Chapter 2.3

"His Majesty has bestowed a marriage with Scholar Feng Lian upon you. Do you accept?"

Those were the first words Ling Xia heard after gaining consciousness. Startled, he barely had enough time to understand his circumstances before he searched for an appropriate response.

He was on his knees, arms held in front of his chest and head bowed in deference. Pellets of rain pounded against the roof over his head, and lightning struck. At the thunder following, the eunuch that had informed Ling Xia of his fate flinched, but Ling Xia stayed absorbed in his thoughts.

The eunuch grew impatient. "Do. You. Accept?" he repeated, a punch to each of his words.

Ling Xia started, his head slightly raising. He lowered it once more. "Yes. This subject thanks His Majesty for his generosity." He kowtowed, knocking his head on the ground thrice. There was nothing else Ling Xia could do about his sudden engagement with a man. The emperor had decreed it so.

A fake smile crossed his face as he rose to his feet, his knees wobbly from prolonged contact with the hard floor. "Chen Er."

A small girl near him snapped to attention. "Yes, Young Master?"

"Prepare a room for our guest. We can't have him travelling in the pouring rain." His calculating eyes turned cold.

A sudden shiver racked the eunuch's body. Hospitality was not the cause of this ominous invitation. A realization crossed his mind; He had provoked the wrong person tonight.

"Yes, young master." The maid scurried off.

Ling Xia's eyes met the eunuch's once more, like lasers cutting straight through his defenses. "Yao Ze, was it?"

A spark of astonishment flashed through the eunuch's eyes before they narrowed into tiny slits of accusation while his fists clenched, nails digging deep into his skin as he restrained himself. "How dare you disrespect His Majesty?! You shall call me by the name His Majesty has given me and nothing else!"

Ling Xia acted as if he never heard this protest. "I've heard of you. You were a scholar that passed the civil service exam with flying colors." Yao Ze was taken aback. His anger dissipated. He never expected that somebody would remember the glory he had had in his heyday. A hint of pride showed itself.

Nevertheless, he had a duty to uphold in front of all prying eyes. "What is the meaning of this?"

"But," Ling Xia continued unflinchingly, "you were too ambitious. His Majesty took away all your influence, cut off all your paths to gain power by forcing you to become a eunuch. Don't you want to get back at him at all?"

At once, the eunuch's heart leaped. He lowered his voice, hissing, "Are you an idiot? Why would you say that here? Haven't you been taught that the walls have ears?"

"Don't worry. You can relax your guard here. There's nobody in proximity. Father would never leave guards for his most useless son."

A chillingly genial smile crossed his face. "Why don't we talk over dinner?" Yao Ze opened his mouth, about to refuse the sudden invitation, but paused. It was a command, not a request, he belatedly realized.

Hesitation arose. Could he risk offending this person? Those smart enough to survive in the palace knew that rumours were untrustworthy. People should be taken at face value and nothing less. No matter what he had heard about this man before, it all had to be thrown in the dumpster before truly meeting him.

No, he decided. It wasn't worth it.

He nodded and obediently followed Ling Xia to a small circular table. He took the seat nearest to the already set food. He surveyed the food. "You do not dine with your family?" he asked purely out of curiosity and utter surprise.

Ling Xia had already picked up his spoon when Yao Ze looked up. He scoffed mid-motion. "As if. You know that I am the most mediocre of my father's three sons. He couldn't care less about me."

"But you are the eldest! You are his heir!" Yao Ze knew that Ling Xia was treated badly; that was why he thought he could drop in some arrogance when talking to him. Utter apathy towards a son, his heir, no less, was on another level though.

"Heh. A puppet tied to dozens of strings at most." Ling Xia swallowed a spoonful of soup.

Yao Ze picked up his chopsticks across from him. Between the two sticks was a small piece of braised lotus root. He placed it in his mouth, a sticky sweetness exploding on his tongue. Despite the obvious tastiness of the tender yet crunchy vegetable, he frowned.

It was cold. How long had the food been left here?

He glanced up to see Ling Xia swallow a small bite of chicken, unfazed by the horrible treatment he was receiving. "What do you wish to speak to me about?" Yao Ze inquired politely after awkwardly accepting his circumstances. Even serving in the palace, he had never been subject to this.

"Let's work together." Yao Ze opened his mouth, about to retort, but Ling Xia held up a hand calmly. "His Majesty has stripped me of my power just like he did to you. And he did it in the most disgraceful way possible." Ling Xia put on an expression of disgust.

"Now I'm marrying a man just so my family line will not be continued. My father will lose his power, and with that, I will too. My family will soon fade out just as legends are forgotten with time.

"And you… You became a eunuch. Your family line will also end." Ling Xia risked a glance down to the area between Yao Ze's legs which was luckily blocked by the table. He was extremely uncomfortable under his serene facade.

He directed his gaze back to his food. Taking another bite of cold chicken, he continued, subconsciously dropping the emperor's title.

"We both know that the emperor only did this because his reign is unstable. He rose to power too quickly, and now he has to pay for it with fewer connections and less loyalty. He demoted you to a eunuch because he knew that you could use your smarts to gain legions of followers. After his advisor died, he married off Feng Lian to me to keep my father from gaining too much influence."

He shrugged. "We're the same."

"I don't understand how this is relevant." Yao Ze commented, indifferent. It seemed they were both putting on airs.

Ling Xia paused his process of eating to explain further even though he knew he didn't need to. The eunuch was acting oblivious for a reason, perhaps to scout out the danger. "I'm not saying that we should band together and overthrow the emperor. I simply propose that we protect each other. As we are kindred spirits."

"And what makes you think that I can protect you?"

"Clearly, the emperor has placed more trust in you. He sent you here to relay his imperial edict."

"To a person he finds to be an incompetent fool."

"And you live in the palace. You must have some knowledge of the emperor's decisions before they occur."

"Have we not established that I am not a trustworthy man?"

"Any man directly under the emperor is privy to important information."

"Then why should I expect you to protect me?"

"Well, only the smart ones know how to amass power in the shadows."

"And what is said power?"

"Feng Lian."

"He is your ally?"

"No. But he is the emperor's ally."

"You wish to steal valuable intel from him." It was not a question, but a statement—the first following a long line of inquiries as Yao Ze understood Ling Xia's intentions. Ling Xia's lips curved into a smile.

Yao Ze popped a last spoonful of soup into his mouth. "You are smart, but I don't expect you to know the real reason His Majesty made me a eunuch. I believe that is the greatest barrier between our cooperation." He stood from his seat then, bowing and asking for his leave.

"The emperor protects his own," Ling Xia stated while Yao Ze was walking away. He froze. A quiet snicker left Ling Xia's lips. It took a bit of reasoning out, but he knew the circumstances were far too eerie to come to any other conclusion.

"That is a secret only known to a few. How have you come across it?" Yao Ze asked, the strain in his voice clear.

A few moments of silence between the two told Yao Ze that he wouldn't be receiving an answer. He whipped around. "I'll work with you if you tell me."

Ling Xia shrugged. "It was a hunch. I hope you'll tell me the rest of the story during our cooperation."

Yao Ze's eyebrows knitted together. He clearly would not be getting any more information. "I hope so as well." And he hoped that he would get the full story too. "I will retire for the night, Young Master Ling."

"Sleep well, Yao Ze."

…

Ling Xia relaxed during his bath. Hot water surrounded him, warming him. He let himself sink into the water before resurfacing for air. He breathed a sigh of relief.

His head tilted back with the weight of his long wet hair. It reached his waist, something that was common in worlds like this, but not in the real world. It gave him a sense of unfamiliarity and nostalgia.

The maids had already entered and washed him, which was uncomfortable in ways he could never explain, especially with their flirting hands and hot gazes that reflected their desire for a higher social standing, but he bore through it. His bath should have been over earlier, but he had stayed in the water, letting it comfort him.

Moments later, he rose, water splashing out of the wooden barrel that barely contained himself. Stepping out of the barrel, wiping himself down, and wrapping his white inner robes around himself, he headed to bed. As he laid in it, damp hair somewhat chilly, he thought back.

It was a stress-inducing day. It was not so much the fact that he had to negotiate with Yao Ze as his need for a rushed scan of his new host's memories that brought his heart strain.

In the real world, he had not had a good day either. As soon as he had woken up, gotten ready, and eaten, he was ushered into the system with no prior notice. He had no time to talk to his friends, nothing. The only thing that he was informed of was that Yang Lizhen and Wei Liqin had worked all night to modify the device that helped him rescue soldiers.

He now didn't have to die to leave the system. Instead, all he had to do was press a button. He could also see how many trapped soldiers there were in each of the worlds he was in. There was one in this world.

It was a weird world, this one. Not set in 'modern' times like usual, but instead set in 'ancient' times where the dragon emperor was the Son of Heaven, and women had to bind their feet to be attractive.

But it was still normal compared to worlds in 'interstellar' times, which were set in the vastness of space where science was as advanced as in the real world, except for human biology didn't make sense.

Being in a world in ancient times was so common, in fact, that on the first day back, the rest of the soldiers and him jokingly categorized different time periods into dynasties, namely the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. From the host's memories, he immediately deduced that he was in the Song dynasty.

The host's name was Liu Zhaoning. He had been, just like Yao Ze had explained, an incompetent fool. Being born into a family that somehow kept its power from the previous Tang dynasty, his wits should have been guaranteed, but it had seemed all of the cunning went to his two younger brothers.

That was why his father had favored them heavily. It was a well-known fact in the Liu household that Liu Zhaoning had not been well-liked by his father. The servants had served him with their noses turned up. When the time came for his second brother to kill him so he could be their father's heir, nobody had hesitated to betray Liu Zhaoning and act as if they had never seen the murder.

So his second brother had slipped away with no charges.

If there was anything Liu Zhaoning had been known for other than being a fool, it would be that he had been smitten with a girl named Gao Bing who was also the fate of this world.

From the world's memories, Ling Xia had gotten a lot of information about her.

She had grown up with Liu Zhaoning, and they had been a happy pair, even engaged until Liu Zhaoning had been forced to marry Feng Lian. However, everybody knew that Liu Zhaoning's love had been unrequited. The person Gao Bing had really loved was a playboy by the name of Zhu Hao.

She had worked extremely hard to get his attention, even killing many girls that he slept with, but to no avail. Zhu Hao had remained as oblivious as ever. Or maybe he had intentionally ignored her–Ling Xia couldn't tell.

It was only when Liu Zhaoning had married Feng Lian that things had changed. She could then up her advances. Through a fluke, they had been forced to marry, at which point Gao Bing's personality had seemed to change overnight. Ling Xia speculated it was the same situation as with Mu Ninghua; a new soul had possessed Gao Bing's body.

For a while, she and Zhu Hao had hated, no, despised each other. They had scrunched their noses up in disgust when they passed by each other and left each other to their own devices. A few trials and tribulations later, they had fallen in love, but they had been too scared to confess lest the other up and leave. Eventually, they had done so with the help of their ever-supportive friends, and they had lived happily ever after.

Ling Xia finally finished filtering through all the memories he had received to find the important ones. He now had a clear understanding of how this world worked.

Deciding to let his mind rest after having to sort through so many memories, he let his mind drift to sleep after finding a comfortable position.

His mind was on the brink of entering the dreamland when a loud shout outside his room startled him into full alertness. "Liu Zhaoning!"

He sat up abruptly.

The doors burst open, a male servant barging in with arrogance upon his face. "Master Liu is calling for you! You have one incense stick's time to get there." He turned and left, not another word dropped from his lips.

Ling Xia sighed. He did a quick calculation in his mind. He had ten minutes to get ready and five to walk, then.

He clothed himself quickly and walked out, footsteps deliberately softened. Something about the night made a human's desire for the quiet rise. He offhandedly wondered why that servant hadn't felt the same.