Yan Zheyun hadn't heard this voice in months. Even back in the Wu Household, he had never personally spoken to any of the young mistresses besides Wu Roushu. But given that Wu Yusi was Liang Hui's actual daughter, he didn't have high hopes for her personality.
"Miss Wu," Yan Zheyun greeted coldly but didn't pay her any further acknowledgement. He might once have been a servant of the Wu Household but that was a thing of the past. Just based on rank, he didn't have to rise in her presence. She did, however, owe him a half-curtsy but Yan Zheyun didn't call her out on it. He was in a tenuous position at the moment, where even though he had the authority to, he didn't have enough backing to go through with it.
No matter. He wasn't a stickler for formalities, found them useless for anything but causing others inconvenience. But just because he wasn't calculative didn't mean he would forget that she slighted him. Especially since it was obvious that she was here to cause trouble. If he was given a chance to retaliate in the future, he wasn't the sort to be magnanimous either.
Hua Zhixuan shot Yan Zheyun a nervous look and mouthed 'Wu?' at him. From the various conversations they'd had in the lazy evenings where there was nothing better to do after the training momos departed.
Yan Zheyun learnt that despite having grown up as a young master too, Hua Zhixuan had a lot less of the privileges that the dandies of the capital did. His branch of the family didn't have much wealth and could barely keep the servants that they owned. Consequently, Hua Zhixuan had faced a lot of derision from his snobbish cousins after moving into their home. The children from the main branch of the Hua Family had taken this country bumpkin out on the pretext of introducing him to their social circles. But instead, they had allowed their friends from the other noble clans to deride and humiliate Hua Zhixuan, eating away at his confidence.
It was a bit of a surprise that Hua Zhixuan remained glued to Yan Zheyun's side. The mere mention of the 6 noble clans made him ill at ease, let alone the arrival of this girl who embodied all the rigid notions of superiority the members from these families subscribed to. Yan Zheyun would have forgiven him for extricating himself from the situation but Hua Zhixuan chose to stay put despite his visible discomfort.
Good Xiongdi. Yan Zheyun could appreciate that.
It soon became evident that Wu Yusi wasn't going anywhere until Yan Zheyun gave her the attention she was demanding. But he wasn't going to cave so easily, choosing instead to ask Xiao De about his childhood experiences from growing up in the palace.
Xiao De might have a childish streak but had never failed to be reliable when Yan Zheyun required him. Right now, he gave Yan Zheyun and Hua Zhixuan a big bright smile that served no other purpose than to exclude Wu Yusi from the conversation.
"Little Masters, this servant has so much to tell you," he began enthusiastically. "Where should this servant start? After entering the palace, I was very lucky to be assigned under my godfather's care. He said that I had a pleasant face"—he winked cheekily—"and so would be trained to serve a master or mistress inside the chambers itself."
Xiao De launched into a lengthy story about learning to read and write because his godfather had insisted, learning to mend and sew because his godfather had insisted, learning all the palace rules and the appropriate punishments for flouting them because his godfather had insisted etc. As his list grew longer, Wu Yusi's face grew redder with anger and embarrassment. She had approached this ex-slave at the top of her voice on purpose, hoping that the other concubines would notice and join her in mocking him. And she had succeeded, could feel them watching her like she was a cheaper performer at a roadside show.
This was where her plan began to derail. She had assumed that after so many years of being trodden on, she had thought that the Wu Family had long since broken Yan Yun's spirit and that a few cutting jibes would reveal his true, worthless nature in front of everyone.
But instead of the meek, reserved boy toy whose subservience she had witnessed on more than one occasion, she was met with a cold, unrelenting gaze that sent a shiver up her spine. It was still the same face that had driven her mad with jealousy, unable to accept that everyone—her brother, her cousin, the fourth prince, and now, even the emperor—couldn't tear their eyes away from it. But something in the weight of Yan Yun's gaze had changed. Wu Yusi was too young and too sheltered to know what it was like to be stalked by a hunter in the wild. So she dismissed the glint that he regarded her with as a mere putting on of airs.
"It's so good to see you again," Wu Yusi said, struggling to speak over that foolish eunuch's aimless ramblings. How dare a slave be so impudent! "We have all missed your…services so greatly."
This earned her a chorus of titters. Emboldened by the response, she pressed on with her insults. "My brother was so devastated, you know." She tutted loudly, her demeanour more and more aggressive to make up for the shame of standing before a mere ex-servant as he remained seated and regarded her with cool disinterest. She would make him regret looking down on her. Who did he think he was? He wasn't even fit to lick the dirt off her shoes.
"The winter is so cold nowadays, he misses having you around to warm his bed." Her eyes trailed purposefully over his outfit, revelling in how ordinary it looked, and her cherry lips curled upwards into a smug smile. "Even though you have greater aims in life now, as far as I can see, it was my brother who took the best care of you, right?"
Her emphasis on her last few words made it clear what kind of 'care' she was insinuating. Some of the other concubines, especially the male ones, burst into laughter. The loudest was the King of Peacocks, the young master with the extra servant. It had taken Xiao De less than a day to bring back news about his family background. He was Liang Ruhan, the third legitimate son of the current head of the Liang Family. In terms of relationships, this made him Liang Hui's nephew and Wu Yusi's maternal cousin.
To be fair, not everyone joined in. One or two had uncomfortable smiles on their faces like they wanted to blend in with the crowd but was afraid that that would make them stand out instead. He interpreted their hesitation as them either not having enough backing to display their audacity or just owning soft personalities that would be steamrolled later on once the harem intrigue took off.
A young lady seated daintily on another stone bench about three metres away frowned openly. The group of girls around her were looking at Wu Yusi with disapproval too. Yan Zheyun took note of their faces. It had barely been two weeks since the new chosen beauties had moved into their respective palaces and already factions were beginning to form. It was reassuring that Wu Yusi didn't have the support of the entire Chuxiu Palace as her arsenal but this didn't mean he should dismiss her as a potential threat just yet.
[I can't believe I've been reduced to cat-fighting with teenage girls.] If the executive team of his company could see him now, he would never hear the end of it.
Next to Yan Zheyun, Xiao De trembled with rage. This was the problem with him. He could assist Yan Zheyun in spiting other people but once provoked, was still too juvenile to conceal his emotions. Perhaps this was a lesson he'd never learnt because his godfather had spoilt him. Yan Zheyun would have to teach it to him at a later date before his temper got the both of them into trouble.
He seized Xiao De by the wrist as a physical warning for him to not react.
When he spoke, he ignored Wu Yusi and addressed Hua Zhixuan directly.
"Brother Hua," he said. "As this one understands, the Hua Family is also one of the old noble clans?"
Hua Zhixuan didn't know what Yan Zheyun was getting at but he could tell that his role was to play along, so he nodded. "Indeed, this one's inferior family had such honour bestowed upon it by the grace of the imperial forefather."
Yan Zheyun pretended to be intrigued. "If I may ask then, is it common for the young ladies in their boudoir to explicitly discuss the bedroom affairs of their brothers?" By any standards, even modern ones, this would be rude to bring up in front of strangers.
Wu Yusi's indignant gasp was drowned out by Hua Zhixuan's louder, more dramatic one. Although he was still wary of any interactions with the noble clans, he had chosen Yan Zheyun as a friend and had to stick with him through thick and thin.
"By the heavens! No!" he exclaimed, exaggeratedly scandalised. "Young lady or otherwise, no proper noble with a decent upbringing would speak of such vulgar matters in public! I would question how they were raised, where on earth did Brother Yan meet such a person?"
Yan Zheyun met Wu Yusi's gaze squarely. "I wonder."
Xiao De couldn't help the snort that escaped. This seemed to open the floodgates and before long, the concubines that had been ready to ridicule Yan Zheyun turned their scorn on Wu Yusi instead. They were too cultured to call her out on her behaviour directly but this didn't mean that they couldn't proceed in a roundabout fashion.
"Little Sister Wei, your family and mine might be of slightly humbler origin than some of the others but I'm sure you were taught to behave with decorum?"
"Of course, Big Sister Lu, that's a pinnacle aspect of female virtues. If we don't practice all these values, wouldn't it be such an embarrassment for our families? If people didn't know better, they would think that our households were unable to educate us properly."
Wu Yusi couldn't believe her ears. Why wasn't anyone siding with her? How could all these young men and women, whose families were either aristocratic or held official positions in court, stand the thought of sharing the same husband as a slave? She was so used to seeing Yan Yun humiliated within the Wu Household that she'd forgotten one important detail:
Dirty laundry should never be aired in public.
Having all the humiliation backfire on her was too much for this spoilt young mistress to bear. She forgot her place, eyes flashing with hatred as she snarled at Yan Zheyun, even going so far as to use his name directly as though he still belonged to the Wu Household.
"Yan Yun!" Wu Yusi's accompanying maid had been in the palace for a couple of years now and had a better idea of how precarious the situation they were in was. She tried to dissuade Wu Yusi from pursuing the issue but Wu Yusi pushed her aside, too consumed by blind rage to pay any heed to the advice. "Who do you think you are? Now that you've caught the emperor's attention a couple of times, you think you're about to roost in the paulownia tree (1)? Stop dreaming! Everyone here is more deserving than you, don't think that some rumour about the empress star is good enough to elevate you above the rest of us all!"
…Miss Wu was indeed the blood relative of Wu Bin. They both had the same abundance of imagination.
"Mmhm, anything else?" This was boring. He needed her to snap, lose control of her temper so thoroughly she did something extreme. The question was how to push her without implicating himself.
It turned out he needn't rack his brains for a solution. Xiao De was so tickled by the contrast between Yan Zheyun's flippant attitude and Wu Yusi's posturing that he let another snigger slip out.
Wu Yusi lost it.
"Impudent slave!" she shouted, reaching out to slap Xiao De but before her hand could reach, a firm grip seized her by the wrist, yanking her arm away. Yan Zheyun didn't hold back his strength and when he let go, there was a red mark on her skin. She cried out in pain but it was impossible for him to feel sympathetic for her.
"How dare you touch me!" she wailed. "I'm His Majesty's concubine, you have no right!" There was a strict rule that male concubines could not lay hands on their female counterparts. "You've gone too far, I'm going to report you to Noble Consort Li—"
"Go ahead," Yan Zheyun responded calmly. "In fact, let's head over to her palace together now. I'm looking forward to your explanation on why you felt you had the 'right' to insult a higher-ranked concubine and hit their servant, with no regard for authority."
His gaze swept over the rest of the concubines. "Does anyone else have anything they might like to add?" Some of them looked at him with trepidation, others with contentiousness. But no one said anything. His lips quirked. How typical of the harem, always swinging in favour of whoever had control of the situation.
He stood up, forcing her to stumble backwards in panic. "Please try and remember, Miss Wu," he said. "I'm also His Majesty's concubine."
Of course, he didn't intend to trouble the noble consort with such trivial nonsense. Apart from the fact that she'd already demonstrated her dislike for him, Yan Zheyun knew better than to cause discord in the inner palace this early on. Although it was starting to look like a moot point, he still harboured the intention to remain as low-key as possible. At least until he figured out how to catch and keep the emperor's favour.
No one but Hua Zhixuan and their two servants followed him out of the garden. Yan Zheyun waited until he passed a giant red pillar in a nearby deserted hall before pausing.
"How long are you intending to watch us for?" he asked.