From CEO to Concubine-Chapter 188: The Artist

An unmitigated sadness flooded Yan Zheyun’s heart. Friend or foe, sitting before him here was a young man who ought to be in the prime of his life, who, should he have been born into the modern world, did not have to speak nonchalantly about death. Be it sickness, be it malicious intent, the 21st century had more solutions to offer than this kingdom, whose emperor and a select few dedicated officials were fighting tooth and nail to protect its civilians from further injustices.

To be born blessed and not recognise the blessing (1), he thought to himself, and not for the first time, reflected back on how he’d taken so many of the privileges of growing up in an affluent 21st century city for granted in the past. Hospitals, a police force with minimal corruption, an efficient transport system, education for the masses. These were just to name a few.

What a far cry it was from now, where he wasn’t even certain if he could send for an imperial physician to check on this man without triggering an insidious trap that might just have been laid out elaborately before him.

"Don’t speak of such inauspicious things," was all he managed to come up with in the end, withdrawing to the feeble sort of superstitious reply he knew the other concubines would offer up in detached politeness.

Imperial Concubine Pei’s eyes crinkled in the corners. He brought a hand up to his mouth to cover another coughing fit and Yan Zheyun noted that his mannerisms didn’t carry the affected gentility that the concubines in the palace were trained to portray. Instead, his manners were polite but simple, giving Yan Zheyun the impression that he was not of a noble background, where the focus on elegant precision in every single move was ingrained into the children at such a young age that they carried it out without thinking.

The mysterious air around Imperial Concubine Pei just seemed to grow with each new discovery. Yan Zheyun knew better than to trust anyone just by gut feeling alone but he couldn’t sense any animosity from him, just a serene resignation that was at odds with his apparent age. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

When Imperial Concubine Pei lowered his hand from his mouth, Yan Zheyun caught a glimpse of fresh red at the edge of his lips before it was quickly wiped away with a yellowed handkerchief.

"I have incurred ridicule (2)," Imperial Concubine Pei said. He was ever so slightly out of breath.

Yan Zheyun closed his eyes and sighed. "Poison?" he asked. After weighing up all the possibilities, it seemed unlikely that the imperial physicians would condone someone with respiratory symptoms as severe as this to stay in the inner palace given the relative proximity to the emperor. He could recall from a history channel that tuberculosis (3) was a thing in ancient times although the details were fuzzy in his head. Given that the concept of contagiousness was not a foreign one for the era, it seemed less likely that Imperial Concubine Pei was suffering from a disease.

Also, since this world was based on that stupid novel, a dog-blooded heartbreaking sort of poisoning had a twisted logic to it.

Imperial Concubine Pei just smiled. "Yue Langjun has only been in the palace for a year or so, is that right? Time flies in such odd ways when you spend the seasons wasting away in bed."

"Who did it?" Yan Zheyun didn’t wish for the conversation topic to stray.

There was no reply but for the gentle clatter of a tea cup against the table.

He hazarded another guess. The only concubine Liu Yao had actively selected for himself was his captain of the brocade guard. Pei was not a family name he recognised as being of prominent noble heritage. Someone in the palace wanted him dead but the poisoning was clearly slow-acting.

"Who sent you in? A minister or the dowager?"

At this, Imperial Concubine Pei’s smile widened and he let out a quiet laugh. "Yue Langjun is more astute than they give you credit for." He didn’t elaborate on who he was referring to but Yan Zheyun had an idea.

"Ziyu."

Yan Zheyun tensed up. That was his courtesy name, yes, but so far, no one dared to use it with him because it belonged to someone else too.

"A long time ago, on the night of the crown prince’s wedding, study companion Yun Ziyu took his own life."

Yan Zheyun took a deep breath. The ache in his heart made his eyes sting but he motioned for Imperial Concubine Pei to continue.

"Everyone considered it an unfortunate end of a love doomed to fail but His Majesty did not believe that his beloved would choose to leave him without a word."

Yan Zheyun wasn’t sure whether it was because he’d reconciled himself with the idea of Liu Yao having another love before but instead of the bitter tang of jealousy he’d anticipated, what was more painful was the tugging on his heart strings as he thought about how devastated Liu Yao must have been, how helpless and small the situation must have made that proud young prince feel.

"Slowly but surely, rumours started to abound that Dowager Niangniang’s hands were not clean of Yun Ziyu’s blood. It is no secret that as empress, she has a particular distaste for the male members of the harem and spoke out against His Majesty’s relations with his study companion. However, whether it be out of guilt or pity or something else altogether, she soon seized the opportunity during a banquet to introduce a young male painter into the harem..."

Yan Zheyun felt his mouth run dry as he stared at Imperial Concubine Pei, taking in the graceful uptilt of his eyes, that familiar aura of haughtiness that was particularly prominent in Yan Zheyun’s CEO mother. It didn’t fit Imperial Concubine Pei’s unassuming demeanour—it was just a feature of his appearance—but at the same time, it was the most arresting part of his face.

"Have you ever seen Yun Ziyu?"

"Not in person," Imperial Concubine Pei admitted. "His Majesty was kind enough to enlighten me." His lips curved up like he was recalling something funny. "The magnificence of that painting was far beyond anything my talent could create. No matter how well they trained me to replicate him, I could not do it in real life any more than I could on parchment."

There was too much for Yan Zheyun to think about and even more that he had to deliberate on before he asked Liu Yao any questions. Whether Liu Yao had a satisfactory answer was one matter. He wasn’t interested in ripping open any old wounds that had only started to mend more recently.

"You said your loyalties lie with the dowager," Yan Zheyun asked, trying to keep his interrogation pertinent.

"Yue Langjun misunderstands." After another bout of coughing that nearly sent him into convulsions, Imperial Concubine Pei added, "I was sent in by the dowager but I am most certainly not on her side." The chair he leaned back to rest against was so old that it creaked beneath his weight, which in light of his fragile frame did not seem to amount to much at all.

Yan Zheyun couldn’t take it anymore. Whether Imperial Concubine Pei had a role to serve in the plot against him or not was a separate issue. If he turned out to be culpable, Liu Yao could deal with it then. But for now, the state of his living environment was under Yan Zheyun’s purview and the eunuchs of the departments needed to have their ’assist the higher and step on the lower’ (4) attitude rectified.

"Xiao De, pass down this consort’s edict (5); Supervisor Liu is to command an audit of all the occupied palaces of the harem to ensure that all fittings concur with their occupant’s rank and status. Should any fittings appear above their station, proof should be supplied that these fittings were bestowed as gifts from His Majesty, the Dowager, or another concubine or consort of a higher rank. Should any fittings appear below their station, this consort will hold the relevant department responsible."

Imperial Concubine Pei sighed. "Yue Langjun is kind to give respite to a dying man. Does it not worry Langjun that perhaps it isn’t prudent to provide comfort to a man the emperor might want dead? Or does Yue Langjun see His Majesty only in a favourable light?"

Yan Zheyun met his gaze levelly. "His Majesty is more than capable of doing what needs be done. This consort just does not think your death, when expedited, would be of any benefit to him."

To get rid of a concubine introduced by the dowager was to openly spurn her before the court, putting Liu Yao at the risk of censure. What was to stop her from sending yet another scapegoat? Where would it stop? He couldn’t keep killing all of them, that would cause a different set of problems.

Keeping Imperial Concubine Pei at arm’s length but alive was indeed the best option; the dowager could use her ’pity’ for the emperor’s loss of Yun Ziyu as an excuse to send him a replacement bed-warmer but she couldn’t very well keep sending Liu Yao handsome men to entice him without some of them dying off first. Otherwise, the more nitpicky members of the morning court might start criticising her motives.

"If the dowager wanted to be rid of you so that she may send in someone else, you would be dead by now."

Imperial Concubine Pei nodded amicably.

Yan Zheyun’s mouth flattened. "Why did you start poisoning yourself?" He didn’t bother trying to ask what poison Imperial Concubine Pei had used or even whether there was a cure. This was a man who had a death wish; just like his main palace, which was hauntingly quiet like a mausoleum, there was no spark of life in his eyes, nothing in their dark depths but a chilling fatalism.

"A better question to ask would be how a modest painter from a small town near the capital ended up in here." A dreamy look came over Imperial Concubine Pei’s face as he gazed towards the open windows. For someone who was hacking up a lung, it was surprising that he kept them open to let the winter air in. But perhaps the view of the blue skies outside was the only thing that could stop him from feeling so suffocated within.

"I don’t have much of a story to tell, so don’t worry, this won’t take up much of Langjun’s time." He showed Yan Zheyun his hands, so thin that all there was left was skin and bone as well as the faded remnants of callouses from holding a brush. "As a painter by trade, I did not have the good fortune to learn from the greatest; those are reserved for the young masters and the art I learnt was to make a living, not to flaunt privilege. But my teacher was a kindly man who did what he could to impart his skills to me and when I came to be of age, he entrusted the hand of his only daughter to me."

As he spoke of that girl, some of the emotions flickered back into his eyes and they came alive with an allure that finally did his handsomeness justice.

"I wanted to give her the wedding she deserved, that was why I took on commission after commission, drawing faces of criminals for the constables to save up money for a betrothal gift that would do someone of our status proud." He let out a soft chuckle but it sounded more like he was about to cry. "Do you believe in coincidence, Langjun?"

Yan Zheyun did not. He believed that the universe of ’Hurt Me In a Million Ways’ was engineered to sensationalise the bad things that happened to good people. But there was no way to explain that to a ’local’.

"On the day before I was to deliver the gifts to her house, I went in to finish up some drawings. And that was when the magistrate of my town caught sight of me. Before I knew it, I had been taken into the capital and told to draw a painting of my own likeness. I still do not know what became of that painting but that it must have gone to Dowager Niangniang for it was her head eunuch who next came to pay me a visit."

The short tale that unfolded next was nothing unexpected but it was still horrific enough to anger.

"They told me that my teacher and my wife were in their hands," Imperial Concubine Pei said. "They said that as long as I listened, as long as I did what they told me to, I would be doing right by my loved ones." There was bite to his grin as he forcibly plastered it on. "At first, I believed them. Did what I could to try and capture His Majesty’s attention, let them tie me up naked in a blanket to be presented to the emperor after a banquet, even though the mere idea of—of lying beneath another man..."

Yan Zheyun understood. Just as women were not for him, men were not for Imperial Concubine Pei. This entire farce the dowager had cooked up didn’t once consider the lives she single-handedly ruined.

"What did she want of you?"

Imperial Concubine Pei didn’t seem to know either. Perturbed, he said, "At first I wondered if she wished to used me as a means to control His Majesty. After, I thought it was to ruin his reputation or his chances at an heir. But this didn’t make sense either; why kill off his male lover just to present him with another?"

Yan Zheyun remembered what Liu Yao had said of his suspicions regarding the dowager. Perhaps, to some extent, she didn’t know what she was hoping to achieve either.

"I didn’t have to know what her plans were, I just had to obey. But one day, His Majesty’s brocade guard came to visit." The shudder that ran through Imperial Concubine Pei’s body was like a reaction to a visceral dread. "They didn’t stay to chat, merely left me with the token that we used to pledge our love for each other and two urns."

Yan Zheyun looked around subconsciously but Imperial Concubine Pei shook his head. "I begged the brocade guards to take them to the mountains and bury them next to my teacher’s wife. To date, Dowager Niangniang still does not know that I’m aware they’re gone." There was an eerie calm to his voice as he elaborated, "Sometimes she likes to send her closest maidservant to bring me updates, like scraps to feed to a dog. I enjoy listening to these lies very much; it’s the only time I can pretend they’re still with me."

How did they die? Was it the dowager’s doing? Did they kill themselves to free him from the dowager’s hold? Or...was Liu Yao involved?

None of these were appropriate to ask. None of it mattered anymore anyway.

"So you see, Yue Langjun, there is no one in this world I hate more than her. His Majesty has gone out of his way to ensure that I do not spare her the inconvenience by going to an early grave and freeing up space for a newer better puppet. In return, I have gone out of my way to give His Majesty some piece of mind; after years of holding on, an unloved imperial concubine succumbs to illness and passes away silently in the night."

Like that, no one could fault Liu Yao for his death. Not the dowager, not the ministers, not the common populace.

"As for Dowager Niangniang’s involvement in the attempt to capture you on my doorstep..." He shrugged, unconcerned. "I wager that over the next couple of days, should any of the evidence point towards her or that second son of hers, you will soon hear that I was responsible for it all." For someone talking about being thrown to the dogs, he was rather blasé. "It would be just like Niangniang to squeeze out what little worth I have left in me before giving up on me for good."

Yan Zheyun didn’t speak immediately. He poured Imperial Concubine Pei a fresh cup of water and helped hold it steady as he drank. When he’d had his fill, Yan Zheyun made to move away but was stopped by the hand that suddenly caught at his wrist.

With great effort, Imperial Concubine Pei attempted to fall to his knees into a bow but Yan Zheyun was quick to stop him. His weak body, addled with years of poison, was no match for even the host body’s ultimate fragile beauty shou disposition and Yan Zheyun managed to keep him upright.

"Yue Langjun—I beg you," Imperial Concubine Pei managed, breathless just from that minimal exertion. "When I die, please let me go home."

Yan Zheyun turned his head away to hide his face.

"Don’t kneel," he gritted out. "If everything you’ve told me today is true, you’re not the one who should be begging."