There Can Be No Peace

"Noble Consort Niangniang, His Majesty is currently busy and will not see anyone. This old servant will pass on your message for you."

Liu Yao's gaze flickered from the script he was pouring over towards the door. He couldn't hear what the response to Cao Mingbao's rejection was but an incense stick of time later, the elderly eunuch finally returned, wiping a thin sheen of sweat from his brow. He was also carrying a carved lacquered food box with a handle on the top.

"Your Majesty," he greeted. "Noble Consort Li wanted to report to you about the preparations for the selection of beauties. This old servant took the initiative and turned her away as Your Majesty insisted that you wouldn't meet with anyone from the inner palace…"

"Well done." Liu Yao picked up the brush and wrote down 'permitted' before circling it and tossing the script aside.

Cao Mingbao raised the food box hesitantly. "Noble Consort Li also heard that Your Majesty was working very hard and prepared some desserts for you. She made sesame cakes—"

"Cao Mingbao."

The eunuch immediately placed the food box down and fell to his knees. "This old servant has overstepped." By Liu Yao's side, the young eunuch that was grinding ink followed suit. His tiny frame trembled so hard that Liu Yao could see it in his peripheral vision. His father had derived a sick satisfaction from instilling fear in others but this same reaction just served to irritate Liu Yao.

It made him wonder if he was turning into the tyrant he'd hated.

Liu Yao placed the brush back down on its porcelain holder. He rubbed at his temples. "Did this sovereign compliment you just for you to turn around and make such an obvious mistake immediately after?"

Cao Mingbao kowtowed. "Your Majesty, this old servant doesn't dare. But Your Majesty…" he raised his head slowly and Liu Yao knew that his reaction was being gauged. He kept his face straight and this gave Cao Mingbao some courage. "This stalemate isn't a solution either, perhaps you could consider trying to…accept?"

This wasn't the first time this closest confidante of his tried to convince him to give the harem a chance. Liu Yao knew that Cao Mingbao had his best interests at heart, was loyal to a fault and wished with all his might that Liu Yao would go down in history as a benign and competent monarch. One of the duties that a competent monarch had to fulfil was to provide the country with heirs.

But there were some things that Liu Yao refused to compromise on. The inner palace was one of them.

"Distribute the food to the servants," he murmured, pulling another unopened script towards him. "This sovereign doesn't want to hear one more word on this subject, is that clear?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Sighing, Liu Yao attempted to focus on the work at hand. The young eunuch was too scared to grind ink properly. Liu Yao didn't know why Cao Mingbao thought it was a good idea to assign him to Tianlu Pavilion but he was not prepared to serve in imperial presence yet. Perhaps he'd been selected for having a good visage, Liu Yao knew that this was a requirement that was strictly adhered to. But personally, Liu Yao would have preferred 'competent' over 'beautiful'.

Liu Yao dismissed him and took over the job himself. But he found that after the interruption, he was struggling to focus on state affairs, even though there were urgent matters to be attended to. Even after Prime Minister Yan's death, Liu Yao had refused to repeal the unpopular military edict that had been pushed out because it amassed the army's strength back in his hands. But this offended both the 6 noble clans, many of whom still had strong familial ties to the warlords that were giving him a headache.

He wasn't sure how much time he had to nip them in the bud before they openly turned against them. But his father's despotic rule had ensured that the country was rotten to its core and for Liu Yao to fix it, he had to uproot it completely and cut off the dying parts with a ruthless blade.

There were so many schemes to implement, so many ploys to unravel. This wasn't the appropriate time to be considering matters of the heart or to be seduced by a wayward pair of beautiful eyes.

He was alone in his study. Liu Yao had the habit of dismissing all the servants, with Cao Mingbao waiting at the door to listen for his instructions. Thus, there was no one around to see him sink back in his seat and stare up vacantly at his beautiful surroundings.

Recently, these moments occurred more and more frequently. But instead of an elegant, scholarly figure seated at a guqin by a pond, he found his thoughts drifting to flashes of red and gold, a sword tracing flowers in the air.

A self-deprecating smile tugged at his lips. Was he so lonely as to crave the companionship of a lowly slave? And he wasn't just any slave too but the son of a traitor that for all intents and purposes had appeared to be state executed.

Liu Yao had spoken aloud about placing his safety in the hands of the Yulin Army but in truth, he wasn't as confident as he'd sounded. There had been too many coincidences surrounding this Yan Yun. From their first meeting in Meiyue Tower to the convenient spring medicine that had sent Yan Yun into his arms. Liu Yao didn't enjoy second-guessing people but it was a survival skill that he'd long since developed to remain alive in the palace.

He'd been careless with that slave. But…he was someone Liu Yao had touched before and just for that alone, he would not permit another to have him. Now that Yan Yun was in the palace, Liu Yao could provide for him as long as he behaved himself and kept his distance.

A refined, lilting voice echoed in his mind, speaking words that he reminisced about so often that thinking about them had become muscle memory.

[Ah Yao, you keep everyone at arm's length because you think that you're protecting yourself. But no one in this world was meant to be alone.]

He'd believed those words once and foolishly let someone in. Look how well that had turned out.

——————————

A week had passed since Yan Zheyun had moved into the Zheshan Palace. After the doors had closed behind him, it was like he'd been cut off from the rest of the world. No one besides Xiao Fu and Xiao De seemed to remember his existence. He wasn't sure if it was because of all the 'Legend of So-and-So' dramas that his mother adored that had made him expect to be bullied the second he entered the harem but this uncanny silence made him nervous.

Or maybe those shows were exaggerated and the inner palace was actually a pretty chill place where concubines had better things to do than poison each other. Yan Zheyun could hope.

Still, despite the uneasiness he felt about not receiving any summons, he couldn't deny that this week was the most peaceful week he'd had ever since transmigrating. With no Wu Bin or Scumbag 2 to dog his every step or trick him into their beds, he'd had a couple of fabulous nights of sleep. Xiao De was young and exuberant but not so noisy that Yan Zheyun wanted to fire him.

There was a simple but adequate amount of coal being provided to them and the food that was delivered to this palace wasn't particularly lavish but was a true feast compared to the servant's fare at the Wu Household.

All in all, he was starting to think that he could quite comfortably spend the rest of his life here, like an early retirement of sorts. If only he had a laptop on hand.

But of course, because this was a dog-blood BL novel, Yan Zheyun's serenity was short-lived.

It happened one morning, just as he was exercising. After a year of menial labour and that month of intensive dance lessons, he'd managed to build up a semblance of fitness for this host body. There was a lean layer of muscles cording his arms and legs. Although no matter how hard he'd tried to work out his abs, his stomach remained miserably smooth and unlined. Coupled together with a waistline that was just the right width to be seized by a grown man's hands, Yan Zheyun had yet to break away from the 'effeminate shou' stereotype.

But he wasn't going to let his efforts go to waste. Deciding that he needed to keep up a regime somehow, he'd studied the infrastructure of Zheshan Palace, with its multiple floors and had devised a running route that wouldn't require him to step foot outside, since he wasn't permitted to anyway.

The first time he'd sprinted up and down the corridors and stairs, Xiao De had panicked and thought that he was possessed. Now, he'd managed to convince Xiao De to join him. Roping in an exercise buddy was a great way to stick to a tedious workout, after all. Especially since it was such a boring one, with zero variation available.

Today, Yan Zheyun was just halfway up the highest flight of steps when the red doors at the front of the courtyard swung open. A eunuch whose voice he didn't recognise announced, "Imperial Concubine Hui has arrived! Lady of Bright Deportment Zhang has arrived!"

Yan Zheyun came to an abrupt halt, Xiao De crashing into his back.

"Oh no, Little Master!" Xiao De fretted, his frantic gaze darting to the simple ramie tunic that Yan Zheyun was currently wearing. "You're not fit for company—" This little master of his might look like a refined young master but was actually the most stubborn person Xiao De had ever met. Despite Xiao De's protests, the little master had insisted on dressing up in servant's garb for sport when he'd heard that Attendants didn't have hunting dress assigned to them.

"Stop panicking," Yan Zheyun murmured, quickly taking stock of the situation. They were hidden in an inconspicuous corner of the corridor and the uninvited guests hadn't noticed them yet. He observed as a maid with a more elaborate hairstyle than the rest of the pale pink entourage stepped out and shouted, "Where is everyone? Is this the kind of welcome this newcomer has decided to give to Hui Niangniang?"

Even without the obvious distaste on her expression, Yan Zheyun could tell that they weren't here for a friendly chitchat. What he'd been anticipating had finally come.

"Follow me," he whispered, creeping into the closest room. It was unused and covered in a fine layer of dust but Yan Zheyun didn't care as he trod through it briskly, throwing open the windows at the end. Lucky for him, his rooms were just one below this one, the first set of chambers right next to the stairs for convenience. He wasn't sure how well he trusted ancient architecture but he didn't have a choice now. If the wooden barriers couldn't take his weight and he fell and snapped his neck, then he couldn't blame it on anything but his own misfortunes.

Perhaps Xiao De was a bit slow but when Yan Zheyun started clambering over the edge of the window ledge, he finally caught on, letting out a horrified hiss.

"Little Master!" he whispered furtively. "What are you doing?! Come back in, it's not safe!"

Yan Zheyun shot him an unimpressed look. "Is it safer for them to see me in this attire?" The ramie tunic had short sleeves and ended above his ankles. While this would be nothing on a servant or a peasant, Yan Zheyun's role as a concubine made this a serious breach of etiquette, one deserving of severe punishment.

But hell, what was he supposed to do? Exercise in the stupid, impractical robes that he'd been assigned? That was just asking for heat stroke and/or serious injuries when he inevitably tripped on the hem.

He'd been so cautious about timing his exercise regime too, Xiao Fu had said that at this hour, the concubines were usually paying homage to the head honcho of the inner palace, some noble consort or another. Who would have thought that they would be jobless enough to come and cause him trouble this early in the day? If they'd arrived just an hour later, he would be all ready to greet them with proper scholarly poise.

"Little Master…"

"Either come down with me now or go and find a way to stall them," he gritted out, arms straining with his weight as he lowered himself down gingerly. The windows of his chambers were slightly ajar and with some effort, he managed to hook his foot into it and pull it open. While doing all this, his mind raced to brainstorm a way out of this predicament. "Go and tell them that I'll be out soon, I just woke up because I'm unwell."

Without waiting for Xiao De to protest again, he lowered himself as far as he could go before starting to swing. Relying on the momentum, he threw his weight forward and successfully managed to land just inside the window, although not without smashing into the decorative table underneath. Display items like a bonsai carved of chicken blood stone crashed to the floor and shattered. His back slammed the edge of the window frame, hard enough to bruise.

But there would be plenty of time to check that later. The commotion he just caused would not have gone unheard.

Rushing into his bed chambers, he pulled out a set of fresh robes and fastened them as quickly as he could. Despite being just tailored for an attendant-level member of the harem, they were more complicated than the servant's clothes Yan Zheyun was used to wearing. He ensured that he'd covered himself up appropriately and didn't care that he appeared dishevelled like he'd just crawled out of bed. It helped that he still had an unnatural flush to his face from the exercise and adrenaline, which would hopefully give him the impression of having a fever.

He also let his hair out of its ponytail and scrutinised what he could see of his reflection in a bronze mirror before figuring that this would have to do.

All right. He was ready for battle.