From CEO to Concubine-Chapter 179: Downfall

Chapter 179: Downfall

Yan Zheyun couldn’t remember what time he fell asleep but it was past the hour of the rabbit when he was woken up by a cautious inquiry at the door.

"Your Majesty, Imperial Noble Consort Yue, this old servant has something of great urgency to report."

He stirred and attempted to sit up but winced at the dull ache in his lower back and thighs. His wrists too were smarting; the abrasions from their activities the night before would no doubt leave their mark for a while to come.

Before he could answer Head Eunuch Cao’s tentative call, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him to pull him down against a firm chest.

"I’ll deal with it." Liu Yao pressed a kiss against his hooded eyelids.

"I want to listen in," Yan Zheyun mumbled, coughing a little to clear up the residual hoarseness. He felt his ears heat up when memories of just why his throat felt scraped raw flooded back in and he resisted the urge to jab Liu Yao in the ribs. ’Cowgirl’ wasn’t his favourite position by any measure, not least because Liu Yao took perverse delight in being helpful at the worst of times. Bouncing up and down on a giant cock while moaning like a shameless slut...was not how Yan Zheyun envisioned for himself on the rare occasion he’d considered what sort of relationship he wanted in the future.

Although given how most of Qianqing Palace had probably heard him yesterday night, he clearly enjoyed it a lot more than he wanted to admit.

When Head Eunuch Cao was finally granted permission to enter, he stopped a respectful distance behind the embroidered folding screens that shielded the antechamber from sight.

"Update us," Liu Yao said, in a voice far more serious than the hand that toyed idly with the loose strands of Yan Zheyun’s hair. Yan Zheyun could tell that he was at relative ease, the steady throb of Liu Yao’s heartbeat an even soothing rhythm in his ear.

"In response to Your Majesty, Compiler Wu has been found dead."

Yan Zheyun opened his eyes. The evening before had been a series of hectic events. Despite his visit to Yuanyin Palace, he had seen neither hide nor hair of the supposedly unwell Imperial Concubine Pei. What had greeted him instead was the most clichéd ambush of masked men, all dressed in black like they were straight out of a film set for a hotblooded wuxia drama. It would have been a lot more entertaining if he didn’t think them fully capable of manhandling him into submission. If Wu Zhong hadn’t shown up at Liu Yao’s behest with a team of shadow guards, suffice it to say Compiler Wu wouldn’t have been found alone.

Still, Yan Zheyun hadn’t expected Scumbag 1 to just...pick up the packed meal1 like that. The abruptness of his end didn’t invoke pity—he wasn’t so much of a saint that he would feel sorry for his tormentor—but it did reinforce just how different things were now from the original novel. All things considered, he wasn’t even sure that he was merely a transmigrator anymore.

An unreadable expression flickered over Liu Yao’s face at the mention of Wu Bin. "Where was he?"

"That’s where the situation...went somewhat out of control," Head Eunuch Cao replied hesitantly. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Somewhat?" The flatness in Liu Yao’s tone brooked no argument. "This sovereign trusts you have served me long enough to know just how unacceptable that sentence is, Cao Mingbao."

There was a loud thud. Yan Zheyun didn’t have to look to know that Head Eunuch Cao had fallen onto his knees.

"This old servant deserves death, this old servant should have kept a closer eye on matters." His voice was slightly muffled from his kowtow.

Yan Zheyun reached up to smoothen out the frown on Liu Yao’s brow. "Your Majesty could discuss this with Cao Gonggong later," he said softly, both helping Head Eunuch Cao reduce the heat of Liu Yao’s ire as well as redirecting the conversation to the most pressing issue. "This consort believes it may be more important to figure out what went wrong."

Liu Yao nodded. "Speak, Cao Mingbao."

"Yes, Your Majesty." His gratitude was subtle but unmistakable. "After Imperial Noble Consort Yue was rescued by the shadow guard, the Eastern Depot took over custody of his masked assailants for interrogation."

There was no doubt as to the violent nature of that process. The Eastern Depot’s horrific reputation was not unwarranted.

"After they succumbed to our questioning, they admitted that under the behest of Second-Class Attendant Wu, they were to capture Yue Langjun and...administer the sleep draught mafeisan to him before bringing him to the xiangfei bamboo forest in the northeast corner of the inner palace."

Yan Zheyun felt rather than heard Liu Yao’s scoff.

"A whole team of trained martial artists at the command of a young noblewoman trapped inside the palace as a concubine? Either Wu Shengqi believes this sovereign enough of an idiot to believe that or they were confident enough that they weren’t going to get caught."

"...due to the insider information we had managed to obtain beforehand, we had all suspected the Wu Family’s involvement," Cao Mingbao continued to say. "However...Your Majesty, when we arrived at the bamboo forest, we found Compiler Wu’s unclothed body in the middle of the pavilion, his heart ripped out of his chest in startling semblance to the murders reported out on the streets."

The information network that transmitted messages in and out of the inner palace had long since been scrutinised by Liu Yao’s men. It always left Yan Zheyun in awe; they had unearthed a whole scheme but yet continued to turn a blind eye and allow it to operate under their noses, intercepting letters as and when they saw fit to gain an edge over their opponents. For the last couple of months, this information network had been milked for all it was worth, the correspondence from the Wu Household studied zealously by all of them in turn in a bid to unravel the plot that was lying in wait for them.

But now, it seemed like even more was afoot. If nothing else, Wu Shengqi surely wasn’t insane enough to sacrifice his oldest son for a ploy with such high stakes.

"Compiler Wu was very inebriated when this sovereign last saw him at the banquet," was Liu Yao’s unimpressed response. "Given what their plan constitutes, this sovereign would not be surprised that he let his emotions get the better of him and chose to show up instead of their fortunate victim."

His words were measured but Yan Zheyun could detect an edge in them that wasn’t there before. He knew what was causing it too. Drugging the imperial noble consort with spring medicine and bringing him to a pavilion where a naked young man had met a gruesome death...it didn’t get more obvious than that.

"Compiler Wu wasn’t the only alarming thing about the discovery, Your Majesty," Head Eunuch Cao said. "With the heaven’s magnanimousness, their plans to bring Imperial Noble Consort Yue over were foiled. But what we found instead...was Attendant Wu herself, unconscious next to a fox...and in a state of indecency. We weren’t sure what to do with her so she is currently being held in the Department of Careful Punishment." His voice trailed off into a muted silence towards the end of his report and Yan Zheyun could sense the apprehension radiating off him, uncharacteristic for this sly, powerful eunuch who knew his emperor’s temper probably better than Liu Yao knew himself.

Yan Zheyun was all too familiar with the Department of Careful Punishment, having been a short-stay guest there himself. It was hard to feel sympathy for Wu Yusi but given everything that had happened, he couldn’t imagine that she would be released anytime soon. Whether Liu Yao cared for her or not, a scandal of this magnitude in the imperial family was enough to disgrace him in front of the entire country. Not to mention that it would give the officials enough reason to start hounding Liu Yao about Yan Zheyun’s unsuitability to to manage the imperial harem.

Sure enough, Liu Yao’s expression darkened. "There’s an entire perpetrator or group thereof that we have missed. And they’re bold too, aren’t they? Foxes in the imperial palace? A whole concubine vanishing from her palace to materialise once more in a secluded forest without anyone noticing her absence? What’s the point of having nine heads when none of them are being used?"

Liu Yao was referring to Kaiming, which included himself. Yan Zheyun could tell that he was including himself in the blame and took his hand in his own to give it a reassuring squeeze.

"Some individuals are harder to spy on than others, Your Majesty," he murmured over Head Eunuch Cao’s apologies. He couldn’t outright remind Liu Yao to be wary of his brothers—he had no concrete proof of their involvement—so even if he knew them to be rats in a gutter the most he could do was try his best to warn Liu Yao of their penchant for treachery and watch Liu Yao’s back for any signs of that knife glinting in the dark.

"This old servant has already sent for a list of livestock kept in the different inner palace departments, including the Department of Garments..."

"The fox won’t be found on that list," Yan Zheyun interjected. He exchanged a long look with Liu Yao, and noted the comprehension in his gaze that was slowly overtaken by a simmering anger.

"They had plotted against you since the autumn hunt," Liu Yao gritted out. Although Yan Zheyun occasionally doted upon Xiao Zuzong, both Liu Yao and he were too busy managing day-to-day affairs to pay a pet much attention. The little red fox remained primarily in the care of the young maidservants and was kept mostly outdoors away from the expensive furnishings of Aiyun Palace.

Now, those naive teenage faces started to twist and morph in Yan Zheyun’s mind as he started to consider the possibility of a more sinister personality residing underneath their surfaces.

The hand that he was holding on wrapped around his waist to pull him in for a comforting hug.

"What does my Ah Yun wish to do?" Liu Yao asked.

Despite how disheartening things were shaping up to be, Yan Zheyun felt himself smile a little at that. Liu Yao had gone from making decisions on his behalf to including him and it was gratifying.

"If the enemy doesn’t move, I don’t move. If the enemy is about to move, I make my move first.1"

Liu Yao hummed in agreement. "Now that they’ve blindsided us, they’re likely to move, aren’t they?"

"I would if I were them." All the parts that were slowly revealing themselves had to be pieced together like a jigsaw. The best way to calm the frisson of nerves that was building up under Yan Zheyun’s skin was to try and complete it bit by bit, analysing each new point of information by rotating it all around and looking at it from all angles to see where it would make sense in the big picture. The deaths in the capital that everyone thought were due to a supernatural being, the fox that oh-so-conveniently was from his palace, the tangled threads between Wu Bin and the host of his body Yan Yun...someone had gone to great lengths to try and remove him from Liu Yao’s side and it wasn’t someone wholly taken in by his protagonist halo, whose mind was clouded by ridiculous lust.

Whoever this was had no qualms to kill him off. There were few quicker pathways leading to an execution than cheating on the emperor.

"It’s going to take a while to get to the bottom of this but we don’t have time right now," Yan Zheyun concluded. He would be surprised if the accusations didn’t start pouring in before daybreak. Even if the Eastern Depot had tried to clamp down on the information leak, it would be like trying to stop water from slipping through a woven basket.

"We can get to the bottom of this at our leisure." Gently, Liu Yao shifted Yan Zheyun back down onto the bed, wrapping the sheets tight around his bare shoulders and pressing a firm finger on his lips when he tried to protest. "Rest, Ah Yun. Trust this sovereign to protect you."

There was a grim set to Liu Yao’s jaw. Yan Zheyun wanted to ask but he recognised the mood that Liu Yao was in, could tell that he was reluctant to elaborate at the moment for some reason or another.

He tucked his face into the crook of his elbow and nodded. "I’ll wait for you to come back," was all he said in the end.

A hand carded through his hair before a soft kiss was pressed to his forehead.

"I’ll return with news, latest by this evening," Liu Yao murmured. "When you wake up, ask Noble Lord Hua to come and keep you company."

Internet slang from a Stephen Chow movie "King of Comedy" (1999), it is a reference to the boxed lunches that walk-on actors got to collect after they were done filming their short roles, which usually ended in the death of their characters. Taken from "The 24 Chapters of Warfare", a military book written in the Kingdom of Shu Han (221-263 AD) during the Three Kingdoms Era. Attributed to military strategist Zhuge Liang (Zhuge Kong Ming).