you?!"
"The emperor has a country to run," Shen Qiao said, suddenly very tired. "Three months is a long time to be away from court."
"Aiyoh, you should have seen his grand entrance! He may be conniving and mad, but he knows how to make a statement," Gu Hengbo said between sips of her tea.
"You were there?"
"Hmm. I've been shadowing Zixiao-jie since the empress killed half the Secretariat."
Shen Qiao mourned in his heart, both for the wronged ministers and for his sister's innocence.
"First we heard that someone had sprung Captain Yu out of prison, and then the next day, both he and the emperor are throwing the court doors open, waltzing in with a whole entourage of eunuchs. It was quite impressive. Everyone's faces were sheet white! They must have thought they were seeing a ghost!"
Shen Qiao huffed a soft laugh. Yan Wushi had probably loved that.
"He made this long speech about the nature of kingship and the importance of well-laid plans, and then he called the empress sloppy and demanded that she get off of his throne before he made her. It was fantastic."
"You didn't like Empress Yuan?" Shen Qiao asked.
Gu Hengbo shrugged. "She doesn't know how to rule. Bian Yanmei wouldn't return with the tiger seal, and he's been in contact with the southern army, so the empress called for his arrest and beheading, but he has the Golden Tiger Guard protecting him, so even if anyone found him, it's not like they could actually arrest him. Besides that, some of the ministers were saying that leaving the army in Bian Yanmei's hands would be a better bet for the country since the empress clearly doesn't understand how war works. She'd send out an edict one day, and the next rescind it, then the following day she'd do the same thing over again. Not even her mercenary army up north could keep up!
"And speaking of the mercenaries! She was trying to create her own secret service network with them! They were disguising themselves as servants and messengers, and up until a week ago, they were watching our manor in case you or Yu Ai came back."
Shen Qiao hesitated. "Yu Ai's alive?"
Gu Hengbo pursed her lips, scowling into her tea cup. Yuan Ying ducked his head so Shen Qiao couldn't see his face.
"I just can't imagine what he's thinking," Gu Hengbo growled. "I still don't understand it."
"Have you heard from him at all?"
"No, he disappeared before anyone even thought to look for him."
"And the Beimu envoys?"
"Most died, a few escaped."
"Did a man named Kunye make it out?"
"Not sure," Gu Hengbo replied. "That week was such a mess. The minute the empress staked her claim on the throne, she demanded everyone else stop looking for the emperor."
"She didn't want him found, and if he was, she wanted her mercenaries to be the ones to find him," Shen Qiao nodded. "What about Tan Yuanchun?"
"He was in jail for the first month, but I think the empress forgot about him," Yuan Ying said bashfully. "They didn't even question him. And then Sang Jingxing let him go."
"Why is the Minister of War dallying in the Ministry of Justice's affairs?" he muttered to himself, but then he remembered Sang Jingxing's sadistic nature and shivered. He shook the thought out of his head. "And the southern army?"
"The first thing Huanyue did when he got back was send out an order to head north. If Bian Yanmei complies, they should meet the Beimu troops in two weeks' time."
"And the eastern navy?"
Gu Hengbo shook her head. "Don't know. The last we heard, Admiral Zhao's deputy captain, Ruan Hailou had attacked her and taken over the fleet. Then those Touei pirates destroyed our forces…"
Shen Qiao mourned quietly. Alleged inexperience aside, Zhao Chiying had done him a favor back at that one Longevity Festival, and he wished he'd been able to repay her. He'd have to settle for burning some money for her.
After his siblings left, the palace was quiet. Many of Shen Qiao's servants had been run out or killed by Yuan Xiuxiu's people. The few servants that hadn't were back at the Qi family manor, so it was just Shen Qiao and Banna. He asked her how she felt about being the household steward, and she agreed immediately, even though he couldn't guarantee a salary at the moment.
"I've always wanted to boss people around," she said with a smile.
"I hadn't noticed," Shen Qiao responded in kind.
They ate a quiet dinner together and went to sleep, each enjoying their kang beds in their own rooms.
The next morning, Shen Qiao woke up to banging at his palace gate. 'Again?' he thought to himself. He threw on enough clothes to be decent and tied his hair back, then went to the gate where Wu Mi had his fist raised.
"Are you ready?" Wu-gonggong asked with no introduction.
"Ready for…?"
"Court! Are you ready for court!"
Shen Qiao looked down at his robes, then back at Wu Mi and said, "No."
"Well, let's get you ready, hm?" Wu Mi forced his way through the palace gate. Shen Qiao would have tried to stop him, but Wu Mi was so old, Shen Qiao didn't want to hurt him…ah, He was making his way into the halls and commenting on how dusty the place was, how messy everything was.
"Where's that little maid you stole away with?"
"Banna is still asleep. And she's not my maid anymore. I'll have to ask you to excuse the mess."
"Oh, it's not your fault, A-Qing should have had the servants clean the place out before you got back. He was just so excited to learn you were still alive, he must have forgotten. Forgive this old man for not teaching him better."
Shen Qiao didn't think there was anything to forgive, but nodded graciously.
"Now, where is your room?" Wu Mi opened a random door and closed it when it revealed another empty chamber.
Shen Qiao reluctantly led him to the main quarters, and sat at the vanity while Wu-gonggong fussed about his clothes and makeup.
Before, Shen Qiao hadn't bothered much with makeup unless it was for special occasions. It wasn't that he minded it, but it was an extra, unnecessary step most days, and hadn't Wu Mi been in a rush before?
He painted a very nice flower between Shen Qiao's brows and a dot on each of Shen Qiao's cheeks where dimples would have been if Shen Qiao had any. Then Wu Mi rifled through all of Shen Qiao's drawers and trunks before pulling the blue robe from the previous day out.
"This is the only one nice enough. You really ought to ask the emperor for some new clothes, ah? The way he dotes on you, you'd be able to accumulate a decent wardrobe."
Shen Qiao didn't bother responding. Since when had Yan Wushi ever doted on Shen Qiao? And his robes were not that bad!
Wu Mi was less adept with hair, so he only twisted Shen Qiao's hair into a bun and then inserted every pin Shen Qiao had, even the ones with dangly bits that tended to smack Shen Qiao in the face when he walked. Shen Qiao accepted all of this with resignation.
When he arrived at court, the feeling turned to confusion. Wu Mi had been in a rush, then taken a long time with Shen Qiao, so Shen Qiao assumed they'd be late, but as it turned out, no one else had arrived. More confusing, his usual place by Yan Wushi's throne was hidden behind a white screen painted with cranes and bamboo. Wu Mi motioned for him to take his seat.
Yan Wushi led in his officials a few minutes later, but the crowd sounded smaller than Shen Qiao remembered it. Through the screen, Shen Qiao couldn't see anyone's face, so he wasn't sure who'd been executed and who was still in play. Ah, no, there was his eldest brother, Shen Qiao could recognize his stride anywhere. And Yu Shengyan was there too; he poked his head around the screen and greeted Shen Qiao with a lop-sided smile.
"Thanks for taking care of our emperor for us," he said. He'd gotten quite dark from being in the sun, and he had a bit of stubble on his chin.
"Shengyan!" Yan Wushi snapped.
Yu Shengyan disappeared right away.
"Concubine Shen, it's so good to have you back in court."
Shen Qiao nodded, but wasn't sure what to say.
"Have you eaten?"
"…No."
"Wu-Mi, bring our dear concubine something from the kitchens."
Wu Mi scurried off and returned with a single portion of youtiao and soy milk. Shen Qiao looked at Yan Wushi, but he'd already moved on to address the court.
"Now everything is back to normal—"
Shen Qiao choked on his first bite of youtiao. What "normal"?! What about this was normal?!
"—I can finally turn my attention to the harem."
"But your Majesty, the war—" Ruyan Kehui said, more sedate than Shen Qiao remembered him being.
"The war's not going anywhere, hm?"
"You must call Bian Yanmei back to court," Sang Jingxing said. A chill run up Shen Qiao's spine. "He still has the Tiger Seal and commands the remnants of your army. He must return it as soon as possible."
Many other ministers agreed with Sang Jingxing, even Tan Yuanchun and some of his people spoke out in favor of calling Bian Yanmei back to court. Yan Wushi couldn't possibly let someone like Bian Yanmei, who was quick to forget what was right at the sight of profit, retain control over the army, surely!
Yan Wushi dismissed them by saying, "He's with Yi Bichen, who if you'll remember, is stauncher than Director Ruyan. If we divert them from the north now, we leave ourselves open to Beimu's attack. What is most important to you, making sure I have a piece of jade, or the rest of our northern border? Besides, aren't you all the ones saying I've neglected the harem for too long?" When no one else objected, Yan Wushi leaned back on his throne and said, "Good. I am rearranging the titles. For locating the Golden Lotus Ring, I am elevating the title of Meiren so that it comes before all other concubines."
A few officials criticized him for offending the families the other concubines came from, but otherwise there were no objections, even from Sang Jingxing, whose niece would now be the lowest-ranked concubine in the inner palace. Yan Wushi had ignored the harem for so long, if those families were offended, they'd have been offended going on three years now.
"The Meiren will therefore be granted special privileges, such as access to the Chancellery, the Secretariat, and the Ministry of Works. He shall not be disrespected, and all subjects shall follow his commands as you follow this one's."
This got a larger reaction out of the court, several officials even stepped out of line to appeal to the emperor. Shen Qiao looked at Yan Wushi in dismay, and the movement of Shen Qiao's hairpins caught Yan Wushi's attention. He smiled at Shen Qiao, and soft lines appeared at the corner of his eyes.
"Ah, my dear Meiren looks so good in blue, it's really a shame none of you are fit to look at him. In fact, if anyone else were to wear blue it would be an insult. From now on, he shall be the only one allowed to wear blue. Anyone who dares try to show him up shall be put to death."
The officials of eighth and ninth ranks, who wore blue robes, all looked at their clothing, and then gaped at the emperor.
"Your lot had better go home and change quickly," Yan Wushi said with a raised eyebrow. "If there are no further objections," he said, ignoring the rising voices of his officials, then he handed the edict to Yu Shengyan.
Shen Qiao was confused. He felt it was becoming his default state, and he didn't enjoy it one bit. "Yan Wushi," he hissed. "What are you doing?"
"I'm addressing my court, A-Qiao. What's wrong?"
"You can't keep people from wearing blue!"
"Why not? I'm the only one allowed to wear black. Do you prefer another color? Perhaps white?" He turned back to the court, "Alright, we're changing it to white. No white clothes."
The ministers were gnashing their teeth. Ruyan Kehui had dropped into a squat with his head in his hands.
"It's not the color that's the issue!" Shen Qiao said.
"A-Qiao," Yan Wushi said quietly. His expression was endlessly patient, as if he were reminding Shen Qiao of something they'd discussed before and was waiting for him to catch on.
Shen Qiao clenched his jaw and glared at his breakfast. If Yan Wushi wanted Shen Qiao's compliance, what else was Shen Qiao supposed to do?
"Court is dismissed," Yan Wushi said, still looking at Shen Qiao. The ministers left, confused, tired, and muttering to themselves. Yan Wushi rose from his throne and Captain Yu went to his side. When Shen Qiao didn't rise, Yan Wushi turned his head back, causing the beaded strings on his crown to swing.
"Well then? Aren't you coming?"
Fine, Shen Qiao would follow along. Wu Mi helped them into Yan Wushi's carriage, which was definitely only fit for one person, and the whole time, Yan Wushi sat and stared at Shen Qiao with an enigmatic smile on his face.
They disembarked at the Hall of Mental Cultivation and were escorted in. Shen Qiao began to feel antsy when he realized they were heading towards the emperor's chambers, the familiar corridors reminded him of all the times Yan Wushi had called on him.
Surely Yan Wushi couldn't expect him to crawl back into bed so early in the morning, Shen Qiao thought, his resolve firming. He would not be serving the emperor!
Yu Shengyan gave them both a curt bow when they arrived at the emperor's bedroom, then left with the rest of the servants for the side chamber.