[Young Master Xian]—❈—64:: unnamed

I wake to a barely familiar ceiling.

Beneath me is a comfortable bed, covered in sheets that I’m sure has a thread count higher than some wages.

Seated beside the bed is a person, and my qi sense lets me know it’s Xiuying without needing to look.

“You know, you pass out a lot,” she says, moving to sit on the bed right next to me.

I turn to her.

Her eyes are bright with relief and happiness, a strange tenderness in them as she looks down at me.

I smile. “It’s an excuse to stay in bed all day,” I say.

“Ah, so that’s your game,” she says, playing along.

My smile widens. “That’s right,” I say. “All just an excuse to nap for a day or two.”

“A day or two?” she asks. “Well, you must have been trying to beat your personal record, because it’s been three weeks.”

“What!?” I sit up so fast that Xiuying’s eyes can’t track me. “Three weeks!?” I ask, barely restraining my volume from a shriek.

It takes me a moment to spot the expression of mischief on her face, and a moment more to comprehend it.

I scowl at her and she laughs.

“You’re mean,” I say.

“So people say,” she replies, smile showing teeth, though in a way that looks goofy more than the scary look she was probably going for.

I laugh at the expression, and we both just settle into the moment of levity and smile at each other for a moment.

It hits me suddenly that our faces are rather close. When I sat up earlier, I put myself all the way into her personal space without thinking.

God, my breath must be atrocious.

I lean back, resting on my elbows.

“So, how long has it actually been?” I ask.

“Almost two days exactly,” she says. “It’s about midday now.”

The whole thing with The Empress had happened in the afternoon.

Two days. Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.

Just more proof that, bad as this was, it really didn’t come close to the Wild Qi damage.

“You’re okay, right?” Xiuying asks. “Your soul, your cultivation, everything’s fine, right? You’re sure?”

The worry in her eyes is clear as day.

I reach out and take one of her hands and give it a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

“I’m fine,” I say. “Sunny and I fixed everything. Actually, at this point, he’s gotten so good at it that we barely even had to do much. My soul practically fixes itself now.”

Xiuying looks like she wants to doubt that, but then she remembers who exactly she’s talking to.

“Your bullshit has gotten beyond ridiculous, at this point,” she says.

I chuckle. “That’s me, bullshit man.”

“Bullshit man? What the fuck kind of name is that? Makes it sound like you go around flinging bull faeces at people.”

I snort at the image, and we share a laugh.

I realize that I’m still holding her hand from earlier. I let go.

“Where’s Meng Yi?” I ask, and Xiuying’s eyes brighten in a way that tells me she’s looking forward to my reaction of her next words.

“She’s training,” she says, then pauses for effect before adding: “With your mother.”

“My what? Is she okay? What is my mother training her to do?”

“You remember that thing she said about Meng Yi needing to learn to keep people from following her into her soul?”

I nod.

“The Matriarch called Yi for their first lesson today,” she says.

“I see,” I say.

To be honest, I don’t know why I’m so worried. It’s a lesson, for Heaven’s sake. A useful one too. It isn’t like my mother will hurt Meng Yi without reason.

Right?

“You’re really worried about this,” Xiuying says, looking like the amount of worry I’m showing is too much for her to enjoy. “You know you don’t need to be, right?”

“Yeah? Why?” I ask, though not snidely. I think.

“You know why,” she says. “Your mother isn’t going to poison her relationship with you. She wouldn’t before, and she sure as shit isn’t going to now.”

“Right,” I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I suppose resisting a Domain Realm’s subjugation technique has simply upped my value.”

“You can say that again,” Xiuying says with a certain tone, and when I look at her, she elaborates. “She was smiling. When we left The Imperial Palace.

“She had your head on her lap, and you were bleeding from your ears and eyes, and she was just... smiling.”

Xiuying looks freaked out.

And with the image she just painted of my mother, I’m sure I do too.

“I mean, we were all pretty sure that you would be fine,” Xiuying says. “After everything we’ve seen you pull off, but even so... the expression, it was...”

“Creepy? Disturbing? Insane?” I finish for her.

Xiuying looks at me for a long moment, unable, or at least unwilling, to openly disrespect the Matriarch of the family she’s sworn herself to.

It’s moments like these that make me wish I hadn’t made Xiuying my servant. Because, as loose as I’d made the restrictions of that contract, I’d still bound her. Shackled her.

Unfortunately, the alternative means having Xiuying be a jobless, penniless (by cultivator standards), no name, with a passable cultivation she definitely can’t afford, and none of the legal protections and social status that comes with being a favoured servant of a Great Family.

“Regardless of how you describe her,” Xiuying says finally, “what is clear is that your value to her has only gone up since we got here. So she isn’t going to hurt Yi. Or me.”

“As long as I obey like a good boy,” I remind her.

“Yeah,” Xiuying agrees. “As long as you obey.”

And neither of us can quite bring ourselves to voice what will happen if I don’t obey.

I sigh and sit up fully again.

Noticing my intentions, Xiuying rises, getting out of the way and giving me the space to stand too.

“I need a bath,” I say, stretching more out of reflex than anything. One of the advantages of a cultivation at my level is that my body is well-oiled machine that would make an Olympic gymnast from Earth weep with envy.

I begin to walk away when I notice a strange expression on Xiuying’s face. The woman looks a little nervous and more than a little red.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Um…” she sucks in a deep, steadying breath, “the bath thing. How does that work? What do I need to…?” she peters out.

My eyes widen as she speaks, and I suspect my face is now as red as hers. “Uh, no, we’re not doing that,” I say. “You just sit here, and I’ll go do my thing.”

Leaving a relieved looking Xiuying behind, I rush into the attached bathroom, itself as big as some bedrooms.

You know, maybe it’s time the bathing with Meng Yi thing ends. I know she’d done it for douche Qigang because he enjoyed being bathed by attractive servants, and Meng Yi took on the role to protect the manor’s servants from needing to endure his… affections. Then she’d done it for me because she wanted to keep suspicions about my identity low by keeping as many things as possible the same, but it isn’t really necessary anymore, is it?

If anything, it just gives her extra work.

Whatever, I’ll think about it later, for now I need to find the shampoo.

I suspect it’s because of my wealth, but the plumbing available to me in this world is much like it is on Earth; indoor plumbing, running taps with hot water, the whole package.

In light of this, the whole bathing experience is stress-free, as opposed to if say there were a bathtub that needs to be filled and emptied by hand. The only part of it that ends up being some trouble is the hip-length hair I have to tend to.

After my bath, I sit at my mirror, and Xiuying does her best to help me get my hair in order.

The problem is, between the both of us, we know as much about caring for such long hair as a bald pig might, so the only thing we end up making any progress on is getting frustrated.

Half an hour in, and I’m genuinely beginning to consider taking a pair of scissors to the hair, when two familiar signatures enter my range.

“Meng Yi’s back,” I say.

Xiuying sighs.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“I can’t even do your fucking hair when she’s not around,” she says.

Oh. I hadn’t known it bothered her that much.

“Well, it’s an easy problem to solve,” I say. “You can just ask her to teach you how to care for it. Or I can cut the stupid thing.”

Xiuying has a complicated expression on her face. “It’s not about the hair, Qigang,” she says.

“I know,” I reply. “But like I said, she can teach you what you need to know, and I can make the things that I can easier for you. All it will take is some time, just be patient with yourself and put in the work. You’ll get there.”

Xiuying nods after a quiet moment. “Thanks. This doesn’t fix your hair though.”

I take my long hair and wrap it around my left arm like a pet snake. “There,” I say. “Good to go.” And with that I head out to meet my mother and manager.

Meng Yi walks alongside the carriage as it comes to a stop before me.

Her eyes take me in, noting the hair wrapped around my left arm with a pained expression before moving to my face.

I smile. “Hey.”

“Good afternoon, Young Master.” She bows formally. “Glad to see your health has improved.”

“Yeah, it has. Thanks. So, I hear you’ve been training with my mother. How was it?” The question is a loaded one.

Despite everything Xiuying said, I still can’t shake the feeling that my mother might be up to something here.

Something that may not entirely be in Meng Yi’s best interest.

Meng Yi can see my worry clearly, because she holds my gaze as she says, “It was pleasant. Enlightening.”

Uh-huh. “Good to know,” I say.

The curtain over the window of the carriage slides aside, revealing my mother’s face.

She takes me in, gaze stopping with a quirked eyebrow at the sight of my hair, before continuing.

You know, maybe I should wear my hair like this all the time now. After all, I’m a genius now, right? Rich too. I can afford to be eccentric.

Mother gestures for me to approach the carriage, and when I do, the door opens.

I climb in.

“Good afternoon, Mother,” I say. “Are we going somewhere?”

“The Empress has offered an apology for her uncouth behaviour towards you,” she says without preamble. “She has offered the family one favour as restitution.”

My eyes damn near bug out. A favour from The Empress? Holy shit. Looks like using her subjugation technique on me was an even bigger faux pas than I thought.

Makes sense though. The Great Families sure as all hell would not want a situation where The Empress thinks she’s untouchable. Because she isn’t.

She’s powerful, true, a monster in human skin, but all Fifty Great Families have monsters too.

I’m sitting next to ours.

“I’m guessing I won’t be the one to pick what this favour will be,” I say, not even bothering to frame it as a question.

Mother still answers. “No. If a reward is what you’re after, The Empress is giving you one for your help with the Wild Qi storm. There is a banquet in your honour being held at the palace in five days. You will be rewarded with a divine rank Ironwood Berry at it.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“An elder plant,” Mother says. “Boosts the constitution of your body and meridians.”

“By how much?” I ask.

“At divine rank, two, maybe three times,” she says.

I swallow. Oh, wow, that’s a lot.

It may not sound like a lot, but it is. It really is. Improved body constitution means you’re harder to hurt and quicker to heal, and improved meridian constitution means you can cultivate for longer and better withstand the strain of higher rank techniques.

“What about Meng Yi and Xiuying?” I ask. “I couldn’t have done it without them. They should be rewarded too.”

“They will be,” Mother says. “They’ll get noble rank Ironwood Berries.”

“Why not divine rank?” I ask.

“Don’t push it, Qigang,” Mother says.

She’s right, getting that much for them both is a lot. As a matter of fact, Mother almost definitely had a role to play in their even being considered in the first place.

I should just take the win.

Taking my silence for acquiescence, Mother continues, “You and your servants will be getting etiquette lessons over the next few days, so you don’t embarrass yourselves. I’ll see you at the first one tomorrow. Any questions?”

“Yes. What’s going on between you and The Empress?” I ask.

Back then, in the heat of the moment, I hadn’t had the opportunity to duel on it, but in hindsight, The Empress had seemed unnaturally antagonistic towards Mother.

What was that thing she’d even said? Right: ‘…that gutter rat mother of yours with ambitions too big for her ability.’

There is clearly some sort of story between this two, and, seeing as I’ve been thrown smackdab in the middle of it, I’d like to know what it is.

“Empress Feng Lingxian was never the most talented of her siblings, that was her older sister, Feng Mi,” Mother says. “Feng Mi died before their father however, leaving Lingxian as the only other option as heir.”

“And um… how ‘accidental’—” I add the air-quotes “—was Feng Mi’s death?” I ask.

“If it was an assassination, then Feng Lingxian got death itself to wield the blade, because no evidence ever connected to her,” Mother says. “Though personally, I suspect it was simply luck.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” she says. “You are living proof that nothing is ever truly impossible.”

I suppose she’s got me there.

“What does this have to do with you though?” I ask.

My mother is ancient, but I don’t think she was even a concept when Feng Lingxian became empress.

Mother looks at me. “Qigang, currently I sit at the peak of Mirage, the first phase of Domain Realm. And when I advance to the second in the next few years, I will be one of five recorded cultivators to have crossed that threshold before two hundred and fifty years of age.

“Feng Lingxian, on the other hand, is an aging, bottlenecked cultivator whose most promising heir is a fourteen-year-old.”

I feel a chill crawl across my skin. “You want the throne,” I say.

Mother smiles. “Her Divine Majesty Xian Qi. Has quite a ring to it, no?” she asks playfully.

I don’t laugh.

Turning serious, Mother says, “But it doesn’t matter whether I want the throne or not. What matters is that, if I were to make a move for it, there are several of The Great Families that will stand with me. Maybe even more than would stand with her. And this is the reality Feng Lingxian lives with.”

Mother makes a gesture of dismissal then.

“Go spend the day,” she says. “Your lessons begin tomorrow.”

I exit the carriage woodenly, and watch as it pulls away.

“Qigang, what’s wrong?” Meng Yi asks, she and Xiuying looking at me with some worry.

I swallow. “Well, I just found out that my mother either wants the throne, or she doesn’t, and it doesn’t matter because The Empress thinks she does.”

Both women stare at me silently for several seconds, then Xiuying sums it perfectly into a single word.

“Fuck!”

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Thanks for reading. And a big thank you to everyone who's bought/borrowed/reviewed book one on Amazon.

Take care.