Chief Eunuch Li’s Undercover Visit

Yinyue gazed at the breaking dawn light streaming through gaps between the windows of the plain inn's room in Bian town.

She had spent the night reporting the administration issues of Yandi to Chief Eunuch Li, who arrived undercover to inspect the region.

Her Emperor-Father trusted Chief Eunuch Li, with his greying hair and deceptively kindly eyes. With the Chief Eunuch's portly figure and ruddy face, he appeared more like a harmless, doting grandfather who enjoyed a good laugh. There was nothing doting, harmless, or kind about the man sitting before her.

He was the Head of the Shadow Pavilion. Fearful court officials nicknamed him the 'smiling Demon Head'. Many officials' families fell by his words alone. He executed some and exiled others. Despite the power the Emperor gave him, Chief Eunuch Li never abused his position by collecting evidence to justify such punishments through his undercover tasks.

No one, even Hushiyi, could be told of his visit. Those were explicit instructions of her Emperor-Father.

She studied the Go board before her and placed her white seed on the Go board. The Chief Eunuch Li sighed at his surrounded black seeds. Once again, she countered his moves.

The Emperor was right — no one can underestimate this daughter. Chief Eunuch Li gauged how fast she could digest a situation for decisive action to strike and she performed better than her half-brothers. He recalled how Yinyue appeared in front of him as a young, scrawny six-year-old with only skin and bones. Now sitting opposite him was the petite but ruthless Grand Prince, whom he felt a sense of pride in shaping.

Her youthful yet pale face bore the same look of a hardened, battle weary soldier, like those generals in court. Chief Eunuch Li wondered if she knew her deadliest weapon in her arsenal was her appearance. She was the best looking among the princesses, if not for her boyish disguise.

"There's another matter," Chief Eunuch Li said. "The three women sent to your brother have not sent letters to their families. Their fathers sent me to ask."

Yinyue eyed the black seed in his fingers, pretending to watch every slight movement like a hawk. "What my brother does with those women has nothing to do with me. It's his private life."

Not that she didn't sympathise with their fates as a woman. Those women were mere powerless pawns of men, like she was in her first life. Used when needed, discarded when useless. A woman's life was cheap.

In a power struggle, where the stakes are high, Yinyue would, and could sacrificing those three lives without hesitation.

She could only control matters of a woman's status in Yandi. Not elsewhere in the Dayan Empire. Yinyue created a set of laws to lift women up in Yandi. Freedom to have a say in who they marry, freedom to divorce and even freedom to study skills in trade schools for independence.

She even set up shelters ran by other women to help those left destitute to reduce slave trafficking.

That was the extent she could push against her conservative male administrators, who upheld the need for old patriarchal traditions. Even Hushiyi laughed at her for being idealistic.

The men didn't dare to protest outwardly because of a terrible rumour of her so-called tyranny still running about her — some nonsense about striking her opponents down with the sword. Yinyue had never killed or injured any administrator voicing his opposition to her policies. Censured, yes. Demoted, yes. Sacked, yes. Killed, no. Whipped, no.

Fear still didn't keep the unhappy men from complaining about her perceived travesty all the way from Yandi, the ears of the Imperial Court before.

She looked up and stared into his eyes, her expression and tone betraying no emotion. No guilt. Not even surprise. "Shouldn't you ask him?"

Yinyue knew by the smile of the chief eunuch that he wasn't about to give up questioning about women she didn't know of and didn't care about.

She knew the old strategic tactic of using women as pawns to entrap men, but it only worked on men who had no control over their primal instincts to sow their seeds.

That tactic also held the official families hostage to the mastermind behind the scheme for protection of their daughters. Especially if those daughters meant anything to them.

Hushiyi would handle them his own way. Her best guess was their deaths at his hands. For now, she had to cover for him to find a better explanation if he really killed them.

"Well, they are in your territory and they are daughters of fifth ranked officers."

She snickered. "And fifth ranked officials can command you? You are not a simple eunuch whom they can push around easily."

Fifth ranked officials were mere clerks, and the most they can command are their relevant Ministry's guards. Not the Emperor's right-hand man.

"The Empress asked me," he said with the smile still frozen on his face.

She got his hint. As much as Chief Eunuch Li didn't like the Empress, he needed to maintain a neutral stance. Those were the daughters of officials loyal to the Empress. The Dayan Empress had her hands all over the Imperial Court, including the minor officials.

"Does my Emperor-father know about this?" Yinyue arched her eyebrows at Chief Eunuch Li, who nodded.

"Until the Emperor decides on Hushiyi's marriage, sending women to ease a young man's urges is normal. So that's why he agreed to the Empress's request."

On the superficial, the Emperor washed the matters out of his hands. To Yinyue, it was a hidden warning, but what was her Emperor-father testing her response for? Chief Eunuch Li should be asking Hushiyi instead of her.

A danger loomed near - Hushiyi was approaching the age when the Emperor could decree an official's daughter to him for marriage.

In her first life, she memorised the name of Hushiyi's wife - Meilin, of the Huangcheng Chen family. Thanks to Shoula's gloating while they tormented her in Gaoyang before Yinyue died for the first time.

That woman was Shoula's ally, but what part Meilin played in the demise of Hushiyi, Yinyue remained unsure. With this second life, Yinyue will never let her marry Hushiyi, by any means necessary. Even killing her.

"Tell them if my brother doesn't like any of them, we will marry them off to any willing men. Plenty of able-bodied men need wives in Yandi. In fact, tell them all."

"You know nothing about them?" Chief Eunuch Li frowned.

"Why would I? Unless they are spies for someone," Yinyue replied.

"And what should I tell the Empress?"

"Thank my dear Empress-mother on Yandi's behalf, after you spoke with the women's fathers," Yinyue muttered, struggling not to choke at calling the Empress mother. That scheming bitch was no mother to both Hushiyi and her.

"Shouldn't it be on Hushiyi's behalf?" Chief Eunuch Li asked.

"Yandi's," Yinyue said. "Because either way, those women will contribute to the region."

Perhaps as fertilisers for the plants in the forests after the wild beasts fed on their flesh. Yinyue had 101 ways of getting rid of a person she didn't like.

"Also, advise the other good officials that the journey to Yandi from Huangcheng is long and arduous. If they value their well bred daughters' health, not to send them over, especially when they only knew the inner courtyards of their mansions. We're responsible for anything that happens to the ladies on such a long journey. Sons, too."

Chief Eunuch Li chuckled at her response while he placed the black seed on the board. He didn't like being used as an errand boy to ask after a few women's health. Who the hell did the Empress think he was?

At the very least, he can report to the Emperor that Yinyue didn't care about making any alliances in the Imperial Court. In Huangcheng, the other Grand Princes have been making covert movements to make secret alliances with different factions. Something the Emperor viewed with disfavour and suspicion.