That day Yu Wanyin knocked on his door. "Uncle Bei, what are you busy with?"
Beizhou answered without looking up. "Sewing two cloaks. One for Dan'er, one for you."
"You really are as skilled as you are handsome, Uncle. Since you spent so long wandering the martial world, and even mixed around in the pleasure houses, you wouldn't happen to carry some kind of truth potion, would you? The sort that makes people spill their guts?"
Beizhou considered it. "I have something that clouds the mind, but it's not much stronger than strong liquor. It'll make a person babble nonsense, but whether what comes out of their mouth is the truth, I can't promise that."
"If someone drinks it, will they remember what they said once they wake up?"
"That's trickier. To wipe the memory clean you'd need a heavy dose, and a dose that heavy leaves a smell in tea or wine. Hard to hide."
"No problem. I have a plan for that."
She thought herself something of a genius, certain everything was well in hand.
She took the drug from Beizhou and went looking for Xiahou Dan in the imperial study. These days no one in the palace didn't know Consort Yu was riding high, and wherever she wanted to go, nobody stopped her.
Xiahou Dan was flipping through memorials. "Someone from the Empress Dowager's faction filed a complaint against your father, says he took bribes under the guise of gambling debts. Looks like she wants to make an example of him. Should we deal with it?"
"Sure, deal with it. Demote him."
"That cold-blooded?"
Yu Wanyin shrugged. "He's not really my father. I don't even know the man, and he's got no role in the plot. Demote him today, let the Empress Dowager relax her guard, and who knows, it might spare him worse trouble later."
"Fair enough."
And so the matter was cheerfully decided.
Xiahou Dan picked up his vermilion brush to write a note on the memorial. He wrote slowly, but the characters came out neat and upright.
Yu Wanyin watched with curiosity. "You've practiced calligraphy?"
"Not well. Good enough to fake it. I can only manage short sentences for now. Want me to teach you?"
"Yes, yes, I need to learn fast."
She caught herself drifting off topic and remembered why she'd come. "Right, can you have Xie Yong'er attend your bedchamber tonight?"
Dead silence.
Xiahou Dan stared at her for a long moment without speaking, his brush hanging in the air until a drop of ink fell.
"...?" Yu Wanyin blinked.
Xiahou Dan spoke slowly, word by word. "You want me to bring another woman to my bed?"
"..."
Why did the air suddenly feel so strange? As if she were some deadbeat husband, lazing at home while kicking his wife out to work as an escort, with Xiahou Dan cast as the long-suffering wife.
Her scalp prickled. "It's not really for that. Once she's there, you drug her, then you can get the truth out of her. Here's the thing, I don't remember the candidates' names, but she does. She's read A Thousand Trees Bloom in the East Wind, and she knows which talented, upright candidates are going to die unjustly. Next year's exam, the list of scholars King Duan poaches, she knows that too."
She laid out her plan in full.
Xiahou Dan agreed, reluctantly. "Fine. But you hide nearby and watch the whole thing. Don't you dare wander off."
He gave her a resentful glance as he said it.
Her scalp prickled harder.
When had Xiahou Dan started acting strange? She thought back and decided it started after their trip to the pleasure house.
Bridge effect, probably. Had to be.
If this story needed someone with a love-addled brain, it shouldn't be Xiahou Dan.
Yu Wanyin read the odd romance novel to kill time, but she was long past the age of believing in "the domineering CEO falls for me" plots. As a working adult, she'd learned the truth of this world. There were walls between classes, and domineering CEOs kept clear heads, they didn't go around charitably falling for nobodies in their spare time.
Unless, of course, this was a survival game, and having read the script gave her slightly more value than an ordinary office worker.
He needs to build a tighter bond with me. She analyzed the situation almost coldly, if only to stamp out the ill-timed flutter in her chest.
She hesitated, then said gently, "Boss Dan, you don't need to do this. We're already grasshoppers tied to the same string. I'll help you to the end no matter what."
Xiahou Dan said nothing.
He waved a hand. "I've still got memorials to finish. You go on ahead."
Yu Wanyin walked a few steps and glanced back. Something about the slump of his shoulders looked desolate.
Xie Yong'er was stitching a new sachet when An Xian, the emperor's chief eunuch, arrived with a message. "His Majesty will summon you to his bed tonight. Prepare yourself well."
Xie Yong'er was stunned.
Ever since Yu Wanyin rose to favor, Xiahou Dan had summoned no one else. Her first thought was that something had happened to Yu Wanyin. She sent her little maid out to gather news and learned that Yu Wanyin's father had been demoted, and that Yu Wanyin herself had apparently fallen out of favor along with him.
Privately, Xie Yong'er scoffed. So the emperor really was heartless after all.
But now this same dog of an emperor wanted her to warm his bed.
She was thoroughly sick of it. Their secret meetings these past months had already planted feelings for Xiahou Bo in her heart. Yet that brilliant chosen son hadn't fallen for her the way she'd imagined. Instead he kept her at arm's length, all ambiguity and no commitment.
She'd already been in low spirits, and this summons felt like salt in the wound.
Just then her maid announced, "Consort Yu is here."
Yu Wanyin sat down looking thoroughly miserable, the picture of someone worn down by hardship. Xie Yong'er offered a hollow word of sympathy about her father, only to watch tears well up in Yu Wanyin's eyes.
"I always said everyone in this palace is just duckweed, drifting wherever the current takes them. Sister Yong'er, I hear you're to attend His Majesty tonight?"
Here it comes, Xie Yong'er thought. What kind of palace scheme was this going to be?
Instead Yu Wanyin's next words were, "Your heart must be aching right now."
Xie Yong'er nearly softened. She had to remind herself, again and again, that this paper cutout of a woman couldn't understand her deeper longings. Pretending to understand was just part of the act.
Yu Wanyin, watching every flicker cross her face, pressed on with her lines. "Let your sister give you one piece of advice. If anything in that bedchamber tastes strange, whatever you do, don't drink it."
"What do you mean, sister?"
Yu Wanyin lowered her voice. "Do you know why, after all these years, His Majesty has only ever had the Crown Prince and no other children? The Empress Dowager pressures every consort who attends him into drinking a contraceptive tonic. Tonight, pretend to drink it, then find a chance to pour it out. Otherwise you'll never be able to carry an heir..."
I'm drinking it for sure, Xie Yong'er thought.
The Empress Dowager's head maid had received her orders, to make sure Yu Wanyin swallowed the contraceptive drug. The formula for the forbidden medicine was complicated, and some of the ingredients couldn't be bought openly. Fortunately this wasn't the head maid's first time handling such things. She had someone purchase the goods quietly and quickly prepared a packet of powder. All that remained was to stir it into tea or soup for the consort to drink. A single dose kept a woman from conceiving for at least a year.
Except she never found her chance.
Yu Wanyin now took all her meals and tea inside the Consort's residence, and the guards there were tighter than around the Emperor's own chambers. There was no opening.
While the head maid fretted, word reached her: Yu Wanyin had left the Consort's residence and gone to the Emperor's bedchamber.
Wasn't it Consort Xie's turn to attend him tonight? Showing up now to vie for favor seemed like a foolish move, since the Emperor was supposedly already tired of her, why would he even receive her?
The head maid slipped to the back door of the bedchamber and found a familiar young palace maid to ask around. The girl whispered back, "His Majesty let Consort Yu in."
The head maid froze. What was this? Summoning two consorts at once? Did the Emperor want to play games?
Remembering the treatment previous bedmates had received, she shivered and didn't dare speculate further.
The young maid took the powder from her. "Sister, then who exactly is this contraceptive drug meant for?"
Caught off guard, the head maid only had one dose on hand. She agonized for a moment, then decided that following the Empress Dowager's original order was the safest choice. "Give it to Consort Yu."
Xie Yong'er hadn't arrived yet, so Yu Wanyin performed a full scene of jealous rivalry in front of the palace staff, tearfully begging to keep the Emperor's favor.
Xiahou Dan waved a hand with visible impatience, his tone dripping with theatrical grief. "Fine, you can stay too. The two of you together, then."
"Ah, thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty," Yu Wanyin gushed.
The surrounding servants nearly dropped their jaws.
Once she'd fooled the staff, Yu Wanyin melted against Xiahou Dan and murmured into his ear, "I brought the mind-clouding drug."
"Okay," Xiahou Dan said.
She sat beside him, and a demure little maid brought over a cup of hot tea, her fingers trembling slightly. Yu Wanyin, too preoccupied with her own guilty conscience, didn't notice.
Xiahou Dan waved the maid away and watched Yu Wanyin pull the drug from her sleeve and tip it into the tea in front of her.
"Remember to make her drink it," Yu Wanyin said.
"I'll try. What if she refuses?"
Yu Wanyin sounded utterly confident. "Just tell her to drink it directly. She will."
She stirred it carefully, and once the powder had fully dissolved, carried the cup to the back of the chamber and set it on the small table by the imperial bed.
As she turned to walk back toward the front hall, the same young maid crept out from a corner, staring at the cup in open terror.
Consort Yu hadn't drunk the tea herself, and now meant to give it to Consort Xie? Had she already seen through the contraceptive drug hidden inside? Impossible, the drug was so difficult to prepare precisely because it blended seamlessly into tea, leaving no trace, no smell, undetectable even if swallowed whole.
Or perhaps Consort Yu's schemes ran deep, and she'd guessed the Empress Dowager would try something, so she meant to make Consort Xie take the fall in her place?
The young maid had a hold over her held by the head maid, and dared not defy her. Seeing her task on the verge of failing, she gritted her teeth, crept forward, and picked up the cup.
Once Yu Wanyin had the mind-clouding drug ready, she returned to the front hall and sat with Xiahou Dan a while. Seeing the sky darken and knowing Xie Yong'er would arrive soon, she said, "I'll go hide at the side of the hall, so she doesn't get suspicious seeing me here. Once the drug takes effect, call me out."
"Then sit easy for a bit. I'll have them bring you some tea and pastries."
Yu Wanyin settled behind the screen at the side of the hall, and the little maid quickly brought over tea and snacks. She waved the attendants off and leisurely cracked open some sunflower seeds.
Xie Yong'er arrived and offered an elegant, formal greeting.
Xiahou Dan lounged at the front of the hall, still wearing that same jittery, dangerous look. He glanced at her coldly, skipped the pleasantries, and said, sparing every word, "Come here."
Humiliated, Xie Yong'er followed him deeper into the chamber, toward the imperial bed. He sat down, tapped the teacup on the table with a pale finger, and offered one more word. "Drink."
Here it was, Xie Yong'er thought, the contraceptive soup Yu Wanyin had warned her about.
She couldn't have asked for better. She lifted the cup and gulped it down in one go.
Xiahou Dan blinked. That eager?
Xie Yong'er swallowed, tasting nothing strange, and privately concluded Yu Wanyin must have gotten her facts wrong.
Seeing how readily she'd finished the cup, and now wearing an expression that said "shall we get started," she resigned herself to fate and started undoing her robes. Xiahou Dan cut in quickly. "Consort Xie."
She paused. "Your Majesty?"
Xiahou Dan said nothing further, only thought, could you not drink so fast, give the drug a moment to take effect.
He was forced to open his mouth again. "At the palace banquet the other day, I heard you play a piece. Quite memorable. Since you're fond of elegant music, why not sing something to lighten the mood?"
Xie Yong'er thought with contempt, as if you'd even appreciate what I sing.
She composed herself and began, lonely as falling snow. "When will the bright moon appear, I raise my cup and ask the blue sky..."
Xiahou Dan started pinching his own thigh again.
Her singing echoed through the empty chamber and drifted to the side hall, where Yu Wanyin, cracking seeds, choked and coughed into her hand. She picked up her own teacup and took a sip.
"Ptooey!"
Xiahou Dan waited through half the song. Xie Yong'er's eyes stayed clear, her manner unchanged. He glanced again at the cup in her hand.
A muffled coughing fit drifted over from the side of the hall.
He paused, then stood.
Xie Yong'er's singing stopped, and she looked at him, confused. "Wait here," he said casually, and walked out.
He strode behind the screen at the side of the hall and asked under his breath, "What?"
Yu Wanyin, still coughing, gasped, "Big problem. That wasn't the drugged cup Xie Yong'er drank. This is the one, I only just realized it when I took a sip!"
"How?"
"I don't know either. I clearly... never mind, this isn't the time to figure that out." She shoved the cup into his hands. "Thank goodness I only took a small sip, it shouldn't be a big deal. Hurry and get her to drink this one while it's still warm."
"She just finished one cup, and now I hand her another? You think she's an idiot?"
Half a minute later.
"Drink," Xiahou Dan said.
Xie Yong'er took the new cup and tipped it back in one gulp.
Xiahou Dan blinked again.
This time she noticed something off in the taste and thought, so this was the real one.
Then again, wait, had that first cup been some kind of mix-up? Did this tyrant have something wrong with his head? Was that even a trait he had in the original story...
The thought hadn't even finished forming before her eyes started to unfocus.
Xiahou Dan waited a few seconds, then spread his fingers and waved them in front of her face. "Consort Xie?"
Xie Yong'er swayed as if floating through clouds. "Mm."
"How many fingers is this?"
Xie Yong'er gasped in outrage. "Is there something wrong with your head?"
Xiahou Dan said nothing. He turned and called out, "Come out. She's gone soft in the head."
Yu Wanyin had only taken a small sip of the drug earlier and still felt nothing. The stuff was basically strong liquor with extra kick, and dose aside, toxicity claims without dosage were pseudoscience anyway. One sip shouldn't do her any harm.
Hearing Xiahou Dan call her, she put on the fox mask she'd prepared in advance and glided over to Xie Yong'er, dropping her voice low for the act. "Ma Chunchun, have you been well?"
Xie Yong'er had already slumped to the floor, hiccupping. "Who are you?"
Yu Wanyin crouched down to look at her, like a scammer working a phone line. "You don't even remember me?"
Xie Yong'er stared at the mask for a long moment, then seemed to understand. "You know my name. You must be the author of A Thousand Trees Bloom in the East Wind."
Yu Wanyin's heart jumped. This one had quite the imagination.
She played along. "That's right. Who would've guessed you'd transmigrate into my book and stir up such chaos..."
Xie Yong'er cut her off. "Are my parents doing well?"
"..."
"They're fine. Worry about yourself for once. Who would've guessed you'd stir up such chaos..."
Xie Yong'er interrupted again. "What rank did my idol end up placing?"
Yu Wanyin turned to glance at Xiahou Dan, hidden off to the side.
He mouthed silently, tell her what she wants to hear.
"First place," Yu Wanyin said.
There was a sharp crack as Xie Yong'er hurled her cup down, devastated. "Impossible! That garbage platform never plays fair! You're lying to me!"
Yu Wanyin thought, this woman is supposed to be a paper cutout, and yet her backstory seems awfully fleshed out.
She rallied and dropped her voice for authority. "To business. Who would've guessed you'd stir up such chaos, leading King Duan around by the nose and tangling up the entire plotline. How do you plan to answer for that?"
Xie Yong'er spat. "If I'd followed your plot, I'd have just been cannon fodder, dead before my time."
Yu Wanyin coaxed, "You shouldn't have leaked those failed candidates' names to King Duan. Sure, his protection kept them from injustice, but it also robbed them of the trials that would have tempered them. As the saying goes, when heaven means to bestow great responsibility on someone..."
Xie Yong'er exploded. "Lying author, you think I don't remember the original text? After Li Yunxi and Yang Duojie exposed that monster for cheating, they were bagged and beaten to death the moment they left the examination hall. Er Lan was discovered disguising herself as a man, humiliated, driven out of the capital, and killed herself in despair. And there's more..."
Yu Wanyin spun around and gestured frantically at Xiahou Dan: write it down, write it down!
He was already writing.
Xie Yong'er rattled off five or six names in one breath. "So much for great responsibility. They were just like me, cannon fodder you created on a whim and crushed on a whim. And we're not even allowed to fight back?"
But Yu Wanyin had stopped listening to her impassioned speech. She leaned close to Xiahou Dan, looked over the names he'd just recorded, and said with satisfaction, "That's them. Find these talents and we won't have to worry about the drought, the inflation, none of it. A thousand and eight hundred catties per mu of yellow millet."
Xie Yong'er sat where she was, shouting drunkenly. "Lying author? Nothing to say?"
"These ambitious scholars must hate the tyrant's guts," Xiahou Dan said, "otherwise King Duan wouldn't have poached them so easily. How to trick them into serving me before the exam even happens, I'll need to think that through."
Xie Yong'er looked around blearily. "Where'd she go?"
"I'm here!" Yu Wanyin called out perfunctorily, then leaned in to Xiahou Dan again. "I've been thinking. This is going to take your acting skills. And once you win their trust, you'll need to convince them to change their names too, otherwise the moment they enter court, Xie Yong'er, who already knows their real identities, will notice something's wrong."
"Lying, author, you've ruined my life," Xie Yong'er wailed, her voice cracking into sobs.
Yu Wanyin's head throbbed. "I'm coming, I'm coming."
She had no experience comforting drunks, so she crouched down and patted her shoulder, stroked her hair. "Don't cry. Things could be worse. Yu Wanyin, now that's who's really got it bad."
The more she was comforted, the more Xie Yong'er's grief swelled. She wailed even louder. "King Duan doesn't trust me at all, I'm nothing but a tool to him..."
She was crying so loudly Yu Wanyin worried the servants would hear, and reached out to cover her mouth, when Xie Yong'er slurred something.
In that instant, the blood in Yu Wanyin's veins ran cold.
She turned her head casually and glanced at Xiahou Dan.
He was still deep in thought over the names he'd just written, oblivious to the drama unfolding beside him.
Yu Wanyin's heart pounded like a drum. She leaned close to Xie Yong'er's ear. "What did you just say? Be a good girl, say it again."
"I said he doesn't trust me... hic... I taught him to slip aphrodisiac to the deputy commander, but I overheard him telling his strategist that he wanted to poison the man's horse instead..."
Xie Yong'er's advice to King Duan, to turn the imperial guard's Deputy Commander Zhao against his superior, came straight from Transmigration Into the Devil's Pampered Concubine. According to the original text, King Duan was supposed to follow her plan, use the aphrodisiac to knock the deputy commander unconscious, then lure him toward the commander's favorite concubine. Once the commander caught them together, it would sow permanent enmity between the two men. The deputy commander, a brainless fool, would then have no choice but to ally with King Duan to protect himself, murdering the commander and taking his place. By controlling the deputy commander, King Duan would control the imperial guard.
Yu Wanyin remembered the broad strokes of this scheme but not the finer details. Hearing Xie Yong'er describe it now, she recalled that yes, this was exactly what King Duan had done in the original text.
So then, why did Xu Yao's record describe an entirely different plan?
Once Xie Yong'er had finished raging drunk, she passed out cold.
Yu Wanyin and Xiahou Dan carried her to the imperial bed, one at the head and one at the feet, and rumpled the sheets and her robes to fake an aftermath scene.
"She drank that much of the mind-clouding drug, she won't remember a thing when she wakes up," Yu Wanyin said. "Scold her a bit when she does. Tell her fear drove her half mad, that she raved all night, something like that. She'll believe it."
"She won't believe it. If she went mad and I still didn't have her buried, that alone should look suspicious."
Yu Wanyin, feeling a little dizzy, waved a hand impatiently. "Then go do that other bit. You know, the one, 'Woman, no one has ever dared treat me this way before. You have caught my attention.'"
Xiahou Dan stared at her. "Are you serious?"
"Improvise... I'm exhausted, I'm heading out."
Yu Wanyin hurried back to the Consort's residence.
With shaking hands, she opened Xu Yao's book, holding onto a sliver of hope as she checked, and that last hope died. Xu Yao really had recorded it this way: "Invited Deputy Commander Zhao to drink, poisoned his horse, let the crazed animal trample the late emperor's ceremonial honor guard."
That honor guard had been a gift from the late emperor to King Duan, a reward for his military achievements, kept on permanent display in the courtyard of the King Duan's residence. Destroying an imperial gift was a far graver crime than "toying with a superior's concubine," more than enough to shatter Deputy Commander Zhao's nerve.
She closed the book and stared blankly at the flickering candle flame.
Why?
Why had King Duan deviated from the original script, no longer trusting Xie Yong'er, even revising a plan he should have carried out exactly as written?
She shook her head in disbelief, trying to shake off the mounting dizziness, and opened the book again, checking it line by line from the beginning.
This wasn't the only plan that had been altered.
The changes were all small details. Something that happened on Mid-Autumn night in the original had been delayed by a day. The location of an assassination against a certain official had been moved from one villa to another.
If not for tonight, she might never have noticed these shifts, and even if she had, she would have chalked it up to her own faulty memory.
If she hadn't gotten hold of Xu Yao's book, she would have kept steering Xiahou Dan according to the plot of Transmigration Into the Devil's Pampered Concubine, forever missing King Duan's schemes by the smallest of details, until it was too late to recover.
She realized she was shaking. She held her hands close to the candle to warm them, and they only trembled harder.
Why?
She'd thought she was always one step ahead of the enemy. How could King Duan predict her predictions?
Could it be that while she thought she stood on the highest tier, King Duan stood one level higher still, looking down on her with a smile?
Did he know everything?
In his eyes, was she just another paper cutout too?
Had his earlier feigned ignorance been nothing but a deliberate smokescreen to mislead her?
Would tonight's events be visible to him as well, laid out as clearly as reading a book?
And then, all he would need to do was shift one more date, one more location, and they would be nothing but mice batted around under a cat's paw once again.
Yu Wanyin slumped in her chair, feeling her whole body sinking, swallowed into a dark quagmire.
A hand landed on her shoulder.
It patted her gently. "What's wrong?"
Her eyes had gone glassy. "I'm finished. Game over. GG."
"Why do you say that?"
She ignored the question, muttering to herself. "Might as well wait to die, no point struggling. King Duan is the real person here. What are we? Just a few lines of Chinese characters, the kind that vanish the second someone hits delete..."
Xiahou Dan circled around to stand in front of her, brow furrowed as he studied her face.
The dose of the drug had finally caught up with her.
Perhaps it had reacted badly with something in the contraceptive tonic. Whatever the cause, the mind-clouding drug hit hard. A single sip and Yu Wanyin was lost in a fog, with no clear sense of where she was.
She heard a calm voice ask, "So, do you want to give up?"
"I..." She struggled to think, then brightened. "I still have one option. I could raise the white flag right now and go over to King Duan. You think he'd take me in?"
No answer came.
She remembered something else and slumped. "No, wait, he already knows everything. He doesn't need me at all."
Silence stretched on for a while.
Then the voice said, "Or maybe you could make him fall for you."
She laughed. "Steal back the female lead's script that's rightfully mine? Ha, no way. He's already got Xie Yong'er."
"Xie Yong'er is nothing compared to you."
"That's true," she agreed, with startling objectivity. "That idea of yours isn't completely unworkable, either."
Xiahou Dan watched her quietly. "So will you try it?"
"Hmm..." Yu Wanyin sank into thought.
A century seemed to pass before confusion crossed her face. "I don't think I'm all that keen on it, actually."
"Why not?"
"He's terrifying." She lowered her head. "He'd definitely play a few tricks and have me hopelessly in love with him in no time, giving him everything I've got, spending myself down to nothing, and finally throwing myself in front of him to take a blade, or an arrow, dying in his arms without a single regret."
She spread the wings of her imagination and worked herself to tears. "Then he'd shed a few tears, give me a proper burial, and go straight back to Xie Yong'er. That's just how men get ahead in life!"
Xiahou Dan reached out and wiped her tears away, moving with extreme slowness, extreme gentleness. "And what about Xiahou Dan?"
"Him? He wouldn't do that. He said so."
Earlier, once Yu Wanyin had risen to power, her whole family had risen with her.
Minister Yu had always been a colorless nobody at court, nominally part of King Duan's faction but sidelined even there. Watching Yu Wanyin's meteoric rise to Consort, the once-empty Yu residence suddenly buzzed with visitors, people who'd never bothered to look his way now coming to test the waters and offer their compliments.
After years of being invisible, a little flattery went to Minister Yu's head, and he began dreaming of promotions and titles. He cultivated connections with several powerful officials and, under the pretense of gambling, slipped them a few bribes.
He never imagined the Empress Dowager would catch him red-handed the very next day and have him dealt with on the spot.
Once he was demoted, the Yu residence emptied out again.
The household was drowning in sighs when a servant suddenly announced, "King Duan has arrived!"
Minister Yu was overwhelmed. Why would someone as exalted as King Duan lower himself to visit at a time like this? Could he still have some unexpected use for a disgraced minister?
Xiahou Bo kept up his gentle, cultured manner as he took the seat of honor. "How has Minister Yu been faring lately?"
Wiping his old eyes, Minister Yu said, "This humble official is well enough, only worried whether my daughter, the Consort, might lose favor because of this and suffer for it."
Xiahou Bo obligingly offered comfort. "I hear Consort Yu is clever and gracious, and holds His Majesty's deep favor. Next time I'm in the palace, I'll ask after her on your behalf."
Minister Yu thanked him profusely, waiting for what would come next.
But nothing came next. Xiahou Bo made pleasant conversation over a cup of tea, then took his polite leave. From beginning to end, Minister Yu never guessed the purpose behind this exalted visitor's call.
Once Xiahou Bo left the Yu residence, two shadows fell in behind him and followed him into his carriage.
"Did you find it?" he asked.
His subordinate presented a small slip of paper. "This is what we found in Yu Wanyin's bedchamber."
The paper held verses Yu Wanyin had copied out at home before entering the palace.
Xiahou Bo looked it over. His subordinate handed him another sheet. "And this was found in the library."
Once the fire in the imperial library had died down, King Duan had sent men in under the guise of firefighting, partly to confirm Xu Yao's death, partly to check whether any evidence near the body might implicate him.
His men had found nothing on Xu Yao, but they'd come away with a sheet of paper from Yu Wanyin's writing desk. The torn edges of the paper were scorched, a few scattered ink strokes still visible on it.
Xiahou Bo compared the two sheets and smiled faintly. "Do you see it?"
"...These two pieces of handwriting, they're really from the same person?"
Xiahou Bo tapped the papers. "Looks like it's time I paid her a visit."
Yu Wanyin opened her eyes, then closed them again, before flipping over abruptly and burying her face beneath the pillow.
She'd only had a small sip of the mind-clouding drug the night before, and she hadn't blacked out. If anything, she remembered every word of every conversation with perfect clarity.
King Duan might be standing on the highest tier. She had meant to investigate this quietly, without telling Xiahou Dan, and instead had told him herself, out loud: "I could raise the white flag and go over to him..."
Thank goodness she'd still declared her loyalty to Xiahou Dan by the end of it, or she'd probably already be six feet under.
But the way she'd declared it...
Yu Wanyin clamped the pillow over her ears like an ostrich burying its head.
After saying "he wouldn't do that, he said so," she'd blacked out completely and toppled straight into Xiahou Dan.
He hadn't said anything more. He'd carried her to bed, seemingly even pulled the blanket over her, then turned and walked out.
She had no idea how to face him now. Even she found it hard to believe what she'd said.
Since arriving in this world, she'd sworn to herself a thousand times over: trust no one, she couldn't afford it. No love-addled brain, no acting on impulse, no playing games with her own life. If the chosen protagonist died, this book would get cancelled. If she died, at most three pages would get cut.
So when exactly had she, without even realizing it, sold herself out?
Selling herself out was one thing. Letting him find out was another matter entirely. She might as well have waved a handkerchief at Xiahou Dan and announced: I'm a foolish pawn, come use me, why don't you.
This wasn't going to work.
"Miss?" Her maid Xiaomei called from beside the bed. "Time to get up. You're to pay respects to the Empress Dowager today."
While Yu Wanyin dressed, Xiaomei chattered beside her. "I heard a little palace maid was tortured under interrogation in His Majesty's bedchamber this morning, then dragged away. Something about slipping contraceptive drugs into the tea. Miss, are you all right?"
Yu Wanyin ran through the details of that teacup in her mind and pieced together what must have happened.
"It's fine. I only had a small sip. Consort Xie drank most of it."
Xiaomei paused, then said delicately, "She's Imperial Concubine Xie now."
"..."
Xiaomei's eyes went red. "How could His Majesty be so outrageous, having the two of you together in the same night, and then naming her a concubine on top of it! Your parents must be heartbroken, boohoo..."
Yu Wanyin remembered now. She was the one who'd told him to put on the whole domineering-CEO-falls-for-me act for Xie Yong'er.
Xiaomei was still fuming. "I heard she pretended to be frightened and refused again and again, and then His Majesty said, said he'd never met a woman quite like her before."
"..."
Xiahou Dan really had thrown himself into the role.
When the consorts came to pay their morning respects, he appeared again, and this time didn't spare Yu Wanyin so much as a glance, sitting directly beside Xie Yong'er instead.
Xie Yong'er shifted uncomfortably away from him, and he closed the gap right back.
When she offered him tea, he took the cup and made a point of brushing her hand.
Sitting off to the side, Yu Wanyin felt countless glances flick toward her, including the Empress Dowager's. She dipped her head, playing her part with grief that felt entirely convincing.
The Empress Dowager was privately calculating that she'd need to prepare a fresh batch of contraceptive tonic.
"The Flower Dawn Banquet is coming up soon," the Empress Dowager said. "Does the Emperor have any plans?"
"When the time comes, let's have Consort Xie perform a dance," Xiahou Dan said.
He narrowed his eyes at Xie Yong'er. "I've heard you play music, sing a song. But I haven't yet had the pleasure of your dancing."
Yu Wanyin thought, if she danced something like the Paradise number, could Xiahou Dan even keep a straight face?
Right at that moment he glanced at her, almost as if the same image had crossed his mind, the corner of his mouth twitching almost imperceptibly.
Yu Wanyin quickly looked away before she burst out laughing.
Whatever else was true, Xiahou Dan as a teammate was still far more reliable than King Duan.
He sat with them a while longer before leaving.
Once Xie Yong'er filed out with the other consorts, she noticed that An Xian hadn't left with the Emperor, and was waiting for her outside instead.
Seeing her emerge, An Xian smiled. "Imperial Concubine Xie, allow this servant to escort you back."
The Emperor's chief eunuch had thrown his lot in with Xie Yong'er.
More glances landed on Yu Wanyin. She smiled faintly, then walked off alone.
In the original text, this old eunuch had curried favor with Yu Wanyin, and when Xie Yong'er fell out of favor, he'd kicked her while she was down. Later, once Xie Yong'er won the palace struggle, he'd tried to fawn over her instead, and she'd had him thrown in prison for it.
Now that the "falling from favor" beat had never happened, Xie Yong'er held no grudge against him, and instead walked contentedly at his side.
She was, after all, the Devil's Pampered Concubine in the flesh. However much the favor itself annoyed her, she intended to make full use of it.
Why not use An Xian to eliminate a few thorns in her side first?
After they'd walked some distance, Xie Yong'er put on a pitiful look. "Would Eunuch An care to enlighten me? What exactly did His Majesty see in me?"
An Xian smiled. "His Majesty said that last night, seeing you so wild and unrestrained, he found a kind of vivid energy in you unlike any other consort. And this morning, the way you treated your new rank like dirt, so refreshingly innocent."
Xie Yong'er thought, "..."
So cheesy!
Yu Wanyin, paying no attention to that little drama unfolding behind her, wandered off alone toward the library.
The library was being rebuilt on its old foundation, the work moving at a crawl.
She watched the meticulous work of the craftsmen for a while, mulling over the matter of King Duan, when someone called out, "Consort Yu."
She turned. A man dressed as a craftsman had appeared at her side and, without a word, pressed something into her hand. "Please take this."
Baffled, she looked down to find a letter, no name on the envelope.
"This is..." She looked up, but the man had already vanished.
She walked to somewhere private and opened it. Only a handful of words inside: "Midnight, the imperial garden, behind the rockery."
The signature beneath it was a small drawing of a turtle.
The guards who usually patrolled the imperial garden seemed to have been sent elsewhere. Yu Wanyin carried no lantern, feeling her way forward by moonlight alone, until a warm voice drifted out from behind the rockery. "Wanyin."
Xiahou Bo was indeed waiting there, a figure in white beneath the moonlight, looking every bit like an exiled immortal.
Coming alone left her more than a little unsettled. She'd wanted to bring someone for safety, but whether it was Beizhou or one of the hidden guards, either one would surely report straight back to Xiahou Dan, so she'd had no choice but to slip out on her own.
She needed to know exactly which tier he stood on before she could decide her next move.
She took a deep breath, settled into character, and let a bashful expression rise to her face. "Your Highness, how forward of you, calling me like that."
Xiahou Bo only smiled, and said instead, "I ran into Minister Yu earlier today. He seemed quite worried about how you're faring in the palace."
Yu Wanyin sighed. "His Majesty named Xie Yong'er a concubine this morning."
At the name, she flicked a glance at Xiahou Bo, but in the dim light she couldn't read any change in his expression.
She decided to ask outright. "What does Your Highness think of Consort Xie?"
"She is His Majesty's consort. I wouldn't presume to comment."
"...And what about me?"
"You?" Xiahou Bo took a slow step closer. "Wanyin, we've known each other quite a while now. Isn't it time we spoke plainly about a few things?"
She feigned tenderness. "Such as?"
King Duan spoke just as tenderly. "Such as, who you really are."
Steady, Yu Wanyin told herself.
"And also," Xiahou Bo went on, "who the Emperor really is. Who Xie Yong'er really is."
She couldn't stop herself from stepping back.
Her worst suspicion had just been confirmed.
That he could see through Xie Yong'er, that might be because her love-addled tongue had slipped somewhere. That he could see through Yu Wanyin herself, perhaps she'd let something slip somewhere too. But seeing through Xiahou Dan, that master actor, there was no chance of that happening by accident.
He had to be standing on a higher tier.
Xiahou Bo smiled. "There's no need to look so tense. I've never meant you any harm. And since you too can foresee certain things, you should understand all the better that choosing me is the wise move."
"You... if you already know everything, what do you need from me?"
Xiahou Bo looked faintly puzzled. "You misunderstand. I didn't come here to learn anything from you. I came because I've grown fond of you."
She found the whole thing absurd. "We're not even the same species. How could you be fond of me?"
Xiahou Bo seemed to pause. "That doesn't get in the way."
"So you like me, the character?"
He smiled gently. "That's why I came looking for you from the very start."
A single candle burned low in the Emperor's bedchamber.
"Consort Yu went to the imperial garden," Beizhou said bluntly. "I followed and watched. She was meeting King Duan in private. I was too far to hear what was said, but the mood between them looked rather intimate."
Xiahou Dan said nothing.
Beizhou's tone turned worried. "Dan'er, if this person has already switched sides, wouldn't it be better to deal with her now? Uncle knows you're fond of her, but she shares your bed, and if her heart's turned traitor, that's far too dangerous to allow."
Xiahou Dan toyed with the candle flame with a fingertip, still saying nothing.
The hidden guard kneeling nearby spoke up smoothly. "Should this one handle it?"
Xiahou Dan finally said, slowly, "Have either of you considered, from her position, throwing in with King Duan is genuinely the safer bet?"
Beizhou looked confused. "Why? Haven't you already gotten hold of King Duan's plans?"
Xiahou Dan gave a bitter half smile.
The night before, Yu Wanyin had rushed off, her steps unsteady, fleeing back to the Consort's residence, and had discovered King Duan's secret. She hadn't meant to tell him at all. Only that cup of the mind-clouding drug had loosened her tongue enough to speak the truth.
She trusted him. But she was even more afraid of King Duan.
"Wanting to survive," he said, "that's only human."
Beizhou sighed. "You shouldn't let romantic feelings cloud your judgment... is that woman really so important?"
"She's my driftwood," Xiahou Dan said.
Beizhou and the hidden guard exchanged a look.
Driftwood? Since when had she become that?
The hidden guard, unused to conversations like this one, ventured cautiously, "Your Majesty, shall this one go bury him?"
"Say one more word," Xiahou Dan said, "and I'll bury you instead."
Yu Wanyin made her way back toward the Consort's residence, every step feeling heavier than the last.
Her thoughts had turned to mush, every plan, every ambition, even her entire sense of self, had shattered into countless fragments.
I can't play this game anymore. How am I supposed to keep going.
Maybe, when he read her as a book, King Duan genuinely liked her, the paper cutout of her. Strange as that sounded, it was undeniably good news for her. He'd already extended an olive branch, so why not defect early and show some sincerity while she was at it...
And yet, deep in her mind, a nagging sense of wrongness lingered.
Her steps slowed further and further, until she stopped entirely.
Something wasn't right.
Her fear-gripped brain forced itself to grind back into motion.
If Xiahou Bo really did stand on a higher tier, why would he ever let them see Xu Yao's book?
Going to the trouble of forging a book, deliberately letting them find it, to plant doubt about his own identity, what benefit could that possibly bring him?
If he wanted to defeat Xiahou Dan, the simplest approach would surely be to let them know nothing at all.
Why not just destroy the book outright?
Like a crack splitting open a sheet of ice, once that one question surfaced, more questions came flooding in behind it.
If he knew she was a transmigrator, why not say so plainly, instead of testing her again and again?
Tonight, when she'd said "we're not even the same species," had he paused for a beat?
...
Yu Wanyin started walking again, faster and faster.
There was another explanation for all of this. That King Duan was still just a paper cutout after all, but had somehow sensed that something was off, and guessed that they'd had their cores swapped out.
In his eyes, perhaps they looked something like demigods who'd opened a third eye, able to foresee the future and even uncover his secrets.
Which was why King Duan didn't trust her, didn't trust Xiahou Dan, and didn't trust Xie Yong'er either. To him, the three of them were of the same kind.
Judging from Xu Yao's book, every piece of advice Xie Yong'er had given him had been altered, at least in the details. Could this be a kind of test, to see exactly how far their foresight actually reached?
But he had no guarantee that revising the details would let him slip past their prescient eyes.
Which was why he needed to get close to her, to mislead her, to draw the truth out of her, and from there, turn her to his side...
But one more question remained. How exactly did a mere paper cutout come up with a concept as forward-thinking as "swapped cores" in the first place?
Even Xie Yong'er hadn't managed to identify anyone else like herself, and yet he had clearly suspected all three of them at once.
Could "extraordinary intelligence" alone really explain that?
Without more evidence, there was no way yet to know for certain which kind of person he really was.
Yu Wanyin turned the matter over and over, and at last made up her mind.