"Ming Cheng, from now on, to try and prevent a repeat of what happened before... I spoke to the head cook, and she and I agreed that it would be best for your health and safety to stay in the kitchens working and to never be apart of the serving staff again," Lan Chang tried to explain to Ming Cheng that same night in their shared bed, before they drifted off to sleep.
She had given the small boy his meal of high quality left overs first, while she drew a bath to wash him of all the tension and agony that he had suffered from the banquet.
The way his body shook and shivered, as he bounced up and down on his feet to continue the revised job that he had been given for the rest of the night, was not lost on her, especially when he had to sweep his eyes over the small corner of the hall where the concubine sat.
Ming Cheng had understandably been shaken by her, and he had a good reason to be.
To capture the gaze and attention of a concubine was never a good thing, particularly the ones lower within the Emperor's personal opinion; they were the ones particularly liable to carry out drastic and dangerous behaviours to regain their Lord Husband's opinion and regain their lost favour.
They were the ones to keep the furthest away from.
And Ming Cheng had the attention of one.
The best that Lan Chang could possibly do was hide away the boy in the kitchens and hope that the concubine did not call for him. If she did, then she could consider Ming Cheng thoroughly dead.
She did not save the small boy from his life on the streets for him to die under her care later. She took that act of kindness because she was willing and able to, and because she had held a grudge against that particular old couple for years.
She still remembered when they beat her, when she was a child, for straying too close to their home and garden, before dragging her around town, forcing her to take them to her parents so she could be let free and they could make their unfounded complaints against her.
Now bigger and stronger, she wasn't going to let anyone else suffer that humiliating and painful fate, and if she managed to get a son out of it, then all the better for her.
And even better, she was finally able to take out her years long grudge against them violently, with public opinion on her side no less!
She had been dreaming of that day for years, and now that she had finally fulfilled that one, tiny wish, she wasn't exactly prepared to lose her son so quickly after doing her victory laps.
It had been a challenge to not immediately march over to the little bitch concubine herself, and punched her in the face for daring to harm her newly acquired son.
The child was hers, damnit!
She was the one who adopted him, and she would be the one to take care of him.
No juvenile hussy was going to take her child away from her.
Lan Chang had refrained from talking to Ming Cheng about what the concubine had said to him, and what he had said to her in reply, but she knew that only delaying the conversation would bring harm.
Now that they were both fed, clean, and comfortable, she had to bring up those unpleasant memories to keep the boy as safe as she reasonably could, even if she had to send him away to her parents to guarantee an attempt on his life wouldn't be made unduly.
"Ming Cheng, can you tell me what the concubine said to you, please? I know that it may be difficult, but it's important to keep you alive," she tried to appeal to the boy gently, pushing as much kindness as she could into her voice to make the child more likely to speak to her.
She watched Ming Cheng stiffen minutely, his face becoming slightly paler as he was forced to relieve those terrible memories, and she brought up a hand to gather the boy to her chest, to try and comfort him and ground him.
It would do both her and him no good, if he suddenly clamped up and refused to speak out about his experiences.
"Ming Cheng, I want you to know that, no matter what, you will always be able to trust me. Even if the whole world hates you, you can still trust me. I will always support you and you can say whatever you think and feel to me. You do not have to pretend to be strong. I know that your life on the streets was a hard one, and I fear that your life in that your life in the palace will grow to become equally as difficult. No matter what, I need you to know that you can trust me," Lan Chang stated, clutching Ming Cheng tightly to her, and keeping the boy firm and grounded when his tiny began to shake.
Tiny hiccups came out of the seam where Ming Cheng had forced his face to burrow into her shoulder, so quiet that they were almost unheard by her, even as her ears remained so close by.
Humming out the tune of a melody that her grandmother had once used to put her to sleep whenever Lan Chang visited over twenty years ago, she rocked Ming Cheng forwards and backwards as he went through the series of emotions that every human being did, after facing something fearful and traumatic.
She watched Ming Cheng's tiny little hands shake as he gripped onto her even tighter and when he tried to press his entire body closer to her warmth.
She felt the exact moment when his head came out of her clothes in need of air, and she felt the exact moment when he stiffened, still in her arms, as he gazed down onto the empty floor.