The Ties That Bind

There was news from the northern frontier, marked as 'eight hundred miles with added haste' (1). The post station's messenger boy had reached the walls of the imperial city just after the adjournment of morning court, and Liu Yao had stopped just outside Tianlu Pavilion when he'd heard a frantic hollering of, "Urgent report!"

The letter was from Great General Pan and bore the best news Liu Yao had had all year. This was saying something since there were only a couple of weeks left to the fifth year of his reign. Great General Pan had written that the winter was too harsh for the barbarians to continue fighting. After a strategic manoeuvre, in which his son had led his troops to flank the barbarian army and destroy their remaining food supplies and livestock, the clan chiefs had called for an armistice. In exchange, they were willing to cede the three border towns that they captured and offer 300 horses and 200 cows as annual tribute.

Liu Yao's eyes fluttered shut once he was done reading. The war in the north had weighed heavily in his mind all these years, even before his ascension. As the child of the empress and his father's oldest son, Liu Yao was the legitimate heir by birthright. As the crown prince, it made no political sense for Liu Yao to be sent to represent the emperor on the battlefield. Indeed, this unreasonable command by his father had been met with resistance by the ministers in court, on the grounds that it would shake the foundation of the empire should Liu Yao fail to return in one piece.

But the emperor had insisted. And Liu Yao had wanted to go. His father's reign was disappointing but he had promised Ziyu that if he managed to ascend to the throne, he would treat his people fairly. But that would be nothing more than lip service if he never stepped outside the four walls of the eastern palace and see their suffering for himself.

So Liu Yao had gone to war with Great General Pan by his side. He had hoped, perhaps with too much childish idealism, that he would be the one to end it. Not just because of the glory that would bring him or the advantage it would lend over his other brothers in the unrelenting fight for 'legitimacy' (2). But also because the blood of the soldiers and commoners that stained the soil of the north spilt from the veins of the Ye Dynasty.

But even after he had been summoned back to the capital for his wedding, even after his father had died and he had ascended to the throne, the war had waged on.

Back when he was younger and easier to control, he'd experienced pressure from the officials to end the fighting. Even his teacher, the great preceptor, had advised him that the country was too poor and too weary to continue for much longer. But Liu Yao hadn't caved. He had opened his father's extensive private purse and sold half the precious treasures of the imperial city to fund Great General Pan's continued campaign.

And then he had clamped down on corruption, ransacking denounced officials' houses and sending those proceeds to the frontline too.

All for today.

"Your Majesty…" Cao Mingbao must have noticed the change in Liu Yao's mood. His face was lined with worry. In front of him, the courier was still kneeling after presenting the message, his clothes drenched in so much sweat that there were large patches of different colours in its fabric.

"Take him to freshen up and award him with a hundred taels of silver."

"This servant thanks Your Majesty!"

Liu Yao felt lighter than he'd been in ages and it showed in his demeanour. Cao Mingbao's concern was quickly replaced by joy and he acknowledged the order with matching enthusiasm. Liu Yao would let him read the contents of Great General Pan's letter later. It would serve Liu Yao well to have someone to discuss how to proceed. It wouldn't be long before the ministers caught wind that the war in the north was over for now. No doubt they would seize this opportunity to try and turn Liu Yao against the loyal man, who had been more of a father figure to Liu Yao in those short years spent as comrades than the previous emperor ever had.

The main chamber of Tianlu Pavilion was empty apart from its usual servants. But further inside, in Liu Yao's study, was a person he didn't expect to see. He looked down at the letter in his hand again before raising an eyebrow at the figure that was lounging idly on a divan by the window.

Coincidence or intentional? He would wait and see what this troublemaker wanted now.

Liu Suzhi looked up just as Liu Yao stepped past the threshold. A faint breeze stirred the curtains hanging from the rafters, offering only glimpses of the tantalising view behind them. Another man might have been tempted. The heavens knew that Liu Yao's father certainly had. But Liu Yao's tastes didn't run in this direction.

"Your Majesty," Liu Suzhi greeted, rising to his feet with a lazy grace to offer a halfhearted bow. But Liu Yao brushed it off, so used to this eunuch's insolence by now that it didn't matter anymore.

"Don't bother," he said, taking his seat behind his desk and pinning the letter beneath a long rosewood paperweight (3). "Why has Liu Gonggong shown up today?" As the emperor, Liu Yao did not need to use any titles when addressing anyone in the kingdom, let alone a mere slave. But he chose to with Liu Suzhi, a subtle mockery that wasn't so much directed at the eunuch as it was to his deviant father, who had chosen to give the imperial family name to this lover of his.

Eunuch Liu. It had a nice ring to it. Given his father's flagrant promiscuity, it would have been a fitting punishment for him. Alas, Liu Yao could not voice such thoughts aloud.

Liu Suzhi arranged his robes around his shoulders. No matter how many layers he wore, he always managed to make it look like they were coming off him. Liu Yao picked up the nearest edict and start perusing it. Liu Suzhi had the audacity to enter the emperor's private study without permission and this was reason enough to behead him. But Liu Yao's hands were tied on this matter. Just like how he knew that Liu Suzhi had a vital reason not to betray his emperor.

Their mutual trust was tenuous but it existed.

"This servant conducted an audit of the inner palace departments recently," Liu Suzhi drawled. "Just to inform Your Majesty, this servant is going to beat a couple of people to death in the near future, hopefully, Your Majesty won't mind."

Liu Yao's eye twitched. Every sentence was politely coached and peppered with 'Your Majesty's and 'this servant's but strung together, it dripped with an insouciance that Liu Suzhi was aware he could get away with.

"What for?" Liu Yao asked shortly.

This earned him a fleeting smirk. "Ah, Your Majesty only looks upon the smiles of the newcomers and turns a deaf ear to the weeping of the old?" (4)

Liu Yao shot him an impatient look. "Liu Gonggong has such little work to do that you've come all this way to recite poetry to this sovereign?"

"Please quell your anger, Your Majesty." Pink lips curled up at their corners. "This servant's health is not what it used to be, as you know. I was advised by the imperial physicians to take more walks and what do you think I came across in the Small Plum Garden yesterday?"

"…" Liu Yao couldn't even remember which garden that was. "Get to the point." The most irritating aspect of dealing with Liu Suzhi was the way he chose to speak to circles, going around and around like a cat toying with a mouse.

"Your Majesty remembers the lovely dancer that you admitted into your harem?"

Yan Yun again. Liu Yao didn't look up from his work but Liu Suzhi had his full attention now. "What of him?" he asked casually. He'd learnt the hard way once that it was dangerous for him to play favourites. His favourite dish could be used to poison him. His favourite horse could be used to unsaddle him. His favourite concubine could be used to hurt him.

"Your Majesty is a very busy man, of course. No one would expect you to know what happens to those poor souls in the inner palace who have no backing and no favour."

Liu Yao's grip around his brush tightened. Was he blind to the bullying? No, otherwise he wouldn't have purposely treated Yan Yun ambiguously. It was a poor solution but the only one he had that would allow him to both protect Yan Yun and keep him at an arm's length. Liu Yao had thought that his hot-and-cold attitude would be sufficient to make the departments and concubines wary of targeting Yan Yun, at least until he made up his mind on what to do with him.

But they were bolder than he'd given them credit for.

Liu Suzhi let out an exaggerated sigh but Liu Yao knew that he didn't have it in him to feel genuine sorrow for Yan Yun. This was just part of the never-ending taunting he reserved for Liu Yao. There was no love lost between them. Liu Suzhi was half the reason why his father's reign had gone downhill and on Liu Suzhi's part, Liu Yao was the son of the man who had held him captive.

"Did he ask you for help?"

"No, this servant is here out of the goodness of his own heart," Liu Yao lamented. "Have some pity, Your Majesty. Are you trying to follow in the footsteps of your father?"

"LIU SUZHI!" Cao Mingbao stormed into the study before Liu Yao could formulate a reply. "Watch your words, you're in the presence of His Majesty!"

Liu Yao laughed coldly. "Has that ever stopped him before?" He tried not to show it but Liu Suzhi's callous words had touched a raw nerve. The worst part was that he couldn't refute them. He'd been so busy trying to maintain a careful balance that he'd overlooked what this would mean for Yan Yun, whom he'd dragged into this mess for selfish reasons in the first place.

It was only when he felt a stabbing pain in his right hand that he realised he'd snapped his brush in half, the fragments splintering into the skin of his palm.

"It's not an insult," Liu Suzhi replied calmly, with a complete disregard for the emperor's wrath. "Granted, it's not a compliment either."

"Get out," Liu Yao gritted. Before he lost his temper and ruined all his plans. Not for the first time, he resented his father for shackling him to all these petty predicaments he'd caused during his reign.

"As Your Majesty commands."

Liu Yao waited until Liu Suzhi's retreating back was out of sight. Then he slumped back into his chair, good mood all but gone.

"Cao Mingbao," he said tiredly. "Go and double-check Liu Suzhi's audit of the departments. If it's true that they have been unfair, let him kill those responsible."

———————————

"I don't see why we have to learn to sew," Hua Zhixuan grumbled, wincing as he accidentally stabbed himself again.

Across the table, frowning over the handkerchief he was embroidering, Yan Zheyun gave him an absentminded reply. "Perhaps this set of training momos believe in gender equality."

"This one does too!" Hua Zhixuan declared. "Hence, male or female, anyone who doesn't enjoy the art of sewing shouldn't be forced to practice it!" Over the last couple of weeks, under the guise of 'hanging out', Yan Zheyun had slowly but surely influenced some of Hua Zhixuan's views on society. He was satisfied to note that Hua Zhixuan might have his values ingrained in tradition but remained flexible to novel concepts.

The thread snapped in Yan Zheyun's hands again. He sighed and gave up, stretching to straighten out of the kinks in his lower spine. They had been tasked with completing a piece with an appropriate symbol to gift to the emperor and Yan Zheyun had thought about it long and hard before settling on a sprig of plum blossoms. He had chosen to employ the style of sewing that was so renowned from his original province (5) but was now realising that the reason why it was so famous was because of how difficult it was.

There was a small commotion in the courtyard outside as loud expressions of admiration floated in through the open window. Hua Zhixuan sneaked a peek before making a face. "It's the peacock again," he muttered. "Done with his third handkerchief in just two shichen. Any more efficient and he could do this for a living."

Yan Zheyun chortled at Hua Zhixuan's glumness. "How could we hope to compare? Our dear Third Young Master Liang has been training for this moment since birth." Liang Ruhan had made sure everyone with functioning years knew about this. He bragged about his upbringing so often that Yan Zheyun could recite his monologues verbatim.

"Yes but we're going to be the ones punished with just pickles and rice again tonight," was Hua Zhixuan's sulky response.

"That's our lot." Yan Zheyun neglected to mention his suspicions that someone had bribed the momos to make their life difficult. They were powerless to retaliate and the knowledge would only burden Hua Zhixuan, who didn't seem to have noticed it yet.

To be honest, he felt the same pointlessness of the endeavour as Hua Zhixuan. Apart from a crooked brown branch that was so hideous, it resembled an insect, he had yet to accomplish anything. He'd always taken pride in being an all-rounder but had to admit that some skills were just beyond his depth.

Besides, he didn't think the emperor would even glance twice at anything the momos tried to send him. He wasn't the sort to care…about anything besides work.

Coming from one workaholic to another, that was saying something. Or perhaps, Yan Zheyun was just salty. He hated this awkward in-between where he wasn't certain how much of the emperor's attention he had captured, if any. There was no good gauge.

If this were modern times, Yan Zheyun would have made a move by now. But he was forced to resign himself to this indecisiveness.

How frustrating.

"Do you think if I submitted a blank handkerchief, they would reduce my dinner portions to just plain rice?"

The new year was fast approaching.

[By next year,] Yan Zheyun decided. [By hook or by crook.] He was going to crawl into the dragon bed the way idiots kept accusing him of doing.

"You can count on it." He picked up the red thread and got back to work.