He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter Sixty Seven - Poison is Best Served in Soup

"He is Mighty like the Dragon, He is Fierce like the Tiger.  I am humble before him.  I am a column behind him.  The Emperor is the Sun, while I am a Speck of Sand."

The two Princes recited in monotone voices the words that Lâoshi Huang would have them remember. The words praised the eternal Emperor and his wisdom, in numerous flattering ways and was arranged that it could just pass, loosely, in a form of a poem. Yu Long felt it was not half as bad as the one Lâoshi Huang would have them recite about the beauty and grace of her majesty Huàng Hóu. Jie Long faltered as they approached the words fawning the Emperor's manly prowess, a slight twitch at his temple the only other sign of his simmering ire.

"Again!" Huang Kong slapped the writing desk with his bamboo cane causing both boys to involuntarily flinch. The man made any excuse to lengthen this torture he considered teaching.

There were no faults this time and they completed the poem to his satisfaction. "Lâoshi," Yu Long spoke in a small, delicate tone. "These poems cannot be expressed with words, their form and filling leave this humbled one without speech! May we have the honour of knowing the author?" Jie Long's eye twitched slightly once more, but not with anger.

"Ah so you do have some wit about you!" Huang Kong preened. "I was beginning to consider that the Empress was too kind with her words when she spoke of your ignorance! The author, of course, it is I!" His rhino chest puffed outward in pride.

"Truly, a man passes leaves name, swallow passes leaves sound," Jie Long added in a tone of false awe. Lâoshi did not seem to notice.

"That will be all for today," he suddenly announced. "Return to your rooms!"

Despite their initial hopes of having some freedom, their lives had become even more restricted. 'Lamenting over their lack', Lâoshi Huang had connived with the Empress and actually taken residence in the White Orchid Palace, that he might 'teach them better!' In fact, he had claimed the largest rooms in the Palace, to the rear courtyard and had the boys moved into the wings, Yu Long in the East, Jie Long in the West. He ordered their few servants about as if they were his own, then after laying false claims at their doors, had them removed from the Palace. Each maid and eunuch serving the White Orchid Palace now had come from Huang Jia.

Xiao Ping was no exception.

"Feng Chun, master," he had wept pitifully before the man, prostrating on all fours. "This servant made promise to the Princes mother that this one would care for them. How might this servant fulfil his duties when turned out? This one should just fall on his knife and take his life to the spring, but if I do this, how will I ever serve my Princes?"

Feng Chun had no answer for him, his Emperor had placed care of his sons into the hands of the Empress and none of her orders could he rescind. His hands were bound behind his back, he could only try to sneak his people into the White Orchid Palace over time. Fortunately, the Palace guards assigned could not be replaced, even the Emperor had limits on how far he let his Huáng Hòu influence spread.

The two Princes returned to their respective rooms. Lâoshi Huang had decided brothers of their age should not be so close and separated them to further the Empress's designs. Yu Long sat quietly at his small, rickety desk. Ah, his favourite paperweight was gone! He inwardly sighed. It seemed Lâoshi had taken a liking to it and claimed it to further feather his nest. Many things had been stripped from the rooms of the Palace, including the beautifully crafted Go board and it's black and white jade pieces and his mother's favourite folded screen with it's painted heron and bamboos.

A maid entered with his meal and placed it on the desk before him, but did not wait to watch him eat, did not even bow as she entered or left. This was not a bad thing however, he lifted up the undercooked rice and brought it to his nose before placing it on the table. There was also a vegetable dish that did not look very palatable, but it was the soup that concerned him most. He gently sniffed it and winced, he was not wrong. Protecting his nose with long, flowing sleeve, he took the soup to the potted plant he kept in the far corner for just this reason and poured the liquid onto its earth. He then bowed as if in apology to the plant, which was already beginning to wither due to its unusual diet.