Everyone stood up and sang out in unison, ""May the Emperor live and reign for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousand years¹.""
With a jade coronet binding his hair up, a man dressed in long black robes with golden dragons appeared from the entrance. His phoenix eyes were sharp and intimidating his countenance was cold as the winter months. He stopped briefly and swept his gaze over everyone, he stopped as his sight was focused in one direction. Everyone who stood there broke out in cold sweat. Ah, what had they done wrong? Was it because they bowed too slow? Or that their posture was a little off? Maybe their back wasn't straight enough or their head wasn't low enough... Or was it because they weren't dressed nice enough? They felt wrong by how intense the stare was and all wanted the ground to split so that they could crawl inside. All but one was worried about what might happen next.
Even though his eyes could not pick up on the physical overbearingness that the others could, Xu XiuLan could feel the the strong pressure that radiated off of them. He did not shake from it though, instead his body was calm and composed. His posture was unperturbed and poised as many of the others were started to falter.
He flicked his sleeves and walked towards the throne, "You may all rise."
His radiance could only leave others in awe at his magnificence. Everyone sat back down in their seat, and those who had been sweating dabbed a their foreheads with relief. With the echoes of the melody from the qin and the drums, the banquet had officially started. Eager and proud suitors sauntered forth to showcase their array of skills. From dancing, to poetry, to calligraphy, to painting, to playing the harp, to singing they all tried their best to highlight their vibrant feathers like that of male birds courting the female bird.
Xu XiuLan listened to the bland and effortless music and verses. They chose flowery words to try and flatter the emperor and songs that held no other meaning than longing for love, but how could it be when you've never known the man? Xu XiuLan didn't understand from their point of view why try and rise as a phoenix when you're nothing but a chicken? Forcing your way won't make it become real. You will always be what you are, just because the outside changes it doesn't mean that the inside has as well.
Thankfully he didn't have to look at them sway their stick arms and legs back and forth as the try and create beautiful undulating movements. His announcer was also gone so he had no one to relay the much awkward apprehensive seen before him. The announcer was currently slapping their thighs and clutching their stomach so hard as they were dressed in black robes and donned on a ridged guan² with six ridges signified that he was a second rank official. They found it too hard not to look on in schenfraud at the other's foolhardy actions. Of course the clothing was his, he didn't steal it off of someone but it was rather the fact that he had bought it off of the system store for six points. Bao Bao had been stalking Zuo NaLi and found their futile attempts to get the officials attention to be a very enjoyable comedy.
Bao Bao had just seen him talking with one of the officials and they had brushed him off, using a roundabout way to get rid of Zuo NaLi. The person had run so fast from the scene that Zuo NaLi was left standing there with his mouth gaped wide open. Bao Bao mentally checked off in his mind. There goes.... Number twenty three? Maybe twenty four... Bao Bao can't remember... He had to recounted all of the officials that Zuo NaLi had been batting his eyelashes at and came to the number... twenty six. His guess was three people off!
He had been interfering with Zuo NaLi's plans as said by his host. Little by little, he drew the attention of the officials away from him. Bao Bao had unveiled each word of whisper that lies from which Zuo NaLi had put inside of their minds. Every time after doubt would resurface in their hearts as they look at the beautiful man with a whose words weigh nothing more than air. It followed the saying, 'one word was worth a thousand in gold³'.
It seem that man was tenacious in his attempts and latched onto one another another trying to convert them. This caused Zuo NaLi to become fearful that the whole year of planning for the arrival of spring would fail⁴. He bit on the nail of his thumb in irritation. Just a week ago he was reaping in the profits of his success, then literally one morning and one evening passed⁵ and then it all started falling apart.
Just earlier today, the person who said that they were going to take him to the viewing suddenly canceled their plans. He had to quickly scram to find someone to take him, otherwise he would've missed the opportunity today.
Currently Zuo NaLi had already prepared the fishnet for today's capture and was currently lying in wait to pull it in, once they've wandered in. But he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something incredibly wrong today. He couldn't put a finger on what, but his gut was telling him to not proceed with the plan. Unfortunately his wanting outweighed his rationality and he had already initiated the plan.
One of the female servants went passed him and Zuo NaLi stopped them, "Excuse me."
They blushed as they timidly glanced at him, "Y-yes? You called for this servant?"
Zuo NaLi gave them a heart stopping smile, "Ah, you see I was a little lost."
Bao Bao looked at the interchanged and rubbed his chin. His host told him to make sure that whatever he has planned befalls back onto him. He was like a reluctant ghost that been plastered by Zuo NaLi's side. He watched the two of them enter a tent and after they left the area, Bao Bao went to work. He was fumbling with a suspicious package in his hand and his mind wandered on how things were going at his host's end.
Bao Bao activated his passive skill and took a pill. It would blacken his light coloured hair and his irises would turn black for two hours. He looked like everyone else besides his pointier ears. Bao Bao grinned and started arranging and tinkering with the things inside of the tent. As he finished a sigh came out, he would miss a great show. If only he could split himself into many forms so that he could monitor over many things at once.
Then an idea formulated in his mind and he began to hum happily. He could just go in as a servant!
---
¹May the Emperor live and reign for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousand years: '吾皇萬歲，萬歲，萬萬歲'. How everyone had greeted the emperor in ancient China. You've probably seen this in a lot of KN and CN dramas.
²Rigid Guan: 'Liang Guan', a hat in which the standard civil servants wore. It has a squarish shape, the front side is longer than the back as when it is worn and it is to be tilted back a little, the center/ middle part of the hats contain ridges that announces one's position, the more ridges there were the higher their position was.
³One world was worth a thousand in gold: Idiom for valuable advice.
⁴The whole year of planning for the arrival of spring: Idiom for early planning for success. Reworded it, original, "the whole year must be planned for in the spring'.
⁵Literally one morning and one evening: Idiom for a short period of time.
---
A/N: Did you know that they use 'thousand' instead of 'ten thousand' for empress and empress dowager and only the emperor can get the greeting of 'ten thousand'? Things you learn from wikipedia-dono.
YOU ARE READING
Chasing You (Arcs 1-7)
Fantasy"Do you want to live?" "If so, sign a contact with me." The young man gazes up with a faint smile on his face, "Yes." The young man didn't care who it was that he'd struck a deal with. Even if it was the devil or a God, he would have agreed. Whatev...
