Late in the night over in the Ye Family (of whom is a famed military family) Manor within the capital of the Qin Empire, a momentous occasion has begun.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! Where... where is my husband?"
"My lady…. your husband is right outside, but it isn't appropriate for him to come in here!"
"Yes, my lady…. listen to the wet-nurse. You need to relax, keep breathing, and push!"
"Screw that!! I'm the one popping out a child, so bring him in here now!!!"
"All of you need to calm down!" the wet-nurse barked, "Especially you, my lady as added stress will only make for a harder birth!"
The wife of the second son of Duke Ye Kai, the patriarch of the Ye family, had just gone into labor with (ironically) their second child. The duke and the soon-to-be father of two themselves were sitting at the family dining table, of which is being prepared for a lavish meal fit for the emperor save for both not being at the right scale and the lack of food.
"You need to calm down little Yong…. or do you wish to till the floor of our home for the next planting season?" Duke Ye pointed out.
"I know I obviously can't be in the room father, but…. perhaps…. perhaps I can at least stay nearby." Ye Yong said as he constantly paced back and forth in the dining room.
"Foolish boy, you will do no such thing before this duke's presence and you will sit down across from me!" Duke Ye ordered.
"Yes….. father."
The second son, Ye Yong, didn't want to sit down, but what could he do? His father would likely beat the issue into him instead, and if one beating didn't fix it….. then two definitely would.
"Humph…. you've already faced life and death on the battlefield and your wife's first pregnancy. There is no reason to reason to lose all rationality for the second one."
"I can't help but be a little nervous father…. I mean… perhaps we should hold off on short-term celebrations, wouldn't you say? I mean we don't even know if it is a boy or a girl."
"Foolish boy, it has always been a tradition amongst the Ye family to celebrate the birth of a new life entering its ranks almost immediately amongst all family that can attend." Duke Ye barked, "You'll have people around you soon enough to help you with your lady fit."
"But father….. didn't mother say you blatantly kidnapped the imperial physician straight from the palace when she went into labor with eldest brother?"
Ye Yong gets not an answer from his father, but a teacup is thrown at his head by his father instead. There wasn't anywhere near enough force to cause Ye Yong injury, but it was unexpected enough to knock him on his back.
"Father…. you hit me?"
"Nonsense…. I would never hit my son out of any sense of shame. It's just an old war injury that acted up as I grabbed the teacup." Duke Ye said blatantly and shamelessly.
"Naturally my glorious father would never wittingly be the epitome of shamelessness." Ye Yong retorts.
"You lit-"
"Teacup? Please tell me father isn't trying to make tea again?"
Duke Ye and Ye Yong turned to face the newcomer, who had just spoken up in an irritated tone, but their faces became filled with smiles instead when they recognized the person.
"Good…. good…. you've returned at the perfect time little 3rd." Duke Ye said with an enormous grin on his face.
"Come…. Come sit next to your brother." Ye Yong said as he pats the cushion next to him with his hand.
"Captain Ye Bingwen is reporting that he has safely returned home." Ye Bingwen said as he offered a salute to his father and brother.
The second brother Ye Yong looked to be only in his mid-twenties, however, the youngest brother Ye Bingwen looked to be no older than 15 or 16 years old.
"There is no need to be so formal while your second oldest sister-in-law is in labor, so sit next to your brother already."
"Little brother, when did you return? I thought big brother would be with you?"
"Eldest brother and I returned almost an hour ago. He went to report at the palace and insisted I go home first in his stead."
"Then the subjugation of the southern barbar-"
Duke Ye interrupted his second son with a loud pound of his fist on the dinner table to get the attention of his present sons.
"This is to be a cheerful occasion with a new member of the Ye family about to be born into the world, so unless something serious happened…. there will be no talk of military matters until little Yong's wife has given birth."
"Father is wise." the two Ye siblings said in unison.
"Now you two siblings catch up while I get the wine I keep in my study." Duke Ye said as he got up from his seat, "Ha ha ha ha…. hopefully little first can return before it's all gone."
Thankfully, the study of Qin's legendary general Duke Ye was only a 10-minute walk away from the family dining table. Upon getting to his study, however, Duke Ye found one of his manor's maidservants nervously hovering around the entrance.
"What's going on?"
"Ahhh!!! Oh… forgive this servant for not noticing your presence, lord duke." The maidservant said as she immediately starts kowtowing.
"Yes… yes… you are forgiven. Now what happened?"
"This servant knows that your study is a forbidden zone to enter without approval. Just before you arrived my lord, I saw the 2nd master's son enter your study and heard something fragile falling to the floor."
"That little brat, how dare he disobey me?!!" Duke Ye yelled out of anger.
Duke Ye slammed open the door to his study with righteous fury where he saw a 4-year-old boy (who somehow didn't notice his presence) nervously standing over a broken wine jug with its contents having long since spilled on the floor.
"Oh no... no no no no no…. grandfather will murder me when he sees this." the boy mumbled aloud to himself.
"Oh don't worry Ye Wei, I would never kill my one of my blood….. but I absolutely will beat you senseless you brat!!" Duke Ye yelled as he cracked his knuckles.
"Wait… wait… grandfather, I can explain-"
Duke Ye kicks his grandson into the air before the latter could even finish his sentence. Then for the next few minutes, Ye Wei screams in pain as his grandfather knocks him into various parts of his study, however, no one (save for the maidservant still outside the study) can hear him over his own mother's screams of pain.
"Hrmph…. take this one back to his room while I clean up this mass. Once his new younger sibling is born, I will have his father deal with him." Duke Ye ordered as he walked out of his study while holding his unconscious grandson up by the collar of his shirt.
Though none were particularly that dark nor were all visible, Ye Wei's body is covered in bruises.
"Umm…. isn't…. isn't this too much, lord duke?"
"Oh? A lowly maidservant dares to claim that they know how to better discipline my family?"
The maidservant immediately gets on her knees in fear as she realized that she had misspoken.
"Forgive me, lord duke…. this lowly maid did not know her place…. it's just that… this servant is just concerned for the wellbeing of the youngest master."
"Hehhhh…. so long as you know your place…. now take the boy out of my hand already." Duke Ye sighs.
The maidservant grateful for the pardon carefully hoists Ye Wei over her shoulder as though he were a priceless sack of gold.
"I haven't forgotten how to control my strength at my age. The foolish boy will be fine with a few days of bed rest... and with some medicinal cream from the treasure vault. Now hurry back to his room before I decide to be less merciful."
"Yes lord duke, this maid will scram right away."
The maidservant all but breaks out into a run as she carries Ye Wei back to his room. She, however, could only walk for a few minutes when she felt the child on her shoulder slowly wake up.
"Hehe…. hovering through the hallways of my old family home…. so this is what it's like to travel to the afterlife after getting stabbed through the heart." Ye Wei.
"Hmmm….. what are you talking about young master?"
Ye Wei turns his head and reacts as though he unexpectedly saw an old friend. Although this maidservant looked younger than he remembered (like she was 16 again in fact)... she still had the same egg-like oval-shaped eyebrows, kind eyes, and unusually flawless white skin for a servant.
"You're…. Bao An aren't you?"
"I'm honored that young master remembers my name even though I've just started working here."
"I'm surprised that you're the one here with me. I thought for sure that you would be wi… hmm…"
Ye Wei buries his face in the palm of his hand as if to show how unsure he's supposed to respond to the strange vision he perceives to be experiencing, but then he notices there is something odd about his hand. It was small like that of a child and lacks the callouses that he remembers having.
"So I have to look like a child before King Yama?"
"You're being silly young master. You are only a young child and are very much alive. Oh, dear… I just knew that lord duke was overdoing it by punishing you like that,"
The young maidservant or rather Bao An becomes even more concerned for Ye Wei to where she strongly considers pleading to his father or grandfather Duke Ye to call for a doctor. Ye Wei, however, is stunned to the point of speechlessness by what she said.
"Wha… what did you just say?"
Ye Wei asked because he wanted to make sure he didn't somehow mishear what this maidservant had said in his post-beating delirium.
"This servant was just talking about how Duke Ye had..... chosen to beat you senseless for going into his office and beating you senseless young master."
"Hahahahaha….. truly the heavens have eyes." Ye Wei quietly chuckles to himself, "The disasters and tragedies that happened before, I swear I'll make sure they won't repeat themselves this time around."
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….. I said to call my HUSBAND YOU…. AHHHhh… you…. incompetent servants!" Yei Wei's mother screams.
That scream was so loud that both Ye Wei could hear it all the way past his grandfather's study and disturb his train of thoughts and revelry.
"Who was screaming?"
"Young master, are you sure your head is okay? Your mother is in labor with your younger brother and sister."
"I remember now…. Around this time years, ago.. as my mother was giving birth to my younger sister I wanted to be filial by bringing grandfather his wine, but it was too heavy causing me to trip and he beat me senseless." Ye Wei thought, "Wait…. if this is truly the correct moment in time…. then that means it's not long until…"
Although the conversation Ye Wei was having with the maidservant Bao An as she took him back to his room seemed like that it took some time, it only happened within two minutes. After those two minutes, however, Ye Wei suddenly and vigorously attempts to escape from the grasp Bao An has on him.
"Let me go! Let me go right now!"
"Young master, you need to calm down. Although the duke said he only gave you superficial bruises…. It still wouldn't be good to move around and aggravate them."
"I see… and I promise I'll make it up to you for what I'm about to do, but it is necessary for the Ye family."
"What are you talking about, young…. Ahhhhhh! What are you doing, young master? You shouldn't be sticking that in there since it's dirty."
The thing Ye Wei did was that he stuck his tongue as deep as it could go into one of Bao An's ears as though it were a cue-tip. The combination of the slimy sensation of Ye Wei's tongue along with being touched by a boy in a (weirdly) intimate fashion caught Bao An off guard allowing the former to slip out of the grasp of the latter. Though it only took a few seconds, Ye Wei had already long since disappeared by the time Bao An finished cleaning all saliva out of her ears to confront him.
"Oh, no no no…. lord duke will punish me harshly for letting the young master escape from me."
Though Bao An didn't see what direction he escaped, Ye Wei was heading back down the hallway they had just come from. The youngest master of the Ye family's destination was his grandfather's study, where he was just recently beaten at his hand.
"Grandfather!"
"You dared to come back here, you little brat?!! I should have been less merciful with beating you!!"
When Ye Wei got back to his grandfather's study, Duke Ye was sweeping together the broken parts of the jug after having used some random cloth in his study to soak up the spilled wine.
"Grandfather I have something important to say!"
"Oh? Something important enough to get you to talk back to me?"
"I'm not playing games grandfather!"
"I suggest you shut up boy or I truly will be less merciful with beating you!"
It was obvious to Ye Wei that his grandfather was too angry to listen to him at the moment, but he has to get him to listen right now. At that moment a dumb idea popped into Ye Wei's head upon his gaze landing on the broken shards of the wine jug.
"Then allow me to show you how serious I am, grandfather!"
Ye Wei quickly moved over to the shards of the broken wine jug before his grandfather could even react.
"What are you doing, you stupid bo-"
The thing that Ye Wei had done was to kowtow to his grandfather right on top of the broken shards. The palm of his hands, his knees, and his forehead all had blood leak out as they pressed heavily on the jagged edges of those shards.
"What the hell are you doing, boy? Your mother will throw a fit after if she sees this." Duke Ye exclaimed as he completely forgot about the fact that he had beaten his grandson not too long ago.
"Grandfather, I swear on my life that I have something important that concerns the wellbeing of the Ye family to tell you. If…. if I am lying… then let these shards tear open the vital parts of my body!"
Ye Wei intended to press his body even harder onto the broken shards; however, Duke Ye picks him up off the floor and has him sit on his desk long before he gets the chance. The duke then examines the cuts on his grandson's body and breathes a sigh of relief upon realizing they're only superficial.... only for him to become even angrier than he was before a few seconds later.
"You stupid grandson of mine, you're lucky those shards didn't cut deeper!!! Now just WHAT is so important that you had to do something so dumb?!"
"Grandfather, earlier I climbed up one tree right next to our manor's outer wall when I saw one of aunt's most trusted maidservants running down the alley alongside. I asked what she was doing, and she told me she had barely sneaked out of the palace in time to warn the Ye family."
"Sneak out of the palace? Where is this maidservant?"
Duke Ye had forced himself to calm down a bit after hearing his grandson's explanation. He knows that it's difficult enough for a lone servant to get permission to leave the palace when not on an errand, let alone the hell to pay for having the gall to sneak out of the palace.
"She had to return to the palace leaving her no choice but to pass her message to me grandfather."
"Then what are you waiting for? Get to the damn message already, boy!"
Duke Ye also doesn't consider for a moment that his grandson could be lying to him. He has no reason to doubt Ye Wei after all due to his earlier display, and the fact that even a newborn in a family of status would know better to make up stories even slightly connected to the royal family.
"Aunt….. aunt is being accused of several crimes by the emperor including embezzling from multiple sources including the royal family's personal treasury, lying to the monarch, and worst of all... assisting in the assassination attempt of an imperial prince!!! The emperor is furious and has already sent people to "invite" you to the palace. They should be here any minute now."
"WHAT?!!"