From CEO to Concubine-Chapter 206: The Heir and the Painter

"Young Master, pay attention to this servile one~"

"No way, Young Master, you’ve already let Xiu Er feed you wine, it’s my turn now!"

"That’s right, that’s right! You can’t just favour Xiu Er, the rest of us want Young Master’s attention too."

Silks and fur. Decadent lanterns with the finest embroidery from Lin Nan and a bejewelled censer with incense inferior only to imperial-grade offerings.

There was no meaning to this. Perfumed hands and sweet nothings, they were a dime in a dozen to Xie Qinzhen, the infamous heir of Prince Zhenhai, Subduer of the Seas.

Compared to his father, who was renowned for his fearsome fleet that kept the eastern shores of Great Ye safe, Xie Qinzhen had a far less savoury reputation. If asked, he would be the first to admit that he had a soft spot for a pretty face. There was no shame in that. If a lovely little thing was eager to land in his bed, then far be it for him to refuse. Life was too short, especially for the men of the military, and he saw no harm in a bit of fun.

It wasn’t a crime under Great Ye’s laws to enjoy a tryst or two. Or three. Or four. And he’d always made it very clear that he wasn’t looking for anything more than a fleeting good time, that it would be folly to bestow a heart upon him as he wasn’t capable of taking care of it.

This was why, despite his father’s constant nagging, he still found himself a resolute bachelor at the ripe age of twenty-eight. Luckily for him, His Highness Prince Zhenhai was far too honourable to force him into an unwanted marriage, despite the ceaseless offers from matchmakers who came from all over Great Ye, bringing with them attempts to form a political alliance with one noble family or another via marriage.

Prince Zhenhai couldn’t bring himself to ruin the lives of the unfortunate young ladies being bartered by their families in exchange for favours. Personally, Xie Qinzhen could respect his father for that. He didn’t think it right to rob these women of their futures, which would undoubtedly be the case once they became associated with him, even in something as paltry as marriage talks.

It was interesting, the way chastity tended to die the moment he stepped into the room. All it took was a single polite smile from him on the main city streets of Dong Ping, the centre of the fiefdom bestowed upon his father by imperial authority, and rumours about the poor recipient of his attention ’losing their body’ would spread not a shichen later.

The grapevine liked to praise his prowess in bed, laud his achievements. This, coupled together with the military achievements he’d earned whilst serving under his father’s command, built him a rather puzzling reputation of being both easy and irresistible.

If there weren’t certain unknown individuals out there responsible for the besmirching of his name, he would be very, very surprised. After all, in the name of the heavens, he was good but not that good. It was no secret that Heir Zhenhai frolicked through the flower streets and willow alleys like a fish writhing through the turbulent waters of the seas he guarded so gallantly. But with good reason. The elegant little lords and ladies whose doors and families matched his own (2) were too dangerous to play with.

He couldn’t be sure whether there was someone behind them whose main goal was the military might of the eastern warlord. He couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t be breaking a naive heart only to reforge it in a cold steel that would turn against him when he was most vulnerable.

No, the girls and boys of the pleasure district were a lot easier to deal with. There were fewer strings involved, he knew this from experience.

"Young Masterrr! You’ve ignored Han Er for a long while now..." The beautiful boy cradled in his arms gave a pout that would have melted the heart of any lecher worth his salt. "Is it because you don’t find Han Er as pretty as the others?"

Xie Qinzhen tapped Han Er’s nose with a finger in admonishment before gently nudging him off his lap and to the side. For a year now, his past revelries were unable to incite the same delight in him as they once had. The joy had been replaced by a hollow sombreness that over the nights spent thinking about that lonely figure he’d left alone on that bridge. Its usual haughtiness, which had lured out a desire to possess that he hadn’t believed himself capable of before, had been replaced by a forlorn resignation that had been more painful to witness than any blade that had left its mark on his body before.

Ever since that night they’d first met. For someone who forgot the fair faces of his nightly companions once day broke, he could still remember it like A cool spring evening, wine as full as the moon and the world had been drenched in a misty rain. The south was renowned for its delicate beauties, soft and all-encompassing like the waters that flowed through its charming towns, and that breathtaking visage had walked towards him carrying a simple oil-paper umbrella.

That man was dressed all in white like a fairy that had gotten lost on its way back to the heavens and Xie Qinzhen could remember that, more alluring than the fresh branches of peach blossoms it cradled in its arms, was a face that had been carved by the gods to perfection in his eyes. It wasn’t the most flawless he’d ever seen, too stern, too cold to be appreciated by all, but perhaps Xie Qinzhen was just rebellious that way; everyone liked to say that he could make whoever he wanted fall at his feet.

Back then, he’d truly believed that Lu Lan would prove them wrong.

"Wrong bridge", he’d called out, after taking a swig from his wine flask before lifting it to toast the moon. "Lord Immortal, this lowly one believes you have strayed from your way home."

His demeanour must have confused Lu Lan, who hadn’t been used to such frivolity being directed his way. No surprises there; with the grand tutor for a father, whose reputation for being a conservative stickler for the rules was known throughout the realm, Lu Lan had been raised to an exacting standard of prim and proper.

Then and there, Xie Qinzhen had wanted him. He’d wasted no time either, poem after poem spilling from his lips with a ready flippancy only the most cultural of dipsomaniacs could manage. With Lu Lan, he had erred, it wasn’t hard to see that in hindsight. He’d wooed the youngest son of the uppity Lu Family with a passion that he’d been careful never to display to his courtesan lovers, flirtatious banter taking the form of ’The Peach Blossom Temple’ (3) and ’Mid-Autumn’ (4).

He hadn’t expected Little Young Master Lu to take the bait. At best, he thought to earn himself an eye-roll and a precious memory, one that he fully intended to take advantage of during their next meeting, which he was going to engineer.

But Lu Lan had stopped before him. Regarded him with a quiet contemplation that he had learnt only after months spent together in blissful company to interpret as curiosity.

"Your Excellency (5) refers to this lowly one as the peach blossom immortal but I’m not the one indulging in my drink this evening."

Xie Qinzhen had laughed. Without an umbrella, the drizzle had dampened his hair and clothes, and he must have appeared rather bedraggled in front of this interesting soul. But neither of them had minded.

"I only like the first stanza," he’d confessed, with a secretive smile. "On a peach blossom island stood a peach blossom temple. In this peach blossom temple lived a peach blossom immortal. This peach blossom immortal, he planted peach blossom trees, he plucked these peach blossoms, he traded them for wine."

Xie Qinzhen had offered his wine flask then, teasing, tantalising.

Lu Lan had continued to look at him in that same peculiar way of his. Slightly cautious but ultimately devoid of any real perception of danger, much like a spoiled house cat that hadn’t realised that it was in the maws of a bigger predator.

"These branches are for my favourite vase," he’d said, referring to his flowers.

"Then far be it for this lowly one to ask you to part from them," Xie Qinzhen had replied in a light-hearted imitation of courtesy. "Would Lord Immortal trade me something else then?"

He’d taken a step closer. Lu Lan hadn’t taken one back. Around them, the rain had poured but it no longer touched Xie Qinzhen.

"What tickles Your Excellency’s fancy?’ Lu Lan had dared to ask.

Xie Qinzhen had dared to answer. "A trip to the moon palace, perhaps?"

One thing had led to another. Before Xie Qinzhen had known what was happening, Lu Lan had painted himself over his heart in refined strokes; from that night onwards, it had beaten for no one else.

Love at first sight. A prodigal returned (6). Who would have thought it would have happened to him? Who would have thought that not a season would pass before Xie Qinzhen had been compelled to leave his dear little young master’s side?

He could still remember the day his father had come to the encampment in a frantic search for him. It had been just a regular day, which meant he’d spent it training his troops and daydreaming about Lu Lan’s supple painter’s hands.

When he’d heard his father ask him about the top courtesan of Dong Ping, Chun Xue, he’d initially thought that he must have failed to dodge an attack during a sparring session and taken a hard blow to his head. That had been the only reason he could formulate to explain why his boring father, who had only ever disapproved of licentious establishments like brothels, was asking him about the most popular whore in the city.

Dong Ping had a beauty, whose fame stemmed from gossip that said his looks greatly resembled that of His Majesty’s new beloved. He was fair, to be sure, but not of the kind that Xie Qinzhen favoured. If Chun Xue hadn’t saved his life by pure chance, their paths would never have crossed. That assassination attempt would have very nearly succeeded too, but his enemies had overestimated his pride. They hadn’t believed Lord Heir Zhenhai, a general of the upper third rank, would hide under the voluminous layers of robes and blankets of a whore.

To that, Xie Qinzhen could only say, pride be damned. Only the living had the right to exact revenge. That was infinitely preferable to praying that his old man would set aside his sense of duty long enough to avenge his poor dead son.

But as a result, he’d owed Chun Xue a favour. So when his father showed up with a mission, saying that it was imperative that he stopped playing house with the Lu Family’s boy and find Chun Xue, who had mysteriously disappeared, Xie Qinzhen couldn’t say no.

He’d tried too.

"Two things, boy," his father had said, adopting his perfunctory manner that was customary whenever he spoke to his exasperating heir. "One, unrest in the capital is broiling. His Majesty grows ever more weary of the factions in the morning court and of the warlords champing at their bit...and rightly so. Now is the time for us to lie low and prove our worth, do you understand? It’s not the time to be forging alliances with those we cannot afford to be seen to be close to."

As far as Xie Qinzhen was concerned, no one had ever seen him close to Lu Lan. He had more class than to exhibit that aspect of their relationship. But his father’s expression had brooked no nonsense—more than usual, even—and his joke would not have been appreciated.

"Two, this Chun Xue, whom you’re...acquainted with. Does he truly resemble that noble person in the inner palace?"

Xie Qinzhen had shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine." It wasn’t like he’d seen the son of Prime Minister Yan before.

"We cannot take the chances. A boy who could resemble His Majesty’s favourite suddenly vanishing from our fiefdom...this bodes ill. You are to find his whereabouts immediately and take him into custody."

"And if I refuse?" he’d asked, more to be contrary than anything since he already knew that he wouldn’t abandon Chun Xue to an uncertain fate.

"You won’t."

For all their differences, no one knew him better than his father. His father, who believed their whole family at such grave risk that he was willing to jeopardise his only heir to try and solve the problem.

But he was confident in his father’s love for him. If the old man had a choice, he would have gone in Xie Qinzhen’s stead or sent someone else. But a warlord had a fiefdom to manage and no one else that he could trust besides his closest flesh and blood.

This was why Xie Qinzhen had allowed himself to be strong-armed into a wild goose chase and a dangerous one at that. It had meant drawing unwanted attention from the unfriendly gazes watching in the dark; not everyone appreciated his father’s tight hold on the east, especially when Prince Zhenhai was proving himself notoriously tough to bribe, coax, or coerce into joining an alliance.

It had meant that once he’d finally found Chun Xue’s trail, he’d broken imperial orders and left his father’s fiefdom to follow Chun Xue’s trail to the capital, where it had ended abruptly.

[

Once discovered, the punishment lying in wait for him was a swift death. For a warlord or his heir to leave their territory without permission was all but akin to treasonous intent.

He was compelled. Lu Lan was not and so he’d set him free, choosing a bridge once again, this time in Dong Ping, for completion’s sake. But after, no matter how attractive the face, how nimble the body, he could no longer find it in him to lie with them.

Take now, for instance. The whores of the capital were indeed the cream of the crop and all he could think about was Lu Lan’s endearing habit of tucking his paintbrush behind his ear whenever he was taking a break from painting.

"Young Master...why won’t you play with us anymore? You’ve newly arrived in the capital, that’s too soon to tire of us, isn’t this servile one right?"

But he was so sick of it all.

Ah, as he’d thought, it just was so meaningless.