That night, Chu Yun and Xiao Zai went to bed in their separate rooms after parting on bad terms.

Chu Yun had more important things on his mind than mollifying Xiao Zai’s hurt pride. They were in this situation now, and would be idiots not to take advantage of it. 

Besides, Xiao Zai couldn’t understand everything Chu Yun stood to gain from the position he wanted to carve out for himself.

He might have to endure the scorn of the court for letting himself be subjugated to another alpha, but what Xiao Zai didn’t get was that it would happen either way.

He was already the outsider. The fox in the wolves’ den. 

They wouldn’t have tolerated him if he walked around with his head held high, bossing Xiao Zai in public in the same way he did in private. 

He would have been scorned for staying quietly in the sidelines and never speaking a word; he would have been scorned for staying in the estate and never showing his face in public.

So, if the scorn was inevitable, Chu Yun could at least do something practical with it.

After Xiao Zai was king, no one would dare say anything to his face, anyway.

But first, he still had some groundwork to lay out.

—

Unlike the previous day, the roads leading up to the royal palace complex were empty, and Chu Yun’s carriage arrived without delays at the main gates.

He had brought Hua Nanyi with him, along with an assortment of gifts.

He walked past the guards with his back straight, and no one tried to stop him. After all, both of his inlaws resided in the palace, and while Chu Yun wouldn’t be able to meet with the king without scheduling an audience first, he could pay Gu Wei a visit whenever he wanted.

That was precisely his excuse.

“Pearl Courtyard, you said?” Chu Yun asked Hua Nanyi, who nodded in assent.

The Pearl Courtyard was a courtyard reserved for concubines and their visits, but it was accessible once someone was into the residential complex proper.

The person he was looking for was easy enough to locate. He found her sitting at a stone table under a garden pavilion beside a scholar tree.

She was practising her calligraphy today, but according to Hua Nanyi’s information, she could be doing anything, from drinking tea by herself, to playing weiqi alone. No matter what, according to Hua Nanyi’s informants, one could always expect to find Concubine Min by herself in the Pearl Courtyard, first thing in the morning.

Chu Yun made a beeline for her, Hua Nanyi carried the boxes of sweets in her arms behind him.

He took a seat in front of Concubine Min, courtesy name Sezhui, startling the woman into dropping her brush on top of her practice sheet.

Chu Yun cut his eyes to the paper briefly, noticing it wasn’t too great a loss. Concubine Min had terrible calligraphy. As bad as a child’s. Interesting.

“Oh, no, I apologise,” he said, returning the brush to Min Sezhui’s slack fingers and wincing theatrically at the stained paper. 

Min Sezhui smiled sweetly and crumpled the paper. “Oh, please don’t apologise it’s this concubine’s fault for being distracted,” she looked up into Chu Yun’s face for the first time and went pale right away.

“Young master is an alpha?” she asked, leaning away from Chu Yun. Only politeness prevented her from getting up and disappearing back into the palace.

She was a very beautiful omega, with a sweet round face, and big lychee eyes, framed by thick curling lashes. She smelled faintly of lotus flowers, the scent banked by the frequent attentions of an alpha mate. 

Chu Yun had no reason to doubt Hua Nanyi’s information in the first place, but even if she hadn’t said anything, he would have been able to tell this woman was highly favoured from how faint her natural scent was. 

“Please don’t worry, I’m married to his Highness, the Second Prince,” Chu Yun smiled at her, keeping his tone even and nonthreatening. “I assure you I mean no offence. I was actually looking for Concubine Gu, I wanted to pay my respects, I’m afraid I didn’t behave as a filial son-in-law should the last time we saw each other.”

He could see some of Min Sezhui’s tension draining off her shoulders. “I’m afraid I can’t be of assistance, me and brother Gu don’t usually…talk.”

Chu Yun nodded and smiled without comment. Yeah, he bet they didn’t.

“I’m sorry to intrude on your private time, I’ll be off now,” Chu Yun said, getting up to his feet with an exaggerated groan. 

Min Sezhui observed him with a worried look and then waved at him to sit back down. “Please stay, you look tired, I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself.”

Chu Yun shot her a relieved smile, and called for Hua Nanyi to bring the boxes of sweets to the table. “I bought these for my father-in-law but if they aren’t eaten soon they’ll spoil.” He sighed. 

Hua Nanyi had told him that Min Sezhui was well-known for being a stickler to her routine and having an extreme sweet tooth. Chu Yun could see her pretty eyes shinning as she eyed the dainty wooden boxes wrapped in silk.

Chu Yun unwrapped one of the boxes and pushed it towards her. “Maybe we could share? It would be such a shame to let them go to waste.”

—

Min Sezhui really opened up the moment they started eating. She talked with Chu Yun openly about her days in the palace, gossiping about the other concubines, and just overall sharing the kind of information that should never leave the royal harem.

Chu Yun listened to it avidly, but the most important information he gleamed from Min Sezhui herself.

She was the King’s current favourite, and was as harmless, and simpleminded, as a newborn puppy. 

She was so innocent that Chu Yun almost felt bad about how easy it was to trick her into trusting him.

It was obvious she was desperately lonely. The other concubines singled her out, not only because she was the King’s favourite, but because she was slow.

That was the entire reason she spent each morning on her own, practising her calligraphy, trying to learn how to play weiqi — she wanted to stop being the butt of every joke.

“What does Sezhui think about me visiting from time to time? I feel very lonely too, being a newcomer in the city,” he smiled at her and nodded at Hua Nanyi. “My servant would come too of course, and be our chaperone.” 

He could tell she really wanted to say yes, all she needed was a little push. “I’m a really good Weiqi player, I bet I could teach Sezhui some impressive moves.”

Chu Yun knew he had her the moment her huge eyes widened comically.

“I’d really like that!”

And just like that, Chu Yun had gotten himself a standing invitation to the palace, and the ear of the person who shared the King’s bed almost every night.