Chapter Text
Countless emotions flitted in his eyes, unable to fully understand the owner's feelings and impression of the figure before him.
The wind blew, playing with the strands framing her face as if it was a playful child, bringing a sense of mockery with the stench of rotten corpses it brought along.
"...you cannot understand me."
A flinch.
"I seem weird to you."
A twitch, but no denies came forth.
"...I really admire it, that inability to lie, yet I also pity you."
"You-!"
"Your comments are unpleasant, your attitude harsh, everyone said that," the woman's voice continued as if she wasn't being interrupted. "But you stayed true, that's why people trust you, no?"
The man scoffed and averted his eyes, silently chanting the rules that bound his entire life, his clan's entire life.
"However, the day will come, you know, when a lie will save thousands, maybe millions, of life. I wonder," she stepped away, heads tilting. "what will you do then?"
His eyelids are heavy.
"Did you not have good sleep, young master?" his nanny, Zhu Popo , peered over Ye Qiu, her wrinkled face wrinkling even more in worry. "You seem a bit paler too."
"I'm fine, popo ," Ye Qiu gave a small smile, not too small that it looked fatigued nor too wide to seem deceiving. After all, it was meant to reassure. "Let's go before all the meat got sold out!"
Zhu Popo smiled back, her wrinkled and aged hand took his and both resume their comfortable walk to the city market.
The new year had long passed, and Ye Qiu was approaching the day he'd turn seven officially. He wasn't quite sure what the trigger was, but not long after his conversation with Ye Xinglan, his mother decreed that it was time for him to know the world. That was how he started to go out and accompany servants to buy miscellaneous things in the market. Each time he went with different servants and got taught different things until the cycle made a full circle and the first servant he went out with accompanied him again.
It had been going on for almost half a year. Thanks to that, the surrounding merchants got to know him quite well. They recognize the servants of Ye Clan and thought he was also a servant being taught about his duties and stuff. Somehow, probably thanks to regular appearance, they became quite friendly in the boisterous ways merchants usually are.
This time he went out with Zhu Popo , his mother's nanny from her maiden house who followed her into the Ye Clan upon his mother's marriage. She was also Ye Qiu's main caretaker during his infancy, thus she thought of him as her own grandson. This kind of worrying was quite common for her and by the age of four, Ye Qiu had mastered the way to comfort Zhu Popo whenever she fretted over him.
This time it was all thanks to that strange dream he had.
Ever since he ... came to be here, he never really had dreams. To him sleep was a time of ultimate rest, when he could forget the reality he faced and the looming future ahead that might or might not happen. To him, dreamland was merely a black, empty void where his body felt numb and he couldn’t think of anything at all. It was a state where nothing mattered to him. He had no drive, so he did not do anything. Simple as that.
Yet somehow, someone or something had disturbed that little peace and escape he had.
Was it the stress? Knowing the future plot seems to be an advantage in many transmigration stories, a source of amusement for others, a burden for those who want to meddle with fate. But he has neither the desire to meddle or be involved at all ...
Maybe his subconscious conjured up some kind of fantasy that he unknowingly longed for? But then wouldn't the dream be something about Before? Wasn't that his greatest wish? Wasn't it...?
"Oh! A-Qiu is here! Got some very high quality meat, want to buy?"
"A-Qiu! Long time no see! I'm back with good quality polish!"
"A-Qiu ah! Don't listen to him, local goods are always better! Come to my shop and I'll show you!"
"Ah?! Look at the lad, he is here to buy vegetables and food no doubt! A-Qiu come here, uncle got some selections of fresh vegetables!"
A cacophony of calls and laughter blended as the merchants called out to him to advertise their wares, startling him out of his musing.
Ye Qiu stopped for a moment.
"Young- ah, A-Qiu?" Zhu Popo called out when she felt her hand, holding onto her young master's small ones, got tugged when her young master suddenly stopped.
What was he doing, thinking of something that might just be his fantasy and disregarding what was in front of him?
A small smile bloomed on his face, still decorated with some baby fat, giving off a very innocent and sheepish vibe. "Sorry popo , seems I am still sleepy after all," he replied, "but I'm awake now! Let's go!"
Zhu Popo shook her head gently even as a fond smile bloomed in response. "Yes, well, we need to buy vegetables first. Let's go this way."
Things are all right in the world for now, Ye Qiu thought even as his little feets led him to the vegetable stand that was hollering to him earlier, and it would be fine for some years. It will be alright.
Legendary last words.
That was the only thing Ye Qiu could use to describe his situation at the time. Naïve, maybe.
But he was a young child! Can you blame him?
...
Right, he was just trying to run away at this point.
"Greetings to Master," Zhu Popo kneeled, her aged body wobbled somewhat worryingly as she lowered them, the basket full of heavy meat set next to her.
Behind her, Ye Qiu also put down his significantly lighter basket with leafy vegetables and kneeled, his small frame almost fully hidden by Zhu Popo . His body unconsciously hunched lower as if he was facing a predator and wanting to reduce his presence so her wouldn't be noticed. Ye Qiu could feel his heart drumming loudly in his chest while his limbs felt a bit numb.
This was the master of the house.
The head of the family.
The one that he never met.
His father.
Ye Liang, courtesy Mingshan.
A large part of him dreaded this meeting since the day he knew he was essentially abandoned by this man. He wasn’t quite sure of how he should face this man whose existence felt more like deity who stayed so high up in the nirvana and never deigned to grace the mortals in the servants’ quarters and areas.
They were blood related, yet family they weren’t. They were father and son, yet both only knew of each other's existence and not their appearance.
A small part of him stung and throbbed in pain whenever he thought of Ye Mingshan. The flashes of another man with wide smiles and laughter lines and patient eyes haunt him whenever he did.
An even smaller part of him hated Ye Mingshan. He hated how this man was a reason he could exist yet also a reason he’d rather not exist. He hated everything Ye Mingshan did and didn’t do. It was an irrational hate and Ye Qiu made sure to bury it deep in him. Let him and God only know of this feeling.
“Zhu Popo ,” the man's voice was not booming like he imagined. It was deep, yes, but not startlingly deep. It was smooth and authoritative. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your lady?”
Oh, he remembered that Zhu Popo is a part of Jin Shi’ s dowry. He never seemed to have any interest in Jin Shi so it startled Ye Qiu into silence when the question came.
Then again, the logical part of his brain whispered, Ye Mingshan was the head of the house and the man that married Jin Shi . He might not be in charge of the household care, firmly held by the second wife and not Jin Shi , but he should still know the maid directly under Jin Shi .
Zhu Popo lowered her head even as her wrinkly hand gestured at the basket by her side. “This lowly servant had just come back from buying some things in the market, my Lord.”
Right, this was the side entrance meant for servants. If nothing else, it was his presence here that needed questioning.
There was no response for a moment.
“...why? Does this lord not provide enough for her? Does she intend to shame this lord’s house by telling others that this lord is incapable of merely feeding her?”
The questions started out soft, but as more words came out, the more his indignation colored it.
Ah, Ye Qiu forgot how much face and reputation meant in this period of time.
“No, my Lord. The lady merely had some cravings thus sent this lowly servant to buy it,” poor Zhu Popo explained, her body trembling not out of fear for her or her lady’s livelihood but for Ye Qiu. After all, those extra foods were actually his. The kitchen did not prepare food for those they didn’t even know existed.
Of course, though he was small, he was still an alive human. His existence would never be fully concealed. However, those servants who knew who he was and took care of him were his mother’s servants. Those that weren’t in the know merely glimpsed him sometimes and thought he was either a son or a grandson of some unknown servant. And with how he practically secluded himself in his mother’s servant’s quarter, the number of other servants who had seen him were few in numbers.
“Sometimes, it was better to hide in plain sight,” was what Jin Shi imparted to him.
“And who is this?” Ye Mingshan’s sudden attention to him startled him out of his daydream. The man was probably quite angry and indignant but unable to vent it onto his wife nor her maids, thus averting his attention to something else.
“Greetings to Master,” Ye Qiu’s mouth contorted into weird shape as soon as he finished spatting that title as if he was trying to rinse his mouth from the weird and frankly disgusting feeling of addressing Ye Mingshan as such.
“This boy is this lowly one’s grandson,” Zhu Popo interjected before Ye Qiu managed to open his mouth for the second time.
Before any other comment or question came out of Ye Mingshan’s mouth, another voice joined in the conversation. Or should Ye Qiu say, the second person in this clan he’d rather never met, right under Ye Mingshan, decided to join hands with fate as it screwed over Ye Qiu by popping out now.
“ Fùqīn .”
“Zhen’er,” the man’s anger and indignation bubbled away as he fawned over the young boy. Even the man’s mannerism of speech changed. Ye Qiu listened to the spectacle before him and found the faint prickling feeling of pain and hate that enveloped him before also disappear.
Instead, he felt numb.
“ Fùqīn , Zhen’er is ready now. We can go out now!” the young boy, Ye Qiu’s supposed shu brother, chirped happily. The boy was small enough that with only a slight glance upward Ye Qiu could see his chubby and healthy cheeks flushed red in excitement and happiness.
“Hahaha, Zhen’er are this excited? Calm down now or you’ll tire too fast later.”
“Zhen’er won’t! Zhen’er will play a lot and see a lot of new things. Then Zhen’er can tell Mǔqīn all about it later.”
“Well, your Mǔqīn is feeling under the weather lately. Maybe you can buy a gift for her.”
“Zhen’er will!”
Thus, while conversing with each other, the duo father and son left with only two guards in disguise and a maid following behind. It seemed that Ye Mingshan didn’t want to be recognized and decided to leave through the ‘back door’ rather than going out from the ‘front door’.
Ye Zhen, the once shu son had recently became recognized as the first di son. Ye Qiu was unsure of the family politics, but apparently Jin Shi held some authority over the clan matters due to her maiden house backing and forbade Ye Mingshan to marry a second wife, which was why Ye Zhen’s mother was married in as a concubine at the start. Jin Shi then focused on raising him in secret, leaving a lot of breathing room for Ye Mingshan.
The man was cautious of Jin Shi though.
Jin Shi was distracted by Ye Qiu’s education about two years ago and since then Ye Mingshan started to slowly poke and prod, toeing the line to test the water. It was only recently that he felt safe enough to promote Ye Zhen’s mother into a second wife.
“In the end, he still wasn’t able to go against Niang completely,” Ye Qiu mumbled to himself as he let Zhu Popo tug him away to their original destination. After all, if Ye Mingshan had the ability to overthrow Jin Shi , he would prompt Ye Zhen’s mother directly as the legal wife and demote Jin Shi into concubinage. However, Ye Mingshan still didn’t have that power, thus he was only capable of having a second legal wife instead.
However, now a question was stuck in his head and his curiosity reared its ugly head.
“Why Fùqīn is helpless against Niang ?” Ye Xinglan repeated with raised eyebrow, cup of tea partly covering her delicate lips. She softly blew the tea for some time, leaving a hanging silence between them. “Why are you suddenly asking this?”
“I met him this afternoon. Fùqīn , that is.”
“Ah.”
Another silence.
Ye Qiu patiently waited, hand slowly and carefully swirling the hot tea to encourage the tea’s scent to come out. From the first time they started having tea, back then their mother would join in too, both Ye Xinglan and Jin Shi would subtly use this to train Ye Qiu’s etiquette and patience. If he pushed too much they would clam up and refuse to answer anything, but if he waited patiently and maybe showed good etiquette then he’d be rewarded with answers.
Ye Qiu was a hopelessly ‘curious’ child, so it worked almost like magic.
Even though those curiosity was for the sake of confirming and re-confirming his suspicion of being transmigrated slash reincarnated into a work of fiction.
“ Niang , you see, comes from a distant branch of the illustrious Lanling Jin Clan,” Ye Xinglan started, sipping her tea in between, “the Ye Clan, Fùqīn , also has blood ties with the Jins. However, it was much much farther. To the point that they are not allowed to use the Jin surname.”
Ye Qiu silently accepted the answer and easily made his own conclusions.
“ Fùqīn cannot afford to offend Niang’s family,” he completed the explanation and waited for a rebuttal from his sister should his answer be wrong.
The rebuttal never came.
Ye Xinglan’s cup clinked with the wood of the table separating them. Her piercing phoenix eyes gazed deeply into her brother’s eyes.
“Remember it well, didi ,” she said instead, eyes serious and frame rigid with solemn air, making Ye Qiu unconsciously straighten his back as well.
Remember it well.