NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 22: Familiar
Two Days Earlier
“I’m not leaving.”
Samaya was in quite a bind.
She had dragged Ah-Liu along in order to protect her child from the very men escorting them and keep an eye on him when he was out of her sight. Until and unless she ensured Manu was safe within the Palace walls, she had kept Ah-Liu with her. If needed, Ah-Liu could take Manu away.
But there was no need for that now. They had a permanent residence inside the Palace. And while she knew that she and Manu were not completely safe, she knew Manu would be protected by the Emperor and she could handle whatever danger came her way. It was already bad that she was using this child’s gratitude to drag him along on such a dangerous journey where he could get captured and tortured or killed. It made her feel disgustingly similar to the TEA Board of Directors. She was not about to pull him into the heart of danger where he had no business being.
“Yes, you are.” She said after a moment of silence. “Your job here is done. Go back to QingHu and get some rest before getting back to your missions. Tell the brats to keep an eye out for anything strange and use the informing talisman if they do find anything.”
“I’ve already told them before leaving,” he replied immediately. “I’m staying.”
“And what exactly will you do by staying?”
“I’ll protect you and Manu!”
“I can protect myself and Manu. Plenty.”
“You can’t be everywhere all the time.”
“And you can? How?”
“Like I was until now!”
“That’s ridiculous!” She walks forward and grabs him by his arms. “The Palace is swarming with soldiers and martial artists. You will be caught eventually! Hiding in the shadows is not a long-term solution! May I remind you that the only reason we can talk like this is that I made Han Qin use the highest grade of insulating talismans in this room?”
“Well, then I won’t be in the shadows. I’ll stay by your side!”
“Again, how? How do you expect to enter the Palace and stay by my side in broad daylight?”
“You let me worry about that.”
She flicked him on the forehead. “You’re a hundred years too young to take that tone with me, you brat. You’re going back and that’s final. Do not,” she raised a hand when Ah-Liu opened his mouth, “argue with me. I’ll paralyze you and leave you at the local branch if I need to.”
He went quiet and rubbed his forehead. Samaya realized absently that she never really heard Ah-Liu talk this much. She could tell he was thinking about what to say next. She was touched, truly, that he cared for her enough to willingly walk into a lion’s jaw like that. But she couldn’t take advantage of him any more than she already had.
She ruffled his hair. “Listen to me, alright? Go back. I can take care of myself.”
“I know,” he said as he hung his head. “But I want to stay by your side and help you. You haven’t even entered the Palace and you already have enemies! You’d be all alone in there. You need someone by your side.”
She couldn’t really deny that. She had reviewed the meager information that Ah-Liu had been able to combine over the past week. Most of the concubines - and all of the powerful ones - came from noble families, with wealth, power, and politics at their backs. Samaya did have a fair amount of wealth but apart from that, there was nothing except her own wit and training. How far that would take her in a place saturated with politics, backstabbing and vicious competition for the attention of one man and a chance to put your own child on the throne… well, she didn’t know. She had no solid plan, except to ‘go in there, gauge and improvise.’ Scarily reminiscent of her first mission in this world.
“Nevertheless, you cannot,” she finally said. “I cannot let you…”
“Jiejie,” he interrupted her. Samaya paused. It had been a long time since Ah-Liu had called her ‘older sister’. “It’s been 4 years. 4 years, since you saved me from the village of vicious people who wanted to burn a child alive because he had dark qi. You took him away. You taught him that he wasn’t a monster. You gave him a chance to live again and control his powers instead of living in fear. That child is all grown now. And he is not about to let you go into that pit of poisonous snakes alone! I want to help you! And if you refuse, I will find a way to come back!”
He’s panting at the end of it. Samaya doubted he had ever talked so much in one breath. Ah-Liu was shy, to say the least. Stubborn, too.
Samaya sighed after a long moment. “Fine. But you sit down and tell me what you plan to do. If we are going to do this, we are going to do it right.”
His eyes lit up and he nodded. “I’ll listen to you. I promise I’ll get in and stay by your side.”
Present
A Eunuch.
They were the only males allowed in the harem except for the guards. But guards couldn’t have intimate conversations with the concubines. As far as she knew, the eunuchs did all the dirty work for the concubines. As much as she hated to admit it, that was in line with what Ah-Liu would be doing for her here.
He came forward and bowed to her. From the lack of reaction around her, she could tell he did not make a mistake.
“Greetings, Virtuous Lady Qing, I am Eunuch Liu, and I shall be serving you from now on.”
She nodded. “I will be in your care.”
There was a pause before she turned to the maids. “The rest of you are dismissed. I wish to talk to Eunuch Liu alone.”
They glanced at each other hesitantly. Once again, the oldest one took the lead. She bowed and ushered the rest of the maids out.
Manu, who had almost been vibrating behind her this entire time, rushed forward and pounced on Ah-Liu. “Brother!”
Ah-Liu caught him and hauled him up, making him giggle loudly.
Samaya sighed. “Keep it quiet, the two of you.”
“You came!” Manu exclaimed, completely ignoring her. This brat.
Ah-Liu nodded and used his free hand to ruffle the boy’s hair. He was back to being his quiet and un-troublesome self.
“Alright, that’s enough. Manu, you have to go to the classes the Emperor arranged for you.”
Manu let out a disagreeing whine.
“No. You’re the one who wanted to come here. Now, we have to play along with them. Go outside, and tell Lian to escort you to your lessons.”
Manu whined again but with a stern look from Samaya, he got off Ah-Liu with a grumble and ran off to find the head maid.
Once he was out of eyesight, Samaya turned to the boy. “Did you have any trouble getting in?”
He shook his head. “No. It wasn’t hard to add my name to the roster of junior Eunuchs. And when they asked who would volunteer for you, no one else moved forward. It was easier than I thought it would be.”
“You will have to be careful though,” she said as she sat down at the table. “The martial artists in the Palace have keen senses. You might be able to handle a majority of them. But I know there are also those who absolutely outmatch you. So, be careful. You find yourself in trouble, you run.”
Ah-Liu looked like he wanted to disagree. But one look from her and he acquiesced.
“Good. Now, let’s get into-”
“Wait,” he interrupted her. “I have to tell you something. I found Hualin here.”
For the first time, she’s surprised. “She managed to get to the Capital? Where is she?”
“The Purple Pavillion.”
That was the biggest and most famous brothel in the Capital. They served elite customers, aka, nobles and people with enough money. They also had a reputation for having the best services, well-trained hosts, and a good environment welcoming to all ‘reputed’ persons. It’s the establishment where the ‘good people’ went. Which was good. It means that they didn’t actively abuse their workers, at the very least.
“How is she?”
“She’s doing well.”
Samaya slumped a bit. “That’s good,” she sighed in relief.
Hualin was one of the children she had saved from slavers. She and her little brother of 10 had been sold to the black market by their shitty father. Samaya had saved them and had offered to find them a safe place. She had refused and asked her to take care of her little brother. She’d been seventeen at the time, more than old enough to make such decisions, and definitely an adult in this world. Samaya hadn’t asked her for a reason or stopped her and she had since wondered if she should have. It was good to know that Hualin was in a relatively safe place.
“She’s called Bai Yue here,” Ah-Liu informed her, making her smile. White moon. It suited her. Hualin was fair and beautiful even when she had been clothed in rags and covered in mud.
“That means she’s good enough to have a pseudonym,” Samaya observed. “That’s good. Tell her to keep an ear out for anything that might be related to the new Prince and his mother.”
Perhaps, Samaya was no better than the Directors, after all, given that her first thought after finding out about the child was how she could use her. But, in this situation, she could use anything she could get.
“Now, let’s get into what you have to do here.”
They spoke in hushed tones, as Samaya detailed what information Ah-Liu must gather inside the Palace.
In the meantime, the new Prince entered his first lesson, to be met with a familiar face.
