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rainbowfic2024-04-18 01:48 pm
ilthit) wrote in rainbowfic2024-04-18 01:48 pm
Electric Sky #5: Homecoming (Lin Moniao Series)
Name: Homecoming
Story: Lin Moniao Series (AO3 link)
Colors: Electric Sky #5 (Knowledge of Self)
Supplies and Styles: gesso, nubs; chiaroscuro, interactive art, life drawing, portrait, silhouette
Word Count: 5,195
Rating: teen
Warnings: Mind games, messy polyamory, minor self-loathing, ghosts, (long past) murder, dead bodies, mention of prostitution.
Summary: Shen Shanwei is keeping house for Master Wu alone, but not for long, as Lin Moniao and Mu Liqiang return from their separate adventures.
Note: Co-written withminutia_r . This is a scene (a few in sequence, actually) between the events of Chasing the Bat and Mid-Autumn Festival that ended up not being included in either. Also available on AO3 here (specific chapter link as it was collected with other extra stories under one AO3 work), with some more notes and art. I have chosen to also include The Mystery of Liu Manor, which was collected separately on AO3, since it follows directly after.
*
The road leading up to the gates of Kaifeng is packed and bottle-necked as the last of the day's travelers push to get in and out before the gates are closed. The two carriages of Xie Lijuan's retinue don't even try to join the throng, but slow down and stop at a crossroads within sight of the city, where the other road leads west towards the countryside and Immortal Sword Manor.
Shi Jia hops off the back of the doctors' carriage just as Heng Wanxue climbs out of Xie Lijuan's, her expression stormy and her mouth tight.
Lin Moniao had tried to keep Xie Lijuan's attention on himself, so that neither of his friends would be called upon to ride with her unless they wished to. It's usually not so hard for him to maintain a woman's interest! But the Heartless Dagger, it seems, is easily bored. She had insisted on other company. Heng Wanxue had insisted on bearing part of the burden of her gaze. It has had a cost.
"Wanxue!" Shi Jia takes her hands as she comes back to them, distressed. Unlike her, he had hesitated when Xie Lijuan had requested one of them. He therefore feels partly responsible for whatever she has endured.
"I'm fine," Wanxue snaps. "She's just so--so--she had no right."
Shi Jia makes hushing noises. They are still surrounded by Xie Lijuan's people. In fact, one of the disciples on horseback is laughing softly at them.
Following Shi Jia out of the carriage, Lin Moniao wraps an arm around Heng Wanxue's shoulders and pulls her against him. "I think you're wonderful, anyway."
"Hmph." She burrows her head into his shoulder.
The drivers are gathering up their reins. Qing Yun, Xie Lijuan's pretty favourite disciple, rides up to them, her horse's hooves striking up dirt. "Aren't you all lucky! Not only do you get a free ride, but all three of you get home with your skins intact!" There's a scatter of laughter. "Tell your master the Asura Trident will be delivered to his house in Kaifeng, as agreed, as soon as the message reaches Xie Manor."
Reluctantly, Lin Moniao disentangles himself from Heng Wanxue so he can put his hands together and bow. "Tell your master that we are very much obliged to her."
Qing Yun nods and hurries her horse on with no further goodbye. The carriages wheels turn, and the procession rumbles past toward the west.
--
Master Wu's empty house is quiet and dark in the evening glow. Even Qi Lian's bed in the servants' quarters is unoccupied, as she has gone back to her son-in-law's house for the night. There is no point in lighting more than one lamp, and Shen Shanwei, conscious of economy, snuffed even that when he stepped into the inner courtyard.
With the sun still clinging to the horizon, the shadows are dark and long, and it's as if his feet are stepping in and out of black, three-dimensional pools of ink as he dances. Yes, he could be practicing taolu, but he could do that anytime. He's alone, and there is space, and he can go the whole distance of a stage instead of cutting up the performance into parts that fit into the space of a small room.
It's a useless practice, when he never intends to go back on stage, even if they wanted someone so rusty--how stupid would that be?--and while Shen Shanwei considers himself rational--he needs this. It links his life in a chain all the way back to his childhood in a way nothing else does. Besides, after two days straight of sitting in meditation, it is serving to wake up his muscles and bring him back into his body.
See? That is rational.
Everything seemed so much easier in meditation. Exhaustion disappeared, anger and resentment faded, even the lies piled on lies his life was constructed on seemed unimportant. Touching the Tao, there was only the natural way, and everything was clear and simple. But already he is turning back into Shen Shanwei, and though some of the contemplative calm and focus remains, he is thinking again.
His feet strike sand and stop. What was that? A knock on the door. And now the bell. He looks around at the shadows, feeling caught, his heart pounding. But of course, there is no one else there.
He grabs the lamp, though he does not relight it, and rushes quietly to the door. The peephole is covered in dark cloth--without light inside, whoever is out there will not know he is being watched. He peers through, frowns, looks again, and backs slowly off.
He doesn't bother with an outer robe, but goes to get his dagger, and digs out and uncorks a bottle of concentrated sleep potion to wet it with before hanging it on his belt. The key to the house goes in a hidden pocket inside the waistband of his trousers. Then he pulls himself up on the roof from the yard and pads softly along the beam to the front. Inside the house, the bell rings again.
Shen Shanwei drops himself down on to the street, right next to the caller. "Who are you?" he asks as he straightens up.
"Shen-shixiong." The man recovers from his surprise quickly and links his hands together in a bow. "You don't recognize me?"
"I know who you look like," Shen Shanwei says slowly, his hand on the hilt of his dagger. "But I've met Mu Liqiang. You're not him."
"It really is me," would-be-Mu-shidi says, his eyes growing moist. "My body... I had a qi deviation."
Well, that would be a handy explanation if he was an impostor. Shen Shanwei's eyes travel up and down the man's body. His middle is thicker than Mu Liqiang's, he's grown taller, his back is broader, and even in the half-light Shanwei can see thicker hair growing on the backs of his hands and stubble struggling to reassert itself on his chin. If this is Mu Liqiang, it's Mu Liqiang after a second puberty. Also, what happened to trying to contain his hair? It's running loose down his back now, curling ostentatiously, held back from his face with a pin.
"Excess Yang energy," the man says sheepishly, covering one hand with another to hide it. "This one had been neglecting his cultivation for too long. When I tried to dispel it, it--did this to my body instead."
"Idiot!" If Shen Shanwei had a copy of their manual on cultivation at hand, he would whack the man with it, maybe that would make it stick. "If you knew you were unbalanced, you should have waited until you had the benefit of instruction."
"I know. I'm sorry."
Shen Shanwei rubs his temple. He is inclined to believe him, and if this is Mu Liqiang, he also promised Lin Moniao that he would be nice to him. But... "Show me your token."
The token is produced, with its delicate carving of a parrot.
"What is the morning routine for disciples at the Villa?"
"Begin with exercises, then breakfast, then handing out chores."
He asks a few more questions but the information they both share is something any servant of the God Yu would know.
"Where did we last see each other?"
"At the crossroads, some way down the road from the White Cloud Bathhouse."
That was better. "Someone revealed something surprising then. Who was it, and what was it?"
"Yuwen-shijie revealed that she had gained the White Cloud--"
Shen Shanwei holds up a hand to stop him. There could be ears out here. "Alright, you're Mu Liqiang. Come inside. You're later than we expected."
"We? Is Lin-shixiong here?" He crowds excitedly behind Shen Shanwei as he turns to the door and digs out the keys. "I thought the house was empty."
"Stand back a little," Shen Shanwei grumbles, but lets them both in and lights the lamp he'd left by the door. "It's just us tonight. Have you eaten?"
Come to think of it, his own stomach growls, so when Mu-shidi shakes his head, he sends him to the kitchen with instructions to rustle something up.
Shen Shanwei is being nice! He is also following protocol! Shidis cook for shixiongs, not the other way around.
He does wonder, as he lights lamps around the table, what Lin Moniao had meant by ordering him to be nice. He had assumed at the time that Mu Liqiang was harboring some secret sorrow, but perhaps Lin-shixiong had known about the Yang imbalance, and worried about this very outcome.
When the rustling up is taking some time, Shen Shanwei's curiosity gets the better of him. He wanders to the kitchen and leans on the doorjamb to watch Mu Liqiang's back as he boils some water over the stove for tea and broth. Bread and wine would probably have done just as well... he can't help but take another good look at the changes. Mu Liqiang, as he was before, was handsome, but so what? The Illustrious Qilin Villa is full of handsome men, and in any case he couldn't hold a candle to Lin Moniao. He is still handsome, his back tapered despite the thickening of his waist, his thighs strong, the line of his chin... when did he turn around? Shen Shanwei looks up into Mu-shidi's smiling eyes and only hopes that his face has remained a passably normal color.
He puts his nose in the air and whips around. "Hurry up! I'm hungry."
"Yes, shixiong." Mu-shidi's voice is so soft and mild that Shen Shanwei can at least imagine he isn't laughing at him.
--
Breathing a sigh of relief as Xie Lijuan's carriages trundle off, Lin Moniao turns his attention to the crowds around him, and the sky beginning to darken above the city. He turns from Heng Wanxue to Shi Jia and says, "There is no way we're getting through the gates before they close them if we stand here and wait our turn."
Wanxue chuckles. There is something wild in her mood still, after surviving her interview. "Well then, let's not. Last one there has to kiss a pig." She sprints towards the queue and along it, hopping around people and over carts. Shi Jia, after a moment's surprise, follows her.
She is quick as wildfire, while Shi Jia is methodical, and though she is ahead at first, she gets her foot momentarily stuck in a box of firewood while going a little too fast and careless over a cart. It slows her down just enough for Shi Jia to take, and maintain, a lead over her. Neither is as fast as Lin Moniao, however. They are followed by a string of offended noises and the occasional clucking of chickens, but nobody stops them--nobody is fast enough, or cares enough about a trio of young fools.
"Ah, Peony," Lin Moniao laughs, catching her by the waist as she leaps down from the carriage at the head of the queue. "I hope your honor doesn't depend on you fulfilling your promise."
"Never say Heng Wanxue is a sore loser! Give me a pig right now, I'll kiss it right on the muddy snout!" She laughs, and this time it has more the tone of genuine delight. She throws her arms around him and nuzzles his cheek.
Shi Jia brushes his robe down and readjusts the wide-brimmed hat he'd swapped his felt hat for for their late adventure. "Very honorable. No one would hold you to it, but if you insist..." He points at a cart nearby with two enormous pigs in the back. The pig herd perched on top of the cart sees them looking and gives them the stinkeye.
Lin Moniao approaches the pig herd with a grin and a bow. "Surely you wouldn't stand in the way when it's a question of a lady's honor."
"Stay away from my pigs." He levels a pointy stick at them.
"Maybe later," Shi Jia soothes. "Plenty of pigs in the world."
"Yes, I suppose I should get home," Lin Moniao says, turning from the pigs to the city gate. "Are you two coming, or will you make your own way?"
Heng Wanxue is eyeing the pigs contemplatively still, but they don't have time to spare if they want to get in. "I'll go where you go, Magpie, if I'm allowed. Otherwise, I've got digs, don't worry."
They start up towards the gates, buoyed by the crowd. The guard aren't stopping anyone who isn't obviously a Mongol warrior, anyway.
"I think I better check my rooms," Shi Jia said. "If someone noticed me slipping out of town again, I'll have to write another apology letter."
"Another one!" Lin Moniao shakes his head sorrowfully. "Who has been leading you astray this time? It can't have been me, since I have been in the south the whole time." He hugs Shi Jia in a brief and friendly manner. "Well, you know where to find me and I know where to find you, so I imagine we'll see each other soon."
Once Shi Jia is gone, he takes Heng Wanxue's hand and says, "Ah, allowed is a strong word. Let's say, once my master hears everything, either he will be too pleased with me to be annoyed about me bringing over unauthorized guests, or he will be so angry with me that one more annoyance won't make a difference. Perhaps you'd better not stay overnight, anyway."
"Understood." She squeezes his hand and smiles, her whole scarred face lighting up. "I know where to find you too, now. And we'd better see each other again soon." She takes a step closer and speaks into his ear. "Maybe all that money can buy us a bed somewhere for an afternoon, what do you think?"
He wraps an arm around her waist and nuzzles her neck, emphasizing his words with a nip of teeth: "Oh, I think it could. And I have not forgotten your ducks, either."
She giggles and squeezes him. "Perfect. Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow. Will you be up by wu, do you think?"
"I will if you will." She squeezes him again and then lets go.
He watches her go for a minute, then turns and starts walking to Master Wu's.
There is a light on in the house, though it is faint from beyond the wall. Once through the door, he can hear voices, which die down as he is heard, and then a shuffle. "Shixiong?" Shen Shanwei meets him at the inner doorway. "You're back! So is Mu-shidi. How did it go?" Beyond him in Master Wu's reception room, which had become an unofficial communal dining room in his absence--usually disciples eat on the porch or in the yard--is a meal just begun, with two bowls, but no Mu Liqiang.
"How else? We made the delivery successfully, and Xie Lijuan says we may expect our reward when it can be fetched from Nanjing--we met her on her way to Immortal Sword Manor, so we didn't have to travel all the way. Oh, and the Immortal Sword Manor is currently looking for us on the coast; I believe we've all become pirates. I'm glad to see you made it back safely." He grasps Shen Shanwei's elbows and tries to peer around his shoulder at the same time. "Where is Mu-shidi?"
Shen Shanwei smiles and pats Lin Moniao's arms. "Impressive," he says begrudgingly. He looks behind himself. "Oh--he's hiding. He's feeling a little self-conscious, I think. Brace yourself. It was a qi deviation."
"Is he alright?" Lin Moniao darts around Shen Shanwei, alarmed. "Oh, I told him not to--it's not his hair, is it?"
"Oh, his hair is fine," Shen Shanwei says dryly. "If anything he's got more of it. Don't be hard on him. It sounds like he had no choice but cultivate dangerously." Out towards the open doors to the inner courtyard, he calls, "Come out, shidi. He's been warned."
"But what if shixiong doesn't think I'm pretty anymore?" comes Mu Liqiang's voice from around the corner, on the porch.
Shen Shanwei crosses his arms. "Oh for the love of--you're very handsome. Come on out." He gives Lin Moniao a long-suffering look. See how nice he's being?
Mu Liqiang pokes his head out from around the corner cautiously.
"You look... taller?" Lin Moniao says. "And you're wearing your hair loose, it's lovely like that. Can't I have a look at you, shidi?"
Mu Liqiang shimmers with pleasure at the compliment but goes back into hiding around the corner for a moment before gathering the courage to come out. He bows quickly and pulls himself up, bracing for criticism.
"Good heavens." Lin Moniao's eyes travel up and down Mu Liqiang's body, getting wider all the time. "You're so--there's so much of you. I don't suppose--is it possible--is there that much more of you everywhere?"
"It's difficult to tell." Mu Liqiang lowers his eyes demurely. "Maybe shixiong can examine this shidi?"
Shen Shanwei throws his hands up. "Goodnight." He picks up a bowl and a drink and heads towards the disciples' rooms.
"Oh dear." Lin Moniao watches him go and tries not to laugh, but quickly gives up the struggle. "I suppose I shouldn't have--ah, it's a good thing A-Jia isn't here, he would be so disappointed in me. Shidi, I will examine you thoroughly, but we'd better eat first or we never will."
He sits by the table, unable to take his eyes off the new Mu Liqiang. He'd told Huang Tianlin that a new Mu Liqiang was unnecessary, but perhaps it's just as well that Mu Liqiang hadn't listened. "Were you successful in Luoyang? Did you discover the source of the curse, and did you bring back anything good? Apart from this."
Mu Liqiang sits and pours a new drink for Lin-shixiong. "This one did say he would bring shixiong a present." He wipes his hands and pulls a rolled up scroll from his sleeve. "This is for shixiong, it he will have it. It's the deed to Liu Manor."
"I--what--shidi." Lin Moniao takes the scroll and unrolls it, or tries to. His hands are shaking. "How did you--why would you--is it cursed? Is it full of ghosts? Is it real? It had better be real, it would not be a very nice joke."
"This shidi would not lie about this." Mu Liqiang sounds slightly offended at the suggestion. "Liu Manor is not as large or fine as the Qilin Villa and it has no treasures now, or much furniture, and the garden is trampled over and partially destroyed, but there is nothing wrong with the house or the attached land. And it isn't cursed or haunted--anymore. Shixiong should eat, this shidi will tell you the whole story."
"I'm sorry. I'm being so absurdly ungrateful." Lin Moniao lowers his head into his hands. It's too much; he can't feel it all at once. "Thank you. You don't know what you've done for me."
His mother doesn't have to get married. Not unless she wants to. She doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to, ever again.
"It isn't much in terms of what I've done," Mu Liqiang says softly. "It was good fortune. And it matters so little to me." He reaches his hands out over the table, but changes his mind and pulls them back. "Shixiong? Are you alright?"
Lin Moniao reaches for Mu Liqiang's hands. Were they always this big, and this warm? "I'm alright. Go on."
This is the story Mu Liqiang tells.
Liu Manor stands in its own small district within a wide valley in the verdant and mountainous area around Luoyang, rocky hills climbing up on all sides, with well-traveled roads linking it to the city and the neighboring territories held by different lords. The valley is farmed for tea and rice, and the ice-cold rushing river that runs through the land provides fish.
The old Lord Liu was considered a just and good landlord, insofar as it is possible to be, but when he died, his only surviving son was a reprobate who had quarreled with his father and spent most of his life chasing pleasure and spending extravagantly. Nonetheless, the quarrel was not so deep that the father would cut out the son, and so the reprobate returned to his ancestral home, where he proceeded to redecorate the place to his own taste, and strip the local peasantry bare to pay for his innovations.
One of the first things he did was to open up the old, closed garden.
All his childhood, Liu-gongzi had been strictly forbidden to go into the closed garden. No servants entered, and when ivy and wild grasses took it over and saplings sprouted in strange, twisted forms within, no one went to trim them down or stop the spread, and so the fine carved statues and benches were lost under nature's bloom and riddled through with roots. All this, despite the fact that in the heart of the closed garden there was a hot spring.
Imagine such temptation before a child! But the one time he did try to climb over the enclosing wall to go and explore, he had been drawn back by his frightened mother and beaten to teach him never to do that again. There is a resentful spirit that lives in that garden, his mother had told him in a whisper. She is full of anger and violence and hates the Liu family more than anything else, and would kill him on sight if she got her hands on him.
Well, now that he was Lord Liu, he would not be told and there was no-one who would dare to beat him, so he brought in contractors from outside the district, opened the old gates, cleared the garden of overgrowth and restored the statues to their former glory.
His servants tried to persuade the new lord from his course. To this effect, an old servant who had been there for nearly ninety years told him the full story of the resentful spirit, which his mother had spared him from.
The lord of Liu Manor that came before the current lord's father had only had one child, a daughter; since there were no sons, the current lord's father had been that lord's wife's nephew. The reason for the lord's lack of children was not due to a lack of fertile wives or concubines, but because it is very difficult for a yao and a human to have children together.
Yes, the Lord Liu twice removed from the current one had not been human at all, but a yao who had taken human form to live among the people. His only child, therefore, was half-yao herself, and when she died violently in the closed garden, there had been no soothing her ferocious spirit.
The poor girl's death was a common story. She had fallen in love with her cousin, and her mother thought the match would be an excellent one since it would mean her husband could take the manor. However, her father, who feared another childless generation but could not explain why without revealing his origins, became furious and forbade the match. When the girl defied him and defied him, speaking her true heart, his demonic nature took over, and he beat her up and drowned her in the hot spring.
It was then that the waters in the natural spring turned black and foul, and the air filled with the heaviness of evil. Her spirit rose and claimed the garden, locked in that moment of rage and despair.
Nonsense, said the new Lord Liu. Although when they did find the hot spring at the heart of the garden, the waters were indeed black, and it smelled noxious and evil, and so they were forced to cover it up.
Soon thereafter, the lord would be forced to eat his own words.
The works were not yet finished when they discovered one of the contractors at the foot of the stairs leading down to the garden, his head bashed on the floor. Another went mad and ran out into the freezing river, and was only pulled back by the ingenuity of the local fishers; he told everyone he had seen a woman all wreathed in red, whose gaze had burned his skin and made him itch all over. Two servants got into a fight at the top of the stairs and nearly killed one another.
The garden was beautiful, serene to look at, but possessed of a deep evil.
The new lord still refused to say he had been wrong, and to prove it, he spent a night sleeping on one of the benches in the garden. The following morning, he was alive, but his hair had turned white, and he was speaking a Buddhist mantra for protection over and over and over. Soon thereafter, the garden was closed again, and the Lord, regretting all the evil his arrogance had caused, began to give away all the treasures of the family one by one, requesting the mercy and protection of the Bodhisattvas at every donation.
Locals were cautious of receiving gifts like this, but word spread, and there was a steady stream of visitors from other districts and the city to partake of Lord Liu's generosity. When the house was nearly stripped and the Lord still as haunted as ever, Mu Liqiang rode into the district and up to the manor grounds. Instead of asking for treasures, he asked if he could help.
No-one can help, said Lord Liu. The manor and the family are cursed. We can only hope to re-enter the cycle of rebirth to cleanse our souls through our future lives.
Mu Liqiang said he would still like to try, and even though it was late in the evening, he went into the closed garden.
The air was thick and foul. Mu Liqiang settled on a bench to meditate and wait for the ghost to come out, and after dark fell, she did. She was just as she had been described: Wreathed in red, long sleeves floating in the air, her eyes like two suns, and where she floated she dripped black bile onto the ground, which hissed and disappeared as it touched the garden floor.
"Father, you came back," said the ghost in the voice of stone and lava.
"You're mistaken," said Mu Lqiang, but the ghost screamed and lunged at him, her little fists raised.
He could not say how he ended up back outside the garden wall, but as soon as he was back where qi flowed naturally, he could think clearly again and remembered the energy pattern of the angry spirit. It had responded to the restlessness of his own spirit with doubled rage.
It was clear he could not face her without calming his own qi imbalance, and so, even though it would lose him days, he settled down to meditate in a quiet pavilion on the far side of the manor.
He reappeared two days later, changed, but in balance once again.
His appearance startled those who had seen him before he had secluded himself. The oldest servant nearly fainted at the sight. "It's Lord Liu the Yao himself," he moaned once he recovered. "You devil! I hope you have returned to put right what you ruined." He was old and no longer cared to watch his tongue around his superiors.
Trepidous but determined, Mu Liqiang returned to the garden.
"It is you," said the spirit when she emerged, floating petulantly over the covered hot spring.
"I am willing to be who you say I am," Mu Liqiang said. "Will you tell me what I can do to atone?"
She pointed down into the spring, then beckoned him to follow.
On the other side of the garden, a path led down an almost sheer drop into a shallow ravine that ran across the valley, where the river used to run. She led him down the path until they came to a narrow opening in the wall, such as one would barely notice if one wasn't looking for it. She slipped through it, and he squeezed himself in after her. Beyond the opening there was a dank, wide cave.
Up an incline he followed her, until they came to a room even more noxious than the garden, where a drop down into the bottom of the earth wafted evil air and heat. Above, Mu Liqiang could hear water running. And here, in a nook, there was a pathetic pile of human bones.
The ghost pointed at the bones. Mu Liqiang took off his robe and gathered them into it, and the ghost dived down into the pit of Hell.
Mu Liqiang returned above and told everyone what he had seen, and the servants and Lord Liu laid out the bones of a small woman and a large man. Not even the old servant had been able to tell what had happened to the old Yao Lord after the death of his daughter. This, they concluded, must be father and daughter both.
Lord Liu immediately sent out a petition to the nearest monastery for monks to come and say their proper rites over the bones, and make sure they would be buried and their plaques given offerings in the family shrine. He also called for the locals--those who were brave enough--to go and collapse the hot spring and pile stones upon it until the Hell Gate itself was buried so deep that nothing else could escape.
All this was done, and Lord Liu bowed down to Mu Liqiang until the young man was embarrassed and begged him to stand. When he finally did, he declared he would become a monk, and that all that was his would be Mu Liqiang's. The local magistrate was called to make everything official, and seeing what service had been done, had no objections to the deal. Mu Liqiang therefore had no option but to accept. He promised to find the district a worthy landlord, and to return when his duties were done to make sure everything was settled. Until then, he accepted the magistrate's appointment for an interim manager, and rode back to Kaifeng to continue his original task.
--
"That's incredible," Lin Moniao says, listening raptly. "Well, I'm not surprised that you were compassionate enough to offer your services rather than simply walking away with what you could get, or brave enough to follow a ghost to the gates of Hell, and so, if I'm your choice for a worthy landlord, I suppose I'll have to be one. But why don't you want it for yourself?"
"Shixiong makes it sound much grander than it was." Mu Liqiang may be bigger now, but he still looks just as shy and pleased when praised. "I don't want to be a landlord. Or a merchant, or a bureaucrat. I'd rather be a pampered concubine, but if I can't be that, then I still have a lot to learn."
"Oh, sweetheart." Lin Moniao leans across the table and kisses him on the cheek. "I think we can arrange it, tonight at least."
Story: Lin Moniao Series (AO3 link)
Colors: Electric Sky #5 (Knowledge of Self)
Supplies and Styles: gesso, nubs; chiaroscuro, interactive art, life drawing, portrait, silhouette
Word Count: 5,195
Rating: teen
Warnings: Mind games, messy polyamory, minor self-loathing, ghosts, (long past) murder, dead bodies, mention of prostitution.
Summary: Shen Shanwei is keeping house for Master Wu alone, but not for long, as Lin Moniao and Mu Liqiang return from their separate adventures.
Note: Co-written with
minutia_r . This is a scene (a few in sequence, actually) between the events of Chasing the Bat and Mid-Autumn Festival that ended up not being included in either. Also available on AO3 here (specific chapter link as it was collected with other extra stories under one AO3 work), with some more notes and art. I have chosen to also include The Mystery of Liu Manor, which was collected separately on AO3, since it follows directly after.*
The road leading up to the gates of Kaifeng is packed and bottle-necked as the last of the day's travelers push to get in and out before the gates are closed. The two carriages of Xie Lijuan's retinue don't even try to join the throng, but slow down and stop at a crossroads within sight of the city, where the other road leads west towards the countryside and Immortal Sword Manor.
Shi Jia hops off the back of the doctors' carriage just as Heng Wanxue climbs out of Xie Lijuan's, her expression stormy and her mouth tight.
Lin Moniao had tried to keep Xie Lijuan's attention on himself, so that neither of his friends would be called upon to ride with her unless they wished to. It's usually not so hard for him to maintain a woman's interest! But the Heartless Dagger, it seems, is easily bored. She had insisted on other company. Heng Wanxue had insisted on bearing part of the burden of her gaze. It has had a cost.
"Wanxue!" Shi Jia takes her hands as she comes back to them, distressed. Unlike her, he had hesitated when Xie Lijuan had requested one of them. He therefore feels partly responsible for whatever she has endured.
"I'm fine," Wanxue snaps. "She's just so--so--she had no right."
Shi Jia makes hushing noises. They are still surrounded by Xie Lijuan's people. In fact, one of the disciples on horseback is laughing softly at them.
Following Shi Jia out of the carriage, Lin Moniao wraps an arm around Heng Wanxue's shoulders and pulls her against him. "I think you're wonderful, anyway."
"Hmph." She burrows her head into his shoulder.
The drivers are gathering up their reins. Qing Yun, Xie Lijuan's pretty favourite disciple, rides up to them, her horse's hooves striking up dirt. "Aren't you all lucky! Not only do you get a free ride, but all three of you get home with your skins intact!" There's a scatter of laughter. "Tell your master the Asura Trident will be delivered to his house in Kaifeng, as agreed, as soon as the message reaches Xie Manor."
Reluctantly, Lin Moniao disentangles himself from Heng Wanxue so he can put his hands together and bow. "Tell your master that we are very much obliged to her."
Qing Yun nods and hurries her horse on with no further goodbye. The carriages wheels turn, and the procession rumbles past toward the west.
--
Master Wu's empty house is quiet and dark in the evening glow. Even Qi Lian's bed in the servants' quarters is unoccupied, as she has gone back to her son-in-law's house for the night. There is no point in lighting more than one lamp, and Shen Shanwei, conscious of economy, snuffed even that when he stepped into the inner courtyard.
With the sun still clinging to the horizon, the shadows are dark and long, and it's as if his feet are stepping in and out of black, three-dimensional pools of ink as he dances. Yes, he could be practicing taolu, but he could do that anytime. He's alone, and there is space, and he can go the whole distance of a stage instead of cutting up the performance into parts that fit into the space of a small room.
It's a useless practice, when he never intends to go back on stage, even if they wanted someone so rusty--how stupid would that be?--and while Shen Shanwei considers himself rational--he needs this. It links his life in a chain all the way back to his childhood in a way nothing else does. Besides, after two days straight of sitting in meditation, it is serving to wake up his muscles and bring him back into his body.
See? That is rational.
Everything seemed so much easier in meditation. Exhaustion disappeared, anger and resentment faded, even the lies piled on lies his life was constructed on seemed unimportant. Touching the Tao, there was only the natural way, and everything was clear and simple. But already he is turning back into Shen Shanwei, and though some of the contemplative calm and focus remains, he is thinking again.
His feet strike sand and stop. What was that? A knock on the door. And now the bell. He looks around at the shadows, feeling caught, his heart pounding. But of course, there is no one else there.
He grabs the lamp, though he does not relight it, and rushes quietly to the door. The peephole is covered in dark cloth--without light inside, whoever is out there will not know he is being watched. He peers through, frowns, looks again, and backs slowly off.
He doesn't bother with an outer robe, but goes to get his dagger, and digs out and uncorks a bottle of concentrated sleep potion to wet it with before hanging it on his belt. The key to the house goes in a hidden pocket inside the waistband of his trousers. Then he pulls himself up on the roof from the yard and pads softly along the beam to the front. Inside the house, the bell rings again.
Shen Shanwei drops himself down on to the street, right next to the caller. "Who are you?" he asks as he straightens up.
"Shen-shixiong." The man recovers from his surprise quickly and links his hands together in a bow. "You don't recognize me?"
"I know who you look like," Shen Shanwei says slowly, his hand on the hilt of his dagger. "But I've met Mu Liqiang. You're not him."
"It really is me," would-be-Mu-shidi says, his eyes growing moist. "My body... I had a qi deviation."
Well, that would be a handy explanation if he was an impostor. Shen Shanwei's eyes travel up and down the man's body. His middle is thicker than Mu Liqiang's, he's grown taller, his back is broader, and even in the half-light Shanwei can see thicker hair growing on the backs of his hands and stubble struggling to reassert itself on his chin. If this is Mu Liqiang, it's Mu Liqiang after a second puberty. Also, what happened to trying to contain his hair? It's running loose down his back now, curling ostentatiously, held back from his face with a pin.
"Excess Yang energy," the man says sheepishly, covering one hand with another to hide it. "This one had been neglecting his cultivation for too long. When I tried to dispel it, it--did this to my body instead."
"Idiot!" If Shen Shanwei had a copy of their manual on cultivation at hand, he would whack the man with it, maybe that would make it stick. "If you knew you were unbalanced, you should have waited until you had the benefit of instruction."
"I know. I'm sorry."
Shen Shanwei rubs his temple. He is inclined to believe him, and if this is Mu Liqiang, he also promised Lin Moniao that he would be nice to him. But... "Show me your token."
The token is produced, with its delicate carving of a parrot.
"What is the morning routine for disciples at the Villa?"
"Begin with exercises, then breakfast, then handing out chores."
He asks a few more questions but the information they both share is something any servant of the God Yu would know.
"Where did we last see each other?"
"At the crossroads, some way down the road from the White Cloud Bathhouse."
That was better. "Someone revealed something surprising then. Who was it, and what was it?"
"Yuwen-shijie revealed that she had gained the White Cloud--"
Shen Shanwei holds up a hand to stop him. There could be ears out here. "Alright, you're Mu Liqiang. Come inside. You're later than we expected."
"We? Is Lin-shixiong here?" He crowds excitedly behind Shen Shanwei as he turns to the door and digs out the keys. "I thought the house was empty."
"Stand back a little," Shen Shanwei grumbles, but lets them both in and lights the lamp he'd left by the door. "It's just us tonight. Have you eaten?"
Come to think of it, his own stomach growls, so when Mu-shidi shakes his head, he sends him to the kitchen with instructions to rustle something up.
Shen Shanwei is being nice! He is also following protocol! Shidis cook for shixiongs, not the other way around.
He does wonder, as he lights lamps around the table, what Lin Moniao had meant by ordering him to be nice. He had assumed at the time that Mu Liqiang was harboring some secret sorrow, but perhaps Lin-shixiong had known about the Yang imbalance, and worried about this very outcome.
When the rustling up is taking some time, Shen Shanwei's curiosity gets the better of him. He wanders to the kitchen and leans on the doorjamb to watch Mu Liqiang's back as he boils some water over the stove for tea and broth. Bread and wine would probably have done just as well... he can't help but take another good look at the changes. Mu Liqiang, as he was before, was handsome, but so what? The Illustrious Qilin Villa is full of handsome men, and in any case he couldn't hold a candle to Lin Moniao. He is still handsome, his back tapered despite the thickening of his waist, his thighs strong, the line of his chin... when did he turn around? Shen Shanwei looks up into Mu-shidi's smiling eyes and only hopes that his face has remained a passably normal color.
He puts his nose in the air and whips around. "Hurry up! I'm hungry."
"Yes, shixiong." Mu-shidi's voice is so soft and mild that Shen Shanwei can at least imagine he isn't laughing at him.
--
Breathing a sigh of relief as Xie Lijuan's carriages trundle off, Lin Moniao turns his attention to the crowds around him, and the sky beginning to darken above the city. He turns from Heng Wanxue to Shi Jia and says, "There is no way we're getting through the gates before they close them if we stand here and wait our turn."
Wanxue chuckles. There is something wild in her mood still, after surviving her interview. "Well then, let's not. Last one there has to kiss a pig." She sprints towards the queue and along it, hopping around people and over carts. Shi Jia, after a moment's surprise, follows her.
She is quick as wildfire, while Shi Jia is methodical, and though she is ahead at first, she gets her foot momentarily stuck in a box of firewood while going a little too fast and careless over a cart. It slows her down just enough for Shi Jia to take, and maintain, a lead over her. Neither is as fast as Lin Moniao, however. They are followed by a string of offended noises and the occasional clucking of chickens, but nobody stops them--nobody is fast enough, or cares enough about a trio of young fools.
"Ah, Peony," Lin Moniao laughs, catching her by the waist as she leaps down from the carriage at the head of the queue. "I hope your honor doesn't depend on you fulfilling your promise."
"Never say Heng Wanxue is a sore loser! Give me a pig right now, I'll kiss it right on the muddy snout!" She laughs, and this time it has more the tone of genuine delight. She throws her arms around him and nuzzles his cheek.
Shi Jia brushes his robe down and readjusts the wide-brimmed hat he'd swapped his felt hat for for their late adventure. "Very honorable. No one would hold you to it, but if you insist..." He points at a cart nearby with two enormous pigs in the back. The pig herd perched on top of the cart sees them looking and gives them the stinkeye.
Lin Moniao approaches the pig herd with a grin and a bow. "Surely you wouldn't stand in the way when it's a question of a lady's honor."
"Stay away from my pigs." He levels a pointy stick at them.
"Maybe later," Shi Jia soothes. "Plenty of pigs in the world."
"Yes, I suppose I should get home," Lin Moniao says, turning from the pigs to the city gate. "Are you two coming, or will you make your own way?"
Heng Wanxue is eyeing the pigs contemplatively still, but they don't have time to spare if they want to get in. "I'll go where you go, Magpie, if I'm allowed. Otherwise, I've got digs, don't worry."
They start up towards the gates, buoyed by the crowd. The guard aren't stopping anyone who isn't obviously a Mongol warrior, anyway.
"I think I better check my rooms," Shi Jia said. "If someone noticed me slipping out of town again, I'll have to write another apology letter."
"Another one!" Lin Moniao shakes his head sorrowfully. "Who has been leading you astray this time? It can't have been me, since I have been in the south the whole time." He hugs Shi Jia in a brief and friendly manner. "Well, you know where to find me and I know where to find you, so I imagine we'll see each other soon."
Once Shi Jia is gone, he takes Heng Wanxue's hand and says, "Ah, allowed is a strong word. Let's say, once my master hears everything, either he will be too pleased with me to be annoyed about me bringing over unauthorized guests, or he will be so angry with me that one more annoyance won't make a difference. Perhaps you'd better not stay overnight, anyway."
"Understood." She squeezes his hand and smiles, her whole scarred face lighting up. "I know where to find you too, now. And we'd better see each other again soon." She takes a step closer and speaks into his ear. "Maybe all that money can buy us a bed somewhere for an afternoon, what do you think?"
He wraps an arm around her waist and nuzzles her neck, emphasizing his words with a nip of teeth: "Oh, I think it could. And I have not forgotten your ducks, either."
She giggles and squeezes him. "Perfect. Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow. Will you be up by wu, do you think?"
"I will if you will." She squeezes him again and then lets go.
He watches her go for a minute, then turns and starts walking to Master Wu's.
There is a light on in the house, though it is faint from beyond the wall. Once through the door, he can hear voices, which die down as he is heard, and then a shuffle. "Shixiong?" Shen Shanwei meets him at the inner doorway. "You're back! So is Mu-shidi. How did it go?" Beyond him in Master Wu's reception room, which had become an unofficial communal dining room in his absence--usually disciples eat on the porch or in the yard--is a meal just begun, with two bowls, but no Mu Liqiang.
"How else? We made the delivery successfully, and Xie Lijuan says we may expect our reward when it can be fetched from Nanjing--we met her on her way to Immortal Sword Manor, so we didn't have to travel all the way. Oh, and the Immortal Sword Manor is currently looking for us on the coast; I believe we've all become pirates. I'm glad to see you made it back safely." He grasps Shen Shanwei's elbows and tries to peer around his shoulder at the same time. "Where is Mu-shidi?"
Shen Shanwei smiles and pats Lin Moniao's arms. "Impressive," he says begrudgingly. He looks behind himself. "Oh--he's hiding. He's feeling a little self-conscious, I think. Brace yourself. It was a qi deviation."
"Is he alright?" Lin Moniao darts around Shen Shanwei, alarmed. "Oh, I told him not to--it's not his hair, is it?"
"Oh, his hair is fine," Shen Shanwei says dryly. "If anything he's got more of it. Don't be hard on him. It sounds like he had no choice but cultivate dangerously." Out towards the open doors to the inner courtyard, he calls, "Come out, shidi. He's been warned."
"But what if shixiong doesn't think I'm pretty anymore?" comes Mu Liqiang's voice from around the corner, on the porch.
Shen Shanwei crosses his arms. "Oh for the love of--you're very handsome. Come on out." He gives Lin Moniao a long-suffering look. See how nice he's being?
Mu Liqiang pokes his head out from around the corner cautiously.
"You look... taller?" Lin Moniao says. "And you're wearing your hair loose, it's lovely like that. Can't I have a look at you, shidi?"
Mu Liqiang shimmers with pleasure at the compliment but goes back into hiding around the corner for a moment before gathering the courage to come out. He bows quickly and pulls himself up, bracing for criticism.
"Good heavens." Lin Moniao's eyes travel up and down Mu Liqiang's body, getting wider all the time. "You're so--there's so much of you. I don't suppose--is it possible--is there that much more of you everywhere?"
"It's difficult to tell." Mu Liqiang lowers his eyes demurely. "Maybe shixiong can examine this shidi?"
Shen Shanwei throws his hands up. "Goodnight." He picks up a bowl and a drink and heads towards the disciples' rooms.
"Oh dear." Lin Moniao watches him go and tries not to laugh, but quickly gives up the struggle. "I suppose I shouldn't have--ah, it's a good thing A-Jia isn't here, he would be so disappointed in me. Shidi, I will examine you thoroughly, but we'd better eat first or we never will."
He sits by the table, unable to take his eyes off the new Mu Liqiang. He'd told Huang Tianlin that a new Mu Liqiang was unnecessary, but perhaps it's just as well that Mu Liqiang hadn't listened. "Were you successful in Luoyang? Did you discover the source of the curse, and did you bring back anything good? Apart from this."
Mu Liqiang sits and pours a new drink for Lin-shixiong. "This one did say he would bring shixiong a present." He wipes his hands and pulls a rolled up scroll from his sleeve. "This is for shixiong, it he will have it. It's the deed to Liu Manor."
"I--what--shidi." Lin Moniao takes the scroll and unrolls it, or tries to. His hands are shaking. "How did you--why would you--is it cursed? Is it full of ghosts? Is it real? It had better be real, it would not be a very nice joke."
"This shidi would not lie about this." Mu Liqiang sounds slightly offended at the suggestion. "Liu Manor is not as large or fine as the Qilin Villa and it has no treasures now, or much furniture, and the garden is trampled over and partially destroyed, but there is nothing wrong with the house or the attached land. And it isn't cursed or haunted--anymore. Shixiong should eat, this shidi will tell you the whole story."
"I'm sorry. I'm being so absurdly ungrateful." Lin Moniao lowers his head into his hands. It's too much; he can't feel it all at once. "Thank you. You don't know what you've done for me."
His mother doesn't have to get married. Not unless she wants to. She doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to, ever again.
"It isn't much in terms of what I've done," Mu Liqiang says softly. "It was good fortune. And it matters so little to me." He reaches his hands out over the table, but changes his mind and pulls them back. "Shixiong? Are you alright?"
Lin Moniao reaches for Mu Liqiang's hands. Were they always this big, and this warm? "I'm alright. Go on."
This is the story Mu Liqiang tells.
Liu Manor stands in its own small district within a wide valley in the verdant and mountainous area around Luoyang, rocky hills climbing up on all sides, with well-traveled roads linking it to the city and the neighboring territories held by different lords. The valley is farmed for tea and rice, and the ice-cold rushing river that runs through the land provides fish.
The old Lord Liu was considered a just and good landlord, insofar as it is possible to be, but when he died, his only surviving son was a reprobate who had quarreled with his father and spent most of his life chasing pleasure and spending extravagantly. Nonetheless, the quarrel was not so deep that the father would cut out the son, and so the reprobate returned to his ancestral home, where he proceeded to redecorate the place to his own taste, and strip the local peasantry bare to pay for his innovations.
One of the first things he did was to open up the old, closed garden.
All his childhood, Liu-gongzi had been strictly forbidden to go into the closed garden. No servants entered, and when ivy and wild grasses took it over and saplings sprouted in strange, twisted forms within, no one went to trim them down or stop the spread, and so the fine carved statues and benches were lost under nature's bloom and riddled through with roots. All this, despite the fact that in the heart of the closed garden there was a hot spring.
Imagine such temptation before a child! But the one time he did try to climb over the enclosing wall to go and explore, he had been drawn back by his frightened mother and beaten to teach him never to do that again. There is a resentful spirit that lives in that garden, his mother had told him in a whisper. She is full of anger and violence and hates the Liu family more than anything else, and would kill him on sight if she got her hands on him.
Well, now that he was Lord Liu, he would not be told and there was no-one who would dare to beat him, so he brought in contractors from outside the district, opened the old gates, cleared the garden of overgrowth and restored the statues to their former glory.
His servants tried to persuade the new lord from his course. To this effect, an old servant who had been there for nearly ninety years told him the full story of the resentful spirit, which his mother had spared him from.
The lord of Liu Manor that came before the current lord's father had only had one child, a daughter; since there were no sons, the current lord's father had been that lord's wife's nephew. The reason for the lord's lack of children was not due to a lack of fertile wives or concubines, but because it is very difficult for a yao and a human to have children together.
Yes, the Lord Liu twice removed from the current one had not been human at all, but a yao who had taken human form to live among the people. His only child, therefore, was half-yao herself, and when she died violently in the closed garden, there had been no soothing her ferocious spirit.
The poor girl's death was a common story. She had fallen in love with her cousin, and her mother thought the match would be an excellent one since it would mean her husband could take the manor. However, her father, who feared another childless generation but could not explain why without revealing his origins, became furious and forbade the match. When the girl defied him and defied him, speaking her true heart, his demonic nature took over, and he beat her up and drowned her in the hot spring.
It was then that the waters in the natural spring turned black and foul, and the air filled with the heaviness of evil. Her spirit rose and claimed the garden, locked in that moment of rage and despair.
Nonsense, said the new Lord Liu. Although when they did find the hot spring at the heart of the garden, the waters were indeed black, and it smelled noxious and evil, and so they were forced to cover it up.
Soon thereafter, the lord would be forced to eat his own words.
The works were not yet finished when they discovered one of the contractors at the foot of the stairs leading down to the garden, his head bashed on the floor. Another went mad and ran out into the freezing river, and was only pulled back by the ingenuity of the local fishers; he told everyone he had seen a woman all wreathed in red, whose gaze had burned his skin and made him itch all over. Two servants got into a fight at the top of the stairs and nearly killed one another.
The garden was beautiful, serene to look at, but possessed of a deep evil.
The new lord still refused to say he had been wrong, and to prove it, he spent a night sleeping on one of the benches in the garden. The following morning, he was alive, but his hair had turned white, and he was speaking a Buddhist mantra for protection over and over and over. Soon thereafter, the garden was closed again, and the Lord, regretting all the evil his arrogance had caused, began to give away all the treasures of the family one by one, requesting the mercy and protection of the Bodhisattvas at every donation.
Locals were cautious of receiving gifts like this, but word spread, and there was a steady stream of visitors from other districts and the city to partake of Lord Liu's generosity. When the house was nearly stripped and the Lord still as haunted as ever, Mu Liqiang rode into the district and up to the manor grounds. Instead of asking for treasures, he asked if he could help.
No-one can help, said Lord Liu. The manor and the family are cursed. We can only hope to re-enter the cycle of rebirth to cleanse our souls through our future lives.
Mu Liqiang said he would still like to try, and even though it was late in the evening, he went into the closed garden.
The air was thick and foul. Mu Liqiang settled on a bench to meditate and wait for the ghost to come out, and after dark fell, she did. She was just as she had been described: Wreathed in red, long sleeves floating in the air, her eyes like two suns, and where she floated she dripped black bile onto the ground, which hissed and disappeared as it touched the garden floor.
"Father, you came back," said the ghost in the voice of stone and lava.
"You're mistaken," said Mu Lqiang, but the ghost screamed and lunged at him, her little fists raised.
He could not say how he ended up back outside the garden wall, but as soon as he was back where qi flowed naturally, he could think clearly again and remembered the energy pattern of the angry spirit. It had responded to the restlessness of his own spirit with doubled rage.
It was clear he could not face her without calming his own qi imbalance, and so, even though it would lose him days, he settled down to meditate in a quiet pavilion on the far side of the manor.
He reappeared two days later, changed, but in balance once again.
His appearance startled those who had seen him before he had secluded himself. The oldest servant nearly fainted at the sight. "It's Lord Liu the Yao himself," he moaned once he recovered. "You devil! I hope you have returned to put right what you ruined." He was old and no longer cared to watch his tongue around his superiors.
Trepidous but determined, Mu Liqiang returned to the garden.
"It is you," said the spirit when she emerged, floating petulantly over the covered hot spring.
"I am willing to be who you say I am," Mu Liqiang said. "Will you tell me what I can do to atone?"
She pointed down into the spring, then beckoned him to follow.
On the other side of the garden, a path led down an almost sheer drop into a shallow ravine that ran across the valley, where the river used to run. She led him down the path until they came to a narrow opening in the wall, such as one would barely notice if one wasn't looking for it. She slipped through it, and he squeezed himself in after her. Beyond the opening there was a dank, wide cave.
Up an incline he followed her, until they came to a room even more noxious than the garden, where a drop down into the bottom of the earth wafted evil air and heat. Above, Mu Liqiang could hear water running. And here, in a nook, there was a pathetic pile of human bones.
The ghost pointed at the bones. Mu Liqiang took off his robe and gathered them into it, and the ghost dived down into the pit of Hell.
Mu Liqiang returned above and told everyone what he had seen, and the servants and Lord Liu laid out the bones of a small woman and a large man. Not even the old servant had been able to tell what had happened to the old Yao Lord after the death of his daughter. This, they concluded, must be father and daughter both.
Lord Liu immediately sent out a petition to the nearest monastery for monks to come and say their proper rites over the bones, and make sure they would be buried and their plaques given offerings in the family shrine. He also called for the locals--those who were brave enough--to go and collapse the hot spring and pile stones upon it until the Hell Gate itself was buried so deep that nothing else could escape.
All this was done, and Lord Liu bowed down to Mu Liqiang until the young man was embarrassed and begged him to stand. When he finally did, he declared he would become a monk, and that all that was his would be Mu Liqiang's. The local magistrate was called to make everything official, and seeing what service had been done, had no objections to the deal. Mu Liqiang therefore had no option but to accept. He promised to find the district a worthy landlord, and to return when his duties were done to make sure everything was settled. Until then, he accepted the magistrate's appointment for an interim manager, and rode back to Kaifeng to continue his original task.
--
"That's incredible," Lin Moniao says, listening raptly. "Well, I'm not surprised that you were compassionate enough to offer your services rather than simply walking away with what you could get, or brave enough to follow a ghost to the gates of Hell, and so, if I'm your choice for a worthy landlord, I suppose I'll have to be one. But why don't you want it for yourself?"
"Shixiong makes it sound much grander than it was." Mu Liqiang may be bigger now, but he still looks just as shy and pleased when praised. "I don't want to be a landlord. Or a merchant, or a bureaucrat. I'd rather be a pampered concubine, but if I can't be that, then I still have a lot to learn."
"Oh, sweetheart." Lin Moniao leans across the table and kisses him on the cheek. "I think we can arrange it, tonight at least."
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