Work Text:
The sound of something crashing to the floor startled Liu Mingyan out of the daze she'd been in, idly tapping her writing brush against her lips while trying to plot out the next bit of writing she was planning. A muffled feminine screech quickly followed the crash. She found herself rolling her eyes and half betting against herself as to whether she'd hear another crash or more screeching next.
It had sounded like the Palace Mistress in a snit again, so honestly it was 50:50 which it would be.
Mingyan decided to bet on a crash, and mentally patted herself on the back as she heard a louder crash, possibly the chest of drawers in the common area slamming to the ground this time. She better go out, if nothing else to shoo the little sisters away until the Palace Mistress had vented out whatever made her this way... again.
The "little sisters" was what the more senior wives referred to the newest wives. Most tended to more or less disappear into the harem, staying in their rooms for the most part, only appearing whenever their husband decided to grace the harem with his presence. They would damn near fawn over him, their Junshang, more willing to appear under his protection than when surrounded by the, admittedly, vicious competition of the rest of the wives. The rest of the time they effectively disappeared into the masses, nearly indistinguishable other than maybe hairstyles and preferred colors they wore. Gods knew that keeping "this" one who wore twin braids on either sides of her face and wore a light blue, apart from "that" one who wore twin braids on either side of her face and stuck purely to pink was nightmarish. Or the one who wore yellow. Or green. Or the one who coordinated a ribbon in her braids to match whatever robes she was wearing and got into a blood-drawing fight with the one who wore green over copying "her style". Once they had more or less settled into the harem, whether that meant withdrawing unless called upon or making a space for themselves, most were just called "sisters" at that point.
Liu Mingyan wandered out of her rooms, vaguely interested in if this fight was important, or just blowing off steam, only to see the Palace Mistress screaming at Sha Hualing as she tore the room apart with her whip.
Ah. Meaningless then.
Still, she ought to seat herself at one of the untouched tables near the main entrance to chase off the little sisters who might poke their heads in unexpectedly. The last thing Liu Mingyan really wanted to deal with now was one of them getting hurt and then causing some schism in the harem after either Sha Hualing or the Palace Mistress hurt them, by accident or otherwise, which caused the wives to take sides and create chaos, and then everybody had to spend the next several months checking everything for poison until someone managed to get hit by something potent enough to get Binghe's attention until he fixed it.
Such a bother.
Thus, sitting and observing the fight rather distantly, while occasionally waving off the few sisters or little sisters who poked their head in to see what the commotion was this time, was mostly for her own benefit. Plus it gave her inspiration.
She had warned Sha Hualing that the next time the demon pissed her off she'd be the protagonist in her next yellow book. And the woman was damn near showing off like she remembered that threat. She had grabbed the Palace Mistress' whip and used it to pull the other woman towards her. Then grappled the slighter woman to the floor in a hair-and-clothes pulling fight that in any other situation might have been titillating. As it was, the Palace Mistress' face was an unflattering purple of rage as she sweated and clawed at the sneering Sha Hualing who kept her pinned while the first used language Liu Mingyan vaguely remembered the lowest classes of merchants screeching at thieves and such on the few times her older brother had taken her to markets as a child. However it wouldn't be hard to rewrite the situation in such a way that outsiders would think it deeply romantic/smutty whichever she decided. Probably smutty. Palace Mistress always threw such epic shitfits whenever another booklet or series that feature a barely disguised parody of her appeared in the markets. And one where a thinly disguised mockery of herself was involved in a torrid romance with a thinly disguised version of Sha Hualing would be the perfect thing to spin her up into a foaming at the mouth rage. One needed hobbies.
Especially since she could sit back and watch the raging without ever being suspected as the author.
Every time one was found the Palace Mistress would simper at the Emperor, demanding that whoever was shaming him by publishing such slander should be hunted down and punished. Liu Mingyan wasn't quite sure whether Luo Binghe knew she wrote such things and didn't care, or never cared about the Palace Mistress' distress in the first place. No one had ever accused her at least, and it wasn't like she had taken many efforts to hide or anything. Probably as it caused neither physical injury, nor challenged him, Binghe didn't care. Liu Mingyan had NEVER insinuated that any of the harem had dallied with any other man, as that would likely draw his offended attention. But various stories involving various pairings of any of the wives together were not a threat to his masculinity. Nor did she write stories about him involved with his wives, which while less threatening towards his honor, might cause him to lose face in a dangerous way.
Best not to tempt fate.
A sudden louder screech, drew her wandering attention. Apparently Sha Hualing had bit the Palace Mistress, who after that loud cry had managed to grab the other woman's hair and was beating her head against the floor now. Nothing too dangerous, half the demons seemed to think anything short of decapitation was merely flirting.
"Ah... so this is what is happening"
Liu Mingyan smiled at Ning Yingying who had just poked her head into the room. The other smiled back, recognizing the welcome in Mingyan's eyes, even if she couldn't see the smile on her mouth, and joined her at the same table.
"Yes, nothing to truly worry about," Mingyan replied to the other woman. One of her few sect sisters remaining. Ning Yingying still managed to retain the sweetness she'd had as a child and teenager. The woman seemed quite literally unable to say anything mean about anyone. Sometimes it was aggravating when you really wanted to have a vicious gossip session with a trusted friend, but it was also a relief to know that she would never spread nasty gossip about you either. "I heard the crashing and decided it would be best to keep the little sisters out of the crossfire."
"That was nice of you," Ning Yingying beamed at her. Liu Mingyan felt slightly guilty. Ning Yingying would have done this out of kindness, she had done it because she didn't want to be bothered by the chaos that could've resulted. "When do you think they'll be done?" She asked airily, as though they were watching a performance, not Sha Hualing who had gotten the upper hand again and was attempting to choke out the Palace Mistress.
It had been asked out of politeness, so out of place in the harem, a rote courtesy mouthed in a way that would've been practiced among courtiers... or the high-born nobility that had been the majority of Qing Jing Peak. Her sect sister could never quite shake the manners that scum of a Shizun had likely beaten into her.
"Eh... not long now. Neither actually wants to attract Junshang's attention by causing the other permanent damage." Liu Mingyan guessed, looking at the two combatants. "Neither has left the palace in too long and I think they're just getting some exercise."
Ning Yingying raised the fan she was carrying to slightly hide her face as she giggled. "You make it sound like the scuffling of the newest shidis when they'd arrive at the sect."
Mingyan rolled her eyes to emphasize how exasperated she was. "Isn't it though? I don't know why 'Ling-er'", she used the childish nickname to increase her sarcasm, "hasn't gone out to hack something apart to get some exercise. I know that the Mistress refuses to leave the Underground Palace because she's certain someone would challenge her position if she left for a moment, but nothing would prevent Sha Hualing from going out."
Which was true. While yes, the little sisters were prevented from leaving the harem, almost like concubines rather than true wives, nothing prevented most of the senior wives from going out whenever they wanted. Other than the chaos and destruction that had resulted from merging the realms. But even that had eventually sorted itself out, new cities rising from the ashes of the old, and creating new trading hubs and shopping areas most of them happily visited for novelty if nothing else. The Palace Mistress's hang-ups were hers alone, if she decided to make this palace more of a prison than Huan Hua had ever managed with their Water Prison, it wasn't Mingyan's problem. Liu Mingyan went to differing cities depending on whether she wanted to contact her publishers or do shopping.
Ning Yingying was almost vibrating from suppressing her giggles to not draw attention. Depending on their mood at the time either Sha Hualing or the Palace Mistress, or both, would take offense. And targeting Ning Yingying ALWAYS caused far more chaos than was really needed in the harem.
"So... how are... things, going for you?" Ning Yingying asked, delicately stepping around the whole "writing porn versions of the harem on-goings" Mingyan was involved in.
"Insipidly." She replied flatly. Until Sha Hualing had pissed her off the only semi-scandalous thing happening was two of the little sisters falling in love with each other. Which could be a completely steamy and horribly scandalous thing to write about... if the two little sisters hadn't been so utterly sweet and syrupy about it. Even trying to put something daring ended up bringing in the sweetness, until Mingyan felt like she was coughing up chunks of malt sugar every time she put her brush to paper. Half the reason this spat had attracted her attention was because trying to write had been so utterly boring she'd desperately needed a distraction.
Granted, they'd just finished a big to-do, which had started with Jin Shufen, a minor wife that honestly Mingyan only thought of as "the one with the terribly tacky hair ornaments", being accused of being pregnant. While pregnancy wasn't a startling condition given Junshang's... abilities, being accused when he hadn't spent a night with you in over six months was a scandal. Pregnancy seemed to start at least two thirds of the scheming in the harem, with at least seven women becoming pregnant every year, up to the nightmarish year that over eighty had declared they were pregnant. And while becoming pregnant was common, staying pregnant was another thing entirely. No living child had been born yet, between the poisonings, the trips and falls, and every other type of scheming. The whole thing with Jin Shufen had ended up involving a curse that had possessed her to drain her soul and life to birth some horror beyond horror, which their husband had cured with a combination of searching out a rare herb at the edge of his domain to contain the horror within Jin Shufen while it was purified through his "heavenly pillar". Honestly Mingyan had wept because it was such melodrama that if it hadn't involved her husband she could've milked it for several volumes of best selling drama. Alas...
Ning Yingying did allow a giggle free at that, nothing to insult others, at least obviously, in Liu Mingyan's comment. "Ah, that would be, hmmm... Fan Xinyue and Hu Li?"
"Ughhh..." Liu Mingyan groaned. "They're just so... so... agreeably adorable. There's absolutely no tension at all. It's sickening."
Ning Yingying actually let a loud burst of giggles escape at Liu Mingyan's aggravation.
It was a surprise then when Luo Binghe suddenly burst into the room, staring around with an utterly baffled expression. Both Sha Hualing and the Palace Mistress froze, shocked a bit as their husband generally only showed either at night or if someone was at the brink of death. Mid-morning was utterly out of character.
"Husband?" There was Ning Yingying, stepping into their husband's attention. She so often deflected him from others, able to calm him even when Xin Mo was at its worst.
"Shijie?" Replied their husband, in a wavering voice. Shijie?
"Husband?" Liu Mingyan stood up to join Ning Yingying where she stood, worried at him using such terms.
Their husband swung his head to look at her, an almost horrified expression passing over his face. Sha Hualing and the Palace Mistress had untangled from each other, coming over with equally worried expressions. Sometimes Xin Mo had a stronger effect on their husband and they'd need to call in the rest of the harem, possibly even create a schedule so no one wife ended up overly drained or injured from balancing their husband's energies,
"No... no..." Luo Binghe's head swung from side to side as he gripped his hair with his hands. Hair that was loose and far more wavy than he usually allowed it except after thoroughly exhausting himself with his harem. "This is all wrong!"
Sha Hualing sauntered up to their husband, leaning against him and fluttering her lashes. "Come, husband, we will treat your injuries," injuries Liu Mingyan hadn't realized until now. Deep gashes and slashes all over his arms, and signs of other injuries beneath his clothes. "Let us soothe you as you tell us of your victories."
Their husband shoved her away, as though burned. "No!" He almost shouted. "I need... I must..." He shook himself again, before turning and bolting back the way he came.
...
Well...
"Well..." Sha Hualing echoed Liu Mingyan's own thoughts. "That was odd."