From CEO to Concubine-Chapter 119: Morning Tea
The pomegranates bloomed overnight.
Yan Zheyun woke up one morning and realised that summer had arrived, the traditional harvest festival of ’Li Xia’ marked out on the lunar calendars by the busy eunuchs. He was now used to thinking of the passage of time in the traditional sense, idly noting that back in his world, it would now be the start of May, and wondering whether his siblings would be going anywhere for the upcoming term holidays. Perhaps not, if Lixin hadn’t managed to reel her playful ways in; university was a whole different ballgame to high school and he didn’t trust her to be an independent learner the way tertiary education required.
His smile turned rueful. He couldn’t be there to guide them both and show them the ropes but he was confident his parents, no matter how busy they were with running their businesses, would step up to the role perfectly the way they did for him. He still regretted not being able to be a good son and big brother for them but the pain that had once seized at his heart in a vice-like grip had long since faded away to a dull nostalgic ache.
Life had to go on. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
And life in the inner palace did. The delicate palette of the spring gardens had since morphed into vibrant hues, much like a beauty donning her best robes, all the better to impress all her young suitors with. If Noble Consort Li—no, she was a mere commoner now, that title was no longer applicable—were still around, she would undoubtedly have chosen the brightest summer colours to adorn herself and her palace. But, as Liu Yao had informed Yan Zheyun just a couple of days ago, the trial against Grand Protector Li had been conclusive, with nine generations of his male line executed with the female members of the family and the young exiled to the serve as labour in the mines. Noble Consort Li could have been spared such a verdict should the emperor have wished it but alas, he hadn’t.
Interestingly, it was the Privy Purse that celebrated the hardest at this shift in the power dynamics in the harem, or so Xiao De had told Yan Zheyun, his information having come fresh out of the oven from his godbrother. Noble Consort Li had been a spendthrift and now that she was no longer around to pocket a sizeable amount of the inner palace’s allowance for her luxuries, there was more to go around. This was particularly so because Noble Consort Dou, who had taken over the management of the inner palace entirely, had an approach to household management that was vastly different.
Morning harem assemblies, too, had changed. They had moved from Changchun Palace to Lijing Palace, and Yan Zheyun could appreciate Noble Consort Dou’s tastes in aesthetics, which leaned more towards the modern take on zen minimalist decor. He found it very calming to the eye but naturally, the other concubines chose to interpret the simplicity as Noble Consort Dou’s lack of favour with the emperor. Indeed, where Changchun Palace had once been regarded as the de facto palace of the empress, this same respect was not given to Lijing Palace...
...because there was the existence of another member of the harem, who might not have enough rank at the moment to oversee the affairs of the inner palace but whose privileges extended beyond even that of the holder of the phoenix seal.
Yan Zheyun was used to the catty commentary that was part and parcel of the assemblies by now, more than able to dismiss the jealous stares and subtle jibes as he enjoyed a nice cup of tea with the imperial grade leaves that seemed to be Noble Consort Dou’s only form of indulgence. He supposed he should thank them for at least attempting to disguise the dislike nowadays, no longer bandying the word ’slave’ in front of his face now that he outranked a fair number of them.
His sudden promotion to the rank of Imperial Concubine had caught everyone unawares, including himself. Not only had he been bestowed the title of Lord of Handsome Fairness rather recently, but he was also now skipping ranks too, going right past Lord of Bright Deportment to a position that would enable him to be the head of a palace. Rumour had it that the empress dowager had even put aside the cold war that she was waging against her son to confront him about the inappropriateness of allowing Yan Zheyun to climb the hierarchy as quickly as he was doing. There were strict rules regarding these things, apparently.
He didn’t know how that conversation had gone but last he heard, the dowager had slammed the doors of her palace shut and was refusing visitors in order to properly dedicate her time to interpreting the scriptures. No doubt she was doing it on purpose, a show of passive aggression, where she displayed her disapproval of the emperor’s actions without outright engaging him in a fight.
Word of her silent protest must have reached the court by now. But if the nobles and officials had chosen to give Liu Yao grief over this, he had kept it a secret from Yan Zheyun.
I’m really starting to sound like those concubines that brought ruin to the dynasty, he thought wryly. Judging from the way some of his ’colleagues’ were looking at him, such as Wu Yusi, who had missed the memo on at least pretending not to hate him openly, it was evident that they thought so too.
But at least, his other so-called arch-nemesis, Attendant Zhang, had toned down some of her righteous indignation and appeared to be in high spirits. This was a first after her fall from grace, which she still blamed Yan Zheyun for and liked to make it known in the defiant set of her jaw whenever she spoke to him. Now that he outranked her, she had no choice but to greet him whenever they met, although she chose to do so with so much long-suffering martyrdom that Yan Zheyun was starting to become convinced that he was actually the novel’s biggest villain and she the much put-upon heroine.
Today, however, she had regained some of that spoilt princess cheer of hers and was talking animatedly to Noble Consort Dou about the return of her brother to the capital. From what Yan Zheyun could gather from her excited chatter, Attendant Zhang’s brother was an envoy from the Ministry of Rites, who had been sent a couple of years ago to survey the political situation in the north and had now returned with Great General Pan after successfully negotiating the terms of the armistice.
Noble Consort Dou nodded amicably, the serene smile on her face gentle as she listened intently.
"Envoy Zhang has done His Majesty a great service," she murmured. Her smile widened a fraction as she gave Attendant Zhang an encouraging nod. "You’ve shown remarkable improvement in your behaviour in recent times, this would not go unnoticed by His Majesty."
...Yan Zheyun wasn’t being salty or anything but he was fairly certain that Liu Yao wouldn’t recall who Attendant Zhang was if she wasn’t physically in his presence. When it came to his harem, he had perfected the art of ’out of sight, out of mind’.
"This little sister has learnt her lesson," Attendant Zhang said, puffing out her cheeks and lifting a hand to tug on Noble Consort Dou’s sleeve. Now that she no longer had the rank required to sit down at morning assemblies, she had no choice but to stand with the other lower-ranking concubines, but Noble Consort Dou often chose to call her close to speak to her. "Big Sister, could this little sister implore you for a favour?"
Noble Consort Dou sighed. "You don’t have to ask, this consort already knows what you want." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "This consort will try to seek permission for your brother to meet you but it will be at His Majesty’s discretion, of course."
Attendant Zhang pursed her lips. "This concubine understands."
Her disappointment was almost palpable. Noble Consort Dou patted her on the arm reassuringly. "This consort doesn’t wish to get your hopes up for nothing but..." She hesitated. "Envoy Zhang’s deeds will not go unrecognised. There is a good chance that the emperor will take him into regard when deciding whether to let you have a reunion."
Attendant Zhang brightened up again. "I’ll be indebted to Big Sister’s auspicious words then (1)!"
At least some of the envy directed at Yan Zheyun was now being diverted towards her. Yan Zheyun felt a sharp elbow plant itself in his ribs and turned to regard Lord Chen mildly.
An interesting shift in dynamic had occurred after Yan Zheyun’s promotion. This shift was mimicked by his exchange of seats with Lord Chen; where Lord Chen used to sit on his right, he now sat on his left. Both Gracious Consort Yao and Imperial Concubine Pei were conspicuously absent today, the former presumably on brocade guard business and the latter was so ill Yan Zheyun had never met him before. Still, those seats remained empty.
The inner palace was all about hierarchy at the end of the day. Those who once stood at the very top had to make way for their ambitious counterparts once their time to shine ended. For the first couple of days after this rearrangement, he crept around Yan Zheyun on tiptoes, gaze narrow and guarded like he was expecting Yan Zheyun to make use of his new status to get his own back or at least belittle him. Once he realised this wasn’t going to happen—of course not, Yan Zheyun had better things to do with his time—he seemed to mellow out a bit, his bitchy attitude softening into the occasional prickly barb that reminded Yan Zheyun of hedgehogs; spiky on the outside with a squishy underbelly.
As a result, despite knowing that Lord Chen’s less than polite ’request’ for attention was more than likely another gossip session, he chose to lean in and indulge him.
"She’s showing off," Lord Chen muttered with a dramatic eye roll. His ’girl friend’ of choice, the ’sister’ he bitched about other people to, had changed from Imperial Concubine Hui to Imperial Concubine Yue and Yan Zheyun was suddenly struck by the horrific image of the both of them decked out in Gucci and Chanel having afternoon tea in a five-star hotel.
He shuddered. No thank you.
"You could show off too," Yan Zheyun replied.
Lord Chen scowled at him. "We don’t all have Imperial Concubine Yue’s blessed peach blossom luck (2)."
Yan Zheyun nearly choked on his tea. Lord Chen was referring to Liu Yao, of course, and did not know much if anything at all about Yan Zheyun’s other suitors but...blessed was not the adjective Yan Zheyun would choose to use. When it came to the scumbag gongs, he could smell the rot a mile away.
"You have a higher rank than Attendant Zhang does," Yan Zheyun pointed out.
Lord Chen sniffed derisively. "That’s not even a challenge."
"You have..." He eyed Attendant Zhang’s exquisite hairdo. Even though her rank was beneath Lord Chen’s and she didn’t have access to all the finery she was used to before her demotion, female concubines just had more elaborate styles for their hair in general as compared to males. Yan Zheyun couldn’t use that as a compliment. "You have better skin."
Lord Chen paused for a second. "You’re right," he conceded, a smug little smile already growing on his face, much like a peacock opening its tail feathers. "Imperial Concubine Yue is astute as always."
It was Yan Zheyun’s turn for a subtle eye roll.
The rest of the assembly passed relatively uneventfully apart from the one or two nosy inquiries into why Liu Yao hadn’t seen fit to give Yan Zheyun his own palace yet. He wasn’t sure whether they were intending to use this to try and measure the amount of favour he’d truly garnered with Liu Yao but he would have thought his frequent visits to Qianqing Palace would have served as a better gauge.
"Brother Hua." As they stepped out of the main entrance of Lijing Palace, Yan Zheyun called out to Hua Zhixuan, whose rank meant that he had to remain slightly behind Yan Zheyun in terms of their entourage.
"Brother Yan?" Hua Zhixuan, as always, carried himself like an unassuming scholar. Under the bright morning sun and next to the flashy colours of Lord Chen’s robes, he was like a precious relic left behind from the era of spring, a breath of fresh air in the cloying scent of summer flowers.
"I shall return to Yuyang Palace today," Yan Zheyun said. "Shall we have a meal together? It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve spoken to you."
Hua Zhixuan blinked. "I couldn’t ask for more."
I have something to discuss with you.
Got it.
They changed the topic to lighter themes and blended into the light chatter of the rest of the harem.
