A List of Enemies

In the end, Yan Zheyun did manage to achieve his goal of crawling out of Wu Bin's bed. However, he didn't manage to escape very far, just a couple of shaky steps before a memory surfaced to the forefront of his mind. It showed him that Yan Yun's actual sleeping place was literally in the tiny west alcove of the same house, only 5 metres away from where he was standing.

This terrible discovery was confirmed when Wu Bin wrapped an arm around his waist in a show of 'brotherly' concern, guiding him towards the small pellet tucked away behind a simple wooden room divider.

Wu Bin didn't forget his gentle admonishment either. "You're so stubborn," he said, with a fondly exasperated sigh. "What's wrong with remaining in my bed?"

"This humble servant spilt medicine…"

"After changing the sheets, my bed would be so much more comfortable than yours." Wu Bin lowered Yan Zheyun onto the pallet before taking a seat on it next to him. He frowned and pressed a palm against the thin straw mattress. "I've already told the steward that this quality is unacceptable, how come he hasn't notified anyone to change it? You won't be able to rest well here and that will affect your recovery."

Was it a scholarly trait to beat around the bush this much? Yan Zheyun could pick out Wu Bin's unvoiced desire to convince him to sleep in the main bedroom.

[Literally over this dead body.] Because he was pretty sure that the real Yan Yun had drowned to his death earlier. Thus giving Yan Zheyun the dubious honour of possessing his body and suffering through the pneumonia that was the consequence of soaking his lungs in too much pond water.

He could dwell on that in a bit after he pried off this limpet. Wu Bin was like glutinous rice lodged in his throat, sticky and dangerous if left for too long.

Despite the slew of uncharitable thoughts going through his head, Wu Bin didn't let any of it show on his face. This was a skill he had picked up from sitting in on countless board meetings with his father. Yan Guojin may have inherited the Yan Group conglomerate but he wasn't a pushover by any means. He was a master at concealing his true opinions from others, making the board of directors guess his strategy as he subtly manoeuvred them into following his agenda. And he had trained Yan Zheyun to do the same.

Yan Zheyun lowered his eyelashes, gazing down at his lap. "Young Master," he said quietly, knowing that Wu Bin was lapping up this obedient façade he was portraying. "Please don't make things difficult for me."

And true enough, Wu Bin's gaze softened as he covered Yan Zheyun's fidgeting hands with his own.

[Fuck, fuck, fuck, why was it a requirement for perverts to be touchy-feely—]

"I understand," Wu Bin said at last, with an exaggerated rueful smile. Perhaps the real Yan Yun would have caved in to his wishes at the sight of that, but all it did was to make Yan Zheyun feel like wiping it off Wu Bin's face with a good punch. "But I hope you won't treat me so with such unfamiliarity. Remember how you used to call me Big Brother? Do we need to put so much distance between us now?"

[Yes, because that's what smart people do with snakes. Back away real slow like and create lots and lots of distance. A whole ten kilometres if possible.]

Out loud, he replied, "Yes, because Yun Er isn't young anymore and should know better. And Young Master should know better too."

The words came out colder than he'd intended and Yan Zheyun felt Wu Bin stiffen, possibly noticing that his 'Yan Yun' wasn't responding to his cajoling as sweetly as before. It would take a bit of practice before Yan Zheyun became proficient at mimicking Yan Yun's 'Foolish White Sweet' behaviour, but for now, he would have to improvise.

[Here goes nothing.] He bit the bullet and leaned over suddenly to rest his head against Wu Bin's shoulder.

"Big Brother Wu", he said, purposely using 'Dage', a less intimate term for 'big brother' than the 'Gege' that Yan Yun had normally used. This was the extent of his tolerance, but even so, he had to turn his face into the fabric of Wu Bin's outfit so that Wu Bin wouldn't accidentally catch sight of his disgusted grimace. "Yun Er is mature now and now understands that there is a difference in our statuses."

"Yun Er—"

Yan Zheyun didn't let him interrupt but he did shift his weight forward to try and avoid the grabby hand aiming for his waist again. "Big Brother Wu is the prestigious son of a powerful minister and a rising court official with a promising future. Yun Er is nothing but a slave. We must acknowledge this difference in our treatment of each other. Otherwise, tongues will wag, and I wouldn't be able to stand it if people spoke badly of Big Brother Wu because of me."

The nonsense spewing from Yan Zheyun's mouth was said with exactly the kind of guileless concern Wu Bin enjoyed obtaining from Yan Yun. Therefore, he would naturally appreciate it and let his precious little plaything have his way. This strategy was flavoured strongly of green tea, but it wasn't hard for Yan Zheyun to pretend that he was just looking out for Wu Bin's interests. Wu Bin was a narcissist, which meant that he wouldn't question Yan Yun's worry for him. He would just accept it as part and parcel of Yan Yun falling for his irresistible charms. And no matter how intelligent and manipulative he was, he had no way of knowing that his little doe-like prey had been switched out for something far more insidious.

[You know what's a natural predator of snakes? Foxes.] Yan Zheyun continued hiding his face. He didn't dare to raise his head now because he was certain the small smile playing on his lips would give the game away.

Wu Bin seemed to buy his explanation. Yan Zheyun felt him nodding, one hand coming up to stroke the silky strands of Yan Zheyun's waist-long black hair before he finally separated the both of them with obvious reluctance. Yan Zheyun hurriedly schooled his expression into what he hoped looked like wide-eyed innocence.

"My Yun Er is more thoughtful than me," Wu Bin conceded, pinching Yan Zheyun's face affectionately like he was teasing a cheeky child. "But I want you to call me Big Brother in private, okay? Don't treat me like an outsider anymore."

[Sure, anything, I'll even call you 'Grandfather' if it'll make you leave me alone.]

By the time he finally managed to convince Wu Bin to let him get some rest, Yan Zheyun was so exhausted he felt like he could fall asleep at any time, even on this horrible 'bed' that he swore felt more solid under his back than rocks. But he had to come up with a battle plan first because the last thing he wanted was to end up getting caught unawares by one of the villains in the novel, or worst still, one of the scumbag gongs. He wasn't such a prude that he wanted to reserve his virginity for his One True Love, but losing it in a haze of confusion to some massive creep wasn't his idea of fun either.

So what was the best way to analyse this precarious situation? He sorted through all the information he already had and prioritised a list of all his known nearby enemies in order of threat:

1. Liang Ming, Wu Bin's maternal cousin. The reason why the original Yan Yun had chosen to try out swimming for the first time in the eastern pond during early spring. The poor boy had chosen to jump inside instead of fall victim to Liang Ming's advances, which Yan Zheyun supposed was his very ancient person way of saying, "I would rather die than sleep with you."

As a playboy dandy who was also the most useless good-for-nothing in the story, Liang Ming's only role seemed to be that of a convenient plot device. His job consisted of cornering Yan Yun in all sorts of quiet corridors to say various permutations of 'Ha ha ha, scream if you want, this time no one can save you now', just so he could get cockblocked by Wu Bin. It was almost pitiable. His actual threat level was probably a 1 or 2 because his main weapon of choice was physical violence. But Yan Zheyun had trained for years in Krav Maga after almost getting kidnapped outside his elementary school. He could probably handle Liang Ming. Still, he was going to have to watch out for underhanded tricks.

2. Wu Shengqi, the Minister of Rites and also the head of the household that Yan Zheyun was currently serving. All the bad things Yan Lixin had said about Wu Shengqi were related to his betrayal of Yan Yun's father's trust, so Yan Zheyun was going to assume that he was at least 100% straight. If this were true, it automatically made him less scary, but he was still a cunning opponent and a sorry excuse of a human being with no morals to speak of. So Yan Zheyun was going to have to tread lightly around him until he discovered a weakness that he could strike at.

3. Liang Hui, the official wife of the Minister of Rites and the mistress of the house. Yan Zheyun was ranking her so high on the threat list because she was an unknown factor. He didn't have too much information about her except that she was a poisonous woman who was adept at playing 'backyard' politics, as demonstrated by how she had all of Wu Shengqi's concubines well under control. Yan Zheyun remembered his sister mentioning that Liang Hui hated Yan Yun for supposedly seducing her son, and had tried more than once to kill him off. This meant that he had to fear for his life around her, but at the same time, if he approached this correctly, she could be a valuable opponent.

4. And last but not least, Wu Bin. Not much else had to be considered here because Yan Zheyun already had a strategy to deal with him, which was basically to shake him off at all costs. This was clearly going to be easier said than done, but given how slavery was basically a severe handicap that limited all of Yan Zheyun's options, there wasn't much he could do at the moment but to try and counter all of Wu Bin's moves as they went along.

There were also all sorts of other antagonists, such as Liang Hui's closest handmaid and Wu Bin's future general's daughter wife, but they were all just cannon fodder and he wasn't going to invest so much effort into dealing with them until the time was ripe. Of course, if and when he had the opportunity, he would gather information on them too.

['Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you will win a hundred battles.']

This was a quote from Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' that his father had taught him when he was still young and dumb enough to take the arguments he had lost against his friends seriously. The old man had gone on to force him to read the entire damned military text, insisting that it would help him with his future ambitions of being the richest CEO in the world. Knowing that this ambition was most likely impossible to fulfil from now on left a bitter taste in his mouth. It only worsened when he considered the odds of never seeing his family again.

His father's proud grin, his mother's sweet laughter, and the silly ruckus of his younger twin siblings as they clamoured for his attention were all going to be a thing of the past. They were fragments of his memory that might fade the longer he was stuck here. Until one day, maybe he would wake up and realise that he, Yan Yun, couldn't remember his life as 'Yan Zheyun' anymore.

It was too easy to forget to appreciate family until losing them for good. All those times he had skipped joining them for dinner to oversee the preparation for another deal. Or turned down an invitation to join them on a family trip because he had wanted to complete a project for extra credit that he hadn't even needed. The regret was back to haunt him now but it was too late.

For the first time in over a decade, Yan Zheyun felt his eyes stinging.

But he chalked it up to Yan Yun's overly sensitive nature. Turned his back to the wall so that he was facing any potential threats head-on, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep. Maybe he would dream of his loved ones back home.